BESO'URCSES
OF
THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
A
STATISTICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
OF THE
MINES AND MINERALS, CLIMATE, TOPOGRAPHY, AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE,
MANUFACTURES, AND MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTIONS, OF THE STATES
AND TERRITORIES WEST OF THIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
WITH
A SKETCHI
OF
TIIE SETTIEXENT AND EXPIORATION OF
LOWER CALIFORXIA.
BY
J. ROSS BROWNE,
AIDED B Y A CORPS OF ASSISTANTS.
NEW YORK:
D. A P P L E T O N A N D C O M P A N Y,
90, 92 & 94 GRAND STREET.
1869. 
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
D. APPLETON & COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of
New York.
0 
REPORT
OF
J'. ROSS BROWNNE,
THE MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES WEST OF
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
WAS INGTO r, D. C., FMarch 5, 1868.
Sin: In the preliminary report wvhich I had the honor to transmit to you from
San Francisco in November, 1S66, a general summary was given of the mineral
resources of the States and Territories west of the Rocky mountains.   It was
not anticipated by the department that the information required under letter of
instructions dated August 2, 1866, could be obtained in full within the brief
period intervening before the next meeting of Congress; but it was hoped that
sufficient data might be collected to furnish a general idea of the rise and pro gress of the mining interest on the Pacific slope.  No official document in any
department of the government contained accurate information on this subject,
'and it was considered desirable that special attention should be given to the fol lowing points:
1. The origin of gold and silver mining on the Pacific coast and present condi tion of that interest, as tending to show the progress of settlement and civilization.
2. Geological formation of the great mineral belts and general characteristics
of the placer diggings and quartz lodes.
3. Different systems of mining, machinery used, processes of reducing the ores,
percentage of waste, and net profits.
4. Population engaged in mining, exclusively and in part, capital and labor
employed, value of improvements, number of mills and steam engines in opera tionI, yield of the mines, average of dividends, and losses.
5. Proportion of agricultural and mineral lands in each district, quantity of
woodland, facilities for obtaining fuel, number and extent of streams, and water
prinvileges.
6. Salt beds, deposits of soda and borax, and all other valuable mineral deposits.
7. Altitude, character of climate, mode and cost of living, cost of all kinds of
material, cost of labor, &c.
8. Population of the mining towns, number of banks and banking institutions
in them, facilities for assaying, melting, and refining bullion; charges upon the
same for transportation and insurance.
9. Communication with the mines and principal towns, postal and telegraphic
lines; stage routes; cost of travel; probable benefits likely to result from construction of the Pacific railroad and its proposed branches.
10. Necessity for assay offices and public depositories; what financial facilities may tend to develop the country and enhance its products.
11. Copies of local mining laws and customs regulating the holding and
working of claims
12. Number of ledges opened, number claimed, character of the soil in the
mining districts, and its adaptation to the support of a large population.
ON 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The preliminary report, submitted in answer to these inquiries, embraced such
information as could be obtained within the brief period allowed for its preparation.
Although imperfect in many respects, it was received by the people of the Pacific
coast as an indication of a growing interest on the part of government in the development of our mineral resources. It was a source of gratification to the miners
to find that, after years of unprofitable toil, during which they had contributed(
largely to the national wealth, the peculiar character of their occupation  was
beginning to be understood, and its influence in promoting settlement and civilization to be better appreciated.
The report which I now have the honor to submit is the result of many years
of labor and exploration. It contains the aggregated experience of the ablest
statisticians and experts on the Pacific coast.  If there be any merit in the work,
it belongs chiefly to my co-laborers, who have devoted themselves with such
unselfish zeal to the promotion of the objects designed to be accomplished by
this commission. The fund appropriated by Congress was insufficient to admit
of compensation adequate to such labor; but assistance was cheerfully given, as
a matter of public benefit, without regard to personal or pecuniary considerations.
When it is taken into view that this inquiry extends over the Territories of Utahl,
Arizona, Montana, Idahlo, and Washington, and the States of Oregon, California,
and Nevada, embracing an area of country stretching from the Rocky mountains
to the Pacific, and from Mexico to British Columbia; that in many parts of this
vast mineral range travel is still difficult and expensive; that the business of
mining is new to the American people, and the collection of statistics unsystematized in this department of industry, it will be conceded that as much has been
accomplished as could reasonably be expected.
An erroneous idea prevails that the collection of mining statistics involves
original explorations anid detailed personal examinations of every mine throughout the vast range of our mineral regions, with scientific and practical deductions relative to the treatment of ores; and it is expected by some that the informuation obtained shall be entirely new, and furnish a complete index for the
purchase, sale or working of every mine in the country. Apart from the fact
that such an investigation would require the employment for many years of a
largce scientific force at great expense, it would be difficult even then to present
statistics which had not already been made public.   The same sources of information are open to all.  The mining press of the country, closely connected with
that interest, directly identified with its progress, in daily and familiar contact
with its details, makles it a special duty to keep up the current record of cost and
production, success and failure.  There may be misstatement or exaggeration,
but not more so on the part of the press, which is held to a certain accoutntability by public sentiment, than on that of individuals who may be prejudiced or
irresponsible.  Statements publicly made and thoroughly criticised are as likely
to be co'rrect as casual examinations made by persons visiting a special locality,
unfamiliar with its growth and progress, and compelled after all to depend upon
information derived from others. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that there
are difficulties in the way of absolute accuracy.
Every miner naturally desires that his mine should be carefully examined
and reported upon in detail, especially if, as in the majority of cases, it be unprodluctive.  Without reflecting that a mere list of the unproductive mines would
fill a volume the miner is disposed to estimate the value of a report by its mention or omission of that in which he is most interested.  However disposed a
government agent may be to meet the wvishes of the mining community in this
respect, it is equally important to bear in mind that this inquiry is not designed
for speculative purposes or the promotion of special or individual interests. The
public desire reliable statements, and herein lies the difficulty-a spirit of ex aggeration on the one hand, a demand for facts on the other.  To afford satis
4 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS,
faction to all is impossible.  I have therefore relied upon  my own sense of
fairness, and endeavored to present the truth impartially.
That errors may have been commnitted, and false statements given by interested
parties, is probable, but precaution has been taken to guard against them.  Thel
selection of assistants was made with reference to their integrity and capacity.
Instructions were given to them in detail, enjoinilug careful scrutiny and verifi cation of every statement.  The revision of their work, under these precautions,
has occupied more than four months.  There is no subject upon which greater
difference of opinion exists than that of mining statistics.  It is an open field in
which there is room for discrepancy under any existing circumstances.  No two
persons rate the product of the precious metals alike.  The superintendent of a
mine often furnishes information which when submitted to the board of directors
is pronounced incorrect.  Representatives from the mining districts are apt to
rate both population and products higher than persons who  have made them
special subjects of inquiry, but lwhose opportunities for judging may not be so
favorable.
A fruitful source of en'or is in supposing that the ordinary channels of trans.portation cannot be relied upon as a clue to the gross product of the mines.  It
is alleged that large quantities of the precious metals are carried away in the
pockets of the miners.  Even if this were so, it is not reasonable to suppose that
the miners continue to burden tlhemselves with their treasure after arriving at
their place of destination.  It must find its way into the mint or branch mints
for coinage or the custom-house manifests for exportation.   It cannot be assayed
without paying its internal revenue tax. The gross yield of all the mines can
be determined with approximate accuracy.  It is more difficult to arrive at a
subdivision, when it comes to the product of each  State and Territory.  In
California, for example, during the early days of placer mining, before the transportation of bullion by organized companies had become a business entitled to
confidence, a large proportion of the gold derived from the mines was carried
out of the country by private hands.  There was comparatively little danger of
loss. The routes to San Francisco were short, public, and protected by general
interest. From that point to New Yorl the passengersusuallycombinedforimutual
protection, and the risk was inconsiderable. It was not until the idle and the profligate began to obtain an ascendency, the business of transportation by express
more firmly established, and the mines more difficult to work with profit, that
the increase of risks and reduction of charges resulted in the general abandoniment of this system.  It doubtless prevails to a limited extent now, but
the transportation of bullion by private hands in California is exceptional. It
probably does not exceed seven per cent. in the aggregate, and this applies only
to the routes by which it reaches San Francisco.  In reference to silver it is
impossible that any considerable amount can escape notice in this way.  The
yield of Nevada can be determined with more accuracy than that of other States.
Silver predominates in the mines; and where gold is obtained it is not in an
uncolmbined form.  VWhen we come to MIontana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon
the greatest difficulty is experienced.
Shipments of treasure froinm Montana and Idaho may become incorporated with
others before reaching their destination.  Fromi Montana most of the bullion
goes east.  Two main routes are open to examination-one by the MIissouri river,
the other by Salt Lake City. Indian disturbances and the insecurity of the
roads have during the past year almost entirely closed the latter; so that the
chief exit is bv the former route.  Shipments from Idaho are made chiefly by
way of Portland and the inland stage route through Humboldt  and across the
Sierra Nevada. On both of these routes it is alleged that they are liable to
b)ecome merged with the products of other States and Territonies.   It has been
impossible to obtain an account of the shipments from each agency at the express
office of Wells, Fargo & Co., at San Francisco. For reasons of private expe
5
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
diency they refrain from giving the desired information. We have, however,
the aggregate receipts at their office, and knowing very nearly what amount can
fairly be credited to California, Nevada, and British Columbia, can draw reasonable conclusions as to the proportion derived from  Idaho, Washington, and
Oregon.  From the best information available the following is a near approxi-,
mation to the total gold and silver product for the year ending January 1, 1867:
California................ —----------------------............ —------------------—. $25,000,000
Nevada................................... --------------------------------------------------—...20,000,000
Montana.............................................................. 12,000,000
Idaho................................... —--------------------------------------------------—... 6,500,000
WVashington........................................................... 1,000,000
Oregon................................................................ 2,000,000
Colorado................ —--—..... —--------—.......... —--------- --—...... 2, 500,000
New Mexico........................................................... 500,000
Arizona............................................................... 500,000
70,000,000
Add for bullion derived from unknown sources within our States and Territo  ries, unaccounted for by assessors and express companies, &c.............  5,000,000
Total product of the United States.................................. 75,000,000
The bullion product of Washington is estimated by the surveyor general at
$1,500,000. That of Oregon is rated as high as $2,500,000. Intelligent residents of Idaho and MIontana represent that the figures given in the above estimiate, so far as these Territories are concerned, are entirely too low, and might
be doubled without exceeding the truth.  The product of Idaho alone for this
year is said to be from $15,000,000 to $18,000,000. That of Montana is estimated by the surveyor general at $20,000,000.   Similar exceptions are taken
to the estimates of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.  As I have no grounds
for accepting these statements beyond the assertion that most of the bullion is
carried away in the pockets of the miners, I am inclined to rely upon the returns
of the assessors, express companies, and official tables of export. Admitting
that a'fraction over seven per cent. may have escaped notice, although reasonable allowance is made for this in the estimate of $70,000,000, and that a considerable sum may be derived from sources not enumerated, I feel confident the
additional allowance of $5,000,000 is sufficient to cover the entire bullion product of the United States for the year 1867, thus maklting the aggregate from
all sources $75,000,000, as stated in the report of the Secretary of the Treasurv.
I have endeavored to obtain returns of the annual product of each State and
Territory since 1S48; but, for the reasons already stated, and in the absence of
reliable statistics, it has been impossible to make the necessary divisions with
more than approximate accuracy.  As nearly as I can jadge from the imperfect
returns available, the following, in round numbers, is not far from the total product:
California............................................................ $900,000,000
Nevada... —-.................. —-------------------- 90,000,000
Montana.............................................................. 65,000,000
Idaho................................................................ ---------------------------------------— 45,000,000
Washington.......................................................... 10,000,000
Oregon....................................... —--------------------------------------------------...... 20,000,000
Colorado............................................................. 25,000,000
New Mexico and Arizona.. -........ —----------------------------------- 5,000,000
In jewelry, plate, spoons, &c., and retained for circulation on Pacific coast.. 45,000, 000
1,205,000,000
Add for amounts buried or concealed and amounts from unenumerated sources,
and of which no account may have been taken..........................  50,000,000
1,255,000,000
6 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
This statement requires explanation.  Up to 1855 a considerable portion of
the gold taken from California was not manifested.  In 1849 the actual yield
was probably $10,000,000; in 1850, $35,000,000; in 1.851,,46,000,000; in
1852, $50,000,000; in 1853, 860,000,000; and in 1854, $53,000,000.  The
amount unaccounted for by manifest was not so great after the last date.  In
1861 Nevada and Idahlo commenced adding their treasure to the shipments, so
that after that date a deduction for the amounts produced from these sources
would be necessary, if the manifest alone were taken as a criterion, in order to
arrive at the product of California.
An addition should be made for the amount retained for currency, estimated
by some as high as $45,000,000, but probably not exceeding $35,000,000 or
$40,000,000; and for plate, jewelry, &c., of California gold, say $2,000,000,
and Nevada silver, $3,000,000.
Incorporated in these shipments are the amounts received from Nevada,
Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, Washington, and British Columbia; but these cannot
be deducted from the manifest of exports, according to the express returns, since
the proportions are not accurately known of the amounts, retained and shipped,
derived from separate sources.
The general condition of the mining interest on the Pacific slope is encouraging.  There have been fewer individual losses than during past years, and the
yield of the mines has been comparatively steady and reliable.
Fluctuations in mining stock have not been so great as usual, and those wild
and injurious speculations which have impaired confidence in this great interest
are gradually becoming narrowed down to individual operators, whose influence
in the community is limited.
Legitimate mining has been as prosperous as other pursuits, though it cannot
be denied that there are uncertainties attached to this peculiar business which
render it hazardous and require more than ordinary profits to nmakle it remunerative under the most favorable circumstances. It may seem strange in this view
that the gross product of bullion has been gradually diminishing for some years
past, but a brief reference to the history of mining operations on the Pacific
coast will explain this apparent anomaly.
The existence of gold in California was known long before the acquisition of
that territory by the United States. Placers had long been workled on a limited
scale by the Indians; but the priests who had established the missionary settlements, knowing that a dissemination of the discoveries thus made would frustrate their plans for the conversion of the aboriginal races, discouraged by all
means in their power the prosecution of this pursuit, and in some instances suppressed it by force. As early as December, 1843, however, 31anuel Castanares,
a Mexican officer, made strenuous efforts to arouse the attention of the Mlexican
government to the importance of this great interest.
It is not my purpose to enter into a detail of the events preceding the discovery by iMarshall on the 19th of January, 1848, or the subsequent excitement
which resulted in the opening of the great placer mines, and the rush of immigration in 1849. Reference is made to these incidents in the history of California
merely to show the changes in the character of the business. At first gold was
easily found, and required but little skill in separating it from the loose gravel
or sand in which it was imbedded. Frequently it lay so near the surface inll such
quantities and in grains of such form and size, that a simple pan or rocker comprised all the means necessary, with ordinary labor, to insure extraordinary
rofits.  Mere will and muscle were sufficient.  Our people were inexperienced,
but ingenious in devices for saving labor, energetic and industrious.
Unskilled as they were, nearly all who went into the business realized handsome profits; and the reports of their success induced a rapid immraigration from
the Atlantic States, South America, Australia, and other parts of the world.
Thus towns were built up; a new and extensive commerce sprang into existence;
I
i
7 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
lands were cultivated to supply the miners; roads were cut through the difficult
passes of the mountains; steamboat and stage lines were established; and the
country from the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas to the shores of the Pacific,
for many hundred miles north and south, became suddenly filled with an industrious, intelligent and enterprising population.   Even in those early days, however, as the surface placers receded towards their sources, time and money were
expended in the rediscovery of inventions which had been known to the old
world for centuries.
WVith all the genius and enterprise of the American people, no important discovery in the way of machinery for mining was made which had not been long
in use in South America,, Mexico, or Europe.  The same necessities gave rise to
identical contrivances for saving labor, and it is sufficiently creditable to our
miners to say that without any knowledge of what others had done, they frequently
improved upon the originals. The fact demonstrates very clearly that want of
knowledge, even in the preliminary stages of mining, is a source of loss.  When
the precious metals are easilv obtained, and the profits of individual labor are
large, less injury results from ignorance than in the subsequent stages of the
business, when capital is required and the process of reduction is more complicated.
Mlining differs essentially from every other branch of industry. Unlike agriculture, there is but one crop in a mine. As the work progresses the stock of mineral
is decreased, and can never be replenished by any human art.  There is no
opportunity of recovering what has been lost or wasted.
The farmer changes his crop or his system of cultivation; and his land can be
improved and his profits increased by experience. So also in manufactures and
other pursuits.  Hence it is important that the experience of mankind should be
preserved so that error may be avoided.
Comparatively little progress was made in vein or quartz mining prior to 1860.
Quartz veins containing the precious metals were discovered in California in 1850,
and for several years experiments were made in working them, generally with
loss.  The Mexicans with their arastras were the only successful quartz miners.
Experience in their own country enabled them to realize fair profits upon their
labors. Their system of mining, however, was too slow for an American popilation, to whom large investments of capital were of no consequence, provided
there was a prospect of immediate and abundant returns.
The discovery and development of the Comstock lode in Nevada gave the first
impulse to this kind of mining. The wonderful richness of that vein attracted
attention at once, and drew from all parts of the world men of scientific attainments.  By the developments made in working it, the principle was established
that quartz veins could be rendered a profitable source of supply on the Pacific
coast. The experience thus gained impelled the adventurous miners of California
to attempt new systems, and devote themselves with greater vigor to the opening
and working of the gold-bearing veins in that State.
In 1860 the product from this source in California did not exceed ~2,000,000.
As the surface diggings gave out, a resort to vein mining became indispensable.
The proportion of bullion now derived from various sources within the limits
of the State is about as follows: from suiface diggings, $2,000,000; from
cement or deep-lying placers, $18,000,000; from quartz mines, $9,000,000-total,
$25,000,000.
Professor Ashliburner estimates that about 80 per cent. of the gold is produced
from the mines lying north of the 3lokelumne.   The production of the southern
mines is diminishing every year, ald the surface diggings will soon be exhausted.
WVherever the latter predominated  a sudden but ephemeral prosperity was
engendered.   General stagnatimL  now prevails; towns are depopulated; real
estate is of little value; business is depressed. The population consists of
hundreds in many counties where it formerly consisted of thousands. Reference to the accompanying reports will show the present condition of these
.i i.
8 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
localities. Good quartz veins exist in many of them, but the want of capital
has retarded their development. Unskilled labor can make no further progress,
and new fields of enterprise have been sought by those who. formerly depended
upon the placers. Some have pushed their way over the mountains into Idaho,
Montana, and other new Territories; others have given up mining and devoted
themselves to farming, trade, or commerce.
Similar changes have been experienced in Idaho, Montana, and other Territories in which surface mining attracted a population.  At first the yield was
large and easily obtained; as the surface deposits were wvorked up to their sources
quartz veins were discovered, and machinery and skill became requisite; the
difficulty of access to the more remote mineral regions increased the expense of
transportation, and the uncertainty of remunerative results impaired confidence.
History shows that these changes occur in all mining countries and are inseparable firom this branch of industry.
No uneasiness need be felt as to a decrease in the source of supply. After
many years of travel over the mining regions, I feel justified in asserting that
our mineral resources are practically without limit.  Explorations made by competent parties during the past year in many parts of the mineral region hitherto
unknown demonstrate the fact that the area of the mineral deposit is much larger
than was ever before supposed. It is safe to assume that of the claims already
recorded in the settled parts of the country, and known to be valuable, not more
than one in a hundred is being worked; and of those worked perhaps not more
than one in fifty pays anything over expenses, owing to mismanagement, inefficient systems of reducing the ores, want of capital, cost of transportation, and
other causes susceptible of remedy. In many districts of Nevada silver ores of
less value than $100 a ton cannot be worked by mill process so as to pay
expenses; and there are districts in Idaho and Montana where gold-bearing ores
will not justify working unless they yield firom $40 to $50 per ton.
With such wealth of treasure lying dormant, it cannot be doubted that, by the
increased facilities for transportation and access to the mines soon to be furnished
by the Pacific railroad and its proposed branches, and the experience in the treatment of ores, and the scientific knowledge to be acquired in a national school of
mines adequate to the necessities of the mining population, the yield must eventually increase.
The adventurous Americans who talke the lead in the development of these
frontier regions are generally energetic and intelligent, but prone to extravagance
and reckless speculations.
No country in the world can show such wasteful systems of mining as prevail
in ours. At a moderate calculation, there has been an unnecessary loss of precious metals since the discovery of our mines of more than $300,000,000, scarcely
a fraction of which can ever be recovered.  This is a serious consideration.  The
question arises whether it is not the duty of government to prevent, as far as may
be consistent with individual rights, this waste of a common  heritage, in which
not only ourselves but our posterity are interested.
The miner has a right to the product of his labor, but has he a right to deprive~
others of the benefits to be derived from the treasures of the earth, placed there
for the common good?  The precious metals are of an imperishable nature, evidently designed to pass beyond the reach of the discoverer and to subserve purposes of human convenience for generations. Our children have an interest in
them which we cannot with propriety disregard.
The bill to establish a national school of mines, introduced in the Senate, at
the beginning of the present session of Congress, by MIr. Stewart of Nevada, is
designed to remedy this evil. Similar schools have been established in various
parts of Europe, and the best evidence of their utility is the fact that we are
indebted to them for nearly all the knowledge we possess on the subject of
mining and metallurgy.   Our mines and mills are practically managed by foreign
9
'A
I
i
iI
I
.1 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
experts; we furnish tlhe labor and mechanical ingenuity, but they furnish the
scientific skill. Without the aid of foreign institutions we could have made but
little progress in mining;  and yet we lose much by not having similar institutions in our own country. The local circumstances existing in Europe differ
essentially from those which prevail in the United States.  It would be a great
advantage, not only in tihe saving of expense, but in the more direct availability
of the experience gained, if our young men could learn at home what they are
now compelled to learn abroad.
The plan proposed by Mr. Stewvart's bill seems both feasible and economical.
Such an institution would, if properly conducted, result in a large annual increase
in our bullion prodtuct. It is not unreasonable to anticipate thlat, instead of
declining within a few years to forty or fifty millions per annum, as will undoubtedly be the case if the present state of things continues, there would be an
increase amounting to at least 100 per cent. on the yield of the mines for the
past year. I venture the hope, therefore, that Congress will take this proposition into favorable consideration. The bill, as amended by the Committee on
MIines and lining, of the Senate, and the considerations upon which it is based
will be found in the appendix, (A.)
It is proper that I should give due credit to my assistants for the part which
they have taken in this work.  The duty of collecting statistics in California
was intrusted to Mr. John S. Hittell, the able and experienced author of several
valuable workls on the industrial resources of that State.  In the performance of
the special service assigned to him he visited the principal mining districts. His
reports are based upon actual observation, and may be relied upon as accurate
and impartial.  With the exception of the report on Nevada county, by Mr. E. F.
Bean, the county assessor, and'Mr. 11. Rolfe, his assistant, and the brief reports
on some of the northern and southern counties by Dr. Henry Degroot, with
a sketch of the M1oriss Ravine mlines by Dr. A. Blatchley, nearly all the goldbearing regions of California are described by Mr. Hittell. Important papers
on the condition of the mining interest ill Mexic,eo South America, Australia, &c.,
are also furnished by the same authority.
An elaborate and interesting report on the miscellaneous minerals of the Pacific
States and Territories is furnished by Mir. Henry C. Bennet, a mining engineer
familiar with the subject.  No such complete and extended notice of the miscellaneous mineral productions of the Pacific coast has yet been published.   This
report will be found valuable to business men, and to all others seeking infomlnation respecting the resources of the States and Territories west of the Rocky
mountains.
To AMr. R. H. Stretch, late State mineralogist of Nevada, the Comstock lode
and regions adjacent were intrusted.  His scientific and practical knowledge of
the various departmenets of mining, his long experience in this particular region,
and his known integrity, rendered the selection peculiarly fortunate, as will be
conceded upon a perusal of his report.
Dr. Henry Degroot, a statistician and writer, whom I deputed to travel through
Nevada, has furnished a series of interesting papers on the miscellaneous resources
of that State.
Mir. Myron Angel, of Austin, a gentleman well acquainted with eastern
Nevada, contributes a report on that region, from which it will be seen that the
mineral wealth of Nevada is by nlo means confined to the Comstock lode.
The services of Dr. A. Blatchley, a mineralogist and mining engineer, were
secured for an exploration of Montana and Idaho.  This gentleman travelled
through those Territories during the months of June, July, and August, and was
enabled to collect the information which is embodied in his reports.
MIr. Elwood Evans, of Olympia, formerly tenritorial secretary of Washington}
1ms kindly fum-ished detailed reports on the resources of that Teiritory.
10 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
To Mr. Ainswvorth, Mr. Hill, Mr. Ladd, and others, I am indebted for informa tion relative to the trade and resources of Oregon.
The report on Arizona is from the pen of Governor R. C. McCormick.  It
will be found extremely interesting. 
Mr. W. M. Gabb, of the State geological survey of California, whose recent
expedition through Lower California has attracted considerable attention, con tributes a detailed report on the mineral resources of that peninsula. It is the
result of the first scientific exploration ever made of that region, and possesses
a peculiar interest at this time, owing to the investment of American capital
there and the purchase from the Mexican government of an extensive grant by
private parties for colonization by Americans.
Many other prominent and experienced gentlemen have assisted me in the
preparation of this report. I claim little more for myself than the direction and
supervision of the worki; it has occupied my entire time for upwards of a year,
and, whatever may be its imperfections, few will be disposed to deny that it pre sents evidence of an earnest attempt to carry into eflect the wishes of the de partment and the objects designed to be accomplished by Congress.
It is a common error to suppose that mining is inimical to the welfare of the
people.  No branch of industry requiring mechanical skill and the acquisition
of scientific knowledge can justly be said to contan- in itself elements injurious
to public morals or to the prosperity of the state.
The tendency of this pursuit is, at first, to attract a reckless and adventurous
population, whose disregard of conventional restraint leads to the assumption
of risks and to bold and hazardous undertakings, by which new countries are
most rapidly opened up to settlement and civilization. Providence so ordains
it that the superficial treasures of the earth designed to attract this enterprising
class soon disappear, and a higher order of intelligence is required and a more
permanent condition of things is established. It is only necessary to look back
over the pest eighteen years to find in the advancement of the vast region known
as the Pacific slope, the strongest possible refutation of the assertion that mining
is inimical to the welfare of the people.  Looking forward to the future, who
can predict the high condition of prosperity likely to be attained by these new
States and Ten-itories eighteen years hence?-with transcontinental railroads
and telegraph lines binding the Atlantic to the Pacific; with branch roads and
lines traversing the country north and south; with the commerce of Asia pouring
its treasures into our seaports; with an export trade commanding the whole
eastern world; with a probable coast line stretching from Behring Straits to
Cape St. Lucas; with innumerable flourishing cities and seaport towns; with an
agricultural population numbering thousands where they now number hundreds;
with busy manuLfactories scattered over the land; with churches, schools, and
colleges everywhere throughout the mountains and valleys-All these many of
us may live to see, but few can now realize the magnificent future that lies before
us. In this favored land the laborer, the artisan, the mechanic, the man of
science, can each find profitable employment and a congenial home.  As we
want population to develop the dormant wealth of our new States and Territories, it is the interest of our government to disseminate a correct knowledge of
their material resources.
Entertaining these views, I trust the report herewith sibmitted will not bo
without practical utility wherever it may be circulated.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. ROSS BROWNE.
Hon. H. MCCULLOCU,
Secretary of thee Treasury.
11
i
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
CALIFORNIA.
SECTION I.
GENERAL CONDITION OF THE MINING INTEREST.
The information and statistics relative to the gold mines of California were
collected between the 17th May and the 25th July, but some interesting changes
have occurred since the tour of inquiry was made, and the facts, when ascertained,
have been mentioned. Many of the figures and data could be obtained only
from the mine owners, vlho may sometimes have misrepresented the character
and yield of their claims in a favorable light for the purpose of selling, or in an
unfavorable light for the purpose of misleading the assessor and tax-collector.
It is believed, however, that the statements as made are generally true, and
it is hoped that, taken together, they will be found to be the fullest and most
correct collection of important facts ever made relative to gold mining.
The general condition of gold mining in California is that of decline. The
amount of production becomes smaller every year, but the decrease is confined
chiefly to the placer yield.  In quartz more work is being done; it is being done
better than ever before, and there are more mines in successful operation. The
business is flourishing and improving, with a fair prospect of continuous increase;
and the success of many of the mines is most brilliant.
In 1864 Professor Ashburner wrote a report on the Mlariposa estate, and in it
he made the following general remarks:
In 1858 there were upwards of 280 quartz mills in California, each one of which was supplied with quartz from one or more veins.  The number of stamps in these mills was 2,6!0,
and the total cost of the whole mill property of this nature in the State exceeded $3,000,000.
In the summer of 1861, while I was attached to the geological survey, I made a careful and
thorough examination of all the quartz mills and mines of the State, and could only find
between 40 and 50 in successful operation, several of which were at that time leading a very
precarious existence.
Many of those old enterprises have not yet become, and never will become,
profitable; but of the quartz mills built within the last four or five years, the
successful proportion is much larger than before 1860. No business offers greater
facilities to ignorance and folly for losing money; and, unfortunately, most of
those who engaged in it had no experience and were led by their presumption
into gross blunders in both mining and milling.
The greatest common blunder in quartz mining, and the most common error
in early times as well as in our own day, has been that of erecting a mill before
the vein was well opened and its capacity to yield a large supply of good rock
established. The commission of this blunder is proof conclusive of the utter
incompetency of its author to have charge of any important mining enterprise.
If there were any possibility that it should in some cases lead to considerable
profit, there might be an excuse for it, but there is none. It never pays. All
the chances, including that of utter failure, are against it.
The next blunder was that the difference between a pocket vein and a charge
vein was not understood, and the existence of rich specimens was considered
proof of the high value of a mine, whereas among experienced quartz miners it
excites their suspicions and distrust.  Nine-tenths of the lodes which yield rich
specimens do not pay for nilling.  West Point, in Calaveras, and Bald Mountain, in Tuolumne, the richest pocket districts of the State, are not to be compared for yield with Sutter creek or the Sierra Buttes, where there is scarcely a
passable specimen in a thousand tons.
The next error was that nothing was known of pay chimneys, and if good
quartz was fotund in one place, it was presumed that the whole mine was of the
same quality.  In some cases the pay chimney was near the end of a claim, into
t
12 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
which it dipped not far from the sLuiface, leaving the mill without rock.  In
other cases the miner had his pay chimney in his own claim, but he did not know
enough to follow it, and he wvorked straight down into barren rock, while there
was an abundant supply of good quartz higher utip.
Another error was that of sinking when nothing was found at the surface; a
policy that may do in mining for other metals, but is very risky in gold.  If the
cropping,s are barren along a considerable distance, deep sinkings will rarely pay;
but if the vein does not crop out, the only way to examine it may be by a shaft.
lunchl rock has been crushed without examination and without any proper
selection.
In the mortars it is a common mistakle to use too much quicksilver and too
much water.
It has not been customary to make assays regularly of the tailings, so as to
know what vwas passing off.
The mine owners, in a large proportion of the cases, have not resided at the
mines, and have not made a study of the business; and no occupation requires
personal supervision and thorough knowledge on the part of the owner more than
mining.
These blunders are gradually being corrected, and if they were not still quite
common the quartz mines of California would yield nearly twice as much as they
do.  The business will never be established upon a proper basis until the superintendeni s as a class are well-educated chemists and minining, and mechanical engineers, and the mine owners frequent visitors, if not regular residents, at the mines.
In placer mining there is not room for much improvement. All the processes
are simpler, and the workl has generally been done well.
The southern mines —that is, in the counties of Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne,
and  lariposa-have nearly exhausted their placers.  They had few deep gravel
deposits, and in all four there has not been one large hydraulic claim such as
abound north of E1 Dorado.  Placer, Yuba, Nevada, Sierra, and Plumas are more
prosperous than the counties further south, mainly because of their extensive beds
of auriferous gravel more than a hundred feet deep.
THE ACT OF JULY 26, 1866.-Fewv applications have been made for the purchase of quartz mines or of agricultural lands inl the mineral districts, under the
act of July 26, 1866, "granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over
the public lands, and for other pLuposes."
The farmers of the mining districts have long been anxious to get titles, but
the value of their possessions has decreased considerably of late, and many of
them do not feel able to pay for the expense of a survey.  They are required to
pay not the survey of their respective fains alone, but for the survey of all the
agricultural land in the whole township in which they are situated, and in some
cases this expense may be $400.  If several unite, the cost is less to each; but
the whole expense comes upon the first application, whether made by one or
many. After the survey has once been made, applicants have no expense save
the price of the land and a few small incidentals. Previous to the first of June
twenty-five farmers in Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties had expressed a desire
to get patents, and all would undoubtedly have taken them if the survey had
not stood in the way.  The public sentiment of the State is unanimously in favor
of the sale of these agricultural lands.
The surveys of quartz mines are not so expensive as those of agricultural
claims, because it is not necessary to survey the whole township for a mine claim,
but only to connect it with the public smueys by some one line, so that it can
be laid down accurately upon the map. The expense depends upon circumstances, but it will seldom exceed $100 for every step from the beginning until
the issue of the patent, exclusive of the time and travel of the surveyor in getting
to the place where the mine is situated.
The owners of quartz mines generally desire to get patents, but the fact that
i
13 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the cl'aims on public lands are not taxed, and that those which have been granted
by the government are taxed, is a strong objection. The tax in the mining
counties varies from three to four and a half per cent. annually, and that is a
serious consideration with many.
The revenue law of Califori-nia says:
All property, of every kind and nature whatever, within this State shall be subject to taxation, except    *..  mining claims.  (Hittell's General Laws, article 6298.)
A supplementary act says:
All provisions of law exempting mining claims from taxation are hereby repealed so far as
they apply to lands or mines in the condition of private property, and granted as such by the
Spanish or Mexican government, or the government of the United States, or of this State.
( The same, article 6265.  Instructions unider thle act of July 26, 1866.)
The instructions issued by the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the
surveyor general of California, and by him to his deputies, are worthy of being
placed within their reach, and will )be found in the appendix.
SUrPvEYS.-Up to the 10th of October, 1867, eleven surveys, made under
applications for patents of lode mines, have been received at the United States
surveyor general's office in San Francisco. These eleven are the Penon Blanco,
Virginia, Jones, Potts, and Oakes & Reese, (these two last adjoin, and may be
considered as parts of the same mine, though on different veins,) in Mariposa
county; the Trio, McCann, Arbona, Hitchcock, and Grey Eagle, in Tuolumne
county; and the Kelsey, in Eldorado county.  Applications forsurveys for patents
have been made in many other cases, probably fifty, at least, and notices of the
applications have been advertised in the newspapers in the mining counties, but
the surveys have not yet reached the surveyor general.
The State has been divided into nine districts, with a deputy surveyor in each.
The following are the districts:
First district-Del Norte, Klamath, and Humboldt counties.
Second district.- Siskiyou, Shasta, and Trinity counties.
Third district.-Plumas, Butte, and Sierra.
Fourth district.-Yuba and Nevada.
Fifth district.-Placer, El Dorado, and Sacramento.
Sixth district.-Amador.
Seventh district.-Alpine, Mono, and Inyo.
Eighth district.-Tuolumne, M3ariposa, Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno, and Calaveras.
Ninth7 district.-Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kern, San Diego, and Tulare.
SECTION II.
THE MOTHER LODE.
The mother lode is in many respects the most remarkable metalliferous vein in
the world. Others have produced and are producing more, but no other has been
traced so far, has so many peculiar features, has exercised so much influence on
the topography of the country about it, or has been worked with a profit in so
many places.  The great argentiferous lodes of Mexico and South America, the
most productive of precious metal of all known in history, can be followed not
more than six or eight miles; while this Californian vein is distinctly traceable
on the surface from M{ariposa to the town of Amador, a distance of more than
60 miles.
COURsE ANiD Dip.-The general course of the vein is very nearlynorthwest and
southeast, but to be more precise it is north 40~ west.  If a straight line be drawn
14 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
on the map from Mlariposa to Amador, the mother lode will be in several places
two or three miles distant from the line, but usually within half a mile of it.
The dip is always to the eastward, and usually at an angle of 45~ or 50~ to
the horizon.
CHAPRACTER OF THE GOLD.-The gold is generally in fine particles, and is dis tributed evenly through a large portion of the lode in the pay chimneys, and
there is very little of the rock entirely without gold. The sulphurets are not very
abundant nor very rich, and when found they consist almost exclusively of
pyrites of iron and copper, without those mixtures of lead, arsenic, antimony,
and zinc which interfere with amalgamation seriously in some other lodes. The
quartz of the mother lode is usually hard and white; and in most of the pay
chultes near one wall or the other, ribbon rock, or rock with numerous black seams
lying parallel with the wall, is found. In some mines, especially at the Raw
Hide, the quartz is colored green with carbonate of copper; and the same color,
though not so strong, is observed in portions of the Princeton mine.
WIDTH.-The width varies from a foot to thirty feet; that is, the main vein as
worked; but it is accompanied by branches or companion veins, so that the total
width of vein matter is sometimes nearly a hundred feet.  In some places these
side veins are known to be branches separated at the surface from the main vein
by "horses;" in others they are different in material and do not unite at the deepest
workings. The most remarkable side veins are those of talcose slate, which in
some places can be traced for miles.  They are from two To twenty feet wide, an(
are rich in gold.  We do not find, in our books, mention of any similar auriferous
deposit in other countries; but in California a number of them have been found,
remote from the mother lode as well as near it.
South of Maxwell's creek is a parallel talcose vein, on the west side of the
main mother lode, known as the Adelaide, which name was given to it by Mr.
J. 1'. Johnson.  The same name has been given by mistake in Tuolumne county
to a companion talcose vein on the east side of the main lode. There is no
reason that the two are the same vein, or for extending the name of one to the
other.
PAY CHIMNEYS.-The pay chimneys are usually large and regular, and are
either vertical or have a slight dip to the north.
In the companion talcose veins the pay chimneys are not distinctly markled,
nor are the character and limit of the lode well defined.
IHILLS AND HOLLOWS.-The streams seem to have made their beds in places
where the mother lode is split up into a number of branches, as at the Mercede,
Maxwell's creek, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, and Mlokelumne rivers; while in those
places where the lode is wide and solid there are high hills, as at Penion Blanco,
Pine Tree, Whiskey Hill, Quartz Mountain, and Carson Hill.  The richest part of
the vein was on the top of Carson Hill, and next to that in richness was Pine
Tree Hill.  The Hayward, the Oneida, and the Keystone are in valleys.  The
Golden Rule and the mines at Angels are neither on hill nor in hollow, and Ire
yet very rich.
No other class of quartz mines in California is so poor in specimens as those
on the mother lode, nor, with two or three exceptions, are there any others in
which the gold is so regularly distributed through the pay chutes.
PECULIARITIES OF THE LODE.-The chief peculiarities of the mother lode are
its great length, its great thickness, its uniform character, the near proximity of
large companion veins, of which at least one is usually talcose, and the richness
of the talcose veins. In reply to questions about the chief distinguishing feature of the mother lode, the miners engaged in working various mines gave very
different answers. One said it was the presence of a belt of green stone on the
eastern side. Another thought it was a black putty gouge. A third spoke first
of the occurrence of places as smooth as glass on the walls. Another considered the mother lode to consist of two branches, one the luminated, the other the
I
15 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
b)oulder branch.  The former is usually on the west side; the latter has the most
curves.  The lode is richest where the two meet.  Another says the mother lode
is a series of branches, sometimes a dozen in number, covering a width that
varies from 500 to 3,000 feet, with a greenstone porphyry wall on the east, and
dioritic porphyry wall on the west.
Is IT A FISSUnE Vi4IN?-The question whether the mother lode is a gash or a
fissure vein has little practical importance. Such an inquiryvis serviceable inregard
to deposits the character of which is doubtful; but we already know that in regard
to length, uniformity of veinstone, continuity in depth, and number of pay chutes,
few fissure veins exceed this.  Professor Ashburner, in a report made on the Pine
Tree and Josephine mines, in May, 1864, expressed an opinion that the  "great
majority" of the auriferous quartz lodes of California are gash veins; and he
implies that the Pine Tree, which is a part of the mother lode, belongs to that
class. Whitney, in his "Metallic TVealth of the United States," says:
True fissure veins are continuous in depth, and their metalliferous contents have not been
found to be exhausted or to have sensibly and permanently decreased at any depth which
has yet been obtained by mining.
Segregated and gash veins, and the irregular deposits of ore not included under the head
of veins, and not occurring in masses as part of the formation, cannot be depended upon as
persistent, and they generally thin out and disappear at a not inconsiderable depth; at the
same time they are often richer for a certain distance, and contain larger accumulations of
ore than true veins, so that they may be worked for a considerable time with greater profit
than these, although not to be considered as of the same permanent value.
In a report on the Princeton mine made by Professor Blake, in December,
1864, he said:
The identification of the Princeton as a fissure vein leads us to the question whether all
the gold veins of the Sierra Nevada and other gold districts of similar formation are not also
of fissure origin, rather than formed by metamorphism from materials pre-existing in the
strata. It certainly is not essential to a fissure vein that it should cut across the strata of a
country.  In a region of regularly stratified slates, the line of least resistance to a breaking
force is certainly the line or plane rather of the stratification. In that line or plane the rocky
crust may be most readily split, and hence it is, I believe, that most of our veins are found
conforming to the stratification.  Professor Tuomey, in his report on the geology of South
Carolina, describing the gold-bearing veins of that State, mentions several that for a part
of their course follow the bedding of the rocks, and in other places cut across the bedding.
I have observed similar conditions at various places in California, and I am daily more and
more inclined to the view that gold veins are the results of emanations from great depths
below, which, ascending through rifts and fissures of the rocks, were condensed or deposited
upon the walls.
CLAIMS IN MAIAIPOSA.-The following is a list of the claims on the mother
lode, beginning at the mother lode and going northward:
The Crown Lead, 4,500 feet on the mother lode, besides claims on two parallel
lodes. Not at work. Noticed elsewhere.
The Virginia, 2,500 feet, crops out largely.  A tunnel 160 feet long strikes the
vein at a depth of 100 feet. Several shallow shafts have been sunk. Some
good quartz has been found, but no work is being done now. There is no mill.
The Pyles, 1,200 feet; no workl done.
The Mary Harrison has a mill, and is at work.
The Clayton, 3,000 feet.
The Louisa, 3,000 feet, is being opened and explored. One shaft is down 130
feet, and another is being sunk to the same depth, and a third, commenced on a
lower level, is down  90 feet.  A  tunnel started near the level of Maxwell's
creekl, strikes the bottom of the 90 foot shaft.   About  2,000 tons of ore have
been taken out, and have been crushed at the mill of the Maxwell Creek Mining
Company, yielding $8 or $9 per ton. The mother is split up here into a number
of branches.
On the Margaret, 3,000 feet, no work has been done.   In this claim the mother
lode is split up into a number of narrow branches, at least at and near Maxwell's
creek, which separates it from the Louisa.
16 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Thle Pumpkini, 3,000 feet, is not doing anythiing.  Several shafts have been
sunk, and some rocki taklen fiom it seven or eight years ago yielded $40 per ton.
The Nonsuclh, 1,400 feet, is lying idle.
Parallel withi and opposite to tihe Nonsuch, 300 feet distant to the eastward,
on a talcose slate vein, is the Hidely and Cunininghiam mine.  A four-stanp mill
commenced riunning last spring.
On the King, Solomon, 3,000 feet, no workl is doing.
The Yosemite, 3,000 feet, has a tunnel of exploration, but no mill, and is not
at w ork.
The Peion Blanco, 6,000 feet long, is being explored by a tunnel running
2S5 feet on the vein from the northwest side of the hill, and by a cross-tunnel
from the east side of the hill.  Eight men are at workl, and $6,000 or $8,000
have been spent on the claim.  The name is Spanish, means "large white rock,"
and was stuggrested by the immense croppiings of white quartz on the top of the
high llill, vlwhich is one of the most prominent land-marks in the western part of
Mlariposa county.
Thle -furphy,       feet, bas done nothing.
Thle MlcAlpini, 1,200 feet, was vworled 10 years, first with an arrastra, and
afterwards with an ei,ght-stamip.  The lode is here 25 feet wide.  A tunniel strikes
tile veini 400 feet belowv the surface, and a shaft runs down 160 feet from the
tunnel.  Alcalpin sold out in 1864, and left the State, taking wvithi him, if rumor
is righit, $75,000 obtained net from the mine.  Since lihe left the mine has not
paid, and the mill is now standing idle.  Ten or 15 feet eastward from the
main lode, and parallel with it, is a companion vein, which has been worked to
some extent, and is supposed by some miners to be richer than the main lode.
The mill is driven by water supplied by the Golden Rock Water Company.
CLAIMS IN TUOLUMNE.-Thle following claims are now lying idle or only
partially worlked.  Those miarlked * are idle; those upon vwhich work is being
done are noticed:
The King Philip*; the Newhall,* 3,000 feet; the Rhlodes,*' 3,000 feet; Wood worth,* 3,000 feet; Wheeler,* 7,500 feet; Mlunn*; Wotcott and Rocco*; the Cul bertson,* extending atcross the Tuolumne river; here comes a tract* of 1,200 feet
in dispute; thle Kelly,* 4,000 feet; the Clio, 2,000 feet, has a 10-stamp mill, not at
workz now; the Scorpion*; the Northern Light,* 3,000 feet; the Johnson, the
Yuma,* 3,150 feet, and the IIector, are on the Talcose companion veinl in this
nei,ghborlllhood.  Tilhe Shaw-mut is on the main lode and has a mill.  The Eagle
also has.i mill.
Thle Chliclkenhawvk has two shafts, and is at wvorkl with a hloisting en(inel, but
without a mill.  Thle I)icksonl  & Co.,* 1,500 feet; thle Durgan & Co.,:: 500 or
600 feet; the Golden Rule*; the Simmons & Co.,* 800 feet; the   M         Wil le, aller
& Co.,* 450 feet; the Heslep & Co.,* 900 feet; the Simon Whitford & Co.,*"
450 feet; the Rowve & Co.,* 350 feet; the Golden Rtule, 1,600 feet, has a 15 —
stamp mill in profitable operation on the eastern vein; the Watller & Ap)p,' 7.80
feet, has a shaft 60 feet deep; the HIitchcoclk,* 500 feet.  Thle Nyman, 550 feet,
has a tunnel 150 feet long, and a shaft 40 feet deep; another tunnel is now being
run to open the mine. There is no mill.
The Jim Stuart,* 530 feet, has a shlaft 78 feet deep; the App, 1,000 feet, has,
been vworled regularly for seven years with a 10-stamp mill.  Opposite to tlhe
App, on the eastern talcose vein, is the Heslep, 1,650 feet, which has been at
work for 15 years with a 10-stamp mill.  This claim extends beyond thle App
,and is opposite the Jim Stuart also.
The Silver, 1,500 feet, has a 10-stamp mill, but in M1ay all the work was
given to opening the mine.  The Sweeny, 1,500 feet, has a five-stamp mill, but
the mine has caved in, the flume was blown down, and no work is being done.:
One pocket near the surface paid $30,000.
2
,i
17 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The Tazewcell,* 800 feet; the Donovan & Co.;* the McCann,* 600 feet; the
-[fooney & Co., 600 feet, has a four-stamp mill in profitable operation working
the talcose vein; tlec Trio,* 2,316 feet, has a 10-stamp mill; the Harris, 1,000
feet, has no mill, but is being, opened; the Williams & Brother, 1,000 feet, bas
no mill, but is beinig opened; the Reist, 1,000 feet, has a four-stamp mill, and is
payingi; the General HIooker,* 1,200 feet; thle Rawhide Extension is doing,
nothling now, thlough tlhere is a shaft 200 feet deep, whichl- always contains water,
somnetimles to wNithlin 20 feet of the surface; in the Rawhide claim adjoining
there is a wvorling shaft 280 feet deep, and only 40 feet distant.  The Rawhlide,
1,650 feet, is owned by a New Yorlk company, and has a 20-stamp mill.
The IHensley & Co.,* 1,300 feet; the Flaxon,* 1,000 feet; the Quillnby, 1,000
feet, on the eastern talcose companion vein, has a four-stamp mill which has been
idle for years; the Chaparral, 1,500 feet, has a five-stamp mill, but is not running;
the Bucklye, 1,200 feet, is on a branch vein 200 feet west of the main mother
lode, opposite to the Chaparral.
The Horsely,* 1,500 feet, has sunk a shaft 20 feet deep; the 3leader & Carinngton,* 1,500 f(,et, has a four-stamp mill; the JIawkeye,* 1,000 feet; the Silver
Hill,* 1,500 feet; the Gillis,* 1,200) feet; the Gillis No. 2,* 1,200 feet; the
Seavers,* 1,000 feet; the Wattx'; the Alsop & Co.,* reaches to the Stanislaus
river.
The following claims are onl an eastern branch or companion vein of the
mother lode, commencing at the Rawhidele  and running northward to the Stanislaus river.
First is a piece of unclaimed ground where no lode has been found.  The
White Senior* claim; the Tom AVWhite,k 1,200 feet;  the Patterson, has a 10stamp mill, but only five are running; the Gillis, *-1,200 feet; the Jackson;* the
Waters;;* the Rector,* 1,200 feet, has sunk a shaft 52 fceet deep; the Watts,
] 1000 feet, is now at wvorkl prospectin(g, about $15,000 have been taken from
,ilall veins at the surface; the it. Stanislaus,* 3,000 feet.
This brings us to the Staislaus river, in the bed of which no large vein is
discoverable.  Here, as at Alaxwell's creek, the lode is split up into a multitude
of little branches.
CLAIMS IN CALAvErAS.-Immediately nlorthl of the Stanislaus river, on the
line of the mother lode, Carson hill rises to an elevation of 1,600 feet above the
river; and the lode in passing through tlle hill appears to split into three branches.
On the eastern branch are the following, viz: the Virg,inia,* 1,000 feet; the
Aljunction,* 800 feet; the Carson Hill, has done some work, but is not doing anythiing now; the South Carolina, 2,550 feet, has yielded $400,000, and is now closed;
the Enterprise,* 800 feet; the Reserve, 980 feet, is being reopened, but has no
mill, tlie yield has been $130,000.
These are all the claims on the eastern branch.  On tl-le middle branch are the
following, commencing at the river, and ruining northward: the Stanislaus,*
1,200 feet; the Mlineral M1ountain,* 3,000 feet; the 31elones,* 1,200 feet.
On the western or Santa Cruz branch is the Santa Cruz* mine, 3,000 feet; the
Atorgan, 500 feet, has no mill, but is at work, yielded $2,800,000  in 1850
and 1851; thle Kentuclkyv,* 220 feet; the Iron Rock, 1,300 feet,is doing nothing,
though some very good rock was found in short tunnels and shafts; the Chaparral,* 3,031 feet; the Chaparral Hill, 3,200 feet, is now at workl tlaking out rock,
but has no mill.
Here comes a space where the vein has not been found.
The Hanford, 900 feet;* the Hanford and Shears.*
Hcre comes an interval of a mile and three-quarters, before we reach the town
of Angels.
The Stickles, 400 feet, has a 10-stamp mill at work; the Calaveras,* 1,100
feet, had a nine-stamp mill which was moved away; the Lightner, 400 feet,* had a
10-stamp mill, but it has been. moved away; the Angel, 900 feet, has a 30-stamp
119 
WVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
mill, now at work; the Hill, 412 feet, has produced $250,000, and has a 12stamrp mill at work; the Bovee, 450 feet, has produced $600,000, and has a 10stanip mill at work; the i'ritz,* 600 feet, had a 10-stamp mil, wnhich was moved
away.
Here comes anotber space where the mother lode is not traceable on the surface,
and has not been traced.  The general opinion is that it crosses the Alokelunine
river about three miles west of -Iokelumne Hill.
CLAIrS Ix AArxDOP.-North of that river, in Amador  county,  wve hav
the followin: thle Tibbetts &  Coriss;* the HayTward, 1,800 feet, has  56
stamps at work, crushing S80 tons per day, and has been at wolk since 1852,
the reputecld yield is $27 per ton gross, and 822 net, or more  than $600,000
net per year; the Loring Hill, 700 feet, has heen worked for 10 years.  Opposite to the Lorini   Hill, on a parallel vein, is the Railroad, 800 feet.  This
mine has yielded $70,000, and is now at vork, but has no mill.  The Wildmanl, 1,130 feet, is down 530 feet, and has drifted 200 feet, but the 12-stamp
mill is employed inl doini  custom-vork; the AIahoney has been working five
years, with a 15-stamp mill; the Lincoln, 2,37S feet, has worlked 10 or  12
years, but the 20-statnmp mill is now engaged in custom-workl; the Barnhart,*
1,000 feet; the Comet, 750 feet, has commenced prospectilng; the IHerbertville,
1,200 feet, had a 30-stamp  mill, which never paid, and was burned down.
No  work is being( done at the mine.  The Keystone, has a 20-stamp mill,
has worked steadilv since 1851, and has produced about $700,000.  Opposite to
the Keystone, o0n a companion   vein, is the Spring Hill, 1,200 feet, which has
crushed 50,000 tons of quartz, but ob)tained little profit.  It has a 30-stamp
mill, vlwhich is idle, with the exception of five stamps engag,ed in custom-work.
The Amador, 1,300 feet, was worked to a depth of 240 feet somre years aoo, but
afterwards caved in, and has stood idle now, for some time; the Bunker.Hill,
1,200 feet, is at work with an ei,ght-stamp mill; the MIayflower,* 1,200 feet;
the IHazard,* 800 feet, has ali eilght-stamp mill; the Pennsylvania,* 1,000 feet;
the Loval,* 600 feet, has a 20-stamp steam mill; the Italian, 340 feet, h1as
a six-stamp mill, which has crushed about 2,000 tons; thle Seatonl, 1,200 feet, has
a 40-stamp mill, and has worlked about 10,000 tons of quarts, which averaged
eight or nine dollars.  The mill is not running, but the mine is being opened.
The MIcDonald,* 800 feet; the Potosi, 800 feet, is at work with a sixteen-stamp
mill; the Webster,* 600 feet, had a mill, which was moved away; the Plynmouth,
1,200 feet, is beinig worlked with a 15-stamp mill; the Enterprise, is at workl
with a 10-stamp nmill; the Challen,* 1,000 feet; the Green Aden,* 1,200 feet,
has a shaft 100 feet deep; the Hooper,* 1,200 feet; the Noe,* S00 feet; the
Richmond, S00 feet, has a 10-stamp mill, but the only workl  now being done
is prospecting.
Here we reach the Cosumnes river, and north of this the lode has not been
traced distinctly, althlough the Pacific lode at Placerville appears to have its
characteristics.
SECTIO0N  III.
MARIPOSA COUNT''Y.
A[ariposa* county, the southernmost of the rich placer mining counties ot the
Sacramento basin, lies between parallels 37~ and 38S~ of north latitude, and
reaches from the summit of the Sierra Nevada to the low land of the San Joaquin valley.  The northern boundary is the divide between the Tuolumne and
3[ercede rivers, and the southern is a line drawn northeastward firom the point
* The name of this county is derived from the Spanish' Las Mariposas," The Butterflies.
19 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
where the Chowclhilla river strikes the plain.  The only permanent stream in
the county is the 3Ierced; the so-called MIariposa river is a little brook which
can readily be stepped across in the summer season.
The distance of the town of iMariposa from Stockton is 90 miles, and the
ordinary charge for freight in the summer is $25 per ton of 2,000 pounds.   A
stage runs to Bear Valley in a day from Stockton, and the fare is $10. Another
stage line runs to Coulterville, and the fare there is $10, and the distance is
made in one day.  The county tax for the current fiscal year is $3 19 per $100
of taxable property.  Coulterville lies north and Bear Valley south of the
3lercede river, the banks of which, in that vicinity are so steep and high that no
wagonl road has been made across it; and although the distance from one town
to the other by the horse trail is only 10 miles, it is 45 by the wagon road.
Sectional area of 31ariposa county, 1,88SS4 square miles.  Population in 1860,
6,243; estimated in 186(6, 4,170.  Assessed valuation of property in 1865,
$1,237,370.  3Ir. Wim. S. Watson constructing engineer of the projected Copperopolis and Stockton railroad says: "From tlhe nature of the country and the
pursuits of the inhabitants, Ilariposa imports of merchandise 4,240 tons per
annum-n, whlich, with an increase of population to the standard of Nevada county,
and the consequent development of her vast resources, would be quadrupled in
a very short time. The down fireights from this county, consisting of copper
ores, wool, hides, &C., amount to 920 tons annually.  The principal points of
shipping are Holmitas, Princetown, Agua Frie, Alariposa, Coulterville and Bear
Valley. Total up and down freights, 5,160 tons."
The shipment of gold dust from Coulterville was $13,285 in July, 1S66;
813,500 in August; $17,000 in September; 824,900 in October; $14,790 in
November; $7,2S0 in December, $4,950 quartz and $9,484 placer in January,
1S867; 811,050 placer and $14,,800 in  Iareli; and $S8,080 quartz and $3,660
placer in April.
The average monthly shipment of treasure from  the town of MAariposa is
$17,000 or $18,000.
There are two small ditches south of the 3Iercede river, and a branch of the
Golden Rock ditch extending to Pefion Blanco, and these are the only ditches
in the county.  In proportion to the yield of gold, Mariposa has fewer ditches
than any other county in the State.
PLACEnR iININXG. —Bany of the placer districts in the county have been very
rich, but the diggings have in no place been deep, and they would long ago have
been exhausted if there had been large ditches to supply water; but these were
lackingi, so washing has been conducted on a small scale, and for only a brief
period each year.  The richness of the ground and the coarseness of the gold
has enabled the miners to make a profit sometimes by dry digging or scratching
the gravel over with a butcher-klnife.  3[axwell's Creek, Blue Gulch, Bear Creekl,
Whlite's Gullch, Pefion Blanco, the north fork of the AMercede, the banks of the
main 3cercede, and the vicinities of the towns of MIariposa and HIornitas were
especially rich.  In,Iaxwell's Creek, about 1852, the common yield was $15 or
820 per day to the man, and in 1863 two miners in two months washed out
$16,000 at Pelon Blanco.  In 1S50 Horse Shloe Bend, on the Mlercede, had a
population of 400 miners.  There are now a dozen small and shallow hydraulic
claims there, whiclh pay about $4 per day to the man.  The population of the
b)endl numbers 100, of whom half are Chinamenr.  On the top of Bucklhorn
mountain, east of Coulterville, at an elevation 1,500 feet above the iMerceede
river, there is a placer wliichi pays well while it rains, but cannot be worked at
any other time for want of water.  Flyaway, in a gully by the side of Bucklhorn
mountain, is also rich, but there, too, no water can be got save during rains.
AGrICIuLTzUnE. —There is no agriculture in 3I1riposa county worthy of note.
There is not one large orchard, vineyard, or grain farm.  Only a small quantity
of rain falls, and the soil appears to be of a very dry nature. A large portion
20 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of the surface is occupied by steep hills, whvlichli prove their thirsty character bv
sustaimiug no vegetation save the chemisal.  There are no ditches to sustain
irrigation, and as the most populous part of the county was the 31ariposa grant,
the residents there hlaving no title had no sufficient inducement to invest money
in planting trees and vines.  The western part of the county is made up chiefly
of chemisal hills, with occasionally small dales with scattered oak trees.  In the
eastern part of the county there are some plains about 3,000 feet high, and these
have a rich and moist soil and may some day become far more valuable than
they are now.  Still farther east, at an elevation of 5,000 feet or more, we come
to large forests of good pine timber, with occasional groves of the big tree.
YOSEMITE. —One of the resources of the county is the possession of the
Yosemite valley, which is destined to be a favorite place of resort when access
is cheaper and more comfortable than at present.  The trip can now be made
from San Francisco to the valley and back in eight days for 875, staying only
a dlav in the valley, but the average amount spent on the trip by visitors is not
less than $150.  On the Coulterville trail there is a stretch of 39 miles to be
made on horseback, with no house on the way; and on the M1ariposa trail the
nearest house to the valley is 25 miles off.  Thus there is no mode of reaching
the place except a hard ride over a very rugged road, and it is a severe trial to
persons unaccustomed to riding horseback.  A wagon road might be made, but
sonime of the people on the route think it their policy to prevent the construction
of a road.  Near the Ilariposa trail is a fine grove of the big trees.  The number of visitors to Yosemite in 1864 was 240; in 1865, 360; and in 1866, 620.
THE 3MAPIPOSA ESTATE.-The M1ariposa Estate, or Fremont Grant, as it is
sometimes called, contains 44,380 acres, or about 70 square miles. It reaches
12 miles from east to west, and 12,1 miles from north to south. Its greatest
len,gth, from northwest to southeast, is about 17 miles, and its average width
nearly 5 miles.  Its northern line touches the Mercer river, the southern the
town of Bricdgeport.  It illeludes the towns of Mariposa, Bridgeport, Guacldalupe,
Arkansas Flat, Lower Agua Fria, Upper Agua Fria, Princeton, Mlount Ophir,
and Bear Valley.  The grant was made while California was under the dominion
of Iexico, to Juan B. Alvarado, and it was purchased in 1847 by J. C. Fremont,
who presented his claimi for the land to the United States land commissionl,
and it was finally confirmed to him, and the patent was issued February, 1856.
The original grant was of land suitable for grazing purposes in the basin of the
MIariposa river, but the boundaries were not fixed, and the grantee had the right
of locating the claim on any land witlhin a large area.   When the grant was to
be surveyed Fremont said hlie wanted a long strip of land in the low-land onl
both banks of the MIariposa river; but the United States surveyor told him the
survey must be in a compact form.  Then, instead of taking a compact area of
grazing land and worthless mountain, hlie swung his grant round and covered the
valuable Pine Tree and Josephine mines, near the Mlercede river, besides a number
of others whichl had been in the undisputed possession of miners, who had long
been familiar with Freimont, and had never heard the least intimiationi from him
that lie would in any event lay claim to their works.  Personal indignation thus
came in to embitter a quarrel involving large pecuniary interests; but the patent
did not necessarily give tile gold of the grant to Frelmont. Under the Alexicanl
law the grantee had no right to the minierals, and the American law spoke of a
confirmation, not an enlargement, of the Mexican title.  Here then was another
subject for litigation, and at last, in 1859, that matter was settled by a decision
that an American patent for land carries the nminerals with it. The adverse
claimants defied the officers of the law; the mines were converted into fortifications; the mouths of the tunnels were barricaded; there were besiegers and
besieged; several men were killed; but at last, in 1859, Frcmont triumphed, and
under his Mexican grant obtained land which the Mexican government did not
intend to grant, and minerals which it systematically reserved.
21 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
In a short time after the title was satisfactorily settled the yield of gold from
the quartz mines of the estate became very large. The monthlly production in
1860 averaged $39,500; in 1861,.$53,500; in 1862, the year of the great flood,
which injured the miills, flooded mines, and broke up roads, $43,500; and in the
first five months of 1863, $77,000.  In iMarchl, 1863, the yield was $94,000; in
April, $92,000; and iln Iay, $101,000   Tlhe production seemed to havereaclied
the figure of $100,000 per miontli, with a fair prospect of still further increase.
It was at this time that the estate was sold to an incorporated company in New
Yorkl city, and the stock put upon the miarklet in the midst of the San Francisco
miailngii    stock fever whichl extended its influence across the continent.  The
prospectus of the company presented a very attractive picture to speculators.
Tile average monthly yield for three years and a half had been $50,000, and for
half a year the net profits had equalled that sum.  TIle reports of various mining
engineers indicated that the results of future wvorlingffs would be still better.
M1essrs. WakV.lelee and Garnctt, who  spokle with great caution, and expressed
doubts about the value of the Iariposa, the Pine Tree, and Josephine mines,
still thought that the monthly productions of the estate could soon be raised to
$220,000, at an expense of not more thian $50,000, leaving $170,000 net monthly
income.  Dr. J. Adelberg, speakliing of the Pilne Tree and Josephine mines, said:
In regard to the value of the veins, I can say no more than that their yield in precious
metal is limited only by the amount of work done in them; but I recollect Mr. Fremont
once commissioning me to makle an estimate as to their endurance in the limits of the longitudinal extent now opened.  I found by calculation that they would yield for 388 years 1()0
tons daily, without the requisition of pumps. I mean down to the water level.
iMr. Timothy C. Allyn made a report on the property in December, 18SG2, and
expressed  the opinion that the yield could be increased $100,000 per month,
gross, and $50,000  net.  A  report equally favorable by 3fl. Claudet was also
pu)lislied.   Professor  VWhitnley, a  most careful, conscientious, and  competent
authority, had said:
The quantity of material which can be mined may, without exaggeration, be termed
inexhaustible.  I can hardly see a limit to the amount of gold which the property is capable
of producing, except in the time, space, and capital required to erect the necessary mills,
build roads to them, and open mines, so as to keep them supplied with ore.
WAVith these opinions and facts, large quantities of the stock were purchased,
and there were large quantities of it to be purchased, for the paper capital of
the company was $10,000,000.
The company was organized by Fremont's creditors, who had' become owners
of the property; but instead of cancelling the debt and taking stolck for it, they
took a miortrgage for $15,000,000, payable in gold, and issued the stock subject
to that debt, vlwhich was supposed to be the only incumbrance on the property;
at least that was the supposition of many  who  bought the stock. it soon
appeared, however, that there were $480,000 in gold due, besides $300,000 on the
garrison lien, $50,000 on the Clarkl  mortgage, and $130,000 to worlkmen  and
others in California.  The new company selected SIr. F. L. Olmnsted for their
mana,er, and he took charge of the estate on the 14th November, 1864.  Hle
found everything in confusion.  The production had fallen off very suddenly
after the sale. It seemed as if every nerve had been strained to make the yield
of  Iay as large as possible, and that as soon as the sale was made the prodLuction decreased  more than 50 per cent.  The yield for the first five months of
1S863 before the sale was $385,000, and during the last six after the sale was
$186,993.   In the former period there was a net profit of $50,000 per mionth
in the latter a net loss of $80,000.
In 3Iay, 1864, Professor Sillinan made  a report on the estate, in which lihe
said:
A person accustomed to view mines must be deeply impressed or the first view of this
estate, not more with the great extent and vigor of the former workings-evidence of which
22 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
is seen equally in the underground extraction and in the surface works, railroads, mills,
trails, wagon roads, warehouses, and workshops-than with the equally conspicuous fact that
the former owners had no regard for their successors, inasmuch as they have in every instance
violated in the most remarkable manner that fundamental maxim of all successful mining,
namely, to keep works of exploration well in advance of works of extraction. The neglect
of this maxim, in ordinary cases, is never of doubtful issue. In your case the result has been
peculiarly unfortunate, since your estate is not a mine, but a vast collection of mineral veins,
on many of which valuable mines miay be developed, and on some of which such developments were made of an encouraging character, but the neglect to apply the principle in question has resulted in the complete suspension of three of the mills, the partial suspension,f
a fourth, and the supply of the fifth fbr a time with an inferior quality of ore, all because the
veins on which these mills depended for ore were worked on the improvident plan of taking
all the ore in sight as far and as fast as it could be found, but never anticipating the evil
day, sinking shafts and driving levels long enough in advance of the calls of the present
hour to foresee disaster, much less to prevent it.
A mine is a storehouse in which are garnered certain treasures of large, it may be, but not
inexhaustible supply.  Certain it is, the ore which has been mined will never recur. Hence,
it is the fate of all mines at some period to become exhausted. The only compensation to
this circumstance is in the possession by one company of a considerable number of mines
which may be brought, in succession, into activity, so as to supplement each other.  Your
position in this respect is one of immense strength; not only do you hold on the Mariposa
estate a vast plexus of veins, of most of which very little is known at present, but you also
own a great length of country on several veins, the character of which is already proved.
It follows from this state of facts that, with the frugal and timely application of capital, you
ought never to be in a position where the partial or complete exhaustion of a particular mine,
or of several mines, should be severely felt on your general production, nor would it be so
to-day had it been the interest of those who preceded you to apply the simple maxim already
quoted. But the reckless disregard of this sound principle has resulted, not only in a partial
suspension of your production of gold-amounting to a serious disappointment of well-founded
hopes-but, still worse, in the almost destruction of certain parts of the mines, where the
usual piers of vein have been removed for milling, leaving the mines to crush in, endangering not human life only, but the very existence of the mines themselves. The simple result
of all this has been, that your manager found himself, at the outset of your occupancy, face
to face with a most embarrassing and painful state of facts, with the alternative before him
of throwing off the duty he had undertaken or of grappling with the difficulties and, by a
series of judicious measures, extricating this niioble estate from its disastrous position.   Fortuinately for all concerned, he elected the latter alternative; and it will give me pleasure to
oint out in what manner he has, with great good judgment, proposed to mieet the difficulties
e     has found.
It is quite obvious, from the facts and statements already detailed in this report, that you
hold an estate of very great value, but also in a great degree undeveloped, and demanding a
large amount of active capital for its proper management.  That the judicious use of money
will be rewarded, and that speedily, by exploring the undeveloped quartz veins of the estate,
is too obvious, I trust, after the arguments and facts already set forth, to require further illustration.  All explorations will not be fruitful certainly, but those which are so will beco,me
so largely remunerative that they will cancel the others. By no other plan can you hope to
manage the estate with honor or profit.  By this method you will be sure to develop a vast
value, which will render your stock desirable as a permanent and safe investment. By any
other system you may attain a spasmodic vitality-to be followed soon by a total collapse.
Your manager fully appreciates these views, and his plans now in progress of development
will not fail to secure the carly and permanent prosperity of the Mariposa estate.
In 1864 the yield was $465,000, and the expenditure of the mines and mills
$760,000.   With a debt of $3,000,000, (that was  about  the figure on the 1st
January, 1865,) and a monthly loss of $2-0,000, the company was evidently not
in a prosperous condition.   On the 23d January, 1865, a committee of stockholders, appointed to investigate the condition of the company, made a report,
and recommended that money be raised by assessment or loan to pay the most
pressing debts, so that the wvor  mightt be continued.  They gave it as their
opinion that the property was  "worthi preserving to the stocllkholders," and  that
the embarrassments were S owing to defective organization and want of wvor-lkin
capital."  The company did not succeed in raising the money to pay their most
pressing debts, and the estate was placed in the hands of Dodge Brothers, crecditors, for the purpose of enabling them to workl it and pay their own and othe-s'
debts.
The trustees found, according to their own statement, that they had spent
i
i
i
23
I
i
I
i
ii
I
i
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
more at the end of a year than they had received; and the company being dissatisfied. brought suit and obtained the appointment of a receiver, wLo is now
(Alay, 1S67,) in possession.*
* IMr. Mark Brumagin, president of the company, under date of September 6, 1867, gives
the following statement of the present condition of the Mariposa estate:
After a period of legal and financial difficulties which have weighed heavily upon the Mari  posa estate, the company have succeeded in successfully terminating the long pending law
suit with the lessees. A final settlement has been made with the Messrs. Dodg:e Brothers,
(the lessees,) by which they relinquish to the company all their rights under the Olmstead
lease for the possession of the whole property.
The floating debt has been reduced from about $200,000 to less than $60,000, which has
been concentrated into holders who are interested in the success of the company, and the'
greater portion of which is made payable in instalments running through the next twelve
months.
The Mariposa estate consists of upwards of 44,000 acres of gold-bearing land, in the heart
of the mineral region of California. It contains more than 1,000 auriferous quartz veins,
of which some 30 have been partially opened, and proved to be paying veins when provided
with proper reduction works. Of these mines only five have been supplied with machinery,
and that of a primitive kind, and very inefficient for saving gold.  WVhere thousands have
been taken from the estate, millions of dollars have been lost by bad management and worth less machinery.
The working of the Josephine and Pine Tree mines for the year 1860, and to the date of the
incorporation of the company, shows an average gross yield of $8 53+ to the ton. From
that time the yield for the above two mines has been respectively, as follows:
The Pine Tree mine, under the succeeding management, yielded, in gross, an average of
$6 per ton; the lower run having been $4 21, and the highest, $9 97 per ton.
The books kept by the Olmsted management also exhibit the following in regard to the
Josephine mine: The lowest run for any one clean up was $d 42 per ton; the highest, $7 0.
per ton, making an average gross yield for this period of $4 52 per ton. In brief; the average
yield of this mine was at that time so low that it was partially abandoned as worthless by
their method of saving gold.
Under the next management, (that of the lessees of the company who succeeded Olmsted,)
the books show that the quartz from these two mines was worked together with an average
gross yield of $9 01 per ton, the ore having been more or less selected.
The Pine Tree vein is in some places over 30 feet wide, and runs parallel with the Jose phine, which has a width of some 12 feet, both mines cropping out on the summit of Mount
Bullion, 1,500 feet above the Mercer river, at which the Benton mills are located.
The Josephine contains considerable sulphurets, while the Pine Tree has rather the charac ter of a "firee gold" vein. Both have more or less of oily substances in the seams of the
veins. The ore contains largely of " float gold," so fine that it floats for hours on the surface
of the water.
Quartz from these mines is now supplied to the mills from the tunnels penetrating the
veins near the top of the hill, but it is designed to open them by a tunnel at the base, some
thousand feet below the present workings, which will insure an unfailing supply of ore.
Under the company's, or present management, since we obtained full possession, we have
changed the Bear Valley mill into the "eureka process" for saving gold.  This mode of
disintegration produces a fine, almost impalpable powder, like superfine flour. Half a ton
of this is enclosed dry in an iron receiver. Superheated steamn or gas is admitted, which, in
the course of a few minutes desulphurizes and drives off all base metals and oily substances.
Quicksilver is then introduced, anid a portion evaporized, and is afterwards condensed by
common steam and cold water. An ingeniously constructed shaking table, of copper, about
20 feet long, on a wooden frame, with riffles of a peculiar formation, gives to the water
and pulverized substance, with the amalgam, the same action as that of the ocean surf, an
undertow. As the mass descends on the table, the amalgam, from its metallic weight, gradually clears itself from the quartz substances, and the gold is easily and quickly collected in
the troughs of the riffles; and so effectually that the residue contains scaicely a trace of gold.
With this mill the company have recently worked some 800 tons of quartz from the
Josephine mine.  The lowest yield at any clean up was $31 per ton; the highest was
$173 per ton; giving an average of $40 53 per ton. In the greater portion of this quartz
not a particle of gold could be discerned before crushing. From these facts it will readily
appear why the property has hitherto paid no dividends.
Captain Henry J. Hall, a practical and experienced quartz miner, has now charge ot the
mines and mills of the company, and is adapting the eureka gold-saving process to all the
mills of the estate. The aggregate capacity of these mills under former management was 299
tons daily, or about 7,500 tons per month, a capacity which still exists. The mills are located
near the Josephine, Pine Tree, Mariposa, Mount Ophir, and Princeton mines, all proved to
be large, well defined, and inexhaustible veins.  There may be easily taken out from these
five mines, at the present time, 200 tons of gold ore per day, and increased on the present
24 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Experienced quartz miners, familiar with the estate, are almost unanimous in
the opinion that the Princeton, the Pine Tree, and the Josephine  mines are
far from exhausted, but, on the contrary, that they are all very valuable, and
ought to be made to pay well, and that the failures of the last four years are to
be ascribed mainly to bad management.  It is true that wlhen the Mlariposa
company took possession the mines were not opened in advance as they should
have been; but they were opened, the position of the pay chimneys was determined, the hoisting works and pumps and mills were in workiing order, with
capacity to crush and amalgamate 150 tons of rock per day; there were experienced miinlers present, familiar with the character of each vein; there was a railroad for transporting the rock of two of the principal mines to the mill; and
there were improvements that were indispensable, and that could not have been
placed there for less than a quarter of a million dollars.   The property, however, was not managed properly, and the result was a failure, which is the more
remarkable because it followed immediately upon the heels of the most brilliant
success.
PnINCEToN.-The Princeton mine has been one of the most productive in
California, and has been noted for both the abundance and the richness of its
quartz. iFor a time it yielded $90,000 per month from milling rock, and this is
more than any other mine of the State ever did.
The mine is situated about half way between the MIariposa and the Pine Tree
mines, and is on a hill easily accessible.  The course of the vein is nlortlhwest
and southeast; the dip, 55~ northeast; the thickness varies from a few inches
to 10 feet.  The vein has been opened to a depth of 560 feet on an incline
and 200 feet below the surface; drifts have been run 1,200 feet along the vein,
and at the deepest workings the drifts extend 500 feet.  The richest rock was
found within 100 feet of the surface, where the pay was $70 per ton from milling
well, besides large numbers of specimens, of which it is said that not less than
$100,000 in value were stolen by the miners.  Below this rich mass of rock the
quartz gradually became poorer, and there were spots which did not pay for
working; but it is said that there is still an abundant supply of good milling
rock in sight.
Professor WV. P. Blake made a report on the mine in November, 1861, and
said:
The vein is composed of white friable quartz, and is divided into parallel layers or plates
by thin slatey films, which are generally charged with fine-grained pyrites and free gold.
The body of the quartz bears white vein pyrites crystallized and spread in irregular patches
and a small portion of galena, together with free gold in irregular ragged masses, in plates
and scales, and sometimes crystals. The gold appears to be most abundant in the neighborhood of the galena, and is found not only with the iron pyrites striking its sheets through its
substance, but entirely isolated from it and enveloped in the pure white quartz. Some of
the specimens preserved are exceedingly rich and beautiful, and just before my examination
of the vein some superb crystallizations had been broken out. These crystals are bunches
of octahedrons, with perfectly flat and highly polished faces from one-eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch across, and are attached to masses of white quartz.
openings by enlarging the working facilities, to 4,000 tons per day. The cost of mining and
reducinig the ore will be less than $10 per ton, and may yield an average of $40 per ton. The
old mills have produced upwards of $3,500,000.  Under an intelligent system of working
they ought to have yielded over $10,000,000.
The amount of profits from the estate can only be estimated in proportion to the number of
mills provided for the reduction of the ores. The reader may draw his own conclusions from
the facts and figures herewith presented.
It will be remembered that the representations heretofore made by the undersigned were
based on the low estimate of a sure gross average yield of $20 per ton, by the new reducing
machinery.  The present working shows that such estimates may no longer be regarded as
theoretical, as the actual results fully illustrate. Theywill be amply confirmed by the future
of this great property.
25 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Professor Blake lmadle a second report on this mine in December, 1864, and
said:
It is evident on a careful examination of the surface that there is a want of conformity in
direction between the vein and the slates. The slates on the west side are curved towards
the vein in the form of a bow, the ends of the curve appearing to abut against the vein at
both ends, the vein forming in its line of outcrop, with respect t. the slates, the chord of an
are. There is also a want of conformity in direction between this body of curved slates on
the west side of the vein and those on the east side of it, showing with mnost distinctness at
the north end, near the mouth of the upper drift. On the east side the trend of the slates is
seen to vary at different places from north 45~ west to north 95c west.  They are nearly east
and west at the north end of the vein. * * * There is also a want of conformity between
the body of curved slates on the west side of the vein and the slates still further to the west,
as if the curved body of slate had been broken from some other place and forced into its
present position. The line of contact is not very distinct, but just in the position we would
expect to find it we see a quartz vein which seems to mark the place.  It is approximately
parallel with the Princeton vein, and is also gold-bearing.
This want of coiformity in the direction of the slates on the opposite sides of the vein and
with the course of the vein itself, and the fact that the ends of the layers of slate abut against
the vein, or in other words, that the vein does not coincide with the plane of the bedding or
stratification of the slates, justifies the conclusion that it is a fissure vein rather than a bedded
mass, as has heretofore been generally supposed.  It evidently occupies the line of break
between the two distinct bodies of slate.
The mineralogical character of the slates on the opposite sides of the vein is also different.
The slates on the west side are much more sandy than those on the east, which are argillaceous and in very thin layers of uniform composition, presenting the well-known appearance
and character of roofing slates. There are several layers in the series on the west side which
might be called sandstones rather than slates. There are also in connection with these sandy
bars of a hard argillaceous rock, with an obscure slaty structure which resists weathering
more than the surrounding portions and stands out in well-defined outcrops.  These two
bars of rock are each from six to eighteen inches in thickness, and are about 170 feet apart.
*           *            *           X            *            *           *
It is a curious fact that the gold-bearing part of the vein appears to have a certain relation
to these peculiar argillaceous rocks or strata, for it does not extend beyond the line of contact
of these strata with the plane of the'vein. So also in the northern extension of the Princeton
vein, half a mile to the northwest, at the Green Gulch mine, where the vein was productive,
the same peculiar rock is found in connection with the vein on the west side.
Near the nill the vein splits and the two branches run off southeastward
nearly parallel with one another.  At a distance of a mile they are about 300
yards apai-t.  These branches have not been well explored or prospected, so not
much is kinown of their character.  On the main vein there are seven shafts and
a great number of wvorkings of different classes, sitch as might be expected of a
mine that has yielded $4,000,000 and sustained a considerable town. From
January, 1859, till June, 1860, Steptoe and RIidgway had charge of the mine,
and extracted 2,000 tons, which averaged $18 per ton.  From June 1, 1860,
till November of the same year, under the management of Parkl, 23,916 tons of
quartz were crushed, yielding $527,633, an average of $22 25 per ton.  In 1S862
and 18(63 the production was 121,000 tons of quartz and $2,000,000 of bullion,
averaging $16 50.  In 1864 the yield of bullion was  $243,707.  In 1863,
when the mill was working rock which yielded $53, the tailings, according to
assay, contained $13 56 per ton.  The pay was distributed rather in an irregular mass than in a chimney; but Professor Blake expressed the opinion in his
report of 1S64 that there was a chimney, and that its dip was 18~ to the horizon.
The Princeton mill has 24 stamps, and is the smallest on the Mariposa estate,
at least of those owned, erected, and worked by the Mariposa company.  The
capacity of the mine far exceeds that of the mills, and vwhile the former was in
a productive condition much of the ore was sent to other mills.  The gold in
the quartz is coarse and is easily caught in the battery, or at least most of it;
but the assays of the tailings show that great quantities of it were lost. The
heap of tailings at the mill is immense, and it will no doubt be worked over at
some day with a profit, if not all blown away.   The sand being fine many
pounds of it are carried off every hour when the wind blows in summer.  The
26 
VWEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
mill vwas driven by steam.   The stamps weigli 550 pounds andcl made 70 drops
per minute.  Both mine and mnill are now idle.
ThE PIN-E TrEE.-Tlie Pine Tree mine, contiguous to the Josephine, and
thirteen miles from the town of M1ariposa, is considered to be on the main mother
lode, whlichl runs northwest and southeast, dips to the northeast, and is here in
places 40 feet thlick.   The ore is extracted through tunnels and carried down to
the mills on -t railroad.   The  vorlkingrs are 500 feet deep and 1,000 feet long in
the vein.  There are seven pay  chimneys, whichl vary in length, horizontally,
from 40 to 200 feet.  The rockl in each chilmney has a peculiar color or appear ance, so that persons familiar with the mine could tell at a glance from which a
piece of quartz came.   The coarsest gol(' was found in the narrowest chimaney.
In three years previous to 31ay, 1S863, the Pine Tree and Josephilne mines pro duced 45,000 tons of ore and $350,000 in bulllion, an average of $7  77 per ton.
In 1860 these miines produced 12,154 tons and $113,530, or $9 34 per ton; in
1861, 21,576 tons and $173,810, or $8S 05 per ton; in 1862, whlen the dam was
carried away l)v the floodl, notliinig; and in 1S863, previous to June, 6,000 tons
tiiand $35,000, or $5 S3 per ton.  The total expense was $5 per ton for a portionl
of the time at least, the cost of transportation by car being 72 cents. In 1S864
the Pinie     iTree  ielded $67,940.  In l)ecember, 1863, when the ore paid $29 to
the ton, the refuse tailings  assayed $16 to the ton, showing  a great waste.
Thlere is a  iarc quantity of good ore nowv in sight in the mine.
The particles of goldl in the Pine Tree quartz are extremely fine, usually so
small as to be iiivisit)le to the naked eve.  As a consequence it is very difficult
to catch the metal in the process of amalgaimationl, and Professor Aslhiburnler, in
a report made inl 3Iay, 1864, said that 70 per cent. of the gold in the quartz
worked in the Benton mills was lost, or, in other words, only 30 per cent. of it
was saved.   This fact was ascertained bv "a series of assays upon the tailings
whllichl have been allowed( to run to waste."
In the same report lie said, " I think the Josephine vein, as it is called, is
niothing more than a branch from the Piine Tree, and the two systenis of workings,
as thley have never been carried on in connection, have given rise to two mines."
i)r. J. Adelber,g mlade a report onl the milling property of the M1ariposa grant
in Augutst, 1S60, and in it lie said:
These two veins run parallel on the whole, but sometimes a little diverging, somnetimes a
little converging; sometimes lunning together and forming two distinct divisions of one
vein.  They belong to distinct geological periods, the Pine Tree being earlier and the Jose- 
phine of more recent formation.  The ores of both veins are very distinct, the older vein
bearing, in those depths now laid open, mostly oxyds and carbonates, (among which the
blue and green carbonate of copper is very characteristic,) and the Josephine, or more
recently formred vein, bearing the iron and copper as sulphurets only.  The eruption of goldbearing quartz has formned here veins which are equalled in extent by no other known goldbearing quartz vein.
iecssrs. Garnett and Wakelee, who examnined the Pine Tree  and Josephine
mines in ilay, 1863, expressed the opinion that they did not contain any considerable bodv of ore then in silght to pay by the modes of amalgamation in use
at that time, and the only hope for making these mines  "an active element of
production instead of a consumingi expense" lay in improvements in the system
of w-orking the ores.
JOSEPIINE.-The Josephine mine is on a mountain side, 1,600 feet above the
level of the iMerced river.   The vein runs northwest and southeast, and dips to
the northeast.  Professor Sillimian says it is a contact deposit between serpentine
aiid shale; but 31r. Kelten, who has been a superintending miner in the Josephine
for more than ten years, says that in some places there is green stone, and in
others slate on both sides, and it is riceer in the slate than the green stone.  There
is no gotuge in the green stone.  The  lode varies  in width' froui  5 to 30
feet, averaging' more than 10.   In those places where the vein is small the
quartz is mixed with slate.   The mine has been worlkedl through three tunuels,
27 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the upper one being 100 feet above, and the lower 180 feet below the middle
tunnel or Black drift, as it is called. The drifts have been run 500 feet in the
lode, and the depth of the workings perpendicularly is 520 feet.
The pay-rock has been found in seven chimneys, which are from 40 to 100
feet in length horizontally, and are separated bv barren streaks fiom 4 to 6 feet
long in the drifts.  The pay chutes dip 45~ to the southeast; but the dip is less
regular on the under than on the upper side of the chute.  The richest deposit
is found along the foot wall, and a small streak of pay is found along the foot
wall in the barren chutes.  The Josephine ore has usually been worked with
that from the Pine Tree in the Benton mill, so that separate accounts have not
been kept of most of the workings.  The Josephline vein is considered a branch
of the mlothler quartz lode, from whlich it separates at the Josephine mine, runniing
northwestward nearly parallel with the mnain vein.  At a distance of half a mile
from the fork thley are about 300 feet apart.  Althloulgh the mine is now lying
idle, miners say that there is a large quantity of $90 rock in sight.
The indigo vein, so called because of the peculiar blue color of the rock, is 4
feet wide, alnd 450 feet west of the Josephine mine.  The lvein stone is talcose,
and in places is rich in gold.  It is called India-rubber rock by the miners, and
is difficult to break with the hanmmer, but tears out well when blasted.   The
vein has not been opened, but a tunnel has been run through it, and it has been
prospected a little in spots on the surface.
31APIPosA. -Thie 3Iariposa mine is situated on the eastern border of the town
of Mariposa, on the Mariposa lode, the direction of which is nearly east and west,
the dip 51~ south, and the widthl of the main vein firom four to eight feet.  Near
the mill the vein forks, one prong running westward in the line of the matine lode,
and the other running north of west. At a distance of 300 yards from the fbrks
the two prongs are not more than 60 yards apart.  Each fork is about 3 feet
thick.  The rock is a white ribbon quartz; the walls are a black talcose slate.
There is but little gouge, and the quartz is so hard that no progress can )be made
witlhott blasting.  East of the fork the gold is in fine particles, and is evenly
distributed through the pay chute, while west of the forlk the gold is collected
in rich pockets, which are separated firom one another by large masses of very
poor quartz.'These pockets contain almost invariably arseniurets of iron, accom panied by pyrites.  The presence of these minerals is considered a certain sign
that a good deposit of gold is not far distant. One pocket paid $30,000, another
$15,000, and numerous other sums, varying froim $100 to $1,000.  The great
richness of the vein is proved by the facts that the decomposed quartz  at the
surface was worlked or washed for a distance of half a mile, the ravines imme diately below the lode were famous for their richness, and drifts have bI)een run
a quarter of a mile under ground.  It is said before Fremont obtained posses sionl, squatters took $200,000 friom the mine.  The quartz taken out in 1864
averaged $25 per ton; but afterwards the average yield was only $11.  Persons
familiar with the mine say an abundance of rock might be obtained to yield
$12 or $15.  Before the sale of the grant to the Mariposa company the mine
was leased to 3Mr. Barnett, who paid 10 per cent. of the gross yield, a very good
share, and afterwards when lie was told that lie could not haave the property on
those terms he offered to pay 30 per cent. of the gross yield, and to give good
bonds.  His offer was rejected, and the mine is now idle.  Mir. Barnett worked
the mine on a very economical plan.  His stamps had wooden stemns; hlie amal gamated in aitastras, and his mortar was fed from a hopper or self-feeder. Little
hand labor was done in the mnill in the daytime, and none at all at night. Indeed,
everybody left the mill at supper time, and it was allowed to run without super vision till niorning.  The quartz was taken out under Barnett's directions, who
haxing spent many years at the place was thoroughly familiar with it; and before
going to the mill, all the barren pieces were rejected.  It was supposed that the
mine would pay better if it were worked on a larger scale, so the mill that had
28 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
stood at the Green Gulch mill of 40 stamps was moved to the 3Iariposa mine
in 1864, in accordance with the recommendations of Professor Ashburner.
Professor Silliman, in a report made in 3lay, 1864, said:
I feel convinced that the Mariposa vein is, on the whole, the most remarkable auriferous
vein yet developed on the Mariposa estate, and if the half which is believed of it by those
who know it best should prove true, it will alone almost sustain the estate.  The mill now
erecting in Mariposa creek is the same which has been removed fiom Green Gulch, where,
as it proved, there was no further use for it. Mr. Ashburner having examined and reported
approvingly on this removal, I have not felt it needful to re-examine the evidence, the decision
undoubtedly being a wise one. The fault of the other mills (except the Princeton) of being
set too low has been remedied here, and with a well-considered system of amalgamation,
there can be no doubt that excellent results will be arrived at in working the mill in its new
and well-chosen position, nor can there be any doubt that the mill will receive an ample
supply of quartz to engage it fully in crushing.
The gross yield of the mine in 1864 was $84,948; but there was no profit, and
among tile intelligent miiners in the neighlborhlood there is much  doubt vlwhether
enough pay quartz could be obtained to keep a 40-stamp mill going.
3lessrs. Wakelee and Garnett in their report on the grant say:
The Mariposa vein we examined more particularly, as it has been quite celebrated for the
extraordinary richness of its pockets of massive gold. The vein consists of a main trunk
and two branches.  It is in the latter that these deposits have been found.  They have not
been worked upon any regular system, but have been much burrowed into by different parties in quest of theoe rich pockets.  The quartz itself is almost entirely destitute of any trace
of metal, and its value seems to consist entirely of these massive deposits. It is needless to
add, perhaps, that from this peculiarity it furnishes a very uncertain basis for any extensive
system of mining.  The miain trunkl of this vein differs from its branches, and the quartz
found in it is uniformly charged with the metal. The ores yield, according to the best information we could obtain, about $16 per ton.
GREEN GULCH. -Thie Green Gulch mine, in the vicinity of the Princeton,
has been explored by a shaft 200  feet deep, and by drifts running 400 feet
loori7ontal, and the conclusion is that the deposits of auriferous quartz  are not
sufficiently near together to pay for working.  The vein is about three feet thick,
but the quartz is mixed in places with slate, which reduces the yield to a' point
so low that there is no margin for profit.  Some rich bunches of rock have been
found, anid under the  encouragement  given by  them  a 40-stamp  mill  was
,eected, and new explorations were undertaken; but the rich bunches were too
far apart, and the mill was afterwards removed to the 3fariposa mine.   The yield
of the Green Gulch mine in 1864 was $19,509.  In Decemlber, 1863, while  thie
rock was yielding 838 per ton, an assay of the tailiings showed that they contained $6 50 per ton.
OT:HEP, 3IIMXES OX THE 3IAr,iPos,A ESTATE.-The Oso nine, lhalf a mile from
Bear valley, is in a very narrow vein of decomposed talcose matter, running
across the slates.  It was very rich near the sxufatee, and according to rumor the
sum of $400,000 was talken from a shaft 50 feet deep and 7 feet long on the vein.
No worlk has been done at the place for years..
The New Britain or ilissouri mine is twvo miles northwest of the towin of 3[ariposa.   The vein averages about two feet and a half thick, runs cast and west,
dips to the south, and can be traced on the surface by croppings for four or five
miles. The vein stone is a soft white and yellow quartz, which breaks up like
slaked lime when exposed to the air.  The walls are of hard black slate.   The
only pay chimney wvhich has been worked dips to the east with an angle of 50~.
The quartz in this chute has been taken out to a depth of S0 feet, and it contamined a number of very rich pockets, one of which was taken out by 31r. Barnett)
and yielded $52,000, at an expense of $5,000.  In one day and a half lie took
out $9,000. Professor Silliman says it is a "very promising vein."
The 3It. Ophir mine is on the mother or Pine Tree lode; has been worked
extensively, and never rivalled the Princeton, Pine Tree, Josephine or 3ariposa
mine in the amount of production.   The yield in 1864 was $12,540.  T'he 3It.
Ophir mill has 28 stamps, now idle.
29 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ArIPiposx M)ILLs.-The Benton mills, built to work the quartz from the Pine
Tree and Josephine mines, stands in a deep cation on the Mfercer river, by the
water of which they were driven; but the dam which supplied the water was
carried off by a flood, and the mills have been standing idle.  The number of
stamps is 64.
The Bear Valley mill has 12 stamps. At this mill the Lundgren pulverizer
and the Ryerson amalgamator are now being used.
The Lundgren pulverizer is a barrel five feet in diameter and three feet in
length, made of boiler iron three-eiglhths of an inch thick, heavily riveted.
Inside, the barrel is shod with iron shoes an inch thick.  A door a foot wide
and two feet long is placed lengthwise on the side of the barrel.  There are two
of these blarraels at tihe Bear Valley mill, and the cost of the two with their gearing was $2,300; but if many were demanded they could no doubt be made for
$1,000 each. The barrels revolve horizontally, making 24 revolutions per
minute, and requiring a six-horse power engine for two of them.   A charge
is S00 pounds of quartz and 2,400 pounds of ounce musket balls made of chilled
iron.  The quartz, previous to going into the barrel, is crushed to about the size
of grains of whleat, and after being in the barrel one hour comes out an impalpable powder, as fine as the finest flour.  The powder is so fine that if it were
pounded dry in the open air much of it would float away. The thoroughness of
the pulverization is claimed to be the great advantage of this machine.
The quartz powder is transferred fiom the barrel into the Ryerson amalgamator, an upright barrel, made of strong boiler iron, with a bottom shaped like
an inverted cone, round which winds a pipe pierced with a number of little holes.
The barrel being charged and closed, superheated steam is thrown in and then
quicksilver, which is converted into vapor and made to pervade. the whole mass.
A cold bathl condenses the quicksilver, and the chlarge is. discharged into a shakingr table or settler.
Thec amount worked daily by these processes is nine tons of Josephine ore, and
the yield varies from $39 to $173 per ton, with an avertage of $45, at an expense
of $6 50 per ton.  The rock thus worlked is taken without selection from the pay
chimney, and the body of ore nowin sight, and presumed to be of the same quality,
is 280 feet hicgh, 45 feet wide longitudinally on the same vein, and 3 feet thickan amount equivalent to 940 tons.  It is presumed that the body of the quartz
of that quality is much more extensive, both horizontally and vertically, than
the present shafts have gone.
The mills of the Mariposa estate are the Benton, 64 stamps; the 3Iariposa, 28
stamps; thie Mount Oplhir, 28 stamps; the Princeton, 24 stamps, and the Bear
valley, 12 stamps-making 156 stamps in all.
The yield of the estate was $474,000 in 1860; $642,000 in 1861; 8522,000
in 1862; $385,000 (with $50,000 net per month) in the first five months of 1863;
$481,832 in 1864; and $230,000 in 1865.  During the first half of 1867 the
mines and mills all stood idle; but of late a little work has been done with the
Ryerson and Lundgren processes.
The Stockton creek mill, used by lir. Barnett for working the quartz of the
lIariposa mine while he was lessee, contains ten stamps, with square wooden
stems and wooden collars, driven by water and a wooden wheel.  There was.
self-feeder or hopper to supply the batteries with quartz, and the pulp, after lea ring the mortar, was ground in an arrastra.  The mill is a mile east of Mlariposa,
and has been idle for two years.
HUNTEPR.'s VALLEY, Oaks and 1?eese.-Thlle Oaks and Reese mine, oalled also
the Potts, is 3,000 feet long, in Hunter's valley, 16 miles northwest of tile
county seat. The claim includes two veins, 1,200 feet on one which runs northeast and southwest and dips to the southeast at an angle of 65~, and 1,600 feet
on another which runs northeast and southwest.  The former is one of a series
of parallel veins; the latter is known as the Blue Lead, and it is remarkable,
30 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
because the numerous cross leads running at right angles are found only south
of it, and appear to be cut off by it.  The Blue Lead is nearly vertical, from
12 to 30 inches wide, yields $45 to the ton, and has been opened to a depth
of 165 feet and a length of 150 feet. The other vein is six feet wide, yields
$20 to the ton, has been opened to a depth of 165 feet, and to a length of 50
feet.  The mine has been worked with a four-stamp mill, but a new twelve-stamp
mill has been erected and it began to run on the 7thl of October.   The copper
aprons below the battery are plated with silver, with  which mercury forms an
am,algam more readily than with copper, and the apron will be in the highest
state of efficiency immediately, whereas several weeks' time would be required if
the surface were of copper.  The plating is done by galvanism and cost $5 per
square foot. Baux and Guiod's pans are used for grinding. The mill is driven
by steam, and also the hoisting apparatus. The quartz is let down from the
mouth of the mine to the mill in a tramway, and the loaded cars as they go down
pull up the empty ones. The transportation does not cost more than $1 50 per
day.  The yield of the mine has been $30,000.  A patent has been applied for.
The Floyd mine on one of the southern spurs of the Blue Lead has paid well,
but now produces nothing.
The same remiark applies to the Carson mine, which has a five-stamp mill
standing idle.
EPPERSON.-The Epperson mine on Bear creekl, six miles east of Coulterville,
is on a vein which runs east and west aind dips to the north. There is a shaft
60 feet deep, and a drift 20 feet long has been run on the lode.  About 200 tons
have been worked, and the yield was from $9 to 813 per ton. There is a nine stamp mill which, with the mine, is standing idle.
BLAcK.-The Black mine is sixteen nailes eastward fiom Coulterville, on the
Blue Lead, which runs east and west and dips to the south.  The hanging wall
is mountain limestone and the foot wall yellow slate, and the vein stone contains
marble.  The average yield is about $40 per ton, or was for all the worki done.
The mine has been standing idle now for several years on account of the water,
which at times has risen nearly to the surface.  A shaft was sunk to a depth of
170 feet.  There is no mill; all the crushing was done with an anrastra.
FErnGrUSON.-The Ferguson mine, 25 miles eastward( from Coulterville, has
been worked five or six years.  The ore yields from $25 to $100 per tonl, and
is worlked in a ten-stamp mill driven by water.
LOUISIANA.-The Louisiana mine, ten miles eastward from Coulterville, is
3,600 feet long, on a vein that runs northwest and southeast, dips to the northeast, and has a width varying from 2 to 16 feet. The quartz contains sulphliurets
of iron, zinc and lead.  Tile free gold amounts to $6 or $8 per ton.  The vein
has been opened to a depth of 140 feet and a length of 130 feet by drifts from
the bottom of the main shaft; but there are a number of shafts 15 or 20 feet
deep, and gold has been found in all of them. The ore is easily extracted, but
the slate walls require much timber to support them. Along the foot wall there
is a streak of soft yellow sandstone six or eight inches thick.  The mine makes
much water, and at the first of June the pump hoisted 37,000 gallons daily.
There is a 10-stamp mill which has lain idle for several years, but has lately
commenced to run again.
FLANxNIGAN.-The Flannigan mine, 10 miles eastward from Coulterville, was
discovered in July, 1861, near the summit of a ridge, at an elevation of about
3,000 feet above the sea. A miner working a placer claim in a gulley found a
rich spot, where he picked up, among other pieces, a nugget that weighed an
ounce and a boulder as large as a man's head containing $87. lIe searched for
a quartz vein and found this one. It runs north and south, cuts across the slates,
dips to the west, and is five feet wide. There are smooth slate'walls on both
sides, and there is a putty gouge three inches thick. All the rock so fatr found
;s rich enough to pay, and the average yield is $35.  The mine has been worked
I
31 
RESOUTRCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
with an arrastra for six yeers, but there are now 500 tons of ore stacked up at
the month of thie tunnel, and preparations are being made for the erection of a
ten-stamnp mill. The quartz is taken out through a cross tunnel 175 feet long,
and from that drifts have been run 225 feet on the vein, and a shaft has been
sunk 50 feet.  A horse is found in one part of the lode.  The quartz is vlwhite,
and muchl of it slakes when exposed to the air.  The crushing has been done
heretofore by two arrastras, and the total expense per ton has been less than $5.
The cost of crushing and amalgamating in the arrastra is estimated at $3 50 per
ton, and of extraction at $1.
CowAr,.-The Coward mine, 12 miles eastward from Coulterville, was
located in 1858, and has been worked constantly since.  The first owner, a Mlr.
Funk, fell from the wheel the day the mill started, and was killed by the fall.
H. G. Coward is the present owner.  The vein runs east and west, dips to the
northl at an angle of 45~, and is four feet wide in the middle of the pay chimneys,
vlwhich become narrower gradually in each direction horizontally as they pinch
out.  These chimneys are two in number, each about 100 feet long, and they dip
to the east at an angle of 40~.  The width is very regular in going down with the
dip.  They had b.een worlked to a depth of 170 feet.  The walls are of smooth
black slate, and there is a black putty gouge.  M}ost of the gold is found near
one wall or the other, and sometimes on both, but in places where a horse is
found in the vein the gold is all confined to one side.  The average yield is, and
has been constantly, about $40 per ton. The quartz contains little pyrites, and
the tailings have never been assayed.  There is, or was in sIlay, a five-stamp
mill, which was to be abandoned, and a new ten-stamip mill was to be erected
on the north fork of the iIercede, one mile from the mine.  The dam and flume
were to cost $600, and the wagon road $1,000.  Ten or 12 men were employed.
CALICO.-Tliel Calico mine, on the same lode as the Cherokee, has been
opened by a tunnel 160 feet long, and a drift of 35 feet in pay rock estimated
to yield $20 per ton.  No mill has been erected, nor has any of the rock been
crushed..
COmPrJOMISE.-Thle Compromise mine, on a small vein near the Goodwin, was
worked for two years with a loss.
MAPIBLE  SPPING.-The  Marble  Spring mine, 16 miles eastward from
Coulterville, was discovered in 1851, and a five-stamp mill was erected there.
The first owner found it unprofitable, and he sold to a gentleman who kept it
going for seven or eight years, part of the time at a profit, and hlie sold to others
who spent $15,000 in experiments and lost money, though the rock yielded $25
per ton.  The mine is now the property of H. G. Coward and others who have
lately reopened it.  The vein is three feet thiolk, runs northwest and southeast,
and dips to the east.  The pay chimney dips to the southeast.  The lode contains pockelts in whichl the gold is very coarse, and is distributed in beautiful
threads through a compact bluish quartz, making together the finest material for
" quartz jewelry" in the State.  The main tunnel is 600 feet long.  The old mill
has been moved away. The mine is at a high elevation, near the sunnmmit of a
mountain.
CHERoKEE.-The Cherokee mine, near the Goodwin, was discovered by a
Cherokee named Rogers, in 1857, and was very rich at the surface.  Some of
the gold was coarse enough to be pounded out in a hand mortar.  The rock
worked in arrastras averaged $100 per ton. In 1859 a steam mill with eight
stamps and two arrastras was erected, and the rock yielded 835 per ton for about
a year, and then work stopped. The mill was sold at sheriff's sale and moved
away, and nothing has been done at the place since.  The deepest workings
were through a tunnel 400 feet long, and another lower tunnel was commenced, but
the mine was abandoned before it reached the lode.  As the workmen who were
employed have all left it is difficult to get any accurate information; but some
miners in the neighborhood say that the mine was worked in a careless manner;
32 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
that the proprietors squandered their money, and that although there wvas a horse
in the lowest worlkings, the completion of the lower tunnel would in all proba  bility have struckli the lode below the horse.  The vein averages two feet wide,
runs east and wvest and dips to the north.  The pay chimneys dip to the east.
SIIiMEn.-The  Shlimer mine, 10 miles east of Coulterville, was discovered
in 1858 by a miner who, while di(ging  a ditch for placer mining, found some
rich boulders of quartz, and on searching lie found the lode.  In a few days he
tookl out enlough gold to pay for several arrastras, with which the mine was
worlked for a year and a half, the rock yielding from  $150 to $500 per ton.
Runior says that the total yield in this time was $200,000, thlree-fourthls of it net
profit.  lIe then erected a steam mill, withl two stamps and two arrastras;i but
the water became troublesome, and for five years the mine has been idle, and
for two vears before the wvorlk was irregular.  The mine was opened bv a cross
tunnel, vwhlichl, after running 400 feet, struclk the lode 140 feet ifrom the surface,
and a shaft was sullnk 40 feet below the tunnel.  The failure of the mine is
attributed )by some persons in the neighborhood exclusively to bad management.
It is said that the last rock crushed yielded $60 per ton, and there was more of
it in silght.  There were five partners, most of whom were spendthrifts, and
shortly before their failure they took a trip to Sonora and spent $4,000 in one
debauch.  Those who had not squandered their money had sent it away, and
when the water came in they could not affordl to buy a pump nor to cut a (1eeper
tunnel.  It is said that there is a large deposit of good pay quartz, 40 feet deep
and 80 feet long, under the drift, on a level with the tunnel.
The vein is from S inches to 2~ feet in widthl, withl slate walls.   There are
two pay chutes, vlwhich were worked to a depth of 160 feet and for a lhorizontal
distance of 150 feet.  One account says that the last workings were in a place
where the vein split, and the miners were in the poorer branch.  It is reported
that a rich cross vein was found, but that the hired miner who found it concealed
the fact in the hope that lie would some dlay get possessionl.  Aboult  $2,000
have been spent on roads to reach the mine and mill.
GooDwIx.- Tlie Goodwin mine, 11 miles eastward from Coulterville, was
discovered in 18S56.  It was worked with arrastras for three years, and(l then
for three years imore with an eighlt-stamp mill, which last paid $50,000 profit,
some of the rocl yielding $100 per ton.   The mine and mill lay idle for four
years, aund unlder foreclosure of a minortgae passed into the lands of a creditor,
vwho attempted in vain for several years to sell for $1,500, undertook to w-orkl tlhe
mine in de spair, and almost immediately found a good supply of rock, aIveraging
$50 per ton.  lThe vein runs east and west, and dips to the southl.  The averag(re thickness is three feet, but in places the lode pinchles out.   The quartz is a
ribbon rock, and all of it pays for workiing.  It is found in chimneys, wvhicl dip
to the eastward, with an inclination of 70~ to the horizon on the upper side but
on the lower side the dip is irregular, the chutes,rowing longer, horizontally,
as they go down.   TIhree pay chimneys have been wvorked so far, and one of
them has pinchIed out inI going down.  Both walls are of slate, and there is a
)black putty goug,e a foot thick.  A cross tunnel 550 feet long strikes the vei'ai
400 fect h)elow the surface, and the lode mighi t be struckl 200 feet lower by a
tunnel 600 feet long.  The present proprietor is about to put in a pump  andhoisting works.  The mill has eight wooden-stem  stamps, and is d(irven by'
water firom the northl fork of the icercede.  The flume is half a mile long, and,
withl the dami, cost $1,000.   The mouth of the mine is two miles from the mill,
to which the ore is hauled on sleds.
BELL  &  3[cGPEw. —The Bell & 3IcGrew mine is a mile west of Coulterville, on the IMalvina lode.  Several pockets, yielding from $100 to 81,000,.
have been found, and a nill with five stamps was built on it, but it ftiled to
pay, amd is iiow idle.
3
33 
RESOURCES OF STATES. AND TERRITORIES
,cIKEx-zIE.-Thle MIcIenzie mine, adjoining, has produced some rock that
yielded $820 per ton, but the miners were driven out by water, and the owners,
finding they could do nothing without a steam pump, sold their five-stamp mill
to Bell & AIcGrew and stopped workA.  Portion of the mine has caved in.
HIDELY &  CUNNxxNGHAM.-Thie mine of Hidely &  Cunningham, on the
Mlalvina vein, two miles west of Coulterville, contains a deposit of auriferous
talcose slate 15 feet wide, without walls, and some of it prospects very well.
There is a four-stamp mill, which was running in May.
[ArY HIJrJPIsoN.-The Mary Ilanrison mine, about two miles southeastward from Coulteirille, is situated on a spur from the mother lode.   This spur
vein is from 3 to 20 feet thick, and the quartz contains talcose slate seams
whichi usually are parallel with the walls, and the seams, or sides of them, contain the most pay. The mine has been worked by an incline 240 feet deep,
and a pay chimney 200 feet long, horizontally, has been worked out to a depth
of 150 feet. There is no gouge, and the galleries are driven in the slate on the
hanging wall side.
The Diary Harrison Company have a claimn on the 31alvina vein, a mile and
a half distant, and they have worked it to a depth of 440 feet from the croppings, and have run 330 feet on the lode. Access is obtained thllroughl a cross
tunnel. There is black talcose slate on both sides of the vein, which is parallel
with the mother lode, and has been traced 4 miles.  The gold-bearing portion
of the rock is a hard ribbon quartz, near the walls; while in the middle there
is soft, shlelly, white, barren quartz.  The pay chute is 150 feet long, horizontally, and it dips 60~ to the southeast on the upper side; the lower side being
less regular.  There are two mills; one of 35 stamps, the other 15, and the
former was about to start at the end of M1ay.
Cnrowx LEAID.-Immediately north of the 3lercede river, in the line of the
MIothler lode, is the claim of the Crown Lead Company, which, 10,500 feet in all,
is on tlie Mother, Adelaide, and 3ledas veins.   The Adelaide vein has supplied
1,800 tonis, yielding 87 per ton, and this ought to have yielded a profit; but it
did not, and the worlk stopped.  The general opinion in the neighborhood is
that the mine has an immense quantity of good pay rock, but that it has not been
properly managed.   The claim extends from the river over a steep hill 2,000 feet
high,, so that by means of tunnels all the rock could be run out to that depth
vithout hoisting.
The mill on the bank of the 3tercede has 20 stamps, and was built in 1864,
at an expense of $35,000.  The dam cost $30,000, but was boiught  by the
Crown Lead Company for $12,000.  It is now in excellent condition.  The
.roads on the claimn cost $9,000.  Both mine and mill are idle.  The mill is provided withl Hepbumn & Peterson's pans.
Adjoining the claim of the Crown  Lead, or on the same ground, is a claim
taken up for a copper mine by the Tone Company, which spent $22,000 there
itd got no return.
HIFTES CovE.-Hites Cove  mine is 30 miles northeast from  lariposa, on
a vein which runs northwest and southeast, and is very irregular in thickness,
the thickest part beillng eight feet.  The quartz is a ribbon rock, with serums of
black matter, which sticks in the skin, so that the workmen in the mine get a
very sooty look.  All the quartz pays very evenly, and no specimens are found.
The average yield is about $150 per ton. The mine has been worked five years
steadily, and the present supply of quartz is obtained from a depth of 300 feet.
Connected with the mine is a 10-stamp water mill, and all the sands, after passing
over copper-plate, are rin through arrastras.
BnRDGEPOnT.-The Bridgeport mine, just outside of the line of the MIariposa
grant, has produced some good ore; but the thickness of the vein (from six
inches to foul feet) is very irregular, and so is the quality of the rock. The walls
are granite; the mill has eight stamps. Both mine and mill are idle.
34 
WEST OF THE ROCKY 5IOUNTAINS.
PENON BLANco.-Tlie Pegion Blanco mine, 6,000 feet long, two miles northward from Coulterville, takes in nearly the whole of the prominent Pegion Blanco
hill.  It is being explored by a tunnel which, entering the hill on the south side,
strikes the lode 175 feet from the mouth and 100 feet below the croppings.
Another tunnel entering the hill on the nlortlhwvest side is in 285 feet, but has not
reached the vein.  Two shafts are also being sunk 2,000 feet apart.   The south
shaft is 25 feet deep in a pay chimney, which yields rock four feet in thiclkness,
averaging $10 per ton. The horizontal length of this chimney is not aseertained,
but open cuts on the croppings 200 feet distant are in the same kind of rock, anid
probably in the samne chimney.   The north shaft has not struck the vein, but the
croppings near this shaft contain about two feet of rock that yields $12 per ton.
The first application for a patent under the act of 1S66 was made for this mine.
SECTION IV.
TUOLUMNE COUNTY.
Tuolumne county extends from the Stanislaus river on the north to the divide
between the Tuolumne and 3lercedle on the south, and from the summit of the
Sierra to the low foot hills near the plains.  Nearly all the mines and population
are in the western half of the county, below the level of 2,000 feet above the sea.
The placer mines have nearly all been quite shallow, and they are now
exhausted in many places. There never have been any large and profitable
hydraulic claims in the county, although there are some gravel ridges above Big
Oak Flat, and otlhers near Cherokee that may prove valuable for hydraulic mining.
One of the chief mining features is table mountain, whlvlich follows the Stanislaus
river from Columbia to Knight's Ferry, and covers a rich auriferous channel thai
is worlked through tunnels.
This mountain has yielded about $2,000,000, but at a cost of $3,000,000
Another remarkable feature of the county is the limestone belt, vwhichl crosses
the country, through Garrote No. 2, 1Kincaid Flat, Shaw's Flat, Springfield, and
Columbia. This limestone, instead of having a smooth solid surface, appears to
be broken into water-worn boulders, and rich auriferous gravel is found down to
a great depth in the narrow crevices between them.  In this county, too, the
mother lode is more strongly marked; more distinctly traceable for a considerable
distance, and worlked in more mines than in any other county.  Coluimbia is notable
for liavin;g produced more large nuggets than any other district in the State, and
also for the hiigh fineness of its dust. Bald mountain, near Sonora, has had an
unsurpassed cluster of rich pocket lodes, and the Soulsby district has some of
the richest granite mines of the State.  The county has further extensive and
valuable beds of plumbago and some fine white marble suitable for statuary, but
its extent is not yet proved.
ltuch work is being done in prospecting quartz veins, but the advance in lode
mining is not equivalent to the decline in placers, and the county has lost about
200 voters annually for six or eight years.
The State and county taxes together are $4 8S8 on every hundred dollars, or
nearly five per cent., and in addition to that there is in Sonora a city tax of one
per cent.
The placer mining portion of the couInty is in a district of hills, neither very
highl nor very steep, and consequently it is pretty well suited, so far as grade is
concerned, for roads and for tillage; but the soil is not strong and water is dear.
Grain does not yield large crops, ard the supply of fruit far exceeds the home
demand, but transportation is so dear that it cannot be taken away fresh with a
profit.  Large quantities are dried, and in 1866 300 tons of dried peaches
I
35 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
were shipped firom Tuolunme.  Casks and freight are so dlear that wine makingir
yields no profit, and the brandy tax prevents the conversion of the grapes into
brandy, and many of the vineyards and orchards are not cultivated, and no
new vineyards are being planted.  The general appearance of the ranches does
not indicate prosperity.*
During the first half of 1867 not less than a thousandl Chinamen left the
county, more than 300 having gone from Columbia and vicinity, and as many
more from Chinese Camp.
According to observations made by Doctor Snell in the rainy season of
S1861-'62, 121 inches of rain fell at Sonora; in that of 1864-'65, 20 inches; in
that of 1865-'66, 35 inches; and in that of 1866-'67, 50 inches.
The following mean thermnometrical observations are also taken fromn his books,
the degrees being Fahrenheit's:
6 A. M.    12 M.     6 P.M.
185o8.-October................ —-.        530        63~       5o6o
November-................ 54             61         52
December —.. —...............                     43         50         44
1859.-January................................... 46      55         48
February.................................. 38                50         44
Marc        h..................................... 61  81  68
COLUMBIA.-Columnbia, situated where the Table Mountain channel crossed
the limestone belt, and where the volcanic material had been deroded, having the
rich auriferous deposit near the surface, was for a long time the largest and the
busiest town in the southern mines.  The site was in a beautiful vale, and the
towin wvas built up in very neat style, but the placers of the vicinity are approaching exhaustion, business has declined, and many of the lots have been mined 
out, leaving the large limestone boulders lying nakled, barren and cheerless.  As
the population has declined, houses have lost their value, and dwellings can be
purchased for one-tenth their cost.  In many cases miners have purchased houses,
even brick stores, for thie purpose of tearing them down and washing away the dirt
of the lots; and this system is still in progress, continually reducing the number of
houses, and the area of soil and level ground suitable for occupation. AIost of
the rich placer claims are in a basin, which has never been drained, and conlsequently there is a large mass of auriferous dirt that may be worlked in the future
if drailnage is supplied.  The Stanislaus river is two miles off, and by starting
from a ravine that puts into the river a tulnnel could be run 400 feet under the
town  with the length of a mile and a half.  The expense, however, would be
very great, and the profit uncertain, so nobody speaks seriously of the project.
At the deeper claims in Columbia, the dirt is hoisted from the bottom to a dump
box placed so high that there is fall enough from it to carry away the refise dirt
NOTF,.-Referring to the advantages to be derived from the construction of the proposed
Stockton and Copperopolis railroad, and the impetus that would be given to the industry of
the interior counties by this enterprise, Mr. William S. Watson, the intelligent engineer,
says:
" The proposed road will not touch Tuolumne county, but for all practical purposes will
command its trade and travel, Copperopolis being 15 miles from Sonora, and from Knight's
Ferry it is about two miles to the west line of the county. The sectional area of Tuolumne
is 1,4,30 square miles. The character of the country is of course mountainous, forming spurs
of the main ridges of the Sierra Nevada, descending into the valley to the west. The population in 1860 was 16,229; assessed valuation in 1865, $1,536,258. The present freights are
principally up, amounting to 6,000 tons per year, chiefly supplies; estimated freights to Big
Oak Flat, Chinese Camp, Don Pedro's Bar, and the Garrotes, 9o0; total up freights through
Tuolumne county, 6,950 tons; and of down freights, consisting of building materials, lurnher, and ores, not less than 1,320; total, 8,270 tons."
06
a 
WEST OF TIHE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
throuigh sluices.  The water is thrown upon the cdirt in these dump boxes through
hydraulic pipes, a style of wasling used in very few places in the State.
From  1853 to 1857 Columbia shipped $100,000 weekly; now the shipment
is from $40,000 to $50,000 per month, and there is a steady decrease.
The following are the principal claims in the Columbia basin:
The Columbia Boys' claim, 500 by 100 feet, has been wvorled re,gularly since
1850.  Previous to 1853 it paid $20 per day; from 1853 to 1857 $7 50 per day,
and since 1857 $3 per day.  The dirt is hoisted by a wooden wheel.  Five men
are employed in the claim now.
The Tiger claim, 400 by 130 feet, was opened in 1S49, but did not pay much
for the first six years.  Between 1855 and 1858, however, it was very profitable,
and fiom 1S63 to 1S65 it paid still better than before.  In 1863 the yield was
from $100 to $600 per week to the man.  It has not been paying expenses for
the last two years.  An iron whleel is used for hoisting.  In the bottom of this
claim is a hole leading into a subterranean channel whichl has its outlet below
Jamestown, eilght miles distant.  On one occasion 2,500 inches of water ran
down the hole for weeks; and the same water escaped at the outlet, where the
stream was governed as to its size and color by the supply at Columbia. A
similar hole is found in a claim at Knapp's ranch.  Men  have climbed down 150
feet, and gone 100 feet further with ropes to the bottom, where there is a stream
4 feet wide and 12 feet deep, with a slow current and clear water, no matter
lhowv muddy the streams may be on the surface.  It is supposed that the outlet
is at Springfield or Gold Spring,s.
The Cascade claim, 300 by 150 feet, has paid wvell for short periods, but has
not yielded more on an average than $2 50 per dclay to the man. Five men are
employed, and a hydraulic wheel is used for hoisting.
The leInroe claim, 300 by 100 feet, paid well in early days, but does not
yield more than $2 50 per day nowv to the man.  Three men  are employed in
the claim.  The hoisting is done )by a whlim.
The Burns claim, 400 by 200 feet, paid $10 per day to the hand from 1853
to 1S57, and averaged $100 per month to the hand since 1857.  F,ive men are
employed, and an overshot wheel is used for hoisting.
The Aain claim, 300 by 200 feet, has paid highl at times, but does not yield
more than $2 per day to the six men employed.   The hoisting is done by an
iron hydraulic wheel.
The MAillington claim, 300 by 100 feet, washes in a ground sluice, anld hlas
paid $20 per week over expenses.  Four men are employed.
IxAPP's RPANxci.-A(joining Columbia on the east is Knapp's ranch, of whlich
about five acres have been washed, yielding $40,000 per acre or $200,000 ini aill.
The bed rock here is limestone, but the boulders are large, and thie miniers
can wash between them much more conveniently than among the smaller boulders
of Columbia.
The following claims are on Knapp's ranch:
The Sullivan claim, 200 by 100 feet, is fifty feet deep, and is worlkedl by a
hydraulic stream thrown against the bank.  Two men work the claim, and they
make together about $5 per day.
The Peabody and Arnold claim, 200 by 100 feet, is also worked by a liydraulie stream against the bank, which is 50 feet hicgh.  No  men are enaged in
it, and they have at times got very good pay.
The German claim, 200 by 100 feet, hlas paid tolerably well.
The Grant claim, 200 by 100 feet, commenced workling only a short time since.
The Hunt claim, 500 by 500 feet, is remarkably rich.  It paid $25,000 in one
summer. It employs six men, hoists by hydraulic wheel, and washes in a dump
box.
The Dutch Bill claim, 200 by 100 feet, was opened in 1S60, and has at times
I
37 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
paid $1,000 per month.  It yields $3 per day each now to two men.  The dirt
is washed on the ground.
SAWMILL FLAT.-Thie following claims are at Sawmill Flat:
The Foley claim, 200 feet square, was opened in 1850, and has never paid
more than moderate wages.  Four men are employed, and there is a hydraulic
wheel for hoisting.
The Dryden claim, 400 by 100 feet, washes in a ground sluice and pays well.
It has lately yielded $2,500 to the man in a season.  Five men are employed
SHAW's FLAT.-Shaw's Flat and Springfield are on the limestone belt, bu
the deposit of gravel was shallow, and it has nearly all been washed away.  At
Springfield there are two large springs from which the town took its name; and
to these miners brought the dirt in carts in 1850 and 1851, and washed out from
$10 to $20 per day. As many as 150 carts were running at one time. There
were single cart-loads that paid as much as $1,000.  The ground was covered
with a heavy growth of large pinie timber, which has now all disappeared, and
little remains save the rugged limestone.   Springfield at one time had 600 voters,
and now it has not one-tenth of that number.
At Sawmill Flat, near Columbia, the dirt is hoisted by wheel into a dump box
and there washed.  The diggings here will last for a long time.
At Brown's Flat they washl in the same manner.
At Yankee Hill there are some rich hydraulic claims.
SoNoPrA.-Sonora is situated on the slate, just below the limestone, and was
wonderfully rich in early days, but is now nearly exhausted.  The gold shipped
nearly all camne from placers previous to 1858; now it is about equally divided
between quartz and placers.  The amount shipped in Mlay, 1865, was $80,000;
in June, SS4,000; in July, $95,000; in August, $102,000; in September, $91,000.
BIG OAR FLAT.-Big Oak Flat is on a granite bed( rock, and the gravel on
it was from 2 to 20 feet deep.  Ditch water was not l)rought in until 1859, and
in the nlext year it saw its best days.  It is now pretty well workled out.
KINCAID FLAT.-Kincaid Flat, four miles east-southeast of Sonora, 150 feet
above the level of Sullivan's creek, on the limestone belt, was formerly a basin
of 200 acres; but it has been worked continuously since 1850. The deepest
workings are 75 feet below the original surface, but the bottom has not yet been
reached on account of the abundance of water and lack of drainage. The richest
pay has been found near the water-level. One claim 50 feet square paid $100,000,
and it is estimated that the total yield of the flat has not been less than $2,000,000.
There is a considerable area of rich ground that cannot be washed until some
artificial drainage is supplied, and it has been estimated that by making an open
cut 500 feet long and a tunnel 1,000 feet, at a total cost of $12,000, 75 acres
mi,ght he worked.  In addition to the cutting of the tunnel, the flume would be
expensive, and a company has been formed with a capital stock of $30,000 to
undertake the work.
JAMESTOWX.-Jamestown, on the bank of WVood's creek, was built up by
rich and shallow placers in its neighborhood; but these are now nearly exhausted,
and the town has become a little village.  It is, however, situated near the
northern lode, and it will, probably, with the development of quartz mining,
recover its prosperity.
OTHEP r T'owNs.-Algerine, a mile and a half north of the Tuolumne river,
and wvest of the main limestone belt, once had S00 voters, but is now reduced to
a few score, the placers on which it depended being nearly exhausted.
Cherokee and Somerville, about eight miles east of Sonora, are on the granite
and they depend mainly on quartz mines for their support.
Chinese Camp andl Montezuma are placer mining towns near the western border
of the county.
TABLE MOUNTAIX.-One of the most remarkable features of Tuolumne
county is Table mountain, which attracts attention from remote distances by its
38 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
black, bare, level surface, extending across the landscape like a gigantic wall.
Examined closely, it appears to be a mountain capped with basalt, a quarter of
a mile wide and 40 miles long.  It poured out of a volcano near Silver mountain, in Alpine county, and took the same general course as the present Stanislaus river, which has cut across it in various places.  There is a forlk in the
basaltic stream, 14 miles above Columbia.  The average height above the
adjacent ground in Tuolumne county is from 500 to 800 feet on the northern side
and from 200 to 500 on the southern.  The adjacent earth has been washed away
to a greater depth near the line of the mountain along its northern base, and for
that reason nearly all the tunnels run in on the northern side.
The main strata of the mountain, commencing at the top, are: basalt, which
is in most places 140 feet deep; under that is a stratum of volcanic sand 100
feet; then pipe clay and sand, 50 feet; then coarse gravel, 20 feet; then pay
gravel, 5 feet; then bed rock.  These strata vary greatly in thicknless, however,
in different places; there are spots where the pipe clay is 100 feet deep; but the
above figures are given as an average.
The pay gravel is found in two places; there are really two channels, and
w-letlier they were the beds of two different streams or two beds of the same
stream, occupied at different times, is not clearly determined, although the latter
supposition is the more probable. The channels are not found under the middle of the mountain at every point; there are places wlhere one of the channels
is not covered by the basalt at all, and the other is only under the edge of it.*
In a claimn near Whimtown a tree standing erect 100 feet high was found in
the pipe clay, and it looked as if it had never been moved from the position in
which it grew; but it was all charred, though the basalt was a hundred yards
distant.
Table mountain has been an unfortunate locality for miners.  It is estimated
that at least $1,000,000 more have been put into the mountain, counting the
regular wag es, than were ever taken out.  Nine-tenths of the miners who undertook to work claims there were the losers.  There was enough gold to pay well,
but the milners did not know how to get it.  They worked in comnpanies, and
many of the members were shirks and idlers.  They had no experience in this
kind of mining, and did not know how to manage so as to do the most execution
withl the least labor.  They guessed at the level of the channel, and started their
tunnels too high, so that they could not drain their ground, and either had great
expenses for pumlping or had to cut new tunnels.  The old channel, when  first
discoverel, was extremely rich, and it was presumed that the possession of a
claim anywhere on the mountain was equivalent to a fortune; so no economy
was used.  Two companies side by side might have united to cut one tunnel,
but, instead of that, each made its run.  But the outsiders who  did not get
claims when the mountain was first taken up, in claims 300 feet in length, running across the channel, held a meeting and resolved that those clainms were too
I Mr. J. Arthur Phillips says, in his recent work on the mining and metallurgy of gold
and silver: "The summit of this elevation is occupied by a thick bed of basalt, of a very
dark color and great density of texture, which is occasionally distinctly columnar, and appears to have been poured out in one continuous flow. This, in the neighborhood of Sonora,
is from 140 to 150 feet in thickness, and its width near the entrance of the Buckeye tunnel
is about 1,700 feet.  Beneath this capping of basaltic lava is a heavy deposit of detrital matter distinctly stratified in almost horizontal beds, but with a slight inclination from either side
side towards the centre of the mass.  These sedimentary beds chiefly consist of a rather finegrained sandstone, which rapidly disintegrates on exposure to the atmosphere. Interstratified
with this sandstone, and more particularly in the proximate vicinity of the bed-rock, are clays
and fine argillaceous shales, frequently nearly white and often beautifully laminated. With
these are associated beds made up of coarse grain, strongly cohering together, forming the
cement of the mines; and at the bottom is found the pay gravel, exactly like that seen in the
bed of an ordinary river. The entire thickness of this detrital mass at its greatest depth is at
least two hundred feet. This thickness, however, diminishes towards the extremities of the
deposit, where the edges of the basin formed by the rim-rock gradually rise." (Pp. 43, 44.)
39
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
large, aind no man should hold more than 100 feet square.  These jumpers, as
they were called, far outnumnbered the original locators, and they took up a large
part of tlihe mountain, held their own for a long time, and spent large sums in
prospecting, but were at last defeated in court and ejected.  Not one of them
made aiythling by the jumping( operation, and it is lnow conceded that the 300
feet, instead of being too much, was too little, since most who held even those
large claims lost money by tlhem.
The old channel was discovered at Spyingfield in 1852, in the Fox claim, in
a shaft eight feet deep, on a flat from which the basalt had been wvashed away.
The next year the Berry shaft, 55 feet deep, struck the channel; but it was not
till the first of 3,lay, 1854, that the first tunnel was started, and the theory of
lead running under the basalt was generally considered absurd until October,
1855, wlhen the first tunnel reached the channel under the basalt.
T_he tunnels, to reach the channel, average about 1,000 feet in length, and the
present cost of cutting tunnels at Table mountain is $16 per lineal foot.  The
common size of the tunnel is six feet highl and four feet wvide.  Th.e grade is one
foot in a hundred.  At the bottom of the tunnel is laid a tramway, 28 inches
iwide.  Sleepers, three by four inches, rest on ties of the same size four feet apart,
and are covered with iron straps an inch and a half wide and a quarter of an inch
thick.
The following, is a list of the claims in Table mountain, with a brief statement
of their success and present condition, commencing near Columbia and running
down stream:
The Buchanan claim, 300 feet long, has a tunnel which never paid expenses
nor reached the gravel; it is not working now.
The Springfield claim, 2,000 feet long, has a tunnel 1,500 feet long, and paid
well.  The claim is worlding nowv.  Three channels were found in this claim,
and all were rich.
The Joint Stock claim, 2,400 feet long, has one tunnel of 1,000 feet and
another of 1,200, that was commenced in 1855; and the claim is not abandoned,
although $150,000 have been spent on it and only $50,000 taken out.  Good
gravel has lately been found, and the claim is considered valuable.
The Saratoga claim, 1,200 feet long, has a tunnel 1,200 feet long.  The yield
was $300,000, but rumor says the expenditures were still greater.  The first
ownvers sold out at a high price, making a profit by speculation, but causing so
much more loss to the purchasers. The claim is not workling now.
Here comes a gap in the mountain, and below are the following claims:
The Crystal Spring claim, 800 feet long,, reached the channel and produced
much  oldh, but the sum was not ascertainable; it is standing idle now.
The KInow-Notling, a jumper claim, never reached the channel.
The Gold Hunter, a jumper claim, never reached the channel.
The Virginia claim, 1,700 feet long, reached the channel with a tunnel 800
feet long, but took out only 85,000 and spent $100,000. The company had
very long and costly litigation with jumpers on both sides.
The Blank jumper company started a tunnel on the Virginia ground, but
never reached the channel.
The Independence jumper company reached the channel by a tunnel 500 feet
long, but found no gravel, and lost $75,000 by their enterprise.
The Alary Ann, another jumper company, ran a tunnel in a considerable distance, but found nothing.
The Cape Cod, also a jumper, had similar bad lulck.
The American claim, 1,600 feet long, has a tunnel 900 feet long, and cut
across the channel w-ith a drift five feet wide. No pay gravel was found here,
and the company were so poor and so much discouraged that, instead of examining the channel further, at a slight expense, as they could have done, they
4.0 
WEST OF THIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
stopped work, and nothing has been done now for three years.  Their loss was
$30,000.
The Buckeye claim, 1,000 feet long, now includes several old claims, and has
three tunnels, only one of which, 2,000 feet long, is now usd.  One of the
abandonled tunnels was 1,650 feet long.  Worlk was commenced ill 1854, and
has been kept up, with the exception of one year, ever since, at an expense of
$100,000, whlile the total yield has been only $10,000.  An artesian auger was
used in prospecting this claim, and Mr. Gould, who tried the experiment, thinks
it should be used frequently.  His drill was four and a half inches wide, and lihe
bored four or five feet in basalt and eighlt or ten feet inll slate in 12 hours.
The cost in slate is $6 or $8 per foot.  A water blast is used for ventilation.
The Boston claim, 3,000 feet long, commenced work in 1855, and has worked
steadily ever since.  The total yield has been not less than $500,000, and the
total net profit nothing.  much'of the workl was done at first by a joint stock
company, the shareholders in which claimed the right of being employed, though
some of them were of little value as laborers. The manager did not know howav
to work to advantage, and did not pursue any steady plan.  They worked first
in one place and then in another, without exhausting either, and then the timnber
rolled and the roof fell in.  There are now two owners in the claim, and they
are doing better than anyv of their predecessors, though the gravel is not so rich
as it was some years ago.  There is still a large amount of ground untouched.
Ten men are employed, and there is pay dirt enoulgh in sight to keep them busy
for half a year. The average yield per day is $8 to the man, or $1 per ton.
The dirt is soaked over night in a dumnp-box before.
The Maine Boys' claim is 1,200 feet long on the north side of the mountain,
but the lines converge so that they are only 550 feet apart on the south side.
The expenses have been $120,000, and the yield very little.  The original shareholders, having starved themselves out, sold conditionally to a San Francisco
company.
The Scraperville claim, 1,200 feet, has paid.  It is said that the owners of
one-fourthl of the stock saved $5,000 in a few years.
The Oliver claim, 4,000 feet long, has yielded $200,000, and report says
$8,000 have been taken from a single duinp-box, which holds 150 tons.  The
profits were moderate till the end of 1866, and are now large.  This company
has been engaged in litigation for six years, has spent $30,000 on the suit, and
has been before the Supreme Court, in one form or another, with it four times.
The company is working the side channel.
The New York Company claims 2,400 feet, and their ground is considered the
richest in the county.  They are workling on the side channel, which is there
about 60 feet wide, and each longitudinal foot on it pays $1,000.  They say
they have taken out $250,000; others say $300,000.
The Chinese claim, so called because the shareholders came from a Chinese
camp near by, is 2,000 feet long, and never paid anything. The tunnel was
run in 300 feet.
The App claim, 2,000 feet long, has a tunnel 1,500 feet long, cut at a cost of
$50,000. It never paid anything.
The Know Nothing claimn 1,500 feet, has yielded nothing and swallowed up
$7,000.
The Chicken Company claimed 2,500 feet, spent $20,000, cut two tunnels, and
got nothling.
The Mlontezuma Company claimed 3,000 feet and sunk $20,000 in a tunnel
2,000 feet long.
The Rough and Ready Company claims 5,400 feet, and have taken out not
less than $200,000. One of the shareholders observing some gravel on the
mountain side, filled his pan with it, and on washing it found a good prospect.
They set to work here and found it rich.  It was a bar of the old river, 75 feet
41 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
above the level of the channel.  The claim has been worked regularly since
1854, and still pays a little.
The Union claim,          feet, unopened.
The Palisade claim, 5,400 feet, is unopened.
HIere we come to a place where the channel is lower than the country on eacl
side of the mountain, so it is impossible to get any drainage or to do any work.
The old Stanislaus Company has a claim 12,000 feet long on Table mountain,
just above the point where the Stanislaus river cuts off.  The channel where it
opens on the bluff is 350 feet above the level of the present river, so there is
abundant drainage down the channel, though the country on both sides of the
mountain is higher than the old channel.  The old Stanislaus Company spent a
good deal of money trying to get in from the side before they discovered the
outlet on the bluff. Some of the gravel paid $18 per ton. A mill was erected
in 1859 to crush the cement, but it did not pay.
At Two M[ile Bar (two miles east of Knight's ferry) the channel is 80 feet below
the level of the present Stanislaus river.
QIU-rPTZ MINIXG IN TUOLUMNE.-Tuolumne county is very favorably situated
for quartz mininig, and so far as external indications and facilities may serve as
guides, the presumptions are that it will be second to no other county in California in production of quartz gold.  Wood and water are abundant; the roads
generally are good, and the quartz veins large, numerous and easily traced. The
mother lode and the companion talcose vein here have their largest and most
regular development. The Golden Rule, the Reist, the Mooney, and the iHeslep
~re all in the companion talcose vein, and have paid for a longer time than any
other of their class in the State. The quartz veins in the granite about Soulsbyville are the most productive of their class in the State, and the cluster of pocket
mines on Bald mountain is unsurpassed in the multitude and richness of pockets
within a small area.
GOLDEN PULE.-The Golden Rule, 1,600 feet long, is on the mother lode, about
three miles eastward from Jamestown.   The claim includes both veins, the main
mother lode, and the talcose slate branch or companion vein.  At the surface
they are 75 feet apart, and 87 feet below they are 40 feet apart. The main
lode is 12 feet thick, exclusive of a horse, and the slate vein is eight feet.  The
latter is the one which is being worked.  The vein is a black slate, bearing
much resemblance to ordinary roofing slate, and is penetrated in every direction
by seams of quartz, seldom more than two inches in thickness. The gold is
found in the slate, seldom in the quartz.  All the vein-stone is worked, though
that near the foot wall is the richest. The rock is soft, and is easilv extracted
and crushed.  The pulp from the battery is black like the slate.  Tle walls are
a hard magnesian rock.  There is a slight dip to the east.  The mill has 15
stamps, and is driven by water.  The weight of the stamps is 750 pounds, their
speed 50 blows per minute, and their drop from five to eight inches.  There is
sufficient power to drive 15 stamps more. The water is obtained from the Columbia Ditch Company.   About 85 per cent. of the gold is caught in the mortar,
and nearly five per cent. on the copper plates immediately below. Tile pulp
runs over a shaking tal)le, which has 120 jerks per minute, and is cleaned out twice
in 24 hours, yielding about 400 pounds of sulphurets each time.  The pulp also
passes over blankets, which are washed once in an hour.  There are 10 pounds of
pure sulphurets to a ton, but the concentrated tailings as saved are about  40
pounds to a ton of ore, and there are $40 per ton in these tailings, which are
worked in an arrastra, which p ays six ounces a month. A Stetson amalgamator
below the blankets pays only $1 per month.
The slate vein was brown and decomposed at the sirfae, and waas washed in
sluices by placer miners to a depth of 30 feet. In 1866 the present mill was
finished, and in the year preceding the 1st of July, 1867, the number of tons
crushed was 4,099; the average yield per ton, $8 94; the total yield( $36,653;
42 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
cost of l'bor, $16,500; cost of repairs, timber, lumber, charcoal, hauling, taxes,
&c., $5,800; cost of supplies sent from San Francisco, $2,400; office expenses
inl San Francisco, including salaries of president and secretary, freight in bullion,
travelling expenses, &c., $1,500; dividends, $7,500, and cash on hand, $2,953.
The total expenses were $6 39, and the net profit $2 55 per pen.  The average
tnumber of days that the mill ran in a month was 23; the highest being 27,
and the lowest 17.  The average yield per ton was $5 71 in M1arch, $6 79 in
January, $6 97 in June, $7 72 in November, $15 54 in October, and $10 or $11
and oddl cents in the other months. The number of men employed was 16, of
whom S   were miners, 2 carmen, 4 millmen, a blacksmith and a superintendent.
The rocik is extracted through a tunnel 400 feet long, 80 feet below the summit of the hill, and 500 feet above the level of Sullivan's creek, below which the
mine cannot be drained by a tunnel.
App. -Tihe App mine is 1,000 feet long on the mother lode, near Jamestown.
The vein there is nine feet wide on an average.  The vein-stone is quartz, in
places white, in others greenish, and others dark.  The richest spots are near
the walls.  Thie vein dips about two feet and a half in ten.  The haugilg wall
is imagnesian rock, and the foot wall slate.  At the surface there were three pay
chimneys, 75, 100 and 125 feet in horizontal length respectively, separated by
intervals of 60 and 35 feet, with a dip to the northwestward of 70~ on the upper
side, but widening out on the under side, and at 150 feet the three had united
in one chimney 235 feet long horizontally.  Horizontal sections of the chimneys
would represent not rectangles but quadrangular parallellograms, with two very
acute anglles. The chimneys have not run out in any place, but in several
places the walls have pinched close together, so that there were only seven
inches of quartz.  In these spots the chimneys were of the same richness to
the ton as elsewhere.  The distribution of gold in each chimney is very even
in relation to the depth; but on any given level the most gold is found at the
sharp ends, and the least in the middle of the chimney.  Each chimney, however, has its peculiar quartz.  One chimney has white quartz, another greenish,
another bluish, and the last is the richest. The gold is fine, and seldom visible
inl the quartz.  The present supply of rock is obtained at a depth of 300 feet,
and the shaft is nlow being sunk deeper.  The worling level is 300 feet long,
and the supply of pay quartz in sight will last two years for the present mill,
which has tenll stamps, and is driven by water. In 1866, 1,800 tons were worked,
and the average yield was $14 55 per ton; from 1863 to 1866, inclusive, four
years, 7,200 tons were worked, and the average yield was $15.  Tile pulp as it
comes from the battery is ground in charges of 400 or 5Q0O pounds for three or
four hours in various pans, without quicksilver, and two pan charges are amalgamated in a separator for the same length of time.  The yield in the pan is about
$6 per ton.  The total expense per ton in this mine is about $8 per ton, and in
the mine alone $4 50.'The wall is in places as smooth as glass, and the gouge
is thickest at the pav chliimnevs.
SILVEPR.-The Silver or Anthrax mine, 1,500 feet on the mother lode, is being
opened iin good( style.  There is a 10-stamp mill, which was idle in M1ay and
waitingl for the complete opening of the mine.  The companion talcose vein
strikes the main lode 400 feet from the south end of the claim, runs with it, but
as a distinct vein for some distance towards the north, then diverges again, and
at the i-iortliern end of the claim the two are six feet apart.  The companion
vein, so far as examined, is barren here.
HESLEIP.-The Hleslep  -inine, 1,650 feet on the companion talcose vein, has
been worked 1,200 feet on the surface, and has paid all the way. The pay
matter is decomposed quartz and slate, of a tan color, and soft enough to be
picked osit, and in some places to be shovelled without picking. The cost of
workiung is estiniated at $2 50 per ton.  The vein varies in width from 8 to 20
feet.  The deepest workings are 90 feet down.  The mill has ten stamps, which
I
43 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
are driven by an overshot wheel 30 feet in diameter and four feet wicle.  The
power is furnished by 80 inches of water, which costs $50 per week, and is used
over again by the Golden Rule mill, which pays half the water bill.  The yield
of the lfeslep rock is $8 per ton.
TRIo.-The Trio mine, 2,316 feet long on the mother lode, on Whisky Hill,
is doing nothing now.  A ten-stamp mill was erected, and four shafts and two
tunnels were begun, but the rock taken out paid only $4 75 per tonl, and the
mine and mill are nowv standing idle.
REIST.-The Reist mine, 1,000 feet in the talcose companion vein, is consid ered generally to be one of the best mines in Tuolumne county, though it has
been worked on a very small scale and has never paid much profit.  The pay
rock is'decomposed matter like that in the MIooney mine, but it pays better.
31ooxNEY.-The Mlooney mine, 600 feet on the mother lode, near Jamestown,
is on the talcose vein, 40 feet east of the main lode.  The material is a tan-colored ochlirous earth, mixed with slate and quartz.  It pays $4 75 per ton, and a
stamp will crush about three tons per day.  Aluch of it has been sluiced away.
There are occasional rich pockets in it.  A four-stamnp mill is now at work, and
the rock for it is obtained from an open cut 200 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 60
feet deep. There are no walls, apparently. At the bottom of this cut sonime
hard quartz has been found.
RAWt HIDE.-Raw Hide mine, 1,650 feet long on the mother lode, where it
is 12 feet wide. A depth of 280 feet from the surface has been reached, and a
level has been run 80 feet on the vein. The quartz is colored green with carbonate of copper, and it yields from $7 to 844 per ton.  The mill, containing 20
stamps, a 40-horse power engine, and fine hoisting workls, is considered one of
the best in the southern mines. The rock is crushed to the size of a pigeon's
eg, or smaller in a Brodie's crusher before going to the stamps.  There are 10
Wheeler'Js pans, and five 8-foot settlers. Thirty tons of quartz are crushed in 24
hours.  The shaft is kept clear of water by hoisting it in tubs holding- 160
gallons each.  The hanging wall is slate, and the foot wall serpentine, with
asbestos in it.
EAGLE.-The Eagle mine, on the mother lode, 1,000 feet long, has a 10stamp mill, and the yield is $18 per ton. The present supply of quartz is
obtained 120 feet below the surface, through a tmunnel. The mine was purchased
several years ago by eastern capitalists for $300,000.
SHArnOMUT. —The Sharomut, on the mother lode, has a 10-stamp mill, which
is idle.
CLIO.-The Clio, 2,000 feet, on the mother lode, has a 10-stamp mill and has
been at work five or six years, but is now idle because the dam which supplied
water to drive the mill was carried away by the flood of last winter.
3EAI)ER ANI) CAxttIINGTOx.-The 3eader and Carrington mine, 1,500 feet,
on the mother lode, has been opened to a depth of 140 f eet, wh ere the water
became troublesome and work was stopped.  Some good pay quartz was found.
There is a four-stamp mill which was used for a time for custom work, but is now
idle.
PATTERSON.-The Patterson mine, 1,950 feet, on a branch of the mother
lode, near Tuttletown, has been workled for ten years. The vein is from 3 to 15
feet wide.  The pay was very good for 75 feet from the surface, but not so good
below the water level. The deepest workings are 100 feet down. The quartz
is extracted through a tunnel. The rock contains large cubes of sulphluret of
iron, some of them an inch and a half square, with free gold in the heart of the
cubes.  There is an old l 0-stamp mill, driven by 40 inches of water on an overshot wheel. Only five of the stamps are now running.
About half a mile westward from the mother lode, near the Patterson mine, a
pocket containing $10,000 was found in 1866 by an old man who had a conviction that there was a pocket in the neighborhood, and had spent seven years
44 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MIOUNTAINS.
hunting for it.'When he found it he paid thle friends upon -whom hle had been
living, and went to the eastern States.
TOLEDO.-The Toledo mine, one mile west of Tuttletown, and half a mile
west of the mother lode, has been opened by a shaft 160 feet deep, and drifts
runninl, 300 feet on the vein.  There are two veins, one 2 feet thick and the
other 15 feet, and( the two 150 feet apart.  Some of the quartz has assayed $,300
per ton, but there is much arsenic in it.  A  15-staiap mill erected on the minel'
did not ipay, and it was sold and moved to tl)e Golden Rule mine.
The l\orse quartz, near Tuttletown, is  running and has six stamps.
SOUL,SBY:.-The SouLlsby mine, 2,400 feet long, eight miles east of Sonora, is
on a lode whichl runs with the meridian, and dips to the east at an angtle of 60~
at the north end, and 90~ at the southl.  The thickness is from 4 to 9 inchles at
the surface; S inches at 100 feet, and 1S inches in the deepest workings, 400
feet below the surface.  The walls are syenite, and there is a white gouge of
clay or slate, seldom more than three-quiarters of an inch in thicklness. The quartz
is bluislh, and is heavily charged with blue sulphlurets, lead, antimony, arsenic,
and zinc j so that the ore bears little resemblance to the auriferous quartz found
on the mother lode, and in other gold veins generally.   The lode has been
w          o          rk ed along a                                  horizontal length of 1,S00  feet, and i n that distance five pay
c       himen                              eys have been found, the longest horizontally being 200, and the shortest
15                                 feet. 3lost of them dip north  at an angle of 60~; an d  the v run to a feather edg,e in every direction. In some cases there is a          connection of pay between the
c    h    u     t    es, and in others there is none.  There is very little  barren quartz; between
the pay chimneys the                                                 wawlls  come together, except in a  fe w spots where white
q     u     a     r      t     z     or a horse porphyritic rock appears. The v ein is  marked by slides and
cross-courses,                                                      which run east,  northeast, and southwest, a nd all, save one, dip to
the northwest.  These throw the vein to the              left, and  the one which dips to the
southe a s t    throws it to the               right. The cross-courses, a nd the    breaks which they
h        a        ve occasioned           in the  lode,             have been among the lchief  diff iculties in workiing
the  mine: and its present success is probably oiowing c             hiefly to the careful study
g      i      v       e      n h)y r L.   Inch to the  nature  of the formation.  In a  mine of this kind the
most important quality in a                      superintendent is the capacity to find the pay chulltes,
and as the cross-courses throw them                  from five to te n  feet out   of thle line, in a
v        ery hLard granitic rock,                                   the searchl is slow and expensive. There are dikes of
trap CUcutting through the country, and the             miners       regard the m as good ilndications, and expect to find pay near where they cross the qvuartz.  3Ir. Inch
remarked that perhaps they wtere supporters or feeders of the electro-lmagnetic
or other influences under which the gold was deposited.  The mill has 20
stamps, and is driven by water  while water can be obtained and has a steami
engine to ftirnish power in the dry season.  The stamps weigh 500 pounds, make
60 blows per minute, and drop firom S to 12 inrelies.  About. 90 per cent. of
the gold is caught in the mortar, and 95 per cent. of the remainder on the first
copper plate below the screen.  Tlle blanket tailings are worked in a chlill mill
and a Ball's amalgamator; and below these there are other blankets, the tailin,gs of whichl must go throug,h the same process.
About 50 men are employed at the mine and mill, but nearly all the work
is done by contract.  Sealed proposals are invited at the beginning of each month
to silnk a certain shaft a certain number of feet, or to run a drift, or to breakl down
the quartz in a certain slope.  With strangers, written contracts are made; wvithl
old hands, oral contracts are considered sufficient.  There is never any trouble
about the contracts.  The miners sometimes make bad bargains, but they must
keep them or leave the place.  The best hands like this system, because it enables them to make more than they could make otherwise.  Sometimes they make
$150 a month; sometimes not more than $30. Under this system there is no
shirking on the part of the men, and no favoritism on the part of the superintendent.  3Ir. Inch says that, if he had undertaken to pay his men by the day,
45 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the mine would have been a failure; that is, when he commenced his work; but
now it is probably in a condition to leave a profit, even if the expenses were 50
per cent. greater than they are.*
The Soulsby mine was discovered in 1858, and between May of that year and
3farchl of the next, yielded $80,383 gross, and after the erection of a twventystamp mill, $54,416 remained net.  It is said that the total yield was  $500,000
in the first three years, and that the present monthly yield is from $10,000 to
$12,000.
PLATT.-The Platt mine, 1,200 feet, lies 1,500 feet south of the Soulsby, and
is supposed to be on the same lode; but the ground is intersected by more slides
and cross-courses, and the mine, after producing $50,000, was abandoned in consequence of the inability of the superintendent to find the vein at the breaks.
Lately, Mr. Inch, superintendent of the Soulsby, has gone to work, hoping, with
his experience in the latter, to find the pay in the Platt. Five pay chimneys
have been worked.  There was a mill on the claim, but it was moved to the State
of Nevada during the silver excitement.
STArn.  KIJXG.-The Starr King, 15 miles east-southeast of Sonora, is on a
northl-and-south vein, which dips 40~ east, and has a thickness of six inches
at the surface, and 18 inches 120 feet down.  It cuts across the dip andl the
cleavage of the slate, and the walls are a very hard slate.  The  walls and
the quartz resemble those of the Rocky Bar mine, in Nevada county.  There
are two chutes, which run down almost vertically.   The rock yields from $15 to
$150 per ton.  The mill has five stamps, and the mode of amalgamation is the
same as at the Soulsby mill.
OLD GILSOx.-The Old Gilson mine, 1,200 feet long, adjoining the Platt on
the south, was opened to a depth of 125. feet, and to a length on the vein of 250
feet. The rock yields $50, and there was a pay chimney 80 feet long horizontallv, but it dipped northwards into the Platt.  The mine is now standing idle,
and the 10-stamnp steam mill is running on custom-work.
'GnrIzzLY.-The Grizzly mine, 1,800 feet long, 10 miles eastward from Sonora,
near the north forkl of the Tuolumne river is on a vein from 6 to 12 feet
wide.  Thle hanging wall is granite; the foot wall slate.  There are numerous
horses in the lode.  The pay is disseminated pretty evenly through the rock,
which yields about $20 per ton.
There is a twenty-stamp mill, which commenced  work in 1859, and in two
years took out $125,000, if rumor be true. The flood of 1862 carried off part
of the mill, and stopped work a while, but the mill is now running. In this mill
the crushing is dry, and a blower is used to keep the dust from troubling the
laborers.  The amalgamation is done in 10 Hungarian cast-iron barrels, each
3.} feet long by 21 wide. The charge for each is 500 or 600 pounds, and enough
water is added to make a. pulp so thick that in ten minutes after the barrel has
started to revolve, small particles of quicksilver will be found in the pulp, which
adheres to the finger thrust into the mass. About 50 pounds of quicksilver are
put in at a charge.  The barrel revolves horizontally with a speed of eight or
ten revolutions per minute. After running for seven hours, water is added to
thin the pulp, so much that the quicksilver will all settle, and after another hour
of revolution the thin pulp is drawn off, and another charge is put in. All the
amalgamation at the Grizzly mill is done in these barrels.  There are two iron
* The London Mining Journal refers to the contract system as an essential element of success in the mines of Cornwall. It has also worked admirably in the St. John del Rey mine,
in Brazil. The average cost of raising the ore from this mine in 1865, under per diem wages,
was $7 87. In 1866, under the contract system, it was only $6 29-an immense saving,
considering the vast amount of ore raised. The contract system has been adopted to a considerable extent in the New Almaden quicksilver mine. It cann6t of course be made of universal application, so much depends upon local circumstances; but experience has demonstrated that whenever it can be applied, the result has been a great saving in the expense of
mining.
46 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
cylindrical rollers, each three inches in diameter and as long as the barrel inside,
and these turn and assist in the amalgamation during the revolutions of the bar rels.  The barrels are cleaned up once ill two weeks.  Amalgamnation proceeds
more readily if hot water is used.  MIr. Philip S. MIcDonald, vlwho was superintendent of the Grizzly mill for a time, and has the repute of being a very collmpetent man, prefers the system of dry crushing and amalgamating in close barrels.  By the ordinary modes of crushing and amalgamation much of the fine
gold is carried off by the water.  In dry crushing, however, it is necessary to
protect the laborers from the dust, whichl- has been known to cause death in three
months, where no precaution was used.
The Bonita mine, adjoining the Grizzly on the south, is idle, and so is its
10-stamp mill, which was built before the mine was opened.
The Consuela and its ten-stamp mill are doing nothing
The Mlartin mine, two miles south of the Grizzly, is being worked with
arrastras.
The Invincible mine, 2,000 feet on Sugar Pine creek, 22 miles eastward
from Sonora, has produced some good quartz, but the mine and its mill are
standing, idle now.
The Excelsior mine, at Sugar Pine, has yielded $300,000, of which two-thirds
was profit.
M[O-UNT VEnrNON.-The Mount Vernon mine, 2,100 feet long, 18 miles northeast of Sonora, is on a vein which runs northeast and southwest, dips 45~ to the
southeast, and is about two feet wide on an average between granite walls.  Only
one pay chimney has been found, and that dips about 45~ to the southwest.  It
was 60 feet long horizontally, near the surface, and 300 feet down it is more
than 100 feet Iong, the end not having been found in the drift now being run.
The rock is worked in the M3onitor mill, which is very near on the north fork of
the Tuolumne river.  The rock pays $96 per ton, and in 1866 500 tons were
worked.
SXNELL.-The Snell mine, 1,800 feet long, 15 miles northeast of Columbia,
is on a vein which runs northeast and southwest, is nearly vertical, and has an
average width of one foot.  A  pay chimney was found, and it paid $50 per
ton, but it pinched out.  A mill is going up now.
IONITOR.-Tlie Monitor, 2,100 feet long  18 miles east of Columbia, in Sugar
Pine district, is 15 inches wide, and dips at an angle of 45~ to the east between
granite walls. There is an incline down 60 feet, and drifts have been run 90 feet
on the vein.  Some of the rock has paid as much as $300 to the ton, but the
mine and mill are both idle now.  The mill has five stamps.
IHAZEL DI)ELL.-Thle Hazel )ell mine, 1,550 feet long, at Fivee-mile creek,
on a vein that averages about two feet in thickness.  The walls are rotten granite.
The rock averages $25 to $30, but at present the extraction of quartz is interrupted by water.  The lowest workings are seventy feet below the surface.  A
tunnel is now being cut for the purpose of drainage.  There is a five-stamnp mill
which has been leased.
SSUMMrIT PAss.-The Summit Pass mine No. 1, one mile from Columbia,
3,600 feet long, runs north and south, dips to the east at an angle of 70~, and is
four feet wide.  The walls are of slate, with an overlying stratum of limestone
near the surface. The claim has been worked 500 feet along the surface, and
paid well.  T'he quartz is heavily charged with arsenical sulphurets.  No work
is being done now.
Summit Pass No.2, 2,000 feet lon&, is on a spur from the preceding lode.
The mine has been opened at several points.
QUArTZ NEAR COLUJMBIA.-The Columbia mine, on the experimental lode
at Summit Pass two miles northeast of Columbia, has limestone walls, runs
northwest and southeast, dips to the northeast, and is from one foot to four feet in
width.  The average pay is $11 per ton.  It is worked with a 15-stamp mill.
I
47 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The Kimball mine, three miles northeast of Columbia, lies between limestone
and green-stone, is a foot wide, and is accompanied by a trap dike 8 or 10 feet
wide. WTlhen first opened $6,000 were obtained from 600 pounds of rock. It
is not worAed now.
Tile Kimball extension, adjoining the lcKimbal], is similar in character, and is
b)eing workled now, the quartz being crushed in a custom mill.  The yield is
$10 per toln.
The Slianl,hae mine at Yankee Hill, two miles east of Columbia, in a vein
which runs north and south, dips to the east at an angle of 65~, and is three feet
wide. It is east of the limestone belt in slates highly metamorphosed. It was
workecd with arrastras in 1856, and yielded then $100 per ton; and it is now
worked wvithl a 10-stamp mill.
HIUXTEn.-The Hunter mine, in Big Callon, 14 miles southeast of Sonora,
is on the side of a mountain that is at an angle of 45~ from the north fork
of the Tuolumne.  The rock was very rich at the suriface,. and a tunnel run in
20 feet ran through quartz that yielded $300 to the ton.  The owner was so
delighted that hle built a mill without delay and at great cost. The only way
to get the timbers and castings to the site was to let themr down with ropes from
the top of the mountain.  After $40,000 had been expended in the mill and in
exploration, it was found that the pay chute was only 20 feet long, and more
money would be required to work it than the owner could raise; so after $10,000
had been taken out no more work was done.
LEWwIS.-Thie Lewis mine, 2,400 feet long, is 20 miles east-northeast of
Sonora, on a vein of talcose slate 150 feet wide.  The course is north and south,
withl a slight dip to the east.  The slate is barren, but it encloses a number of
veins of quartz which run in every direction and all are rich.  There are several
chultes about 30 feet long horizontally, in which the quartz averages $25 to
$30 per ton, while elsewhere the quartz yields $10 or $12. MIost of the quartz
is found near the hanging wall.  The vein has been examined for a distance of
2,000 feet, and pay rock has been found at intervals along the whole distance.
The quartz in places contains sulphlurets of iron and lead, and crude sulphur is
found in the slate.  Heretofore the quartz has been extracted by tunnels, but
hereafter shafts are to be sunk.  The eastern wall is granite and the western a
hard black slate. The mine lies in the Big basin, which is surrn-ounded by high
ridges, on the north side of which the snow lies till iMay.  The rock is crushed
in a five-stamp mill, and is amalgamated in two large arrastras.  The gold varies
in fineness from 600 to 785, the highest fineness being obtained from those quartz
veins which contain the coarsest particles of metal.
SELL AND MARTIN.-The Sell and MAartin mine, 1,200 feet long, is situated
one mile north of Sonora.  It is two or three feet wide, and runs northwest and
southeast, and dips 60~ to the northeast.  It is a remarkable pocket vein, and
has produced not less than $150,000, of which one-fourth has been profit.  It
was first opened in 1850, and has been leased three or four times.  For one year
the lessee paid one-third, and for another one-fourth of the gross yield.  About
.2,000 tons of rock have been taken out in all, but most of the gold has been
)ounded out in a hand mortar.  The walls are of slate, and the country is intersected by porpl)hyritic dikes three or four feet thick, which occur at intervals of
t00 or 150 feet along the 700 feet in which the pockets have. been found. The
vein is later in formation than the dikes and cuts across them, and on the lines
of intersection most, if not all, of the pockets have been found.  The quartz,
except in the immediate neighborlhood of the pockets, is barren.  A  15-stamp
Will was erected at the mine in 1863, but as no large quantity of ore could be
obtained to yield more than 50 cents a ton, the mill has been standing idle.
There are several men now at work in the mine hunting for pockets and taking
out the gold in a hand mortar when they find them.   The largest pocket found
yielded $15,000.
48 
WEST OF THE ROCKY IMOUIJNTAINS.
SOPIIIA.-The Sophia mine, two miles east of Soniora, is 2,150 feet long, on
a vein which runs northeast andl southwest and dips 80~ southwest.  The vein is
crossed by dikes which the miners call granite.   Their width is usually three feet,
though one is forty.  The gold is found in pockets near the dikes.  Every pay
chimney is near a dike, but some of the dikes have no pay chutes near them.
The walls are of slate, and there is on one side or the other a talcose gouge,
usually on the hanging wall; and when in the foot wall it indicates the proximity
of a pocket.  There are within a distance of 300 feet, hlorizontally, three pay
chutes, each of them from ten to twenty feet long. The mine has been worked
by a tunnel 400 feet long, and a shaft 80 feet deep; and another tunnel 130 feet
below the level of the first one is now in 170 feet.  lThe total yield from the mine
has been $45,000, and in the year ending 1Iay, 1867, the produce was about
-$5,000.  There is a five-stamp mill on the claim, but it has not rock enough to
run regularly.
BALD. MAIOUNTAIN.-On the same Bald mountain, and it is supposed on. the
same vein, is the Patterson and Turner claim, which yielded $30,000 in one
pocket, and $60,000 in all.
On the same mountain is the Ford claim, which was discovered in 1851, and
was wondeirfully rich at the surface.  One pocket yielded $40,000, and the owners
rejected offers to purchase shares at the rate of $500,000 for the entire mline.
The Austrian claim, on the same mountain, had one pocket that paid $70,000,
besides several others smaller.
The three claims last mentioned are all idle now, and were worlked only near
the surface. There is no regular (as distinguished from a "'pocket") pay chute
in Bald mountain, the gold being nearly all in pockets. The gold is of very
fine quality, some of it 960 fine.  Some pockets are surrounded by shattered
and decomposed rock, and about these some mill rock is obtained, but the pockets
in hard rock have all their gold in a little compact cluster.
Bald mountain is only a mile east of the limestone belt which runs through
Tuolumne county, and many miners say that all the gold near the limestone is
in pockets.
I)nrAPEnP.-The Draper mine, 4,000 feet long, six miles eastward from Sonora,
is on a vein which runs north and south, is nearly perpendicular, and is 15
inches wide in granite walls.  The lowest workings are 325 feet deep, and they
extend 410 feet on the vein.  There are three pay chllimneys, one of 70, one of
90, and one of 60 feet in horizontal lengthl.  Between the pay chimneys the walls
pinch together.  The mine has been worked regularly since 1858.  The quartz
yields about $40 per tonl, and 150 or 180 tons are extracted monthly and worked
in steam custom mills, to which $6 per ton is paid for crushing and amalgamation.  The price in water mills is $5 per ton.  The ore is heavily charged with
sulphurets of iron, copper, lead an,d zinc.
NoxPArPEIL.-The Nonpareil mine, one mile from Big Oakl Flat, is on the.
Nonpareil vein, which runs east and west and dips to the north at an angle of
70~, and has an average width of five feet.  The walls are slate, and the quartz
of the veinstone is mixed waith slate, and in places the hard slate is seen full of
particles of gold.  Several shafts have been sunik, and the deepest workings
are 140 feet on an incline.  D)rifts have been run 160 feet on the vein in pay all
the way. At 70 feet from the surface the rock yielded $30 and $40 to the ton, but
in the lowest levels the pay has been $13.  The rock contains five per cent. of
sulplhurets which assay $300 or more to the ton, some samples yielding double
and treble as much.  The mine is now troubled with water  and work has been
stopped, but a tunnel 650 feet long would drain the mine to a depth of 340 feet.
There is a five-stamp mill which is also idle.  The power is supplied by a Faucherie turbine wheel seven inches in diameter and four feet long, including the
driving wheels.  There is 345 feet of perpendicular fall for the water, and 60~
4
49 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
inches are used at a cost of 15 cents per inch, or $9 for 24 hours.   The turbine
was bought with the assurance that it would drive 24 stamps, but the opinion
among those who have seen it work is that it would not drive more than  10
Farrand's oscillating pan and Uinkle's pan are used in the amalgamation.
BunRNs.-The Burns mine, on the Nonpareil vein and adjoining the Nonpareil
mine, has a mass of decomposed talcose slate which is in places 25 feet wide.  It all
pays to work, and  12 tons are rushed daily through the five-stamtp mill.
Five additional stamps are being put in.  The pulp, after being amalgamnated
in the mortar and on copper plates just below the battery, runs into tanks and
settlers, and firom the tanks the sand is put into Varney's pans to be ground, and
it is afterwards amalgamated in settlers.
OTHIER Q7UARTZ NXEAR BG OAK.-The Rattlesnake mill containing 10 stamps,
erected in 1866 at Big Oak Flat, is not running now.
The Cosmopolite mine, near the head of Garrote creek, is on a vein which runs
northwest and southeast and dips to the northeast, and is ten feet wide. The
lowest wor]ings are 150 feet below the surface, and a 10-stamp mill, formerly
known as the Cross or Anita mill, belongs to the mine.
The Mlississippi mine at Big Oakl Flat has had some rich pockets.  A mill
was built in 1866, but it is not running now, crushling being done at present in
an arrastra.
The Cross mill is standing idle. It belongs to the Golden Rock Water Company and offers to do custom worl.
The MIack mill is also idle.  The Jackson mill, four miles east of Big Oak
Flat, ditto.
SECTION V.
CALAVERAS COUNTY.
The county of Calaveras extends fiom the Stanislaus river on the south, to
the 3Iokelumne on the north, and from the summit of the Sierras on the east, to
near the base of the foot-lhills on the west.  The rivers which serve as the northern
and southern boundaries are permanent, but all within the limits of the county,
unless streams confined to the snow regions near the summit, go dry in summer.
The Calaveras river, from which the county takes its name, and the San Antonio,
are considerable streams in winter, but their beds are bare in the fall.
With the exception of WAVest Point, all the towns of any note in this county
are on the lime belt, or wvest of it; and most of them are within 1,800 of the
level of the sea, and in a region which, except near the large streams, is gently
undulating, so that there is little difficulty in travelling about. All the streams
are auriferous, but most of the diggings have been shallow and are now exhausted,
and as a consequence the business of the county has very much declined.  There
is not one large hydraulic claim in the county, and although there are many quartz
claims that have each yielded large sums, there is no quartz mine that has paid
high and constantly for five years. There is good reason to believe, however,
that Calaveras will, in a few years, occupy a much higher position in quartz
mining than at present.  The counts is well supplied, with water by ditches;
the roads are comparatively good; and timber can be had in sufficient quantity
for mining purposes.
The debt of the county is $240,000, and the State and county tax is four per
cent. annually of the assessed value of property.
There are fifteen ditches in the county, with a total length of 300 miles, constructed at a total cost of $2,000,000.  The only large ditches are those owned
4
.50. 
WEST OF THE ROCKY IMOUNTAINS.
by the Mokelumne Hill and Campo Seco Comipany and by the Union Water
Company.*
The principal qiuarty, mining towns are Angels, West Point and Carson HIill.
3Iurphys, Douglas Flat iand Cave City are placer mining towns on the limestone
belt.  Alokelumne Hlill and San Andres are near old channels, aind both have
some shallow placers.  Jenny Lind and Campo Seco had rich placers in early
days, but both are exhausted now, at least so far as the present wages and modes
of working will permit.  Cat Camp, near the western line of the county, not
worked hitherto because of the lack of water, is to have a ditch finished before
the end of the year, and 350 claims have been located there in anticipation.
Deep beds of gravel have been found in several high ridges in the eastern part
of the county, but so far as they have been examined they have not proved rich
enough to pay for hydraulic wasling.  It is known that there are considerable
deposits of gravel near the Big Tree grove.  Some explorations have been undertaken in the hope of finding in that neighborhood the Big Blue lead of Sierra
and Placer counties, but without success.
E1 Dorado Flat is a portion of an old channel near the Stanislaus river, 300
feet above its level, and half a mile above Robinson's ferry. The gravel is 100
feet deep, and the bed rock' pitches as if the stream liad run up the course of the
present Coyote creek.  Ten men, in four months, tookl out $7,000 at E1 Dorado
in the early part of 18 S67.
The M1okeluiine river paid very well at nearly all the bars, more than a dozen
in number between Union bar and Clay's bar, and even in the bottom of the
channel.  At Saindy bar 107 pounds of gold were taken in two days by seven
Frenchmen.  The river was flumed every year from 1850 to 1865, and for the
first seven or eight years paid high.  At. Union bar much of the gold was in
pieces resembling melon seeds in size and shape. The Mokelumne river has
been worked for about 30 miles along its course.
The Stanislaus river has been worked every year since 1849.  In that year
the work was confined chiefly to the bars; in 1850, 1851 and 1852 the stream
was dammed at many places and turned, but paid at only a few. The bed.
except near the months of Carson's creek, Coyote creek, and Jlackass gulch, was
comparatively poor.  Tile best diggings were found at the heads of bars and
near high-water line, and the rich spots in the deeper parts of the bed were nearly
all in crevices, some of them made by the decomposition of quartz veins. After
1853 the river was fimned repeatedly, but in nine cases out of ten these fliuming
enterprises were unprofitable.   The rive; mining, for the last six or seven years,
has been mostly in the hands of Chinamen.
BIG TREE GnovE. Theh Big Tree grove, situated 15 miles from 3furphys,
81 miles from  Stockton, and 4,500 feet above the level of the sea, is a favorite
place of resort.  Five davs' time and $50 are required to make the trip from
San Francisco and back in the cheapest and most expeditious manner.  The
Mr. Watson, referring to the resources of Calaveras county, says: "The sectional area of
this county is 1,140 square miles, with but 9S square miles or 62,763 acres of cultivated land.
The assessor's valuation of the county is $2,004,430.  The population, 16,299 in 1860,* is
mostly engaged in mining pursuits, and are large buyers of imported products and merchandise, all of which must pass over the Stockton and Copperopolis railroad.  Aside from the
gold and copper of this county, there are extensive quarries of marble and granite of very
superior quality, which cannot be worked at the present rates of transportation. I1cr upper
range of mountains are covered bv a dense forest of pine and oak, embracing an area of about
300 square miles, which can probably be transported to the San Francisco market for 25 per
cent. less than an equal quality of timber can be procured from any other source on this coast.
In this county is located the Big Trees or "Mammoth Grove," which, as a curiosity, attracts
thousands of tourists every year, and, as a natural production, it excites the wonder and admiration of every visitor.  T'he up freights for the county will amount to 15,640 tons per annum,
and down freights, including copper ores, 65,400 tons per annum-total, 71,040 tons.
' k~stimnated population in 1866, 12,000.-Swett's Report on Public Schools.
51
Ii
i
i
. i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
elevation is so great that snow lies four or five months in the year, and the hotel,
which is commodious and wvell-kept, does not open for visitors until Mlay or June,
according to the season.  The grove contains 90 trees over 15 feet in diameter,
and of these ten are 30 feet through just at the ground, thoighl 10 or 15 feet
above the diameter is considerably less.  Five men spent 22 days  in 1854,
cutting down a tree which was 92 feet in circumference and 300 feet high. The
stump has been taken as the foundation and floor of a house in which dancing
parties are sometimes held. There is abundant room in it for a large quadrille.
The bark was taken from another tree to a height of 116 feet from the groundup to where the branches began-at the same time, and the tree did not begin
to show signs of dying until two years afterwards, and some of its boughs were
green six years later.  It is estimated that one of the trees which had fallen long
before the grove was discovered was 450 feet long and 40 feet in diameter.  Prof.
Whitney carefully counted the rings of the tree which was cut down and found
that they numbered about 1,300. The big trees are scattered about in a forest
of very large trees, many of which are as high, and some almost as large, as the
smaller specimens of the sequoia gigantea, as the big tree is technically named.
The number of visitors annually is about 2,000.
AGPICULTURE.-Agriculture in Calaveras county is not in a very flourishing
condition. Water is not cheap enough to be used for irrigating grain or pastureland;
firuit and wine will not pay the expense of transportation to Sacramento, and brandy
will not pay with the present tax upon its production. There are a multitude
of fine orchards and vineyards, but as many of them are unprofitable, so they
are neglected.  With cheap water and cheap transportation to market this county
should be prominent in the production of wool, wine, and firuit.
At Douglas Flat, in the orchard of 1r. Hitchcock, the peach thrives better
than any other tree fruit. The yield is very large and regular, and the quality
good.  Apricots do not thrive.  The white winter Pearmain apple bears well
and keeps well.  The Porter apple bears well, and though rated as a fall fruit
in the eastern States, keeps here till February. The Wine Sop keeps till June.
The Newtown pippin is the best keeper, bears well, and has a fine flavor.  The
Belleflowver, Northern Spy, and Peck's Pleasant are good at neither bearing nor
keeping.  The Vandevere bears tolerably, but does not keep.   The Esopus
Spitzenberg keeps well, but does not bear heavily.  The Roxbury Russet bears
very well, but does not keep.  The same may be said of the Baldwin, except
that it bears well only in alternate years. The Golden Russet is one of the best
and most regular bearers and keeps till December.
At M1urphys, although the distance is only two miles from Douglas flat, the
fruit is two weeks later in ripening, and the more delicate kinds, such as fi(rgs
will not ripen.  The difference in elevation does not seem to be more than a
couple of hundred feet.  In the western part of the county figs are very productive.
3IETEOrnOLOGY.-The amount of rain in the rainy season of 1865 and 1866,
at Alurphys was 31 inches, and in 1866 and 1867 44 inches.
As nmuch as 10 feet of snow has fallen at the Big Trees in one storm, but the
depth is seldom more than five feet at any one time.  As the ground does not
freeze, there is no good sleighing.
SAXN ANDnREAS.-San Andreas is the present county seat, and is situated at a
paint where San Andreas ravine intersects an ancient river channel.  The county
seat was formerly at Mokelumne Hill, on the northern limit of the county, and
was removed after the people had voted at a special election for San Andreas.
Great frauds were practiced in the election, especially at MIokelumne Hill, which
then contested the election, and years elapsed before the courts and county offices
were removed to San Andreas, which had spent $75,000 in the contest.  The
people of the new county town were much chagrined to find that there was scarcely
any perceptible increase in the amount of business or in the value of property
52 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
after the change, and many of those who spent their cash would be glad to have
it back, even if MIokelumne Hill were to have its fornner dignity. The monthly
shipment of dust from San Andreas is $25,000, nearly all placer.
THE SAN ADnDEAS OLD CIANNEL.-An  ancient channel runs past San
Anldreas, and indeed it is to the rich deposits of the old river that the town owes
its existence.  This ancient channel has been traced a distance of eight miles
from the head of Old Gulchl, past San Andreas, and Gold Hill, to the south forl
of tile Calaveras.  The general course is nearly wvest; the average width is 100
feet, and the depth under the surface is 150 feet, of which about 100 feet is
volcanic sand.  The richest pay stratum is a soft blue gravel, four feet deep, wvhich
yields seven-eighths of its gold at the first washing; but there is also a red cement,
which sometimes usurps the place of the blue gravel on the bed rock; sometimes
overlies it, and sometimes occupies half the channel, leaving the blue on the
other side.  This red cement is not so rich as the blue, nor is the gold so coarse,
and it should be crushed in a mill, if more than one-third of its gold is to be got
at the first washing. Some of the gold found in the blue gravel is quite black.
It has been reported that a petrified turtle thirty inches long was found in one
of the claims on this channel; but the report is mentioned here not to accredit
it, but suggest it as a matter for investigation.
Mr. Alarshall says he found in the pay dirt in the claim of Marshall aind
Showalter an Indian mortar, and this is perhaps one of the best authenticated
cases of human handiwork found in an ancient stream.
In that claim, starting from the surface, the shaft passed through 5 feet of
coarse gravel; then sand and gravel 100 feet; then a thin bed of fine brownish
gravel; then 4 feet of cemented sand; then 15 feet of blueish volcanic sand;
then 6 feet of pay dirt, and finally slate-bed rock, one foot of which is rich.
The following is the form of a notice used in locating a claim on this channel:
NOTICE.-The undersigned claims this ground for mining purposes, known as the Robert
McCall & Co.'s claim, being a deep or shaft claim, and being bounded on the northwest by
the Gilchrist and Cornwell claim, and on the southeast by the Plug Ugly claim, 1,000 feet
more or less, and he intends to work it according to the laws of the San Andreas mining
district.
WILLIAM IRVINE.
JOHN SHOWALTER, Recorder.
August 18, 1862.
The first notable claim on the channel commencing at the highest point that
has been worked is that of Foster, Frazier & Co., 800 feet long on the channel,
where the depth is 100 feet.  It has been worked 10 years, and paid about $7
per day to the hand.  The pay is obtained by drifting, and is taken to the surface through a shaft and tunnel.
After an interval in which the channel has not been found, we come to the
claimn of McLaughlin and Dore, who have been at worlc T0 years, and have
averaged about $5 per day. Three or four men are now employed on the claim.
After another space in which the channel was not found, is the claim of George
Barnhardt & Co., situated on the hill between Old Gulch and French Gulch.  It
has been worked six or seven years, and four or five men are now employed in
it.  It is a hydraulic claim, and the bank is 75 feet deep.
The next claim, that of Young & Co., is on the hill, south of upper Caleverita.s,
stid has paid well for 10 years.  It has been worked both by hydraulic and by
tunnel.  Three or four men are employed.
Knight, Simpson & Co., work their claim by the hydraulic process, with four
men.  It has paid well for six or seven years. 
The railroad claim on Railroad Hill, one mile below the previous claim, has
never paid, but has broken several parties vlwho took hold of it.  It is now idle.
The channel was never found in it.
Wade, Johnson & Co., between Yaqui Gulch and lower Calaveritas, employ
53 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
four men ill their claim, vlwhich they worlk by drifting, and have obtained moderate
pay.
Iledrickl, Wilcox & Co., are wvorking with three men, and getting very moderate pay.  They erected a cement mill, but the gravel was not rich enough, and
the mill was moved to a quartz mine at Fairplay.
The Plug Ugly claim, 800 feet long has yielded $1,100 in one day, and still
contains rich ground.  Contention among the shareholders has prevented work
for two years.
Irvines claim, 1,000 feet long, has been workied for two years, and has pai
well.  The gravel is so tough that after being slaked for a while it will yield
ten times as muchtel in the sluice as it will if washlled immediatelyt after coning out
of the drift.  The proprietor is now erecting a water-mill to hoist and crush the
cement.
The claim of Patrick Gilechrist, 180 feet long, paid well for a short time, but
is closed now as if worked out, though some good miners think it still valuable.
iMarsliall and Showalter have  600 feet, and have been at work for 13
years, usually employing six or eight men. Their claim has been very rich, and
it yielded nine pounds in one forenoon.  The dirt is hoisted by a whim.
The Mlarlette claim, 600 feet long, was opened about 1857, and work was
stopped in 1861, for want of drainage.
The 3IcFall claim, 600 feet long, has been worked for 10 years, and has paid
about $10 per day to three men.  The proprietor of this claim cut a long drain
at considerable expense and solicited some contribution from the claim owners
above, but they refused, so he left 20 feet at the head of his claim standing, and
this served as a wall to back the water on the 3Iarlette, Marshall, Plug, and
Irvine claims, and stopped workl in parts of them for five  years. Lately they have
paid $1,000.  The drain has been opened and they have resumed work.
The Dunning claim, 400 feet long. was opened in 1854, and was worked out
in five years, during which time it paid about $20 per day to six men.  One pan
yielded 12 pounds, and in one week $] 0,000 was taken out.
Here the channel strikes San Andreas gulch, and below this point the old
channel is six feet or more below the level of the present stream, in some places
35 feet deeper. For 1,500 feet the channel is under the gulch, and there, because of the shallowness of the ground, the diggings were very profitable when
first worked.  After leaving the bed of the gulch the old channel runs 1,000
yards to Gold Hill, where a remarkable fault is found, the channel having been
here broken off and raised up 100 feet perpendicularly by some convulsion of
nature.  The bed rock, the size, course, and grade of the channel, and the character of the gold and of the strata, all indicate that the Gold Hill diggings belong
to the ancient river of San Andreas. The Gold Hill claims paid well, but are
now all wvorked out.
3IorKELUMxNrE HILL.-]Mokelimne Hill was for a long time the largest town
in the southern mines, and it is now one of the most populous.  It is situated on
the south bank of the 31okelumne river, but about 800 feet above its level, at a
point whlere an ancient channel has been cut through, leaving a convenient pass
for travel from north to south and exposing rich deposits of gold near the surface.
The town, instead of being on the summit of a hill, as might be inferred from its
name, is rather in a flat or basin, with hills several hundred feet higher both
east and west. There are a number of very pretty gardens in the suburbs.
lIany of the business houses are built of a light lava or tufa, which is fount'
abLundlantly in the neighborhood.  Houses in the town are sold for about one
fifth their cost. MIokelumne Hill is a stage centre from which lines run to Stockton, (45 miles,) to Sonora, (50 miles,) through San Andreas, Angels, Vallecito,
and Colunbia, to Latrobe, (38 miles,) through Jackson, Sutter, and Dry Town,
and to West Point, (16 miles.)  There is also a horse Iail to Campo Seco, 12
miles distant.
54
I 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
In the spring of 1851 three Frenchmen found an extremely rich old clhannel
high up on the side of French Hill, northeast of the town of 3fokelumne Hill,
and in a few days took out $180,000.  Tley attempted to keep their wealth a
secret, but in vain, and some Americans found it out and went into the claim at
nighlt and stole from it.  One night they dug out a piece wveighing 11 pounds,
but as it was dirty they did not discover its character in the darl, and threw it
aside.  The Frenchmen found this piece the next morning, and a piece of candle
which had been left behind; so the next night they watched their claim in arms.
The robbers, finding themselves foiled, laid claim to the mine, and threatened to
take it by force, and the Frenchmen of the neilghborhood assembled to defend
their countrymen, since, if the claim of one Frenchman could b-e taken, there
would be no security for the others.  There was much animosity at the time
against foreigners, and the report that the Frenclhnen were arming gave great
ofence, and soon there were two armies ready for the fight. Trhel French vice consul at Alokelumne Hill acted as mediator, and succeeded in making a com promise, by the terms of which a committee of American miners were placed in
possession of the claim to work it until they had taken out enough to pay the
expense of the military organization of the Americans, and then to return it to
the French owners.  The committee worked at the claim for months and worked
it out, and the entire sum that they paicd from it towards the expenses of the
military organization was $1,100, a sum less than the Frenchmen had been in the
lhabit of getting nearly every -lay.  Thus ended the French war, in which many
French cabins were burned but nobody was killed; thoulgh attempts were made
to assassinate several Frenchmen, and one American who, having been appointed
to consult with the French consul, took sides with the Frenchmen. Before the
compromise was effected the Frenchmen fortified themselves on Corral Hill, but
tliey fled when they saw the enemy coming to storm their works.  This discretioii saved much bloodshed, for the assailants outnumbered the entrenched party,
and they had laid their plans so that the French would be exposed at the time
of assault to the fire of an enemy occupying a commanding position in the rear.
MIOKEL-Ut'NE HILL OLD cHANxNEL.-The 3lokelumne Hill old channel begins
or is found at its highest point about a mile east of the town of that name, near
the residence of J. Trynan, and runs thence under Corral Flat, striking Stockton
Hill., (at a point between the Stockton Hill upper diggings and the Water Company's clainm,) thence passing in a southwardly direction under the Stockton Hill
ridge, about 330 feet below the surface, until it strikes Chile gulch, under the
Innes & Co. claim, which gulch it then follows down on one side or the other to
its intersection with the old San Andreas channel, where the two unite.  This
channel has been worked to great profit in some of its parts, and others, though
opened very thoroughly at great expense, have proved entirely barren.  The
lmg,est yield has been obtained east of the point where the old channel first
strikes Chile gulch, but further down there is a place called Junction, where a
number of claims have proved very rich.
The Water Companiy's claim, 1,800 feet long, in Stockton Hill, southwest of
3Mokelumine Hill, has been wvorkled by several long tunnels, and has yielded,
accordinhf to rumor, $110,000.
The Water Company's cement mill, on Chile gulch, near Mlokelumne Hill, has
10 stamps, and is driven by 40 inches of water forced under 100 feet head upon
a huirdygurdy wlieel.
The Paful claim, 2,6-00 feet long, has been worked conltinuously for ten years,
and has paid well, the net yield, as stated by common report, being $160,000.
The Calaveras Tunnel Company worked from 1857 till 1866, and did remarkably well at first, but afterwards spent much money in hunting for the channel,
and made but little gain as the total result of their labors.
The Allen claim, 1,000 feet long, was worked from 1S59 to 1865, and was
not profitable.
55 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The Innes claim, 1,100 feet long, was worked from 1856 to 1864 by a tunnel
1,400 feet long, which passed over the deep channel, and by four shafts from 45
to 110 feet deep.  The result was the loss of nearly all the money invested.
The Cubberly claim has yielded some very rich pay gravel.
The Amherst claim, 1,400 feet long, has proved extremely rich. The chan nel here crosses a streakl of soft rock called "rotten granite" by the miners, and
this has caught the gold which has slidden over the harder rockl. The claim
has been worked for 10 years, paying all the time. For 5 years, 10 or 12 men
were employed; now there are 4.  It is reported that a partner who had owned
lalf the claim went to the east in 1862 with $28,000.  The work was done by
drifting for some years, but the tunnels have caved in and now the hydraulic
process is used.
The Shaw claim has been worked 10 years, most of the time with large profit.
An attempt was made lately to pipe away the dirt through a shaft and tunnel,
but the shaft caved in, and it is now necessary to pipe away the dirt from the
outside of the hill.
This completes the list of the claims in Stockton Hill, commencing at Mokeluhmne Hill and running down stream.  Mention has been made of but one old
channel running under this hill, but really there are two, the smaller one being
from 90 to 120 feet above the level of the main old channel. About a mile and
a quarter below Mokelumne Hill the upper channel breaks off and seems to fall
90 feet into the lower channel, and it does not appear ag,ain below that point.
OPALS.-In the north end of Stockton Hill, almost within the limits of the
town of Miokelimne Hill, is an opal-bearing stratum about 60 feet below the
surface of the hill.  This stratum is a rough gravel enclosed in a tough redFsli
clay, from six to eighteen inches deep, lyiig between two layers of volcanic s,und.
In 1865 three claims were worked for opals, which were obtained in great abundance, but they were of very common quality and did not pay.  None of the
fire opals were found. The dirt, when taken out, was allowed to dry, and was
then broken up with wooden mallets, and the opals, which were from a quarter
of an inch to two inches in diameter and white in color on the outside, were
picked out by hand. The longest opal tunnel ran 190 feet into the hill.
On one occasion there was much excitement at Mokelumne Hill on account
of the rumored discovery of a mine of emeralds and sapphires, and men went
out at night with lanterns and staked off a large district in claims. Afterwards
they investigated the nature of the first discovery, and came to the conclusion
that the supposed precious stones were only pieces of colored glass which had
been in the gizzard of a turkey.
CAMPS NEAXRx MOYELUMNE HILL.-Tunnel Ridge, one mile southeast of aIokelumne Hill, is three miles long, has a cap of volcanic rock, beneath which in
places is found a stratum or lead of auriferous gravel, most of which has been
worked through tunnels.
Buckeye, two miles east of 3lokelumne Hill, has several hydraulic claims,
which have been worked for six years.  One of them is now paying well.
Buena Vista Hill, four miles northeast of MAokeluiune Hill, has four hydraulic
claims, which have been worked for ten years with much profit.  The ground is
very rich, but the water cannot be taken to the top of the hill, and therefore the
expenses are great.
Rich Gulch, six miles east of M[okelumne Hill, had very rich surface claims
in early days, and still yields well in a few spots.
DOUGLAS FLAT.-Doougls Flat is situated on the limestone belt, which is
here a mile wide.  The deepest workings are at a depth of 150 feet; and in
those places the pay began 125 feet from the surface, and was covered with three
strata of volcanic ash, with intervening strata of coarse gravel. The deep claims
were worked through shafts with pumps and hoisting apparatus driven by ditch
water. The town has been more permanent than most mining camps because
56 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUtjNTAINS.
of the deep diggings, and according to repute it has produced moie gold in proportion to its population than any other in the county.
Among the notable claims are the following:
The Texas, 500 feet long by 150 feet wide.  The pay stratum is from 6 tc
25 feet deep and 125 feet below the surface.  Workl was commenced in 1853,
and has continued since with an interruption from 1859 to 1862, caused by
water.  The claim employs S or 10 men, and it pays, sometimes, $500, and
never less than $200, per week above expenses. The total production has
been about $60,000, and there is pay ground enough to last for 5 or 10 years
more. A stream of water yielding 16 inches, miners' measure, has been struck
in the bottom, and a pump with a pipe 14 inches in diameter, with a five-foot
stroke, is used for keeping the claim clear.  The lowest drain is 60 feet below the
surface. A tunnel to drain the bottom of the claim would have to be two
miles long.
Thie Union claim, 1,000 feet long by 100 wide, was opened in 1860, and is
150 feet deep. The average number of men employed was ten, and the average
weeklly yield has been about the same as in the preceding claim.  On one occasion they took out 90 ounces or $1,700 per week for several weeks.   The
total yield has been about $40,000.  The claim is doing nothing now, but work
will be resumned.
The Wild Goose claim, 800 feet long by 100 wide, has been worked to a depth
of 200 feet without finding bottom or pay.  A drift is now being run in hope of
finding bottom.  Four years' wvork and $15,000 have been spent without any
return so far. In two drifts of this company the dirt swelled so fast for three
days that the drifters made no headway.
The Perseverance claim, 800 by 100 feet, has been worked to a depth of 13C
feet without finding anything, anid the shaft is still going down. A drift runr
into this claim from the adjoining Union claim has struck rich pay gravel.
The Dashaway, 1,000 by 100 feet, has been worked by an incline 300 feet
deep perpendicularly from the surface, which is there on a hillside.  The claim
has been worked five years, and has produced about $25,000. Five men are at
work inl it.
The above are the only companies now working or likely to work  soon.
The Southwestern claim, 1,200 by 100 feet, yielded $750,000, and is worked
out.
The Ohio, 800 by 100, yielded $50,000; worked out.
The Harper, 200 by 100 feet, yielded $100,000; worked out.
The Lone Star, 300 by 100 feet, yielded $100,000; worked out.
The Holmes and Toll, 100 feet square, yielded $100,000; worked out.
The Hitchcock and Burgess, 100 by 50 feet, yielded $100,000; worked out.
The Skunk Tunnel, 400 by 100 feet, yielded $50,000; worked out.
MIunrPHY's.-AIurphy's, 16 miles firom San Andreas, formerly known as Murk
phly's Camp, is situated on the limestone belt in a pleasant valley surrounded by
low hills. The diggings aro found here in a basin half a mile in diameter, with
dirt and gravel to a depth of 200 feet. The pay stratum was found in some
places within twenty and in others within 100 feet of the surface; but little of
it was high enough to be washed in the natural channels, so the miners hoisted
the dirt by derricks, or with a horse, rope, and pulley, to their sluices. Afterwards, however, an open cut 900 feet long and for a considerable distance 40
feet deep was made. This facilitated the washing of the flat greatly. There
were a dozen claims which paid high, averaging $100,000 or more each it is said,
but there is no record of the details. The Rhodes claim, one of the richest
produced $250,000 from an area 100 feet long and 40 wide. The deepest
workings were 100 feet.  In one afternoon it paid 37 pounds, and the next
forenoon 63 pounds of gold. In this claim a tunnel was cut through a large
mass of limestone far below the surface, and in the midst of the mass was
57 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
found a cavity containing a rich auriferous quartz boulder weighing not less than
half a ton; and there was no orifice leading to the cavity large enough to let
in a stone weighing 20 pounds.   There was, besides, some rich gravel in the
cavity. This statement about the quartz boulder, if it came from some unknown
source, would deserve no consideration, but it is vouched for by Alonzc RhL,odes,
agent for Wells, Fargo & Co., who is an intelligent gentleman, and is reputed
to be most trustworthy.
MAurply's derives some importance from the fact that it is a stopping point for
travellers going to and from the Big Trees.
Some of the gold at Murphy's was quite black on the surface.
Between [lurphy's and Douglas Flat an old channel has been traced for 600 feet.
VALLECITO.-Vallecito, 14 miles from San Andreas, is a level valley, with
deep digg,ings, which are covered with three strata of lava or volcanic sand.
The valley was in its most flourishing condition from 1852 to 1855, and is still
far from being worked out, but there was a lack of drainage, and the claims
which would pay for drifting have been-exhausted   In 1855 a mammoth tunnel,
to be 2,700 feet long and 100 feet deep, was commenced, to drain the flat, which
is about 86 feet deep in the deepest workings.  After 400 feet'of the mammoth
tunnel had been cut, a considerable part of the way in very hard greenstone, and
after $15,000 had been spent, the work was abandoned.   In 1862 a new tunnel,
to be 1,500 feet long anrd 36 feet below the surface, was commenced, and last
spring it was completed, though the flume is not yet ready for washing.  The
flume in and out of the tunnel is to be 2,000 feet long,, and the total cost of the
work is 830,000, exclusive of interest. An ancient channel 100 feet wide has
been traced for half a mile up and down the valley, and it is considered still rich.
The ground is held by old miners, iwho will now washl off their claims through
the tunnlel.  No public notice has yet been given of the conditions on which
miners can tail into the tunnel.
The shipment of gold from Vallecito is $20,000 per month; formerly it was
$60,000.
The Day and Itlunter claim in Vallecito Flat was 100 feet square, and paid
$25,000.
The Isabel and M1itchell, of the same size, paid the same amount.
In the Durhlam & Co. claim a piece weighing 25 pounds was found.
There were 50 claims in the flat that paid well, but there is no record of their
production severally.
Near Vallecito is a gravel ridge 60 feet deep, and a portion of it paid well in
hydraulic claims.
Ai —or. PLACER CAMPS.-At San Domingo, on the limestone belt, four men
took out $100,000 in three years, commencing in 1863.
Near  Imurphy's is Owlbuirrow Flat, which is rich and might be drained.
Indian creek, San Antone, and Cave City, on the limestone belt, have had some
rich claims, but the diggings are now nearly exhausted.
QUARTZ REGU~ATIONS OF AxGELS.-The quartz reglations of the Angels district provide that a lode claim for one person shall be 100 feet on the vein, with
150 feet on each side; and a discoverer is entitled to 50 feet more on the vein
than an ordinary claimant.  The regulations say:
He or she [the claimant] shall have the right to all the dips, strikes, or angles of every
vein originating on the claim. We understand that a vein originates on or below the surface'running downwards, and not from below running upwards; so that no person or persons locating a claim on either side of the boundaries of another shall have a right to a vein
running through his or their claim that originates, as above understood, on the claim first
located; but no man shall have the right to follow a vein on the length of it beyond the
perpendicular of his boundary.
Miners shall be compelled to perform at least 10 bona fide days' work on their claim or
claims during the year commencing from the first day of April, 1860. Miners failing to do
so, their claim or claims will be considered forfeited and open to other parties.
58 
WEST OF THlE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
It will be observed that there is no express requirement of any work after the
1st of April, 1861, as a condition of title; but the intention was undoubtedly to
require 1.0 days' workl on each claim within each year, ending with M1arch.
Tile records of this district were burned in 1855, and no copies  or written
evidences of title before the fire are preserved.
There are 57 quartz claims on record in the district, anid 55 of them bear date
previous to 1864. In that year no claim was made; in 1865, one; one in 1866;
and none in 1867 up to June 1.
QUARTZ IPEGULATIONS OF SAN ANxDPriEAS.-Thle following are extracts from
the miners' regulations of the San Andreas district for ledge mining:
Claims in said district shall be 200 feet in length on the lead, with all its dips, spurs, and
angles, with 300 feet in width on the surface.
Shareholders shall be compelled to perform one day's labor for each 200 feet held or claimed
by them, or its value in improvements thereon, in each month, from the first day of May to
the first day of November in each year; if they fail so to do their claim shall be considered
forfeited and open to entry by other parties, unless the first parties shall have been prevented
by sickness of themselves or families from complying with this law.  When  a company
shall have put $500 worth of work on a claim the same may be held over for one year, and
no longer, by a renewal of the record of said claim, made at any date previous to the first
day of May of each year, during which year the parties owning such claim shall not be compelled to perform any work on the same.
These regulations were adopted in 3farch, 1866; and there are 57 lode claims
recorded, the latest dated in 1865.  There is no quartz mine in operation in
the district, save at Wilson's creek, lwhere there are two arrastras at work.
QUARTZ MIXNING IN CALAVERAS.-Thle miost noted quartz mines of Calaveras county are the Morgan, the Reserve, the Enterprise, the South Carolina,
the Staniislaus, the Union, and the Carson Creek, at Carson Hill; the Bovee,
the Angels, the Hill, and the Sickles, at Angels; all on the mother lode; and
the Woodhouse, near West Point.  A  number of rich veins have been found
near the limestone belt, but their wealth has been confined to pockets.
MORGAN.-The 3Iorgan mine, 500 feet long, on the mother lode, was discovered in 1850 by a man named Hance, who took in six partners, Morgan
being the president.   The discovery was made on the- summit of Carson Hill,
and the rock was extremely rich; indeed, if the statements of those who lived
at the place are to be taken, the gold was abundant beyond any parallel.  Much
of it was taken out in mortars, and not unfrequently there were so many strings
of gold in the rock that cold chisels had to be used to cut them.  On one occasion gol(l to the amount of $110,000 was thrown down at one blast.   The news
filled the State with excitement.  The town of Melones, on the southern side of
the hill, became the largest mining camp in the State, withl  a population variously estimated from 3,000 to 5,000.  People came in crowds to see the mine.
Robinson's ferry, on the Stanislaus river, two miles south of the place, took
in $10,000 for ferriage in six weeks. From February, 1850, till December,
1851, the production continued uninterrupted- and with very little decline. In
that time, according to Thomas Deare, who has lived at the mine longer than
any other person, $2,800,000 were extracted and immense sums were stolen.  It
is reported of one Mexican miner that he stole $1,500 in one day from the arrastra which he had in charge, and paid it the next day for a horse.  All the rock
too poor for the hand mortar was ground in arrastras, and it is said that 50 of
them were running at one time.  The facilities for stealing were great and the
temptation strong.  Gambling was carried to a great extent and gold seemed
to have lost its value.  The miners were mostly Mexicans, who, as a class, were
not looked uponl with much favor by American miners; but they had had some
experience in this kind of mining and their services were indispensable. They
could pick up the lumps of gold in the mine, or they could take handfulls of
amalgam from the arTastra with little fear of detection.  As for'the amount
taken in this way, it could never be ascertained, but that it was great was
assumed in the comoni      conversation of the miners themselves.
59 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The vast production was too great to be witnessed in peace. Several hundred
ruffians banded themselves together under the lead of Billy Mulligan  and
others of his kind and drove away the owners of the mine by force and worked
it themselves.  A  suit to eject them was commenced, and after nine months
their work was stopped by injunction, and in the spring of 1853 final judgment
was rendered in favor of Morgan and his associates.  Morgan then went to England to sell the mine, but more litigation sprang up about the title, and there
was no final decision and very little work till the spring of 1867, the mine having lain idle for nearly 15 years.  The work has lately been recommenced,
and report says some marvellously rich rock has been taken out, but the superintendent did not consider himself authorized to give the precise facts for publication.
The mine is near the summit of the hill and includes two veins, which unite
100 feet below the surface. One is about six feet wide and called the stratified
vein, because of numerous seams parallel with the walls; the other is 40 feet
wide and is called the boulder vein, because the quartz in it is solid and boulderlike. A tunnel 160 feet long strikes the vein 100 feet below the outcroppings,
and from this drifts have been run 200 feet on the vein, finding pay rock all the
way.  The richest rock is a talcose slate on the foot-wall.  The mine can be
worked conveniently by tunnels to a depth of 500 or 600 feet. There is no
mill now, but the proprietors propose to erect one, and they are now taking out
rock.  In the middle of June they had 5,000 tons already out.
RESERVE.-Immediately south of the Morgan is the reserve mine, 980 feet
long.  This mine was opened in 1860 by a tunnel 300 feet long and a shlaft 135
feet deep, and common report says that 3,000 tons of talcose slate were crusted
and $200,000 obtained.  A  report made by a French mining engineer to the
Melones and Stanislaus Mining Company, which is better authority than common
report, says the yield has been $130,000. Mir. Coignet, the author of the report,
says:
The lead worked at the Reserve belongs to that order of vein which runs west 15~ north,
east 15~ south, and is rich in ore throughout its whole extent. At the walling, [foot-wall, ]
and for many feet in width, the slate formations are impregnated with auriferous pyrites, partly
decomposed near the surface. * * * I was told on the spot that the slate formations of
the casings throughout the length of the claim did not pay less than $18 per ton at the mill,
and that the ore formerly extracted contained from $90 to $300 per ton.
ENTErRPRISE.-The Enterprise, 900 feet, adjoining the Reserve on the south,
has been opened by a tunnel which runs 450 feet on the lode. There is no mill
connected with the mine, nor is any work being done.
SOUTr  CAROLINA.-Thie South Carolina, 2,550 feet long, adjoins the Enterprise.  The vein is seven feet wide, and has been opened by drifts running  580
feet on the lode, 280 feet below the surface, in pay chimney all the way.   The
mine was first worked, from 1850 to 1853, by some Mexicans under a lease, who
accounted at the rate of $85 per ton; but rumnor says that the actual yield was
much larger, and that the total amount which they took out was $400,000, and
that they got $40,000 in one week from their arrastras. In one period of seven
months they accounted for $119,000, and paid over, according to contract, onehalf, or $59,500; but the owners were dissatisfied, and terminated the lease in
1853, and the mine, notwithstanding the general belief in its great wealth, stood
still five years. In the spring and summer of 1858 a ten-stamp mill ran for three
months and took $19,000, and then the work was stopped by litigation.   The
last rock taken out paid $40 per ton.  The mill is now in ruins, and no work is
being done.  Mr. Coignet says of the South Carolina:
The quartz is generally white-bladed, foliated with green, slaty streaks, and assuming a
striped appearance. It is in these slate formations that the flattened or laminated leaves of
gold are found. Sometimes the quartz is compact and yellowish, but then it is nearly always
near an intersection.  Against the walling [foot-wall] of these leads the slates are of a yellow brown, very talcose, and perforated by cubical holes, indicative of deposits of rotten iron
r) 0 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
pyrites.  These are ductible, and can be cut with a knife. Between their strata is found
some bluish quartz surrounded by pure gold.  On the whole line of the leads, beginning
at the South Carolina claim and up to the Hope, where they still exhibit the same character,
it may be said that these slaty formations, in a breadth of several feet from the walling of the
lead, contain at least $18 per ton.
STAxISLAUs.-The Stanislaus mine, 1,200 feet long is on the middle branch
of the mother lode, immediately north of the Stanislans river.  At this claim the
vein runs nearly north and south, and dips to the east at an angle of 75 degrees.
The mine  has been opened by three tunnels, one 400 feet long and two of
100 feet each, and by  several shafts running  down  firom  the  tunnels.   The
quartz is remarkable for containing much gold in the form of a telluride, which,
t hough very rich, has never been worked so as to yield much.   Mlr. Coignet,
who examined the mine, says:
The quartz croppings are white, with reddish tints in the cracks, and containing crystals
of feldspar, of carbonate of lime, and of iron. The free gold which had been found on the
surtfce changed readily into tellurets of gold and silver, and into auriferous iron pyrites,
which, by their decomposition when in contact with the atmosphere, have spread a reddish
hue over the rock.  In these ledges, among which the Stanislaus offers an example, the thickness of the quartz varies considerably, both in its course and incline, whereas  the roofing
[hanging wall] remains perfectly regular. Thus, from the middle of the tunnel to within a
few feet of the shaft, at the northern extremity of French and Wood's claim, the croppings
have a thickness of more than six feet, whilst beyond that space the quartz disappears in the
slate, without, however, causing a break in the lead.  At the bottom of the shaft just mentioned the lead has a depth of six inches and contains numerous crystals of tellurets. At
120 feet south of the entrance to the middle tunnel a shaft was formerly sunk by Mexicans,
by means of which a large sum was taken. There also the quartz has disappeared, and the
ore is found in the slate.
The rich deposits of the lead are found in chimneys with a horizontal incline of about 31
degrees to the south in the walling, [foot-wall,] and in the small quartz feeders which follow
the line of the slate formations, and at their junction with the principal leads. It is of importance to observe, with regard to this mineral system, that tellurets are found exclusively
in the quartz which contains crystals of feldspar and carbonates of lime and of iron; and
hence, whenever these minerals are met with, the speedy appearance of ore may be relied
upon.
The compact quartz of the lead is often found to contain, and, in fact, generally does contain, auriferous iron pyrites, which are sometimes of great richness.  The slate formations in
which the lead is imbedded are also full of iron pyrites, but contain no gold, or perhaps a
very small amount. The difference between these two kinds of pyrites is such that they can
be readily distinguished from each other. The richest pyrites, in fact, seldom crystalize very
distinctly, being in compact masses, which clearly exhibit the numerous lines of cleavage;
they are very bright, and have a very distinct yellowish appearance. The indifferent pyrites,
on the contrary, are found in well-defined cubical crystalizations, isolated, and with a sharp
edge, and usually disseminated through the slate formations.
Throughout the length of the zone [the main pay chimney] the roofing [the hanging
wall] is well defined, but the walling [the foot wall] is irregular, and composed of quartz
feeders which follow the stratification of the slate formations and finally unite with small
quartz veins containing feldspar, carbonates of lime, and, as is the case always, some tellurets. The association of these minerals is so perfectly verified that when one is met there is
a certainty of the presence of the others at a short distance.    -* 
These ores are sometimes of an extraordinary value-; thus, during myvisit to Melones, an
assay which I made myself on four ounces of sulphurets and tellurets, taken from a concentration of second-class ores, yielded $150 of gold and $1 of silver, or about $17,500 to the
ton of concentrated sulphurets.              I I I No process of economical manipulation of this
class of ores has, as yet, been found without inflicting serious losses. The concentration
which has to be resorted to, costly in itself, still permits the escape of a large portion of the
precious metals.
Charles A. Stetefeldt, a mining engineer and metallurgist, to whom  specimens of the ore from the Stanislaus mine were submitted, wrote a report, in which
he said:
These ores are of extraordinary interest for the mineralogist and metallurgist, since besides
-'heir great richness in native gold, they contain also telluric gold and silver in such quan-ities as have never before been known.  Telluric ores of all kinds are extremely rare, and
ound only in small quantities at the following places: at Offenbanya, Salathna, and NagYag, in Transylvania; at Schemnitz, in Hungary;  at the Sawodinsky mines, in the Aitai
Mountains; and at Spottsylvania, in Virginia.  But at none of these places are the telluric
61
4 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ores as important as in the Stanislaus mine; on the contrary, the quantity found in them is
so small that no regular process for their reduction can be said to be in practice   *      *
The samples of ore from the Stanislaus mine, shown to me by you, contain large quantities
of sylvanite or graphic tellurium, of steel-gray color and metallic lustre, by far the richest
tellurium ore, and smaller quantities of the tellurium of lead, recognizable by its tin-white
color and great lustre.  It is probable that other combinations of tellurium will also be found
on a closer examination of the ores.        *         *         *        *        *        *
Science indicates and your own experience fully proves that the ores are not suitable for
amalgamation. Quicksilver not only fails to absorb any portion of the gold contained in the
telluric combinations, but the presence of the latter prevents the quicksilver from producing
its natural effect even upon the native gold, so that even of the latter a comparatively small
percentage only can be obtained by amalgamation. Nor would the matter be much helped
by separating the tellurium, were that practicable, by roasting, for the Stanislaus ores contain
a considerable amount of tellurid of lead, and the lead, as is well known, is most injurious
to amalgamation.       *      *     *      The distribution of the ores in the vein renders a
separation of them by hand into three or more different qualities, according to richness, comparatively easy and inexpensive. These different qualities I would submit separately to a
process of wet concentration, which for the richer ores would have to be carried on with
extreme care.        *        *          *         *         *         *         *         *
For the first qualities, which contain only a small amount of gangue, I should recommend
cupellation with lead. This process consists in melting a quantity of lead in a cupelling
furnace and gradually adding the finely-crushed ore as soon as the lead begins to oxydize,
and a coating of litharge is thereby formed on the surface. The ore floats about on the molten
lead, and the base metals become oxydized through contact with the atmospheric air and
with the litharge or oxyd of lead, which has a tendency to give up its oxygen. The oxydation of the base metals immediately liberates the gold and silver, which combine with the
molten lead and are retained by it while the oxydized base metals form with the litharge a
thoroughly fluid slag, which can be raked off; as much further ore can then be added as the
lead is capable of absorbing.
If experience should show that a part of the tellurium also passes into the molten lead in a
metallic state, instead of at once oxydizing and combining with the litharge, it will then be
necessary to carry on all the earlier stages of the cupelling process in furnaces especially
constructed for that purpose. The lead which has absorbed all the gold and silver out of the
ore can be worked in these furnaces as long as necessary to oxydize all the tellurium, which
will then gradually form tellurite of lead, and be raked off like the first slag formed in the
beginning of the process. The purified lead can then be removed to the cupelling furnace
and the cupellation be proceeded with in the ordinary manner.
SANTA Cruz.-The Santa Cruz mine is 1,500 feet long on the western branch
of the mother lode, north of the Stanislaus river. This vein is barren so far as
examined, except in the walls, where it is crossed by two smaller veins, which
run west 15~ north.   Some of the rock has yielded $300 per ton.   A tunnel 240
feet long has been cut, reaching the vein.   No work is being done now.
UNION.-The Union mine, 400 feet, is on Carson Hill, and the vein is supposed to be a branch of the mother lode. The vein is 30 feet wide in places,
but the best pay (firom $20 to $70 per ton) has been found in a seam of talcose
slate fiom two to four feet thick, onil the hanging  wall.   A  20-stamp steam mill
is l)eing built now.
CARSON CREEK.-The Carson  Creek  quartz  mine, situated on a branch of
the mother lode, near the mouth of Carson creek, is 1,000 feet long.  The vein
is 12 feet wide for 600 feet, but then pinches out till it is only an inch or
twvo thick.   The thick part of the. claim has been prospected to an average depth
of 40 feet, and rock has been found nearly all along to pay $8 or $8 per ton,
exclusive of a few rich pockets. The wall is in places as smooth as glass. There
are parts of the vein where the quartz contains enough argentiferous galena to
yield 60 ounces of silver to the ton. TI'here is on the claim a 10-stamp mill,
which has heretofore been used for dry crushing, but is now being remodelled for
wet crushing.   The pulp, after passing from the battery and over copper-plate,
is to be settled in tanks, from which the sand will be taken to be ground in Hepburn pans and amalgamated afterwards in arrastras with iron floors and stone drags.
BOvEE.-The Bovee mine, 465 feet long, at Angelo includes four veins which
here represent the mother lode. The main vein seems to be talcose slate near the
surface, and is from 20 to 30 feet wide. The first vein to the west of this is two
and a half feet wide, and barren, and underlies a heavy bed of talc} three and a
62 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
half feet wide.  The next vein is three feet wide, and contains $8 or $10 rock.
Then come two feet of slate, beyond which is a vein 15 feet wide, with hard
white barlen quartz on the hanging wall.  At a depth of 120 feet it is only three
feet thick, and carries rich sulphtirets in spots.  The character at that depth
chlanges from a brittle white to a blueish, spermaceti-like quartz, which promises
well. The main vein is a hard, white, barrtten quartz, with occasional spots of
suilphurets.  It is supposed fiom the dip of these veins that they will meet and
,inite about 400 feet below the surface.  At the surface they are about 200 feet
apart between the outer lines.
The deepest workings are 130 feet down, and at 60 feet drifts have been run
350 feet on the vein.  All the rock pays not less than $6 per ton; but there are
two pay chimneys, which appear to be nearly vertical, and which paid $16 near
the surface, and yield $26 per ton at a depth of 120 feet.  Seams of slate appear
on the surface, but are not found below.  Talc is found mixed with the quartz,
and is rich in sulphurets.
As soon as a blast is let off in the mine there are men who set to work to break
and select the rock, throwing aside all the barren stuff, of whicll there is consid erable. This breaking and selection needs to be done without delay, because
after the rock has been shovelled about it becomes so dirty that its quality does
not show without washling.
This mine was long known by the name of its first owner, Ir. Wvinters, and
accordling, to rumor its gross yield under his management was $500,000.  He
worked the claim along its whole length by open cut;  and in his early workings
by picking the rock, hlie obtained $2,000 or $3,000 per ton in an arrastra.  No
such vein stone can be found in it now, though it is still considered a rich and
very valuable mine.
The Bovee mill has 10 stamps of 500 pounds each, driven at the speed of
75 blows per minute, with  eight inches drop.  The screen is of wire No.
20.  The gold is amalgamnated in the mortar with loose quicksilver, and
below the screen there is a copper plate, after passing which the pulp goes
into a tank where the current is arrested, and through another where the current
at the surface is not arrested-that is, there is a steady discharge.  For a time
Air. Bovee ran the pulp through three tanks, one below the other, wvithl a constant discharge from each; but the experiment satisfied him that the two last did
not pay.  The first tankl below the mortar catches coarse sand; the second
catches fine sand; and the third and fourth fill up with slum that does not pay
to workl.  The sands from the first two tanks are shovelled upon a platform,
from which they are taken to charge the Wheeler & IRandall pans, four feet in
diameter, in which they are ground in charges of 800 pounds each for three hours.
Half an hour before the grinding is dlone the mullers are raised a little, and four
poufids of quicksilver are put in.  The pulp while in the pan is as thick as it
can be worked conveniently.  To each charge a large peckl of hot coal and wood
ashes from under the grate are added, and steam is thrown into the pulp.
Wheeler, the inventor of the pan, recommends the introduction of 200 pounds of
luicksilver at the commencement of the grinding.  Bovee uses only four, introduced near the close of the grinding.  In Mr. Bovee's opinion, the grinding is
facilitated and hastened by keeping the pulp nearly to the boiling point as long
as it is in the pans. Three of Knox's pans are used as settlers for each grinding
pan.  The runs last for two weeks.  If the run lasts four weeks a larger proportion of the quicksilver is lost, and that which is saved is corrupt or dirty.
Besides the stamp and pan mill, there is an arrastra mill with 15 arrastras,
driven by 61 inches of water on an overshot wheel 30 feet in diameter and three
feet wide.  The rock is crushed in the stamp mill as fine as peas for the arrastras, il which it is ground for six hours in charges of 280 pounds each.   The
yield in the pans is 25 per cent. greater than in the arrastras.
ALXGELS.-The mine of the Angels Quartz Mining Company is 900 feet long,
63 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
and the workling vein has an average wvidth of 15 feet of talcose slate mixed
with quartz.  The quaitz-lode is 150 feet west at the surface, and it is supposed
that the two will meet about 300 feet from the surface. There is a good gouge
on both sides and clay slate walls to the vein.  The mine has been worked for
10 years, and is now yieldilng $8 per ton, though assays show that the rocki con tains from $15 to $20.  The gold is very fine.  The mine has a 30-stamp steam
mill, with a Blake crusher to prepare the rock for the stamps, two Wheeler pans'
for grinding, a Belden settler, and lately an experiment has been tried with one
of liesse's pans.  The pulp is discharged from the mortar through a slot screen,
the orifices being as wide as those in a No. 40 wire screen.   The advantage of
the slot screen is that it discharges more freely, as the holes are not plugged up
by the sulphurets.  The deepest workings are 186 feet deep, and the drifts extend along the vein 350 feet, in pay all the way.   Most of the early workings
were in open cut, and the rock was richer at the surface than in the lower levels.
I-IILL.-Dr. Hill's mine, 412 feet long, is also working on the talcose slate
vein, which averages 15 feet wide, and contains much  silicate of lime, besides
quartz, the slate occupying a very subordinate portion here.  The proprieter of
the mine says that most of the gold is found in threads of sulphate of barytes,
and in bunches of silicate of lime.   Worlk  was commenced on the mine in
1S857 with arrastras, and has been continued since with the exception of three
years. The total production is estimated at $250,000, and the amount spent
in the mine, $300,000.  There is now a 12-stamp mill at worlk  on it.  The
depth from the dies in the mortar to tlie discharge is 14 inches, and the
stamps when raised to their highest point are two inches deep in the water.  For
a time no screen was used, but the result of the experiment was not satisfactory.
The present screen is of No. 60 wire.  Hunter's malgamator and Hill's panll are
used.  The latter, named  after its inventor, the owner of this mine, is a circular
copper dish six feet in diameter, six inches deep. A section through the centre
represents a segment of an oval.   This bowl revolves horizontally on a central axis, and in the centre is a cup to hold quicksilver. The pan makes S18
revolutions per minute.  The whole surface of the panll is covered with amalgam.
One of these pans at the mill of the Angels Quartz Mining Company saves $200
per monthi it is said.  In Hill's mine there are numerous horses of barren slate,
aand in one place a trachytic dike 15 feet thick crosses the lode running westnorthwest and east-southeast.  About five per cent. of the pay rock consists of
suiilphlurets.  The silicate of lime gives a milky look to the pulp as it comes from
the mortar.
STICKLES.-The Stickles mine, 400 feet long, near the town of Angels, on
the motlher lode, which is there 20 feet thick, is quartz and pay all the way
through, witli numerous seams of slate.  The deepest workings are 80 feet below
the surface, and drifts have been run 120 feet on the vein, in pay rock all the
way.  There is a 10-stamp mill in operation on the mine.
UTICA.-The Utica, 600 feet long, is owned in San Francisco.  There was a
nine-stamp mill which did not pay, and has been moved away. The deepest
workings are 60 feet from the surface.
LIGTTNEP.- The Lightner mine, 400 feet long, owned in San Francisco, was
worked in open cut for three or four years to a depth of 70 feet with a 10-stamp
mill, but the expenses were a trifle more than the receipts, and so the mill was
moved away and the mine left idle. If wages were a little lower this mine
would pay, for, according to the general opinion in the neighborhood, there is a
large body of rock that will yield at least $4 or $5 per ton, and probably $6 or $8S.
ELLA.-The Ella mine (known also by the names of the Calaveras, the
Terrific, and the Demorest) is seven miles northwest of Angels, on a vein which
is eight feet wide and crops out along the surface for 80O or 1,000 feet.   The
vein-stone is a hard ribbon rock, rich in sulphurets, with  a seam of barren
"bastard quartz" in the middle.  The ribbon rock yields $8 per ton.   The foot
64
4 
%
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
wall is black slate and the hanging wall green-stone.  A shaft has been sunk
110 feet, and drifts have been run 35 feet on the vein.   The mine is in
a deep ravine at the foot of Bear mountain, with steep hills on both sides.
There is a 10-stamp mill, but both mine and mill are now standing, idle.
At this mine an experiment was tried of roasting the rock with superheated
steam. A furnace was built 20 feet high and 16 feet in diameter externally,
with an ore chamber  seven feet wide at the bottom, nine feet at the top,
and 16 feet high.  The fire boxes were on the sides of the ore chamber near
the bottom, and over the grating ran a steam pipe full of orifices, through which
steam could escape.  The rock as it came from the mine was thrown into this
furnace, and was roasted fronm 40 to 70 hours at a red heat with a steady dis charge of superheated steam from the pipes.  The heat was reduced by shut ting, off the steam, or increased by letting on more.   The expense of roasting in
this method was $2 per ton, the price of wood-the only fuel used-being $3 50
per cord. The sulphurets were completely desulphurized by this method, and
the battery crushed twice as much in a day as of the run rock. The gold in
the roasted ore amalgamated readily, but the quicksilver was lost. The experi ment cost $25,000, and was regarded as a failure.
WVEST POINT.-V-West Point is a quartz mining town between the middle
and the north fork of the 3Iokelumne river, eastward from llokelumne Hill,
from which it is 12 miles distant in a direct line, and 16 miles by the road.
Its elevation is about 2,800 feet above the sea.  The bed rock is granite, and
the limestone belt lies three miles to the west. Quartz mining is conducted here(
on a peculiar system.  The lodes are narrow and rich in sulpliurets, and their
wealth is confined chiefly to pockets.  Mining alnd milling are separate occupations.  One set of men get quartz, and another set own mills and do customwork.  The "pockety" character of the veins renders mining, with the majority,
a very irregular, if not a very uncertain business; and there is not one vein in
ten, even among those which have yielded large sums, that will furnish steady
employment to a mill.  The custom  among the "pocket" miners is to hunt for
pockets near the surface, and when they have found one they clean it out carefullly, going down seldom more than 50 feet; and having pounded out the coarsest
gold in a hand mortar, and sent the quartz containing the finer particles to a
custom mill, they leave that spot and hunt for another pocket near the surface.
The experience of those who have gone down in search of other pockets has not
been encourging.  The prospecter lays bare as much of the surface of the vein
as he can, and goes picking along in search of a visible speck of gold, and having
found that, hlie makes a careful search for a pocket in the neighborhood. When
these pocket miners are successful they get a good lot of money at once, and many
of them live high till it is gone, and then they may have very plain meals for three,
six, or nine months, before they come on another treasure.  It is said, however,
that they have more money to spend than any other class of miners in Calaveras
county.  There are some mines here which give regular employment to mills.
owned by the same proprietors, but pocket mining and custom milling are followed more extensive here relatively than in any other part of the State. There
are about 100 men who make pocket mining their only business.  If the quartz
does not yield $15 per ton it will not pay them; and they can tell by a brief
examination within a dollar or two of the yield per tonl.  When they have found
something worthy of examination, they pound up a fair sample in a hand mniortar
and boil it in nitric acid, as a rude mode of assay.
In the neighborhood of West Point there are several hundred veins that have
had rich pockets, and one hill 400 feet across has three dozen such veins.   In
many of them the gold is so fine that none of it can be obtained in a hand mortar.
The mining laws of West Point g;ive 200 feet on a vein to a claim, and requires
one day's work every month to hold t claim.
'),
65 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
FISHEER'S MILL.-Fishcr's custom mill, one mile southeast from West Point,
has been running 11 years. It is driven by water-power, has two stamps and
two arrastras, charges $7 per ton for working rock, and works two tons per
day, with the services of one man. The whole establishment cost about $2,000.
HIARRIS'S MILL.-Hal-is's custom mill, on Sandy gulch, a mile and a quarter
west of West Point, has five stamps, four Brevoort pans, and three patent concentrators, and charges $5 per ton for worling rock.  This mill was built four
or five years ago, and has been running alinost constantly.
Br,LCHER'S MILL.-The Belcher customnl mill, a mile and three-quarters southeast of West Point, has eight stamps, but does not run regularly because of the
difficulty of getting a steady supply of water.
LACEY'S MILL.-Lacey's mill has five stamps, and does custom work only.
SKULL FLAT MILL. —The Skull Flat mill is two miles east of West Point, has
ten stamps, goes by water, amalgamates in the mortar and in copper-plates, and
uses two Hungerford's concentrators, but does nothing as yet with the concentrated tailings.  The Skull Flat Company owns claims on six or seven veins, tihe
widest not over two feet, and a depth of 100 feet has been reached in several
of them.  The veins run north and south, and the rock pays $30 or $35.
CPARLETON.-The Carleton mine, a mile and a half northwest of West Point,
is on a vein a foot wide.  There are two arrastras which were built in 1866, and
crush and amalgamate each a ton per day.
VANCE AND MINA RICA.-Vance's mill, five miles west of West Point, has
eight stamps, and is standing idle.  The Mina Rica has two veins two feet thiclk,
with very hard quartz, and much water in the lower levels.   The  mill has 10
stamps and 10 Baux's pans.   The power is steam.  Both mine and mill ame
standing idle.
MIORRIS'S MILL. —Alorris's mill, near West  Point, has two  arrastras and a
roasting furnace.  All the ore is roasted, and according to report the yield is $50
per ton, whereas without roasting it yields only $3.
MosQUITO.-The Mosquito mine, 1,500 feet lonrg, is five miles west of West
Point, on a vein five feet wide in slate. A large quantity of rock, yielding $7
per ton, was obtained near the surface; and now a tunnel is being cut to open
the mine to a considerable depth.  The mill was built in 1857, and was rebuilt
in 1863. It has 15 stamps, and is standing idle.
RAILROAD FLAT MILL.-The Railroad Flat custom mill, 13 miles east of
Miokelumne Hill, has 10 stamps, was built in 1866, and does not get enough
business to keep it running constantly.  The veins in the vicinity have not
been well opened.
AVWooDHOUSE.-The Woodlhouse mine, 5,000 feet long, is between the forks of
the Mokelumne river, 14 miles bythe road, eastward from MAokelumne Hill. The
vein is four feet wide, runs north and south, and dips to the west at an angle of 45~.
The walls on both sides are granite, and there is a whlite clay gouge, which is
generally found on the foot wall.  The croppings of the vein show for two or
three miles. The pay quartz is white near the surface, and at greater depth is
bluish and rich in sulphurets.  The barren quartz is white, glassy, and coarsegrainedcl.  The first pay chimney is found 1,S00 feet from the south fork of the
Moklelumne liver, (which is the boundary of the claim,) and 900 feet above its
level on the mountain side.  This chimney is 150 feet long horizontally. After
an interval of 600 feet another chimney is found, and this one is 400 feet long,,
beyond which the lode is barren for 200 feet, and then it splits up for 1,000 feet
into small branches less than a foot wide.  These contain good pay, and one
shaft has been sunk 100 feet to work them. Beyond this place the vein has not
been prospected. The rock from the different chimneys can be distinguished by
persons familiar with the mine. All the rock in the pay chimneys is worked.
The vein is crossed by several trap dikes which are nearly vertical, dipping
slightly to the south. They appear to bear no relation to the position of the pay
66 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOTNTAINS.
chimneys; that is, the appearance of a dike is not considered an indication of the
proximity of a chimney.  Most of the work has been done through cross-tunnels
which strike the vein 200 or 300 feet from the surface.  The mine has a 15 stamp mill, which has crushed 14,000 tons of rock and taken out $140,000.  After
the pulp has been amalgamated in the mortar and on copper-plates, it is concentrated on blankets, and the blanket washings are ground and amalgamated in
five Brevoort pans.  The mill is driven by two 30-foot overshot water wheels.
There is a considerable quantity of loose or "float" rock along the surface of the
vein, and 3,000 feet of 11-incli iron pipe are to be obtained for the purpose of
washing this float rock by hydraulic process.  Mluch of the gold in the rock from
the lower levels is lost in the sulpliurets, and an agreement has been made for
the erection of a revolving furnace to roast 15 tons in 24 hours, at a cost of $3
per ton.
IIOLMES.-The Iholmes mine, 1,600 feet ]onc, south of the Woodhouse and
adjoining it, was opened in 1866.  The vein is eight feet wide, and has been
opened by tunnel along a length of 500 feet.  The mine has a 10-stamp mill.
The sulphurets contain from $300 to $1,300 per ton.
BOSTON.-Tlie Boston mine adjoins the Woodhouse on the north, and was
workled by an eight-stamp mill in 1853, but did not pay.   The mill was washed
away afterwards.  Some 31exicans are now  at workl on the mine, with two
arrastras driven by water.  They obtain their rock from small rich chimneys.
QUAIL HIILL.-Quail Hill, near the western line of the county, has a large
deposit of auriferous talcose slate, containing seams of quartz and copper ore. It
is not a well-defined vein, but the general course appears to be northwest and
southeast, and the dip 60~ to the northeast.  The width is about 60 feet.  M1uch
of the surface has been washed in sluices, which paid at times very well. The
total yield in sluices was not less than $25,000, and besides the gold 150 tons
of good copper ore were obtained. This mine is the property of a San Francisco
company, which is now building a 20stamp mill and constructing a ditch 11
miles long from Salt Spring reservoir.~
' Professor Silliman, in a paper read before the California Academy of Natural Sciences,
said:
In the search for ores of copper which occurred in California in what is now known as the
copper belt of the Lower Sierras, deposits of iron rust, as they were called by the miners,
*vere observed at numerous points far below the range of the main gold belt of the Sierras.
Several of these ochraceous deposits had been previously located by prospecting miners for
-old before there wvas any knowledge or suspicion even of the existence of ores of copper in
onnection with them. It was a matter of common observation that certain gulches or water:ourses in the neighborhood of these rusty deposits were rich in placer gold, having been
, orked for gold from an early date.  The search for copper in this kind of deposit was not
ommercially successful, although there were shipments of green and blue carbonates of
topper, red oxyd, and metallic copper, to a limited extent from both the localities here referred
o, (the Harpending mine in Placer county, and the Quail Hill in Calaveras,) the metal from
vhich was known to contain a notable value of gold and silver, stated to be about $50 to the
on of ore. This search for copper has however opened up these deposits so as to display
ieir character in a conspicuous manner.
The rocks appear to have been originally talcose and chloritic schists, sometimes micaeous, enclosing masses of argillite, and of quartz, which appears to have been massive
nough at certain points to assume the character of a vein, and parallel to the stratification,
-hich has the usual northwestern strike and easterly dip of the region. All this mass of
,aterial, which at Quail Hill is certainly 300 feet wide, and possibly twice that, and
-ith a linear extent exceeding 1,000 feet, appears to have been very highly impregnated
.r mineralized by sulphurets, chiefly of iron, with a portion of copper, zinc, and lead.
he sulphurets have undergone almost total decomposition throughout  the entire mass,
Waving soft ochraceous deposits of a rusty red and yellow color, and staining the rocks with
-rilliant color, a peculiarity which the miners have characterized by the name of "calico
ocks." This decomposition or oxydation of the sulphurets has extended to a point as low
s atmospheric influences extend, or probably to a point where water is permanently found,
hich at Quail Hill is assumed to be about 170-feet below the outcrop of the mass.  Dikes
f porphyry and of other rocks commonly called intrusive are seen dividing these great ore
hailnels in a direction conformable to the line of strike. But the decomposition which has
67
i
II 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
COLLIER.-Thle Collier claim, one mile southeast of Quail Hill, is similar in
character to the preceding mine, and has been worked in the same manner.
The total yield is estimated at $10,000.  It is said that if the miill at Quail
Hill succeeds one will be built here.
affected other portions of the ore channel appears also to have changed them, for they are
found to be reduced completely to the condition of kaolin and lithromarge, or kindred alterations of feldspathic rocks.  The outlines of the feldspar crystals are still easily distinguished,
although the mass of the dikes is completely friable.
In another paper on the mine Professor Silliman says the explorations made for copper
have laid open the deposit sufficiently to disclose clearly its true nature, extent, and almost
incalculable value in gold and silver. It is an ore channel, conformable like all the copper
mines of the region to the line of strike of the rocks, not less, probably, than 300 feet in
width, and perhaps more than twice that width. Its eastern wall is distinctly seen in the
open cut, as shown in the section, dipping easterly about 70~. The western wall has
never been seen, but is certainly pretty far down the slope, on the western side. The
contents of this enormous channel of ore-bearing ground, so far as exposed, are entirely
decomposed by chemical agency, so that they offer to the miner and geologist one of the
most remarkable cases known of the total destruction of metallic sulphurets which plainly
once filled the whole chasm, now converted into gossans or oxides of iron of various colors,
and carbonates of copper, mingled with masses of spongy and white quartz, of talcose and
chloritic rocks, rotten porphyry, heavy spar,  &c., &c., all so completely changed  and
decayed by the causes alluded to that the entire mass yields to the pick and shovel in any
direction. This extreme decay of the original contents renders the study of the mass at first
a little difficult; no sulphurets of any kind remain visible to guide the eye, but in their
place everywhere the results of their decomposition.
The mass is evidently a gigantic vein, the main constituent of which was a highly sulphuretted quartz, holding originally iron and copper pyrites throughout its entire mass; these
sulphurets, and the quartz itself, being very uniformly impregnated at all parts with gold
and silver. Examined by the battea, the pan, or the horn spoon, no part of the contents of
this great ore channel fails to give abundant "prospects" of gold. Even the dry cherty
croppings broken from all parts of the hill, without selection, gave an ample show of gold.
The gulch at the base of the hill has always yielded good washings, and does so still, the
source of which is from the ores of Quail Hill. I found the gold in nearly all the varieties
of mineral contents contained in the hill, showing that any attempt at selection would be
useless, and that the whole of the mass must be worked as it runs, except certain layers of
soft white rock, resembling kaolin, which are probably too poor in gold to pay for working.
EXTENT OF EXPL)RATIONS.-This mass has been opened by a cut driven 82 feet intc
it, beyond the line of the east wall, by an incline 57 feet long, at an angle of 380, and by a
shaft 42 feet below the cut, sunk in pursuit of copper ore. The shaft in the open cut
explores the mass over 80 feet below the walls of the cut and nearly 150 feet below the crown
of the hill. Another shaft, sunk 100 feet south of the open cut, opens the deposit to a total
depth of 90 feet under the crown of the hill. Near Gopher Gulch is another shaft 62 feet
deep, which passes into the unchanged sulphurets 25 feet, it is said, from its mouth, (this
shaft has water in it now,) or about 170 feet under the hill.
The position of all these openings is seen on the map; but there is a tunnel, not shown
on the map, run some 70 feet into the hill, on the west side, and several hundred feet (about
850 feet) beyond the western limits of the location, in which the entire mass of the hill is
still seen to be completely decomposed at that part also, the tunnel having been run by the
pick alone. From this tunnel I obtained spongy quartz, which prospected well for gold;
but this point is very far west of the supposed productive limits of the deposit. Numerous
surface-pits have also been sunk over the hill in various places for the purpose of obtaining
averages, from all of which gold prospects may be obtained in the pan.
VALUE OF TIlE ORES.-I collected for assay and practical workings careful samples
from  1. The whole face of the open cut on both sides and end.
2. The incline shaft.
3. The south shaft.
I give here only the general results and averages, viz:
(1.) The average from the three places named above was by working tests:
Gold...................................................................... $29 18
Silver........... —-------------------------------------------------------------- 5 91
Total  value  per  ton  of  2,000  pounds................................  35   09
By assay, value per ton of 2,000 pounds............................ 50 17
68
I 
WEST OF TIIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.  *
BRUSIrVILLE.-The Austin and Hatl;away mine at Brushliville, half a mile
south of the Calaveras river, is on a similar deposit, and has been worked down
to a depth of 30 feet.  The owners of the mine, who reside in San Francisco.
are erecting a 20-stamp steam mill.
PLYMf)UTHr.-The Plymouth mine, 2,000 feet long, at Brusliville, is on a
deposit similar to that at Quail Hill.  sir. Heuschl, a miniing engineer, who
examined the mine in 1865, said:
This mineral deposit may be described as a vein or belt of gold-bevring quartz imbedded
in a soft decomposed talcose rock, the whole being enclosed between two nearly perpendicular walls of greenstone. The quartz, of which there is a lode of about eight feet in width,
(2.) Ten (10) small samples collected at various points in the open cut, with a view to
determine where the ore was richer or poorer, (the details of which are appended,) gaveGold...................................................................... $17 08
Silver..................................................................... 5 82
Total........................................................... 22 90
Assay value of same............................................... 24 70
(3.) A large lot of 2,843 pounds of ores collected some time since, under direction of
Messrs. Attwood and Peachy, were carefully worked by Mr. Lewis Blanding, giving by
working tests an average ofGold...................................................................... $35 08
Silver..................................................................... 14 38
Total............................................................ 49  46
Assay value..................................................... 82  65
(4.) Averaging these three independent sets of returns, as we have for the general averageGold...................................................................... $30  11
Silver..-.................................................................. 8 68
Averaging total working tests..................................... 38 79
Average assay value........................-....................- 52 51
An inspection of the tabulated results given in detail with this report will show that the
silver is very unequally disposed, being found in greatest quantity in the incline shaft or
near its mouth. If we view the results from the least favorable side, even accepting the
lowest single averages as those most likely to be obtained in working in the large way, it is
impossible to avoid the conclusion that the whole mass of the ores at Quail Hill, so far as
explored, exceeds the average gold tenor of most of the best quartz mines of the State of
California.
*      X       if       *       *      X        *      *        *     
COST AND MODE or TREATMENT.-At Quail Hill the water-power is sufficient to move
100 stamps, as the water is delivered under an estimated pressure of about 200 feet head.
The only water in all the region is at the command of the owners of Quail Hill. The reservoir has a present area of over 650 acres, and the right of flowage, by the terms of its location, of an elevation of 15 feet more than its present height. A line of survey is now being
run for a ditch, estimated to be of about ten, (10) miles in length, to convey the water to
Quail Hill, and also of the line marking the area of flowage at an elevation 15 feet higher
than the present.  This reservoir fills the valley known as Salt Spring Valley.
With these facilities it is estimated that the cost of treatment of the Quail Hill ores will
not exceed 70 to 80 cents per ton, including the cost of extraction and delivery at mill.
The mode of treatment is based on the condition of the gold, which is all firee, viz:
amalgamation in battery, double discharge; moderately coarse screens, No. 2 or No. 3;
amalgamated copper aprons and riffles; large settlers to collect amalgam and mercury; an
ample flow of pure water to aid in settling the residuum, and large slime pits to retain the
tailings, are the main features. As experience in the management of the ores teaches us better
methods, such improvements as are thus warranted may gradually be introduced. Blankets
may form a part of the system, following the copper inclines.
I would not advise an estimate of value exceeding $10 per ton, net saving, or say 40
and 50 per cent. of the demonstrated value. The residue is not lost, and the ample head
and flow of water will permit the company at any future time to set up a pan mill, or any
other approved mode of working over the. tailings, provided the tailings are retained as
herein advised, and should be found valuable.
69
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
occupies the western part of the vein, while the remaining space is filled with the auriferous
talcose rock, the whole forming a regular channel of gold-bearing matter of about 40 feet
in width, many hundred feet in length, and doubtless many hundred feet in depth. It is in
fact a wide chasm, running through a hill several hundred feet in height, and filled with
auriferous quartz and other gold-bearing matter.
3Ir. Ileusch estimated that there were, wiithin 300 feet of the surface, in a
length of 600 feet, 214,185 tons of auriferous matter that would yield $10 gross
and $4 net per ton.  There is a 10-stamp mill on the mine, and it began to run
on the 1st of September.  The estimated yield is $8 per ton, and the expense $2.
LxAMPHEAr.-The Lamphear mine, 1,S00 feet long, is two miles southeast of
3,okelumne Hill, is on a vein which is four feet wide, and has been workled to a
depth of 45 feet and to a length of 100 feet.  Six hundred tons of rock have
been worked, and sonice of it was quite rich.  There is an eighlt-stamp mill on
the mine.
CADW-ALLADEP MILL.-The Cadwallader mill has three stamps, was built
for prospecting, and is not at worlk.
FrECNCH MILL.-The Frelnch mill, at Rich gulch, six miles east of MIokelumne
Hill, was built two years ago, has 15 stamps, and is standing idle.
MIcGLY\NX's MILL. —MIcGlynn's six-stamp mill, erected at San Andreas to crush
quartz, is being moved to Irvine's claim, on the old channel, to crush cement.
CHEnoKEE. —The Cherokee mine, 1,700 feet longr west of Altaville and a
quarter of a mile west of the line of the mother lode, was discovered by some
placer miners, who washed the gravel and clay from the surface of a vein of
decomposed quartz, and dug up the carions quartz filled with auriferous clay and
washed that too.  The discoverers, hlaving taklen out $27,000, sold to others,
who got $9,000 and then leased it to a gentleman who obtained $30,000; and
after him came a party whlo got out $25,000.  The mine is now owned by a
citizen of San Francisco, who has a 16-stamp mill now idle on it.  The gold is
coarse and is in pockets, and most of the rock does not yield more than $2 or $3
per ton.
SAN DOMIXGO.-At San Domningo a rich auriferous pocket was found in limestone, the rock yielding $1,500 per ton.  After most of the gold-bearing quartz
was extracted the mine was sold to a San Francisco company for $10,000.  They
never obtained any return for it.
MIuIrPYls.-At Mlurphy's a similar pocket was found and a mill was erected
at a cost of $40,000. Although water could have been obtained in constant
supplv, it was driven by steam. The rich rock was soon exhausted, and the
mill wsas sold and removed.
At Murphy's there is a three-stamp mill nowrunning, called the Valparaiso mill.
At Cave Citv some rich rock was found, and a mill was built, but it has since
been moved.
At E1 Doradclo there is a mill.
CrispIx.-The Crispin mine, 2,400 feet in length, two miles west of Murphy's,
is on a vein which runs east and west and dips to the south at an angle of 80~.
A shaft has been sunkl to a depth of 100 feet, and drifts have been run 150 feet
on the vein.  The width of the lode is six feet, but the pay is confined near the
surface to a very narrow seam next the lhangingi wall, thoughl it widens as it goes
down. The pay chimney isonly 30 feet long on the surface, but at the 100-foot
level the drifts have not reached the end in either direction.  The walls are of
slate, with a gouge of auriferous talcose slate.  There is a water-wheel for
pumnping and hoisting, but no mill.  A custom mill crushl-ed 225 tons and obtained
an average of $20 per ton.
A quartz lode running northwest and southeast passes through 3Murphy's and
Douglas Flat, and has been struck at many places by placer miners. At the
surface it consists of decomposed quartz, and all along its line quartz boulders
are found, and some of them have been rich.
70
I 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ISABEL.-The Isabel mine, about half a mile westward from Vallecito, yielded
$50,000 in a single pocket.  A  mill was erected, but as it did not pay it was
moved away, and the mine is not worlked.
CALAVERITrAS.-The Calaveritas mill, erected about  10 years ago by  a
French company at a cost of $110,000, has been moved away.  It never crushed
a pound of quartz from the mine vwhichl it was built to wvorkl. Before it was
completed the pocket supposed to represent the average richness of the vein was
exhausted, and as no auriferous rock could be found afterwards, the mnill had
nothing to do.
ALBIOXN.-The Albion mine, in Salt Spring valley, three miles west of Copperopolis, has been worked for three years with a 10-stamp mill.  The average yield
is about $6 per ton, leaving very little profit. The gold coins $11 per ounce.
THOP,PE'S.-Thorpe's mine, 600 feet long, six miles west of Angels, is on a
vein whilch runs northwest and southeast, and is similar in its gangule to tlie
Bovee mine. The thickness of the lode is three feet, and the yield is $10 per ton.
The rock is crushed and amalgamated by two arrastras, driven by a water-wheel
24 feet in diameter.
The Ratcliffe mine, 400 feet long, is two miles southwest of Angels, on the
Copperopolis road. The vein is from four to six feet wide, and the rock is quartz
mixed with talcose slate.  This mine has been worked at intervals for three or
four years, but steadily for 18 months, by one man, who throws the quartz upon
the road, vwhlere it is ground fine by the heavy wagons passing over it, and then
he shovels the dust into his sluice, which runs along the road, and catches the
gold. This is the only lode mine wvorklied on this plan in the State.
CARPENTErr,.-Adjoining the Ratcliffe mine and on the same vein is the Carpenter mine, on which a five-stamp mill was erected in 1855.  The mill was moved
to Angels, and the mine is now lying idle.
Puxr.NELL.-The Purnell mine, 600 feet, adjoining the Carpenter, has been
worked for five or six years, and a 10-stamp mill is now going up on it.
SECTION VI.
AMIADOR COUNTY.
Amador, one of the smallest mining counties of thie State, and also one of
the most prosperous, lies between the loklelumne and Cosumnes rivers, extending
from the summit of the Sierra to near the plain, with a length of 50 miles and
an average width of 14.  It owes its prosperity chiefly to the mother lode, which
crosses the county about 12 miles from the western boundary, and has within
three miles three mines, which have all been worked continuously for 15 years,
have probably produced not less than $8,000,000, and form the most remarkable
cluster of quartz mines on one vein in the State.  Twelve miles further east,
near Volcano, there is another rich quartz mining district which has some peculiar features. Otherwise, the county has not much wealth. It has no great
thoroulghfare leading across the mountains, no place of fashionable summer
resort, no productive mines of copper, no extensive hydraulic claims, few rich
surface placers, and no quarries of marble or deposits of plumbago.
The agriculture of the county is prosperous but not extensive.   The farmers
do not aim to do more than supply the home demand, except in wine, and for
+hat there is no regular marklet as yet.  The county has a large number of vineyards, and they are cultivated with care.  Timber is abundant in the eastern
part of the county, but scanty in the western.
Near the eastern boundary, at an elevation of 10,000 feet above the sea, is
Silver lake, a mile long and a half mile wide, surrounded by beautiful scenery.
71
I
i
,b, 
RESOURCES OF STATES'AND TERRITORIES
It will probably become a favorite summer resort at some future time, when
better means of access are provided.
A road following up the main divide between the Cosumnes and Mokelumne
rivers, in this county, leads across the Sierra Nevada through the Carson pass.
It was made at considerable expense, but there is not much travel on it.
The most remarkable topographical feature of the county is the Jackson
butte, which rises 1,200 feet above the adjacent country, five miles from the county
seat. In form it is a regular cone, with a sharp peaki, and there are no signs that
it ever had a crater, although it has often been spoken of as an extinct volcano.
Jackson creek, Sutter creek, Dry creek, and Indian creek, which drain the.
county between the rivers that serve as boundaries, all go dry in the spring.
W1ater is supplied by 28 ditches, with an aggregate length of 433 miles and an
aggregate cost of $1,154,500. The only large ditches are the Butte, Amador,
and Volcano ditches.
The county debt is 8100,000, and the State and county taxes together are
$3 20 on the $100 of assessed value.
Jackson, the county seat, formerly had rich placers in its neighborhood, but
now depends chiefly upon quartz. Sutter Creek is the chief town and business
centre of the county.  It ranks next to Grass Valley for the production of quartz
gold.  Amador and Drytown are other towns situated on or near the mother
lode. Volcano, the only placer mining town in the county now producing much
gold, is on the lime belt, and has diggings very similar to those of Columbia and
Murphy's.  Butte City, which depended on shallow placers and was once populous and prosperous, is now exhausted and abandoned.  Buena Vista, Forest
Home, WVillow Springs, Slabtowvn, Clinton, and Aqueduct City are also worked
out.  Tiddletown has a few good hydraulic claims, and Lancha Plana several
that pay a little more than expenses.  lone City is surrounded by a fertile
faring land, and there are more than 1,000,000 vines in the vicinity.
The quartz mines of the county, as a class, were unprofitable previous to
1858, but since that year they have been steadily improving, and the white population has been increasing. It is estimated by county officers who have occasion to make close observation, that 1,000 Chinamen have left the county this
year.
Several high ridges or divides that come down from the Sierra are supposed
to consist chiefly of gravel with rich aurierous strata in them, but there is no
proof of the correctness of this theory save the geneial resemblance of these
ridges to others known to be auriferous.
VoLcAN o.-The town of Volcano, situated on the lime belt, 12 miles eastward from Jackson, was so named because it is in a deep basin, and the first
miners at the place supposed they were in an extinct crater.  This supposition
has not been accepted as correct by scientific men generally who have visited
the place, although there are many marks of volcanic outflows in the neighborhlood.  The diggings here are very similar to those of Murphy's and Columbia
on the lime belt further south, and the same difficulties of drainage have been
experienced.
On China Hill, south of Volcano, are the followving hydraulic claims:
Ross & Co., 300 by 100 feet, have been at work since 1855, and have made
$5 or $6 per day. During the last three years three men have been employed.
Their claim is 80 feet deep.
Goodrich & Co. have 200 by 100 feet, have worked for 12 years, and have
not found very good pay.  The claim is S0 feet deep, and will last four or five
years. There are two men at work.
Farrin & Co. have 300 by 100 feet, and are working to a depth of 20 feet,
below which they have no drainage, and must hoist their dirt. The claim has
been worked at intervals for 13 years, and now employs three men.
The Murphy & Co. claim is 300 by 100 feet on the surface, and 100 feet deep,
72
I 
WEST OF TIIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
has paid from $8 to $12 per day to the hand until within the last year, and lately
has not paid expenses.
There have been a number of other claims on China Hill, but they are either
abandoned or of little note.
At the mouth of China gulch are the following dump-box claims:
Foster & Co. have 400 by 150 feet, employ six or seven men, and have been
at work since 1853, excepting from 1858 till 1862, when they were idle, waiting
for the completion of the open cut to give them drainage. In 1866 they took
out $8,500 clear of expenses. The claim will last three years, and is worked
only in the summer.'
Sullivan & Co. have 200 by 150 feet, commenced workl in 1865, and have
made $3 or $4 per day to the hand.  They employ four men, and their claim
will last two years.
Armistrong & Co. have 800 by 150 feet, and employ five men.  They commenced work in 1852, and made good pay till 1857, when worki was stopped for
want of drainage. In 1861 they began again, and did well till 1866, in which
they only paid expenses.  This year they are again getting good pay.  The
claim will last seven or eight years.  It is worked only in the summer.
Ilayt & Co. have a very small claim.
On Alahala Flat, Goodrich and Co. have a hydraulic claim, 200 by 100 feet.
They have worlked since 1856, and have made wages until lately.  Two mea
are employed.
On Volcano Flat are the following dump-box claims, which are workled only
in summer:
Terrill & Co. have 400 by 100 feet, and employ six men. The claim l)as
been worked since 1861, and has paid very well.
Green & Co. have 300 by 100 feet, employ five men, have been at work since
1861, and have made good pay.
The Italian claim has been worked since 1865, and pays well.
Cerrelli & Co. have been at work since 1865, and have obtained good pay.
MIuch ground now occupied for gardening purposes in Volcano will be mined
out within three or four years.
QuAPrTZ REGULATIONS OF AMADOR.-In Amador county, each district has
its owa- mining regulations for quartz, as well as for placer mining.  If a claim
is not within the limits of any district, it may, according to custom, be recorded
in the nearest district, and held under its laws.
In the Volcano district a lode claimn for one person is 200 feet on the vein, and
75 feet on each side.
In the Pinegrove district a claim for one person is 300 feet, and 100 feet on
each side, and in this, as in the Volcano district, one day's work is necessary each
month to hold each share.
In the Volcano, Pinegrove, Clinton, and Jackson districts a company's claim,
no matter how large, may be held for a year by doing worsk to the amount of $500,
posting a notice on the claim, and filing notice with the recorder that such work
has been done.
In the Jackson district, if the company is a small one, it may do wivork to the
amount of $20 for each share, and this will hold the claim for a year.
There are no pocket veins in Amador county similar to those at West Point,
in Calaveras county, or at Bald mountain, in Tuolumne.   The limestone at
Volcano is full of bunches of quartz, but they are not large enough to work, and
there are no regular veins.
In the vicinity of Volcano, most of the quartz veins cut across the slates at
an angle of 45~, and iun between 15 and 30~ east of north.
Elvan courses are abundant in the limestone.
QUARTZ VEINS ABOUT VoLcANo.-The quartz lodes in the vicinity of Volcano
generally run northeast and southwest, cut across -the slates, contain considerable
73 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
portions of antimony, arsenic, lead, and zinc, with traces of tellurium, and are
intersected by elvan courses. which run north and south, and dip to the west at an
angle of 70~. The elvan courses are usually from one foot to four feet in thickness,
and the intervals between them are very irregular. Quartz veins crossed by elvan
courses are usually poor near the intersections.  Those lodes which run with
the courses are very spotted, rich in some places, and poor in others.  Whliere
the quartz is thlick in these veins, it is richer than in the narrow places.  Pockets
and coarse gold are rare.
11Ar,LETTE.-Thie following mines are on the motherlode or its branches. The
3Iarlette, 800 feet long on the mother lode, near the 31okelumne river, is reputed
to be rich, but unprofitable on account of the high cost of working.  There is a
10-stamp mill which has been idle a year and a half.
COxEY.-The Coney mine, 800 feet long, is half a mile south of Jackson, on
a vein which is 30 feet west of the main mother lode, and can be traced for 10
miles by its croppings.  The dip in this mine is 72~ to the northeast.  The lode
is nine feet wide.  The deepest worlkings are 200 feet from the surface, and drifts
have been run 300 feet on the vein, all of which, so far as examined, is pay rock.
For 150 feet from the surface there is much slate, and lower down the vein-stone
is all quartz.  Near the hanging wall is found ribbon rock, containing some free
gold, which is rare elsewhere.  Five per cent. of the vein matter, and in spots
20 per cent., is sulphurets, which yields $7 50 per ton of unconcentrated
rock, and $200 per ton of clean sulphurets.  The free gold yields $6 per ton,
so the total yield may be put down as $13 50 per ton. The mill has 16
stamps in four batteries. Hendy's concentrater and sluices are used in concentration.  It was necessary for the purpose of working this mine with a profit to
have a chlorination estabislriment, which has been erected.  The furnace is 17
feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8- feet higch outside, with a smoke-stack 25 feet high.
There are two reverberatory hearths one over the other, and each 10 feet square,
with a capacity to hold a ton and a half. There are 12,000 brick, fifty perch
of stone, and five cubic yards of soapstone in the furnace, which it is supposed
will last three years. A charge is roasted 12 hours in each hearth, so that the
furnace has a capacity to roast three tons in 24 hours. The total cost of the
establishment was $2,100, and the cost of the chlorination is estimated at $25 per
ton of sulphurets. A cord of wood costing $4 is consumed in roasting three tons.
BLUE JACKET.-Adjoiniing the Coney on the north is the Blue Jacket mine,
1,000 feet long.  The shaft is down 100 feet deep.  Only $1 25 per ton of free
gold has been obtained, and $100 per ton from the concentrated sulphurets. No
work is being done now.
TP,oWBPIDGE. —The Trowbridge adjoining has 1,200 feet  and is at vork,
but is not crushing.  The Adams mine on the same vein is not crushing.
ONEIDA.-The Oneida mine, 3,000 feet long, is a mile and a half north of
Jackson, on the mother lode.  The course there is nearly north and south, and
the dip to the eastward from 65~ to 80~.  The main shaft is 500 feet deep, and
drifts have been run about 600 feet on the vein; the width is from 10 to 40 feet;
the foot-wall is slate, and the hanging wall greenstone. The quartz is white
and blue, with some ribbon rock which contains more free gold than is found in
other parts of the vein. There is a black putty gouge on the foot-wall. There
are two pay chimneys, wvhich dip to the north, and all the rock in them is pay.
The quartz within six or eight feet of the hanging wall yields $30 or $40 per
ton, but the average of all worked is $17 50 per ton.  All the ore heretofore
worked has been talkeii from one pay chimney, which is 300 feet long, hlorizontally, at the surface, and 400 feet long at a depth of 400 feet.  The vein pinches
out at the ends of the pay chimneys, so that there is very little barren rock.  The
walls are, in places, as smooth as glass.  The mine is opened so that there is
ore enough in sight to supply 60 tons per day for five years.
The mine was discovered in  51 by a hunter who chased a rabbit to some
74 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
large quartz croppings, in which, after a brief examination, he found rich speci mens of gold. Since then work has been prosecuted continuously and with
almost constant profit.  Three or four mills were built successively, and the
mine has changed hands a dozen times.  1SIany thousand tons of quartz have
been crushed from it, but there is no record of its early yield. In eight months
preceding June 1, 1S67, $135,000 were taken from 7,710 tons, at an expense of
$5 per ton, leaving $12 50 net per ton.  The present owners have not had pos.
session long, and they have expended much in opening the mine and putting the
mill into good condition. The superintendent says that if the proprietors had
not had a considerable sum of money at their control after purchlasing the mine,
thev would have been ruined, since without the repairs and the new shafts and
levels they could have got nothin,g.
The mill has 60 stamps, and is driven by steam.  Amalgamation begins in
the battery, and continues on copper aprons below; then there are shakingtables, bl)anklets, copper sluices 60 feet long, blanrkets again, and sluices.   The
screen is No. 4, punched in slots.  One per cent. of the ore is sulphurets, which,
when concentrated, yield $200 to the ton.
IIAvyA:r,D.-The Hayward mine, one of the most valuable go'd mines of California, is 1,800 feet long, and includes two old claims known as the Eureka and
the Badger.  The average wvidthl of the vein is 12 feet, and the dip 75~ to the
east.  All the rock is taklen out.  Tile hanging wall is of hard serpentine; the
foot-wall is of slate, polished smooth.  Tile foot-wall swells so that the mine
closes entirely up behind the workmen, and saves the trouble of leaving pillars,
and prevents any apprehension of caving in.  There is a continuous black putty
gouge.  There is only one pay chimney, and that is 500 feet long, horizont.ally,
on the surface, and at 1,200 feet below the surface the supposed length is 600
;ect.  The walls come together at the ends of the pay chimney, which dips to
the north at an angle of about 80~.  The deepest incline is 1,230 feet deep, the
greatest depth reached in the mines in California.  The surface of the earth at Sat.
ter creekl is 900 feet above the sea; so the lowest drifts in the Hayvard claim are
30C feet below the sea level.  Worlk was commenced in 1852, and has been continued uninterruptedly since.  A 10-stamp mill was erected on the Eureka claim
in 1852.  A new mill, with 20 stamps, was erected in 1856, and 20 more were
added the next year. A 10-stamp mill was built on the Badger or southern
claim in 1854, and six more stamps were added in 1857.  i1r. Ihayward, the
present owner, obtained a controlling interest in the Badger in 1854, purchased
tile L'ureka in 1858, and became sole owner of the Badger in 1859, thus consolidating the two claims.  There are three shafts-the southern 760 feet deep,
the middle 960, and the northern 1,230.
At the level of 760 feet a pillar has'been and is to be left to catch the water
which comes fiom the surface.  About 45,000 gallons were hoisted daily in buckets in the early part of June-25,000 firom the southern and 20,000 from the
niorthlern part of the mine.  In February and starch the quantity was twice as
great.
There are two mills now, with 56 stamps, and with capacity to crush 80 tons
per dlay, but at times much quartz is sent to custom mills. The gold is nearly
all fiee, and the amalgamation is effected chiefly in the mortar and on copper
aprons.  The sulphurets  are saved in sluices.  For  the first 200 feet the
Badge(r mine did not pay, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the mill
was kept going, but the vein appeared to be getting wider and the quartz richer,
and work was continued, with some trust from the laborers, until the receipts
exceeded the expenses; and soon after the two claims were consolidated the
HIayward took a leading position among the mines of the State.  Within 500
feet of the surface the average yield did not exceed $10 or $11 per ton, antt now
it is, according to report, $27, with a wide vein and 125,000 tons of ore in sightenough to keep the two mills going for five years.  The proprietor of the mine
75 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
has a great fear of being suspected of seeking publicity, and he refuses to give
information about the details of his receipts or expenses, or even to communicate his experience in or his opinions about quartz mining.  It is, therefore,
necessary to rely upon the statements of persons not connected with the mine
for the yield; and they say the total yield has been $6,000,000; the gross yield
last year per ton $27; the net yield, $22 per ton; the amount of rock worked
in 1866, 30,000 tons; and the profit of that year, $660,000.  MIuch rock is at
times sent to custom mills to be reduced.  The quartz in sight, it is estimated,
will yield $3,375,000 gross, and $2,750,000 net.
Sixty miners are employed, 12 blacksmiths and engineers, and 25 others as
feeders, amalgamaters, teamsters, &c.  The miners and laborers in the mill
work by two shifts, a day shift and a night shift of 10 hours each;  and at the
end of each week the shifts change, so that each man  works in the nighllt-time
one week and in the day-time the next.  The rock is carried from the mine to
the mill on a tramway.
RAILP,OAD.-Thle Railroad mine, 800 feet long, has been worked four years,
has produced $70,000, and has had much rock which yielded $15 per ton.  A
depth of 340 feet has been reached, and drifts have been run 300 feet on the
vein. There is no mill connected with the mine.
LORING HIIILL.-The Lorinug Hill, 700 feet abreast of the Railroad mine, on
another branch of the mother lode, was worked for ten years, paid from $5 to
$12 per ton, and has been idle for five years.  Work is soon to be resumed.  A
depth of 150 feet was reached.
- WILDMAN.-The Wildmnan, 1,130 feet long, has reached a depth of 530 feet
and has run-200 feet on the vein.  There is a 12-stamp mill, which is busy at
custom work.
LINxcoLN.-The Lincoln mine, 2,078 feet long on the mother lode, is half a
mile north of Sutter creek.  The course of the vein there is north 17~ west, the
dip about 75~ to the eastward, and the width six feet. A depth of 669 feet has
been reached in one shaft and 270 in another; and drifts have been run 400 feet
on the vein.  There are two pay chimneys, one 150 and the other 250 feet long.
They dip slightly to the north, although their lines are irregular.  The mine has
been worked since 1851, with the exception of a couple of years.  About 3,500
tons have been extracted annually while the mine was worked.   Work was
stopped in November, 1866, and is to be resumnied next year. There is a 20stamp water-mill, which is now doing custom work for Hayward.   The mill
catches 90 per cent. of its gold in the mortar, 3 per cent. on the apron, 5 per
cent. on the shaking table, and 2 per cent. on blankets.
COMET.-The Comet mine, on the mother lode, north of Sutter creek, is 750
feet long, and a depth of 145 feet has been reached.  The mine is now being
opened to a greater depth.
HEPnBERTVILLE.-The IJerbertville mine, 1,200 feet long on the mother lode,
a mile north of Sutter creek, was worked from  1851 till 1859, but never was
profitable, though some good quartz was found. A depth of 600 feet was
reached.  There was a 30-stamp mill, which was burned down.
KEYSTONE.-The Keystone mine includes claims on two distinct lodes-3,000
feet on the Keystone, which runs north 480 west, and dips eastward at an angle
of 52~; and 840 feet on the Geneva, which is 280 feet east of the Keystone,
has a dip of 64~, and a width varying from 3 to 7 feet. The foot wall of the
Geneva vein is slate, and the hanging wall is a hard greenstone.  The average
width of the Keystone is 10 feet.  Professor Ashburner, in a report on the rmine,
says'the wall of this (Keystone) vein on the west is generally hard, well-defined, and regular; on the east it is softer, and frequently incorporated with the
quartz. The ground in many places is loose, and the vein seems to havw been
subjected to great pressure, crushing the quartz to powder." There are many
horses of hornblendic slate in the Keystone vein, on which vein most of the work
76 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
is now being done.  The quartz is mixed with black and green talcose slate,
and the green contains good pay.  The Geneva vein contains good pay rock,
but it is harder than the IKeystone.  It is calculated that the two veins, if thev
maintain their present dip, will unite at a depth of 1,800 feet. The deepest
shaft is down 375 feet, and drifts have been run 450 feet, in pay all the way.
The mine was opened in 1851, and has been worked continuously since.  The
total quantity of rock worked has been 44,000 tons; the average yield per ton,
$16; the total yield, $700,000. The croppings were rich. The present mill
has twenty stamps, and is driven by steam.  iIost of the gold is caught by
amalgamation in the mortar, and on the copper apron below the screen; next to
which are blankets, and the tailings from them are ground in Hepburn and
Peterson pans, and amalgamated in settlers; and the pulp is concentrated again
for sulphurets in Prater's concentrater. The rock contains one and a quarter
per cent. of sulplutrets which are gold.  The present average yield is $16 per
ton, and 17,000 tons have been worked in the last two years.  The yield from
December 8, 1865, till December 21, 1866, was $135,333 30; the dividends,
$51,300;  the amount  spent in building,  $34,000;  the  current expenses,
$50,033 30; and the total profits, $85,300.
SprING IIILL.-On another branch of the mother lode, abreast of the Keystone, is the Spring Hill mine, 1,200 feet long, which has been worked to a
depth of 350 feet, has turned out 50,000 tons of rock, but has paid little, if anything, beyond expenses.  T'here is a 30-stamp mill, which is now idle, with
the exception of five stamps employed on custom rock.
AMADor.-Adjoining the Spring Hill on the north is the Amador, which is
1,300 feet long and was worked in early days to a depth of 240 feet.
BUxKEIER  IIILL.-The Bunker Hill, 1,200 feet long, has been at work since
1854, and has reached a, depth of 350 feet.  The vein is six feet wide, and the
rockl yields $10 per ton, leaving $3 profit.  There are several faults in the lode
within the limits of this claim.  The mine and an eight-stamp mill belonyinu to
it are tie property of gentlemen resid ing in San Francisco and in ]loston.
HAzAnD.-The Hlazard mine, 800 feet long, is not worked now, but has produced 5,000 tons of rock, some of which yielded $15 per ton. The vein is throe
feet wide, and there is an eight-stamp mill.
LOYAL.-Thie Loyal, 600 feet, has a 20-stamp mill, and both mine and mill
are idle.
ITALJIAX.-The Italian mine, 340 feet long, has a six-stamp mill, and has
crushed 2,000 tons of quartz, but is now idle, and has been for two years.  It
paid very well near the surface.
SEATOxN.-The Seaton mine, a mile and a quarter east of Dry Town, is 1,200
feet long on the mother lode, which there averages 30 feet wide. About 10,000
tons of quartz have been workled, yielding $9 per ton, and leaving a small profit.
There is a 40-stamip mill which has a 40-foot wheel to drive it when water
is abundant, and a 60-hiorse power steam-engine for other times.  The mill is
now idle waiting for the further opening of the mine.  The deepest works are
500 feet from thle surface.  The mine was purchased a couple of years since by
a San Francisco company, which has expended $150,000 in improvements.
PoTosI.-The Potosi mine is 800 feet long, has been workied since 1852, and
has a good pay chimney four feet wide.  There is a 16-stamp mill on the mine.
WVEBSTEn.-The Webster mine, 600 feet long, was worked for a long time,
but the rock paid only $7 per ton leaving no profit, so the mill which once
belonged to the mine was moved away and work was stopped.  The average
width of the vein was six feet.
PLYMOUTH.-The Plymouth mine is 1,200 feet long on the main mother lode
and has other claims on branch veins.  The lode is twelve feet wide there on an
average, and the rock now worked yields $8 per ton, at a depth of 400 feet.
77 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The qiuartz obtained within 300 feet of the surface paid $15 per ton.  There is
a 15-stamnp water-mill driven by a water-vwheel 38 feet in diameter.
ExTEr,PPPISE.r-Thle Enterprise mine has a 10-stamp mill, which commenced
to run in the spring of this year.
PRIcCrMOND.-The Richmond mine, 1,200 feet long, is being prospected, and
its 10-stamp mill is standing idle.
M3EADEr.'s SULPIIUPET WoPKs.-MIeader's sulphuret wvorkls, a mile andl a -.half
east of Sutter creek, was fitted up with machinery invented by M1r. Ambler, con sisting of a sizer, grinder, concentrator and pan, but the establishment has not
been successful.  The grinder is constructed somewhat like a coffee-mill, of cast
iron, with ridges running downward on a cone working against other ridges
linning in a contrary direction in a hlollow cone.
RosE. —Rose's mill has eight stamps, and was formerly occupied as the sul phuret establishment of Sir. Thoss.  It was standing idle in June for repairs.
The mine whlichl is to supply it with quartz had been opened at that time to a
depth of 150 feet and to a length of 60 feet.
WOLvEr,,IE.-E ast of Jackson, on another vein, is the Wolverine mine,
1,000 feet.  It was opened by a tunnel 100 feet long, and 500 tonlls yielded
$4 40 per ton of free gold.  No workl is being done now.
IKEAPSING.-The Kearsing mill was first erected at Bi, Bar on the Mokelumnne
river in 1855, and was moved in 1863 to the vicinity of Jackson to be used as
a custom mill. It has four stamps and Amrnbler's pan.
IIhIcxKLEY.-Thie Hinckley mine, near thle town of Jacklson, is on a vein not
traced elsewhere. The claim is 600 feet long, and it has been opened to a depth
of 50 feet.  There are two veins-one from three to seven feet in width, and the
other pinches out.  About 815,000 have been taken out in a hand mortar; and
some rock crushed in a mill yielded $12 per ton.  Much of the gold is black or
purplish, offering a, singular contrast to the white quartz in whiich it is found.
The vein was first struck in digging a cellar, and the gold-bearing quartz was
in June still visible in the cellar wall.  Some of the gold is found in little sheets
ol leaves rolled up or tied up in a very singular and unaccountable manner.
ATCIIISON.-Atchison's mill, one mile north of Jackson, built in 1867, has
20 stamps, and is employed on custom work.  It was built to work an unopened
mine, but after opening no pay was found.
TuBBs.-Near the Atchison mill is Tubbs' mill, which was moved, in 1866,
from the vicinity of San Andreas. It is idle now, waiting for the opening of the
mine which it is to worlk.
PAUGII.-Patugh,'s mine, 1,000 feet long, is seven miles east of Jackson.  The
vein has not been found beyond the limits of this claim.  The course is eastnortheast by west-southwest, with a, dip to the southeastward.  The average
thickness is seven feet, and the walls are slate on both sides.  There is no continious gouge, but such as there is is yellow in color.  The mine has been worled
for two years and a half and a depth of 175 feet has been reached.  Drifts have
been run on the vein 300 feet.  The quartz has paid from the beginning, and
the average yield without selection is $10 per ton, and after selection $12 or $15.
The richest quartz is found near the foot wall.  The gold is fine and there is no
"specimen rockl."  There is but little pyrites.  The mill has 10 stamps driven
by steam, and was built in 1865.  The pulp is amalgamated in the battery and
in copper plates.
UNxON.-The Union or Steen mine, a mile and a quarter south of Pine Grove,
is 3,000 feet long on a vein which is eight feet thick on an average, and runs
northeast and southwest with,a dip of 60~ to the southeast. The rock is a blue
ribbon quartz, richest near the sides. One and a half per cent. of the vein matter
is sulphuret of iron, lead, zinc and antimony, and these sulphurets when concentrated assay from $200 to $6,000 per ton. About 600 tons of rock have
been worked, giving a yield of $11 50 of free gold per ton; and the rock heavily
78 
WVEST OF' THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
charg,ed with sulphlurets yielded $4 50 in the battery and from $22 to $150 in
the pan.  The vein has been opened to a depth of 197 feet and to a length of
130 feet.  There is a nine-stamp steam mill built in 1S57.  The proprietor of
tiis milli has used a saturated solution of cyanide of potassiumn, bull for bulkl
withl the quicksilver, and found a gain of 23 per cent. in the yield of tlhe gold.
The potassium seems to loosen the sulphurets, set the gold free, and keep the
quicklsilver clean.
TELLrnIuM.-The Tellurium mine, near Pine Grove, owned by a San Frain cisco company, is 3,000 feet long on a vein which runs north 40~ cast, (lips to
the east at an angle of 75~, and is seven feet wide.  The walls are of slate, hard
on the east and soft on the west.  The quartz is bhlish in color, ian(d the pay,
which is one-third of the vein, near one wall or the other, skiipping from side to
side, is charged with seven per cent. of blue sulphurets of iron, lead, antimony
and arsenic. The superintendent of the mine says it contains tellurium in con siderable quantities, but others say the proportion of that metal is very slight.
There are two pay chimneys, each 130 feet long horizontally.   A cross tunnel
1,200 feet long strikes the vein 250 feet from the surface, and drifts have been
run 700 feet on thie vein, or on its supposed course, for its place appears to be
iusurped by a porphyritie dike.  The pay rock above the level of the tunnel has
been worlked out and the drift is being extended in the hope of striking anotlier
pay chimney. The rock yields $25 per toni in flee gold, and the concentrated
sulplihurets have been sold at $200 per ton.  The mill was built two years ago,
has 10 stamps, and amalgamates in a mortar and on copper plates.  It is standing
idle, wvaiting for the opening of a new body of pay quartz. The superintendent
of this mine has been in the habit of making large assays by mixing pulverized
ore with 10 per cent. of sawdust or charcoal, and moulding with a little clay
and water into bricks which, after drying, are burned with the assistance of very
little fuel save that in the bricks.  He considers this a very satisfactory method
of burning out the sulphurets, and thilnks there are some ores which would pay
for wvorking altogether by this method.
AxAcoxD ).-The Anaconda mine, near Pine Grove, is 900 feet long on a
vein four feet wide.  A shaft has been sunk 90 feet and drifts have been run
100 feet.  Some of the rock has beeni crushled at ai custom mill and has paid
well.  The mine is now being opened to a greater depth.
Tnoss.-The sul)phuret mill of W. 11. Thoss, near Pine Grove, is the only
estbl)lishliment of the kind in the State, and hlie is the only man who  has any
repute for possessing exclusively many valuable metallurgical secrets.  -Ie pays
hitih prices for sulphlurets, and worlds theai without wasting, and in a few instances
he has  workled sulphlurets at a fixed price per ton or on shares.  Those for whom
lie has workled speak well of the result obtained, and the general impression in
the nleighborhood is favorable to his claims.  He says that his process is valuable
only where there are sulphliurets; that hlie can extract 90 per cent. of both gold
and silver at a total expense of $6 per ton; and that lie would rather have new
than old sulphurets.  In the chlorinationl works roasting is necessary and the
silver is lost.  Among those who speak well of 3Ir. Thoss are the proprietors
of the Sirocco mine, who paid him $S0 per ton for working sulphurets, and
returned them $220 per ton.  The mill consists of a crocodile crusher which
reduces the rock to the size of peas, and of two cast-iron pans 10 feet in diameter,
cast in sections and enclosed in wood.  These pans have each four heavy greenstone mlIllers which make 25 revolutions per minute.  The pans takle charges
of 750 pounds of crushed quartz or sulphurets ttnd reduce them to mnpalpable
powder in five or six hours.  From the pans the pulp runs into a low &r chamber
into which nobody but the proprietor enters, and there his secret process of
amalgamation is accomplished.  Hle says that he makes fi'om  $10 to $600 per
ton from the material which he purchases, and that the supply of snlphurets
offered to him for sale is five-fold more than he can work.  iHe does not enlarge
.i
i
79 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
his establishment because it would be necessary to communicate his secret to
others, and hlie is unwilling to do that.
CrAFrs.-The Crafts mine, 1,800 feet long, is supposed to be on the same
vein withl the Anaconda.   The course is east-northeast and west-southwest, and
the dip 60~ to the southeast. A shaft has been sunk 200 feet, and drifts have
been run 125 feet on the vein. The pay chimney dips 60~ to the northwestward.
About 20 per cent. of the vein matter is represented to be sulphurets of iron,
copper, zinc, and tellurium. There is no mill, and little work has been done.
GOLDEN EAGLE.-The Golden Eagle or Vaughn mine, two miles and a half
southwest of Volcano, is 900 feet long on a vein which runs north and south,
crossing the slates, and is three feet wide. A tunnel has been run 375 feet on
the vein, and a depth of 170 feet has been attained. The rock yields $15 per
ton, and the total production has been $50,000.  The mill was built in 1858 and
rebuilt in 1865.  It has 10 stamps, and is driven by water. - The mine and mill
have been worlked togethlier, although there are some owners on the mine not
interested in the mill.
BELI,DEX.-Thlie Belden mine, owned by the California Furnace Comnpany,
near Pine Grove, is on a vein which averages 18 inches in thickness, and runs
north-northwest.  The shaft is down 250 feet, and drifts have been run 200 feet
on the vein. The rock is rich, but it pinches out in places. The mine has been
worked for 10 years, sometimes at a profit, and sometimes at a loss.  There is
a five-stamp mill and a roasting furnace in which the rock was roasted as it came
from the slopes.
POxNEER.-The Pioneer mine, three miles from Volcano, is on a vein 18
inches wide between hard granite walls. The rock is rich in sulphurcts of copper, arsenic, and antimony.  The shaft is down 80 feet, and drifts have been run
250 feet on the vein.  Thie rock yielded $40 of free gold near the surface, but
that from the deeper levels did not pay, the precious metal escaping. There is
a five-stamp mill, which is standing idle with the mine in consequence of litiga
tion.
M1ITCHELL.-The M1itchlell mine, 1,200 feet long, is on a vein which runs northeast and southwest, and is 12 feet wide.  The shaft is down 200 feet, and
drifts have been run 100 feet on the vein.  Some of the rock paid $60 to the
ton, and thousands of tons have been worlked.  The mine is troubled by water,
and common rumor in the neighborhood says the late explorations have not been
in the pay chimney. There is a 20-stamp mill, which, as well as the mine, is
standing idle.
GOLDEN GATE. —The Golden Gate, two miles from Volcano, is 1,800 feet long
on a vein three feet wide.  A depth of 220 feet has been reached, and drifts have
been run 350 feet on the vein, in pay chimneys all the way. About 2,800 tons
have been worked, and rumor in the neighborhood says the yield has been
$45,000, or $16 per ton.  The mine is being opened further, but a 10-stamp mill
belonging to the mine is standing idle.
SInrocco.-The Sirocco mine, a mile and a half west of Volcano, is 2,500 feet
long, on a vein which is four feet wide, and runs north and south.  A depth of
350 feet has been reached, and drifts have run 700 feet on the vein. The total
number of tons worked has been 9,000, and the average yield of free gold in
1866 was $15.  Near the surface some of the rock paid $80 per ton.  The vein
grows wider and the pay less per ton in proportion to the distance from the surface.  Ten per cent. of the vein matter is sulphurcts, which yield on an average
$80 per ton.  There is enough-ore in sight to keep the 10-stamp mill busy for
two years.  Before 1867, the sulphurets were sold to  ir. Thoss; now they are
saved.
KELLY.-The Kelly mine has one claim 1,200 feet long and another 1,500
feet long on two veins which intersect each other; one running north 30~ east,
and the other north 70~ east. Both are intersected by a little vein which runs
80 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
east and west, and though small is full of metal.  A depth of 80 feet ias
been reached, and drifts have been run 150 feet.  The rock averaged $14.  A
ill containing two stamps and two arrastras was erected ill 1857, and ran four
years, but has since been idle, and so has the mine.
SECTION VII.
EL DORADO COUNTY.
E1 Dorado county lies between the Cosumnes and the Middle fork of the
American river, and extends from the eastern boundary of the State to near the
Sacramento plain., It was in this county that Marshall made his discovery of
the gold on the 19th January, 1848; and E1 Dorado was previous to 1.853 called
the Empire county, because it was for a time the most populous in the State, but
it is now surpassed by many others.
Ill this county we observe various features not found in AIariposa', Tuolumne,
Calaveras, or AXmador.
Granite appears as the bed rock on the western border of the mining region.
No rich quartz veins are found in the granite at an elevation of 2,500 feet or
more above the sea.
The lime belt, wlhich is distinctly traceable across Tuolumne, Calaveras, and
Amador, appears at Indian Diggings in El Dorado, and then seems to be lost.
A new lime belt appears very distinctly twelve miles west of the main belt.
In this new belt is the beautiful Alabaster cave, near Centreville.
El Dorado has 25 ditches, with a total length of 821 miles, constructed at a
cost of $1,500,000.  Of these the principal are the South Fork, the Pilot Hill,
and the Michigan Flat ditches.
TowNxs.-Placerville, the county seat, 50 miles from Sacramento, onl the bank
of Ilangtown creek, has some hill diggings and quartz, and is the most  prosperoIus town in the county.  The principal mining towns are Georgetown, 14
miles north; Coloma, 10 miles northwest; Diamond Springs, three miles west;
El Dorado, or ilud Springs, five miles west; Grizzly lFlat, 20 miles southeast;
Indian Diggines, 25 miles southeast; and Kelsey, seven miles north.
SHINGLE] SPrIXGS RAILPOAD.-E1I  Dorado county has a railroad 26 miles
long, cxtending from lFolsum to Shingle Springs.  It was commenced witlh the
intention of extending it across the Sierra, but the worlk  was stopped when
the road reached Shingle Springs in 1865, and there is no probability of its
resumption soon. The terminus of the road is 11 miles from Placerville.
PLACERVILLl WAGON ROAD.-TlThe Placerville road is the best wagon road,
across the Sierra Nevada.  It cost $585,000, and as now travelled from Shingle,
Springs to Van Sycklles, in Carson valley, is 82 miles long. The steepest grade
is six degrees.  The total length of the stretches that exceed five degrees is a
mile and a half; there are five miles of five degrees, 10 miles of four deg(rees,
and most of the road is under two'degrees, with a very regular and easy ascent.
In 1858 Sacramento and El Dorado counties each subscribed $25,000 to construct
a wagon road across the mountains; but the road was not good enough for the purpose, and in 1860 the present road was commenced by private enterprise, and was.
linished in 1863.  It was of vast service to the State and to Waslhoe during the
silver excitement, and was for a time very profitable to the owners.  Althlough
other routes have lower passes and easier grades, no other can compete with this
for the ordinary purposes of wagon travel, because this i, on the shortest route
between Sacramento and Virginia City, is an excellent road, and is kept in fine
condition.  In 1863 the total amount of tolls taken on the road was $190.,000,.
6
81 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
and the expenses were $70,000; in 1866 the receipts were $65,000, and the
expenses $50,000.  The road is vatered every evening along its whole length
by water carts, which are stationed at intervals of three miles.  This is found to
be the cheapest method of keeping the road in good condition, for if it vwere left.
dry it wvould have deep dust, which would obstruct the wheels and blow awayv,
leaving deep ruts.  About one-fourth of the expense in keeping the road in order
is required to keep the snow down.  Last winter snow lay for nine miles on the
road, and 10 span of horses were kept for the special purpose of brealing it
down.  There was a station in the middle of the snow belt, and whenever it be-an
to snow a man started with a team and a sled in each direction to the end of the
snow belt and then drove back; then took another team, and the horses were
kept going as fast as they could.  In this way the snow was packed down and
the road was made hard and fit for travel. It would be useless to shovel the
snow from the road, vwhlich would immediately drift full.,The toll for a fourhorse wagon from Shingle Springs to Van Syckles and back is $17 50, threefourths being for the eastern trip.  Most of the freight, however, has been carried
in vwagons drawn by more than four horses.  The best teams have 10 mules and
two wagons, the second wagton being smaller and fastened immediately to the
first.  An ordinary load for such a team is 20,000 pounds.   The advantages of
having two vwagons instead of one are that one wagon, unless made in a most
unwieldy manner, would not be strong enough to support the weight; that the two
wagons do not cut up the road; that if there is a mud-hole, only a small part of
the weight is in it at a time; that at any steep pitch in the road the wagons can
be separated, and each hauled up separately; and that one teamster can as
easily take care of two vwagons as of one.  The cost of the first wagon is about
$600; of the second, $300; and of good mules, $300; making $3,900 as total
cost, exclusive of hlarness.  The tolls on a round trip from Shingle Springs to
Van Syckles are $26 25; and the total necessary outlay on a trip $240.  This
is the most extensive toll road in the United States.
3IISCELLANEOUS PRESOrUPCEs.-A  considerable part of the marble used foj
tombstones in California is obtained from a marble quarry at Indian Digg,ings.
Stealite, or soapstone, of very good quality is obtained from a quarry near Placerville, and numerous places in the county supply a chalk-like silicate of lime
that is used in San Francisco for polishing metals, especially silver-ware.  The
county has 85,000 acres of enclosed land, 22,000 acres under cultivation, 1,164,000
grape-vines, 91,000 apple trees, 52,000 peach trees, saws 10,000,000 feet of
lumber annually, has taxable property assessed at $3,500,000, and casts 5,000
votes.  AgricuLlture has made more progress in this than in any other mountain
county7, perhaps because of its proximity to Nevada, which it supplies with fresh
and canned fruit, with wine, and with many kinds of vegetables.  The possession of the Placerville road across the mountains has done much to bring business
to the county.  The Alabaster cave in the northwestern corner, and Lake Tahoe
at the northeastern, are both places of fashionable resort.
THiE BLUE CHAxNxNEL.-There are several old channels in El Dorado county,
and they appear to belong to two clifferent svstems of drainage and periods of
existence.  They may be distinguished as the blue and the gray, according to
the eolor of the cement or gravel found in their beds. The blue is prior in time,
and only one blue channel has been distinctly traced in the county.  It runs
firom the northwest to the southeast, nearlv with the course of the slates, and has
been found at WVhite ROock, Smith's Flat, aid Tryagain tunnel.  The channel
is 220 feet wide, and 250 feet above the level of Weaver creek. The rim sock
is never less than eight feet higher than the bottom of the channel. The cenment
is harder and more brittle, and contains more quartz, and quartz of a bluer color,
and pebbles smaller and more uniform in size than'the gray cement. This
channel, with its well-defined banks and a deep covering of lava, formed a l)ed
in which ran a subterranean stream of water that broke out in springs on the hill
82 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
side, where the channel was cut through by Weber creek, and the quantity
of water was sufficient to supply Placerville when it had 4,000 inhlabitants.  A
tunnel company working in the basin of Ilangtowvn creek cut a tunnel across
this old channel, and the stream of water which had previously run down to
Weber creek then ran out through this tunnel into Tlangtown creek.  The tunnel
company sold the water to the Placerville Water Company, but the South Fork
Canal Company, which had previously appropriated the water of I-Iangtown
creek, broughlt suit for the water on the ground that HIlangtown creek was the
natural outlet for this water, and that they owned it by prior right.  Professor
Silliman was called as a witness by the defendants, and after examination he
testified that the waters never had run into Hangtown creek, but that until the
tunnel was cut their only escape was at the springs on the bank of Weber creek.
Thie plaintiffs, after seeing the testimony, discontinued the suit. This is the only
case known to us of a legal investigation into the character of an ancient aurifer ous channel in California.
GriAY CaANNELS.-Thei gray cement is in several channels, which rise 20
miles or further east of Brockliss's bridge, and runs westward across the blue
channel and at a  higher level in the divides between the present streams.  The gray
cement is from 20 to 50 feet deep, and is found on both sides of Hangtowvn creek,
in liihg lhills, which have been prospected along a length of 10 miles, and worked
with profit in many places.  T'he old channels were cut through by numerous
ravines, whlichl carlied the gold down to the creek, and thus made the bed of
that stream rich as it wvas in early dtay,s.  The followving are the principal claims
on the Weber divide, south of Hangtown creekl, commencing at Coon ilollow, on
the north side, and going eastward.
CLAIMS ox WEBEP. DIvIDE.-Aldersen Brothers IHydraulic claim has been
woriked 12 years, has paid largely, and employs six men.  The claim is 150 feet
deep), and uses 200 inches of water.
The Phillips and PalIer claim is 800 feet long by 300 wide, and 80 deep.  It
employs three men, and has paid well at times.
The Italian claim, 1,000 feet long, was worked for years by hydraulic process,
but now the pay dirt is brotughlt out through a tunnel.
The Weber claim is workled as a drift claim in the summer, whenl water is
scarce, and as a hy draulic claim in the winter.  It yields large pay.
The claim of the San Francisco Cement Gravel Company is 1,200 feet long,
running, as do the other claims along here, to the middle of the Hill Learsago.
A tunnel was run 800 feet into this claim, and was abandoned because the gravel
was too hard to wash in a sluice.  The company are now about to pipe away
the face of the hill preparatory to opening and retimbering the old tunnel. It
is the expectation of the company to erect a mill to crush the cement.
In the Buckeye claim the face of the hill is being piped away to make room
for a cement mill.
On the Cox claim, Cox's pan is being tried for the reduction of cement.   It
is a cast-iron pan, six feet in diameter, and 18 inches deep, with four iron arms
projecting onil a level with the top of the pan from a central vertical axis,
and from each arm project three strong wrought-iron fingers, reaching down to
within an inch of the bottom of the pan.  In the bottom are a number of holes,
an eighth of an inch wide, and half an inch long, through which holes the pulverized matter escapes. The bottom is of white chilled iron. A charge of 1,200
pounds of cement is thrown in, a stream of five inches of water is turned on, and
the arms are started, making 20 or 30 revolutions per minute. In seven
minutes and a half all the pebbles and boulders are washed clean, and they
are discharged through a gate into a sluice prepared for the special purpose of
carr-ing them off.  There is another sluice for washing the fine matter.  Charging and discharging occupy two minutes and a half, but the discharging gate is
to be enlarged, so that the discharge will not occupy more than a quarter of
83 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
a miinute, instead of two minutes, as at present.  By this pan 40 tons can be
worked in 12 hours, more than would be done by a 15-stamp mill, and the
work is done in better style, because the pebbles and boulders which form
from 50 to 75 per cent. of the cement are excluded from the sluice in which
the gold is caught. The greater the quantity of base matter carried through
the sluice, the greater the danger of the loss of gold.   The power is supplied by a hurdy-gurdy wheel, which is eight feet in diameter, four inches in
thickness, with buckets four inches deep, and nine inches apart.  The power
is nominally by 19 inches of water, but much is lost through leakage, and the
proprietor of the pan asserts that he does not use more than 12 inches under
a head of 260 feet. The wheel is made by bolting together two layers of twoinch plank, laid crosswise.  The cost of the wheel was 8100, and of the
machinery, including pan, gearing, and all, less than $1,500. The cement in
this claim appears to be nearly as hard as any found elsewhere.
In the Italian claim a tunnel is being run to be 800 feet long.
The Van Dusen claim has a tunnel 800 feet long, and is standing idle because
of the hardness of the cement.
The Hardy Brothers have a hydraulic claim, which has been worked three
years.
3lcConnell & Co. have the next claim,.and work it by the hydraulic process.
Stewart and Ihall have crushed their cement in an eight-stamp mill, which is
now standing idle.
The Scott Brothers' claim is 1,000 feet long, was opened by a tunnel in 1854,
and was abandoned because of the hardness of the cement.  Work has now been
resumed in the expectation of erecting a mill.
CLAIMS ON REsERvoIr HIILL.-LNorth of Placeiwille, on the north side of
RPeservoir Hill, commencing at the west, are the following claims, viz:
HIlancock and Salter's hydraulic claim, drained by a tunnel, and open cut 1,500
feet long, has been worked by two men five years, employs 100 inches of water,
and pays well.
The Friar claim has yielded $50,000, but after leaving' the surface the miners
found the cement so hard they could not wash it, and nothing was done on it
for years.  A San Francisco company is now at work, opening it by a tunnel, to
be 1,000 feet long, and to be finished in two years.
The Slide claim is being opened by a tunnel, to be several hundred feet long.
This claim never yielded much.
The Pioneer claim is worked by drifting, and has paid very high.  It has been
worked for 12 years.
The George Barlow claim is also wvorledl by drifting, and has paid well at
times.
The Live-oak claim is worked through a tunnel, and has yielded $50,000 or
$60,000. Uinder this claim runs the blue channel.
The RPoanoke claim has the repute of having been one of the richest claims on
the channel, but nothing could be ascertained of its yield.
On the south side of RIeservoir Hill are the following claims, viz:
The Trask claim is worked by the hydraulic process by a company of Chinamen with very little profit.
The Oldfield is a hydraulic claim.
The Wolverine was worked with much profit in early days, and then lay idle
for a long time.  Work has lately been resumed on it.  It seems that there was
a slide which threw the pay stratum out of its regular position in this clam.
The Ohio has a tunnel 800 feet klng, employs five men, is paying well, and
has been worked for 12 years.
Crusen & Co. have a claim on Wisconsin flat, and are trying to reach the Blue
channel through a tunnel 1,200 feet long, from the end of which they are sinking
a shaft to be 80 feet deep.
84 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The Granite Company are r-unning a tunnel to strike the Blue channel, aInd
are in several hundred feet.
The Deep Channel Company has been at world seven or eight years.  The
dirt is hoisted through an incline by horse power, and pays $4 to the car load.
Most of their cement is crushed in the 10-stamp custom mill of P. M. Taft.
The Blue Lead Company employ 10 or 15 men in their claim, and crush
their cement, which yields about $8 per ton, in a 10-stamp mill, driven by 30
inches of water over a wheel 45 feet in diameter.
The Buchanan, Fremont, Henry Clay, and Hook  and Ladder Companies.
facing Smith's Flat on the east, have had some very rich claims.
Redd & Co. have a five-stamp custom miii, and crush cement for the Ijookl and
Ladder Company.
SPANrIs S HILL CLAIMS.-On Spanish HIill, east of Placerville, are the following claims, viz:
Hoxie's claim, which is now exhausted. It paid from $10 to $16 per day to
the hand for several years.
The Stogy Tunnel claim was equally rich, and is worked ont.
The Bay State was also rich, and is not exhausted, but has been consolidated
with the next claim, and is worlked by hydraulic.
The IIook and Ladder claim has a crevice 175 feet3 and a tunnel 600 feet long,
running to the bottom of the crevice. The hill is to be washed down through
the tunnel.
The Golden Gate and Duroc claims come next, and have been consolidated.
Two auriferous quartz veins are found in the slate bed rock in these claims, and
it is supposed that some of the gold came from the decomposition of the slate.
The Iloxie, Stogy, Bay State, Hook and Ladder, Golden Gate, and Duroc
claims have yielded together not less than $2900,000.
INDIAN DIGGINGS.-Indian Di(ggings, 25 miles southeastward from Placerville, is on the limestone belt, and is the furthest north of all the large miining,
camps on that belt.  No solid bed rockl is found here.  It is supposed that
pay gravel is found 200 feet from the surface, and to drain the digginugs to that
depth would require a tunnel a mile long,.  At Slug gulch a shaft was sunk
downi through what appeared to be solid limestone bed rock into a stratum of
limestone boulders. A ditch of water was accidentally turned into this shaft,
and the water ran there for several days without any accumulation of water in
the shaft. No outlet was ever discovered. Brownsville, at the side of the Indian
Digg,ings, may be considered part of the same place, and the two together have
about 20 acres of deep digging,s, which will not be exhausted for many years.
Indian Diggings and Brownsville, unlike Columbia and Volcano, do not wash
with a pipe in a dump box.
The Douglas hydraulic claim, the most notable claim at Brownsville, is 180
feet square, and was worked for 10 years previous to 1866.  In 1856 and 1857
it yielded $55,000, and since the latter year has paid little over expenses   There
has been no work of late for lack of drainage.  An open cut has been started
to drain the claim, so that it can be washed 20 feet deeper; 700 feet of the cut
have been completed; there is a quarter of a mile still to be done, and several
years may elapse before it is finished.
PLACER,VILLE MIINING PREGULATIONS.-E,ach district in this county has its
own mining regulations.
The mining regulations of the Placerville district adopted March 21, 1863,
provide that
Each claimant may hold 200 feet in length upon a ledge or lode with all its dips, spurs
and angles, and 250 feet upon each side thereof.
Each claim must be filed for record within five days of posting notice thereof, and the
notice must distinctly specify the general direction of the claim, ledge, or lode, and the record
made accordingiy.
85
0 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Each company shall be required to expend at least seven days' work upon the
ledge or lode held by them for and in every month of the time said claim is held;
' otherwise the same may be considered as abandoned.
The number of quartz claims on record is 186.
Tho following are copies of notices entered in the record book:
Notice is hereby given that we the undersigned claim 1,000 feet on this ledge, commencing
at this notice and running in a northerly direction to a stake and pile of stones, and that we
intend to hold and work the same according to the laws of the Placerville mining district.
Said claim is situated in IH. S. HIliburd's ranch, in Placerville. May 23, 1867.
[ Signatures.]
Notice is hereby given that we the undersigned claim 1,500 feet each way from this notice,
on any and all quartz lodes discovered in sinking this shaft. July 18, 1866.
L Signatures. J
INUD SPPRINGS MINIxNG   REGIULATIONS.-The following are  the principal
provisions of the mining regulations of the El Dorado or Mud Springs district,
adopted April 7, 1863:
No person shall be allowed to hold more than 300 feet by location on the same ledge, but
can hold 600 feet in width for the purpose of prospecting and defining his lead or ledge. The
discoverer of a ledge is entitled to an extra claim.
A notice upon a claim to be valid must be written with ink, and placed upon
a board, stake, or tree in as conspicuous a place as possible, and upon, or as near
the ledge as can be. Such notice must state the number of feet claimed, describing
as accurately as possible the boundaries thereof, containing all the names of the
claimants with the date truly affixed; a true copy of which must be recorded by
the district recorder within 20 days from the date of such notice, or such claim
shall be considered forfeited.
Notice upon a claim holds the same for 20 days only.  Recording the notice
Df a claim holds the same for 90 datys only, before the expiration of lwhich time
labor to the amount of $2 50 for each 300 feet in the claim must be expended
upon the claim by the company, whiceh will hold the same for 15 months from
the date of record.  Non-compliance with the provisions of this article by any
company will be construed as an  abandonment by them of their claim.
In case of dispute between parties claiming the same ledge or lead, each of
thei contending parties may choose an arbitrator, and the two may choose a third
person, who shall be disinterested. The three shall constitute a board of arbitrators, whose decision shall be final, unless notice of an appeal be given within
ten days of the rendition of the decision.
There is no provision requiring a description of boundaries.
The number of claims on record is 40.  The following is a copy of one of
the notices recorded:
DRY CREEK, April 1, 1863.
Know all men by these presents that we the undersigned claim 45 claims  on this lode,
300 feet each, making in all 13,500 feet, and intend prospecting the said claims for coal, copper, silver, gold, or any other minerals it may contain, running in a northerly direction
13,000 feet and southerly 500 feet, with all its dips, angles, and spurs.
[IForty-fivo signatures.]
GEOPGETOWN MIINING RPEGULATIONS.-The following are a portion of the
quartz regulations of the Georgetown mining district, adopted December 10,
1866:
The size (of claims to each person locating shall be 200 feet of or on any quartz lode or
ledge, including all dips, spurs, angles, and all surface ground and minerals which may be
contained within the space of 150 feet on each side of said ledge or vein located; but no
company's claim shall exceed 3,000 feet in length on any one vein or ledge.
The discoverer of a vein or lode of minerals shall be entitled to one claim forhis discovery.
All notices of claims located, whether individual or company, shall describe the locality
of said mine, the number of feet claimed, the point where measurement commences, and
name the lode or company locating.
Said notice shall be posted on the lode, and shall hold the claim for 10 days from the date
86 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
thereof without record, but no claim shall be held valid without record after the expiration
of said time unless labor is being done on said claim
All notices of quartz mining claims are required to be recorded unless labor is being'done
on the claim, by a recorder elected by the miners of Georgetown quartz mining district.
Said district recorder shall keep a book, record all claims, copy the notice, and give the
names of the members of each company.
It shall be the duty of the recorder to go upon the ground and define the claim, measuring
and staking the same, and he shall receive for such service the sum of 50 cents for each name,
and if not required to perform such service, to receive 25 cents only.
Any person or corporated company locating a mining claim within this district shall be
required to have expended in actual labor upon each and every claim not exceeding 1,900
feet, and a proportionate amount for larger or smaller claims, the sum of $50, within 60 days
from the date of the record, and $150 within six months from the date of record, and a like
amount for every additional six months until the sum of $500 shall have been expended.
Whenever the sum of $5U0 shall have been expended in prospecting or development of the
mine, whether by sinking shafts, running tunnels, cuts, or drifts, whether on the ledge or in
the direction thereof, designed practically to develop the claim, then and thereafter for the
term of two years said claim shall be held by the parties peforming the labor or expending the
said amount; but no labor being performed for the period of two years, the said claim shall
be considered abandoned and subject to relocation.
REED.-The RPeed mine, 2,000 feet long, is three miles south of Placerville, has
a greenistone hanging wall, a slate foot wall, and a vein S18 feet wide.   The
qua,rtz, as found by a shaft running down 80 feet prospects well, and a 10-stamp
uill is going ul)p.
PACIFIC.-Tlie Pacific  mine, 1,800 feet long,, is on the same lode, and is
within the limits of Placerville.   The mine was opened in 1S52, and was worked
till 1862, when it caved in, and then it lay idle four years. Lately a Boston
company has purchased it and opened the main shaft to a depth of 320 feet, and
found some good quartz, but not enough to commence work upon.   The quartz
is a ribbon rock, tinged in places with a green color. The total yield of the
mine is reported to have been $500,000, and the annual average profit for seven
or eight years $30,000. The new shaft was started 120 feet northeastward of
the worling vein, and in going down 300 feet four veins were intersected, each
about six feet thick, all containing similar quartz and allf widening out as they
go down.  The two middle veins thus far reaclhed are mixed with a large proportion of talcose slate, and appear to be barren.   The westernmost of the four
veins has produced all the gold of the Pacific mine in a depth of 200 feet, in a
pay chimney 200 feet long.  The chimney was nearly vertical, but dipped slightly
to the north.  A  20-stamp mill, erected in 1853, is standing idle.
lAr,Mrox.-The Harmon  mine, 1,400 feet long, just north of Placerville, is
on a vein lhichl is 100 yards west of the Pacific lod(le, and is 30 feet wide in
places, thliough the average is not over four or five. The vein stone is a white
quartz with seams of black slate, and a considerable proportion of sulphurets of
iron and lead.  It was worked with arrastras and paid high; and then a 15stamp mill was erected, but that has not been profitable and is now idle.  The
reputed cause of the trouble is the difficulty of reducing the undecomposed sulphlurets found below the water-line.
SHEPARD.-The Shepard mine is 1,200 feet long, on a vein two feet wide,
near Placerville.   The claim was opened at the end of 1866, and yielded some
rich pockets of beautiful foliated gold. The specimens extracted were worth
$5,000.   The mill rock from its appearance must have contained at least $30
per ton.  The vein matter was much of it an ochrous earth, intersected with
seams of quartz.   The rock was worked  through a crusher and two arrastras
driven by steam.  MIuch of the vein has been opened by open cut to a depth of
fifteen feet.           i;
CLEOPATRA.-The Cleopatra, 1,200 feet long, on the same vein, is to be
opened to a depth of 100 feet, and then if the rock prospects well a mill is to be
erected with a capacity to crush 20 tons per day; the contractor to receive half
half the mine for opening it and erecting the mill.
I
87 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
WHITE AND BUPRDICK.-Wliite and Burdick own two claims, one of 2,000,
the other of 1,800 feet, on the same vein. The claim of 1,800 feet has been
opened to a depth of 75 feet, but the mine caved in several years since and is not
well reopened yet. 31iners have been working at it since last year. There is
a 10-stamp mill, whichl was built in 1861.
PER,SEVERE.-Thle Persevere mine, 4,200 feet, at Poverty Point, near Placer ville, is on a vein five feet wide. A depth of 155 feet has been reached and a
drift has been run 45 feet on the vein. No mill has been erected yet.
WIHITE.-The White mine, 2,000 feet long, near Placerville, has a 15-stamp
mill, which is idle.  A new shaft is now being sunk.  The rock is rich in sulphurets.
MANNING.-The 31anning mine, five miles eastward from Placerville, has a
vein two feet wide, a shaft 180 feet deep, and a six-stamp mill.  No  work is
being done.
ELLE ELLEX.-The Elle Ellen, 2,000 feet long, is half a mile from the Mlanninig, on a vein which runs northwest and southeast, is nine feet wide, and dips
to the east at an angle of S0~.  The hanging wall is hard blue slate, and the
foot wall brown slate.  There is a tunnel 100 feet long run on the vein.  There
is no mill.
EPPLEY.-The Eppley mine, 1,200 feet long, two miles and a half south of
Placerville, has been opened to a depth of 85 feet, and 30 tons of rock sent to
mill have yielded $1,500, or $50 per ton.  The mine is to be opened further, and
so soon as enough good quartz to pay for a mill is in sight, one will be built.
DAVIDSOx.-Thie Davidson mine, a mile and a quarter northwest of Placerville, has a tunnel 350 feet long and a shaft 160 feet deep.  Tile quartz prospects well, but none has been worked as yet.  The  New York and E1 Dorado
mill, of 20 stamps, has been purchased to be erected on this mine.
MIONTEZUMA.-Thle Montezuma Quartz Mining Company, an English association, own claims on four veins seven.niiles south of El Dorado, and are working
two of the claims.  That on the Mlontezuma vein is 1,900 feet long; has been
worked since 1851, and has yielded $150,000.  The lode runs north and south,
is three feet wide, has slate walls and ribbon quartz, which averages $10 per ton.
There is a black clay slate gouge on the hanging wall.  A depth of 180 feet
has been reached and drifts have been run 180 feet on the vein. The MfcDowell
vein is seven feet wide, three-quarters of a mile east of the Monltezuma and
parallel with it. A depth of 25 feet has been reached. There is a 20-stamp
mill, made to run either by steam or water.  The Montezuma Company have
invested $100,000 in the property, and it is said they are the only English coinmpany mining for gold now in California.
NEW YOPnK AND EL DOrADO MILL.-The New Yorkl and El Dorado mill was
erected at a cost of $20,000, five miles south of El.Dorado, by a New York company under representations that they possessed a splendid mine; but they found
nothing, and the mill has been sold for $2,500 to be moved to Davidsonll's mine,
a mile and a quarter northwest of Placerville.
IHErXMITAGE.-The Hermitage mine, six miles south of El Dorado, at Sugar
Loaf, is on a pocket vein and has paid irregularly, yielding $100,000 in all.
A  mill was erected in 1852 and taken down, and a second mill of 20 stamps
was erected in 1866, at a cost of $17,500, by a Boston company, which paid
$38,000 for the mine.   The vein is 10 feet wide, and a depth of 175 feet has
been reached.  A tunnel is being run to intersect the shaft at a distance of 170
feet. It is said that there is a large quantity of pay rock in sight suitable for
milling, but most of the gold heretofore obtained has been taken out in a hand
mortar. The mine was discovered by placer miners, who followed up a rich
streak of gold in gravel till it stopped at this quartz vein.
UxIOX.-The Union lode runs north 10~ east, dips east at an angle of 80~,
and is from 3 to 12 feet thick in slate walls, which, according to Professor Sib
88 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
liman, who made a report on the mine, is striated in lines dipping to the south east.  The quartz is soft, fissile, and ferruginous.  The stope north of thie shaft
yielded 15,000 tons, from which, according to the books kept at the maill, $4150,000
were obtained. A large part of the claim is unexplored, and its value is merely
conjectural beyond the pay chimney at the shaft.  The Cosumnes lode is 120
feet west of the Union, and has the srame dip and general course, although there
are some bends in it.  It is three or four feet thick, and the quartz bears a strong
resemblance to that of the Princeton mine.  The walls arc of coal blackl shale,
and there is a black putty gouge on the eastern wall.  This vein has a shaft
120 feet deep. Some of the croppings were very rich and yielded most of
$150,000 taken out by the mill from rock that did not come from the Union mine.
WILDER.-The Wilder quartz mine, a mile and a half west of El Dorado, is on
a vein three feet wide, containing quartz that yields $9 per ton.  An eight-stamp
water-mill has been running two years.
POCAIHONTAS.-The Pocahontas mine, two miles south of E1 Dorado, has q vein
four feet wide and a pay chimney a 100 feet long, averaging $15 per ton.  There
is a 10-stamp mill which has been at work one year, and has paid for itself
and for all the work done in opening the mine.
UNION CHIURCH.-The Union Church Gold Mining Company have claims on
three veins, three miles southeast of E1 Dorado.   The Union claim has been
worked since 1852, has been stoped to a depth of 160 feet, and has yielded a
large amount of gold. There is water in this claim now, and it is being taklen
out preparatory to sinking.  The Cosumnes claim is now being worked, and the
rock yields $10 or $12 per ton.
GRAY.-The Gray mine, three miles east of Shingle Springs, is a rich deposit
of decomposed quartz in a vein five feet wide.  On one occasion specimens worth
$10,000 were taken out in one day.   A depth of 60 feet has been reached.
There is a 10-stamp mill, built in 1865.
BrYANT.-The Bryant mine, two miles south of E1 Dorado, yielded $20,000
in one pocket, which was emptied in three days in 1857.  Considerable quantities
of quartz, sent to a mill four miles off, paid well. The mill ran several years,
then was abandoned, and now a 20-stamp steam mill is to be built.  A depth
of 150 feet has been reached, and drifts have been run 600 feet on the vein.
BEAPrD.-The Beard mine, two miles south of E1 Dorado, has yielded $250,000,
proving very profitable at times.  The gold was deposited chiefly in numerous
little chimneys or streaks, which the miners followed.  There was a 10-stamp
mill in 1860, but it was moved away to the State of Nevada.
The Jamison mine, at Aurum City, has been worked about a year with an
arrastra.
INDEPENDENCE.-The Independence mine, 1,200 feet long, at Brownsville,
is on a vein which runs east and west, is three and a half feet thick, and has
granite for a hanging wall and "blue trap," as the miners call it, for a foot wall.
A tunnel has been run 400 feet on the vein, in pay all the way; 250 tons have
been workled, and the yield has been $30 per ton, in the Tullock eighlt-stamp
mill, rented for the purpose. The Independence mill is now being built and
is to have 10 stamps. The quartz contains a large proportion of rich sulphurets.
STILL-WAGON. —The Stillwagon mine, also at Brownsville, is on a vein similar to that of the Independence.  There is a five-stamp mill, which, with the
labor of six men, took out $4,600 in May, 1867.  The average yield is $25
per ton.
There are no other quartz mines regularly at work at Brownsville.
SLIGEm. -The Sliger mine, 400 feet long, is four miles southwest of Georgetown, on a vein four feet wide, between granite on the west and slate on the
east. Five thousand dollars were taken out of a pocket near the surface. The
mine is now being opened.
Gr.EE'wooD.-The Greenwood mine, five miles southwest of Georgetown,
89 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
has been opened by a cross-tunnel 400 feet long. A 15-stamp mill has just been
erected, but work is not yet commenced at crushing.
TAYLOR.-The Taylor mine, 3,000 feet long, is two and a half miles south of
Georgetown, on a lode that runs north-northwest and south-southeast, ind is two
feet wide at the surface, and six feet at a depth of 100 feet. A depth of 107 feet
has been reached by an incline, and drifts have been run 41 feet.  The vein is
filled with seams of slate, but the quartz shows free gold in all parts of the mine.
There is a black putty gouge two feet thlickli in places.  The west wall is bastard
granite, the eastslate.  There is no mill.
ROSEcRPANs.-The iRosecrans mine, 900 feet long, adjoins the Taylor on the
south.   The shaft is down 40 feet; and 60 tons crushed at a custom mill yielded
$12 on an average. The vein has been uncovered for 280 feet alongthe surface,
and it shows gold all the way.
BLUE LEAD.-The Blue Lead, three miles south of Georgetown, has been
openled by a San Francisco company to a depth of 250 feet and to considerable
length.  The quartz is mixed with blue slate and shows some fine specimens,
but has not paid.   A  very fine 20-stamp mill has been erected, and about
$250,000 have been invested permanently in the mine. Worki has ceased.
COLLINS.-In the Collins mine, one mile south of Georgetown, the vein has
been reached 170 feet below the surface by a tunnel 250 feet long.   The vein
is eight feet wide, and the rock in sight will yield $15 per ton.
ALPINE.-The Alpine, on the same vein, is four feet wide, is working with an
arlastra, and obtains $12 per ton.  The quartz is extracted through a tumnnel 150
feet long. The Mount Hope Company, of San Francisco, own a claim of 3,000
feet adjoining the Alpine.   The vein is six feet wide, but is split up considerably.
The shaft is 61 feet deep.
The Phliladelphia Slide Company, of San Francisco, have 3,000 feet on a
vein half a mile south of Georgetown; and have levied an assessment for the purpose of erecting hoisting workls.
The Clipper mine, two and a half miles northeast of Georgetown,'is 5,000 feet
long, on a vein two and a half feet wide, running north and south between a
granite foot wall and a slate hanging wall.   The deepest workings are 80 feet
from the surface. About 700 tons of quartz have been crushed, and the yield
was $15 per ton. There is a stamp mill which is not running.
WOODSIDE.-The Woodside mine in Georgetown is 1,200 feet long, on a
vertical vein, which is two feet wide and runs northeast and southwest between
slate walls.  A shaft has been sunk 110 feet, and drifts have been run 40 feet
on the vein. The average yield has been $30 per ton for mill rock, exclusive
of specimens worth $12,000. On one occasion a mass of rock was found so
tied together with seams of gold running through it that a cold chisel had to be
used to cut it. The pay chimney dips to the northeast. There is a five-stamp
mill driven by water power, but it has had little to do lately, the mine having
been filled with water last winter. The lode is rich in sulphurets, and has peculiar sheets of sulphurets about an eighth of an inch thick, with transverse crvstals running from side to side.  3Ir. Woodside is the inventor of a concentrator
which he uses in his mill.  It consists of a sheet of I-dia-rubber cloth, 22
inches wide and about eight feet long, sewed together at the ends and stretched
over two wooden rollers four inches in diameter and three feet apart. The
rollers are placed on a frame horizontally, one three inches higher than the
other. The rollers turn so that the cloth makes three complete revolutions in a
minute.  A water pipe perforated with little holes passes above the cloth near
the upper roller and discharges a number of little streams, which wash away the
light sands and leave the heavy sulphurets to be carried up over the upper roller,
and after passing that they drop down into a box beneath. The concentrator
has been used in this mill for a year to the satisfaction of the inventor, but nobody
else has adopted it. The mine was discovered by the gentleman whose name it
90 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
bears.  HIe picked up a piece of auriferous quartz in a little ravine, and then
sou,ght for croppings, and when he prized up a piece of rusty rock that peeped
out of the ground, lie found the under side of it speckled with gold.  He imme diately commenced work, and the mine paid its way from the surface to its
present depth.
JAMES'S AIILL.-James's custom mill, with five stamps, eight miles south of
Georgetown, is standing idle.
Eunr.EKA. —The Eureka mine, on the same vein, north of the WVoodside, is
900 feet long, and has been opened to a depth of 130 feet.  There is a steam
hloistiing establishment, but no mill, on the mine.
GEOnrGIA SLIDE.-Georgia Slide, one mile north of Georgetown, is a mining
camp on a hillside, where, under rich placers, are found a multitude of small
seamis of decomposed auriferous quartz.  Three companies are sluicing; one is
wvorlking with a seven-stamp mill and another is putting up an arrastra.  The
hillside has yielded an immense quantity of gold.
3IosQUITo.-Tihe Mosquito mine, eight miles east of IKelsey's, is in granite.
A mill built in 1866 had its roof broken in by the weight of snow last winter.
PLYMOUTH.-Thie Plymouthl mine, a mile and a half west of iKelsey's, is on
a vein very irregular in width, but averaging seven feet.  Thle rock averages
$18 per ton; but 15 tons, selected carefully from 700 tons, yielded $8,000.  rlhe
quartz contains eight per cent. of sulphurets.
GOPHEr.-The Gopher mine, a mile west of Kelsey's, has three veins, with
an aggregate thiclkness of eighteen feet.  Most of the pay is in the western vein.
The rock is a ribbon quartz, rich in sulphurets, and there are slate walls on both
sides.  A depth of 100 feet was reached, but the old works have caved in, and
the mine has not been reopened.  In 1858 the mine vielded $15,600.  There
was a mill, which has been moved to Washoe.
LA:ST CHAxcNC.-The Last Chance mine, 800 feet long, is opposite Coloma,
on the north side of the south forlk of the American river.  The vein runs north
and southl, dips to the west at an angle of 50~, and varies in width from 2 fo
12 feet.  The eastern wall is greenstone, and the western granite; but on the
western side, for a depth of 400 feet on the hillside, there was no wall-only
a bed of gravel, which has been sluiced away, leaving the quartz exposed, so
that an immense quantity of rock can be obtained without using either shaft or
tunnel.  Two men can take out 20 tons in a day ready for the mill.  Both
free gold and sulphurets are abundant, but some selection is necessary.  The
total yield, as reported by one of the owners, has been $60,000, though rumor
among outsiders says it has been $200,000. One lot of 500 tons of quartz paid
only $2 per ton; then 30 tons yielded $250 per ton; and five tons of the best
yielded $40,000. There is a 10-stamp mill, with a Joinville turbine, driven by
60 inches of water under 70 feet of head. Amalgamation is effected in the mortar and on copper plates; the tailings are concentrated on blankets, and the
blanket washings are worked in al arrastra.  A railway track, 2,100 feet long,
is being laid from the mine to the mill, and when it is finished the proprietors
expect that their entire expenses will not exceed $3 per ton. The owners of this
mine are Danes, and it is generally known as the Danes' mine, though that name
belongs to the next claim.
The Danes' mine, 2,200 feet, is on the same vein as the last, but has produced
nothing and is unopened.
R,EwAn)D.-The Reward is 1,400 feet long, one mile southwest from Uniontown.  The rock prospects well, and the walls are slate on the west and granite
on the east. A tunnel is being run in to strike the vein 135 feet from the surface.
91 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
SECTION VIII.
PLACER COUNTY.
Placer is a large county, and the only one that reaches from the Sacramento
river to the eastern boundary of the State. It extends with the meridian from
the middle fork of the American to Bear river.
Its chief mineral wealth is in the Blue lead, which crosses the county at an
elevation of 3,000 feet above the sea, and is worked at Dutch Flat, Gold RPun,
Indiana Hill, Iowa Hill, Picayune Divide, Yankee Jim, and Forest Hill.  An   cient gravel deposits appear also at Todd's Valley, Paradise, Bath, Michigan
Blutff, Damascus, and Monona Flat.
The surface placers of the county produce very little now. The county, in
proportion to the richness of placers, has, so far as known, the poorest quartz
mines in the State.  The Green Emigrant mine, lately opened, has produced
some rich specimens, but the owners keep the amount secret, and they have no
mill; and no other quartz mine in Placer has paid any considerable profit.
MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES.-Nearly all of the Central Pacific railroad in
California is in this county, and the people have derived considerable profit from
it in one way or another.  The county is also crossed by the unfinished road
from Lincoln to Marysville.
The county is supplied with water for mining and irrigation by the Bear river,
South Yuba, Dutch Flat, Michigan Bluff, and numerous smaller ditches.  Their
total number is 29; their length, 699 miles; their cost, $2,000,000.
The western and lower part of the county has much good farming land.
There are 60,000 acres of land enclosed, 20,000 cultivated, including 3,000 inll
wheat, 310,000 grape vines, 30,000 apple trees, as many peach trees, 5,000 head
of neat cattle, 20,000 sheep, 20 saw-mills, which turn out 10,000,000 feet of
lumber annually, 14 toll-roads 131 miles long, made at a cost of 8350,000, and
$3,000,000 of taxable property.
THE FOREST HILL DIVIDE. —The Forest Hill ridge, on the southern line of
the county, at an elevation varying from 3,000 to 3,500 feet above the sea, has
the rich mining camps of Todd's Valley, Forest Hill, Bath, and Michigan 13Bluff,
*  on the south side of the ridge, and Yankee Jim and Damascus on the north.
Todd's Valley, MIichigan Blutff, and Yankee Jim had chiefly hydraulic claims,
and are now nearly worked out.  Bath has cement claims, and is more prosperous
than ever, besides being a pretty town prettily situated.  Forest Hill has declined
much, but it has a large body of rich ground, and will probably see a return of
prosperity.
Yankee Jim was a long time the chief trading point for this divide, but now
it has lost its trade, as well as exhausted its placers.
The gold at Damascus has the peculiarity that a tin-cup-full of it will weigh
20 per cent. more than an equal measure of the common dust.
FOPREST HILL.- Forest HIill, which has been the most productive cement
tunnel-mining district in the State, is situated 22 miles eastward from Auburn,
at an elevation of 3,400 feet high, on the summit of the divide between the
middle fork of the American and Shirt Tail cainon.  The town is 2,500 feet
above the level of the middle fork, and about a mile distant.  The scenery
along the canion is grand.  Five miles further up the divide is Michigan Bluff,
and the Aubummn stage runs through to that point; but there is no other stage
running to Forest Hill. The canons north and south are too deep and steep for
imutch wagon travel.  The Forest Hill ridge appears to be composed of aurifer   ous gravel covered by volcanic sand, but the Forest Hill diggings are in the Blue
lead which crosses the ridge from north to south. These diggings are 500 feet
below the summit and 2,000 feet above the level of the river.
'THE BLUE LEAD AT FOREST IIILL.-In the Blue lead the lowest stratum
92 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
resting on the slate-bed rock is the blue cement proper, from 5 to 20 feet in
thickness; above that is a red gravel, 100 feet thick; and over that is vol canic sand, which is covered in places by a stratum of trachytic boulders and
soil.  The blue cement is harder than the red gravel.  The boulders and pebbles
in the red gravel are all of quartz; those in the blue are quartz, slate, and green stone.' The red gravel has smooth gold in coarse pieces, most of them weighing
two pennyweights or more, and some as much as seven ounces, and 900 fine.
The gold in the blue cement is fine, flaky, 860 fine, the largest piece not worth
more than 75 cents.  The slate-bed rock is soft, and the gold is found in its
seams to a depth of four feet.  This gold is coarse, and is black externally, so
that a person not familiar with it would not suspect its value on looking at it.
The Blue lead contains large quantities of sulphurets, which are rich inl gold.
The claims at Forest Hill are 50 feet along the side of the hill to the person,
and extend in to the middle of the hill, a distance varying from 2,000 to 5,000
feet.
CARELESS WOPrKING.-Instead of working the claim regullarly from end to
end, the companies generally soughit to get out the richest and the softest dirt;
and they changed about firom place to place nearly every weekl, so they had not
much room to work.  They could not afford to lay tracks down to haul out their
gravel; many of their drifts could be used for only a brief period, and the top
caved down in the spots  llwhichl they had wvorked, enclosing good ground, the
position of which cannot now be ascertained without much expense.  Thie New
Jersey claim was the most notable exception to this mode of procedure in the
district.
FUTUR.E OF FOREST HILL.-J. WV. Reamer, superintendent of that company,
is of the opinion that Forest Hill might be made more productive than ever by
consolidating the claims and workilng them  systematically on a large scale.
There ought to be a large tunnel for each, half a mile, 60 feet below the level
of the present tunnels, so as to be certain of having drainage for the deepest
gravel that could be found. These tunnels should be made for the purpose of
using mules to haul out the gravel and haul in the cars.  There should be large
mills to crush the cement; the sulphurets should be saved carefully, and all the
pay dirt should be removed so that a place should not be left until everythlling
of value had been extracted.
In 1859 Forest Hill shipped $100,000 of dust monthly; now $25,000 or $30,000.
Forest Hill is one of very few places where the pay dirt swells; but a tunnel
cut in the blue cement, as well as one cut in the slate, will soon close up here
by the swelling of the earth if it is not trimmed frequently.
THE PrIXNCIrAL CLAIMS.-The principal claims at Forest hIill and in the
vicinity have been the following:
The Dardanelleshas yielded $2,000,000; the Jenny Lindhas yielded $1,100,000;
the New Jersey has yielded $850,000; the Independence has yielded 8450,000;
the Deidesheimer has yielded $650,000; the Fast and Nortwood, the Rough and
Ready, and the Gore, have each yielded $250,000; the Alabama has yielded
$150,000.
It is said that the claims within iifle-shot of the express office have produced
not less than $10,000,000.  No other placer district in the State can show a yield
equal to this, and yet it is certain that a large proportion of the gold has been
lost.  The gravel or cement extracted was hard, and a considerable proportion
of it was carrmied away by the water in lumps rich in gold.  M1r. Reamer says
that if he could have another claim like the New Jersey to work, with a cement
mill, and with sufficient means to cut his tunnels and drifts in the most economical
manner, he could obtain $2,000,000 instead of $850,000 from the same quantity
of dirt.
CLAIMS AT TOODD'S VALLEY.-The Golden Calf claim, near Todd's valley,
93 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
below Forest Hill, has 1,000 feet front on the hillside and a tunnel 1,800 feet
long.  It has never been worlked systematically, and has not paid.
The Big Springs claim, with 975 feet of frontace, is being opened and meantime a 10-stamp cement mill built to work it is standing idle.
I)AnDA-NLLs.-The Dardanells Company have 1,000 feet front, commenced
worl in 1853, and have been at workl ever since-at first drifting and now
piping.  They have taken out $2,000,000 from the blue gravel, which is soft
there.  They have worlked out 400 feet along the front, have run tunnels 1,600
or 1,8S00 feet, and have drifted out much ground.  They can hydraulic away
about 300 feet along the face of their claim, but beyond that the hill is too
deep to pay for piping. At one time the company employed 60 or 70 men, now
they have only four or five, but these with pipes do more than twelve times the
number did drifting.  The company own a ditch which is 10 miles long, cost
$15,000, and supplies 300 inches of water from the 1st December till the 1st of
June.
Oro, GrEEN SPrnING AND UNCLE SAM.-Thie Oro, 1,000 feet, has yielded
$35,000, but is now in litigation, is not doing anything of note, and never was
workled with much systemi.  There is a 20-stamp cement mill on it, now idle.
The Green Spring, 750 feet long, has a bed-rock tunnel reaching to the pay
dirt, none of which has yet been worked.  The tunnel was commenced in 1S54, by
poor men, who worked a portion of their time in surface placers or as hired laborers
to get the means for continuing work on this claim.  It is probable that the front
of the hill will be piped away so as to expose the cement, which can then be
obtained, at little cost, fobr crushing.
The Uncle Sam Company have 100 feet and have done very little. Three
men are engag,ed in tunneling and washing.
HoPE AND) ROCYLAND.-The Hope claim is 500 feet long on the hillside, has
-a, tunnel 2,000 feet long in bed rock, has a 20-stamp mill, has yielded $20,000,
and has cost $100,000.  The mine is now being opened with the expectation of
crushing.  The mill was kept running six weeks and paid well.
The Rockland, Baltimore and Boston claim is 2,600 feet long; has a tunnel
2,300 feet long; has cost $100,000, and has yielded no return as yet. The
tunnel was commenced in 1854, and it has not yet reached the channel.
FAST AND NOPTWOOD.-The Fast and Nortwood claim, 400 feet long, has
been worked throughi the Baltimore tunnel, and has yielded $250,000.   The
company run their dirt in drifts on four different levels, and must load it four
different times before they get it to the surface.  The claim, in consequence of
this niode of wvorking, has not been profitable for several years, but the cement
is rich, paying $5 to the carload, or about $7 50 per ton, and there is a large
quantity of it.  There is a 10-stamp mill to crush the cement.
SNYDEr.-The Snyder claim, 200 feet long, has yielded $250,000.  This was
the pioneer claim of the district, the blue lead having been discovered here in
December, 1852, by Mlr. Snyder, on a hillside where a slide occurred, exposing
the rich gravel to view.  A little basin 40 feet in diameter at the slide yielded
$40,000.  When workl was stopped, three years ago, there was a tunnel 1,800
feet long, but as the rockl swells very rapidly it is now entirely closed up.  There
was a stretch of 400 feet in the tunnel where the rock swelled so rapidly that
as much rock as would fill the tunnel had to be taken out in each period of
eight months. The entire yield was obtained from the red gravel, and that was
worked without system.
INDEPENDENCE.-The Independence, now united with the adjoining New
Jersey claim, had a tunnel 3,500 feet long, and produced $450,000 before the
consolidation. It was worked without system. One spot about 20 feet square
yielded $10,000.
NEW  JERSEY.-The New Jersey claim is 650 feet front by 4,000 feet deep,
94 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
under the lower part of the town of Forest lill.  WVorlk  was commenced in
Aug,ust, 1853, on the tunnel, and six years and a half of hard work passed with
an experditure of $60,000 before any return was obtained. WVhen the tunnel
was in 1,800 feet, ani incline was run upwards to the red gravel, which was found
to be rich and the $850,000 were taken from an area 500 feet long by 400
feet wide.  The extraction of gravel was continued till April, 1867, vwhlen drifts
were commenced to open new ground.  The tunnel was started in 1853. with the
confident expectation of reachling pay in a year; but as the work advanced more
slowly and cost far more, the company had to run in debt, and lwhen they reached
the pay their debts amounted to $30,000 or more, and some of them had been
outstanding for more than four years.  The creditors numbered 8 or 10, mostly
merchants, who knew nothing of the New Jersey Company save that they
appeared to be hard-working, sober, honest men, and were trying to develop a
claim supposed to be valuable.  There was no long personal acquaintance and
no security.  The debts bore three per cent. interest per month.  The most
dangerous period for the comnipany was after they began to wash. A dishonest
creditor might then, perhaps, have taken the claim, or at least have caused much
expense by an attachment suit; so the fact of the finding of good pay was kept
as secret as possible until the $30,000 had been taken out, and then all were paid
off at once.  This system of giving credits was general in the mines 15 years
ago, when the profits charged were very high, when large interest was allowed,
vlwhen many extensive enterprises were undertaklen, and when a large number of
these enterprises met with magnificent success, of which the New Jersey claim
is a bright example.
Seven channels have been found in this claim running with the slates about
northwest and southcast, all parallel to one another, about 25 feet apart, 60
feet wide, with ridges of rock seven feet high between them.   The dip from
each side of the divide seems to be towards the middle of the hill.  There
is no water for wvashing from the middle of July till the middle of November,
andl meantime the dirt extracted is thrown into a pit large enough to hold 8,000
tons, where water is thrown on it occasionally so as to soften the cement and
also to attach the mass together and prevent it from sliding down hill when the
rains come. In busy times the New Jersey Company employs 60 oi' 70 men,
the annual expenses are $60,000 or $70,000, and the profit one-half of the yield.
The dirt is hauled out in cars four feet and nine inches long, 28 inches
wide, and 15 inches deep.  The weight of an ordinary car-load is 1,600 pounds.
A steady stream of water runs out from the tunnel and is caught in wooden reservoirs, 20 feet square and eight feet deep, to be used for washling.  The sluice is
half a mile long, and the grade is in one part 18 inches and in another 23 inches
to 12 feet. The steepness of the cainon renders it necessary to have a steep
sluice.  Slat riffles made of five strips of board an inch thick, two inches wide
and six feet long, with strips of the same thickness set between at the ends and
the middle and bolted through, are used.  The top of each strip is shod with
a strip) of iron an inch and a half wide and a quarter of an inch thick screwed
on and countersunk.
JE.xNxY LINxD.-The Jenny Lind, 450 feet on the hillside, had a tunnel 2,800
feet long, which is now probably closed up, at least in places, since no work has
been done for three years. The yield, almost exclusively from the red gravel,
was $1,100,000, and there is a large amount of ground still unworked. In this
claim  were found many rich quartz boulders.  The yield of $1,100,000 was
obtained by the company from the first washing, leaving to others who rewashled
the dirt a very large sum in addition.
GOnE, MxIAJxE AND ROUGE.-The Gore claim, 100 feet wide in front on the
hillside and twice as wide further back, took out $250,000 from a tunnel 1,200
feet long. No work has been done for four or five years. Rich quartz boulders
were tound in this claim also.
95 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRI[TORIES
The Mlaine claim, 200 feet front, had a tunnel 1,200 feet long, and took out
$250,000.  No work has been done for four years.
The Rotugh and Ready has 1,200 feet front, had a tunnel 1,200 feet long,
tookl out $250,000, and has done no work for three years.
DEIIDESHEIMER AXND OTHIEP,s.-The Deidesheimer has 400 feet front, had a
tunnel 1,8S00 feet long, took out $650,000, obtained much from quartz boulders,
and has dlone nothing for three years.
The India Rubber has 250 feet front, had a tunnel 1,200 feet long, produced
$50,000, and has done no work for three years.
The Alabama has a frontage of 300 feet, had a tunnel 1,200 feet long, took
$150,000, and has done nothing in the last three years.
The Eagle has 200 feet front, had a tunnel 800 feet long, expended $40,000
or $50,000, and took out $15,000.
Thle Moss has 900 feet front and a tunnel 1,000 feet long, but found no
gravel, though it is generally supposed that there is rich gravel in the claim.
Quartz was found in the tunnel, and a 10-stamp mill was erected to work it;
but it did not pay.   This is the last claim to the eastward in the Forest Hill
district.
An unrepealed provision in the miners' regulations of the district requires one
day's world everv month from December till June to hold the claims, but so
much worki has been done that nobody seems to think of forfeiture under the
letter of the regulations.
3MIcHIGAN BLUFF. —Michigan Bluff, seven miles from Forest HIill, on the
same divide, and 29 miles from Auburn, saw its best days between 1S53 and
1858, when'it shipped $100,000 per month; and now it does not ship more than
$25,000.  The claims were worked first by drifting and then by the hydraulic
process, and for a time this was one of the principal hydraulic camps in the State.
The pay stratum is remarkable on account of containing ninety-five per cent.
of quartz boulders, pebbles, and sand, and not more than five per cent. of clay.
Some of the boulders wveigh twenty tons, and half the weight of the boulders is
in those that wveighl over a quarter of a ton each.  This quartz is very white,
and immense piles of the boulders-probably hundreds of thousands of tonsare piled over the many acres that have been wvashed ofF.  The deepest claim is
80 feet deep, and probably all the ground wvashed off averaged 40 feet, of which
at least five feet were in boulders that are larger than a man's head, and that
now lie on the ground.
The only claim now at workl onil a large scale at Michigan Bluff is the North
American, and there is little expectation of extensive work in any other claim
for some years.  There are places that would pay if water could be obtained
conveniently, and there is much ground known to be rich, but it would not pay
at present.
The price of water in 1859 was 371 cents per inch, and it was reduced successively to 30, 25, and 20 cents; in 1865, to 17~, and in 1866, to 15 cents per
inch.
The original size of the claims was 100 feet square to the man.
TAIL SLUIcES.-There are four tail sluices, making a quarter of a mile altogether, in Sticlness's Gulch, below Michigan Bluff.  The sluice is four feet
wide, three deep, with vertical sides, and a grade of 14 inches to the sluicebox.  Part is paved with wooden blocks and part with boulders.  From 1860
to 1863 the tail sluice paid very well, as four or five companies tailed into it,
but now there is only one.
NOrTh AxMrPIcAx. —The North American claim, as originally located, was
600 feet long and 400 feet wide; but much additional ground has been purchased, and half of the original area is worked out. Sluicing and drifting were
commenced in 1S54 in front, where the claim was shallow; and in 1858, when
deeper gravel had been reached, piping began. In 1860 a bed-rock tunnel
96 
WEST OF THE ROCK.Y MOUNTAINS.
1,400 feet long-in one place 150 feet under the surface of the rim rock-on  structed at a cost of $10,000, was first used for washling.  The grade is 13
inches to 12 feet, but eight inches is considered preferable. The sluice in the tun nel is two feet wide at the bottom, 32 inches wide at the top, and two feet deep.
The flaring are better than vertical sides for the passage of large boulders two
or three feet through, though anything over 150 pounds injures the sluice.
Nearly all the gold is caught within 200 feet at the head of the sluice, where
the bottom is covered with slat frames six feet long and one foot wide, with
four frames to one sluice-box.   The slats are boards an inch thick, "'shod"
with iron straps three-quarters of an inch thick and an inch and a half wide.
All the sluice-boxes below the first 200 feet are paved with fir blocks eight inches
thick.  The first hundred feet of the sluice are cleaned up every evening, and
the second hundred twice a week. This cleaning up keeps the riffles in good
order, and requires half or three-quarters of an hour. There are 2,300 feet of
11-inchl pipe and 150 of 7-inch pipe in use in the claim. The total yield has
been $300,000.
NITRO-GLYCERINE.-The number of men now employed is 15; last year it
it was 28. One of the chief difficulties in this claim is the removal of the
of the stratum of pipe-clay which rests on the pay gravel and must be carried
off in the sluice. It is too hard to be piped away, so it must be blasted into
small pieces.  Previous to this year powder was used, but now Sir. Swenson,
one of the partners of this claim, and the pioneer manufacturer of nitro-glycerineo
in California, supplies that fluid, which is so much better than gunpowder that
15 men do more in 1867 than 28 did in 1866. The nitro-glycerine shatters
the pipe-clay into a multitude of little pieces, whereas powder broke it into a
few large ones; so, after a powder blast, the miners had to reduce the large
lumps with gads, for which there is now little use. It costs about $2 per pound,
and is preferred by the miners after they once become accustomed to it. No
accident has happened with it on this claim, although sometimes two or three
dozen blasts are set off in a day.  The smroke from it disappears sooner than
that from powder, but it is more injurious.
About 400 inches of water are used in the North American claim for four or
five days in the week.
BATH DISTrIcT.-The following claims are in the Bath district, adjoining the
Forest Hill district:
In the San Francisco claim no work has been done for a long time.
The Oro claim never yielded much, and is doing nothing now.
The Rip claim, 450 feet front, has a tunnel 450 feet long in the bed rock.
From this tunnel a shaft has been raised to the Parag,on sheet, which was workled
from 1852 to 1858. The company are preparing to pipe away the front of the
claim, and they intend to erect a mill next year. Work is continued meantime
on the tunnel.
The Golden Gate Company have 180 feet front, and own half of a joint tunnel,
400 feet long, on the boundary line of the Rough Gold Company.   They are
are now working the blue gravel, and getting $5 per ton from it, but they intend]
to work the Paragon sheet.  They have a ive-stamp mill, driven by a hlurdygurdy wheel.
The Rough Gold Company have a frontage of only a few feet, but the claim.
arows wider as it goes back into the hill, and 400 feet back it is 200 feet wide.
There is a tunnel 1,800 feet long, 150 feet under the Paragon sheet which is
tiow being worked; but the tunnel was located for the purpose of working the
blue gravel.  There is a 10-stamp mill, which was erected in 1866, and is now
running steadily.
PAnAGoX.-The Paragon claim has a front of 250 feet, extends a mile and a
half through the hill, and is 400 feet wide at the back.  The pay stratum now
7
97 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
worked is a deposit of rusty gray gravel, four feet deep, resting on the blue gravel
100 feet deep, and covered by volcanic sand. The blue gravel immediately on
the bed rock, as well as for 100 feet above, contains some gold, but not enough
to offer much profit.  The gray gravel contains $10 per ton, the gold being
coarse, some of the pieces weighing two or three ounces, and others containing
quartz attached.
Work was commenced on the claim in 1852, and the gravel was sluiced for
10 years. It was so tough, however, that it had to be washed repeatedly, and
after all much of the clay escaped undissolved.  At the first washing the yield
was about $1 per ton, and the second, third, and fourth washings, made  at
intewrvals of a year, yielded each $2 per ton, and $1 per ton for the fifth, sixth,
and seventh washings.  Freezing and thawing slaked the cement more rapidly
than did sun or rain. In 1864 a 20-stamp mill was built, and then the claim first
began to prove its high value. The yield of the claim was $100,000 in 1866,
half of it profit.  The yield per ton in the mill is no more than it was in the
sluice, but the dirt is now not so rich as it was before.
The gray gravel, or "sheet," as it is called, has all been taklen out for 1,600
feet front. The tunnel is in the middle of the claim in the blue gravel, 20
feet below the sheet. The pay dirt is breasted out on drifts, which run entirely
across the claim, so that there are 400 feet of breast for the men to work at.
The gravel becomes softer when exposed to the air, so the large breast gives
the benefit of exposure, as well as of abundant room. At intervals of 30 feet
a chute is made from the sheet down to the tunnel, for the purpose of throwing
down the gravel; few timbers are used, and the roof falls down upon the blue
gravel, close upon the heels of the miners.  Two men are constantly employed
repairing the tunnel, which would close up in a month, if neglected.  The blue
gravel swells very much in one stretch of 150 feet.
There is enough dirt in sight for four years' work.  All the dirt is picked
down.
The mill crushes 200 tons a week. and the expenses are $1,000 per week.
Fifty men are employed: 32 miners; four carmen in the tunnel; two carmen outside; two tunnel menders; four feeders, and six others in and about the mill.
Two men feed the 20 stamps, and two others pick out the large stones from the
gravel.
The stamps weigh 700 pounds, have 75 drops per minute, and 13 inches fall.
The screen is punched with holes a sixteenth of an inch in diameter, but they
soon wear larger.
Two tons of gravel are fed per hour to each five-stamp battery, and three inches
of water run steadily into each mortar.
A quarter of a pound of quicksilver is put in every morning, and as much more
every evening into each battery.
A flask of quicksilver is bought once in four months, implying the loss of 75
pounds in that period, or half a pound per day on an average, or one-quarter of all
that is used. Theretorting is done carefully, so the loss is in the sluice.
Below the mortars are Jenny Lind riffles, and below those hurdy-gurdy riffles.
It is said the claim was sold in August, 1867, for $150,000.
OTHEiR BATH CLAIMS.-The Greek claim, 160 feet front, has lately been
bought by the Paragon Company for $9,650. This claim paid well in front, but
was not worked well; the tunnel closed up; the owners quarrelled, and then they
sold out.
The New York claim, 200 feet front, has a, sheet like that of the Paragon,
save that it is on the bed rock. A tunnel was cut 1,800 feet long in the bed
rock, at an expense of $15,000, but bad air proved very troublesome; the work
was stopped before pay was reached; the tunnel closed up, and nothing has
been done for three years.
98 
WEST OF TiHE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The Sebastopol Company has a front of 1,000 feet, cut a tunnel S800O feet in
very hard rock, found no pay, and stopped work in 1866, after spending $20,000.
D)AMASCUS.-Damascus, twelve miles northeast of Forrest Hill, on the same
divide, but on its north side, has the same slate bed rock, and a similar bed of
blue cement, though there is no overlying red gravel.
The ])amatscus Company has a claim 500 feet in front, and 3,000 long, running
into the hill.  The blue cement is four feet thick, lies immediately on a soft
talcose slate-bed rock, soft enough to pick, and is covered by 600 feet of volcanic
sand; at least it is supposed to be sand, though no careful examination has been
made of it. The richest part of the cement is within 15 inches of the bottom,
but the largest inuggets of gold are found in the bed rock.  The gold is mostly
coarse, in long narrow pieces, and those found in the bed rock, like those found
at Forest Hill, are firequently quite black.
The claim is opened by a tunnel, 450 feet long, of whlich distance 200 feet
were passed before the rim had been pierced.
The tunnel runs nearly south-southeast, about the middle of the claim, and
apparently in the middle of what was the channel of the ancient stream.  The
present supply of cement is obtained northeast of the tunnel, and the breast is
about 200 feet, extending nearly half way across the claim.  A pillar 20 feet
wide is left standing alongside of the tunnel to protect it. A rail track is kept
along the face of the breast, and after 20 feet have been breasted out, the track
is relaid for convenience of loading. The tunnel is eight feet below the bed of
the channel, and the load in the breast car is dumped into the tunnel car.
There are many large quartz boulders, some of them weighing a ton each in
the cement, and these are thrown back to support the proof, which never creacks.
A post six feet high, with a cap 30 inches long, is set up in each square of 30 feet
at the breast, but so far there has been no trouble with the roof.
There is a 10-stamp mill, driven by steam, but it runs only in day-time for lack
of water to run longer,.  The company intend to make a ditch, so that the mill
can run day and night.  Twenty-five tons of cement are crushed every day, and
the average yield so far has been $3 35 to a car load of 1,700 pounds, or $3 94
per ton.  The bed rockl, of whichl 15 inches are dug up, is not crushed, but is
simply washed in the sluice.
The stamps weigh 650 pounds each, make 70 to 80 blows per minute, and
drop from 9 to 11 inches.  When the shoes and dies are new the drop is 9 inches,
and the number of blows 80, and when the drop is 11 inches the number of
blows is 70.
Three inches of water are turned into each mortar, and three inches more are
turned into the sluice below.
The cost of the mill, including the engine, was $12,000, and the expenses daily
are the following, viz: a cord of wood, $3; an engineer, $4; a blacksmith, $3;
a feeder, $3; six miners, $3 each.  Five men breast out five tons per day to a
man, and one carman takes out the cement.  The engine is of forty-horse power.
Two candles are burned per day to the breaster.
The mill was built before the mine was properly opened.
The bed rock does not swell.  The bed rock is full of vertical quartz-veins
averaging a few inches in thickness, running south-southwest and nlorth-northeas>.  These seams appear to form in places half of the bed rock; some of them
are a foot thick, and some as thin as paper. The same quartz veins, but more
stronly marked, are found in a second tunnel, which is 65 feet lower and 350
feet lollng.
MoOUNTAIX GATE.-The Mountain Gate claim, adjoining the Damascus on
the west, has 2,000 feet front, and the tunnel runs in 4,000 feet. The bed rock
is 35 leet higher than in the Damascus, it swells, there is less quartz in the
bed rock, and some of the gravel is softer; but otherwise there is much similarity in the two claims. The tunnel was started 40 feet below the top of the
99 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIE'S
rim rock, which was passed in 500 feet, and then the tunnel was extended 3,500
feet, running nearly level, and the company are now troubled so much by water
that they have started another tunnel 65 feet deeper, and it is in 1,500 feet.  The
tunnel is about 200 feet from the Damascus line, and they have worked 200 feet
on each side of the tunnel.  They breast out on the same system as that use([ in
the Damascus.
They have no mill, and when they come to cement too hard to wash, they
usually leave it behind and virtually throw it away.  Some of it, however, is so
rich that it pays to crush with a hand mortar. The softer cement is washed three
or four times, at intervals of six or eight months. Three-fourths of the total
yield is obtained at the first washing, and three-fourths of the further yield at the
second. The sluice is 200 feet long.
There are 16 partners, all of whom work in the claim, and they seldom hire
anybody.  Rumor says the present yield is $12 per day tq the man. though
the worlk done is much less than the amount required from hired men.   The
claim has been worked for 12 years, and has produced altogether $370,000. They
have enough water from their own claim to wash all their dirt.
The bed rock rises 150 feet near the western line of the ]1ountain -Gate, and
at thle eastern line of the Damascus, so those two companies take the whole chan nel there.
IowA IILL.-At Iowa Hill the blue cement lies on the bed rock, or lay before
it was mined out, 12 or 18 feet deep.  The cement was so soft that it could be
picked out, and so hard that it could be washed once a year for seven years with out being entirely disintegrated.  Much of the cement was so rich that it was
pounded up) in a mortar wveighing 250 pounds, and measuring 16 inches across
the bowl.  The pestle weighed 70 or 80 pounds, was attached to a spring p)ole,
and was worked by two men, who could thus pound up two tons or two tons and
a half in a day.
Over the blue cement was a layer of sand from one foot to four feet in thiclk ness.  Upon that rested a stratum of rich brownish gravel six or eight feet
thick.  Over this came 140 feet of poor brown gravel, with layers of sand in it,
and usually there was a very rich stratum of gravel just over the sand. Above
the brown gravel was loam 20 or 30 feet deep.
A few claims on this Blue lead were extremely profitable. The Jamison, the
pioneer claim, yielded $500,000; the North Star, $400,000; the Sailor Union,
$300,000; the Iowa Hill, $250,000; and the Dutch, $250,000; but three dozen
large tunnels were run and not onle-third of them paid expenses.  If the loss
were balanced against the profit, the Iowa Hill district would not show much
net gain.
"The town stands on the summit of a ridge 200 feet high and a furlong wide,
and the blue cement of the channel which passes under the town has all been
drifted out, and the hydraulic pipe is now at work on both sides, so that the
Town site will itself be washed away in a few years.
The richest spot ever found in the neighborhood of Iowa Hill was in the brown
gravel, firom which two men took out $30,000 in one day.
East of Iowa Hill is Indian canion, reputed to have been the richest aflion
ever found in California.
WIscoNSIN HILL.-Wisconsin Hill is on the same divide with Iowa Hill, but
is two miles distant in a southeast direction, and the two places are separated by
a ravine.  The channel is the same as at Iowa Hill, but not so rich.
The Oriental cement mill at Wisconsin Hill was built in 1866 and has 20
stamps, but it does not pay, as the cement yields only 80 cents to the ton.
Fortunately, the surface has been stripped, so the cement lies bare and can be
obtained at little expense.
ROACH HILL. —Roach Hill, one mile east of Iowa Hill, has had some good
claims.
100 
WVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Monona Flat, half a mile east of Roach Hill, has also paid well in places.
The channel at these two camps runs with the divide.
Pleasant Flat, a quarter of a mile further up, has a channel ruinning across.
MIO-xING STAn.-Three hundred yards south of Iowa Hill, beyond Indian
cation, is Picayune divide, through which runs the Blue lead, on whichl is located
the Miorning Star claim, which has 1,200 feet front, and extends 4,000 feet to
the middle of the ridge.  The channel here appears to have been 150 or 200 feet
wide.  The iMoming Star tunnel was commenced in 1S56, and no pay of any
note was obtained until 1865, by which time a distance of 1,S00 feet had been
run and $45,000 had been expended. After reaching the cement it was found
that the tunnel was 30 feet too high, and now the dirt has to be hoisted and the
water pumped by hand to the level of the tunnel.  The bed rock swells, and
sometimes the track is raised six inches in a night.  The cement varies in thick ness from six inches to six feet, and yields $3 per tonll. The mill has six stamps,
goes by steam, and crushes 40 tons in 24 hours.  From June to December, there
is but half the needed supply of water, and the mill runs only in the day-time.
Twenty-four men are employed.
BinD FLAT AXND LEBANox.-Three-quarters of a mile above the MIorning
Star claim, on the Picayune divide, the Iowa Hill and Bird Flat Company have
been rtnninmg a tunnel since 1854, have gone in 1,100 feet, have spent $850,000,
and have obtained no return as yet.
The Lebanon Company, at Prospect Hill, have a claim which adjoins the Miorn ing Star on the back.  They have been at work 13 years, spent $100,000, and
cut a tunnel 1,500 feet, and in 1866 they struck into pay and erected a 10-stamp
mill, which is driven by a hurdy-gurdy wheel.  This tunnel is not low enlough.
GoLD RUN.-On the Railroad divide, between Bear river and the North forkl
of the American, the Blue lead appears at Dutch Flat, Gold Run, and Indiana
Hill.  The width of the lead here is nearly half a mile, and there are 200 or
300 feet of pay gravel, with no overlying barren stratum.   Squires's canion,
which empties into Bear river, separates Dutch.'lat from Gold Run.  The
latter did not obtain a large supply of water until lately, and therefore its best
claims have not been exhausted, and it is the most prosperous hydraulic camp in
California.  Nine thousand inches of water are used here, requiring a payment
of $1,000 a day or more in gold. The gravel is peculiarly soft and there is great
depth, so that highl power is obtained, and more dirt is wvashed in proportion to
the quantity of water used than in any other large hydraulic district.
GnxAVEL AT GOLD RuI.-The bed of auriferous gravel at Gold Run is about
350 feet deep, of which only about 150 feet have been worked so far. The
sluices are therefore 200 feet above the bed rockl.  A shaft was sunk 185 feet
deep in Potato ravine to the bed rock, and the bottom of that ravine is below
the level of most of the sluices.  It is to be presumed that the bed rock in that
shaft is no lower than elsewhere in the channel. Pay gravel was found all the
way down, and it was soft until within six or eight feet of the bottom.   This
vast bed of gravel two miles long, half a mile wide, and 250 feet deep, cannot
be washed away for many years.
OUTLET.-Although the canon of the north forkl of the American river is at
least 2,500 feet deep, yet it is two miles distant from Gold Run, and the tailings
must run into Cainon creek, which near the claims is only 150 or 175 feet below
their levels. Several claims have been compelled to stop work because they no
longer have any outlet.
An outlet must be obtained 200 feet deeper than Canon creek, and it must
be had without waiting for the gradual washing out of the Blue Lead channel
from the canon of the north fork of the American river. That outlet will be
through a tunnel about a mile long, and from this tunnel shafts will run up to
the various claims.  It will be very costly, but on the other hand it will yield
an immense return.
101 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
FACILITIES FOte  PIPING.-There is no prettier hydraulic washing tlhanL that
qt Gold Run.  The gravel is very soft, it is deep, water is abundant with a high
pressure, the claims are large, and there is no superincumbent layer of barren
matter.  In proportion to the amount of workl done fewer men are employed at
Gold Run than at any other camp in the State.  At Smartsville much time is
spent ill blasting; at La Porte, in puddling; at Dutch Flat, in attendilng to
large boulders; but none here.  Two men are sufficient here to do all the work
in a claim that uses 300 inches of water.  As an inch of water is equal to a supply of 145 pounds per minute, or 8,700 pounds per hour, or 102,900 pounds (51
tons) in 12 hours, so it follows that 300 inches supplies 15,000 tons in a
day; and as the water carries off at least one-tenth-the ordinary calculation is
one-fifth-of its bulk of earthy matter, it follows that two men wash 1,500 tons
at Gold RunI in 12 hours, or 750 tons each.  It is a common saying at Dutch
Flat that there three pipes are required to break down as much gravel as the
water of one can wash away, but in Gold Run one pipe will break down as much
as three can wash away.  This is an exaggeration when stated as a general principle, though it has been true in some instances.
CANON CREEK.-Canion creek runs from Gold Run along the eastern border of
the Blue Lead 31- miles down to' Indiana Hill, where it empties into the north fork
of the American river.  This creek furnishes the outlet for many of the claims.
The original bed of the creek was in general 350 feet below the surface of the
lead, or "gravel range," as it is also called, but the bed has been in some places
filled up as much as fifty feet with gravel.
WATER.- Piping was commenced at Indiana Hill on a small scale in 1857,
with 400 inches, supplied in the late winter and early spring by a ditch from
Calion creek.  Four years later the Dutch Flat ditch l)rought to Gold lRun 800
inches, illichl ran for six or seven monthls, and have since been doubled; and
the Bear R-iver ditch brought in 800 more; and in 1864 the South Yuba ditch
brought in 2,500 inc(lhes.  The demand for water has always exceeded the supply, and as the supply increased so did the amount of work and of production.
(Gold Run produced $150,000, in 1865; $300,000 in 1866; and the yield for
1867 is estimated at $500,000.  The customary price for water is 12, cents per
inch for 12 hours, and 20 cents for 24 hours.
SQUIPRE'S CARON CLAIMS. -On the southern lode of Squire's canon, in the
Gold Run district, are the following claims, commencing at the east:
Frost & Co. began work in 1865, wash through an open cut, use 300 inches
of water, and usually run in day-time only, though they have run night and
day at times.
WAV. H. Kinder began workl in 1866, uses 300 inches of water, washes thlrough
an open cut, and runs in day-time only.
Wentworth & Co. began work in 1866, use 300 inches of water night and day,
and wash through an open cut.
A. Bell & Co. are running a bed rock tunnel, and have not commenced
washing.
Wolcott & Co. began work in 1867, and the claim  was sold in June  for
$3,500.  They use 300 inches of water in daylight only, and washl through an
open cut, but intend to cut a tunnel.
The Bailey claim, consisting of 21 claims, each 100 by 200 feet, has not seen
opened, and no work is being done.
Crader & Co. began in 1867, alnd use 175 inches day and night.
CARON CREEKr CLAIM.-The claims which have their outlet into Canon creek
are the following, near the head of Squire's canon:
The Rock Company opened their claim in 1866, and used 250 inches of water,
running day and night. They are not piping now, but are preparing to lay a
long pipe so as to have a heavy pressure for 1868.
Hughes & Co. opened their claim in 1866, but are not at work now.
1.02 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
A. S. Benton opened his claim in 1867, and uses 300 inches of water by day light only.
The Harkness claim has been workled by sluice and pipe for 10 years, is now
taking 650 inches of water day and night, and draining thllrough an open cut.
Behind Harkness is the claim of Halsey &  Co., 900 feet long by 500 wide,
which cannot be worked until an outlet is obtained through the claim in front.
A fourth interest was offered for sale in last February for $2,000, but no buyer
appeared.  It would have found ready sale if there lad1 been an outlet.
Next to Harkness, on Canion creek, is the claim of Goding & Co., who have
worked off the top of their claim as low as they can go, and are now waiting for
a deeper outlet.
The claim of Benton & Co., adjoining, is in a similar condition.
The Bay State claim was opened in 1857, and has been wvorked steadily since
whenever water could be had. In 1866 it used 750 inches day and ni,ght; this
year it used 350.  The profit never has been large, though the gross yield
has been $150,000, and the yield for 1866 $37,000.
The claim of A. Beel is in the same condition as that of Goding.
GOOSLIXG RAVI-E, CLAIMS.-Goosling & Co. have been at work since 1854.
A ravine runs down through the middle of the claim, and they are piping on
each side, using 300 inches day and night on one side, and 300 inches in daytime only on the other.  Goosling, ravine is in this claim.
Prindle & Co. opened their claim in 1864, and used 275 inches of water day
and night.  WAVork has been closed for this season because the pipe has advanced
to within 50 feet of a ditch, the proprietors of which have warned the claim
owners that they will be held responsible for any damage to the ditch.  Four
ditches cross this claim.  The outlet is through Goosling's ravine..
The Uncle Abe claim, behind Goosling, is irregular in shape, but is about
1,000 feet long by 850 feet wide.  It was opened in 1867, and in April, MIay,
and June, yielded $12,000.  It was sold in May for $6,000.  The consumption
of water is 275 inches day and night.
LOWvER CAN.ox CREEK CLAIMS.-The claim of Winters & Co. has been worked
three years, and is in the same condition as Goding's.
The Bay State No. 2 is unopened.  An offer of $3,000 for the claim was
refused.
The Hall claim was worked for two years, but is idle this season for want of
an outlet.
The claim of Taylor, Moore & Co. is about 1,000 feet square, was worked on
a small scale from 1853 till 1865, and for the last two years has been piping on
a large scale.  It was sold this year for $11,000.  The yield in "a run of 22
days," as a run of 11 days day and night is termed, is usually between $4,000
and $5,000.
The Church claim was opened in 1860, and the yield in 1866 was $27,000.
Thlree-fifths of the claim were sold inl 1865 for $7,000.  Of water, 275 inches
are used in the day-time only.
Tile Golden Gate claim began worki in 1858, uses 300 inches of water in daytime only, pays well, and is the last claim that tails immediately into Caion
creek.
GOLD) RUN CANox. —The Gold Run claim began work in 1859, uses 300
inches of water in the day-time only, has paid well, and tails into Golden Run
canion, which is on the southern side of the claim.  An offer of $10,000 for the
claim has been refused.
The Fitzpatrick claim, fronting on Gold Run canon, has lately been sold f(r
$2,100, and is now preparing to work with 300 inches of water.
On the south side of Gold Run canon, and opposite to the Fitzpatrick claim,
is the Sheldon claim, owned by the Dutch Flat Water Company.   It has been
worked several years, but is idle now.
103 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The HIuyclk and Hubbard claim, fronting on Gold Rtun canion, has a sluice
tunnel, but is waiting for cheaper water, and doing nothing.
The Home Ticket has been worked four years, and uses 350 inches in day time.  The gross yield in Alay and June, 1 867, was about $100 per day.
The Newarll was opened in 18S63, uses 300 inches in the day-time, and yielded
about $75 gross in June, 1867.
POTATO RAvixE.-The following companies tail into Potato ravine, a tribu tary of Canion creek:
Baldwin and Bailey have been at wvorki three years, using 275 inches of water
in the day-time, and obtaining about $70 gross per day.
The Harris claim is large and unopened.
The Fitzpatrick claim yields about $75 gross per day, was opened in 1866,
and consumes 330 inches of water in day-time.
The Cedar Company have 900 by S00 feet, began work in 1861, run 300
inches day and night, and obtain about $230 in 24 hours.   The yield in 1866
was $35,000, one-half of it profit.
Stewart and Kinder have 500 feet square, fronting on both Canion creek and
Potato ravine, but are not at work.  Along Canion creek there is a rim rock, so
they will tail into Potato ravine.  They refused an offer of $1,500 for the claim.
The Judd and Griffin claim, 1,000 feet square, has been worked since 1854,
and was sold in 1S66 for $3,500. The yield is about $75 per day, with 270
inches running twelve hours out of the twenty-four.  To get drainage an open
cut was made 600 or 700 feet long in the rim-rock, and in one place 40 feet deep.
Huyck and Judd have one of the most profitable claims of the district on the
eastern side of Indiana Hill canion, which empties into the north fork of the
American river. They have been at workli since 1854, use 275 inches of water
in the day-time, and cleared $7,000 in 1866.
The Hoskin claim adjoining is open, hut is not worked.
I)NDIAXNA C;EMENT ]:IILL.-AMallory, Gaylord & Co. are wvorkling with an eightstamp cement mill, driven by a hurldygurdy wheel.  Their claim is the only one
in the district in which the bed-rock has been reached.   Their mode of getting
out dirt is to cut a tunnel 60 or 70 feet on the bed-rock, let off a blast of 200
keg,s of powder, sluice off the top dirt, and run the cement through the mill.
INDIANA CANON CLAIMS.-The following claims tail into Indiana Hill canon.
The Hawkins claim was opened this year, uses 350 inches night and day, and
yields $200 in 24 hours.
The Brink claim was opened in 1864, but is not worlked now on account of
disturbance of the telegraph or flume from which the pipe is fed.  The yield was
about $75 per day, and the quantity of water 30 inches.  Work will be resumed
next year.
Stewart and Prindle opened their claim in 1S867, use 200 inches day and night,
and take out about $100 per day.
MooDY's TAIL SLUICE.-In Canion creek Moody & Co. have a double tail
sluice 2,000 feet long, consistiing of two flumes, each eight feet wide and about
four feet deep.  This sluice cost $25,000.  The lower part was carried away in
1862, and the upper part was buried and had to be replaced.  The yield was
$10,000 in 1865, $7,000 in 1S66, and $3,000 in the first half of 1867.  An offer
of $11,000 for a third interest was refused.  The estimated receipts for 1S67 are
$10,000.  3Most of the cleaning up is done in September and October, when
there is not much water for piping.
IKINDER's TAIL SLUICE.-Kinder and White have a tail sluice in Canion creek
and claim the creek for a mile and a half below Moody & Co. In the upper
parl of their claim they have two sluices eight feet wide and 700 feet long.  Half
of the sluice was sold in 1865 for $3,000, but since then it has become more
valuable. The grade is three inches to 12 feet. This sluice was carried away
ill 1865.
104 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The following companies tail into the two tail sluices in Canon creek:
Companies.  Inches.
Rock Creek..........................275
Benton & Co........... —-------------------     ---                    350
Hark       ness ------------------------ 600
Bay State................... —--------------------—.. 350
Bell................................ 300
German. ------------------------- 600
Uncle Abe - ------------------—....... 275
Taylor & Co................... —-----------------—... 400
Church....... —----------------------- 275
The Gold Run tail sluice, in Gold Run  canon, is 1,500 feet long, six feet
wide, and yields $6,000 or $7,000 a year.  It tails into Canion creek.
Goosling & Co. have a tail sluice 3,000 feet long in Goosling ravine, and four
companies tail into it.  Two tail sluices are buried 20 or 30 feet deep in this mine.
Huyckl and Judd have 1,000 feet of tail sluice in Indiana Hill canion.
IIOSKIrs TAIL SLUICE.-The Hioskins tail sluice is in Indiana Hill ravine,
which is so steep that the sluice is in short sections, the longest 24 feet, and
between the sections the water pitches down over steep rocks. There are in all
fifteen boxes of main tail sluice, six or eight feet wide and two or two and a half
feet deep, with a grade of eight inches to 12 feet.
Besides the main sluice boxes there are a number of undercurrent boxes, from
six to nine feet wide, 14 inches deep, with a grade of 12 or 13 inches to 12 feet.
Not more than one-fifth of the matter in the main sluice gets into the undercurrent, passing through a cast grating of white iron, with openings an inch wide,
eight inches and a half long, separated by bars an inch and a half thick on top.
There are usually from 600 to 1,200 inches of water running in the main sluice
and 120 in the undercurrent, which latter catches three times as much gold as
the former, because the current is slower and shallower.
There are second undercurrents, or secondaries, as they are usually called.
Their grade is 14 or 15 inches to the box, their width 30 inches, and their depth
12.  They talie one-fifteenth of the water of the undercurrent, and catch oneeilghth as much gold.  They are especially serviceable for catching quicksilver.
The spaces in the grating are five inches long and three-eighths of an inch wide.
There are three boxes of 12 feet to each undercurrent, and two to each secondary.  The undercurrents always pay where the gold is fine, and the secondaries
are especially serviceable in steep cations.
DUTCil FLAT.-Dutch Flat, on the north side of the divide between Bear
river and the north fork of the American river, and within half a mile of the
line of the Central Pacific railroad, has for 12 years been one of the leading
hydraulic camps of the State. It is pleasantly situated, and is one of the most
prosperous towns in the mines, although the monthly gold yield was thrice as great
in 1858 as it is now. There are many comfortable homes, most of the people
consider themselves permanent residents, and there is a steady increase in the
number of families.  Dutch Flat. probably alone of all the mining towns, has
never been burned down, and only one house has been burned.  The shipment
of gold in January, 1867, was  $31,600; in February, $33,000; in Mlarch,
-$43,000; in April, $74,000; in MIay, $66,000; and in June, $60,000.  These
shipments included much from Gold Run.
l Most of the soft gravel that covered the Blue lead, and that could be washed
down readily with the pipe, has been washed away, and the blue cement, which
is too hard for the pipe, and perhaps not rich enough for the stamp, has been
cached; and most of the claims are now lying idle in the hope that some other
mode will be devised of working them.
The principal claims at Dutch Flat, commencing on Bear river, at the north,:-.tem corner of the district, are the following:
PI(ENxI AN D ANMERICAN.-The Phoenix, 900 feet long by 300 wide, was
105
Companies. Inches.
Golden Gate.......................... iOO
Hon-le Ticket........................ 350
Newark..... 300
----------------
Bailey &.................... 275
Fj tzpatrick.......................... 300
Brogan.............................. 300
Total.......................... 5,250 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
opened in 1857 and was worked until 1865, with an average yield of $150 and
an expense of $60 per day. All the soft gravel has been washed and the hard
cement remains. The depth to the bed rock is not known.
The American, 900 feet long by 400 feet wide, was opened in 1857, and was
worked for six years as a hydraulic claim, yielding $150 per day.  It will not
pay now for piping, and Chinamen are sluicing in it.
BUCKEYE.-The Buckeye was opened as a sluicing claim in 1854, and it was
piped from 1857 till 1867, and may be regarded as worked out for the hydraulic
process.  It has used 250 inches of water and employed from four to six men.
An incline was sunk 250 feet below the level of the present workings to the
bed rock, and the cement taken out in going down yielded $8 to the car-load,
and not more than one-third of the gold was washed out.  If this statement be
correct, and if the cement found in the incline was a fair average of all in the
claim, the Buckeye is an extremely valuable piece of property.
DUTCH FLAT AND QUEEN CITY.-The Dutch Flat, 1,800 by 900 feet, was
opened in 1857, and is still at work with 12 men.   The yield is from $200 to
$400 per day. The soft gravel will last another season. The companv commencedcl work in 1854, cutting a tunnel for drainage, but after going 450 feet and
spending $46,000 on it, they gave it up.  Some of the rock was so hard that
they paid 885 50 per lineal foot.
The Queen City, 900 by 250 feet, began piping in 1858, and will exhaust its
soft gravel this year.  Four men are employed; the yield is $130 to $150 per
day, and 200 or 250 inches of water are used.
BEAR RIvEr AND TEAFFr.-The Bear River claim, 900 by 400, was opened
in 1856, and will be exhausted, so far as the soft gravel is concerned, this year.
Four men are employed, 250 inches of water are used, and the yield is $150 per
day.
Teaff's claim, 900 by 310 feet on one side of the hill, and 1,500 by 900 on
the other side, was opened as a pipe claim in 1855, and the soft gravel will be
workled out next year.  From 1857 to 1860 125 inches of water were used, and
the average yield was $100 per day.  About 80 feet have been washed away
fromn nearly the entire area of the claim. The amount of water used is 250 inches,
at an expense of $30 per day; four men are employed at $3 each; the total
expenses are about $50 per day, and the yield $150.  The head of water for
piping is 120 feet.
From BOSTON TO YANKEE.-The Boston claim, 900 by 450 feet, was opened
as a hydraulic claimn in 1855, and the soft gravel will all be washed away this
year. Four men are employed, 250 inches of water are purchased, and the yield
is $150 per dav.
The Gray Eagle, 900 by 300 feet, was piped from 1858 till this year, and
now the soft gravel has all disappeared.   The yield was $150 per day, and 250
or 300 inches wvere used per day.
The North Star was worked as a drift claim for a long time, and then piped.
The soft gravel is all gone, and the claim is lying idle.
The Union is workling, and paying good wages to two men.
The Yankee, at the junction of Dutch Flat ravine with Bear river, has worked
off nearly all the soft gravel.  In 1858 and 1859 it was worked as a drift claim
by 16 men, and it yielded 250 ounces (about $4,500) per month.
DLIrT CLAIMS.-The Blue Cut struckl pay in 1856 as a drift claim, and paid
very high for a time, and now pays $400 per month.  Four men are employed,
and the claim is still worked by drifting.
The Potosi, a drift claim, pays 200 ounces per month to 12 men drifting day
and night.
The Whynot Company is worked as a drifting claim; yield not ascertained.
The Badger has 22 feet of drlifting dirt, and has been very rich, but is working
now on a small scale.  In four years it paid $192,000 of dividends
106 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
fILL CLAIMS.-The Ohio claim has a four-stamp cement mill, which stalrted
this year and pays well. The cement is hauled out with a mule. The soft
grave] has been sluiced off from the top.
The erection of a mill has been commenced on the Baker claim.
The German Company intend to build a mill.
OTHER CLAIMS.-The Deep Shaft claim is the property of the Water Coir.
pany, and is worked by the hydraulic process, but the supply of water is irregular.  When there are 250 inches of water the yield is about $150 per day.
The Iowa claim uses 250 inches, and pays $150 per day, but did not pay more
than $100 previous to 1S66.  The soft gravel will be worked out next year.
Thie North Star yielded $150 per day for four or five years, but the soft gravel
is all gone now.
Between Dutch Flat Ravine and Squire's Canion are a number of hydraulic
claims that have been worked many years, and have paid very little more than
expenses.
TEAFF'S TAIL SLUICE.-James Teaff, who owns one of the piping claims at
Dutch Flat, also owns a tail sluice-probably the largest one in the State.   The
total length is 5,500 feet; 2,500 feet long, five and a half feet wide, and 26 inches
deep, in a tunnel, and 3,000 feet long and six feet wide outside.   The construction of the tunnel and(l sluice cost $55,000 in money and four years' time, and was
completed in 1863.  Tlhe Teaff, Dutch Flat, Queen City, Bear RPiver, Franklin,
Boston, and Iowa companies, with 1,550 inches of water, tail into it.  It is
paved all the way with boulders 14 inches deep.   The grade is 10 inches to 12
feet, but eight inches would have been better. At intervals of 120 feet there are
falls or dumps two feet and a half high in the tunnel and five feet high outside.
These dumps are of great service in breaking up pieces of cement.
Boulders 10 and 15 inches in diameter are constantly rushing through the sluice,
and some of 20 inches frequently pass. The great weight of these boulders
rushling along at a speed of nearly 10 miles an hour tries the sluice severely,
and the rock bottom is always worn down about two inches in three months,
and half of the paving boulders are broken so as to be unfit for further use.
The rock for the paving is obtained by putting an iron grate in a sloping position in the sluice.  The bars of the grate are an inch and a half thick and eight
inches apart, so everything small passes through.  A Chinaman stands by the
grate, examines every boulder that stops, lays the good ones on one side, and
throws the others over.
Every evening 15 or 20 pounds of quicksilver are put into the sluice, and the
largest amount in the sluice at one time is 900 pounds. The owner of the
sluice never buys any quicksilver, but has it to sell, for lie catches more than he
puts in. Hie cleans up several sections-a section is between two dumps-between
Saturday night and IIonlday morning, which time he has for cleaning up under
a contract with the companies.  Six men are employed 20 hours-12 days' workin cleaning up a section of ten boxes or 120 feet, and the expense, including
new stone and repairing, is $3 75 per box. The yield is usually $25 per box,
or $250 per section, at a clean up, and there are 416 boxes in the sluice. Three
men are constantly employed in looking after the sluice, and extra men are
engaged to clean up.
The companies which tail into the tunnel have about 600 feet of their own
sluices.
'DRAIxNAGE OF Br,EAr RivEnr.-Bear river, opposite to Dutch Flat, is 70 feet
deep, with tailings, the mass of which extends for some miles above and many
below. It has been proposed to cut a tunnel three miles long from Bear river a
Secret ravine through the railroad divide to the north fork of the American river,
the bed of which is 1,000 feet lower than that of Bear river. It is supposed that
-:no immense profit would be derived from such an enterprise, though the cost of
ziking a tunnel for that length 11 feet wide and eight feet high, at $40 per foot,
107 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
would be about $630,000. The bed of Bear river, opposite Dutch Flat, never
was flumed, and is probably quite rich.  The present deposit of tailings began to
accumulate in 1858 or 1S59. They rise about two feet per month from February
till September, and then the floods of winter carry away a considerable portion of
them.
SOUIrTH PLACER QUARTZ REGULATIONS.-Thllere is no general quartz regula ti )Xi for Placer county; each district has its own rules.
The following are the main provisions of the South Placer quartz regulations:
Any person may take up and pre-empt one claim of.200 feet in length on the lode by 200
feet in width, (following thle dip of the lode,) with all dips, spurs, angles, and courses, with
all precious metals therein contained.  Such claims shall be valid by the locator's posting
one notice thereupon, naming the number of feet claimed each way from said notice; desig nating, if possible, by croppings, the general direction of said lode, but if no croppings are
visible, then by the words easterly, westerly, northerly, or southerly, as the case maybe; but
in no case shall a location of a claim be invalid by reason of any misapprehension in regard
to the direction of said lode. Notices of locations shall be put upon the records of this
district, together with filing a copy of the same with the recorder, which shall give as full a
description as possible of the claim.
All claims shall be recorded as above specified within 20 days from the date of their notice.
All claims in this district shall be held by workling the same, the workl to
amount to at least one full day's work to each claim in each company in every
month in good faith; and after the sum of $50 to each name in such company shall
have been expended upon the claim, on application to the recorder it shall be his
duty to go and see the work, and if hlie finds that the said amount of workl or
money has been expended as before stated, he shall give to the parties owning
or their representatives a certificate stating that the said amount of work and
money has been expended, which entitles the owners to lay over and suspend
work for the term of six months from the date of said application, and the claim
will not be considered forfeited until after the said six months has expired.
CAxNADA HILL AXND LONE STAR REGULATIONS.-Thle quartz regulations of
Canada Hill allow 200 feet on the lode to each person, and 50 feet on each side,
and 10 feet on every cross-lode; and require five days' work per month for each
individual claim or share.
In the Lone Star district, west of Auburn, the regulations allow 200 feet to each
person, and 300 feet on each side. A company's claim may be held for the first
year by doing work of the value of $25 within 60 days after the location; and
an equal amount of worlk will hold it for any subsequent year.
GREEN EMIGRANT.-The Green Emigrant mine, three miles northwest from
Auburn, is 1,000 feet long on a vein which appears to run north 65~ west, but
there are a number of veins that seem to concentrate at the top of the hill, inll
which a rich deposit has been found.
The vein which runs through the hill is called the Green Emigrant, is three
feet wide, and dips 45~ to the southwest.   The foot-wall is serpentine and the
hanging wall talcose slate and schist.  The vein itself near the surface seems
to be decomposed quartz, talcose, and schist. The middle parallel vein is 18
inches wide and nearly vertical, and the vein matter is like that in the Green
Emigrant.  The southwestern vein is four feet and a half wide, and dips 45~
to the east. The vein matter is the same as in the other two. There are spaces
of 50 feet between these parallel veins at the surface, but it is supposed that they
unite 150 feet below the surface. The walls of the middle vein and the hanging wall of the southern vein are talcose slate; and the foot-wall of the latter
vein is a bhard rock resembling sienite. A shliaft was sunk 10 feet in the southwestern vein, and the rock averaged $10 per ton. The mine was discovered in
1864, and not more than 50 tons have been crushed, yielding $100 per ton. The
yield for the first two years was $20,000, but the proprietors refuse to tell what
ithasbeen since. Rumor, which probably exaggerates grossly, says that $100,000
have been taken out in a hand mortar in the first six months of 1867. That
108 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
many rich specimens have been obtained is indubitable. All the work in the
mine, except on rare occasions, is done by two partners in it, and strangers are
not permitted to enter. The rich deposit is found in streaks near the walls.
The mine is opened by a tunnel 225 feet long. The mine owners say the whole
hill will pay-the rock for crushing and the gravel for washing.
The first extension of the Green Emigrant on the north is 600 feet long, and
is being opened or examined by cross cuts.  Some auriferous talcose slate has
been found, but so far no vein.
Monahan & Co. have 2,000 feet on the same vein, and have done nothing.
The Wells claim is 2,400 feet long, and the vein is five feet wide.  There are
two shafts, one 50 and the other 40 feet deep. Forty tons have been crushed,
and they yielded $12 50 per ton on an average, after the specimens had been
picked out.
The first extension south of the Green Emigrant is 2,000 feet long.  A shaft
has been sunk 25 feet, and the vein is 18 inches wide.  The rock prospects well.
NEW YORPK AND EMPIRE.-The New York mine, fomerlv known as the Conrad, one mile west of Auburn, has three veins, each two feet wide, not more than
200 feet apart.
The Empire Company, at Ophir, has 11,000 feet of claims on various veins,
and is worling in a shaft 35 feet deep, in a vein two feet wide.   The mill
has 10 stamps, and began to run in M3arch of this year.   The average yield is
$8 per ton, exclusive of the sulphurets, which are not saved..An experiment was
made in this mill of working the float quartz, which covers the whole country
near Ophir, but it did not pay.   The working vein is in granite and runs north
and south.  The mill was burned down in July, after it was visited.
ScIINABLE.-The  Julianne or Schnable mine, on Jenny Lind Flat, near
Ophir, is 2,000 feet long on a vein two and a half feet wide, running north and
south in granite, and dipping 80~ to the east. A shaft has been sunk 105 feet,
and drifts have been run 50 feet below the surface, 1,200 feet on the vein, in pay
all the way.  The pay is evenly distributedl thrcugh the vein, and the average
yield of free gold, as reported by the proprietor, is $6 per ton; but the general
impression in the neighborhood is that the mine is quite valuable.   The expense
for stopping out is $2 per ton, and the.total expense $4.  The croppings have
paid for 2,000 feet on the surface.  The rock contains seven per cent. of sulphurets, which assay $147 per ton, or $10 per ton of rock.  There is a five-stamp
mill which has been running for two years and a half, worlking 25 or 30 tons
per week.
WVALTERn AND ST. LAwPENCE.-The WValter mine, 900 feet, at IIamberg
Flat, is oni  a vein which runs northwest and southeast, averages 18 inches
in thlicklness, and dips SO0 to the southwest.  A  shaft has been sunk 45 feet,
and drifts have been run 48 feet on the vein in pay rock all the way. There is
slate wall on both sides, but in some places the granite comes to the west wall.
Some very rich specimens have been found.  The mine has no mill.   Twenty
tons have been crushed, and the yield was $13 per ton.
The St. Lawrence Company has three claims.   The St. Lawrence vein, on
which they are working, runs northeast and southwest, dips southeast 65~, and
is 20 inches wide. The claim on this vein is 1,400 feet long. A shaft has
been sunk 75 feet, and drifts have been run 85 feet in pay all the way.  The
walls are granite, with a slaty gouge about an inch thick on each side.   The
surface was worked with a profit by Mexicans for many years.  The St. Lawrence
claim on the Boulder vein is 2,400 feet long.  Tihe vein is three and a half feet
wide, and has the same course, dip, and walls as the St. Lawrence. A shaft has
been sunk 75 feet, and drifts have been run 75 feet. An assay of the sulphurets
shows $138 gold and $158 silver per ton.  An assay of dry slunm showed $19
gold and $46 silver per ton.
GOLDENX RULE. —The Golden Rule Company, of Sacramento, (to be distin
109
40 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
guished fiom the Golden Rule Company of San Francisco, which has a valuable
mine on the Mother lode in Ttolumne county,) has claims, each 2,000 feet long,
on three parallel veins nine miles south-southwest of Auburn. The eastern vein
is three feet thick, and has been opened by a shaft 250 feet deep and drifts 160
feet long, on the vein, all the way in rock that averages $12 to the ton. The
middle vein is two feet thick, and the rock averages $8. This is 100 feet
from the eastern vein, has been reached by a cross-drift from it, and a drift in
the vein has been run 60 feet.  The western vein is 60 feet distant, is fifteen
inches wide, and has been opened to a depth of 75 feet by a shaft, and to a length
of 50 feet by drifts.  The eastern and middle veins show quartz of the same
quality; the western has a bluish hard quartz, containing more free gold than
the others, which have white quartz and sulphurets. A 20-stamp mill is going
up, and also a reverberatory furnace, with a capacity to roast a ton at a charge.
The sulphurets are to be concentrated with Hungerford's concentrator. There is
a 75-horse power steam engine and steam hoisting works.  lFor hoisting, a flat
wire rope is used.
STEWArT'S FLAT, AMERICAN BAR, AND DAMAScUS.-Stewart's Flat mine,
1,350 feet long, is on a vein two and a half feet wide running north-northeast
and south-southwest, in granite walls.   A  shaft has been sunk 120 feet, and
drifts have been run 380 feet on the vein in pay all the way.   The average
yield is $15 per ton. The mine was worked from 1862 to 1864, and was then
left idle till this spring, when work was resumed. There is a five-stamp mill.
At American Bar, two miles below Miichigan Bluff, a quartz mill is being built.
The Damascus quartz mine, at Damascus, was worked for three years, paying
a profit part of the time, and has been idle for the last three years.  The vein it
12 feet wide and the mill has five stamps.
RED SToINE.-The Red Stone,. 10 miles north of Dutch Flat, on the north
branch of the north forkl of the American river, is 2,400 feet long, on a vein which
runs northwest and southeast, and is five and a half feet wide, between granite
and talcose slate.  A depth of 165 feet has been reached, and drifts have been
run 30 feet in the vein.  The rock, so far as examined, is very rich.  A fourstamp mill has been lrunning, and an 18-stamp mill is now in the course of
erection.
There is a mill of two stamps erected in Bear Valley, for the purpose of prospecting the Champion and the Blue Belle lodes, both of which yield excellent
quartz.
CANXADA HILL.-Canada Hill, on the Forest Hill ridge, 10 miles west of
the sumnmit, has a number of quartz lodes, some of which are very promising at
the surface.  The gulches about the hill are fill of rough gold and gold-bearing
quartz.  Mlost of the miners there are Mexicans.  The Secret mill, built four
years ago, ran two years and is now standing idle.
The Buena Vista Company are opening a quartz claim.
Bald Mountain, two miles east of Canada Hill, is covered with float-quartz,
and many of the pieces contain specks of gold plainly visible. There has been
much prospecting for lodes, but none of any size have been found.
HAnrPENDIN-G  IINM E.-The  Gold  Quarry Company's property, familiarly
known as the Banker or Harpending mine, is situated near Lincoln, on a deposit
similar to that of Quail Hill, in Calaveras county.  The ores are delivered by
contract at 40 cents per ton.  A 40-stamp mill is at work, crushing about five
tons daily to the stamp. The labor is principally Chinese. The estimated cost
of thle entire extraction and treatment is within $1 per ton.
Professor Silliman, in a paper on the Harpending and Quail Hill deposits
says:
Accompanying the entire mass of decomposition at both localities, occur both gold and
silver, disseminated with remarkable uniformity in all parts of the ore ground. At Whiskey
Hill films of metallic silver are visible upon the talcose masses, stained green by malachite
110 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
or chrysocolla.  The gold is rarely seen in situ, being mostly obscured by the very rusty
and highly-stained character of the associated materials.  But it is rare that, on washing a
small quantity of any of the contents of these great deposits, gold is not found in angular
grains or small ragged masses, from the size of a few grains' weight to impalpable dust.
Nuggets of several pennyweights occur occasionally.  This gold has evidently accompanied
the situlphurets and been left in its original position and condition by their decomposition.
There can be little doubt that the gold of the gulches adjoining these deposits has been
derived from them. At Whiskey Hill the gulch gold ceases to be fbund as soon as the limits
of this deposit are passed; and the same is true at Quail Hill.  The occurrence of deposits
of this nature throughout the range of the foot hills seems to offer the best solution which has
suggested itself of the origin of the placer gold, which is found in situations so far removed
from the gold belt of the upper sierras, and away from sources usually recognized as those
to which placer gold may be referred.        *  *                           *
The chemical results of the extensive decomposition of metallic sulphids which has in
former times occurred at these localities offer an interesting problem in chemical geology.
The sulphur has been removed chiefly as sulphuric acid, beyond doubt, which has combined
with iron and copper to form sulphates of those metals.  These have, for the most part, disappeared, being washed out by the atmospheric waters, and have followed the drainage of
the country.  At Whiskey Hill I found the sulphate of iron, (coquimbite,) sulphate of copper, (cyanosite,) and alum. The water of the shaft contains copper enough to redden the
iron tools.    *         *          *                    *                   *         *
From all the evidence presented, we seem justified in regarding these remarkable metallic
deposits as segregated veins, holding a pretty uniform and high tenor of gold and silver,
associated with and derived from the decomposition of extended masses of metallic sulphurets and quartzose matter, and carrying, at times, ores of copper, the commercial value of
which is, however, entirely subordinate to that of the precious metals which are found to
characterize these veins or ore channels.
SECTION IX.
NEVADA COUNTY.
Nevada county, California, has for its eastern boundary the dividing line
between California and Nevada State; extends across the summit and down the
westerly slope of the Sierra Nevada'mountains to the foot hills that border the
eastern edge of the Sacramento valley. Its northerly and southerly boundaries
are the MIiddle Yuba and Bear rivers, to the sources of those streams; thence
due east to the State line.  Its length from east to west is about 65 miles, having
an average breadth of 20, and containing about 1,300 square miles.  It is near
the middle of the great gold region that stretches along the westerly slope of
the mountain chain, extends entirely across the auriferous belt, and in the last
nineteen years has produced more gold than any tract of country of equal extent
in the world.*  The elevation above the level of the ocean ranges from 800 to
1,000 feet, along the foot hills, and rises to 8,000 and 9,000 feet in places on
the summit, thus affording a great variety of climates.  On and near the summit
the ground is covered with snow for more than half the year, while at the foot
hills snow and ice are seldom seen.
Several streams, which have their sources high up in the mountains, flow
westerly through the county, and empty into the main Yuba or Bear river. The
most considerable of these are the South Yuba, Deer creek, and Greenhorn,
which, with their tributaries, have cut deep channels in the primitive rock.
Between these streams and those forming the northerly and southerly boundaries
*Professor B. Silliman says of the product of the valley district:
"The place has obtained a well-earned celebrity as the most prosperous of all the gold
quartz-mining districts in California. Quartz mining was begun here as early as 1850, and
has been continued, on the whole, with a steadily increasing success, to the present time.
"It is difficult to obtain exact statistics of the total product of the Grass Valley quartz
mines, but it is believed by those best able to form a trustworthy opinion on this subject
that the product in 1866 was probably not less than $2,000,000, while for the whole period
from 1851-say 14 years-it was probably in excess of $23,000,000."
ill 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of the county are four main ridges running nearly at right angles with the mountain chain, and varying:in length from 25 to 40 miles.  These ridges are composed mainly of gravel and alluvial deposits, the debris from the higher mountains, and matter of volcanic origin. In places the bed rock rises nearly to the
surface, but in general the alluvium is from 100 to 200 feet in depth, and at the
higher elevations is covered with basaltic rocks and a deep volcanic cement.
The volcanic covering is supposed at one time to have extended over a much
larger area than at present, foiming extensive table lands, but inll course of time
has been worn away on the lower portions and along the margins of the ridges,
leaving the alluvium as the upper surface, and which now constitutes the principal field for hydraulic mining.*
Professor Silliman, in an article published in Bean's Directory of Nevada, says of the
general geological character of the Grass Valley district:
"The gold-bearing rocks at this place are mostly highly metamorphic schists or sandstone
passing into diorite or greenstone syenite.  These greenstones, seemingly crystaline, are
probably only highly altered sedimentary rocks, containing a large amount of protoxide of
iron with sulphnret of iron. In some parts of the district slaty rocks occur, more or less
talcose or chloritic in character; masses of serpentine also abound, forming at times one
wall of the quartz veins. This serpentine is probably metamorphic of the magnesian rocks
last named.  The red soil, seen almost everywhere in the Grass Valley district, has its origin
from the peroxidation of the iron contained in the greenstones and diorites, and set at liberty
by its decomposition.
"The line of contact between the gold-bearing and metamorphic rocks of Grass Valley
and the granites of the Sierra Nevada is met on the road to the town of Nevada, about a half
mile before coming to Deer creek. The talcose and chloritic slates are seen to the north, in
the direction of the Peck load, and in the slate districts of Deer creek.
"The dip and strike of the rocks in the Grass Valley region is seen to vary greatly in
different parts of the district.  Following the course of Wolf creek, a tributary of Bear river.
it will be observed that the valley of this stream-which is Grass Valley-as well as of its
principal branches, follows, in the main, the line or strike of the rocks. In the absence of
an accurate map of the region it may not be easy to make this statement evident. But all
who are familiar with the chief mines of this district will recall the fact that the course of the
veins in the Forest Springs location, at the southern extremity of the district, is nearly north
and south-N. about 20~ E.-with a very flat dip to the east; while at the Eureka mine, on
Eureka Hill, about four miles to the northward, the course of the vein is nearly east and
west, with a dip to the south of about 78 degrees.  Again, commencing at North Gold Hill
and following the course of the famous vein which bears the names of Gold Hill, Massachu:setts Hill, and New York Hill, we find the veins conforming essentially to the southerly
course of the stream, with an easterly dip.  The North Star, on Weimar Hill, has likewise
the same general direction of dip. Near Miller's ravine, at E1 Dorado mill, Wolf creek makes
. sudden bend to the left or east, leaving the Lone Jack, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Allison
Ranch mines to the west. All these last-named mines are found to possess a westerly dip,
showing the existence of a synclinal axis running between the base of New York Hill and
the mines having westerly dips last named, along which, probably, the veins will, if explored
in depth, be found'in basin.'  The dip at Lone Jack is about 300 west; at Allison Ranch
it is about 45~ west.  Just below the Allison Ranch mine Wolf cleek again makes a sharp
'turn to the left; nearly a. a right angle, and then resumes its former course with the same
abruptness. A mile lower down, where it strikes the Forest Springs locations, we find the
Morambagua inclosed in syenitic rocks, dipping at a very low angle to the east; a dip is seen
also, at a still less angle, in the Shamrock, yet further south. There is probably a saddle or
anticlinal axis below the Allison Ranch mine, due to the elevation of the syenitic mass, which,
it seems probable, sets in at the sharp bend in the stream, before alluded to, and where the
ravine trail joins it. The stream probably runs pretty nearly in the basin of the synclinal.
"The rocks on the east side of Wolf creek, and  above Forest Springs locations, dip
westerly. Such is the case at Kate Hayes and with the veins on Osborn Hill. The middle
branch of the creek sweeps around to the east, forms its junction with the north fork, and
the veins explored there near its upper waters, as at UInion Hill, the Burdette ground, Murphy vein, Lucky, and Cambridge, all dip southwest or south, conformably to the Idaho and
Eureka, and at a pretty high angle.  The Eureka vein, going west, faults in the Whiting
ground, and, having previously become almost vertical, has, west of the fault, a northerly
dip at a high angle. At the Coe ground this northerly dip is also found at an angle of about
5(0.  At Cincinnati Hill the vein dips southerly, in a direction exactly opposite to that of
the North Star, there being a valley between the two, and a saddle or anticlinal between Cincinnati and Massachusetts Hills.
4These facts, which by a more detailed statement could be easily multiplied, seem to warrant the conclusion that the course and dip of the Grass Valley veins is especially conformable
112 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The whole country wvas originally covered with magnificent forests, the differ  ent varieties of the pine predominating in the more elevated regions, and giving
place to the oak in the foot-hills. As the first settlers had no interest in the
soil, and felt that they were but sojourners for a time in the mines, the timber
has been wastefully used and much of it has disappeared.
The entire county is what milght be termed mineral land, as  distinguished
from agricuiiltural.   Yet there are many  sheltered valleys of rich, arable soil
whichl have been cultivated, and amnply rewarded the husbandman.   The largest
of these is Pemia valley, lying near the westerly border of the county, and con  taiming about 2,000 acres of good soil, which has been occupied and cultivated
for many years.
SETTLEMENT.-TThe first settlement in what is now Nevada county was made
in the summer of 1848, when the south and middle branches of the Yuba were
prospected for gold fori a considerable distance into the mountains, and many
to that of the rocks, and that the streams have, in general, excavated their valleys in a, like
conformable manner."
In reference to the gold-bearing veins of Grass Valley, Professor Silliman says:
"The quartz veins of Grass Valley district are not generally large.  Two feet is probably
a full average thickness, while some of the most productive, and those which have given
fiom the first a high reputation to this region, have not averaged over a foot, or possibly
eighteen inches in thickness.  There are some exceedingly rich veins, which will hardly
average four inches in thickness, and which have yet been worked at a profit, wnhile at the
same time there are veins like the Eureka, which have averaged three in thickness, and the
Union Hill vein over four feet. The Grass Valley veins are often, perhaps, usually imbedded
in the inclosing rocks, with seldom a fluccan or clay selvage or parting, although this is
sometimes found on one or both walls.
"The walls of the fissures and the contact faces of the veins are often seen to be beautifully
polished and striated.
"The veins are, as a rule, highly mineralized, crystalline, and affording the most unmis takable evidence of an origin from solution in water, and afford not the least evidence of an
igneous origin. Calcedonic cavities and agatized structure are very conspicuous features in
many of the best characterized and most productive of the gold-bearing veins of this district.
These indisputable evidences of an aqueous origin  are seen in Massachusetts Hill, Ophir
Hill, Allison Ranch, Kate Hayes, and Eureka.
"The metallic contents of the Grass Valley veins vary extremely; some carry but little or no
visible gold or sulphurts, although the gold tenor is found in working in mill to be satis factory, and the sulphurets appear on concentrating the sands from crushing.  This is the
case in the Lucky and Cambridge mines, for example. But in most cases the veins of this
district abound in sulphurets, chiefly of iron, copper, and lead, the sulphureted contents
varying greatly in the same vein; zinc and arseniic are found also, but more rarely, the
most noted example of arsenical sulphurets being in the Norambagua and on the Heuston
Hill; lead abounds in the Union Hill lodes, (as galena,) and the same metal is found associated
with the yellow copper in parts of the Eureka mine. The gold when visible is very commonly seen to be associated with the sulphurets; this was particularly the case in Massachusetts Hill, while Rocky Bar and in Scadden Flat, on the same vein, the gold. is found
sometimes in beautiful crystallized masses, binding together the quartz, and almost destitute
of sulphurets.  Mr. William Watt informed me that in working some seventy thousand
tons of rock from Massachusetts Hill vein, the average tenor of gold was about $80; but at
times this vein was almost barren, while again the gold was found in it so abundantly,
especially where it was thin, that it had to be cut out with chisels.  It is matter of notoriety
that in the Gold Hill vein, (continuation of the vein in Massachusetts Hill,) portions of the
lode were so highly charged with gold that the amount sequestered by the miners in a single
year exceeded $50,000. On the other hand, in the Cambridge and Luckly mines, having a tenor
of about $35 to $60 gold to the ton, the precious metal is seldom visible.  In the Eureka,
vwhere the average tenor of gold in 1866 was $50 per ton, it seldom exhibited what may be
called a'specimen' of gold.
"The structure of the veins in Grass Valley varies in different portions of the district,
especially in respect to the distribution of the pyrites and portions of the adjacent wall.
On the Eureka Hill the veins possess a lamininated structure parallel to the walls, enclosing
portions of the diorite or talcoso rocks, forming closures or joints in which the vein splits
easily. On these surfaces of cleavage minute scales of gold may often be detected by close
inspection. The sulphurets are also seen to be arranged in bands or lines parallel to the
walls, In many other cases this kind of structure is found to be wholly absent, while the
sulphurets and gold appear to follow no regular mode of distribution. In a few mines tha
8
113 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
rich deposits were found in the gravel bars and along the margins of those streams.
Two or three parties remained in their camps over winter, but the most of the
adventurers returned to the valleys or to San Francisco in the fall. The next
season, when the news of the discoveries brought a rush of gold-seekers from the
eastern States, the lower portion of the county, and as far up as Nevada City,
was explored by prospectors. One or two companies of overland immigrants
that crossed the mountains by the Tlucklee route stopped near Rough and Ready
and remained there during the winter of 1849-'50.  Another company of immigrants stopped in Grass Valley, and others vwho had found rich claims, including
two or three families, spent the winter in the basin of Nevada.   Mining, wlhilch
commenced along the running streams, was gradually extended to the dry gulches
and flats, and thence into the hills, thus greatly enlarging the known mining area.
Enough prospecting had been done in the summer and fall of 1S49 to prove
the surface diggings to be incredibly rich, individuals in some cases having taken
sulphurets are arranged very distinctly in bands or zones, parallel to the walls, forming
' ribbon quartz.'  This is especially distinct in the Norambagua, where, as before mentioned,
the sulphurets are arsenical, and the gold very finely disseminated.
"The average tenor of the gold in the Grass Valley veins is believed to be considerably in
excess of what is found in most other portions of California. In Allison Ranch, Massachusetts
Hill, Rocky Bar, Ophir Hill, and Eureka, this average has probably reached $50 to the ton.
In many other mines it has been considerably less, but, on the whole, $30 may not be far
from the general average tenor of the whole district, meaning, of course, the amount actually
saved by milling operations.
"The loss of gold is very various, but is probably nearly always greater than owners are
willing to confess, if indeed they know, which is doubtful.  It is certain, in one well-known
mine, my own samples of quartz sands, and sulphurets from'pans,' assayed respectively
$23 and $57 per ton-a result which was later confirmed by the researches of another very
competent mining engineer, quite independently.  In other cases, as at Eureka and Norambagua, my own researches show the loss in the tailings to be very small, not exceeding $7 to
the ton in the latter, and less than that in the former.
"The gold in many of the Grass Valley mines is very easily worked, being clean, angular,
and not very small, hence it is readily entangled in the fibre of blankets, together with a considerable portion of sulphurets, naturally leading to the method most commonly in use in
Grass valley for treatment of the gold ores."
The same authority refers as follows to the Grass Valley method of amalgamation:
" What may properly be called the' Grass Valley mode,' consists in the use of heavy
stamps, 700 or 1,000 pounds, crushing usually two tons, sometimes two and a half tons
of ore each in 24 hours through screens not exceeding No. 6, rarely so fine. Amalgamating in battery and copper aprons are usually united. In some mills mercurial riffles
are placed in front of the discharge, but more commonly the whole body of crushed stuff is
led at once over blankets, which are washed out every few minutes into tanks, where the free
gold and sulphurets are allowed to collect preparatory to being passed through the'Attwood
amalgamnators.' These simple machines are designed to bring the gold into thorough contact with mercury contained in little vats, sunk in the surface of an inclined table, over
which the stuff is fed to the vats in a regulated manner by a stream of water, while iron
blades slowly revolve in the vats to cause a mixture of the sands and quicksilver. By this
apparatus, at the Eureka mill, 90 per cent. of all the gold is obtained which is saved
from the ore. Beyond the amalgamators the sands are carried over amalgamatic copper
sluices, and are put through various ore-saving processes, with a view especially to concentrating the sulphurets. These processes vary much in different mines. In some mills,
especially the Ophir, much more elaborate mechanical apparatus has lately been introduced,
with what results still remains to be seen. It is certain that if the method of treatment just
sketched seems imperfect, (as it undoubtedly is,) it is the method which has hitherto yielded
the large returns of gold for which Grass valley has obtained its well-deserved renown. As
the development of the district goes forward, cases will occur of veins containing gold in a
state of very fine division, to which other methods of treatment must be applied. Such
examples indeed already exist, and the problems which they offer will be mnet by the use of
other systems of amalgamation, or by suitable modifications of the existing system.
"VALUE OF THE SULPIIURETS.-The sulphurets occurring in the Grass Valley district are
usually rich in gold-some of them remarkably so. In quantity they probably do not on
an average amount to over one per cent. of the mass of the ores, although in certain mines
they are found more abundantly. For a long time there was no better mode known of treating them than the wasteful one of grinding them in pans and amalgamating. In this way
suiely was 60 per cent. of the gold tenor saved. After many abortive efforts, at length complete success has been met with in the use of Plattuer's chlorination process.  Mr. Deetken,
114 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
out thousands of dollars in a few days, and the fame of the mines reaching other
parts of the State, the hills and ravines of the county were overrun with eager
prospectors in the spring and summer of 1850. During that season settlements
were made and miining commenced in every part of the county, except what is
now Meadow  Lake  township, while the towns of Nevada,  Grass  Vall,v, and
Ro,ughl and Ready each became the centre of a large mining population.   No
definite estimate can be made of the gold product of the  county in 1850; but
it must have been large, for there were not less than four or five thousand men
engag,ed in the mines.   The claims were extraordinarily rich, and a considerable
proportion of the miners returned to their former homes with what they considered snug  fortunes, of from  $5,000 to $10,000 each, as the result of their summer's work.   Never were fortunes more easily made by the unskilled laborer.
In the spring of 1851 the legislature passed an act for the organization of
the county, the territory having previously been comprised within the limits of
now connected with the reduction works of the Eureka mine, is entitled to the credit of having overcome the difficulties which formerly prevented the successful use of this process in
Grass Valley, a more detailed description of which will be found in our notice of the Eureka
mine."
In reference to the length and depth of productive ore ground, the following remarks, by
Professor Silliman, are interesting:
"Of the length of the productive portion of quartz veins and the depth at which they commence to become productive, Grass Valley offers some instructive examples:
"The North Star vein, on Weimar Hill, has been proved productive on a stretch of about
1,000 feet, while the tenor of gold has gradually increased with the depth, from an average
of $20 in the upper levels to nearly double that in the lower levels.  The limits named are
rather those of exploration than the known extent of the productive ore. In the vein on
Massachusetts and Gold Hills, on the contrary, the distribution of the'pay' has been found
much more capricious, being at times extremely rich, and again, with no apparent reason,
yielding scarcely the cost of milling. The Eureka mine offers the most remarkable example,
however, of a steady increase from a non-paying tenor of gold near the outcrop to one of
uncommon productiveness. An opinion has found advocates, and has been perhaps generally accepted by most writers on the subject of gold-bearing quartz veins, that they were
richest near surface and in depth became gradually poorer. There is nothing in the nature
of the case, as it seems to me, to justify such a generalization more than there is to sustain
an opposite opinion.  If we accept facts as a guide, we find in California that the deepest
mines, for example, Hayward's Eureka, in Amador, 1,200 feet; North Star, 750 feet on the
slope; Princeton, in Mariposa county, 800 feet; Eureka, (Grass Valley,) 400 feet; Allison
Ranch, 525 feet, &c., as a rule have had an increasing tenor of gold. If the Allison Ranch,
the Princeton mine, and some others appear to be exceptions, the answer is, we may reasonably expect the same variations of productiveness in depth which are known to exist in linear
extent. The Princeton, after an excellent run of good ore, became suddenly poor, at a depth
of over 600 feet, in 1865; but I am informed by Mr. Hall, the present superintendent,
that the good ore came in again in a short distance. Mr. Laur, the French engineer, whose
papers of California mines is often quoted, cites the Allison Ranch mine iD evidence of the
theory of a decreasing tenor of gold in depth, but it is in proof that since the date of Mr.
Laur's visit (1862-'3) this mine has been at work on ores which have yielded over $100 value,
its present suspended activity being due to causes quite unconnected with the intrinsic value
of the mine. The rich'chimneys' or productive zones of ore ground are known to be of
various extent in quartz veins, from a few feet to many hundreds of feet, and it is impossible
to assign any valid reason why we may not expect the same changes in a vertical direction
which we find in a horizontal. As the ore-bearing ground or shoots of ore have in many, if
not in most cases, a well-determined pitch off the vertical, it is self-evident that a vertical
shaft or incline at right angles to the veins must, in descending, pass out of the rich into the
poor ground, at certain intervals, and it is perhaps due to an ignorance of this fact that miners
have abandoned sinking because they found the'pay' suddenly cease in depth, when a
short distance more would probably bring them into another zone of good ore.  The experience of every gold-mining district offers examples in illustration of these remarks. In
quartz veins containing a considerable amount of sulphurets, it is evident that the outcroppings should offer much better returns to mining industry than will follow after the line of
atmospheric decomposition has been passed, because above this line nature has set free the
gold formerly entangled in the sulphurets, leaving it available for the common modes of treatment, with the added advantage oftentimes that the particles of free gold formerly distributed
through a considerable section of the vein, are found concentrated in a limited amount of oro.
It is easy to reach the conclusion in such cases that the tenor of gold in the vein is less in
depth, after the real average tenor is reached, while in fact it is neither greater nor less; but
the metal is no longer available by common methods of treatment.
115 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Yuba. Nevada City, then the principal town and near the centre of population,
was made the county seat, where it has ever since remained.   The county is
divided into nine townships for local government, viz: Nevada, Grass Valley,
Rough and Ready, Bridgeport, Bloomfield, Eureka, Washington, Little York,
and Meadow Lake.  Rough and Ready comprises the foot-hills extending across
the western end of the county, from the Yuba to Bear river; Meadow Lake
includes the summit extending across the eastern end; Bridgeport, Bloomfield
and Eureka lie between the middle and south Yuba on the north; Little York
is on the south, mostly lying between Bear river and Greenhorn creek; and
between Rough and Ready and Meadow Lake are the townships of Grass Valley,
Nevada and Washington, occupying the central position.
Of the early settlers but few remained permanently in the county, by far the
larger proportion returning to the east, or taking up their permanent abode in
other parts of California. But their places were filled by other adventurers, and
the population gradually assumed a permanent character, and now numbers not
far from 20,000 souls, of whom about one-third are adult males.  The inhabitants derive their support either directly or indirectly from the mines, on the prosperity of which depend all other branches of business.
PLACEPn MIINING.-Placer mining properly signifies the workling of the shallow deposits; but in California the term "placer" is usually applied to the deep
deposits as well as the shallow diggings-hydraulic and cement mining being
only branches of placer mining-and all except the quartz lodes being designated as placer mining.
The placer mines of Nevada county have been worked steadily since 1849,
and have yielded an amount of treasure that, could the figures be procured,
would stagger belief. The rich pockets along the margins of the streams, and
the shallow diggings and ravines that required no capital and but little preliminary labor to mine successfully, have been mostly worked out, and capital and
skill are now indispensable to success, yet there is but little diminution in the
yield.  As claims are workled out in one place new ones are opened in other
localities, and although failure in any given enterprise is about as likely as
success, yet the prospect of big strikes, and the hope of acquiring a fortune or a
competency by one or two years of well-directed labor, are incentives that cannot fail to enlist the skill of the most energetic of the mining population.
At first, miining was confined to the gravel bars and beds of the running
streams, and as these were partially exhausted, it gradually extended to the dry
ravines, flats and hillsides adjacent. The rocker was the principal machine used
for washing the auriferous sands and separating the gold from the lighter particles.
It had been brought into use in the summer of 1848, during the first season of
mining in California, though much of the gold obtained that season was separated
by the Mexican method of washing the sand in wooden bowls. Sheet-iron pans
are now used bv the American miners for prospecting and other purposes, in
place of the wooden bowls of the Mexicans.  The rocker was superseded by
the long-tom, by means of which a larger amount of earth and gravel could be
washed; and the long-tomn in its turn gave place to the sltice.  This was a most
important improvement, and enabled miners to work many claims that would not
pay with the rocker and long-tom.*
* Professor Silliman, in a, report on the property of the Eureka Ditch Company, says of the
sources to which the gold in California is referable:
"The original source from whence all the gold of California has been derived is undoubtedly the veins of gold-bearing quartz which occur so abundantly in all the slates and metarmorphic rock of the western slopes of the Sierras within the areas known as the gold regions.
but this original or great source of the precious metal is historically secondary to the shallow
and deep digging or placers, in the former of which gold was first discovered, and which
during the early years of California history furnished nearly the whole of the metal sent into
commerce. That the placers were derived from the degredation or breaking up of the auriferous veins and the distribution of the detritus thus formed by the agency of running water
116 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Ditches at length were constructed to bring the water over the hills, and as
the miners were compelled to leave the flats and ravines and take to the deeper
di,ggings, the process of shovelling the earth into the sluices became unprofitable,
and the practice of ground-sluicing came into use. By this process the surfacesoil, being loosened up or thiown into a trench cut in the bed rock, was washed
away by a stream of water, leaving only the heavy gravel at the bottom to be
shovelled into the sluices. Ground-sluicing was carried on extensively in this
and ice does not admit of a question. It appears, also, to be pretty conclusively proved that
the gold-bearing gravel is of two distinct epochs, both geologically very modern, but the
later period distinctly separated in time from the earlier, and its materials derived chiefly from
the breaking up and redistribution of the older or deep placers. These appear to be distinctly
referable to a river system different from that which now exists, flowing at a higher level, or
over a less elevated continental mass, and with more power, but generally in the direction
of the main valleys of the present system.  It was pretty early discovered that very exten  sive and valuable deposits of auriferous gravel lay at levels far above the present course of
the streams, and that to wash these deposits required the adoption of new methods adapted
to meet the case. Hence came the so-called hydraulic process, which, although in use now
for more than ten years, has yet made barely more than a commencement upon the great
mass of deep-lying auriferous shingle which remains to be treated by this method of gold
washing.
"Finally comes the era of quartz mining in depth, the successful prosecution of which
demanded more skill and capital, as well as cheaper labor and better machinery, than the
early days of California furnished. In this man undertakes to do for himself by the use of
his own skill what in an earlier age nature had done for him on a grand scale, in breaking
up the matrix of the precious metal, commencing at the fountain head of the stream of gold.
"I propose at present to consider with some detail the second of the great sources of gold
productions, viz: deep-lying placers.  The character of these deposits is well illustrated by
a description of the ground between the south and middle forks of the Yuba river, in Nevada
county, where this description of gold deposit is well exposed in consequence of the consid erable amount of mining work which has been performed there, the whole of this ground
being controlled by the waters of the Middle Yuba Canal Company and of the Eureka Lake
Water Company.
" THE DEEP PLACERS OF THE YUBA.-The Yuba is an affluent of the Feather river, which
it joins at Marysville on its way to its junction with the Sacramento.  The south and middle
forks of the Yuba river unite with the North Yuba, the course of which is nearly at right
angles to these two branches, whose mean course is west about 13~ south, (magnetic,) the
Feather river running about north and south.
"The ridge of land embraced between the south and middle forks of the Yuba is from six
to eight miles in width, and to the limits of the auriferous gravel, as thus far explored, about
30 miles, forming an area of about 200 square miles.  The elevation of this ridge above the
sea is, at its western extremity, near French Corral, about 1,500 feet, from whence it gradually
rises into the high Sierras, the Yuba Gap Pass being 4,570 feet above the sea, and the Downieville Buttes about 8,840 feet.  This Mesopotamia is cut up by ravines descending from a
central axis both ways into the valeys of the two rivers forming' gulches' with steep sides,
often beautifully wooded. The more elevated portions of the land are covered by a heavy
bed of volcanic ashes and breccia, which evidently at an earlier day formed a continuous
sheet over not only the tongue of land under consideration, but over the adjacent region, as
is conspicuously seen in the sections afforded by the various rivers. This mass of volcanic
ashes contains numerous angular fragments of cellular lava, trachyte, basalt, porphyry, and
volcanic mineral aggregates quite foreign to the general geology of the country. Its thickness varies with the topography and drainage of the surface, but it forms the summits of all
the hills above a certain horizon, and in places reaches an elevation of from 2,000 to 3,000
feet above the level of the rivers. Below Columbia the denudation of the surface has removed
the volcanic matter, leaving the auriferous gravel exposed as the upper surface. This volcanic
deposit receives from the miners the general name of'cement,' a termin it well deserves from
its conmpact and tenacious character, much resembling pozzolana or Roman cement.
"The auriferous gravel varies in thickness from 80 to 100 feet, where it has been exposed to
denudation, to 250 feet or more where it is protected from such action.  Probably 120 feet is
not an over-statement for its average thickness in the marginal portions, where it has been
exposed by working the deep diggings or hydraulic claims. This vast gravel bed is composed of rounded masses of quartz, greenstone, and all the metamorphic rocks which aro
found in the high Sierras.
"It is often locally stratified, but I could find no evidence of any continuity in its beddings.
The lower portions are composed of larger boulders than the upper as a general rule, but this
does not exclude the occasional presence of huge boulders in the central and upper portions.
In a fresh fracture of the whole thickness of these deposits, such as may be seen daily in the
' claims,' which are being actively worked, a striking contrast of color is seen between the
117 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
country in 1851 and 1852, the use of the sluice proper at that time being well
understood, and having in a great measure superceded other methods.   With most
of the mining improvements there were no especial inventions, but the different
appliances came into use gradually as they were needed by the changing character of milling, and may be considered as the result of the combined skill and
inrgenluity of the mining population.   William  Elwell put up and used the first
sluice at Nevada City, in February or Miarchl, 1850, but he does not claim it as
lower and upper portions of the gravel mass, consequent on the percolation of atmospheric
waters and air, oxidizing the iron resulting from the decomposition of pyrites, and staining
the gravel of a lively red and yellow color in waving lines and bands, contrasting boldly
with the blue color of the unoxidized portions. A close. examination of the blue colored
portion of the gravel shows it to be highly impregnated with sulphuret of iron, (iron pyrites,)
forming, in fact, the chief cementing material which holds the pebbles in a mass as firm as
conglomerate, requiring the force of gunpowder to break it up.
"In the upper portions of these beds are frequent isolated patches, often of considerable
extent, composed of fine sand, clearly showing water lines, curved, sloping, or horizontal,
but never for any distance regular, and in these portions occur frequently large quantities of
lignite, or fossil wood, little changed from its original condition, but blackened to the color
of coal and flat with pressure. Among these remains are logs similar in appearance to the
Manzanita, now growing abundantly on the hills of auriferous gravel.  Some of these, which
I measured, were 15 to 18 inches in diameter, and 10 to 15 feet in length. Occasionally the
mass of this ancient driftwood accumulated in these eddies of the current, where they were
deposited with the fine sands, amount almost to a continuous bed of lignite.
"Wedge-shaped and lenticular masses of tough yellow and whitish clay also occur in the
ancient drift. replacing the gravel and affording, by their resisting power, a great impediment to the operations of mining.
"The'slacking down,' or disintegration which a few months' exposure of the hard gravel
'cement' produces, is due mainly, if not entirely, to the decomposition of the associated
pyrites before noted. It is remarkable how large a part of the smoothed and beautifully
rounded stones, even those of large size, undergo a similar slacking by atmospheric action,
even in a very brief period of time, rendering it almost impossible to preserve specimens of
the gravelly concrete unless they are protected by varnish. The most unyielding of the
' cement' masses are sometimes left over one season by the miners, exposed to the air and
frosts, to secure the benefits of this disintegration, without which but little of the contained
gold can be obtained.
"The gold is disseminated throughout the entire mass of this great gravel deposit, not uniformly in value, but always in greater quantity near its base or on the bed rock. The upper
half of the deposit is found to be always less in value than the lower part, sometimes so poor
that it would be unprofitable working by itself, but inasmuch as there is no practicable mode
of working the under stratum, without first moving the upper portion, in practice the whole
is worked.
"The gold rarely occurs in large masses in this ancient gravel. Often on the polished and
very smooth surfaces of the'bed rock' and of the superincumbent masses of gravel when
freshly raised from their long resting place, the scales of brilliant yellow metal are beautifully
conspicuous. These are frequently inlaid so firmly upon the hard granite floor of the ancient
river or glacier as to resemble hard stone mosaics. In fact the whole surface of the bed rock
requires to be worked over by the pick to secure the gold entangled in its surface, to a depth,
when soft, (as of mica or chloritic slate or gneiss,) of several inches.  *
"The bed rock, as it is significantly termed by the miners, shows everywhere, when freshly
exposed, the most conspicuous evidence of aqueous or glacial action. The course and direction of the motion which has left its traces everywhere is plainly discernable.    *   *   *
"The'bed rock' varies of course in different portions of the area now under consideration,
being either granite, gneiss, greenstone, or shale. In the granite are observed numerous
minute quartz veins pursuing a course parallel to each other often for hundreds of feet without
interruption.
"In the' American claim,' at San Juan, the granite is succeeded on the west by a large
jointed blue siliceous shale of the same strike with the main joints of the granite. This latter
rock is covered by numerous very large boulders of metamorphic conglomerate, of which no
traces are seen in place.
" The course of the ancient current, where I had an opportunity of measuring it, appears to
have been about 20~ to 25~ west of north, (magnetic,) which it will be observed is nearly at
right angles to the mean course of the middle and south forks of the Yuba river; but it is not
far from parallelism with the axis of the Sacramento river valley, orof the greatvalley between
the coast range and the Sierra Nevada. I have noted the same' general direction of the
scratches elsewhere in the great gold region, but additional observations are required to justify
any comprehensive generalization. This much appears clearly shown, however, by the
present state of our knowledge on this subject, viz: that the spread of the ancient gold
118 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
an invention-some one having suggested the idea to him.  A. Chabot and Al.
F. Hoit used them soon after, and greatly improved the arrangement of the riffles
and the method of working.t
IHYDnPAULIC MIINING.-The hydraulic system came into use in Nevada county
in 1S53, and enabled miners to work with profit a vast amount of auriferous
ground that would never have paid by the old process of sluicing. About April,
1852, A. Chabot, mining near Nevada City, used a hose of some thirty-five or
forty fbet in length, through which the water was conducted fromi the top of the
balnk to the bottom of his diggings.  There was no pipe or nozzle at the end,
but still it was found to be a great saving in sluicing off the earth and gravel
that had been picked down, and also a convenience in cleaning up the bed-rock.
So far as known the hose was not used that season in any other claims, and it
does not appear that Chabot discovered the great advantage that would result by
directing the stream of water against the bank.  This discovery was made by
E. LE. Matterson a year later.  In April, 1853, Matterson and his partners, who
were working a claim on Americ an Hill, rigged up a hose, attached a nozzle at
the end, and directing it against the bank, as crater is thrown upon a building
by a fire engine, found that a small stream of water would do the workl of a
hundred men in excavating earth. Very soon after this the hydraulic was adopted
by the miners thlrou,ghout the county wherever water and a sufficient fall could
be procured.  Successive improvements have been made in hydraulic mining,
until the appliances now in use but little resemble those of 1S53; but the principle is the same, and to  latterson is due the credit of the important discovery.
The water is usually conducted into the diggings through large iron pipes, at
the end of which the hose is attached, and the water hlaving a high fall is com
bearing gravel was produced by a cause greatly more elevated than the existing river system,
or, which is more probable, at a time when the continent was less elevated than at present, *
and moving in a direction conformable to the course of the valleys of the Sacramento and San
Joaquin. WVe find it impossible to admit the existing river system as a cause adequate to the
spreading of such vast masses of rounded materials; the facts plainly point to a much greater
volume of water than any now flowing in the valley. The section already given illustrates
perfectly the relations of the present river system to the more ancient one whose grand effects
are chronicled in the bed rock and its vast superincumbent mass of auriferous gravel. It
serves also to illustrate the process now in progress by which the existing river system derived
its gold-bearing sands, in great part at least, from the cutting away and secondary distribution of these ancient placers.
"Those who have had the opportunity of visiting other portions of the great gold region of
California than that now under consideration, will at once recognize the local character of the
details given as perfectly consistent with the general phenomena of the ancient placers as
observed elsewhere; while at the same time great differences are found in many of the details.
Thus in Calaveras and.Tuolumne counties, 80 or 100 miles'further south, the volcanic matter
capping the auriferous gravel is found in the form of basaltic columns, beneath which occur
the same phenomena already described. Here the wood contained in the gravel beds is
beautifilly agatized, or converted into semi-opal, as is also the case at Nevada City, Placerville, and elsewhere, associated with beautiful impressions of leaves of plants and trees similar
in appearance to those now found in this region.
"This general description of the deep-lying placers of the Yuba might be greatly extndede
from my notes, but enough has probably been said to convey the impression that the phenomena here described are on a grand and comprehensive scale, and referable to a general
cause long anterior in date to the existing river system-a cause which has been sufficient to
nreak down and transport the gold-bearing veins of the Sierras, with their associating meta-mornhic rocks, thus laying up in store for human use deposits of the precious metal in amount
on a scale far beyond the notions generally prevailing of the nature of placer deposits."
i It is the opinion of geologists that subsequent to the tertiary period was the time when the main valleys
of the continent were excavated by erosion. It was probably in this epoch that the deep-lying -auriferous
gravel was produced from the degradation of the metamorphic schists and quartz veins of the sierras.! by the
joint action of water and of glaciers.
t The sluice is undoubtedly the most essential of any one contrivance for saving gold, and
is used in all placer mining operations. It can hardly be called a machine; but is simply a
board flume, on the bottom of which are fitted blocks of wood, rounded stones, or riffles, with
quicksilver to catch and detain the gold, while the earth and gravel is carried down by the
current.
119 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
pressed and forced through an aperture of one and a half to two inches in
diameter.  The pipes are made of heavy sheet iron, and the hose of stout canvas
usually double thickness. Where the pressure is great, the hose are still further
strengthened by a net-worlk of strong cord.  In some of the larger mining opera tions five or six streams of water are kept playing upon the bank, undermining
the ground and melting away the hills at an incredible rate.  In this manner
acres of ground, frequently  100 to 200 feet deep, are washed  away in  a
single season, and the bed-rock left bare. The water shoots from the nozzle
with tremendous force, and miners frequently direct the stream against huge
boulders to roll them out of their way.  The hydraulic is the most effectual
method ever yet devised for excavating large quantities of earth, and the pro cess was employed to some extent in 1866, by the Central Pacific Railroad Com pany in cutting through the deep hills near Dutch Flat.
The American miners, except those engaged in quartz, are chiefly working
the deep hill diggings by the hydraulic, the shallow flats and ravines, as a gen eral thing, being abandoned to the Chinese. In most cases, the cost of opening
thle deep claims is heavy, requiring considerable capital and the nerve to invest
it, or the aggregated labor of a number of miners who are content to work, perhaps for years, in the hope of an eventual reward.  In too many cases their
labor and perseverance has come to naught.  The richest deposits are found on
the bed-rock in basins or in the channels of ancient streams, and to reach these
tunnels have to be run in solid rock, varying in length from a few hunchded to
several thousand feet in order to drain the ground and get an outlet for sluicing.
Wherever practicable, a shaft is first sunk to prospect the ground and ascertain
the position of the basin or channel, so that the tunnel in coining in shall be
below the auriferous deposit.  But this cannot always be done, and expensive
tunnels are sometimes found to be too hig-h to workl the ground, and a lower one
must be run or the claim abandoned.  The tunnel serves the double purpose of
draining the ground and a sluiceway, and the mining usually commences from a
shaft sunk from the surface to the head of the tunnel.
The most important centre of hyraulic mining in this county is at Nortli San
Juan, in Bridgeport township, and a brief statement of the operations of some
of the companies there will give an idea of the scale on which this branch of
mnining is conducted.  The Eureka Company, whose claims were on San Juan
Hill, commenced a tunnel in August, 1855, to reach the inner basin. The tunnel was completed in October, 1860, at a cost of $84,000, in actual assessments,
and the cost incurred before a dividend was declared was $142,000.  During
the existence of the company the average number of men employed daily was
25, and the total yield of the claims $530,000.  The claims known  as the
Deadnman Cut, which were worked out in 1859, yielded $156,307, at a cost
of $71,433.  The claims of MIcKeeley & Company, on -Ianzanita Hill, were
worked from 1855 to 1864, yielding $368,932, and paying its owners in dividends
$126,660.  The claims above mentioned have been worked out, but there are
other companies still carrying on extensive operations in the vicinity some of
which are deriving a handsome revenue from the profits of working their clain,s.
The tunnel of the American Company is 1,800 feet in length, having been run
much of the distance through blasting rock.  This company has adopted all the
improvements in hydraulic mining.  They have a mill with eight stamps for
crushing cement, and their sluice boxes extend from Manzanitall -ill to the middle
Yuba, a distance of nearly a mile, where they have pans for grinding the sand.
The company usually employ 25 men, use 500 inches of water, and the claims
yield from $10,000 to $15,000 a month. It will require three or four years
longer to work out the claims. The tunnel of the Yuba Company is 1,500 feet
in length, and was completed last spring after eleven years' labor. This compansy uses 400 inches of water, and has ground enough to last ten years.
The tunnel of the Star Company is 1,400 feet in length, that of the Golden
120 
WEST OF THiE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Gate Company 800 feet, the Wyoming Company 1,000 feet, the Knickerbocker
2,000 feet, the Badger 700 feet, and that of the Gold Bluff Company 1,800 feet.
These tunnels have been run for much of the distance through solid roclik, which
costs from $30 to $50 a foot.
BIRCUVILLE, situated four miles west of Northl San Juan, has also been a prosperous locality for hydraulic mining.  The Irish claims were vworkced by means
of drifting for a number of years, and paid largely.  Water was furnished by
the Shady creek and Grizzlv ditches, but in such limited quantities that little
p,rogress was made in hydraulic minini, until 1857, when the Mi-ddle Yuba Canal
Company extended their ditch to Birchville, and furnished water in abundance.
In 1859 four bed-rock tunnels were projected, and completed in 1864, at an
agg,regate cost of $120,000. These tunnels drain the upper portion of the channel;
the lower portion will be drained by another tunnel 2,400 feet in length, now in
course of construction, by means of which a large extent of valuable mining
ground will be worlked.  The gross yield and net profits of the claims of five
of the leading companies at Birchville, for 1866, were as follows, in round mnimbers:
Gross proceeds.
Irish American Company.................-....... $180, 000
San Joaquin Company.......................... —------------------------ 134, 000
)on Jose Company.......................... ---------------------------- 100, 000
Granite Tunnel Company.................... —--------------------- 82, 000
Kennebec and American Company................-  85, 000
The years 1865 and 1866 may be regarded as the harvest time for the Birchville miners, as they had previously been at heavy expense in opening their
ground, which is now nearly workled out.  Many of the owners in the above
claims are appropriating a large share of their profits to running the new tunnel.
FnRErNC  CORiPrAL is situated at the lower terminus of the auriferous gravel range
that is found between the Middle and South Yuba rivers.  The ravines and fiats
proved to be rich, and attracted thither a considerable number of miners, at
seasons of the year when water could be had to work the claims.  The hill diggings were discovered in 1853, and ditches were constructed from Sliody creek
to bring in water to work them. Tunnels and cuts were run into the hills
wherever fall could be obtained, the ditches were enlarged, and profitable mining
soon followed. Subsequently deeper tunnels were run, in order to reach the
bottom of the deposit, which was found to be from 100 to 200 feet below
the surface.  The total cost of the various cuts and tunnels of the district cannot be less than a quarter of a million dollars, and the amount of gold taken
out mast be several millions.  A large extent of valuable mining ground remains
to be worked. In addition to the hydraulic mines, there is a broad, deep stratuni
of blue cement gravel lwhichl is rich in gold.  This will have to be worked by
mill process, as is already being successfully done in other parts of the county,
and will give work to several mills for years.*
?IooPRE's FLAT, situated on the slope of the hill south of the Middle Yuba, in
Eureka township, is another important centre of hydraulic ruining. Several
thousand acres of ground, averaging 100 feet in depth from the surface to the
bed-rockl, have been sluiced off, giving employment to several hundred miners
for the past 15 years. Of late the claims lhave been bought up by a few
large companies, who are carying on operations upon an extensive scale, and
generally with success.  At Wolsey's Flat, a mile below Moore's, are some of the
deepest diggings in the county, the bank in one place being over 200 feet
in height.  Orleans flat, two miles above Moore's, was formerly an important
mining locality, and at one time had a population of 600 or 800; but the dig,gings
For a more detailed account of this district see article on ditches.
121
Net profits.
$133, 000
681 500
72 000
24, 000
30, 000 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
being comparatively shallow have been entirely workied out, and the town is
now deserted.
At North Bloomfield and Columbia I Hill, in Bloomfield township, at Gopher
Hill and Scotch Flat, in Nevada township, at Quaker Hill, in Little York,
and many other places in the county, hydraulic mining is carried on quite exten sivelv.
The amount of capital invested in hydraulic and placer mining in the county,
including the cost of opening the claims, iron pipes, flumes and sluices, and
various other implements and improvements, is estimated at $1,500,000. These
mines give employment to about 2,000 men including several hundred Chinese,
and yield annually not far from $3,500,000-say $1,750 to each man. Three
dollars a day is the usual wages paid to miners; but the water bills and other
expenses absorb a large portion of the gross product, so that the net yield to the
miners, if the whole could be averaged, would be but little in excess of their
wages.  Of course, some of the claims afford large profits, while others scarcely
yield sufficient to pay water bills; but the miners persevere to the extent of their
means in hopes of striking better pay.
CEMENT AIINIhNG.-In some of the auriferous deposits found in the beds of
the ancient lakes and watercourses the gravel is cemented together so compactly
that considerable force is required to pulverize it, in order to save the gold by
the sluicing process.. For this purpose various expedients have been devised by
the miners, among which is the erection of stamp mills, similar to those used in
crushing quartz, and the business has become of considerable importance in this
county.  Little York township has taken the lead in this branch of mining.
Cemnent mills have also been erected in Washington, Eureka, Bridgeport, Nevada,
and Grass Valley townships, but mostly as adjuncts to hydraulic mining, and the
vield from this source, as compared with that from other branches of mining, is
small.  In Little York, however, it is the leading business.
Blue cement gravel was found in many of the hill claims in Little York township
as early as the summer of 1852, and in some of the claims it was so tough that
it had to be blasted in order to drift it out. A very small proportion of the gold
was saved by merely running it once through the sluices, and the method at first
adopted was to pile up the tailings and allow them to remain some months, until
the action of the elements had partially decomposed them, and then sluice them
again. In this manner each lot of gravel was run through the sluices six or
eight times, requiring two or three years for the operation. The Chinamen work
the cement in the same manner now, and many are of the opinion that it is the
most efficient and economical method; but the process is too slow for American
miners.
The first stamp mill for crushing cement was built by the.1assassauga Company, near the town of Little York, in the summer of 1S57.  This mill had no
screens, but the cement was thrown into the battery, where the stamps were kept
running, and canied off into the sluices by a stream of water.  Of course, much of
the cement was not pulverized, but the tailings, after running through the sluice,
were saved for a year or more and allowed to slack, when they were run through
again, and yielded nearly as much gold as on the first run.  Another mill was
built near Little York in the spring of 1858, which was a considerable improvement on its predecessor, and cement mills have since been erected at You Bet,
Red Dog, Hunt's Hill, Gougeye, and other places in the township.  The screens
now used are nearly as fine as those commonly used in the quartz mills, and it
has been fully determined that the finer the cement is crushed the more gold will
be saved.
At the present time there are 16 cement mills in Little York township, having
in all 136 stamps; two in Washington township with eight stamps, one in Eureka
with eight stamps, one in Bridgeport with eight stamps, one in Nevada with 15~
stamps, and one in Grass Valley, with eight stamps. These make an aggregate
122 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
in the county of 22 mills, with 185 stamps. Some of these mills are kept running steadily, others are in operation only a portion of the time, and a number
have been idle for a year or more in consequence of the inability of the owners
to open their claims, and other causes.  The amount of gravel crushed by a
stamp varies from three to eight tons in 24 hours.  Sometimes loose gravel is
run thlrough the mills to save the gold contained in the quartz pebbles, and which
would b)e lost by ordinary sluicing; but much of the cement is very (compact
and as difficult to crush as the hardest quartz.
The cement inills are not usually provided with the appliances for amalgamating and saving the gold that are now connected with the quartz mills.   Quicksilver is used in the batteries, where the most of the gold is amalgamated, and
after leaving the batteries the pulp passes over galvanized copper plates and
riffles filled with quicksilver, and whatever gold is not saved by this process is
lost.  A muchl-needed improvement is anl effectual method of concentrating the
sulphurets.  These are found in considerable quantities with the cement gravel,
and generally contain sufficient gold to yield a good profit when worked by the
chlorination process.  If machinery, not too expensive, could be devised for
separating them from the mass of pulp, it would add largely to the profits of the
business.
The worlking of the cement deposits, likle other branches of mining, has had
its ups and downs, but on the whole has been progressing, and the business has
been ilncereasilng in importance since the first mill was erected inll 1S57. Almnost
every claim has at times paid largely, and again the receipts would fall below
expenses.  The gold is unevenly distributed throughout the gravel deposits,
being found in great abundance wherever the position of the rock or other circumstaiieces were such as to form riffles, and in other places insufficient to pay the
cost of drifting out the gravel.  Whether the business is to increase until it
becomes of leading importance depends on the character of the deposits that may
hereafter be opened in the ancient river channels.  A vast amount of placer milling
ground yet remains to be opened, and should a considerable proportion of the
gravel found therein be cemented so as to require crushing, mills will be erected
for the purpose; otherwise it will be worked by the more economical process of
sluicing.
The capital invested in cement mining in Nevada county, including the mills,
hoisting machinery, cost of opening the claims, &c., is about $400,000; number
of men employed, 300; annual yield, $300,000. These figures, given in round
numbers, are very nearly correct, as applied to the past three years.  There are
some outside expenses, which, added to the wages of the miners, will probably
somewhat exceed the gross yield.  Some of the cement mines have paid largely,
while others have proved failures; but the failures have not been so disastrous
and universal as the early quartz failures.
EXTENxT OF THE PLACERn MINES.-The product of the placer mines of Nevada
county has neither materially increased nor diminished since 1850, and though
they have been worked without interruption for 19 years, the developments of
that period have barely been sufficient to give us an idea of their vast extent.
The shallow diggings, which were so easily worked, and afforded such large
returns to the early miners, are mostly exhausted; but the deep placers, or hill
diggings, in the channels of ancient streams, inl many places underlying hundreds
of feet of alluvial deposits and volcanic material, cannot be exhausted for a long
period of time.  In fact, for all practical purposes, they may be considered as
inexhaustible.
The long gravel ranges, extending from the high Sierra to the foot hills, cover
nearly half the surface area of the country, for the most part are auriferous, and
in places are of great depth. Gold in greater or less quantities is found from
the surface down, in some places sufficient to pay running expenses; but for
their profits tl e miners mainly rely on striking rich gravel deposits in the chan
123 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
nels of what once were running streams.   These ancient channels are very
numerous, and the gravel deposits therein are of the same character as those in
existing streams.  MIany of the old channels are cut transversely by others,
showing flie existence of not only one, but several ancient river systems; but
-whethler the  reat changes on the western slope of the mountains were produced
by causes now in force, or by sudden convulsions, the facts yet brought to light
are not sufficient to warrant us in forming a theory.  The petrefactions, which
are found plentifully in the deepest diggings, are the pine, oak, manzanita, and
other varieties of wood now growing in the mountains, indicating that no great
climatic or geological changes have taken place since the ancient channels were
filled up.  The filling lp process may have been aided by volcanic action,
raising the beds of rivers in places and forcing their waters into new channels.
These new channels would, in time, wear deeply into the bed rockl, and in this
way the deep gulches, ravines, and valleys were formed.  The formation of new
valleys by the action of water left the old river channels filled with gravel and
volcanic ashes to solidify, and become less pervious to the assaults of time than
the primitive rock that walled them in.  IVyriads of ages have abraded and
worn away the solid rock that once enclosed and towered far above the old channels; but the cement ridges, defying more stoutly the action of the elements,
remain to attest their comparative indestructibility and the magnitude of nature's
changes.
Thus far the old river channel has only been opened and worked at the more
favorable localities, where there are biwashes, or where they have been cut by
nmore modern streams, as is the case in the Nevada basin.  The ridge between
the South Yuba and Deer creeks is broken'by two deep depressions, directly
north of Nevada City, and a peak called Sugar Loaf Hill rises between the
gaps.  At this point the ridge curves to the west, but the ancient channel, which
for some distance above follows the course of the ridge, continues its general
southwesterly direction, and makes out into the basin.  Here the overlying
strata being comparatively shallow, thie channel was discovered at an early day,
and worked by means of drifting, or burrowing, whence it wvas called the " Cayote
Lead."  Shafts were sunk on Bourbon, Manzanita, Wet, and American Hills,
and the richest deposits drifted out, but the claims were subsequently bought up
by a few companies, and the ground worked from the surleace down by the
hydraulic.  These claims yielded immensely, and the amount of gold extracted
from the base of Sugar Loaf to the lower workings on American Hill, a little over
a mile, is believed to have reached $7,000,000 to $8,000,000.  The amount, however cannot be ascertained with any degree of accuracy.   Subsequently the
channel was traced northeasterly under the hi,lgh ridge, and worlked( out for a
distance of 3,000 feet by the Young America. Live-oak, Nebraskla, and some
other companies of less note, and the yield of gold in that distance along the
channelis known, however, to have exceeded $3,000,000.   The channel is nearly
parallel with Deer creek, though it must have carried a much larger quantity of
water, and the average fall appears to have been but little over one foot in a
hundred.  The same channel was opened a mile above by the IHarmony Company,
where the deposit was found to be equally rich; but that company was so unfortunate as to commence operations on the north side of the ridge, when the channel,
at their location, sweeps round to the south side, thus largely enhancing the cost
of working.  After taking out $70,000 at a cost of $83,000, they suspended
operations. The most of the ground has been located for a distance of eight
miles up'the ridge, and at two or three different places the channel has been
found, and fine prospects obtained, but the operators, for the want of adequate
pumping machinery, were compelled to desist. The claims of the Cold Spring
Company adjoin the Harmony ground above, and still further above  are the
claims of the Fountain IHead Company.   These companies are preparing to
commence operations under favorable auspices.  The evidence  s conclusive
124 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
that the channel extends a considerable distance up the mountains, perhaps 20
or 25 miles, and there is no  reason to doubt that every 17000 feet of its length
holds its million of treasure.   Besides this, large quantities of gold are found in
the smaller channels that were probably once tributaries of the main stremns, as
well as' in the alluvium  above.   The rich hydraulic diggings  at Gold Hill,
Alpha, Omega, and other places, now mostly wvorkied out, are on this range.
The most extensive placer mining field in the county, and perhaps in the
State, is the ridge between the -liddle and South Yuba, embracing  the townships of Bridgeport, Bloomfield,  and Eureka.   This ridge  is about  30 miles
in length, and from six to eight in width forming an area of about  200 square
miles.  The more elevated portion is covered  by a  volcanic formation; but in
the lower portions, in Bloomfield and Bridgeport townships, the volcanic material
has been wvorn away, leaving the ground in a more favorable condition for
hydraulic operations, which is now being improved at North San Jutan, and other
places already refered to.  Professor Sillimlan, and 2I. Laur, a French engineer
of mines, have described this ridge, and  made  some  curious estimates of the
amount of gold contained therein.   Laur estimates that the legion under considemtion, worledl at a rate which lwould yield $12,000,000 of gold annually,
would be exhausted only after a period of 524 years, which would give as the gold
product over six thousand millions of dollars.   This estimate, however, is based
on the supposition that the entire gravel range is equally as richl as the claims
which hlie examnined.?   The more mioderate estimate of Professer Silmimian gives
* The Lake Company distributes water to several hundred workings, among which I will
choose, for illustration, that of the "Eureklia claim," near thelittle village of San Juan. In
the Eureka claim, the gravel bed is 135 feet deep, or about 43 metres. The first 22 mnetres
from the surface are a rather poor but easily washed sand; the 18 metres below are a very
coarse gravel, richer, but quite difficult to disintegrate.  The working, therefore, is carried
on under conditions of some difficulty.
The working district has been controlled by a "bed rock tunnel" or drain-gallery, cut for
a great distance into very hard granite, at the rate of 40 francs the running foot, (about 700
francs a metre,) giving a total cost of 140,000 francs.  The claim is still in fill activity.
The working is carried on by four jets d'eau, discharging together about 25,000 litres of
water a minute under a pressure of.43 metres.  These jets d'eai break up the gravel against
which they are directed, and the current carries off the mud and stones into the sluices in the
drain-gallery, where the gold is deposited.
Four men are sufficient to direct this work, which is carried on for two weekls, say ten
working days of eight hours each.  At the expiration of this time the washing down of fresh
arth is stopped, the sluices are washed, and the gold is taken up.
During this period of ten days 28,080 cubic metres of gravel are worked over, removing
bhe auriferous deposit over a superficies of 620 square metres.  The charges for working are
is follows:
Fr an c s.
Expenses of water....e............................................ —- 5, 000
~anual labor..................................... —-------------------------------------------------—.. 864
'undries, about................................ —--------—........ —-----------------------------------—.... 500
Total................................................................. 6,364
The goid taken from the sluices at the end of this period brings an average of 30,000
ranes. This yield increases to 80,000 and 100.000 francs, when the working has been conined exclusively to the lower portions of the gravel.
These results show the value of gold extracted from one of these California alluvial mines;
hey being out especially the great progress on working and the small amount of hurman labor
a this new method of washing. In fact, estimating the cost of a miner's wages at the uniform
ate of 20 francs, the expense of manual labor necessary for working one cubic metre of gravel
by the several methods hitherto employed is as follows, viz:
Fr. Cent's.
'y the pan............ —--------------—......... —--—.. ---------------------------— about 75 C0
'y the rocker..... —--—.. ---------------------------------------------— "   20   00
'y the "long tom"..................................  "    5   00
;y the sluice......................................... --------— "        1  71
;y the new method (hydraulic washing)................................ " —----------------------------- 0 28
Let us suppose the workings now actually open on the ridge of land which I have taken
125' 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the area of the places where gravel deposits have been worked on this ridge as
equal to fifteen square miles, and its probable yield in gold is estiraated at
$544,610,000. In this estimate the gravel deposits underlying the volcanic
formations were not taklen into account.  These are known in many places to
be rich, but in most cases call only be reached at considerable cost.* The Mount
Zion Coimpany has been engaged for eleven years in an enterprise to open the
ground under the cement ridge near Snow Point. They commenced operations
on the South Yuba side and ran a tunnel to the centre of the hill, where they
found rich gravel; but the tunnel proved to be higher than the bed of the channel, and was of no service in wvorkiing the ground.  They then started another
tunnel on a lower level, which, after several years' labor, is now nearly completed.  The Kentucky Company, encouraged by the prospects obtained in the
claims of the Mount Zion Company, commenced a vertical shaft last spring, near
Snow Point, with the view of sinking to the bed rock.  After sinking 108 feet
through lava cement, they reached the alluvial deposit, and the enterprise is still
in progress. The cost, and length of time required to realize returns, have a
tendency to discourage miners from embarking in such undertakings, though
they may feel certain that the gold is there.
THn, CflALK MOUNTAIN RANGE, lying mostly between Bear river and Greenhlorn creek, on the southerly border of the county, is another mining field of immense
prospective value.  The average elevation of the ridge is somewhat greater than
either of the others in the county, and the higher portion is covered with lava
and basaltic rocks.  At the southwesterly extremity, near Red Dog and You Bet,
and along the margins of the ridge, where the volcanic covering has been worn
away, the auriferous gravel has been workled by the hydraulic, and in most places
yielded excellent returns; but by far the larger portion of the ground will have
as an example, to be replaced by one hundred areas equal in importance to the Eureka claim.
These one hundred hypothetical districts would be precisely equivalent to all those now
existing; for, according to the preceding indications, it would absorb all the water brought
by the Lake Company, as does this. The richness of the gravel, taken in its total mass,
being assumed to be nearly uninterrupted, the yield of gold would be in both cases sensibly
Now, the adcLsl working of the Eureka, after a year, equivalent to 200 days' effective labor,
brings a value in gold of 3,000X200-=600,000 francs. After an equal period the onehundred
openings supposed would have brought in 60,000,000 francs, and would have removed the
auriferous deposit over an extent of 1,240,000 square metres.
But the total superficies of the deposit being at least 650,000,000 square metres, we see that
this total gold-producing area, yielding $60,000,000 of gold annually, would be exhausted
only after a period of 524 years.
The placer to which the preceding indications refer is certainly one of those where the production of gold is most perfectly organized and most active; but its extent, which is 650
square kilometres, is unimportant in connection with the total extent of the analogous deposits
which are found scattered over the superficies of 19,000 square kilometres which forms the
auriferous zone of California.  An increase of the mea worked over, and a consequent inwiease
of production from this class of deposits, is possible everywhere, within limits, in the gold
regions of California.-Memoir de la Production des Mletana Precieux en California.  Rapport d son Excellence M. le Ainistre des Travaux Publics.  Par P, Laur, Ingeiietr au Corps
Imperial des Mines. Paris, 1862. Svo. pp. 132.
Mr. Black estimates the length of the mining claims of the present, supplied with water
by the Middle Yuba Canal Company, at five miles, with an average width of 350 yards, and
an average depth of 40 yards, making a quantity of 123,000,000 of cubic yards of auriferous
gravel. He also estimates that eight per cent. of this quantity has been worked away in the
past 12 years, leaving 113,000,000 of cubic yards which remain for future operations. At an
average, of 34 cents of gold to the cubic yard, (the average of the Yuba region appears to be
from 30 cents to 45 cents per cubic yard, saved in the hydraulic process,) the volume of
auriferous gravel here estimated would yield over $38,000,000. But the total area of the
various places where gravel deposits have been worked on this ridge is estimated by Mr.
Black as equal to 15 square miles, all of which, and much more, is controlled by the water
of the Eureka Lake Company, or of the Middle Yuba canal.  If this area is estimated at ar
average of 40 yards in depth, (it varies from 80 to 200 and 250 feet in depth,) we shall have
1,815,936,000 cubic yards of gravel, and if this be estimated to yield only 30 cents per yar(
we reach the grand aggregate of $544,610,000 as its probable yield of gold.-Professor Silli
man's Report on the Deep-tying Placers, AIlarch, 1865.
126 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
to be worked by drifting, either by means of deep shafts or extensive tunnels.
The ridge extends nearly to the summit of the Sierra, but is divided bythe valley
of Bear river, 15 miles above Red Dog, which cuts through it nearly at right
angles, making a deep depression, the hills rising to the height of 600 or 800
feet on each side of the valley.  Three miles below Bear valley, on the southeasterly side, the deep gorge of Steep Hollow has cut down through the volcanic
and gravel formations to the bed rock, showing the thickness of the overlyging
mass to be at least a thousand feet.  The Chalk Mountain Blue Gravel Company made extensive locations on the ridge in the spring of 1866, and has since
been engaged in making explorations under the superintendence of S. N. Stranahan. An incline shaft was sunk at the southwesterly end of the company's ground,
into the body of the mountain, going down on the red gravel, under the pipeclay. Their explorations revealed a well-defined ancient river channel, the rim
rock rising to a considerable height on each side. The course of the stream was
nearly southwest, and evidences of an old river channel have been found at Steep
Hollow and Bear valley, which is believed to be the same.  For the past six
months a mining company has been engaged in sinking a vertical shaft at Bear
valley, and at a depth of a little over a hundred feet they struck a deposit of gravel
and boulders, evidently made by a running stream, having a southwesterly course.
Whenever explorations have been made in this region, the different strata are
found in the following order: The blue cement gravel, in which the gold is very
unevenly distributed, is found only in the channels of the ancient streams.  Over
this is a deep bed of loose, gold-bearing gravel, of a reddish color, and this is
covered by a deep layer of pipe-clay. This is what is termed the hydraulic
ground, the principal " pay" being in the red gravel.  At higher elevations on
the ridge, the lower section is exactly the same, but with two additional stratifications.  Above the pipe-clay is a deep deposit of conglomerate boulders, and
above this a bed of lava or basaltic rocks. The bed rock is uneven, and in
many places rises into the pipe-clay and cuts off the red gravel; but wherever
this deposit is found, and the overlying mass is not too deep, it invariably pays
for hydraulicing. There is a vast quantity of this ground to be workried, but to
open a claim usually requires the labor of several miners for two or three years.
Deep cuts have to be made in the bed rock, or long tunnels run, to obtain sufficiCent faill for a sluiceway to run off the earth.
Another gravel range dividing the waters of Greenhorn and Deer creeks, passing
Nevadla on the north and Grass Valley on the south, extends westerly through
the county to the foot-hills, terminating at Smartsville, in Yuba couinty, where
some of the best mines in the State are situated.  The elevation of this ridge is
less than either of the others described, and the ground in many places has been
worked successfully by the hydraulic. At the Alta shaft, sunk on this range
near Grass Valley, an immensely rich deposit of gravel was discovered in the
bed of an ancient stream, which afforded large profits to the owners of the claim.
It is believed by some that a continuous channel extends the length of the ridge
from which came the rich surface diggings at Rough and Ready that were worked
out at an early day.  M1uch of this range will not pay for workiing withl the
present appliances for mining, and at rates now charged for water;  but with
further improvements in the art of mining, and perhaps the cheapenling of water
and the cost of living, it is probable that the most of it will eventually be worked.
No estimate approaching to accuracy can be made of the amount of gold contained in the placer mines of this county, and which yet may be brought forth
for the benefit of the civilized world.  To say that it is enough to pay off the
national debt would be a moderate estimate, and it is not improbable that in
some of these deep placers, deposits of gold may yet be found in such quantities
as will materially diminish the value of the metal.  But to extract it from the
vast accumulations of debris in which it is hidden will cost thousands of miners
127 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
centuries of toil.   Some of the workers, more lucky than their fellows, will
strike valuable deposits, and become suddenly enriched, while' the majority, as
has always been the case, will toil on in poverty.  The hope of rich strikes is
the great incentive to the miner to persevere, but the risk, which is always considerable in mining operations, even when the best judgment is exercised, has a
tendency to deter capital from embarkiing in the business.
Q UAPTZ MININxG.-In the mining and working of gold-bearing quartz, as in
most other branches of mining, Nevada county has taken the lead, and is far in
advance of other sections of the gold region.  It was not until the spling of 1850,
when the placer mines had been worked two seasons, that attention was directed
to the quartz veins as the matrix in which the gold was originally formed, and
the sources from which that found in the surface diggings was derived.  The
early settlers, and those who first rushed to California on the announcement of
the discovery of gold, had no knowledge of vein mining, and were too much
absorbed in collectirng, the precious particles which were found mixed with the
gravel on the bars and in the beds of the streams to give any attention to the
sources Whence they came. The discovery of gold imbedded in quartz pebbles
led to an examination of the lodes, and some quartz locations were made early in
the spring of 1850.
The first quartz location in Nevada county, of which we now have any information, was made at Gold Hill, near Grass Valley.  This was in June, 1850.
Quartz was discovered at Massachusetts Hill soon after, and in October of the
same vear the Gold Tunnel lode was located at Nevada.   The latter was discovered by four young men from Boston, while engaged in their first day's work
at mining.  A  few other locations were made the same season, both at Grass
Vallev and Nevada, but the three above named have become especially famous
for their immense yield of gold, amounting in the aggregate to nearly double the
present assessed property valuation of the county. The first mill in the county
was erected by two Geriians, at Boston ravine, near Grass Valley, in the winter
of 1850-'51. It was a rude affair, and of course was a failure.
In 1851 there was a great quartz excitement in this county. The shallow
surface diggings were beginning to show signs of exhaustion, or at least were
not so readily found as in the preceding years, and prospectors were running over
the hills in search of lodes.  Numerous mills were projected, and during the fall
and winter eight or ten were erected at Nevada, and as many more at Grass
Valley.  All the Nevada mills, with the exception of the Gold Tunnel, and the
most of those at Grass Valley, proved disastrous failures, and in 1853 the quartz
interest wvas completely prostrated. With our present experience in quartz mining,
we can readily perceive the causes of the early failures in the business.  The
mills were erected at enormous expense, in many cases the projectors paying anl
extortionate interest for money; they had been deceived by professed assayers,
or had deceived themselves as to the amount of gold contained in the quartz;
the appliances for amalgamating ware of the rudest description, and there were
no miners in the county who knew hlow to open and worki a quartz vein.
At Grass Valley, where some eastern and English capital had been invested,
a number of companies continued operations, several mills were kept running,
and the business slowly revived. But at Nevada, where the failures had been
more decided, the business was almost entirely abandoned, and the miners turned
their attention to the hill diggings, then just beginning to be prospected. The Gold
Tutnnel mill was kept in operation, and yielded good returns, but for several
years the dependence of the population was almost entirely on the placer mines.
The few companies that continued operations, however, were measurably suecessfil: their mines at times paying largely, and this was an inducement fbI
others to resume work on their lodes, particularly at seasons of the year when
water could not be procured to work the placer mines. By 1857 the Grass
128 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Valley mines were in quite a flourishing condition, and continued to prosper for the
three or four succeeding years, becoming the leading interest of the town, while
at Nevada the business steadily improved.
The development of the quartz interest, however, was destined to meet another
reverse, though by no means so disastrous and discouraging as that of 1852-'53.
The discovery of silver in Washoe was first made public in this county in the
summer of 1859, and quite a number of our most energetic quartz operators hastened to the new mining field.  The wonderful richness of the Comstock lode
was fully determined that fall, and the next spring witnessed the exodus of many
of our best working miners, who abandoned their claims here for what appeared
to be the more promising field of enterprise east of thle Sierra Nevada mountains.
For three years there was a constant drain of population and capital from the
county-the capital, especially, being much needed in the development of our
own mines.  Added to this drain upon our resources, the most of the best-paying
mines in Grass Valley were flooded during the severe winter of 1861-'62, requiring many months to place them again in working condition, during which time
there were no returns and the expenses were heavy.   From these causes business
was greatly depressed and property depreciated very materially in value, especially at Grass Valley and Nevada.   In 18S64 the adventurers who had left for
distant mining regions began to return, satisfied that this county presented the
best field for mining enterprise on the coast. As a consequence, the quartz
business speedily revived, and at the present time Grass Valley is the most prosperous mining town in the State, her prosperity being due entirely to the surrounding quartz mines.
Without taking into account the temporary drawbacks, the quartz business has
been improving since 1853, and the yield of gold from that source has steadily
increased. The successful operations have in nearly all cases been conducted
by practical miners, who learned the business here, and who have discovered and
brought into use all the improved methods of mining and reducing the ore, and
amalgamating and collecting the gold. Very little foreign capital has been
invested in our mines, although there is not a mining region in the world that
offers better inducements tar judicious investment.  The comparatively small
amount that has been invested by capitalists in this county has, in most cases,
been in dividend-paying mines, and, of course, was no assistance in developing
our resources. At no period since the wild speculations of 1852 has quartz
minm    been in more favor than at present, or the prospects more flattering.
There are in the county four distinct quartz-mining districts, in different stages
of development, viz: Grass Valley, Nevada, Eureka, and M1eadow Lake.
GRASS VALLEY DISTPrICT.-The Grass Valley district is, beyond question,
the most important and prosperous quartz-mining region of California.  The
mines have been worked uninterruptedly since 1852, and, though there have
been many failures, and some of the best mines have at times been temporarily
abandoned, yet the miners persevered, until the business is now established on
a firm basis. It is not possible at present to obtain accurate statistics of the gold
product of the Grass Valley mines, but, from the best information that can be
obtained, the yield, up to the beginning of the present year, is estimated to have
exceeded $25,000,000.* The lodes of the district are narrow-some of those~
which have been most productive not averaging over a foot in width-and the
bed-rock, or what is called by vein miners the "country" rock, is mostly green'stone and slate. The lodes run in every direction, though the principal mines
which have been opened and worked usually approximate an east and west or
north and south course. The average yield of the Grass Valley mines has been
variously estimated at from $20 to $35 a ton; but the higher estimates have
* Professor Silliman, in his report of March, 1865, estimated the entire yield as then exceed'ing $23,000,000.
9
129 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
undoubtedly been based on the yield of the best-paying mines, examined by
scientific gentlemen and passing strangers, who have written on the subject, and
who had no knowledge of the large amount of rock worked at Grass Valley,
which scarcely paid for hauling and crushing. Taking all the rock worked in
the district, $20 a ton would be a fair estimate for the average yield. The cost
of mining the rock depends on the size and situation of the lode and the character of the enclosing rock. With a lode of two to three feet in widtjh, which
can be worked by means of tunnels, the cost of extracting the vein-stone may
not exceed $1 or $2 a ton; but where the vein is small and enclosed in blasting
rock, and steam has to be used for hoisting and pumping, the cost sometimes
reaches $20 and $30. The charges for reducing ore at the custom mills range
from $2 50 to $5 a ton, depending on the character of the ore, the amount furnished, &C.
THE EUPEKA 3I!E, now regarded as the most valuable gold mine in the
county, and perhaps the most valuable in the world, is situated a mile and a quarter
northeast of the town of Grass Valley, and was located early in 1851. It was
worked at intervals, by various parties, up to 1857, but the most of the rock
failed to pay for crushing.  In the latter year it was purchased by Messrs. Fricot,
Ripert, and Pralus, and the first crushing made by them; the rock, being taken
from near the surface, yielded only $4 a ton.  From 1857 to 1863, the mine was
worked to a perpendicular depth of 50 feet, during which a large quantity of
quartz was taken out, none of which paid largely, and the greater portion failed
to pay expenses. Becoming satisfied, at length, that the mine was a good one,
they sank a vertical shaft, in 1863, to the depth of 100 feet, and the mine has
since been yielding handsome returns. On the 1st of October, 1865, the mine
was sold to a company of capitalists for $400,000 in gold coin. How much it
had yielded up to that time is not known, but the owners erected hoisting works
and a 20-stamp mill, all at a cost of $60,000, besides receiving large dividends
from the profits.  The mine has been producing, under the present management,
at the rate of about $49,000 a month.   The first year, ending September 30,
1866, the gross product was $531,431, and for the eleven months ending August
31, 1867, $588,139, making a total of $1,119,570 in 23 months. Nearly a thousand tons of rock have been taken from the mine every month and reduced at the
mill, the average yield being not far from $50 a ton; and the monthly expenses,
including repairs to machinery and permanent improvements, have averaged about
$16,000. The regular monthly dividends for over a year past have amnounted to
$30,000, and one or two extra dividends have been declared in addition. The
Eureka mine is opened by an incline shaft, 5 by 20 feet, which is designed to
explore the vein to a great depth, and is now down nearly 500 feet.  Levels have
been run from the shaft at distances of 100 feet apart, and for 700 feet along the
lode.  At 50 feet from the surface the quartz paid $15 a ton, and increased to
$28 at 100 feet. Between the 100 and 200-feet levels the average yield was
$37 a ton, and below that the average has' been $50. The vein runs nearly east
and west, dipping south at an angle of about 78~; and over the whole extent of
some 700 feet which has been worked the average wvidthl is about three feet.
At the fourth level the mine is said to show still further improvement, with
an increase in the yield of ore, though it has been worked but little below the
third level.  The value of the mine, with the mill, hoisting works, and other
property connected therewith, is now rated at about $1,000,000. William Watt, a
successful quartz miner and one of the owners of the Eureka, is the superintendent.
THE GOLD HILL [MINE, the first discovered at Grass Valley, was worked by
various companies, and with little interruption, for a period of 14 years, yielding
in that time, according to popular belief, $4,000,000. At times the mine paid
enormously, the quartz being fairly knit together with gold, and again the receipts
would fall below expenses, the gold being found in "pockets,/ and apparently
distributed through the vein stone in the most capricious manner.   The inne was
130 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
worked to the depth of 300 feet on the slope of the lode, and for a length of 600
or 800 feet, but the upper levels are now mostly filled up and inaccessible.  The
vein is very irregular and crooked, and perhaps does not average over a foot in
width.  The work on the mine was suspended in September, 1865, but operations have lately been resumed, with fair prospects.
THE MBASSACUUSETTS HILL AMIINE, which is believed to be identical with that
on Gold Hill, was worked by different companies up to 1866, yielding in that time
over $3,000,000.  The working of tliis mine was attended with more than the
usual vicissitudes of gold-ndining, some of the companies failing most disastrously, and others realizing large profits.  The failure of the Mount Hope company, working the mine from 1856 to 1858, was the occasion of a most shocking
tragedy.  Mlichael Brennan, the superintendent, having hopelessly involved the
company, murdered his wife and three children and then committed suicide.
The deed was committed on the 21st of February, 1858. The mine passed
into other hands, and a year or two later a large body of rich ore was struck
within a few feet of where Brennan had abandoned work in despair.
THE OPHIrn HILL MINE is situated a mile southeast of Grass Valley, and was
located in 1851. The original owners worked the mine a year or two, when
thlev failed, and the property was sold at auction, the purchasers organizing as
the Empire Company. This company erected a six-stamp mill, and workied the
mine from May, 1854, to September, 1S63, the yield in that time amounting to
$1,056,234.  The property was then sold to other parties, Captain S. W. Lee,
one of the purchasers, takling charge, and work was resumed in April, 1865.
The product of the mine from that period up to June of the present year was
$286,082, making a total yield in 13 years of $1,342,316.  The amount of
quartz worked is estimated at 37,840 tons, giving an average yield of over $35
a ton.  The present company have erected a magnificent 20-stamp mill at a cost
of nearly $100,000. It is the finest quartz mill in the State, but the mine is
not yet sufficiently opened to keep it constantly employed.   The mill, hoisting
workis, and other machinery and property of the company, with the drain tunnel
and other permanent improvements on the mine, has cost some $250,000. The
Ophir lode runs nearly north and south, and dips westerly at the low angle of
27 degrees. The lode is not large, averaging, perhaps, not over 18 inches in
width, but it has been explored by levels for a distance of 900 feet along its
course, showing a continuation of rich ore for that distance.
TUE NorTHT  STAPx MINE has been worked with varied results since 1852, changing hands several times, once under a forced sale.  This mine is perhaps more
thoroughly opened than any other in the county, an incline shaft having been
sunk on the slope of the vein to the depth of 750 feet, and levels run along its
course nearly 1,000. feet. In the five years ending in January, 1867, the
net earnings of the mine amounted to more than $500,000, and in the early part
of this year the net profits were reported at $12,000 a month. On this representation the mine was sold to San Francisco capitalists for $450,000, of which
$250,000 was paid down, and the remainder was to have been paid from one-half
the net profits. But the receipts for the first two or three months, under the new
administration not coming up to the representations, the sellers released the purchasers from further payments.
THE ALLISON R cANcH LODE, which for many years ranked as the leading mine
in the State, was discovered in 1855, and worked with continued success over 11
years. It yielded in that period $2,300,000 in gold bullion. In working the
mine rich bodies of ore were encountered which paid $100 and $200 a ton, with
poorer rock between that scarcely paid the cost of working. An examination of
the books of the company shows the average yield of all the rock worked to
have been $50, the rock taken from the mine and crushed amounting to 46,000
tons. The mine has been worked to a depth of over 500 feet, and for nearly
1,000 feet along its course. The vein has been an expensive one to work, on
131 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
account of the large quantity of water that had to be raised and the hardness
of the enclosing rock; but probably not less than two-thirds of the gross proceeds were divided as profits among the owners. Owing to a want of agreement in the management the worki in the mine was suspended at the beginning
of the present year.
There are many other ualuable mines in the district, some of which are now
or have been paying regular dividends to the owners. Among these may be
mentioned the New York Hill mine, which has been worked at intervals since
1852, and produced not less than $500,000; the Wisconsin, from which was
taken, in 1866, 1,400 tons of ore that yielded an average of $51 a ton; the
Hartery, which has yielded over $250,000; the Norambagua, a vein not exceeding
an average width of five inches, but which yielded over $80,000 in 1866; the
Houston Hill mine, which yielded over $500,000 in the past three years, and
paid good profits, although the cost of extracting and reducing the ore amounts
to some $40 a ton; the Osborn Hill mine, which was producing large returns at
a time when the quartz interest of the district was supposed to be on the wanle;
the Lone Jack, which has produced over $500,000; the Cambridge mine, on
Howard Hill, and the claim of the Lucky Company on the same lode, which
have been opened at great cost and are regarded as promising mines, though at
present idle on account of disagreements among the owners; the Union Hill
mine, and the adjoining mine of Wm. O'Connor Sydney, which is now being
opened and explored in the most systematic manner and without regard to
expense; besides numerous others in the district which would be tiresome to
sketch in detail.
There are now some 30 dividclend-paying mines in the district; 28 quartz mills,
lhaving an aggregate of 300 stamps, and the capital invested in the mills, hoisting
works, and other machinery, and in the opening of the mines which may now
be considered as available, is about $2,000,000. The number of men employed
in the mills and mines is about 1,600, and the yield of the mines in 1866 was
$2,000,000, in round numbers-an average of $1,250 for each man.  The product of the district will probably be somewhat less the present year than in
1866, on account of the suspension of work in the Allison Ranch and some other
mines, but the falling off will be only temporary, as the mines are too valuable
to remain idle for any great length of time.
NEVADA QUARTZ DISTRICT.-The Nevada quartz district includes the township of that name, though the most of the gold-bearing lodes are situated in the
Nevada basin, forming an area of eight or ten square miles. The primitive rock
in the basin is a soft granite, encircled by a slate formation on the east, south,
and west. Numerous quartz lodes, both in the granite and surrounding slate,
have been opened and worked more or less-the general course of the veins being
a little east of south and north of west, and the most of them having an easterly
dip at various angles. Some are nearly perpendicular, and others descend at a
low angle, the more usual dip being about 35 or 40 degrees.  At the southwesterly end of the granite formation are a number of parallel veins, having the same
general course, but dip westerly.  The most noted of these are the Sneath and
Clay and the Mohawk. All the lodes in the district which showed any surface
croppings were located in 1851, during the first quartz excitement, and it being
then understood that they were the sources from which the placer gold was
derived, the most extravagant expectations were formed as to their prospective
yield. Mills were erected at great expense, and a large amount of ill-directed
labor was expended in endeavoring to open the veins; but, with two or three
exceptions, the enterprises were failures, and quartz was very generally pronounced a humbug.
THE GOLD TU,NEL MAnE, situated west of Nevada City, but mostly in the corporation limits, was the only one in the district in which operations were continued
without interruption. This was the first gold-bearing lode discovered in the dis
132 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
trict, and the discoverers worked it for a time by washing the decomposed quartz
in a rocker, realizing large profits.  In the spring of 1851 a tunnel was started
on the lode, and the following summer a six-stamp mill was erected on Deer
creekl, near the mouth of the tunnel, to crush the rock. From 1852 to 1855 the
mine was worked by E. W. Kidd, wlho owned a controlling interest, and in the
latter year the property, including the mill and mine, was sold to a company
of Cornish miners. Up to this time the mine has yielded over $300,000 in gold,
the rockl paying on an average $50 a ton, though wiorlked in a mill that would
not now be used.  The Cornishmen worked the mine over eight years, suspending operations in 1863, but the yield during that period is not known.  A  continuous body of rich ore extended from the mouth of the tunnel at Deer creek
for a distance of 600 feet north; beyond that the rock contains gold, but not in
sufficient quantities to pay for workiing. The vein has never been worked below
the level of Deer creek, but there is no doubt that it will eventually be opened
to a great depth, and worked again with profit.
THE ILLINOIS AND CALIF0PNIA CLAIMS, situated on the gold tunnel lode south
of Deer creek, have been worked at intervals since 1851, and at times have paid
largely.  In 1866 the Eagle Company purchased the California claim, erected
hoisting works and a 10-stamp mill, and expended a large amount in sinking an
incline shaft and exploring the vein. Considerable rock was taken from the
mine and crushed, but it did not yield in accordance with the anticipations of
the company, and recently the work was suspended. It is understood that operations will soon be resumed.
TiE BANN ER  3IINE is situated three miles east of Nevada City, and is a comparatively recent location. Some work has been done on it in 1860-'61 by two
different companies, but the indications being unfavorable, they abandoned it.
It was relocated in 1864 by the parties from whom the present owners derive
their title, and the first crushing yielded only four or five dollars a ton. After a
suspension of some months they took out another crushing, which yielded near
$20 a ton, and this gave the mine a good reputation, which it has ever since sustained.  With two or three temporary interruptions, the mine has been worked
from June, 1865, up to the present time.  The lode runs nearly north and south,
dips to the east at an angle of about 50~, and is opened by an incline shaft sunk
to the depth of 350 feet on the slope of the vein. Four levels have been run
in each direction from the shaft, the upper one being 60 feet from the surface,
the next 60 feet deeper, and the other two at distances of 100 feet.  Two
" chimneys" of rich rock, or "ore shoots," as they are commonly called by the
miners, have been found in the lode, both of which rapidly widen with the depth.
At the first level, 60 feet below the surface, the large ore chute extends along
the course of the lode only about 100 feet; but at the third level, 160 feet deeper,
it has a breadth along the lode of 225 feet. North of the main ore chute another
body of rich quartz has been struck, which has a breadth of 40 feet at the second
level and 75 feet at the third level. If they cortinue their course they will come
together at the fourth level, thus affording continuous rich ore for a distance of
about 500 feet along the lode. Outside of the ore chutes the quartz pays only
$8 or $10 a ton, barely sufficient to cover the expenses of mining and reducing
it. Up to the 1st of January, 1866, 5,000 tons of rock had been taken from the
mine and reduced, yielding an average of about $19 a ton. From the 1st of
January to the 1st of September, of the present year, the yield has been $76,000
from 3,000 tons of rock worked, an average of $25 33 a ton.  The vein is of
good size, being from three to four feet in width, and is now yielding from 3o to
40 tons of quartz daily. The owners have a 20-stamp mill convenient to'the
mine, and besides keeping this'employed, they are having considerable quartz
worked at custom mills.
TmlE PITanSBdRG aMhalf more commonly known as the "W*~igham," is situated
a mile and a half southeast of Nevada City, on the slope of the hill descending
133 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
into thle basin.  It was located in 1851 for a Pittsburg mining company, by R.
S. Wigham, who erected a mill the same season, but the enterprise was among
the early quartz failures. The property finally fell into the hands of Mlerritt &
Bourn, of San Francisco, who still retain it.  The mine was worked on a lease
in 1855, and again in 1857, but with indifferent success.   In 1862 it was leased
to Weeks & Thomas, who, in the course of 15 months, took out 3,700 tons of
quartz, which yielded at the mill an average of $22 a ton, and the profits to the
lessees amounted to near $40,000. The mine was then idle until January, 1866,
when the owners made arrangements for further explorations.  Another level wvas
opened, and in the course of the year the mine yielded $102,000 firom 1,700 tons
of rock-an average of $60 a tonll. A mill and first-class hoisting works were
erected last spring, and started in operation about the 1st of June, but we have
no report of the yield for this season. At the upper level the ore chute extended
only about 50 feet along the lode; but in the lower level, 380 feet on the slope
of the vein, it has a breadth of 400 feet. The average width of the vein is about
two feet, and the country rock is slate. The Wigham and the Banner are the
leading quartz mines of Nevada district at the present time.
THE MINE OF THE NEVADA QUARPTZ AIINING COMPANY, commonly known as
the "Soggs" mine, is situated a mile west of Nevada City, and is a parallel vein
with the Gold Tunnel. The lode was located at an early day, but no successful
effort was made to develop it until 1857.  A rich chimney having been discovered
by the owners, they made arrangements for the erection of an eight-stamp steam
mill to work the mine.  This was run two or three years successfully, when it
was taken down, and the owners put up a new 12-stamp water mill on Deer
creek, and the mine has been worked, with one or two brief interruptions, for 10
years. About 5,000 tons of rock have annually been taken from the mine and
crushed at the mill, the gross receipts ranging from $40,000 to $70,000 a year.
During the year 1866, according to a statement furnished by William AI. Ratcliff, the superintendent, the amount of rock crushed was a fraction under 5,000
tons, which yielded at the mill $42,000; while the returns from sulphuret ore
shipped to Swansea and concentrated sulphurets netted $8,000. The average
yield of all the rock crushed has been about $13 a ton, yet the owners have at
times derived large dividends from the working of the mine, and, with the exception of the construction account of the first mill, but one assessment has been
levied, and that only for a trifling amount. The lode -is one of the largest in the
district, though very irregular, ranging from a mere seam to 16 feet in width, and
averaging about four feet.  It is opened by three tunnels, starting in above the
mill and running north. The length of the upper tunnel is 2,900 feet, and the
other two about 1,900 feet each. The rock is taken from the mine in cars and
dumped in front of the stamps, thus saving the cost of hauling; and having a
large lode, and the advantage of water-power to run the mill, the owners have
been enabled to work a low grade of ores with profit.
THE SNEATH AND CLAY MIXE, situated a mile southeast of Nevada City, was
dliscovered in the spring of 1862, and several lots of the quartz crushed during
the next summer yielding good returns, the locaters erected a mill, which was
started in operation about April, 1863. For a time the rock yielded largely,
the gross product in two years being $180,000, of which over half was clear
profit; but the owners were unable to agree in the management, and liaving
worked out the opened levels the property was sold in May, 1865, to a New
York company for $27,000. The mill and hoisting works had cost $45,000.
The New York company opened two additional levels,,which having been worked
out to the extent of the pay ore, the work was suspended in the summer of 1867.
The mine is believed to be a good one, and had it been judiciously managed
from the start, and the "dead work" kept well in advance, it might have been
profitably worked for a long period..
THE LEcOMPTON MIXE, tin-ee miles above Nevada City, on Deer creek, was
134 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
located in 1858, and in the course of two years the net proceeds amounted to
$60,000, the quartz averaging $40 a ton. The gross yield of the mine up to
1863 was $220,000, and it has been worked but little since, the pay ore above
the level of the creek being exhausted. This lode is situated near the junction
of the granite and slate, and cuts through from one formation to the other without changing its course or dip.
There are numerous other mines in the district which have at times afforded
large profits to the owners, but which are now idle, either from bad management or other causes.  Among those now being worked may be mentioned the
Cornish, the Pennsylvania, the Providence, and the MIurchie, which have mills
connected therewith, and the Cunningham, Mohawk, Mattingly, and Harvey.
All of these have yielded good returns, and are still worked with fair success.
There are now in the Nevada district 17 quartz mills, having an aggregate
of 137 stamps, and the capital invested in the business is about $500,000. The
total yield of the mines in 1865 was about $400,000; in 1866, according to statistics kept by Wells, Fargo & Co., it was a fraction less than $500,000, and will
be about the same in 1867. The number of men employed in the mines and
mills is about 450, the gross yield being equal to $1,100 for each man. A considerable proportion of the quartz miners are either prospecting or engaged in
opening veins, which are not now productive.
EUREIKA QUARTZ DISTrICT.-Within the past year or two considerable attention has been given to the development of the quartz lodes near the town of
Eureka, some twenty-five miles above Nevada City.  The general characteristics
of the Eureka district resemble, in many respects, those of the Nevada district,
the country rock being a soft granite,'which can be excavated in most places
without the aid of powder, and the course of, the veins being east of south and
west of north, corresponding with the mountain range. This quartz belt crosses
the South Yuba into Washington township, where the enclosing granite is hard,
which greatly enhances the cost of working the mines. In the slate formation,
which comes in half a mile west of the town of Eureka, there are numerous
well-defined quartz veins, but they contain very little gold, and with one or two
exceptions are considered valueless.
In 1856 a quartz lode was located on Gaston ridge, some miles south of
Eureka, and a mill was erected to work it a year or two later, which was run
with little intenrruption until November, 1863, when it was destroyed by fire.
In that time some 15,000 tons of quartz were extracted from the mine and crushed
in the mill, yielding an average of $8 or $9 a ton.  The mill was an inferior
one, having no pans or other improved methods of saving the gold; but the vein
being large and favorably situated for worlking the owners realized a small profit,
though not sufficient at that time to justify them in erecting a new mill. Two
other mills were built in the district in 1857; but one was sold on account of a
disagreement among the owners, and the machinery moved away; and the other,
after doing a fair business for two or three years, was taken down and moved to
Washoe at the beginning of the silver excitement.
No further attempt was made to develop the mines of the district until the
spring of 1866, when some of the old residents, having worked out their placer
claims, and others who had noted the favorable indications, commenced operations
in earnest.  A  couple of arrastras were erected near the town, run by water
power, and capable of reducing three tons of quartz in 24 hours.  These arrastras have been constantly employed, have done excellent worlk, and been of great
advantage in prospecting and determining the value of the mines. During the
summer and fall of 1866, Messrs. Black & Young erected a 10-stamp mill on a
lode situated about a mile south of town. Operations, however, were not fairly
commenced on the mine until May last, since which time the mill has been running steadily, and the quartz is yielding from $20 to $25 a ton. Two other mills
were also built the same season, one of five stamps to work the JIm lode, and
1.35 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the other of four stamps, intended for custom work.  Two new mills are now in
course of construction, one of 10 stamps to work the Veatch and Powell mine,
and the other of five stamps on the Birchville mine. Both of these mines have
been thoroughly prospected, are of good size, and the gold is found in paying
quantities very generally disseminated through the vein-stone.
TECUJM,SEH MILLS.-Some years ago two mills known as the Tecumseh and
Star were erected in Waslhington township, but on the same quartz range. Con  siderable quartz has been worked in both mills, which yielded fair pay; but owing
to want of means to properly open the mines, the expense being very great on
account of the hardness of the enclosing rock, the enterprises have not proved
successful.  The Star Company, however, is still prosecuting wori, and the
Tecumseh mill has lately been leased to parties who are prospecting other lodes.
THE GRIZZLY LOI)D,, situated four miles west of Eureka, in Devil's cafion, was
purchased by the Eagle Company, of Hartford, about the beginning of 1866.
The company erected a five-stamp mill at the mine in the fall of the same year,
but being unprepared for winter work, little was done in developing the lode
until May last, since whlich time the mill has been running steadily and with
favorable results. ~ The vein has an average width of four feet, runs in slate,
and is opened by tunnels. It is so situated that, with proper arrangements and
a larger mill, $6 and $8 quartz can be worked with profit.  As long ago as 1854
a mill was erected on a lode called the National, about half way between Eureka
and the Grizzly. This mill was run a year or more, a portion of the time being
leased, but the yield of the quartz was not sufficient to pay with the prices then
ruling. The work was suspended in 1856, and the mill was destroyed by fire
a year or two later. The Grizzly and National are the only quartz lodes yet
discovered in the slate formation of that region that have exhibited sufficiently
favorable surface indications to justify an outlay ot capital to develop.
About 250 men are engaged at the present time in the quartz mines and mills
of the Eureka district, many of whom are prospecting or working on lodes that
are not yet productive.  There are  0 mills in the district, including the two in
Washington township, having an aggregate of 60 stamps, and the capital invested
is estimated at $200,000.  The yield of the mines for 1867, it is believed, will
amount to $200,000.
MEADow LAKE DISTRIcT.-The Meadow Lake quartz district is situated near
the summit of the Sierra Nevada, but on the western slope. It derives its name
from a large mountain lake, used by the South Yuba Canal Company as a res ervoir, a dam having been constructed across its outlet to retain the water in the
spring, and is let out into the companv's ditches as fast as needed by the miners.
Gold-bearing quartz lodes were discovered near the lake in 1863, others the year
following, and in 1865, some of the lodes giving indications of extraordinary
richness, considerable excitement was created throughout California and Nevada
State, causing a rush of adventurers to the locality.  The real work of developing the mines was not commenced until the summer of 1866, and considering the
many disadvantages, including the deep snows of winter, has progressed favorably, though not, on the whole, equal to the anticipations of the first adventurers
and locaters.
The country rock of the district is sienite, and usually has to be blasted in
making excavations; but this disadvantage is partially compensated by the size
of the veins, which will average considerably larger than those of Grass Valley
and Nevada. The general direction of the lodes is northwesterly and southeasterly. and they are easily traced by the dark, reddish appearance of the croppings, caused by the oxidation of the iron pyrites encased in the quartz. The
quartz contains an unusually large proportion of sulphurets, averaging, it is said,
20 to 25 per cent. The sulphurets yield by assay $60 to $70 a ton, and are successfully reduced by the Plattner chlorination process, works for that purpose
having been constructed in the district. Seven quartz mills have been built in
136 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
the district, having in all 62 stamps.  The mills, however, have not been lrunninu regularly, having been erected in advance of the development of the mines.
Of several hundred quartz veins located in the district during the excitement in
the summer of 1865, 50 or more have been partially developed and given indications of value.
THE U.S. GRANT COMPANY, whose mine is situated six'miles south of Meadow
Lake, and within four miles of the line of the Central Pacific railroad, has been
the most successful of any in the district. The owners of the mrine have kept
a five-stamp mill running most of the time during the past year, and the quartz
workled has paid largely.  They are now building a larger mill, vwhile the work
of developing the mine is continued.  The Golden Eagle, Mohawk, Montreal,
California, and Excelsior companies have also erected mills and made fair progress in the development of their mines.
The number of men employed in the mills and mines of the district at the
present time is about 200, and the available capital invested may be set down at.
$200,000.  The yield of gold this year will be about $50,000.  Much of the
labor and capital is being expended in opening mines which are not now produtctive; consequently, if the mines are equally as good, the yield will not be as
large in proportion to the men employed as in the older districts.  There are no
placer mines inl the district, or at least none have been discovered.
Table shiozvi)g the [ ztbnicr of  zeei enployecl,d the capital invested, arnd the gross yield
of the m)ines of Nevada county, Califorqia.
Men em-   Capital in                                            ployed.      vested.      Gross yield.
Placer and hydraulic mines..................2,000    $1,500,000               $3,500, 00)0
Cement mines.............................. 300                 400,000           300,000
Quartz mines   Grass Valley district....................   1,600        2,000,000        2,000,000
Nevada district.........................  450      500,000           500,000
Eureka district.........................  250  200,000           200,000
Meadow Lake district...................        200         200,000            50,000
Canals and ditches...........................  200      1,000,000..............
Totals............................        5,000       5,800,000        6,550,000
NOTE.-In estimating the capital invested in mining, the design has been to
include the cost of machinery, tools, &c., as well as the labor expended in opening
claims which are now considered of value, and excluding those that have been
worked out or proved failures.  The ditches might be considered as a part of
the capital invested in the placer mines, as the water is mostly used by the placer
and hydraulic miners.
SECTION X.
SIERRA COUNTY.
The Sierra, the principal drift mining county of California, lies between the
middle Yuba and Slate creek. The lowest point in the county is probably 2,000
feet above the sea, and most of the mining camps are at an elevation of 4,500
feet or more. The surface is cut up by numerous canons, about 2,000 feet deep,
and not one acre in 50 is fit for the plough.  There are numerous high peaks,
:1
137 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
among whicli are the Doinieville Butte, 8,500 feet; Fir Cap, Saddle Back, Table
mountain, and AMount Fillmore, each about 7,000, besides nunerous others.  The
Doutnieville Butte is one of the landmarkis of the State, being visible.from a large
area in the Sacramento valley, and it is remarklable for the ragged outline of its
summit.  The county is so rough that only two wagon roads enter it west of tihe
sunimit of the Sierra, one on the divide, between the middle Yuba and the north
Yuba, and another on the divide between the Slate creek and Cation creek.  No
road crosses the county from notl- to south.  The principnl mode of travelling
is nmle-I)ack riding.  The snow is very deep at the higher camp, lying in some
of them three or four months in ordinary winters. Alost of the mines are on old
channels, high above the present streams, so high that the introduction of water is
very expensive.  There are few ditches, and many claims are not able to wash
more than four or five months in the year.  Two old channels cross the county.
The main Blue lead, which crosses Nevada and Placer, is workled at Deadwood,
Sebastopol, Little Grizzly, Excelsior, MIonte Cristo, City of Six, Forest City,
Chipps Flat, and Minnesota.  All these have been mined mainly by drifting,
and all save the three first are much less flourishing now than they were friom
six to 10 years ago. This channel runs from the northwest to the southeast.
Another channel which seems to run from the northeast to the southwest,
passes through La Porte and Brandy City, thence to Camptonville and San
Juan. This channel is not covered, as the other is, by heavy layers of tufa, lava,
or volcanic sand, and the auriferous gravel coming to the surface offers excellent
opportunites for hydraulic mining, which is or has been carried on extensively at
all the points named.
A channel found at HIowland Flat and at Cold Canon, and another found at
3Iorristown, Craig's Flat, and Eureka, are supposed to be tributaries of the maia
Blue lead.
La Porte and Port Wine, which belonged to Sierra county previous to 1866,
were given to Plumas in that year by a legislative act, which was entitled "An
act to better define the boundaries of Plumas county," and was passed without
any suspicion on the part of the representatives of Sierra or the members generally
that it took a rich mining district from the latter county.
Tie blue cement found in the Blue lead in Sierra county is soft, and it yields
three-fourths of its gold or more at the first washing, so there is no cement mill
ill the county.  In the eastern part of the county is Gold lake, which  has the
appearance of being in the crater of an extinst volcano.
A belt of limestone is observed between Dounieville and the Sierra Butte, and it
may be that the belt which appears near Magalia, in Butte county, is the same.
The State and county taxes in Sierra are $2 91 on $100 of taxable property,
and the county debt is $30,000.
BRANDY CITY.-Brandy City, the principal hydraulic camp of the county,
uses about 3,000 inches of water in piping claims, of which there are twelve,
some of them using 500 inches. The lead is 200 feet. The supply of gravel
will last 10 or perhaps 20 years.
ST. LoUis AN-D NEIGHBORING TowNs.-St. Louis has 10 or 12 hydraulic
companies working, and using in all 1,000 inches of water, with a pressure of
100 feet.
Cedar Grove has drift diggings, but is doing nothing this year.
Pinie Grove, a mile below HIowland Flat, was an important place before 1862,
but in that year the latter town grew up, and the former declined.  All the mining
is done by drifting, save in one piping claim.
Rabbit Point, a mile below Pine Grove, has two hydraulic claims, which are
100 feet deep, and together employ thirty men during, the water season, which
lasts three or four months.
Chandlerville, a furlong below Rabbit Point, had rich hydraulic claims from
1853 to 1857, but they are now worked out.
138 
WVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Pine Grove, Rabbit Point, and Chandlerville together purchase 700 inches of
water in the water season.
AMorn ISTOWN.-The dicggings at Molristown are remarkiable for the presence
of larger quartz boulders, and more of them than any other hydraulic claims in the
State.  A  stratum 10 or 15 feet deep is made up chiefly of boulders.that weigh
over a ton, many of them being from five to 10 tons in weight.
There is only one company, the American, now piping in Morristown. They
own all the water that comes into the place, and as it runs only two or three
months, they want it all for their' own use.  When their flume is full they have
1,000 inches.  They employ 40 men during the water season.  In 1866 they
tookl out $20,000, and paid very little dividend. The bank is 50 or 60 feet deep.
M3INNESOTA.-At Minnesota the pay channel is a quarter of a mile wide, but
the pay is not equally distributed over it, for there are parts that are barren. If
one side is rich the other is probably poor; and if much gold is found on a bank
or bar, there is little likelihood of finding a rich bed.  The bed rock is serpentine,
and the pay stratum is from three to five feet thick. The gravel is made up
chiefly of quartz, usually from two to six inches in diameter; and it is soft enough
to wash, but so tough that it is not entirely disintegrated until it has been washed
three or four times.  The fourth washing however does not pay, and the dirt of
most of the claims has been washed only twice.  The second washling pays better
than the first. The gold is coarse, many pieces weighing an ounce, and it frequently happens that in large lots of dust there is not a piece worth less than 25
cents.  MAost of the pieces are worth $2 or more.  The sluices are usually about
400 feet long, with a grade of 16 inches to 12 feet, and no quicksilver is used in
them. The fine gold is lost in sluices so short and steep, and tail sluices pay
well. The car load must yield 50 cents or the claim will not pay for working.
The ground is solid and the sides of the tunnel need no lagging; but a cap supported by posts is required to secure the roof. The pay stratum is usually soft,
enough to be picked down.
The Blue Lead was discovered here in 1852 by some surface miners who followed up a rich deposit in Taylor's ravine till it ran out, and then they hunted
along the side till they found the place where the lead went into the hill. It
was very rich, and for a long time Minnesota had some of the best drift digging
in the State.  Only four claims are worked now.  In 1853  400 miners were
employed here, and they made on an average $12 or $15 per day, and now there
are 100, lwho average $3 per day.
The Keystone Company have been at work since 1859, employ 18 men, and
the yield is probably $6 or $8 to the man per day.
The Wisconsin Company have been taking out pay most of the time for eight
years, employ 10 men, and get $6 or $8 per day to the man.
Chipps's Flat is doing very little in the way of successful mining, but there
is some prospecting  in progress.
Alleghany has the credit of having produced $400,000, but the flush times
passed away six or eight years ago.  The money was nearly all obtained by
drifting, and there was bad drainage and little systematic working. The bed
rock swells badly, and in places the timbers must be put in as thick as they will
stand, and reset every week.  There were claims which paid well, but when
work was stopped not half of the pay dirt was extracted.
A company called the Alleghany Consolidated Mining Company has been
formed to rework this ground. They have purchased eighty acres of claims, and
are about to commence the cutting of a tunnel to be large enough to use mules
for hauling in the cars. They will run out by their own weight.
In 1858 there were 18 tunnel companies at Alleghany, all paying; now only
25 men are at work there.
Water was supplied by a very costly ditch, which was allowed to go to ruin
when the miners had no longer any considerable quantity of dirt to wash.
139 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The Oregon Company took out $400,000, the Buckeye $200,000, and the
Empire $200,000.
The Blue Lead was found atForest Cityby the Dutch Company, which obtained
two or three ounces to the pan, and brought water to their sluice in a canvas
flume.
The claims at Forest City are situated on the south side of a ravine, north of
which the lead has not been found, although a tunnel has been run half a mile
into the hill.
At one time there were 20 companies working at Forest City and all making
money, and now there is only one at work.
LIVE YANKEE CLAIM.-The principal claim at Forest City is the Live Yankee,
which has 360 feet of front and a depth of 2,600.  The following table shows
the receipts, expenses, and dividends, from 1854 till 1863, inclusive:
Year.                      Receipts.   Expenses.  Dividends.
1854..................................$-.... $15,243           $7,152        $8,091
1855......... —----—....... --------------------------------  95,713  32,385  63, 328
1856....-.....-....-............-...... ------------------------------— 85,921 42,691 43,230
A857......................... ------------------------------  95,806  55,616   40,190
1858...................................... —-------------------------------------—... 84,875 43,973 41,902
1859........................ —------------—....... —--------------------—....... 129,937 67,303 62,634
1860........................... —-------------------------------------—... 84,120 40,236 43,884
1861........................ ---------------------------------------—. 60,092  38,192  21,900
1862................................. —-------------------------------—........ 30,720 26,970 3,750
1863........................ —------------------------------—. 31,350  22,800  8,550
Total.................... —-------------------------—. 713,777  377,318  336,459
Since 1863 the dividends have been about $10,000 per year. The expense
of keeping up the mine is considerable. There is a very long tunnel and a long
track, that need frequent repairs.
HIGHLAND AND MASONIC.-The HIighland and Masonic claim, near Forest
City, was worked at first through a shaft 368 feet deep.  There was much water
in the channel, and steam-pumping and hoisting works were erected at a cost
of $75,000. The yield was $300,000, but the expenses were so great that little
if any profit was left; and the works stopped, and the hoisting works were burned
down.  The claim was sold for debt, and the new proprietors bought three claims
in front and a bed rock tunnel 4,000 feet long, and by extending the tunnel the
claim was worked at much less expense.  The yield was $100,000 per month for
a time.  It is said that under the new management the expenses have been
$8,000 or $10,000 more than the receipts.  Nevertheless, some dividends have
been paid. Some shares of the claim are in litigation, and it is not easy to ascertain the precise production.  The water in this claim is acidulous, and a piece
of sheet zinc left in it entirely disappears in a day or two, and iron shovels are
made worthless in a few days.
MIONTECRISTO.-At Montecristo the channel is 200 yards wide, but the pay is
only half as wide, and is in a stratum three feet deep. The pay is usually in the
middle of the channel. The gold was obtained by drifting until 1862, when
piping was commenced, but the supply of water never exceeds 300 inches, and
does not last long, so there cannot be much hydraulic washing there.  The bed
rock swells, and most of the tunnels were allowed to close up three years ago,
so that though there were 300 miners in 1857, there are now only a dozen.
DEADWOOD.-Deadwood is on the ridge between the north fork of the Yuba
and Canion creek, about 6,000 feet above the sea, and it has an old channel, the
extent and character of which are not yet proved, but it is supposed to be in the
140 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
main Blue Lead.  The Deadwood claim, 700 feet front on this old channel,
has been worked since 1856,lhas cost $115,000, and has yielded $10,000. Some
good gravel has been found, but it does not appear to be in a continuous lead.
Fifteen men are now employed in prospecting. There are three tunnels, one
2,500, one 2,200, and one 1,200 feet long.
FmIR CAP, SEBASTOPOL, AND GRIZZLY.-At Fir Cap Camp, on the south side
of Fir Cap mountain, there is an old channel in which some very rich gravel has
been found lately.
Sebastopol, on the south side of the ridge, between the North  Yuba and
Cation creek, is supposed to be on the main Blue Lead.  M3iners have been
engaged in prospecting and mining-chiefly prospecting-since 1854, and the
expenses have been double the receipts. Three long tunnels have been run.
Little Grizzly, on the north side of the same ridge, and on the same channel,
has spent $100,000, and taken out about as much. The New Orleans Company
struck pay gravel in 1866, and are doing tolerably well now.
COLD CANTON.-Cold Canion, sixteen miles northward fro'm Downieville, and
on the southeast side of the ridge between Canion creek and Slate creek, is directly
opposite to HIlowland Flat, on the same ridge, and apparently on the same channel.  The claims at both places are worked by drifting, and the tunnels of each
place point in the direction of the other as if they would meet.  The channel
appears to be 800 or 1,000 feet wide, and the course at Cold Canion is south 76~
east. The grade is from five to seven feet in a hundred. The pay is best where
the boulders are largest, and the general width of the pay is 200 feet, and its
depth from three to five feet. Over the pay stratum is a deposit of gravel that
would pay well if it were accessible with a hydraulic pipe. A stratum of pipeclay from 20 to 60 feet deep, and another of volcanic conglomerate 500 or 600 feet
deep, are the superincumbent matter.
The character of the gravel, of the gold in it, and of the various strata, are
the same as at Llontecristo.
FASHION CLAIMr.-The Fashion Company, at Cold Ca!ion, have a claim 954
feet in front by about 4,000 feet deep. Work was commenced in 1856, in which
year 400 feet of tunnel were cut, at a cost of $10,000. In 1857 286 feet more
cut, at a cost of $5,000, bringing the company into pay.  Then it was necessary
to build a dump-house and sluice, and make other preparations to wash, at a cost
of $50,000. In 1858 the receipts were $80,000, and the dividends $18,000; in
1859, receipts $60,000, and dividends nothing; in 1860, receipts $45,000, dividends $1,000; and from 1858 till July, 1867, the total receipts were $430,000,
and the total dividends $45,000.  In 1865 and 1866 the company took out no
pay, but now they again have good gravel.
The gravel yields $1 50 to a car load, the estimated weight of which is 3,000
pounds. HIalf that yield would pay expenses. There have been places in the
claim that paid $4 per car load. The working tunnel is 3,300 feet long. The
space worked  out is 2,000 feet long by 500 wide.  Twenty-five men are nowv
employed. Gold is found three or four inches deep illn the bed rock, but the
miners dig up a foot and a half of it for convenience of working, as it is softer
than the barren gravel, and the pay gravel is not deep enough for themn to work in.
The bed rock swells badly for six or eight months after the drifts are cut. The
posts in the tunnels are crowded together at the bottom by the swelling, so the
tunnel is cut nine feet wide at the bottom and four feet at the top, with the posts
straddling out at an angle of 55~. In a few weeks or a few months the posts are
nearly perpendicular, and they may have to be set back at the bottom several
times before they get right. Drifts are run through the pay dirt with a breast
30 feet wide on each side, and two men work at each breast.
SIERRA CLAIM:.-The Sienra Company, 1,800 feet front by a mile deep, is
the only company besides the Fashion at Cold canon. The company commenced
wcork in 1858, and in 1864 they reached pay in a tunnel 3,000 feet long, after
141 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
spending $70,000.   Since they began to wash their expenditures have been
greater by $5,000 than their receipts; so they are now, at the end of nine years,
$75,000 out of cash, exclusive of interest. The claim, however, is valuable, and
will last twenty years. The working of the last three years would have been
profitable if the company had not changed the grade of their tunnel and raised
up, so that they got too high for drainage and for easy transportation of their
gravel.  T'hey have lost-much time and labor, and have had to go back and run
in on the original level at a cost of $10,000.  Their receipts now are $46,000
per year. Their expenses are $35,000 for labor, at $3 50 and $4 per day; $3,500
for timber delivered, $1,200 for candles, $300 for oil for cars, $100 for steel rope,
and $5,000 for other materials, including powder.
Twenty-five men are employed; and two of them are kept busy repairing the
tunnel and the track, principally on account of the swelling of the bed rock; 60
car-loads of gravel, weighing 3,000 pounds each, are extracted every day; 100
loads are thrown into a (ldump-box, and then the mass is piped away. The sluice is
500 feet long, and 75 per cent. of the gold is obtained in the first three boxes.
Tile gravel, after passing through the sluice, is saved and is washed a second
time, but 97 per cent. of all saved is caught at the first washing. Chinamen,
however, catch the tailings in the creek after the second washing and put them
through the sluice again.  The space worked out so far is 500 by 100 feet.
HOWLAND FLAT.-lHowland Flat is now the most prosperous mining camp
in the Sierra and the most productive drifting camp in the State, unless Fir Cap
has surpassed it. The shipment of gold this year will be about $300,000; it
was twice as much annually for four years previous to 1866. The shipment for
February, 1867, was $23,000; for March, $10,000; for April, $24,000; for May,
$31,000; for June, $31,000.
The fiat from which the place obtained its name is worked out, or, at least,
has been worked over by drifting.  It would, perhaps, pay for piping on an
extensive scale. The diggings now worked are under Table mountain, and are
of the class known as hill diggings.  They are in an old channel from 400 to
700 feet wide, with a pay stratum from three and a half to ten feet deep.  The
boulders in this stratum are all of quartz, some of which weigh a ton.  The best
pay is among boulders weighing from 100 to 500 pounds.  There are large quantities of sulphurets in the gravel, and it would probably pay to collect them by
concentration.
THE SNOW  AT IIOwLAND FLAT.-The town is situated about 6,000 feet
above the sea, on the north side of Table mountain, which is a rallying point for
snow-storms, and snow-drifts collect deeply on its northern slope every winter.
RPain is comparatively rare, and there have been winters almost without rain,
though snow was abundant.  Last winter snow fell about 16 feet deep on a level
near Howland Flat, but by drifting it got 25 feet deep in thie town, and it lay in
the streets till the 1st of June, and deep drifts were still lying on the mountain
side within half a mile in the middle of July.   For three months the snow was
so deep that most of the chimneys were below its level, and people went from
house to house either through tunnels or by climbing up to the house-tops and
going over the surface.
Last winter an open reservoir 100 feet square, containing running water, could
not be found although a pole 20 feet high had been fastened on it to mark the
place. The water in this reservoir was eight feet deep, and was supplied by
springs, aind a steady stream ran from it.  The snow over it was white, as clear
and as hard as that over the adjacent land, and several attempts to find it were
vain. The water was several times exhausted7 but the snow did not change its
place or its appearance.
The abundance of the snow and its long duration renders it necessary for the
people to accustom themselves to snow-shoes, and snow-shoe races are the chief
amusement in the winter. People travel 20 or 30 miles across the country to see
142 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
them, and large sulms are bet on the results.  The racing ground is always on a
long slope, down which the racers slide at a speed that sometimes reaches a mile
a minute.  The shoes are thin pine boards, 12 or 16 feet long, 4 inches wide,
turned up at the toe.
UNION CLAIM.-The principal claim at IHowland Flat is the Union, 2,000
feet in front by 3,300 deep.  The Bright Star Company began work in 1857,
and in 1859 they failed, with debts amounting to $40,000, and they had paid
$50,000 as assessments.  The Union Company succeeded to the ownership of
the mine, and spent $30,000 over and above receipts, and did not get any dividends until two years later.  Four years' time and $120,000 of cash were required
to bring the mine into a paying condition.
It is now trying to make amends. Its total yield has been about $900,000.
The yield for the last 1$ months has been as follows:
Yield.
— ___  __   Car loads.   Wages.
Ounces.        Value.
First half of 1866..................... 3,181           $56,680 44       41,950      $27,150
Second half of 1866................ 2,870                50,660 00       33,160       22,223
First half of 1867.................. 3,183;              57,307 50       48,167       29,556
Ei,ghty men are employed, at from $3 to $3 50 per day. The cost per carload, exclusive of labor, is 10 cents. Round timbers, from 12 to 18 inches in
diameter, and from five to eight feet long, for gangways and tunnels, cost 60
cents each. Breasting posts, eight inches square and from three to seven feet
long, cost 12 cents each. Caps, 30 inches long, 12 wide, and 6 thick, cost L12
cents each. Lagging, six feet long, five inches wide, and an inch and a half
thickl, cost four and a half cents each.  The cost of all the material is lumped at
$10,000 per year.
The bed rock swells, and the tunnel is cut 10 feet wide at the bottom, and
four at the top.  In six months the sides are nearly perpendicular, the bottom
being, in the bed rock and the top in the pay dirt, which does not swell.  The
timbers a-re usually forced into the bottom by the swelling of the bed rock, and
not broken; the rock seldom swells, except near the pay.  In some places the
posts must be set back in two months; in others, in a year.
An air tunnel four by three feet is cut 20 feet above the pay; 30 feet is ]eft
on each side of the main tunnel for support. The dirt is hoisted on an incline by
a Fredeubur wheel, driven by 40 inches of water, under a pressure of 124 feet.
The water after leaving the wheel is used to wash the dirt. There are 1,200
feet of sluices. It is estimated that there is pay gravel in sight enough to last
eight years. Ventilation is secured by having an air drift 20 feet over the worlking tunnel, communicating with an air shaft 200 feet deep.   The gravel is taken
out through drifts or gangways 50 feet apart, with breasts 25 feet wide on each
side.  In 1861 the company obtained the privilege of drainage through the DownEast Comlpany's claim adjoining, by paying $2,000 and giving a strip of ground
75 feet wide and 3,400 feet long.  Thus a great expense previously incurred for
pumping was avoided.
OTHEPB CLAIMs. —-The P'ttsburg Company have 800 feet front, have been at
work since 1860, have extracted $500,000, have paid $40,000 of dividends, and
having exhausted the pay in sight, are now running for another channel.
The Hawk Eye Company have 800 feet front by 3,500 feet deep.  They
began work in 1857 and reached pay in 1861, after spending $30,000. Since
then they have taken out $360,000, but the dividends have not been over five per
cent. of the receipts, and the company are out of pocket.  They made the mistake
143 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of opening the mine on the upper side, so they had no drainage.  They cut a
drain tunnel through Union claim, but it closed up in December, 1866. They
are now running a new drain tunnel to be finished in three years, to cost $30,000,
and to be 3,000 feet long.
The Down-East Company, who have a frontage of 350 feet, commenced work
in 1855.  There are 12 shareholders, all of whom work in the mine, and they
Lire no labor.  The claim pays about $2,000 a year over ordinary wages.  The
total yield has been $425,000, and $240,000 have been paid out as dividends.
There is enough pay dirt in sight to last three years.
The Hibernia claim, 600 feet in front and wider at the back, was opened in
1S862 by a shaft 180 feet deep, and after being worked two years was sold by the
sheriff, and was purchased by the Shirley Company. The total yield has been
$125,000. The first company lost $40,000 in the mine; the second is making
a moderate profit.  There is enough pay dirt to last a year.  There are twelve
shareholders, vwho worl in the mine, and they employ three or four Chinamen as
caimen and pumpers at $1 75 per day.
The Ohio claim is undeveloped.  The Blackl Ball was bought by the Shirely
Company and workled out by them. The Sierra, Wild Rover, and Wisconsin
claims are undeveloped.
The Sugar Loaf Company have been at work eight or nine years, have pay
gravel to last three or four years longer, and have not taken out much more
than enough to pay expenses. Some of tlTe company workl in the mine. The
company have a second claim (numbered 24 on the diagram) which has yielded
$120,000 in all, and $25,000 of dividends. Part of the Nevada claim has been
worked; the Hollins is undeveloped.  The Shirley claim has been worked out,
yielding $100,000 gross, and $20,000 net; it was workled four years. The
Mountaineer claim was opened in 1859, and is nowv nearly exhausted; the dirt
was brought thlroulgh a shaft by an engine; the yield was $200,000, and the
dividends 10 per cent. of that sum.  The Last Chance clairm was worked out
b)y the Mountaineer Company.
The French Company opened their claim in 1862 by a shaft, but were compelled by water to abandon it. They started again by a shaft, in 1864, and made
it pay expenses.  In June, 1867, they bought the Sugar Loaf tunnel, and intend
to extend it so as to drain their claim. Their pay will last four or five years.
The Mountain Ranger claim has been worked out, paying no profit.  The
Wabash Company worked two or three years and lost $20,000. The Empire and
Tip Top claims were rich, and were worked six or eight years ago.
Adjoining the Pittsburgh onl the east is the Monumiental claim, 1,200 feet in
front.  The tunnel was started in 1863, and after running 2,400 feet it struck
rich gravel this year. The company are now raising an air shaft to be 300 feet
high, and to cost $3,000.  The dump-houses, sluices, stock of timber, cars &Ce.,
necessary as a preparation for washing, will cost $15,000. The expense of the
tunnel was $25,000, but the Empire Company, which intends to use it for drainage, has contributed $10,000 towards it.
The Empire Company have 1,000 feet front, with the privilege of working and
draining through the Monumental tunnel; but they must cut a tunnel 1,200 feet
long, at a cost of $20,000, to reach their pay. They are about to commence that
connecting tunnel.
The Virginia began to prospect, but after expending $5,000 had to quit for
lack of drainage.  The Nebraska Company began a tunnel, but got into very
bard rock, and gave it up after expending $10,000. The Gross Company began
a tunnel in 1856, have gone in 1,200 feet, expended $55,000, and are now workmg for wages to get the means of continuing their tunnel, which is still in the
bed-rock.
QUARTz Ix SIErPRA COUxTY.-Sierra has very few quartz mines that are now
profitable but among those few are several that deselve to be classed among
144 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUINTAINS.
the best in the State.  There is one set of quartz regulations for the whole county,
and these were published in the report of 1866.  Some rich veins have been
discovered near Gold Lake, but they have not been developed sufficiently to
prove their permanent value.
SIErPrA BUTTES.-Thle Sierra Buttes, or, as it is also called, the Reis mine, is
2,000 feet long, and is situated 15 miles east of I)ownieville, and the office is
5,100 feet above the sea. The elevation has commonly been placed at 7,200
feet, but barometrical observations have proved that the latter figures are incorrect.
The situation is on a steep mountain side, 1,500 feet above the valley of the
South Yuba, so steep that there is no wagon road near it.  All the supplies are
broiught by pack animials-even the fire-wood( cut in the immediate vicinity.
The mine is situated on a lode which is split up into several branches; the
width firom wall to wall being from 70 to 100 feet, and of this width from 40 te
70 feet is quartz, with intervening horses or beds of bard blue slate of the same
character as the walls.  In some places there are two and in others six branches.
The course of the lode is a few degrees north of west, and the dip is 40~ to the
northward. Six pay chimneys have been found, one of them 500 feet long horizontally.  All these chimneys are vertical; the pay is irregular in them, skipping
from one branch to another; if the chimney disappears in one branch, the miners
look for it in the other branch.  No pay chimney gives out.
All the rock is extracted through tunnels, of which there are six, the lowest
one being 225 feet above the upper mill, the distance from which to the uppermost workings is 1,100 feet, and to the bottom of the mountain is 1,500 feet perpendicularly, or 2,200 feet following the dip of the vein, so that there is a probabilitv
of opening and draining the mine to a depth of 3,000 feet by tunnels.  There are
about 40,000 tons of pay rock now in sight, enough to keep the mills going three
years, and to pay $60,000 of profit.  The lower tunnel is being extended, and
if that should strike the same pay chimneys found above, with the same size and
quality, the stock of good ore in sight will be 200,000 tons, enough to enmploy
the mills 15 years, and to pay $3,000,000.  This is the most extensive and most
promising project now in progress in the State in the matter of opening a mine.
The mine was taken up in 1857, and has been worked ever since- previous tc
1857 with arrastras; from 1857 to 1860, with eight stamps, five arrastras and
two Chile rollers; from 1860 to 1867, with 24 stamps; and since June, 1867,
with 28 stamps.  From 1853 to 1857, six tons were reduced per day, or 1,500
tons per year; from 1857 to 1860, 6,000 tons per year; from  1860 to 1864,
10,000 tons; from 1864 to 1866, 12,000 tons; and the present crushing is at the
rate of 14,000 tons per year.
The average yield of the quartz has been from $15 to $17 per ton.  In S1866;
it was over $17.  In the last report the receipts, expenses and dividends were
given year by year from 1857 to 1865, showing aggregates of $1,120,000 receipts,
$385,000 expenses, and $7357000 dividends.
In 1866 the receipts were $224,000; expenditures, $70,000; dividends, $144,00.0,
and $10,000 were retained in the treasury more than at the end of 1865.  The
yield during the first nine months of 1867 was $156,000, and the dividend, was
$87,000.  The yield previous to 1857 is estimated at $250,000, and the total
yield from the discovery to the 1st October, 1867, $1,75,000, and the dividends
since 1857, $966,000.
The yield previous to 1857 is estimated at $250,000, and the total yield from
the discovery to the 1st of October, 1867, $1,750,000, and the dividends, since
L857, $966,000.
Previous to 1857 the quartz was assorted carefully, and about $40 per ton was
obtained from all worked in 1856, and probably as much in 1854 and 1855.   The
largest dividend in any year before 1866 was $150,000, in 1861, showing that
the profit of 1866 was nearly fifty per cent. greater than that of any previous year.
There are two mills, one of 16 and the other of 12 stamps, both driven by the
10
145 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
same water, one being below the other, in the ravine.  Amalgamation is effected in
the mortar and on copper aprons, after leaving which the tailings are ground in 17
arrastras on shares. Three companies, with four arrastras each, pay a quarter
of their receipts to the Sierra Buttes Company, which derived $3,000 in all from
that source in 1866; and there are five arrastras below, which pay $40 in all per
month. These 17 arrastras are all placed ill the ravine, one below another, so
that all are driven by the same water.  The arms to which the mullers are
attached are also the arms of the driving wheel, which is horizontal, with perpen dicular buckets against which the water rushes under a pressure.  The bottom
and sides and mullers of the arrastras are of greenstone.
In the summer 60 men are employed, and in the winter from 52 to 54.  There
are 28 miners, 10 carmen and transporters, nine men in the mills, two carpenters,
two blacksmniths, two cooks, and several packers.
INDEPENDENCE.-The  Independence mine, 4,500 feet long, adjoining the
Sierra Buttes mine on the west, on the same lode, has the cliff and erial branches,
but not the rose, as found in the Sierra Buttes mine-or rather, the rose is found,
but it has no regularity or importance. The cliff and Trial have the same general
characteristics here as in the adjoining claim, but they seem to be distinguished
by the occurrence of regular pay chimneys in the cliff and of pockets in the
serial.  If a pocket is found in the erial near the hanging wall, the cliff opposite
is rich on the foot wall.  The workl is confined chiefly to the cliff, which here
has a yellow ribbon rock.  The thickness of the quartz varies from 3 to 22 feet.
A depth of 310 feet has been reached, and 800 feet have been run on the vein.
There are three pay chimneys, the largest one 400 feet long horizontally. They
are nearly vertical, but dip a little to the west.
There is two per cent. of sulphurets in the quartz; they contain on an average
$75 per tonl; and the superintendent says they are so magnietic that three-fourths
of the particles will adhere to the magnet.
The total yield in 1866 was $108,000; the average yield per ton $10, and
there is enough ore in sight of that quality to last three years.
The first mill, erected in 1856, began to run in February, 1857, and was
burned down; the second mill was injured twice by avalanches of snow; the
third mill, built in 1861, and now running, has 24 stamps, and is driven by two
overshot wheels, each 32~ feet in diameter, both gearing into the same pinionvwheel, and both driven by the same water, one being immediately over the other.
As the mill is 1,500 feet above the south branch of the North Yuba river, on a
very steep hillside, thousands of stamps could be driven by wheels placed one
below another on the steep ravine.
The mine can be opened 1,000 feet below the present working levels by
tunnels. The ore now obtained is extracted through a tunnel, to which it is
hoisted by steam. Amalgamation is effected in the mortar and on copper aprons,
below which are blankets; and the tailings from these, after having lain a week
to oxydise, are thrown into the battery, and it is supposed that $40 or $50 per
ton are obtained from them. They are never worked separately.
In extremely cold weather not so much gold is obtained as in summer, and
the loss is estimated at three per cent.  Since 1856, $75,000 have been expended
on buildings, $27,000 on flumes, and $5,000 on roads.
KEYSTONE.-The Keystone mine, 15 miles eastward fronm Downieville, has a
lode from two to six feet wide, running east and west, and nearly vertical. The
walls are of black slate, and the quartz is a yellow ribbon rock.  There is no
barren vein-stone, the walls pinching together at the ends of the three pay chimneys, which go down perpendicularly.  A depth of 550 feet has been reached,
and drifts have been run 500 feet on the vein.  A tunnel, to be 700 feet long,
has been started to strike the vein 300 feet below the present workings. It has
already gone in 400 feet. The gold is fine and free and evenly distributed
through the pay chimney, except one streak in the middle, which is the richest.
146 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The seams in the quartz, instead of being parallel with the direction of the vein,
c(ross at an angle. The average yield is $17 per ton, and 15 tons are crushed
per day.  The mill was erected in 1857, with eight stamps, and four were added
in 1866, making 12 in all.  The pulp is amalgamated in the mortar and on copper aprons, from which it passes over blankets, and the tailings from these are
worked in Knox's pan.
PnPIMROSE.-The Primrose, 3,700 feet long, is two miles north of the Sierra
Buttes, on a vein which runs east and west, dips a little to the south, and is from
1 foot to 40 feet in width. The walls are hard and smooth. A depth of 150
feet has been reached, and drifts have been run on the vein 250 feet. There is
one pay chimney, 50 feet long at the surface, horizontally, and 250 at the deepest
workiings.  A 12-stamp mill was built in 1858, but is now so dilapidated that it
should be rebuilt. The mine was in a paying condition, yielding $15 per ton,
when the company purchased the adjacent Good Hope mine for $39,000, incurred
a debt for payment with three per cent. interest, and undertook to work the latter
mine, moving the mill to it. The expenses thus made overwhelmed the company,
and mine and mill were sold for debt. The total yield of the Primrose mine has
been $226,000, and it is generally considered in Sierra county a valuable mine.
[IINES NEAR  THE SIERPA BUTTES.-Chipp's mine, 1,100 feet long, near the
Sierra Buttes, is on a vein three feet wide, with an east and west course. It has
been worked irregularly since 1858, and the yield has been irregular, sometimes
large and sometimes small.  A depth of 200 feet has been reached.  There is a
four-stamp mill, which was built in 1858.
The Bigelowv mine, east of the Sierra Buttes mine, and supposed to be on the
same vein, has a four-stamp mill, which has been idle four or five years.
About 600 feet east of the Sierra Buttes lode, and near the mine of that name,
was found in 1865 a pocket of gold in ochrous clay, with no vein-stone, but with
well-defined walls. The pocket yielded $13,000 gross and $10,000 net. The
yield was from $300 to $700 per day to the man while it was worked.
3MINES NEAR ALLEGHANY AND MIINNESOTA.-The Briggs quartz mine, half
a mile above Minnesota, has a vein two feet wide, running east and west.  An
eighlt-stamp mill was built in 1863, and is now idle.  The best yield of the quartz
was $7 per ton, and the assay value about $20.
The French mine, one mile southeast of Minnesota, has a vein four feet wide,
very rich in spots. A 15-stamp mill was erected in 1863, but is not running
noW.
The Rainbow mine, near Chipp's Flat, was found in a gravel tunnel 2,000 feet
from the mouth, and firom that an incline was run down the vein. The rock is
rich, but the shaft incline is filled with water, and there are many disadvantages
in working a mine situated like this one.  An eight-stamp mill was erected in
1858, and has stood idle four or five years.
The Oak Flat mine, on Kanaka creek, one mile from Chipp's Flat, has a vein
four feet wide running east and west. There are two tunnels, each 500 feet long,
and work is now being done on the lower tunnel to open the mine.  A four-stamp
mill was built in 1862, was afterwards torn down, and is now to be rebuilt.
The Newell quartz mine, on Kanaka creek, one mile above Chipp's Flat, has
a 10-stamp mill, which is standing idle, waiting for the opening of the mine.
The Amnerican Hill mine, four miles east of Minnesota, has a vein five feet
thick on an average. A six-stamp mill, built in 1858, paid well for a time, but
was sold for debt and has been idle for eight months.
The Union mine, in Wet ravine, one mile from Alleghany, has a pocket vein
18 inches wide. It has yielded $75,000, including $15,000 taken out in a hand
mortar. There is an eight-stamp mill, which was built in 1864 and has been
idle three or four months. The vein runs east and west, and the mine is troubled
with water.
The Ironside mine, seven miles east of Alleghany, is reputed to be rich with
147 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
refractory ore.  An eight-stamp mill, built in 1864, ran two months and has
since been idle.
']'ile Twenty-one mine, on Kanaka creek, one mile below Alleghany, has produced little.  A four-stamp mill built in 1866 is standing idle.
The Consolidated mine, on Jim Crow canion, east of Alleghany, has a vein,
but very little gold. A 16-stamp mill, erected in 1863, has been taken down,
and is to be moved to a vein above Forest City. The Consolidated Mining Company of San Francisco spent $90,000 on their mine and mill.
MIINES NEARt DOWNIEvILLE.-The Wheeler mill, near Downieville, is standing idle.  It once had eight stamps, and now has but four.
The Gold Bluff mine, two miles above Downieville, is being opened by a
tunnel. There is a 12-stamp mill standing idle.
The Kanaka mine, six miles east of Downieville, is standing idle, with a
20-stamp mill, the property of a New York company.
SECTION XI.
YUBA COUNTY.
The greater part of Yuba county is valley land, but the eastern end reaches
to a considerable altitude in the Sierra, Camnptonville being 4,200 feet above the
sea.
The county debt is $200,000, and the State and county taxes together are
en,\~~~ ~ ~ ~                                                 Z w
$3 17.
The principal mining towns are Browvn's Valley, Timbuctoo, Smartsville,
Sucker Flat, and Camptonville.
CAXMPTON, BROWN'S, AND HANSONVILLE.-Camptonville is an old channel
which appears north at Brandy City, in Sierra county, and south at San Juan,
in Nevada county.  At Camptonville it appears near the top of a high ridge, and
is nearly worked out.  There are three hydraulic companies at world there, each
using about 200 inches of water. The shipment of gold from Camptonville is
now about $500,000 per year; seven years ago it was $700,000.
Brownsville, in the northeastern part of the county, had ravine diggings, which
,are nearly exhausted. There are now numerous orchards in the neighborhood.
Hansonville, four miles south of Brownsville, has some ravine and some quartz
claims. About $10,000 have been taken out of quartz pockets in hand mortars.
Seventy-five inches of water are used for irrigating vineyards.
YUBA RIvER.-The Yuba river, which was once lined with numerous large
mining towns, has now been filled to a depth of 70 feet with gravel from the
hydraulic mines, and the sites of all the river camps are now buried. There
were 13 bars on the river within the present limits of the county, and all rich.
At Parks's bar in 1852, there were eight companies at work in the river bed, with
$218,000 invested in dams, flumes, pumps, &c., and with 200 hired laborers. The
total number of voters was over 400, and the gold yield during part of the summer
was about $10,000 per day. The Ohio Company took out $96,000 in the season;
the Canal Company, $108,000; the Squaw Company, $60,000; the Excelsior
Company, $89,000; the Patch Company, $60,000.  The Canal Company in 1851
paid $150,000 dividends.  These figures are derived from notes talken in 1852,
by Lyman Ackley, esq., who was at that time State census agent for Yuba county.
T1HE SUCKER FLAT CHANNEL.-The leading mining district of the county
is at Smartsville, which has Timbuctoo, a mile distant on the west, Sucker Flat,
half a mile to the north, and Mooney Flat, two miles east. An old channel from
600 to 1,000 feet wide runs through Timbuctoo, Sucker Flat, and Mooney Flat,
leaving Smartsville to the southwest. The bottom of this channel has not been
148 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
worked for any distance, and therefore its course, whether to the southeast or the
northwest, has not been ascertained, but it is presumed that it ran to the northwest.  From Sucker Flat to Timbuctoo there is a ridge composed entirely of
auriferous gravel, except a stratum of white cement, as it is usually called, about
150 feet below the surface.  This cement is from 15 to 30 feet thick, and contains
a little gold.
TIMBUTCTOO.-The claims at Timbuctoo are the following, beginning at the
west, and running eastward on the old channel:
Mr. Warren htad an original location of 125 by 100 feet, but this was not large
enough to justify the expense of thle preparation necessary for hydraulic washing,
and hlie purchased others adjoining, and the present Warren Company own 500 feet
square, with a bed of gravel 130 feet deep.  Forty feet at the surface are of gravel
and boulders, then comes pipe-clay, 30 feet deep, and then a deep stratum of
blue cement, which is richest near the bed rock.  Drainage is obtained through
an open cut, which with the flumes and other work and materials necessary for
washing, cost $18,000.  The supply of water is very irregular, but when it can
be had, 500 inches are purchased at an expense of $75 per day.  Labor, powder,
and otherexpenses amount to $150 per day more, and the yield is $300 per day.
About 10 men are employed. It is said that $60,000 have been paid for water
to wash the ground of this company.
The Antone Company began work in 1853, drifting, and found very rich
cement, which, when washed in a short sluice, paid them $50 per day to tho
hand, though much of the cement was not dissolved.  A fence was built to hold
the tailings, whichll after intervals were washed again and again, paying almost
as well as at first. In 1854 they began to pipe, and the claim still yields well.
They have paid $70,000 for water, which they cannot always get when they
would like to have it.
The Union Company's history is very similar to that of the Antone.  Their
claim has been nearly as rich, and they have paid more for water.
The Michi,gan Company have a claim 1,000 feet long by 500 feet wide, which
has been one of the most productive in the vicinity, the total yield having
been $500,000, of which $150,000 have been paid for water, and $50,000 as
dividends.  The upper strata have been nearly all washed away, and the company are now running a tunnel to be 700 feet long, through vwhich to wash the
stratum next the bed rock.
After passing several claims, we come to the Babb Company, who have 500
by 400 feet. The surface of their claim has been washed off to a depth of 130
feet, yielding $250,000, of which $95,000 went for water.  They have a tunnel
1,100 feet long, but it is so located that it gives a bank only 30 feet deep at the
front.  The late results, however, are very satisfactory.  One clean up of 21~
days yielded $7,800; another of 19 days yielded $7,000; and a third of 22 days
gave $12,000. They paid $90 a day for water, use 600 inches, and employ
from 8 to 12 men. They own half of the Michigan tunnel, and the two companics will make alternate runs through it.
SUCKEPR FLAT CLAIMS.-The Blue Point Gravel Mining Company have a large
claim at Sucker Flat, have worked it nine years, and have piped away half the
area, 60 feet from the surface, washing through an open cut.  They are running
a bed rock tunnel to be 2,270 feet long and 110 feet deep. This enterprise was
commenced in November, 1866, and will be finished in two years, at cost of
$100,000. The depth of the gravel has not been ascertained precisely, so it is
uncertain whether the tunnel will drain the claim to the bed rock.
The Union Company have a large claim, have washed off one-fourth of it to
depth of 60 feet in one part and 120 feet in another. They are not piping now,
and intend to tail into the Blue Point tunnel when it is finished.
The Blue Cement Company have a claim 500 feet long, by 240 feet wide, on
which they began to pipe this year, with 20 men and 500 inches of water.  Their
149 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
present bank is 33 feet deep. They are now cutting a tunnel 30 feet deeper, and
they expect lo tail into the Blue Point tunnel when it is completed.
The Nevadai Reservoir Ditch Company own about 100 acres, supposed to be all
hydraulic grotund, on the Blue Lead, near Sucker Flat and Mooney Flat, enough
to last 50 years.
The O'Brien claim is 1,100 feet long on the ridge, and includes 30 acres.  The
present worklings are 140 feet deep to the white cement, and the gravel is washed
in a sluice 3,000 feet lollng. The quantity of water used is 600 inches; the yield
firom  $150 to $250 per day, and the net profit $15,000 per year.  A tunnel
210 feet below the present sluice, to be 800 feet long, and to cost $50,000, has
been cut 260 feet, and will be finished in two years. This tunnel will be deep
enough to drain the bed rock for some distance each way.
.AcAllis and Gordon have 700 feet of the ridge, and have lately completed a
tunnel 1,500 feet long, at a cost of $40,000 to worki the upper lead or the gravel
above the white cement, and within 175 feet of the surface.  Five years will be
required to work off this upper lead. The distance from rim rock to rim rock
across the channel in this claim is 1,000 feet. Seven men are employed, and
500 inches of water consumed.. A tunnel to work the lower lead under the white
cement will require three years' work.
The Taylor claim, 300 by 600 feet, is half worked out, and has paid very well,
yielding with 600 inches of water from $300 to $400 per day, lately the latter
sum. Six men are employed.
The Excelsior Water Company have a claim 600 by 1,000 freet, from which
they have obtained $300 or $400, and sometimes $500 per day.
The Pittsburg claim is 2,000 feet long on the old channel, and is owned by
an eastern company, which paid $300,000 in curencyv for it. They are now washing through a tunnel that cost $80,000, and the daily yield is reported to be,$660,
with 600 inches and 12 men. The present bank is only 30 feet deep, and a new
tunnel, to be 76 feet lower, and 1,600 feet has been cut 400 feet, and two shafts
laive been commenced on the line, so as to have four additional workling faces.
SMAI'TSVILLE BLUE GnPAVEL.-The Smartsville Blue Gravel Company have
a claim of about 150 acres at Sucker Flat. The channel is at least 200 yards
wide, and its depth has never been ascertained precisely. On the bed rock lies
a stratum of barren blue cement, 5 or 10 feet thick, containing large boulders
of granite and slate. Next comes a stratum of hard blue pay cement, containing
large boulders of slate trap and granite, a few pebbles, including some of quartz,
and much quartz sand. It requires an experienced eye to distinguish this from
the lower layer, but it is important to know their precise limits, for all of the pay
cement is to be washed away, and all of the barren left in its place. Then comes
a stratum of soft blue cement, 55 feet deep, softer on the northern side of the
channel, and in places where the bed rock is lower than elsewhere.  There are
very few boulders in this stratum, and the pebbles are mostly of slate, and less
than two inches in diameter.  The largest gravel and the richest pay in this
layer are found near the top.  There are great variations in the hardness, but
none is soft enough to pipe down.
The top stratum is fine red gravel, from 25 to 75 feet deep, softer than the
blue, but still not soft enough to pipe. The pebbles are mostly of slate, greenstone, and quartz, the last very fine.
M1any trees are found in the claim, some carbonized, others partly rotten, aind
partly replaced by sulphurets of iron.  There are no petrifactions and no human
bones or articles showing human workmanship.
Powder is used more extensively here than in any other hydraulic claim, probably more than in any other mine in California. All the strata are too hard to be
piped down with economy, and some of them are so hard in places that the pipe
would scarcely affect them. So much powder has been used here that its employment is reduced to a system. The quantity of powder for the blast depends
150 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
upon the depth of the bank and the surface area to be loosened.  If the bank
is 50 feet deep a tunnel four and a half feet high and two and a half wide may
be run in 75 feet; a cross-drift 60 feet long is cut across the end at right angles
and another similar cross-drift of equal length 55 feet from the mouth of the
tunnel.  300 kegs may be used in such a blast, all distributed along in the cross drifts and in the tunnel beyond the first cross-drift.  20 kegs near the intersection are opened by taking out the heads; the others iare left closed, with the certainty that they will all be opened by the explosion of the 20.  From the intersection to within 10 feet of the month wooden troughs two inches wide and deep
inside are laid, and a liberal supply of powder is pollred in, leading to an open
keg.  The 10 feet next the mouth are laid carefuilly with a fuse, and for that
distance the tunnel is filled in with dirt.  When the blast is fired a dull, heavy
sound is heard, the earth rises slowly about 10 feet; it then settles down, leaving
a dust behind it, and on examination an area about 120 feet square will be found
all shattered.
By blasting, the water is enabled to carry off twice as much dirt as it would
otherwise; and as 500 inches of water are used at an expense of $75 per day,
there is a vast saving.  The cost of powder is large, as about 10,000 pounds are
consumed monthly on an average in this one claim.  After the ground has been
blown the pipes can bring down more than they can carry away, so about onethird of the water is allowed to run down over the bank, while the remainder is
thrown through the pipes.
The portion of the claim worked is a hole 200 yards wide, 600 long, and 100
feet deep in the hill or ridge.  The dirt from this hole has been canied off through
a tunnel 1,700 feet long, and without a tunnel it would have been impossible to
wash away the immense mass of gravel.  At first a hole was washed 75 feet deep,
and then another 75 feet deeper, and. thus there is a bench in the claim.
For the sake of economy in washing it is customary to have three places to
work upon at a time, so that after the pipes have been playing for two hours at
one place they may be turned upon another, and the miners can then go and
break up with their pickls the large hard lumps which the water can neither breakl
up nor carry off.
The sluices have a grade of 7 inches to 12 feet, and are paved with wooden
blocks and boulders of basalt. The entire sluice is cleaned up once in four
months, and half of it at intervals of two months. At the cleaning up clean
water is run through so as to carry off the surplus dirt and gravel, and the water
is nearly shut off.  The false sides are taken off and washed with a little water.
The wooden blockls in the bottom are set up edgewise, washed off, and taken
out; 200 inches of water are turned on, and this cleans the dirt from the rockl
paving, which is taken out and put to one side. The sides of the flimnie tre
scraped and swept. Boards 10 inches high are fitted tightly across the sluice at
intervals, and tough clay is put at the sides and bottom, so that no quicksilver,
gold, or water can pass except over the top of the board. This is done before
the rock paving is moved.  Two hundred inches of water are now turned on,
and all the gold, amalgam, quicksilver, black sand, and heavy gravel are collected above the boards. As they have three tons of quicksilver in the sluice
at a time, and expect to find at least $40,000 of gold at a large clean-up, the
operation requires some work.   The usual time consumed in the cleaning up is
48 hours, and three days more elapse before the sluices are again in running
order. There are three large clean-ups of about $40,000 each, and three small
ones each of about $25,000, in a vear. Thirty men are employed.
The total yield since March, i864, when the claim became productive, has
been about $1,000,000.
The report of 1866 gave a brief history of the claim and some details, which
it is not uecessary to repeat now.
SICARD FLAT.-Sicard Flat on the north bank of the Yuba river, two miles
151 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
from Timbuctoo, has hydraulic diggings in a bed of gravel 90 feet deep.  The
best pay is in a bed of gray gravel from 4 to 10 feet deep on the bed rock, but
none of it is rich enough to pay for drifting. The boulders are of trap, and
seldoma weigh more than 100 pounds.  The widest part of the channel is 400
yards wide on the urface, but the bottom has not been reached on the north eastern side.  Tllhee is not enough pressure to pipe well, and the dirt is not soft
enoughtl to dissolve entirely at the filst washing; though in most claims it gets
only one.  In many claims tunnels and cross-drifts six feet high are cut at inter
vals of S or 12 feet each way, and in three or four days the pillars give way and
the gravel above is well broken up by the fall.  General rumor says that Sicard
FBat has never paid.
The Lower Digg-inogs claim, on the southwest end of the Flat, is 400 feet square,
uses 600 inches of water in the spring, and employs nine men.  The water is
supplied by a ditch belonging to the claim.  The yield for the season of 1866-7
was $13,000, and the expenses for the season were about $1,000 per month.
The Gates claim, 360 by 400 feet, and the Black claim, 200 by 400 feet,
have not been worked for three years.
On the side of the ridge facing Parks's Bar is the ]1cQueen claim, 800 by 400
feet, with a ditch carrying 600 inches of water belonging to it. This claim,
when last worlked, yielded no profit.
The Union claim has not been worked for six or seven years.
BnOWN's VALLEY.-Brown's Valley, 11 miles northeastward from Marysville,
and about 500 feet above the level of the sea, is a rich quartz district.
The Daniel Webster Company have 3,600 feet on the Jefferson lode, have
gone down 90 feet, and there stopped work three years ago.  They are now
reorganizing and preparing to start again.
The Pacific has 600 feet, went down 60 feet, and is doing nothing.  The claim
has been in litigation for five vears.
JEFFErnsoN.-The Jefferson mine is 780 feet long on the Pennsylvania lode,
whichll has yielded most of the gold obtained in Brown's valley.  The vein run
north and south, dips 45~ to the east with the course and cleavage of the slates,
and has two main branches which unite at a depth of 360 feet in the Pennsylvania, and on the surface at the north end of that mine and at the south end of
the Jefferson. The eastern branch has mostly bluish quartz, and is not distinctly traceable within 90 feet of the surface at the shafts of the Jefferson and
Pennsylvania mines.  The western branch has mostly yellowish quartz.  Each
branch in places is 10 feet wide or more.
The width in the Jefferson mine varies from 1~ to 14 feet, with an average of
six or seven feet. The main incline is down 612 feet, and drifts have been run
400 feet on the vein. A fine pay chimney found near the northern line was ] 00
feet long at the surface, and 160 feet down, enlarged so as to be nearly 300 feet
long horizontally, and maintained the same width to the 300-foot level, where it
seemed to split.
The yield at the surface was sometimes as high as $40 per ton, and for small
bodies of ore even rose to $200, but during the last four years has at no time
exceeded $15. The following table shows the yield of the mine since it has
been in the hands of the present company, for the several mine years ending
December 1st:
Other expenses. iDividends
$2, 622 88..........
28, 596 17    $42, 900
10, 406 69    42, 9C0
30, 888 93    45, 800
6, 654 47..........
91,169 14    131,600
1863............................................   $19,554 90
1864............................................. 121, 380 05
.865.............................................  88,197 60
] 866............................................. 124, 208 82 5
1867............................................ 56, 275 67
Total.....................................
I
152
I
II Labor.
1
$8, 96 75
54,794 56
28, 063,73
52,951 02
46, 419 51
191,155 57 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The year 1863, in the above table, began on the 13th September, when the
company took possession; and the year 1867 comes down only to the first of
October.  Before September 13, 1863, the yield had been about $.130,000, making the total production of the mine $539,000.
In 1,300 tons of ore there is one ton of sulphurets, which yield $220 of gold
per ton.
The fineness of the gold at the surface was 840, and at 600 feet below it is
863 to 865.
The mill has 12 stamps and three Hiarney pans.  About four and a half per
cent. of the total yield is obtained from the pans.  There are two engines, one of
60 and the other of 30-horse power.  In this mill the scraps of iron found in the
mnortar, consisting of fragments from the shoes, dies, shlovels, picks, hammers,
and drills, are carefully saved, on account of the particles of gold driven into
their interstices while they are battered about in the ore. From 20 to 50 pounds
are collected in a month and after being digested in warm sulphlnric acid until
a quarter of an inch is eaten off the surface, they yield about $3 of gold for
every pound of iron.  The larger scraps, before going into the acid, were broken
up with a sledgec hammer.  The shoes and dies contained the gold chiefly on the
face, and these, instead of being broken up and put into acid, were boiled half
an hour in water, and then they were hammered and the particles of gold fell
out of the interstices.
In a diag,ram the Pennsylvania shaft is shown running down into the ground
claiimed by the Jefferson.  The two companies agree about their boundary line
at the surface, but they have a dispute as to the direction of the line below the
surface; and the Pennsylvania Company having taken some valuable quartz from
'lie disputed ground, the Jefferson Company have suted them for $100,000, its
alleged value. The main question in the suit relates to the direction of the vein.
If the plane of the lode were vertical  that is, if the lode had no dip-there
would be no dispute about the boundary line after the point of junction at the
surface had been agreed upon, but this vein dips at an angle of 45~? and the
direction of the boundary depends on the direction of the vein. If the rein runs
with the meridian the boundary plane would be parallel with the equator.  We
have no express provision in our statutes relative to the legal point, but the courts
will no doubt decide, when the question is revised, that the limit of a lode mine is
a line made by a vertical plane passing through the vein at right angles to its
horizontal direction.  If a bookl is set up vertically on a table and another dipping at an angle of 45~ is pushed against its side, the end of the sloping book
will not fit against the other unless the two books meet at right angles.  Put up
two books s]ophig at 45~ so as to touch at the upper corners, with a difference of
10~ or 15~ in their direction, and their ends will show how the boundary lines
of mines run in different directions according to the course of the lode. The
Jefferson and Pennsylvania agree at the surface, but 500 feet down there are
50 feet of vein in dispute between them.
PEXNNSYLVANIA.-The Pennsylvania Company, incorporated at Marysville,
has 1,300 feet on the Pennsylvania lode and its branches, adjoining the Jefferson on the north; and it is supposed that several pay chimneys found on the
latter mine dip into the Pennsylvania.
A depth of 600 feet has been reached on an incline, and drifts have been run 200
feet on the vein. Two pay chimneys are worked, and two others have been found.
The company commenced work in 1863, ran down  110 feet on the Pennsylvania lode then struck across into the Jefferson, spent $75,000 before getting
any return, and then spent $75,000 of the net receipts in opening the mine and
building the mill. No dividend has been paid yet, and the $75,000 expended
on the mine and mill have not been reimbursed. During the last ten months,
according to the statements of the president of the company, the net yield above
ordinary expenses has been $7,500 per month. The average yield at present is
153 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
$15 per ton; the amount crushed per month from 900 to 1,000 tons; the ordinary
expenses $4,500, leaving $10,000 net per month.
There is one ton of sulphurets, containing $1,000, in 1,000 tons of quartz.
The mill has 16 stamps, is situated on the south end of the claim, and is driven
by a steam engine of 100 horse-power. The quartz is hoisted by steam.' Amalgamation is effected in the mortar and on a copper apron, below which are blankets,
and the tailings from these are ground in four Chile mills. Wheeler and Randall pans are now being set up as preferable to Chile mills.
An experiment was made by grinding all the blanket washings from the 16
stamps, two hours for each charge, in the Chile mills, and the yield was eight
ounces of gold in a month.  Then half the tailings were ground, four hours to
a. charge, and the yield was 200 ounces in a month. Again, all the pulp from a
four-stamp battery was allowed to run with a continuous charge and discharge
through a Chile mill, and not one ounce was caughit in two weeks.   The ore was
the same in quality and quantity, and the amount caught in the mortar during
these experiments was the same per week.
In the middle of the Pennsylvania claim is an incline 180 feet deep, with
pumping and hoisting workis and a 15 horse-power engine. A railroad carries
the ore from this incline to the mill.
In the Pennsylvania mill the Von Mfuller amalgamator, invented by the president of the company, is used.  It is a box three feet long, a foot wide, and a
foot deep, with a board set into the ends and going to within an inch of the bottom.  Quicksilver, half an inch deep-about 80 pounds-is put into the box,
which is then set under the sluice, below the amalgamating apparatus and the
blankets.  The pulp pours into the box above the board, has to pass under the
board and then up, escaping over the lower side, which is not quite so high as
the ends or upper side. This amalgamator requires little attention, and always
catches enough gold to pay.
The Chile mills have cast-iron basins, cost $400 each, worki a charge of 100
pounds in four hours, and make 10 revolutions per minute.
The Wheeler and Randall pans grind a clharg-,e of 1,200 pounds in four hours,
and cost $500. Long grinding is very important for those ores in which the
quartz is very fine.
OTHEn QUARTZ MINES OF YUBA.-Thie Burnside Company have S800 feet,
went d.own 40 feet, but suspended work when the panic of 1864 came, and are
preparing to start again.
The Paragon Company have 1,S800 feet, did some work previous to the panic,
and have done nothing since.
The Ophir Company have 1,200 feet, and have had the same history as the
Paragon.
The Rattlesnake, formerly the Yuba mine, is 1,600 feet long.   The vein is
two and a half feet wide, and a depth of 140 feet has been reached. There is
a 30 horse-power engine for hoisting.  A yield of $18 per ton was obtained from
1,500 tons. The company are preparing to build a mill.
The Dannebroge mine 2,400 feet long, is on a lode which runs northeast and
southwest, and intersects the Pennsvlvania lode at the north end of the Pennsylvania mine.  The vein is three feet wide, and it dips to the northwest at an
angle of 40~. Only one pay chimney has been discovered, and that is 150 feet
long, horizontally, with hard white flinty, quartz, containing many fine specimens,
and averaging $15 or $20: per ton-the richest in Brown's valley.  The total
yield was $250,000, according to report, but the company has had much litigation and has kept its affairs as secret as possible. Rumor says the superintendent
had instructions to keep no books. Work was stopped in 1865, and was resumed
in July of this year. A depth of 500 feet has been reached, and drifts have
been run 200 feet on the vein. There is an eight-stamp mill, with two Chile
'nills and an engine of 20 horse-power.
154 
WEST OF TIHE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Half a mile west of the Pennsylvania mine is the Sweet Vengeance, 8,400
fcet lolngr on a lode which runs northwest and southeast, and dips 40~ to the
northeast. They commenced work in 1863, spent $80,000, extracted $25,000
from the mine, and stopped work two years ago.  Alany rich specimens have
been obtained from the mine, and for six months it paid expenses.  A depth of
200 feet has been reached; drifts have been run 250 feet on the vein; and there
is a 20-stamp mill.
The Bayerque claim, one mile east of Brown's valley, has reached a depth of
100 feet, and has quartz that yields $18 per ton. Some of the rock has been
crushed at the Dannebroge mill.
On the same lode is the Anderson mine, which is being opened.  The quarts
is rich in sulphurets.
West of Brown's valley, at Prairie diggings, are hundreds of quartz claims,
which were prospected a little in 1863 and abandoned in 1864.
At Dobbin's ranch is the Bateman mine, which has a vein 18 inches wide, and
yields $30 per ton. There is a five-stamp mill, which began work in July of
this year.
At Frencltown, in a ravine between two steep mountains, there are many
quartz veins, but no mill.
The Browvn's Valley Tunnel Company undertook to run a long tunnel into
the hill back of Brown's valley for the purpose of prospecting 19 quartz veins
which crop out onil the hill, but they were stopped by the panic of 1864, after
going 200 feet.
The Alarc Antony claim, a quarter of a mile west of Timbuctoo, had a pocket
that paid $5,000 to a hand mortar, and nothing has been obtained since.
The Andrew Jackson quartz mine, near Smartsville, has a 10-stamp mill,
which is not running.  The vein is now being opened.
The Deadwood lode, one mile from Forbestown, and very near the Butte
county line, is four feet wide, and has yielded 85,000 in hand mortars.  Three
tons taken out near a pocket, and wvorked in a mill, yielded $30 per ton.  It is
supposed that there is little beyond the pockets in the lode.
BROWN's VALLEY QUAR11TZ REGrULATIOS T.-The records of Brown's Valley
district have not been kept carefully, many alterations have been made inll the
regulations, and there is much doubt as to what regulations are in force.  The
requirement of representation at annual meetings is peculiar.
On the 14th of February, 1853, a meeting was held "to make new laws to
govern the mines in said valley in regard to working and holding claims." The
following resolution was passed at that meeting:
Resolved, That the law passed February 14, 1852, and all laws previous to that date regulating the working of quartz claims in the above valley and vicinity, is an arbitrary and
despotic set of laws, and are this day revoked by common consent.
Nothling was done at that meeting to fix the size of claims, or the conditions
under which they could be held. A clause adopted at this meeting requiring the
posting of a notice on the claim of any company or individual at the time of locationl was repealed on the 31st of  July, 1853.  On the 8th of August, 1853, the
following resolutions were adopted:
Resolved, That each claim shall be entitled to a vote in the miner's meetings in this district,
by the proper owner, or represented by power of attorney from the proper owner, specifying
the object of that power and its limitation.
Riesolved, That each claim, in the future semi-annual meetings of this district shall be represented in person or by a written power of attorney, otherwise it shall be forfeited.
At a meeting held on the 14th of August, 1854, W. Kinsella moved that all
claims that had been worked since the last meeting should be exempt from the
necessity of being represented.  The motion was lost.
155 
RESOUJRCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
At a meeting held on the 4th of January, 1864, the following resolutions were
adoptedl:
Resolved, That the law requiring each shareholder or claimant in a company to represent
his individual interest be, and is hereby, expunged from the record. --
Pesolved, That any known member of a company shall have full power to represent and
cast a vote of said company to the number of feet therein contained, on all ouestions pertaining to the mining laws of Brown's Valley district.
On the 2(1 of January, 1865, the following resolution was passed:
Resolved, That for the better regulation of working claims, from and after this date it will
only be necessary to perform or make improvements on any quartz claim during the year to
the amount of $100, in order to hold the same, and after such work has been done, the representation of claims annually will be sufficient to hold the same, and all parties after having
performed such labor or improvements shall leave a written notice to that effect with the
recorder of the district, the same to be placed on record. Any claim that shall have performed
such amount of work shall be considered exempt, providing said work was done within the
past year.
On the 8th of January, 1866, the following resolution was offered by Charles
Bandum:
Resolved, That for the better regulation of claims, hereafter any and all claims shall have
at least $5 worth of work or improvements performed on each and every claim of 150 feet
every year, in order to hold the same.
H. Videau moved to amend  by saying $20 instead of $5.  The amendment
and resolution being put to vote were both lost.
3Ir. Bandum moved to reconsider, and the motion was carried.
It was then moved by H. Leland to amend H. Videau's amendment by having $10 worth
of work or improvement performed on each and every claim of 150 feet annually in order to
hold the same, in addition to the annual representation, and that a sworn certificate of such
work or improvement must be recorded with the mining recorder of this district, and that
'.2less such certificate be recorded that such work has been done, then such claim or claims
saI'l be forfeited.  The amendment was then put and carried.
There is no record that Videau's amrendment, or M1r. Banldum's resolution, was
put to a vote.
By a resolution adopted January 3, 1859, it was declared that quartz claims
should be 150 feet on the vein, with all the dips, angles, and spurs.
On the 7th of January, 1867, the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That the law requiring work, improvement, or labor to be performed on claims,
be dispensed with, and that representation be sufficient to hold the same, running until the
first Monday of May, 1868.
The following is a copy of a certificate of representation, on record:
I do hereby certify that I am the agent and part owner of the Brown's Valley Gold and
Silver Mining Company, situated in the Brown's Valley mining district, Yuba county, California, and that the representation, &c., of the same has been duly performed according to
the district laws for the years 1864 and 1865.
G. H. LELAND,  Agent.
JANUARY 29, 1866.
EMPIPLE QUARPTZ REGULATIONS.-The Empire district, near Smartsville, hlas
the following regulations:
Notice of a claim or location of mining ground by individual or by a company, on file in
the recorder's office, shall be deemed equivalent to a record of the same.
Each claimant shall be entitled to hold by location 200 feet on any lode in the district,
with all its dips, angles, spurs, offshoots, outcrops, depths, widths, variations, and all minerals and other valuables contained therein-the discoverer of any, or locater on a new lode,
being entitled to one claim extra for discovery.
The locater of any lode or ledge in this district shall be entitled to hold on each side of the
ledge, lode, or lead, located by him or them, 250 feet, including any lateral veins, lodes, or
ledges, bearing minerals therein. The space of said 250 feet on each side of the main lead
shall be considered as claimed by, and entirely belonging to, the locater or locaters of a ledge,
and his or their assignee, and parcel of the same mine.
:15c) 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
It shall be the privilege of any person or persons or company, when the vein ledge or lode
of mineral is not distinctly traceable on the surface, to take up the ground they desire to
prospect, stating in their notice the manner they intend to rospect the same.
Every claim, whether by individual or company, shall be recorded within 10 days after
the date of location.
It shall be required of each company holding ground in this district to put $50 worth of
work on said ground in three months from the date of recording.
When any company shall have done honest work to the amount of $100 upon their claims,
and shall cause an entry to be made on the records of this district, said company shall be con
sidered as having acquired a vested right in said ledge, which shall have all the force and
effect in law and equity as other real estate and property.
When any company has put work to the amount of $50, said work shall hold said claim
for one year.
These regulations wvere adopted January 26, 1863.  No quartz mines are now
worked in the district.
SECTION1 XII.
BUTTE COUNTY.
Butte is a large county, which includes part of the basin of the Feather river,
and reaches from the Sacramiento river eastward to a line where the tops of the
ridges are about 4,000 feet above the sea.  The western part of the county is in
the lowland of the Sacramento valley, and a majority of the people are engaged
in agricultural pursuits.  The higher portions are densely covered with pine
forests, on which most of the California turpentine and rosin have been made.
Oroville, the county seat, is connected by railroad with Mmarysville, and the latter
place will soon be connected with Sacramento.
The county debt of Butte is $280,000, and the State and county taxes, $3 30
for the current year.
Feather river was extremely rich in early days, but it is now worked out; or,
at least, no extensive fluming or damming enterprise in the river has paid within
the last eight years.
The town of OrovTille stands on a bed of auriferous gravel which mnay pay for
washing at some day.
BUTTE TABLE.lOUNTAIN.-Thie most prominent topographical feature of
Butte county is the Butte Table mountain, wlhich rises at Lassen's peak and flows
down as a river of basalt to Oroville, where it terminates on the north bank of
Feather river, which it never crossed, or else all south of the stream has been
swept away, iunless certain peaks near Bangor are remains of it.  The course was
nearly south, and its general elevation above the plain near Oroville is 1,000 feet.
The width averages about a mile, but there are places nwhere branches extend a
considerable distance to the westward.  The surface declines about 100 feet in a
mile to the southward and about 50 feet to the mile to the westward. Is this
inclination to the westward due to the accidental wear of the surface by the water,
or is it caused by the upheaval of the Sierra? The inclination of 50 feet in a
mile to the westward, observed near Oroville, may not be found along the whole
course; but if it marks the entire length of the basaltic stream, it would imply
an uplifting of the eastern side.
This Table mountain, like the similar one in Tuolumne county, covers the bed
of an ancient auriferous stream, but it is neither so rich nor has it been worked
so much as the other basalt-covered river.
CHIEEOKEE.-The principal mining camp on the Butte table mountain is Cherlokee, where the basalt has been denuded for a distance of four miles, giving miners
an opportunity of getting down to the auriferous gravel. The strata here, according to the observations of Charles Waldeyer, esq., are the following, commencing
at the top: basalt, 80 feet high; pipe clay and sand, 10 feet; boulders burned(I
157 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
and vitrified, 12 feet; sand and clay mixed with quartz gravel, 20 feet; pipe clay,
12 feet; white quartz gravel, 150 feet; pipe clay, 12 feet; white and yellow quartz
gravel, 100 feet; sand, 15 feet; white and yellow quartz gravel, 200 feet; pipe
clay, 30 feet; quicksand, 10 feet; white quartz gravel and sand, 10 feet; reddish
quartz, 10 feet; blue gravel, from 5 to 40 feet.  The denudation at Cherokee is
friom 300 to 500 feet deep, in some places reaching to the top of the upper layer
of white and yellow quartz gravel, and in others reaching down to the middle of
the second.  In no place is the gravel less than 20( feet deep in the middle of
tile channel; that is the presumption, for the bottom of the channel has not been
reached; but the miners generally suppose that the lowest workings are very
near the bottom. The rim-rock rises about 150 feet above the bottom of the
channel, and is not cut through to the bottom anywhere by canons.
The diggings at Cherokee have been worked since 1850, and have always
paid moderately well, but there has never been enough water. Most of the
claims are suitable for the hydraulic process. The gravel and gold bear much
resemblance to those found at Smartsville.
OREGON GULCH GOLD MIRxING COMPANY.-This is an extensive placer mine,
situated at the head of Morris GGuilch. The basalt, of which Table Mountain
chiefly consists, covers an ancient river bed, extending from Cherokee Flat in a
southwestwardly direction for a number of miles, until it is lost in the Sacramento
valley.  When the eruption occurred in this locality, the bed of the ancient river
was the lowest portion of the country. The basalt, occupying the river bed,
forced the water into new channels, which, in process of time, wore the sirroundilg country down to its present level.  Being of an indestructible nature, which
almost absolutely resists the action of the elements, it protected the bed of
the river from denuding agencies, and we thus find the river bed in almost
exactly the same condition as when it was overwhelmed by lava in remote
ages.
The exceedingly regular grade of the surface of every portion of this lava
flow not undermnined by the action of water proves that the country has not been
subject to any great upheaval.
In the course of time the Sacramento river formed its valley and the Feather
river cut its channel through the rocks towards the mountains, leaving the ancient
river beds over a thousand feet above their present levels.
Morris Gulch commenced at the Feather river, and cut its course to the north
into the ancient river channel, gradually wearing away the bed rock, and causing
vast slides of rock, gravel, sand, and the basalt cap into its canon, where, in
process of ages, all was reduced and carried into the Feather river in the form
of sand and gravel. This gulch cut through the richest portion of the ancient
gravel bed, and a large part of the gold remains in the gulch, rendering it one
of the richest gulches in California.
Oregon Gulch was enriched from the same source.
Shirmir Gulch, on the west, did not reach the gravel in the old river bed, or
at least that portion which contains the pay streak.
Wherever this has been worked it has proved rich, as just north of Oroville,
at the head of Morris Gulch, and at Cherokee Flat for a distance of over 10
miles.  Its width is not definitely known, but at the head of Morris Gulch it
must be over a mile.  At Cherokee Flat, and near Oroville, the miners follow
down the bed of the ancient stream, and in a short distance the water, having no
outlet, becomes very troublesome, and will in time prevent work from that direction. But at the head of Mormis Gulch the miners follow up the stream, and
the water drains off and does not interfere with their labors.
This appears to be almost the only point where sufficient fall can be obtained
for a good "dump" for hydraulic mining.  " Dump" meains a sufficient declivity
from the end of the flume to cause the tailings or debris from the mine to run
off in natural channels and not accumulate at the end of the flume. This is
r-4
158 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
very important. Unless a mine has a good dump, it cannot be worked by
hydraulics to any advantage.
The Oregon Gulch Gold M1ininig Company are at work at present on a large
slide. and still have a good dump. But when they follow the lead under the
basalt, they will find the bed rock much higher than where they are now at work.
This will give them an excellent dump, sufficient to wash all the gravel under
the mountain up to Cherokee Flat.  The indications are that thev are at worl
on the western side of the lead or pay streak, and as they follow inlto the mountain they will get nearer its centre, where the gravel will probably be richer than
where they are working at present, and much more water will be met with.  This
will be a great assistance in washing the sand and gravel.  Except in an abundant supply of water at all seasons of the year, the natural facilities for working
this claim are superior to those of any other claim of a similar nature in this
vicinity.
They have been turned to good account by the manager of the company, Mr.
William Hendricks.  All the work has been done in a thorough and miner-like
manner.  The position of the company's flume is lower than any other in this
locality so that, as the work progresses, all the water in the mountain must pass
through it; this is important, as the use of the water in the mountain will be of
great value.
The scarcity of water in the dry season will only delay the working of the
mine.  If water should be brought in by a ditch company, work could be continued during the whole year, which would be a great advantage, but this would
in a measure be neutralized by the cost of the water.
The expense of bringing water to a desirable point, either by pumping it up
from the river or by iron pipes, is so great that it is difficult to see any profit in
the enterprise, unless the mine owners in the mountain should bring it in for
their own use.
These mountain claims are among the most enduring placer mines in California,
This ancient river bed is as rich as the bed of Feather river; and a company
owning half or a whole mile of the Feather river bed, as rich as it was before
it was worked, would have possessed one of the most valuable mines in the
world.  The cost of working the old bed under the mountain will not be greater
than that required to flume and drain Feather river.
The climate is mild and healthful.  Mining operations can be prosecuted at
all seasons of the year.  Being within four miles of the terminus of the Marysville and Oroville railroad, labor and all supplies required in mining can be
obtained as cheaply as at any other mining locality in California.
THE CHEPROKEE BLUE GrAVEL CLAIM.-The Cherokee Flat Blue Gravel
Company have a claim a mile wide across the mountain by two miles long on its
course, south of Cherokee. They have been trying to get into the channel, but
have not yet succeeded. They started a low tunnel, which ran into trap rock
so hard that work was stopped, and then a shaft was sunk 155 feet deep, and
the water became so troublesome that that had to be abandoned; and then an
incline was commenced, and that has reached the red gravel, which is supposed
to rest on the blue cement.  The claim is probably very valuable, but much time
and money may be required to open it. The company is incorporated in San
Francisco. A steam pump is used for hoisting water from the incline. The claim
has been worlked since 1S56, and the present company have spent $70,000. The
blue cement supposed to be on the bed rock, where it has been reached, has yielded
$8 per day to the hand, when worked under great inconvenience, and has been
soft enough to be washed in a sluice without crushing.
THE  EUPEKA CLAIM.-The Eureka Company cut a tunnel 900 feet long,
and, after nine years' work, got into gravel, but did not succeed in making
enough to repay them for $40,000 expended.  They are not at work now.  The
tunnel is 106 feet below the top of the rim rock.
k I
159 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
THE CHEROKEE CLAIM.-Thie Cherokee Company, who have a piping claim
in the flat, took out $54,000 in 50 days' washing in 1866 from a stratum seven
feet deep, 100 feet wide and 300 feet long.  The comnpany own 50 acres, have
piped away about six, have expended $150,000, and have extracted $500,000.
They had water to wvashl 60 days this year, and in one dry season they could
washl only 10 days.  It is to be presumed from the yield of the small part of
their claim already worked, that if they had an abundant supply of water they
might prcduce more than any other placer claim in the State.
Welch & Co., adjoininlg the Cherokee Flat Blue Gravel Company, have a
claim 100 feet square, from lwhich they have taken $25,000.
DIAMONDS.-Cherokee has been notable for the production of diamonds, a
number having been obtained here. They are mostly found in the red gravel
next to the blue cement at the bottom of the channel. This *'red gravel," as it
called, is a stratum of tough red clay enclosing pebbles of various kinds, mostly
quartz and green-stone. The gems have not been observed in this stratum, but
after portions of it have been washed, they have been picked up in the sluice.
Some persons have spent days and weeks in hunting for diamonds, but without
avail.  They are not sufficiently numerous or valuable to pay for a special search.
The metal in the red gravel is more valuable than the stones. If at some future
time there should be an opportunity to wash much of this stratum, attention will
no doubt be given to the diamonds, which might, under favorable circumstances,
be obtained in sufficient quantity to reward the extra care required in collecting
them.  Those found at Cherokee are nearly all clear, and so brilliant at the surface and so regular in their crystallization, that no doubt of their character could
remain in the mind of any one familiar with the natural form.
lornris, NIMSrHEW, ANDXI) KIMSHEw.-Between Cherokee and Oroville Morris
ravine has cut deep down into Table mountain, and has washed away much
auriferous gravel, but has not enabled the miners to get fairly into the channel,
thllough they have spent much money in attempting to get in.  The ravine claims
were very rich.
Nimshew and Kimshew are places north of Cherokee where tunnels have been
run in to strike the old channel under Table mountain, but they have not paid
much.
BANGOR.-Bangor is 12 miles southeastward from Oroville on an old channel,
the bed of which is about 60 feet below the level of tile lowest ravines in the
neighborhood.  At the bottom of this channel is a deposit of hard blue cement,
about 60 feet wide and six feet deep.  In this cement are found boulders weighing several tons, and the gravel is green-stone, trap, granite, slate, and quartz;
the last being not more than one-eighthl of all the gravel.  The stream seems to
have been about as large as Feather river, and to have run toward Oroville wvith
a grad(e of five feet in 100.  Over the pay stratum there is a barren grayish
cement, softer than the blue.
This channel was discovered in 1857 by some placer miners, who, while running a cut in a ravine, found the bed rock dipping down, and after following it
as far as they could in the cut, they went off some feet and sunk a shaft, which
in 65 feet struck a rich stratum, which paid $100 per day to the hand.  Tihe
existence of a channel being proved, the outcroppings of the rim rock at the
ravines and on the hill-sides showed its course, and it was claimed for miles.  The
pioneer claim was known as Boyle's.
The claim in which the channel was next opened was that of Tucker, to the
southeast.  This claim was worked three or four years, but did not yield miuch
profit, the pay statum being found for a distance of only 200 feet.
The Floyd claimu adjoining Tucker, the third in reaching the pay, was worked
for a year and half, in which time the pay dirt was exhausted.  The cement was
so tough that it was washed eight or nine times, and was not entirely dissolved
then. The yield from the first five washings was $46,500; the expenses $147500;
160 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
the dividends $32,000.  About $23,000 was obtained from the first wvashing; as
for the production of the washings after the fifth, no information could be obtained,
but it was probably quite small.  This claim was 300 feet long, and pay was
found for a length of 220 feet in the channel.  The shaft reached the pay in
April, 1858, and it has been customary to wash the dirt every spring.
Next to Floyd's was the Oroville claim, 600 feet long. It was worked bv
three shafts and paid well for several years.  Common report says the bed rock
was not well cleaned.
Between the Oroville and Boyle claims the channel did not pay in any place,
though many shafts were sunk.  Southeast of Tucker's notlhing was found, and
it is doubtful, according to some miners, whether the channel was struck.
The Barnum claim, northwest of Boyle's, is 1,500 feet long, and was opened
in 1861 by a shaft, which struck the pay stratum at a depth of 55 feet.  Two
hundred feet of the channel were worked out in a year and a half, and the dirt
was washed three times in a sluice 300 feet long.  The first washing, immediately after the cement was extracted, yielded $8,000; the second, a year later,
gave $2,000; and the third, after an interval of two years, yielded $1,500. The
dirt is not fully washed yet, and it is saved to be put through the sluice again.
Two other shafts have been sunk, but nothing has been taken out of them as
yet, though good prospects have been found in one of them.  Several companies
are prospecting for the channel northwest of the Barnumn claim.
CEMENT BAnREL.-At the Barnum claim Mr. E. Bassett has been trying to
reduce cement in a barrel eight feet long and three feet in diameter, made of
boiler iron.  An iron pipe runs through the barrel, passing through hollow journals, and through this pipe exhaust steam from the engine is to pass, so as to
heat the cement. There are two doors opposite to each other in the barrel, each
10 by 14 inches, for charging and discharging.  A ton of cement, 10 pounds of
quicksilver, and 60 gallons of water will be a charge, and when the door is
fastened down the steam will be turned on; the barrel will be set to revolving
at the rate of 20 revolutions per minute.  In 20 minutes the cement will be at
boiling heat, and in 50 minutes it will all be disintegrated.  One hour will be
required for a charge, including charging and discharging. There is no doubt
that the cement can be disintegrated in this manner, and the expense does not
exceed 25 cents per ton.  The barrels are lined with wood set endways, two and
a half inches thick.
WYANxDOTTE.-'Wyandotte, sixteen miles west of Forbestowvn, has some ravine
claims, half a dozen hydraulic claims, and an ancient channel, the same that is
worked at Bangor.  T'his channel is 50 feet below the level of a creek that
passes Wyandotte, and thus there is no natural drainage, and the blue cement at
the bottomin of the channel is not supposed to be rich enough to pay for pumping.  Several shafts have been sunk to the bottom, striking the channel.  The
hydraulic claims at Wyandotte have banks 75 feet high, and take 40 inches of
water each on an average, with a pressure of 75 feet.  There is a large body of
this gravel.  A thousand inches of water are purchased here, a small portion of
it for irrigating orchards and vineyards, but mostly for shallow mining.
FOrBESTOWx.-Forbestown, 22 miles eastward from  Oroville, on the main
divide between the Yuba and Feather river, and on the main road between Oroville and La Porte, has quartz and placer mines, lumbering and turpentine-making
among its resources.
The town was in its most flourishing condition in 1855, when it polled about
400 votes, and niow it polls only about 100.
The shipment of gold from Forbestown in 1866 was $135,000; from the 1st
September, 1866, to the 15th July, 1867, it was $80,121.
There are a numnber of springs on the ridge near Forbestown,' all about the
same level, and all have cold water.  No town in the State has so large a supply:
of cold and good water from springs above the level of the main street.
11
161 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
In Robinson's hill, near town, there are a number of quartz veins, most of
them small, and many of them visibly auriferous.
New York Flat is the principal mining district near  Forb)estown.  Three
hydraulic claims are at work there now, employing in all about 20 men.  In
1S66, four companies there tookl out $50,000.
There has been some difficulty about drainage, and the Nevada Company are
malking a deep cut to be half a mile long, and to drain a body of ground 4,000
feet long and 300 feet wide, supposed to be rich.
.AlOOREVILLE AND EVANSVILLE.-MoQreville, in the southeastern corner of
the county, has a large body of amuiferous gravel, in a good position for piping,
except that it is difficult to get water high enough.  There was a ditchli which
was too low down, and it has nowv gone to ruin.  A new one to be 60 feet higher
has been commenced, but no work is being done at it now. Some doubt is
entertained whether the gravel is rich enough to pay for washing.
Evansville, four miles southwest of Forbestown, purchases 200 inches of water,
some of it for mining and some for irrigation.
BANGOR  QuUAPTZ REGULATIONS.-ELach mining district in Butte county has
its own quartz regulations.
The regulations of the Bangor district contain the following provisions:
ARTICLE 2. The size of a mining claim in this district shall be as follows: for ravine or
surface mining a hundred yards square, provided that a ravine claim shall extend from bank
to bank; for blue lead claims a hundred feet in length and extending from rim to rim; for
quartz or other mineral-bearing rock 200 feet on the lead with its spurs and angles, and
100 feet on each side of said lead, with sufficient ground adjacent thereto for the erection
of the necessary work.,
AnT. 4. Persons locating claims in this district shall post in one or more conspicuous
place or places thereon a notice containing the number of claims, with the names of the
locaters and a general description of the ground claimed, with the boundaries thereof, and
within 10 days thereafter file with the district recorder, hereafter to be provided for, a general
description of said claim, with the boundaries thereof sufficiently distinct as to be easily
found by reference to the record, which record and notice shall be bona fide proof of possession of said claims for the space of 90 days from date of record thereof.
ART. 5. After the expiration of the 90 days mentioned in the previous article, all
claims shall be deemed abandoned, unless the parties locating the same shall proceed to work
them in good faith, and by expending in labor and improvements at least $5 per month
for each 100 feet claimed until the amount so expended shall amount to $60 for each 100
feet of the whole amount claimed.
ART. 6. Parties having complied with articles four and five shall be entitled to hold their
claims without further expense for two years.
FOuBESTOWX MIXING REGULATIONS.-The mining regulations of the Forbestown district now in force were adopted on the 9th June, 1863, and  48 quartz
claims are recorded in the district.
The following are the main provisions:
The size of an individual claim on gold-bearing, silver, or other mineral veins shall be 100
feet in length on the ledge vein or lode, including all lateral spurs, angles, variations, and
intersecting veins, with a width of 200 feet on both sides of the ledge.
yWhen there is conflict in boundary, or as to location, the claim or claims first located shall
have priority of right; location and property and the claim subsequent in date, if it is a
lateral interference, may be extended by expansion on the other side, if desired, provided the
same does not interfere with a prior location.
Every claim located in this district must have good, substantial notices, specifically setting
forth the direction, nature, and extent of the claim, posted at each end of the same in some
conspicuous place, and a copy thereof filed in the office of the recorder within 10 days
thereafter.
Each quartz mining company who have claims in this district, upon which $50 worth of
work shall have been expended, must be worked upon in good faith-at least two in every 30
days by the company holding said claims, and all ground which shall not have been so worked
within 30 days shall be deemed vacant ground and subject to location the same as though
it had not been located. Those claims on which work to the amount of $50 shall be done
may be held by the claimants for the period of six months after work shall have been stopped
on the same, when the claim shall be considered abandoned.
The size of a placer or ravine claim shall be 100 feet in length, running up and down tho
162 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ravine, and the owner or owners of said claim or claims can work the same as wide as he ox
they choose, and if a quartz lode runs across the placer claim the owner of the same shall
be entitled to 100 feet of the quartz lode, 50 feet on each side of the main or deepest channel
running through his claim.
NISBET QUAPrTZ MIXE.-The Nisbet Mining Company, incorporated inl MAarvs  ville, has a mine 3,600 feet long on a vein which runs north and south, dips 50'
to the cast, and averages two feet in widthl at Oregon City.   The walls are of
slate.  The main shaft or incline is down 160 feet, and drifts have been ran 700
feet on the vein, ill pay all tihe way.  Tlhe lode varies in thickness from six inches
to nine feet; in very narrow places sulphliirets form one-tenth of the vein, and in
the widest not more than a hundredth.  The sulphurets assay fiom $1,300 to
81,600 per ton; are caught in a sluice and are saved to be worked at some time in
the future.  The mill has eight stamps, and there is a six-inch pump for drainage,
all driven by steam.  Work was commenced on the mine with arrastras in 1851,
and the present mill was built in 1S64.  The yield at the surface was $34 per
ton; and of late it has been 810, exclusive of the stlphurets, for the reduction
of whichl no arrangements have been made.  Thirteen men are employed; nine
white men and four Chlinaimen.  The latter are considered better feeders because
they do not become impatient andl dissatisfied with the monotony of the labor.
SPPIntG VALLEY.-The Spring Valley mine, a mile and a half east of Chero kee, is on a vein nhiclh runs north and soutlh, is seven feet wide, and is nearly
horizontal at the surface for 200 feet, and dips 50~ to the east.   The claim is 300
feet long.  T'lhere was a 10-stamp mill which crushed several thousand tons of
rock, and extracted, according to report, from $10 to $24 perton.  The mill was
burned down and worl ceased on the mine, but lately work has been resumed,
but there is no new mill as yet.
OTlHEr  QUARTZ MIXNrES OF BUTTE.-The Powell mill, at Oregon City, has
12 stamps, and lhas been idle a year.
The RPock RPiver mill, which stood between Oregon City and Cherokee, has
been removed.  There was a roasting furnace attached to it.
There is a five-stamp quartz mll at Mount Hope, not running.
Three quartz mnills at Yanllkee Hill have been burned down-the Yankee Hill,
the Virgin, and the Fuller.
Derrick's quartz mill, at Oregon City, was taken across the mountains in 1863,
and stays there.
White & Nutter's mill, at Oregon City, was moved away ill 1866.
The Bloomer Hill mnill, 14 miles north of Oroville, has eight stamps, and is
now iruninng, but the mine is pocklety, and the yield is very irregular.
Near Loveloclk's, seven or eight miles above Dogtown, an arrastra is running.
Smith & Sparlks's mine, two miles and a half northeast of Oroville, is on a vein
four feet wide, running north-northwest, and dipping northeast.  The walls are
of slate. The mill has eight stamps, was built in 1865, and rebuilt in 1864. It
has been standing idle for two years. The owners are mostly San Franciscans.
The Forbestown Mining Company own 15,000 feet in 9 or 10 claims, on different lodes.  Mexican lode No. 1 is five feet wide, and has yielded $20 per ton
for 100 tons; and Mexican lode No. 2 is 12 feet wide, and has yielded $10 per
ton for 200 tons.  There is a five-stamp steam mill which  has not been used
except for prospecting purposes, and is now standing idle.
The Shaklspeare mine, 3,000 feet long, has a vein 12 feet wide and has been
opened by a small shaft. Ten tons yielded $10 per ton.
The Polecat lode, one mile from Forbestown, is two feet wide, and 100 tons
of its quartz yielded $1,200.
163 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
SECTION XIII.
PLUMAS COUNTY.
Plumas county comprises the more elevated portion of the basin of Feather
river. It is high, rugged, and wild. Lassen's Peak forms the northwestern
corner, and that was a great centre of volcanic energy, from which lava and scoria
were poured or blowni out upon the adjacent country.  The ancient rivers which
appear at alontecristo and at Brandy City, in Sierra, ran through Plumas, but
their course has not been traced so distinctly, nor have they been workied with
so much profit.  In most places where the channels have been found, they are
covered so deep with volcanic matter, and the pay stratum is so difficult of access,
that the profits of working have been moderate.  On the other hand, there is
reason to believe that many extensive gravel deposits in this county will be worked
at a profit within a few years, and that gravel mining will make more progress
here for years to come than in any other part of the State.
The county is very rich in quartz, and American valley and Indian valley are
two of the main centres of quartz-mining industry in California.  There are many
rich veins of copper, but they cannot be worked with a profit at present. At
ieast, none has yielded any profit, although one is being workied now.
The principal placer-mininig camps, all on old channels, are La Porte, Secret
Diggings, Gibsonville, Saw Pit Flat, Little Grass Valley, Onion Valley, Washington, Hungarian lill, Badger Hiil, Eagle Gulch, Grizzly Creek, and Spanish
Ranch.
The quartz veins in Plumas generally run east and west, and dip to the south
at an angle of 45~.
BEcKWOUrTTn's PASS.-Plumas county possesses in Beckwourthl's pass the
lowest across the Sierra Nevada; but it is not in the direct line of travel between
Sacramento and Virginia City, and therefore it is not much used.  The elevationis
4,500 feet above the sea, and the latitude 39~ 50'. The pass proper is two miles
long, and for 12 miles the road has an elevation of more than 4,000 feet above
the sea.  Last winter the snowv, at the deepest, was two feet and a half on the
summit —not enough to interfere seriously with travel, even if nothing were done
to beat it down.  Heretofore the road west of Quincy has crossed a ridge 6,000
feet high with 18 miles of snow-belt, but a road is to be constructed down a cation,
so that there will be a continuous descent from Quincy (which is 3,400 feet above
the sea) to Oroville; and then there will be no more trouble from snow.   The
last legislature authorized Plumas county to issue bonds to the amount of $65,000
to aid in the construction of a road along the north fork of Feather river to Beckwourth's pass, and a company has commenced work. The first 30 miles out
from Oroville are to be on railroad grade; and the whole work is to be finished
in 1868, at a cost of $140,000. The superiority of this route for wagon travel,
in every respect save distance, is admitted by all persons familiar with the different passes over the Sierra.
CONLY AND GOWELL'S CLAIM.-Conly and Gowell have a very large claim
at La Porte, made up of 100 original claims. It includes the entire old channel 500 feet wide, and extends into the hill half a mile or more.
During the water season they use 3,000 inches of water, at least so long as
they can get so much; they employ 50 men, and so anxious are they to avoid
any loss of time while they can get water, that they run continuously through the
season, cleaning up only once a year.
The dirt is soft, and 1,200 inches of water bring down as much as 3,000 can
carry off, so only 1,200 are thrown through pipes, the remaining 1,800 inches
being allowed to run down over the bank.  There are three sets of pipes, three
.)r four in each set. The pressure is 100 feet. Twelve men take charge of the
.164 
WEST OF TIHE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
pipes by night, and as many more by day; and 26 men are employed in shovel   lin- bed rock and pay dirt, moving boulders out of the way, and so forth.
The day hands work 10 hours and the night hands 12 hours, and the pay foi
each is $3 50 per day. At night torches are made in iron baskets resting upon
iron posts about five feet from the ground.  In these baskets pine wood is burned.
giving a very good light. Fires are also built on the ground so that the men
can warm themselves.
The claim has outlet through two tunnels. The Northampton tunnel is 2,000
feet long, has a sluice six feet wide, and cost $160,000. Ten years were spent
in cutting 500 feet, so hard was the rock. The Warren Hill tunnel is 2,000 feet
long and 5 feet wide, and cost $15,000.  The grade of both tunnels is 4 inches
in 16 feet. The Northampton tunnel receives the dirt from two surface sluices,
and usuallv carries 2,000 inches of water; the Warren Hill receives one sluice
and carries 1,000 inches. The ground and the outlet do not permit the use of a
steeper grade; and, as no small sluice could wash on that grade, it was necessary
for the owners of small claims to sell out and let them be consolidated in one
large claim. Another tunnel is being cut, to be 3,000 feet long, to drain another
part of the claim.
Under-cuiTents are not used here. Width is considered particularly desirable
in sluices. The paving in the sluices consists of boulders as large as a man can
lift, and they are worn out in a season. The water is shut off for an hour at
noon every day, and men examine the whole length of the sluices, to see that
the paving is all right and to repair any breaks.
About a ton of quicksilver is put into the sluices in a season, and one quarter
of it is lost. The mercury, instead of being thrown directly into the sluice, is
scattered on the surface of the bank which is to be washed down. It is put into
a can made of Russian sheet-iron, large enough to hold 40 pounds, and the cap
or nozzle of the can is perforated with holes an eighth or a quarter of an inch in
diameter, through which the metal is sprinkled.
The ditch which supplies water for the claim is owned by the same proprietors,
cost $100,000, but could now be constructed for $50,000. The length is 13 miles.
The preservation of the flumes against the snow is expensive. Whenever a
snow-storm comes on men are sent to shovel the snow off; lest the weight should
break down the flume; and then the snow must be shovelled away from the flume
on the hillsides above, for the snow bank moves slowly down hill with tremen dous pressure, which no flume could resist. The trees on the hillsides show this
influence, for they are all bent down hill, and many are broken down every winter.
It is necessary to cover the iron pipes with strong timber, or they would be crushed
flat by the weight of the snow. The pipe used in this claim cost $2,000.
The channel is 500 feet wide; the grade, 50 feet to a mile; the rim-rock, 100
feet high on the east and 20 on the west, on an average. The deposit of gravel
is 100 feet deep. It is white near the top; red, blue, and blackl at the bottom.
There are many boulders of quartz quite black. In the upper strata the pebbles
are seldom larger than a goose egg; in the lower there are many boulders from
6 to 20 inches in diameter. At the bottom is a layer two feet thick of hard
cement, which is crushed in a five-stamp cement mill belonging to the same proprietors.
In 1866 Conly and Gowell washed off a strip of ground 1,100 feet long, 300
feet wide, and 80 feet deep, equivalent to 435,000 tons of 40 cubic feet each.
The gross yield was $32,000 and the net $12,000. If we multiply the 1,100,
the 300, and the 80 together, we find that 26,400,000 cubic feet, or 660,000 tons
of 40 cubic feet each, were washed away; and if we divide the 660,000 tons by
the $32,000 we find that 20 tons went to $1, or that the yield of the gravel per
ton was five cents. This amount is so small that it suggests the probability of
some error. It appears that the expense of washing was but three cents and a
third per ton. No other place in the State can wash dirt so cheap.
165 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The number of days spent in washing this area was about 100, and the average
amount of water used 2,000 inches.  An inch is 100 tons of water in 24 hours;
and 2,000 inches supplied in 100 days 20,000,000 tons of water to move 660,000
tons of gravel, or 30 tonls of water to 1 ton of gravel.
The claim of Conly & Gowell is large enough to last for 20 years longer.
Gard & Orr have a very large claim alongside of Conlyl & Gowell, use 2,000
inches of water, and employ 50 men; and their ground will last 20 vears.
It is said that across both of these claims runs a perpendicular dike of lava
or trap, rising out of the bed-rock and passing through the gravel entirely across
the channel. This dike has never been pierced through, and its size is unknown.
A similar dike, according to rumor, was found at Brown's diggings, 15 miles
Dorthwest of La Porte.
The two claims mentioned are the only ones of any note workied at La Porte.
Ten years ag,o more than 50 companies were in profitable operation there.
The yield of La Porte and the placers which sold their dust there, in 1857,
was $4,000,000 annually; now it is $1,000,000.
SECRET DIGGINGS.-Two miles south of La Porte is Secret Diggings, on the
same channel and with similar gravel. The chief claim there is that of Kingdom & Co., who have about a dozen old claims.  They employ 50 men and use
2,500 inches of water. The tunnel through which they wash cost $100,000, and
is 1,500 feet long. In 1866 they took out $130,000 and divided $94,000, and
that was the best yield the place ever had. This year the company have done
as much work, but have not divided a dollar.  The pipe used by Kingdom &
Co. cost them $15,000. The claim is 80 feet deep, and will last many years.
Poverty Iill, a lmile and a half below Secret Diggings, on the same old channel, has been wvorkled on a small scale for 10 years, but the place is now to be
supplied with water, and will probably become important.  There is gravel
enough there to last for 50 years.
POPRT WIXE.-At Port Wine the old channel is worked by drifting, and the
principal claims are those of the Eagle, Union, Montecristo, Indian Queen, Erie,
Sailor, Mauzanita, Bunker Hill, and Pioneer companies.
The Eagle claim employs about a dozen men, all shareholders, and used to
pay very largely.
The Indian Queen employs 15 men and has a tunnel 2,000 feet long.
The Union employs 40 men, all shareholders, and the tunnel is to be 3,000
feet long when finished.
The Montecristo employs 40 men, all shareholders. The dirt is hoisted through
an incline by an engine, and water for washing is pumped up.
The Erie employs 10 or 12 men.
The Sailor has four or five men at work.
Nothing is done in the Manzanita claim.
The Bunker Hill employs eight men.
The Pioneer has four men.
LITTLE GrnASS VALLEY.-The first place north of La Porte where there is any
mining, on the same channel, is Little Grass Valley, three miles distant on the
north side of the same ridge, between Rabbit creek and south forkl of Feather
river. The claims there have been worked on a small scale for ten years, but
the ground is not rich, and the cutting of tuinnels is very expensive. Most of
the claims are worked by drifting. It is probable that Little Grass Valley will
become a prominent mining town in time. Most of the gravel is covered by a
bed of lava 300 feet deep.
Gibsonville, seven miles from La Porte, used to be an important hydraulic camp,
but now the claims are worked by drifting, and the yield has fallen off very much.
Spanish Ranch is 25 miles from La Porte, on the ridge between the South
Featheir and the Middle Feather rivers. The gravel is 100 feet deep, and the
claims are worked hy piping.
166 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Northl of Little Grass Valley is Union Valley, iwhere there are two piping
claims, with banks 40 feet deep.   Washing has been in progress four years,
but there are portions of the bank that do not pay well, and, as water is not to
be had most of the year, the companies will worak by drifting next year, and see
whether a better result can be obtained in that way.
Twelve miles west of Saw Pit Flat is Hungarian Hill, where there are three
piping and two drifting claims.  The tunnmels run 400 feet in the bed-rock, to
drain the pay to the bottom.  Twenty-five men are employed, and the average
pay is about $8 to the man per dlay.
Badger Hill is three miles west of Hungarian Hill, and has four piping and
five drifting companies; the yield is about $5 per day to the man.
Four miles northwestward froli Badger Hill is Eagle Gulchl, where six companies, with six men in each, are driftiing, and all in pay.  It is supposed that
miost of the claims will be worlked out wvithin two years.
Forty miiles north of Quincy are the Grizzly Creek diggings, where 40 men
are employed in piping.  The claims are 50 feet deep, and the gravel is all
quartz. The width of the channel has not been ascertained.
SAW PIT FLAT.-Saw Pit Flat is on a ridge running down from Pilot Peak.
The claims are all worked bv drifting, and the place has no ditch, so washing is
only possible from April to June, while the snow is melting.  The extraction
of gold was commenced here about six years ago, and there has been a steady
increase in the production, with a probability that it will continue for some years.
The pay dirt is reached through tunnels that cost at least $20,000 and three
years' time to complete them.
The New York Company has been taking out gravel about 15 months, and
have obtained $30,000 from it. There are 12 men at workl, all shareholders.
The Eagle Company have been in pay four years, and have taken out $26,000.
Ei,ght or nine men are employed.
The Unionl claim has 12 men, and has been yielding pay four years.
Those are the only companies that have taken out pay.
The Buckeye Company have reached pay, but have not taken any out as yet.
Several tunnels are being cut at Washington Hill, a mile distant, on the other
side of the ridge. Two companies, the American and the Washington, are in
pay.
The Eureka mine, in American valley, is 1,800 feet long, on a vein running
northeast and southwest, dipping northeast at an angle of 45~, and varying in
width from 5 to 25 feet.  The main pay chimney is 250 feet long, horizontally,
and it dips southwest at an angle of 52~; but at a depth of 300 feet it seems to
bend to the northeast. There are many varieties of quartz-some white, some
blue, some rose-colored, and some dark brown. All the rock from the pay chimney is worked, and it has yielded from $10 to $30, except near the surface, where
it was much richer.  The present average at 300 feet from the surface is from
$14 to $15.  The foot wall is granite and the hanging wall hard slate.  There
are seven per cent. of sulphurets in the rock.
There are two mills, one of 12 and the other of 16 stamps, both driven by
water derived from an artificial lake, and they are situated three-quarters of a
mile from the mine.  The ore is transported on a rail-track.
The gold is amalgamated in the mortar and on copper aprons, and the tailings
are caught in a dam and saved for future working.  There are not less than
10,000 tons collected.
Besides the stamp mills there are three Chile mills of cut stone, each wheel
being nine feet in diameter and two in width, of granite. The bed-stones are
five feet in diameter and a foot and a half thick. The wheels wear down so as
to become useless in three years; and, in proportion to the power used, they do
not grind half so much as stamps. About once in three months the bed-stone
must be picked downs so that it will grind well.
167 
RESOURCES OP STATES AND TERRITORIES
The snow lies seven months in the year at the mills and onl the traclk, and for
five months the mill lmust lie idle for lack of rock.  The mills might be moved
to the mine itself, so as to be immediately at the mouth of a new tunnel that
milght be cut to strike the lode 400 feet below the present workings, at a length
of 1,S00 feet.  The mills could then run the whole year, and might be driven
by steaom, or perhaps by the waters of Jamison creek.
Not less than 8300,000 have been expended in improvements, all derived from
the mine.  Tlhe total yield is variously stated, by those who have had good opportunities for knlowing, at from $1,400,000 to $1,600,000.
The mine was discovered by a party of adventurers who, in 1850, were on the
search for Gold lake.  The mountain side was covered with float quartz, and
the prospecters tookl up claims 20 feet square.   The Eureka Company, the first
one incorporated for miining purposes in California, began operations in the spring
of 1S51. and since then the  mine has paid continuously.  The total dividends
previous to 1S65 were $250,000.
Besides the 1,S00 feet on the Eurelka lode there are 2,000 feet on other lodes.
In early days much of the mine was leased to Mexicans and others, who
worked with a]rastras and paid one-third of the gross yield.  At one time 100
arrastras were running on the Eureka rock.
MAMMoTHl. —Adjoining the Eureka, on the south, is the Mammoth, 1,200 feet
long. The vein is very variable in size and quality in this claim, changing
suddenly from a few inches to 20 feet in thickness, and then back again, and
from very poor to very rich. The quartz is white and brittle, and is mixed with
slate, so that much assorting is necessary.  There is one chimney, 20 feet long
horizontally, and 10 feet thick, nearly vertical, and it goes down with nearly
uniform size.  A  depth of 200 feet has been reached, and drifts have been run
200 feet on the vein.  The average yield has been about $12, and the total yield
$400,000.
There is a 12-stamp mill driven by water.  The gold is caught by amalgamation in the mortar and on copper aprons, and the blanket tailings are worked
in Chile mills.
SEVENTY-sIX.-The Seventy-six Company are at work on a vein or branch
vein, varying in thickness from four to 18 inches, and nearly horizontal for a
distance of 150 feet from the surface, and at that distance it turns down.  The
lode is supposed to be the Eureka, or a branch of it. The assorted rock is packed
on mules, at a cost of $6 per ton from the mine to three arrastras. Nothing is
crushed unless it will yield $40 per ton. The average value of the rock is
probably $18.
CREscENT.-The Crescent mine, in Indian valley, 15 miles from Quincy, and
73 from Owenville, includes claims on three lodes as follows, viz:
Name.          Length.                 Course.                       Dip.
Crescent........... 3,000    East and west.................... North 350.
Horseshoe.......... 3,200   Northwest and southeast..........    Southwest 600.
Pet............... 2,200   North 80~ east................... South 600.
The walls are of feldspathic granite, according to Professor Ashburner, who
made a report on it, and the quartz, so far as the work has advanced, is a reddish
brown, with occasional masses of a bluish white color, enclosing undecomposed
sulphurets of iron and of lead.
The Crescent vein varies in width from five to 50 feet, averages about 15,
and appears to be the main lode of the cluster on which this mine is located.
Six pay chimneys have been found, and two have been worked on this vein.
168 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The eastern is 108 feet long, and the western 100 feet.  Both have been stopped
out to a depth of 120 feet, with an average width of five feet of pay, yielding
firom $13 to $18 per ton.  The deepest workings on this vein are 140 feet from
the surface, and drifts have been run 360 feet long.
The average width of the Horseshoe vein is about 14 feet, but the walls are
not well defined.  The quartz is harder than in the Crescent, and the pay has
varied from $7 to $42, averaging from $15 to $18. There are two pay chimneys;
the western 120 feet long at the surface, and 200 feet long, 200 feet below tlhe
surface, and the western 100 feet long at the first level, and 125 feet at the third.
The pay chimneys dip a little to the east. A depth of 280 feet has been reached
on this vein.  The Pet vein has a pay chimney 50 feet long, and four feet tfick,
and the quartz yields $100 per ton.
The Union vein runs into the HIorseshoe, and the intersection is rich, yielding
$37 per ton.
The yield of the mine from November, 1862, till June 9,1867, was $667,213 59,
obtained from 40,000 tons, showing an average of $16 68 per ton.
Dividends have been paid to the amount of $100,000, and $150,000 have been
spent in improvements.
The stock of ore in sight is estimated at 14,000 tons, to average $11 40 per
ton, and 20,000 to average $7 or $8.
There is a 32-stamp mill driven by an engine with an S18-inch cylinder, with
40 inches of stroke.
The stamps weigh 810 pounds, make 60 blows per minute, and fall 10 inches.
The gold is amalgamated in the mortar, and on copper-plate, and the blanket
sands are ground in a Wheeler and Randall pan. The blankets catch one-seventh
of all the quartz crushed, and the blanket sands yield one-twelfth of aill the gold
saved.
There is a hoisting engine, which is supplied with steam from the mill boiler.
A 24-stamip mill was built in 1863, but was sold to another company.   The
present was erected in 1865.  Thirty-two men are employed, eight at the mill,
and 24 at the mine.  There are 14 underground miners, who get $3 per day,
and board themselves; five underground carmen, who get $2 75 without board,
or $50 per month with board; two rock breakers, and four feeders, $2 75 per
day; one amalgamator, $2 75, and another, (a boy,) $2 25 per day; one engineer,
$100 per month; another, $4 12 per day; another $3 30 per day, without board;
and a fourth, $45 per month, with board.
W]:ITNEY.-The Whitney mine is on the Crescent lode, one mile southeast
of tle Crescent mine. The course there is west 15~ north, and the dip about 80~
south.
The foot wall is granite, and the hanging wall slate.  The vein varies in width
firom 15 to 30 feet, and the average is 20 feet. The walls are smooth, and well
defined from the surface, and the quartz on the walls is in places polished smooth.
The quartz is soft, is taken out without blasting, and all in the pay chimneys
is crushed. It is extracted through a tunnel 100 feet long:, and the extraction
and transportation to the mill do not cost more than 75 cents per ton.  The average
yield is $12 per ton, and the total yield has been $68,000. There is a 24-stamp
mill, which began work in December, 1866.
The gold is caught by amalgamation in the mortar and on the copper aprons,
and the blanket sands are ground in a Wheeler and Randall pan.
GOLDEN GATE.-The Golden Gate mine at Round valley is on a vein four
feet wide, running northeast and southwest, and cutting across the slates. A
depth of 60 feet has been reached, and drifts have been run 70 feet in pay all
the way. The average yield has been $22. There is an eight-stamp mill, driven
by water. It began to run about the 1st of June of this year, before which time
the quartz was worked in a custom mill.
DIXIE AND BUJLLFROG.-In Dixie canon there are three custom mills, one
169 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of eilght, one of six, and one of four stamps. All were erected to work claims
-whichl did not pay.
The Bullfrog mine at RPuish creek is on a vein eight feet wide, running east
anud west.  A depth of 130 feet has been reached, and drifts have been run 200
feet on the lode.  The quartz yields $8 gross and $3 net. The mill has 12 stamps,
goes by steam, and was built in 1865.
LIGGT AND CALLAI.AN. Liclt's mine, in Genesee valley, is on a vein two
feet and a half wide, running east and west.  The quartz is taken out of an open
cut, 40 feet long, and 30 feet deep, and the yield is $18 per ton.  The mill has
eight stamps, goes by water, and was built this year.
Callahan's mine, in Indian valley, has been opened to a depth of 100 feet, and
to the same length, in pay all the way.  Some of the rock crushed at Custom
mills has yielded $12 50.
PrEMIUM AXND SrPAIrPs.-The Premium mine has been opened by a shaft 125
feet deep, and by a drift of 50 feet.  Some rich specimens have been obtained,
and rock crushed at custom mills yielded $19.
The Sparks and Halsted mine at Granite Basin is on a vein eight feet wide.
A 12-stamp steam mill is going up.
INDIAN VALLEY.-The Indian Valley mine is on a vein six feet wide, running
east and west, and dipping to the south.  A depth of 220 feet has been reached,
and drifts have been run 200 feet on the vein.  The rock is hard, and yields
$18 per ton.  There are two mills; one of 16 stamps, driven by water, and another
of 12 stamps, driven by steami.  The lills have been iunning since 1864, and
the general yield per week has been $2,200.
GREEXNVILLE.-At Greenville the Union and MlcClellanl Company are working
a vein two feet and a half wide.  They have gone down 190 feet, and run 160
on the vein.  There are two pay chimneys, each about 30 feet long, dipping to
the west. The company has two mills, each of eight stamps, but the supply of
quartz is not sufficient to keep them running more than half the time. The
company are building a mill of 16 stamps to work a claim on the Caledonian
lode.
SECTION XIV.
ALPINE COUNTY.
This county, situate on the summit and eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada,
and on spurs making out from the latter, is, as its name denotes, rugged, mountainous, and truly Alpine in its external features and situation.  The Sierra,
along its western border, rises to an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet. Silver
mountain, a short range running north and south across its centre, is nearly
as elevated. Even the lowest valleys have an altitude of scarcely less than
5,000 feet, many of them lying much higher. As a consequence the climate
in the winter is rigorous, the snow falling early and lying on the mountains,
where it falls to a great depth, until midsummer. Even in the lowest and
most sheltered valleys it usually falls to the depth of several inches, lying sometimnes for two or three monthls in the winter.  The weather during the summer,
without being excessively hot, is warlin; that of the later spring and the fall
months is delightful. Showers are inore frequent here during the dry season than
west of the Sierra, or in the State of Nevada, lying to the east.  Owing to this,
vegetation keeps green until a later period in the summer. The grass, of which
there is a good deal, affords by its succulence excellent pasturage. There is
but little agricultural land in the county, though a number of small valleys produce fine crops of hay, grain, and vegetables.  Almost the entire region is cov
170 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ered with heavy forests of pine and fir, from which immense quantities of lumber
and firewood are made every season.  Five million feet of saw-logs and 6,000
cords of wood are floated down the Carson river annually for the use of the
Comstock mines.  On the Sierra Nevada,   within the limits of this county, are a
number of small lakes of the greatest purity and coldness, the waters of whiclh
are supplied by the melting snowts.  Xl'hse lakes are the sources of several colnsiderable streams, the Carson river, running north into Nevada, and tile Stanislaus
and 3lokelumne, west into California heading here.  Besides these there are
many creekls, tributaries to the Carson, which, with the latter, supply a very
extensive water power and means of irrigation.  Alpine contains a number of
small towns, of which Kongsburg, the county seat, M1onitor, and Mlarkleeville
are the principal. The population of the county is about 2,000. There are
three quartz mills in this county, carrying 26 stamps, and costing in the aggregate about $100,000; 13 saw-mills, carrying 19 saws, and having a capacity to
cut 112,000 feet daily; aggregate cost about $100,000.   Considering its small
population and rugged surface, this county is well supplied with  good wagon
roads, having one leading across the mountains connecting the principal towns
with the Big Tree road running to Stockton, and several others, built at heavy
expense; one of lwhichl runs to Carson valley, there uniting with the road to
Virginia City, and also withl that leading over the Sierra to Sacramento via
Placerville.  The inhabitants of Alpine have displayed much enterprise in road
buildiing, having, for their means, expended more money and labor on these
improvements than any other community in the State.  The first silver-bearing
lodes were discovered in this region in 1861, since vlwhichl time 14 different districts have been organized within the limits of the county, in some of which a
large number of ledges have been locatedl and  much exploratory work done,
while in others the reverse is the case. The metalliferous veins here are usually
of good size, many of them very large, being firom 20 to 80 feet thick on the
surface, and occasionally much larger. The most of them, however, range from
6 to 10 feet in thickness, running in a generally north and south direction, with
a trend to the southeast in conformity with the longitudinal axis of the Sierra.
The vein-stone consists of quartz and carbonate of lime.  The country rock is
composed of porphyry, granite, trap, and slate.  None of the lodes carry rich
ores on or near the surface, necessitating deep development before any considerable bodies of a sufficiently high grade for milling can be obtained; a circumstance that has tended greatly to retard the advancement of the mining interest
in this county, capitalists overlooking the masterly character of the lodes and
the unrivalled advantages for the cheap reduction of the ores einjoyed here, and
investing in mines much less favorably situated simply because they carrined
small quantities of rich ore in their upper portions. Left thus without aid, the
miners of this county have not been able, with their limited means, to develop
more than a few of their claims to a productive point, although a number of
years have elapsed since operations were commenced here. Another evil has
been the want of concentration of labor, their efforts having been spent in
attempts at operating too great a number of lodes, thereby defeating the thorough development of any.  But besides these superficial and ineffectual labors,
several works looking to deep exploration have been planned, some of which,
though involving heavy expenditures of labor and money, have been carried
almost to completion.  The aggre,gate amount of tunnelling done in the county
is very large, many of these works being from 500 to 1,000 feet long.  Owing
to the precipitous character of the mountains in which most of the lodes are
situated, the method of their exploration by tunnels has been generally adopted.
Their declivities in many places are so steep that a depth beneath the croppings is attained equal to the length of the tunnel when it reaches the ledge.
This is frequently the case in the Silver Mountain district, where a number of
tunnels, some of them well advanced, are expected to tap the lodes for which
171 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
they are being driven at depths varying from 1,000 to 1,200 feet, which will also
be about their horizontal length.  The mountains near Konigsburg, in which a
great many lodes are situated, vary in height from 2,000 to 3,000 feet.  The main
ranges a little fuirther back are much highler. The ores of this county are
very diversified, carrying, besides the precious metals, copper, lead, antimony,
arsenic &c. a combination that renders them refractory and costly of reduction:
roasting and careful amalgamation, and, in some cases, smelting, are processes
necessary to success. The croppings generally show by assay free gold, together
with gold and silver in combination with iron pyrites, which latter gives place to
copper as depth is attained. Some veins contain so large a percentage of this metal
as to justly bring their contents under the class of argentiferous copper ores,
which can be successfully treated only by smelting, for which there exist here
the greatest facilities, wood being nearly everywhere abundant.  Much of this ore,
it is believed, contains enough of copper to defray the entire cost of mining and
reduction. After much experimenting with a view to determining the best mode
for treating the ores of this county, this end is thought to have been recently
attained, and the product of bullion, though still small, is steady and constantly
increasing, amounting at the present to between $7,000 and $8,000 monthly.
From the energy displayed in efforts to overcome the rebellious elements present in these ores, and to further the development of the mines, there is reason
forbelieving that this amount will be increased the coming year. The most efficient
plan, and that at present adopted, for the management of these ores is, after kilndrying and crushing, to roast and then amalgamate them bthehe Freiburgbarrel process. The following prices paid by mill companies for ore indicates its value for purposes of reduction: LKustel & Uznay contracted with the Morning Star Company
last year to pay them $17 50 for 10,000 tons of ore from their mine at Mogul, the
purchasers extracting the ore at their own cost.  The Washington Mill Company
have contracted to pay $100 per ton for 100 tons of first-class ore to be delivered
from the IXL mine, in the Silver Mountain district. The ores from the Tarshish
mine, near the town of Monitor, are found to yield, with careful treatment, over $200
per ton; and it is thought there are other lodes here the ores from which, by a
careful selection, will turn out nearly as well.  The Tarshish lode is of large
dimensions, the tunnel now in course of excavation having penetrated it 90 feet
without reaching the back wall. The ores, a large portion of which are of high
grade, lie in bunches or chimneys, and, if developed to its fullest capacity, there
is no doubt but this mine could be made to yield ore enough to keep a largesized mill in steady supply.  There is at present much activity in several
mining districts in this county, work having been resumned upon a number
of claims for some time neglected, and being pushed with increased energy
upon others; and there can be no question but the business of mining will make
greater progress in future than it has heretofore done in this region.  In the
matter of wood and water there is not a county in the State better situated than
Alpine; the facilities for the cheap exploitation of the mineral lodes are great;
while freights, owing to its proximity to the principal points of supply, are
much lower than in almost any other mining district east of the Sierra. The
water power in this county is ample for the propulsion of several thousand stamps,
while timber, both for fuel and lumber, is present in inexhaustible supply.
172 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
SECTION XV.
LASSEN COUNTY.
This county, erected from Plumas in 1864, lies upon and to the east of the
Sierra Nevada mountains. It is named after Peter Lassen, one of the pioneer
settlers of northeastern California, who was killed by the Indians in 1859 while
exploring the northwestern portions of Nevada for silver mines, then supposed
to exist in that region. The county contains but a small population-only about
1,500. It was organized because of the isolated situation of the inhabitants,
separated by the Sierra from the county seat of Plumas.  The votes polled in
1864 numbered 554; the value of real and personal property now in the county
is estimated at about $800,000-a large amount, considering the limited nunm ber of people it contains. The western portion of thie county is covered by the
Sierra Nevada; the remainder consists of rugged and barren hills, sage plains,
and alkali flats, with a small extent of rich valley lands.  The Sierra is heavily
timbered quite to its base. Heading in these mountains are a number of fine
streams, of which Susan river, Willow, and Elision creeks are the principal.  They
afford extensive propulsive power and water for irrigation, to both which uses they
are largely applied.  These streams run into Honey lake, a shallow body of water
lying on the eastern border of the county, and which, though it covered a large area
some years since, is now nearly dried up.  It has no outlet, and its water, or what
little is left, is slightly alkaline to the taste. Along its shores are one or two spots
of tule marsh; the rest is high and barren.  Nearly all the valuable land in the
county lies in Honey Lake valley, a fertile and well-watered tract of some 50,000
or 60,000 acres, lying between the base of the Sierra and the lake. It is all
taken up and enclosed, the greater part being under cultivation or appropriated
to hay-making and pasturage.  Mluch stock is kept here, besides large quantities
of grain'of every description raised annually. Wheat, barley, rye, and corn grew
luxuriantly, and, with irrigation, yield largely. Vegetables thrive and most kinds
of fruits mature without difficulty. Cattle here require neither stabling nor fodder
during the winter; even work animals keep in good condition feeding on the rich
succulent grasses of the valley. Owing to the abundance of good timber close
at hand, the most of the fencing is made of posts and boards, and the houses of
the settlers for the same reason are large and substantial.  Good lumber can
be obtained at the mills here at about $20 per thousand.  In Long valley, a
small portion of which is in this county,. there is also a little good agricultural and
pasture land.  Honey Lake valley received its name from the quantity of honey
dew, a sweet and viscid substance precipitated from the atmosphere during the
spring and early summer months.  The climate in this valley is extremely mild
and agreeable; the heat of the summer is moderate, and but little snow falls
during the winter.  There is a group of hot springs near the head of the valley,
some of which are very large, and one so deep that its bottom has never been
reached by sounding. It boils with such futry that the water leaps several
feet high. The others are not so hot, though all are impregnated with iron,
alum, soda, or other mineral substances. The only town of any size in the
county is Susanville, the county seat, in which there is a flourishing school, a
church, and many large and well-built houses. The county contains seven sawmills, running 11 saws and capable of cutting 50,000 feet of lumber daily.
They are propelled by water, and cost in the aggregate over $50,000.  There
are also two flour mills, having three run of stone and capacity for grinding 90
barrels of flour daily.  They are driven by water and cost about  $12,000.
There are 20 miles of water ditches, built at a cost of $25,000, and several wagon
roads within the limits of the county, leading over the Sierra into California.
Lassen contains no quartz mills, though there are numerous ore-bearing veins of
both the useful and the precious metals in the county. The most of these are
173 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
found in the mountains adjacent to and west of Honey Lake valley, where placer
diggings and auriferous quartz were discovered in 1862, at which time the former
were quite extensively worked and paid fair wages.  Some of these quartz veins
also carry silver, and various working tests made on a small scale tend to show
that these veins may yet be profitably worked on a large scale, as the ores can
be cheaply reduced, owing to an abundance of wood  and  water in the vicinity of
the mines.
SECTION XVI.
STANISLAUS, FRESNO, TULARE, MERCEDE, AND SAN JOAQUIN COUNTIES.
STANISLAUS has a sectional area of 1,228 square miles, consisting chiefly of
agricultural lands.   Population in 1860, 2,245; estimated in 1866, 3O',460;
assessed valuation of real and personal property in 1866, $1,026,216.*
The principal towns are Knight's Ferry, the county seat, on the Stanislaus
river, where it debouches on the main San Joaquin valley, and Lagrange.  The
business of the county is mostly centred in these towns. At Knight's Ferry
there are valuable quarries of sandstone.  The freighting business of this county
amounts to 4,444~ tons.t
FnrEsxO.-This county to the south of Manriposa and Merced, in sectional
area is one of the largest counties in the State, reaching from the Coast range to
the eastern boundaries of the State, containing 9,240 square miles; of this about
444,800 acres are agricultural lands of superior quality.  The population of
Fresno in 1860 was 4,605; estimated in 1S66, 1,680; assessed  valuation,
$811,716, in 1865; in 1866, $826,000.
The copper mines in the Hamilton district, near the Chowchilla river, are no
doubt extensive. The lode is clearly defined for ten miles with croppings of
great richness. The shipments of copper from this district will, it is believed,
in time rival that from Copperopolis. At present the shipments are light, as the
cost of transportation to San Francisco is $80 per ton, which makes copper
miining, in this county unprofitable at present. With facilities for transportation
by way of Knight's Ferry, and thence by the proposed Stockton and Copperopolis railroad to Stockton, copper ores will eventually bear shipment.
The down freights from this county, principally from the Chowehilla mines,
were, in 1865, 1,8S00 tons.  Two other mines shipped by way of the San Joaquin
120 tons per month, but there is little doing now, owing to the depreciation in
the business of copper mining.  The up freights to Fort Miller are 875 tons per
annum; the total freights to and from this county probably amount to 2,675 tons.
TULAnLE.-The county of Tulare, to the south of Fresno, contained in 1860
a population of 4,638; estimated in 1866, 4,890; an assessed valuation in 1S865
of $1,306,380; in 1S66, $1,299,379; agricultural products for 1865, $616,890;
a sectional area of 7,181 square miles, of which about 200,604 acres are good
agricultural lands, the rest mountain and tule lands.  There are gold veins in
this county which are now being developed, and which will increase the present
freights to a large amount.  The freights for 1865 were as follows: Up freights,
2,750 tonls; down freights, 409 tons; total, 3,159 tons.
There is no outlet for the northern portion.
-1IFErCEDE.-West of 3iariposa county lies Mercede, mostly an agricultural
county, the central and western portion of which has, to some extent, an outlet
on the San Joaquin river. Sectional area, 1,384 square miles; population in
1860, 1,141; estimated in 1866, 1,980; real and personal property, $816,318;
* Pacific Coast Directory.            t W. C. Watson's report.
174
' Pacific Coast Directory.
t W. C. Watson's report. 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOIJNTAINS
principal shipping points for up freight, 3Terced Falls and Snellingsville, six
miles below.  Here, as well as at Kni(ght's Ferry and Lagrrange, on the Tuolumne, is a large amount of water power, capable of being used at a little expense,
and which will at no distant day be turned to good account. Freighting business
of this county, 562 tons.?,
SAX JOAQUIX.-The sectional area of this county is 1,452 square miles,
(929,280 acres,) about one-third of vlwhich is agricultural, the rest foot-hilis
and tule lands.t  The agricultural products in 1S64 amounted to $4,445,058;
assessed valuation in 1865, $14,986,615; population in 1860, 8,434; estimated
population in 1866, 17,140; real and personal property in 1866, $5,275,016.1
SECTION XVII.
INYO COUNTY.
This county was erected in 1866.  The territory was taken from Tulare and
3lono counties, and lies onl the border of the Great ]Iohave Desert, east of the Sierra
Nevada range of mountains.  With the exception of a considerable strip of arable
land along Owen's river, and some fertile spots at the entrance of the ravines
that make up into the Sierra, the country is arid and barren. Except the
portion lying on the Sierra, and some scattered groves of pison on the range
east of Owen's valley, the country is also destitute of timber.  The only water,
save a few small springs, consists of that flowing through Owen's river and the
streams that, falling from the mountains to the west, feed it or run into the lalke
that receives its waters. Owen's valley, over a hundred miles long in its whole
extent, and from 10 to 15 wide, lies along the western border of the county,
having the Sierra Nevada mountains on the west and the Alonach6 cnaain on the
east.  These mountains cover three-fourths of its area and give to the county a
rugg,ed and diversified aspect.  The tillable land along the river is not more
than a mile and a half wide, but as it reaches the entire length of the valley
it amounts in the arggregate to 60,000 or 70,000 acres, the most of it very
fertile and capable, with irrigation, of growing every kind of fruit, grain, and
vegetables in the greatest luxuriance. This strip of land is covered in its natural
state with a coarse, wiry grass, not fit for making first quality of hav, though the
cultivated grasses could easily be domesticated here.  They are found to grow
readily when planted after the manner of grain. The rest of the valley, like
the surrounding country, is nothing but a sage barren, producing, besides the
artemesia, only a little bunch grass, with a few shrubs almost as worthless as the
sage itself.  The river, running through the middle of the valley, is deep, narrow, and crooked, and has a swift current, which, with its generally marshy ballnks,
renders fording difficult.  In the summer, during the melting of the snow on the
mountains, it overflows its banks in many places, particularly the tule lands, of
which there are good deal along its borders.  The mountain streams, after flowlving
out into the valley a short distance, spread out over the surface, irrigating it and
producing large patches of clover. These spots were the favorite abodes of the
Indians, vwhlo planted a variety of roots, grasses, and other vegetable comestibles,
iwhichl thev irrigated, conveying the water through small ditches and channels
formed with mud, often quite a distance.  In the possession of the whites they
will soon be converted into luxuriant gardens, orchards, and grain fields.  Along
Owen's valley there are already a large number of fine, well stocked, and culltivated farms, many thousand bushels of grain having been raised there, besides
butter and cheese made for several years past. Five hundred thousand pounds
Watson's report.         t W. C. Watson.          t Pacific Coast Directory.
175
' Watson's report.
t W. C. Watson.
-11 Pacific Coast Directory. 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of grain were raised last year, and still larger quantities this. These farms wits
proper culture produce as abundantly as the richest valley lands elsewhere in the
State, the yield of wheat and barley being often at the rate of 40 and 50 bushels to
the acre. Cattle keep fat here running in the pastures the year round, no stabling
or fodder being required. The population of the county, for several years greatly
diminished on account of Indian difficulties, is now about 2,000, having increased
largely within the past six or eight months on account of the very flattering
prospects of the mines. The assessable property is estimated at three-quarters
of a million dollars, and there is no doubt but both the population and wealth
of the county will be largely augmented hereafter.  A  number of towns have
been laid out, some in the vicinity of the mines and others in Owen's valley,
but none of them have yet attained any great size.  Bend City, San Carlos,
and Independence are in the valley, KIearsarge City being 10 miles west of
Independence and near the famous mines of that name.   Lake City, laid out in
1S62, is at the south end of Owen's Big Lake. It contained quite a population
at one time, but is now nearly deserted.  Bend City and San Carlos also contain
fewer inhabitants than they did several years since. The late accessions to the
population are mostly in the mining districts. Independence, the county seat,
is a growing and thrifty town, with a school and other evidences of progress.
Fort Independence, the military post near by, adds much to the business of the
place, there being at all times several companies of troops stationed here. The
fort is a well-built, comfortable structure, with well-improved grounds and outbuildings about it.  MIount Whitney, the highest peak in the Sierra Nevada, and
claimed to be the most elevated land in the United States, is over 15,000 feet
high, and lies within the limits of Inyo county. There are several other peaks
in the neighborhood ranging from 10,000 to 14,000 in height.  Snow lies on
some of these peaks all summer.  The  whole range is covered nearly to its
base during the winter season, though but little snow lies in the valley during
the coldest weather.  The summers here are hot, the thermometer standing much
of the time at 100~ in the shade, but throughout the rest of the year the
weather is mild and pleasant.  But little rain or snow falls, except on the
mountains, rendering the county extremely arid and making irrigation necessary
for the growth of the crops.  For introducing water upon the land many small
ditches have been dug, also some of larger dimensions: one, the San Carlos,
taking water from Owen's river, is 15 miles long and cost $30,000.  There
are two saw-mills and nine quartz mills in the county. The former are driven
by water, are capable of cutting about 10,000 feet of lumber daily, and cost
$7,000.  Seven of the quartz mills are driven by steam and two by water
power.  The whole carry about 100 stamps and cost nearly $400,000.  Some
of these mills were erected several years ago, at a time when the proper mode of
treating the ores in this region were but ill understood, and as a consequence
proved failures. Most of them gave up after a few ineffectual efforts, and have
remained idle ever since. Those put up more recently are supplied with the necessary appliances for the successful management of the ores, and have mostly been
operated with satisfactory results. Besides these mills there are about 20 arrastras running in the county.  One flour mill has lately been built in the valley,
and the grain crop being large, will no doubt do a prosperous business.   This
county is reached from California by several good roads; one from Los Angeles,
which entering Owen's valley from the south, is unimpeded by snow at all seasons.  With the exception of a few miles of desert it is a good road, nearly
level, and the one over which most of the freight has heretofore been taken in.
Another coming in from the State of Nevada enters this valley at its northern
extremity, and, though most employed for transporting goods intended for the
northern parts of the county, is not passable for teams on account of snow during
the winter.  The other road, via Walker's Pass, enters the valley centrally, and
though never seriously obstructed by snow, is not much used by teams on account
176 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of its steepness in places and the great distance goods nave to be hauled on this
route.  Eight or 10 different mining districts have first and last been erected
within the limits of this county, in all of which there are many metalliferous lodes
of value, though working tests, owing to the extremely rebellious character of
the ores, have not as yet proved wholly satisfactory.  The ores here consist
mostly of argentiferous galena, and can be successflilly reduced only by smlelting,
a method now generally adopted in most of the districts.'The mines are sit,:ated in the two main ranges of mountains running in a northerly and soutldlerly course across the county, the Sierra on the west, and the 3Ionachi or Coso
range on the east.  In the latter is located the Lone Pine district, abounding
with veins varying in thlickness from one to 40 feet, nearly all carrying a good
grade of ore, much of it yielding, by the rude smelting process now employed,
from $50 to $100 per ton.  At present only the richest ores are woriecd and a
large percentage of the metal is lost, calling for more economical and effectual
modes of treatment.  That these will soon be supplied seems probable, as the
attention of scientific miners and capitalists is now being directed to that quarter.
The ores here are to be had in great quantity, and as population is flowing into
the district, supplying an abundance of available labor, there is no doubt but
the product of bullion will be large within a few years.   In the other districts,
except KIearsarge, and one or two others, there is but little work being done,
though, as stated, they all contain valuable gold, silver, and copper-bearing
lodes. The Kearsarge district is situate on the eastern declivity of the Sierra,
here very steep, and at a point about 12 miles west from Fort Independence.
The lodes here, which are from two to five feet thickl carry a fair percentage
of silver, which is their predominating metal.   The lode of the IKearsarge
Company, the most thoroughly explores, contains ore of good average grade.
This company, after erecting a 10-stamp mill, met with difficulty in saving the
metal known to exist in their ore; hence they have been obliged to delay running,
their mill until by varied experimenting they have determined the best method
for its treatment. It is confidently expected that liberal returns will be secured,
as there can be no question as to the richness of the ore.  A tunnel 100 feet in
length has been run to the ledge of this company, opening it to a depth of 180
feet beneath the croppings, the side of the mountain here approaching so near the
perpendicular.  Other companies are at work near the Kearsarge opening their
claims, all of which afford encouraging prospects, and as there are here wood and
water in abundance this may in time become a prosperous and productive district. In addition to gold and silver, this county contains many other metals
and minerals, such as iron, copper, sulphur, and salt, the latter existing about a
small lake in Owen's valley, in such quantities that it can always be procured
there at a merely nominal cost.
SECTION XVIII.
MONO COUNTY.
This county, like Lassen and Alpine, lies upon and to the east of the Sierra
Nevada.  It is very elevated, and constitutes the water-shed between the basin of
Carson and of Owen's rivers, both of which streams, though running in opposite
directions, have their sources in this countv. As a consequence, the climate is
rigorous, snow falling in the winter to a great depth, even in the valleys, and ice
sometimes forming at night in the summer.  There is a narrow belt of alluvial
land along several of the creeks falling from the Sierra into 31ono lake-, and a
few thousand acres at the Big Meadows on Walker river, with sonime small patches
elsewhere in the county; yet the amount of arable land it contains is small.
12
177 
178       RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Some farming is done at each of these places. The crops planted are mostly
potatoes and other vegetables, which, with careful culture and irrigation, generallvy mature and yield well. A large amount of hay is cut every year at the
Big Meadows. Aurora and thl,.e most of the mining camps in the county get a
good share of their supply there.
MIono contains about 1,000 inhabitants, scarcely as many as it did six or seven
years ago, vwhen the placer miines gave employment to a large number of men.
These mines, discovered in 1857, were worked for four or five years thereafter
with much profit to such as held the better class of claims, the daily earnings
varying from $5 to $20 to the hand.  The working seasons, however, were
somewhat contracted, and the digging in many places deep, while the cost of
living was high,  vlwhereby the net yearly savings were reduced to moderate
rates. The mines lay in alluvium washed from the Sierra and lodged in a field
of enormous granite boulders, their area finally proving to be of no great extent,
which, after the summer of 1861, led to their gradual abandonment. A town
named Monoville grew up at these diggings, which by the census of 1860 contained 900 inhabitants, the most of whom on the discovery of the silver lodes as
Aurora, that year, removed to that place, to which also most of the buildings at
Mlonoville were afterwards transferred. For several years after some placer
mining was still carried on, but at present there is scarcely anything being done
at these diggings. There are, however, near them a number of small quartz lodes
containing free gold.  Some of these were worked in 1860, by means of arrastras,
driven by water, and for a time good results were obtained; but the pay streak
in these lodes was very narrow, rendering it expensive to get out sufficient ore to
keep the arrastras running, which led to a final cessation of work upon them.
With more thorough development it is thought these veins could still be worked
with remunerative results.  There is water at hand for driving a considerable
number of stamps. For supplying water to the placers a ditch 20 miles long
was built in 1860, at an expense of $75,000, which work might still be made
a vailable as a power for chdriving machinery.
illono lake, the principal body of water in this county, having been elsewhere
described, it only remains here to speak of the numerous streams falling from the
Sierra, some flowing into the lake, and others uniting in the Big Meadows and
forming the east fork of Walker river. Many of them are large, and by their
volume and fall create an immense water-power, a portioal of which, as they run
through the finest of timber lands, has been applied to the propulsion of machinery.  Mono contains a great extent of pine and spruce forests, ranging along the
Eastern slope and the foot-hills of the Sierra. Those in the vicinity of the Big
Meadows are the most valuable. The trees here, though not extremely large,
are straight and well formed.  There are eight saw-mills in the county, having
an average capacity to cut 5,000 feet of lumber daily. They are mostly driven
by steam, and cost from $2,000 to $10,000 each, or an aggregate of $35,000.
A large quantity of lumber is made here every year, which finds a market at
Aurora and in the adjacent mining districts. There are three quartz mills inll
the county, two in the Bodie district driven by steam, and one at Hiot Springs
driven by water. The former carry, the one 16, and the other 12 stamps, and
the latter four.  The entire cost of these mills has been about $200,000.
The only town of any size in Mono is Bridgeport, the colunty seat.  It is situate
at the Big Meadows on the east fork of Walker river, and is surrounded with
fine agricultural and hay lands, with a stretch of excellent timber a short distance back on the foot-hills of the Sierra.  From Bridgeport to Aurora a good
wagon road has been built, also an expensive road across the mountains to Stockton, California. The vote in this county numbers a little over 300; the value
of real and personal property is estimated at $400,000.  It contains a number
of hot springs, one group, situate in the foot-hills on the road to Stockton, discharges a large volume of boiling water. Mono is not without valuable ore 
WEST OF THIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
bearing veins, both of gold and silver. Some of these are described in the
chapter on Esmeralda county, Nevada, being situate in the Blind Spring and
other districts lying partly in that State, and partly in California.   In tlhe
Bodie district, 10 miles east of the county seat, are some gold and silver-bearing
lodes, several of which are explored by means of tunnels, varying from 300 to
800 feet in lengthl. There are also two quartz mills in this district, both of
which, hlaving, as is supposed, overcome, after many ineffectual and costly trials,
the difficulties met with in working the ores here, are now in a fair way of achieving success.  That there is some fair grade ore in these lodes has been clearly
shown, the only trouble having been to hit upon a proper mode for their reduction.
This having now been attained, and two well-appointed mills placed upon the
ground, it may reasonably be expected that some bullion will be sent from this
district the incoming, year.  Within the present year a new district named Castle
Peakl, lying a few miles southwest of Bridgeport, has been erected, a large and
very rich gold-bearing lode having been found there.  It lies immediately under
and to the northeast of Castle Peakl, one of the highest summits along this portion
of the Sierra. Very rich float rock had been observed here, which led to the
prospecting of the locality and, after some time spent, to the final discovery of
the lode mentioned. Placer mining had for some years been carried on along
the streams below, with success, the gold found having been released from this
large vein and carried by the water of these creeks, and deposited along their
banks.  The most of this mining has been done by Chinamen, a company of
whom are still at worl, realizing wages that to these people are satisfactory.  The
exploration of this recently discovered lode is now being prosecuted, and it gives
promise of proving a good vein. It is situated at the line of contact between
two favorable formations for the production of metal, granite and slate.  Gold
predominates in value, though the lode is also well charged with sullphurets of
silver, and from assays made it is calculated that the ore will yield by mill process, under the most inexpensive mode of treatment, from $40 to $60 per ton.
The means essential to an economical reduction of ores prevail here, the mines
being, in the midst of stately forests, with two large creeks-Virginia and Green
-but a couple of miles distant, affording sufficient power to carry several hundred
stamps.  A large number of claims in addition to the original location have-been
taken up on this ledge, and as some of the owners are possessed of energy and
means, it is thought that operations will be initiated here the coming season.
The erection of several mills has been determined upon, the work of exploration
to go on meantime, and it is generally believed an active mining camp will spring
up here next summer.
SECTION XIX.
MINING DITCHES.
Ditches occupy an important place in the mining of California.  Indeed, it
may be said that without them the mines of the State would be relatively insignificant. At least four-fifths of the gold is obtained with the assistance, direct
or indirect, of ditch water.  There are very few springs in the miningregions, the
bed rock being usually slate with perpendicular cleavage, through which the water
soaks down to the lowest levels.  The permanent streams are found only at long
intervals, and run in deep, steep, and narrow channels.  Nature has furnished
no adequate supply of water near the surface for towns or for quartz mills; so
they, as well as the hydraulic pipes and sluices, must depend upon ditch water,
which thus is an indispensable requisite to the production of four-fifths, perhaps
nineteen-twentieths of the gold. It is fortunate that the mountain ridge east of
179 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the mining district rises high into the region of snow, where the moisture that
falls from the atmosphere in winter is condensed and retained until summer and
fall. But without the ditches this moisture would do little good o the miners,
since there are few camps near springs or on the immediate banks of constant
streams.
EXPENsIvE CONSTRUCTION.-The first experiments in ditching in 1850 were
magnificently successful. The canals were short and small, and the water was
either sold at a very high price, or was used in working out rich claims. It was
not uncommon for several years for little ditches to repay the cost of construction
in a couple of months. It was supposed that the right to the water of a good
stream would be worth a fortune. The merchants in each town considered it
their interest to encourage and assist the miners to bring in water, so as to increase
the population, gold production, and trade. The country was full of enterprise
and money, for which there was not much other use. Numerous ditch companies
were formed to bring water from the elevated regions in the mountains, and many
had invested too much to withdraw before any of them had learned the business
before them by experience.  The work was done when labor was very high;
the price for common laborers being $8 per day, and lumber was $100 per thousand
feet. Before the canals were finished, wag,es had fallen 50 per cent. or more, and
the work done was worth in the market only half its cost.  Besides, in 1851 and
1852 the common price for water was 50 cents or $1 an inch, and the ditch companies made their calculations upon charging those figures, but before the completion of the ditches the best claims in the ravines had been exhausted, and there
was not enough rich ground left to pay high prices for all the water.
BAD ENGINEERING. —The ditch companies did not find good hydraulic engineers. MIany of the canals were constructed under the influence of carpenters
who wanted to turn their skill in wood-work to account, and wherever it was
possible they constructed wooden flumes, even in places peculiarly favorable for
ditching, and where the latter would have cost less than fluming. The flume
loses value every year, while the ditch, by getting more solid, gains. The flume
must be rebuilt about once in six, eight, or at most ten years, and the ditch,
never. The flume soon leaks, and the ditch after a time loses very little by
leakage.
HIGH FLUMrES.-But the mistake in constructing flumes resting on the ground
was little compared with the loss suffered by constructing high flumes, which
were wonderful specimens of engineering skill, and still more wonderful samples
of bad investments. It was common to see flumes 100 and 200 feet high, and
there is one now standing near Big Oak Flat, in Tuolumne county, 256 feet high.
These high flumes are very costly, and are firequently blown down. The water
could, in most cases, have been conveyed in iron pipe, which is much cheaper,
and far more durable, and in many instances it could be and has been conveyed
in ditches, constructed at small cost round the head of a ravine. As the yield
of the mines decreased, the charge for water became onerous, and the miners foimed
combinations to compel a reduction of rates, and these strikes were accompanied
sometimes by malicious injmuies to ditches and flumes.
UNPROFITABLE INVESTMENTS.-The big ditches, almost without exception,
proved unprofitable. Some of them have paid more than their cost, but not near
so much as the same money would have paid at the current rates of interest. It
is estimated by competent men that not less than $20,000,000 have been invested
in the mining ditches of California, and that their present cash value is not more
than $2,000,000. In many cases they broke the men who undertook them. AMost
of them have been sold by the sheriff, some of them several times over; breaking
the first purchaser, as well as the builders. Bean's " History of Nevada County,"
speaking of the South Yuba ditch as a remarkable work, says: "While nearly all
the canal enteiprises of the country have passed from the control of the men who
conceived and executed them} the South Yuba canal remains a triumph, as well of
180 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
the engineering as of the financial ability of its managers, still remaining in
possession of the fathers of the enterprise, and owned without an incumbrance or
enemy, all the men who assisted in any degree in the construction of the worls
having long ago been paid to the uttermost farthing."
DECLINE IN VALUE.-There is a steady decline in the value of the ditches,
as there is a steady decrease in the yield of the placer mines, which consume
nine-tenths of the water.  The Truckee ditch, which was completed in 1858, at
a cost of $1,000,000, to supply the towns on the Blue lead, near the southern
border of Sierra county, has gone to iiin. Forty miles of the new ditch, at
Columbia, have been abandoned, and 11 miles of the Amador ditch are abandoned.
* Besides these costly main trunks of large canals there are hundreds of miles of
branches, each large enouglh to carry 100 inches or more, that once supplied
water to thousands of miners, who have now left their camp, and the ditches are
dry and broken. The Mokelumne Hill Ditch Company is now constructing a
branch ditch to Cat Camp; the Sears Union Ditch Company, in Sierra county,
are constructing a branch to Poverty Hill and Scales's Diggings, and the pro  prietor of the South Fork canal, in Eldorado county, is talking of building a
new ditch, to be 50 miles long, and to carry 5,000 inches of water; but it is
probable that more miles will be abandoned during the next three or four years
than will be built. The receipts of the Bear river and Auburn canal show a
steady decline from $90,000 in 1863 to $40,000 in 1866. One of the best-informed
ditch miners in Tuolumne says that the receipts of the ditches in that county
decrease six per cent. every year on an average, while there is no correspondent
decrease of expenditures. The decrease in the State generally is probably not
less than 10 per cent.
THE SUPPLY OF WATER EXCEEDING THE DEMAND.-3{any of the companies
are seriously troubled by inability to sell all their water, and some have commenced
to buy up mining ground to wash on their own account.   It not unfrequently
happens that miners finding their claims will not pay, after having run in debt
to the water company, transfer their claims in payment, and the company, by
hiring Chinamen, and requiring the ditch tenders to devote their spare hours to
the labor of superintendence, and using water for which there is no sale, manage
to make a good profit where the original claim owners could make none.
SMALL I)ITCHES. -Although the large ditches, as a class, are unprofitable,
many of the small ones pay very well. The minor ditches are short, constructed
on favorable ground, have no high flumes to be blown down by Ale wind, or to be
broken by the snow, or swept away by avalanches, and not unfrequently they
pick up water that escapes from a ditch higher up, so they avoid many of the
most serious expenses of the larger ditches. They usually run dry easily in the
summer, and supply single claims or little camps of no note, and so they are
relatively of little importance to the mining industry of the country.
FLJUMES.-Flumies are usually made with boards, an inch and a half thick for
the bottom, and an inch arnd a quarter for the sides. At intervals of two and a
half feet there is a support for the flume box, consisting of a sill, posts, and cap.
The sills are four inches square; the posts three by four inches, and the caps one
and a half by four inches. To erect a flume 25 feet high, costs about twice as
much as to lay one on the level of the ground, and at 60 feet it costs four times
as much. The annual repair of a flume is about one-eighth of its original cost,
in favorable circumstances.  If the flume is left dry several months, the repairs
may be more, for the sun warps and splits the boards, and draws the nails.  A
flume box, 40 inches wide by 20 inches deep, with a grade of 13 feet to the mile,
will carry about 800 inches, and such a flume built on the surface of the ground
will cost now at the rate of $4,000 per mile, near a saw-mill. The boards are
put in the flume rough, but are always battened, and sometimes caulked.   The
cheapest flume costs twice as much as the cheapest ditch of the same capacity, and
the repairs of a flume cost 90 per cent. more than those of a ditch. The duration
181 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of a high flume is on an average about six years, and of a low one 8 or 10.
For the first two or three years after the construction of a ditch thlere is much
trouble firom gopher holes and slides.
The flumes in the highest portions of the Sierra, and especially about Howland
Flat and La Porte are much troubled by the snow, and much  labor is spent
on them every winter. The weight of the snow is so great that after every snowstore, or while it is inll progress, a man must go along and clear the flume with
a shovel.  In cases where the flume is on a hill-side it is necessary to shove
away the snow from the upper side of the flume, for the mass moves down hil.
with tremendous weight, though with very slow motion, and no flume could
resist it.
IPRON PIPE.-The use of iron pipe in the form of an inverted siphon, instead
of high flume, for the purpose of carrying water across ravines, has been a great
improvement anrd saving in the ditch business. Near Placerville, water is carried
across a depression 190 feet, and 1,600 feet long, in a pipe that cost $900, whereas
a flume would have cost $25,000.  Not only is it cheaper, but it can be used where
fluming is peculiarly impossible, as in crossing ravines 400 feet deep.
The sheet-iron used in making pipe comes in sheets two feet wide and six feet
long,. The common sizes of pipe are 7 inches and 11 inches in diameter, made
in joints two feet long. A sheet makes two joints of 11-inch pipe, and three of
seven-inch, and 11 joints are iveted together to make a section 20O feet long.  At
the end of each section, as pipes are usually made, there is an ear or hook riveted
on each side, and whenl the foot of one section is thrust into the head of another,
a wire is wrapped round the opposite ears or hooks to tie the sections together.  In
case the pipe is laid on a hill-side running down, each section is tied at the head
to a post to keep it in place; and the post may be supported by a board placed
edgewise and crosswise in the ground. About an inch and a half of space is
allowed for the lap at the end of the sections. The ends need to be made with
precision, so that they will be water-tight, without packing. The pipe should
be put together in a straight line, and the sections should be driven togethei
with a sledge-hammer, striking a board laid across the end of the section.  The
pipe needs to be coated with tar to preserve it, and if very large it may be coated
inside as well as out.
The cost of 11-inch pipe made of No. 20 iron is about 75 cents per foot. The
thickness of the iron depends upon the amount of pressure and the size of the
pipe.  The larger the pipe the thicker the iron should be.  The pressure at 190
feet is 88 pounds per square inch, and No. 20 iron is strong enough for that, if
the pipe be not more than 11 inches in diamete-r.
The capacity of an inverted siphon depends mainly on the three elements of
diameter, head and depression. The deeper the depression the greater the friction
and the slower the current.  A straight pipe 11 inches in diameter will carry
five times as much water as an inverted siphon of the same size and head with
a depression of 200 feet.
DITcH LAW.-The rules of the common law relative to the rights to water
were unsuited to the wants of California, and therefore the courts have, by their
decision, established a new code, which was original here. Among the principles
of the California water code are the following:
The water of a stream may be led away from its natural bed and never returned.
Water becomes the property of the first claimant;. but it becomes his property
only for the purpose for which he claims it, and to the amount which he appro
priates.
The holder of a claim has a right to use the water without any obstruction
from later claimants, who may, nevertheless, use the water, if they return it clear
and uninjured above the point where the first claimant takes it.
If a miner after claiming and using water abandons it, and allows it to run
into a channel claimed by another, the latter becomes the owner.
182 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
If a ditch is cut for drainage alone, anothier may claim tile water for miniinE.
When the waters of an artificial ditch are turned into a natural stream- i itl
the intention of taking out the same almount at a lower point on the streamI, tiev
may be so taken out, thou,gh the streami had alr'eadv been claimed bv anotlher title.
No  person has a rilght to take the water fiontll the bed of a stream  in whlich
there is a priori mining claim that cannot be worked without the wvatei.
Section 9 of the act of Congress of August, 1866, relative to ditch companies,
makes a material change in the i;ighits of ditch companies.   It provides:
That wherever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural
manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested and accrued. and the same are recognized and
acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and
owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right
of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and confirmed: Provided, however, That whenever, after the passage of this act, any
person or persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or damage the possessions of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall
be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.
Under this act a ditch company acquires a title to the land on which the ditch
is made, and to as much more on each side as may be necessary for the safety
or business of the ditch.  The company has, beside, the right to run a ditch over
mining claims and farms on the public domain, on the payment of the actual
damage done.  Previous to the passage of this act, if a ditch was located over
a mining claim of prior date, the miner had a righit to wash away all his ground,
and if the ditch was daminaed the ditch company had to bear the loss;  but unde]
tile new law the ditch company has a better title than the mnining, claims of prioT
location; and if the miner washes away the ditch or injures it, he becomes respon.
sible for the damage.
CONIFLICT BETWEEN  DITCHERS AND  3INErS. —The first conflict or cast
under the law arose at Gold Run, in Placer county, where tohere was a large
extent of ground suitable for hydraulic washiling, but it remained long inaccessible
for want of water or of outlet.  Several ditch companies ran their ditches ovel.
mining claims, and the miners notified the ditch companies that the ground there
would, after a time, be washed away.   The ditch companies replied that they
recognized the prior right of the miners and would move the ditches at their own
expense wlhenl the washing should get near to the line.  Before that time came,
the act of 1866 was passed giving to the ditch companies superior rights.  Early
in this year one of tile miners, over whose claim several ditches ran, notified the
companies that lie was rapidly approaching their lines with his pipe, and the bank
would soon be washed away.  One company replied that they would move.at
their oxwnv; expense; another gave him notice not to come withlin 50 feet, or they
would hold iln responsible for all damage done.  He has been compelled to
stop because hlis profits would not have been large enough to cover the damage.
.  PROPOSED G'nANT OF LAND ALONG DITclHEs.-The ditch companies have
solicited from Congress a grant of at least 10() feet on each side of their lines;
and their wish upon this point deserves attentive consideration. If such a grant,
at least along the main trunks where not less than 500 inches of water are carried
for six months in the year without disturbing the claims of miners located previous to the location of the ditch, would encourage the construction of new ditches,
or would give longer life or greater size to those now in existence, it would be
politic. These companies, by whose assistance $700,000,000 have been taken
from the ground, at a loss of $10,000,000 to themselves, deserve to receive some
favors, which will cost nothing to the government, do no injustice to individual
mines, and increase or keep up the supply of water.
Before the passage of the act of 1866, granting tile right of way to tihe ditches,
the Pacific Railroad act had been passed, giving to that road alternate sections
of public land for a width of five miles on each side of the line, and thus the
Central Pacific Railroad Company has become the owner of many miles of
183 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ditch belonging to different companies along its line; and although it has not
seen fit to demand anything from them, still it is very unpleasant to the ditch
companies to know that they are at the mercy of another association of later
date.  The act of 1866 giving a right of way for the ditch companies secures
them against losing their lines bv future railroad grants, but it leaves them sub ject to fears that the land immediately alongside may be taken in such a way
as to prevent changes and improvements  that might be required.  In sonme
places where there are high flumes a strip 100 feet on each side of the line would
not be too much to be granted to the ditch companies; but in those places where
there is a plain ditch or iron pipe on a plain surface, there would seem to be
no good reason for granting more than room enough to drive a wagon along.
3IEAsur,EMENT OF  WATEPR.-Water is sold by the inch, and usually an
inch is the amount which escapes through an orifice an inch square, with the
water six inches deep above the top of the orifice.  That is called a six-inch
pressure.  If a large quantity is sold, the orifice may be two or three inches
hig,h. The mode of measurement, however, is not uniform. In some places
the pressure is nine or ten inches; in others there is no pressure but the quantity
that escapes through an orifice an inch wide, and three inches high, without
pressure, is called an inch.
In calculations made by machinists it is often necessary to use the term "an
inch of water," and by common consent that phrase is accepted now to mean
a supply of 4.032 cubic inches, or 145.86-100 pounds per minute; 3,360 cubic
feet, 10,656 gallons in 24 hours; and 1,226,400 cubic feet, 30,41.0 tons of 40
cubic feet each, or 6,020,540 gallons in 365 days of 24 hours each.  If an inch
of water pass 200 feet fall it supplies an amount of power about one-tenth less
than one-horse power.
At the last session of the legislature of California a bill was  introducedI to
provide that " where the question shall be involved as to the quantity of running
water sold, purchased, delivered, or used, and described by "miiner's inche," it
shall be held and declared that a'miner's inch' of water shall consist of two
and one-third cubic feet of water passing a given point in one minute of time, or
seven and -4%4 gallons of water passing a given point in a minute, or 145s-0~
pounds of water passing a given point in a minute." The bill was referred to
the committee on mines, which reported a substitute, providing that "a legal inch
of water sold for mining, agricultural, or other purpose, is hereby declared to be
what water may pass through an orifice of one inch square, through plank of one
inch in thickness, with a pressure of seven inches measured from the centre of
the orifice to the surface of the water: Providetl, the water shall be delivered
from a box in which the water has no motion except that caused by the flow of
the water to be delivered from that particular box." Both the original bill and
the substitute were indefinitely postponed.  The objections to the substitute were
that it mighilt be as well to let the miners and ditch companies agree upon their
measurements as well as upon their prices, and that some companies which had
long adopted other modes of measurement would be inconvenienced.
EUREKA LAKE ADI) YUtBA CANAL COMPANY'S'  DITCIES.-The property of
this company, uinder the present organization, is a consolidation of the ditch and
mining property formerly owned by a number of different companies. It extends
over a vast range of country, and embraces many valuable mines.  The main
ditches were constructed during the years 1855 to 1859, inclusive. Purchases
of the smaller ditches and consolidation of the larger have taken place at different
times during the last eight years; that between the Eureka Lake Water Company and the Middle.Yuba Canal and Water Company was on the 1st of August,
1865. All the property of this company has since been transferred to a corporacion organized for the purpose in the city of New York, the transfer having taken
effect on the 1st of January, 1866. The following statement is derived from the
superintendent, M1r. Richard Abbey: Capital stock, $2,250Q000.   The first cost
184 
WEST OF THIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of construction of all the wvorkls would be difficult to estimate, but wo/lld prl)obably not fall far short of $2,000,000.  The cost of the Eureka Lalke WLter Coinpany and Middle Yuba Canal and Water Company's property was $1,600,000;
lengthl of main ditches and flumes, 100 miles; supplemental, 60; capacity, 5,000
inches.  Estimated amount of gold taken out by the miners supplied with water
by this company during the last five years, $2,000,000 per year.
Mr. George Black, civil engineer, thus describes the district of country tlhroughl
which these remarkable ditches run, the prevailing systems of mining, and the
costs and profits:
The mining section of country supplied by the Middle Yuba canal is situated in the northwest of Nevada county, and commences at North San Juan; it thence extends, on the south
side of the Middle Yuba river, to its junction with the Main Yuba; thence, on the southeasterly side of the Main Yuba, by Sebastopol, Manzanita Hill, Sweetlands, Buckeye, Birchville, and French Corral, a distance of about six miles.
At Junction Bluff, a spur from Manzanita HIill, the Middle and North Yuba rivers join
together and flow in a southwesterly direction, for a distance of about eight miles, to the junction of the South Yuba, at Point Defiance, three miles below French Corral.
From San Juan to a point about a quarter of a mile below Junction Bluff, the north edge
of the mining ground is at a distance of about half a mile from the river, and at an elevation
of about 800 feet above it, having a gradual inclination to the water's edge. From this point
to French Corral a slate ridge of hills extends between the northwest side of the minilng
ground and the river.  On the south it is bounded by a low ridge of hills, which extend to
the South Yuba. Along the north and west sides of these hills, and in the intervening valleys, part of the company's main canal is situated, together with the branches and reservoirs
belonging to it.
'lIhe mining ground from San Juan to French Corral is composed of a succession of gently
rounded gravel hills, in length from one mile to one mile and a half each, separated by ravines;
the width is more contracted in some places than in others; on an average, it may be taken
at 1,500 feet. The depth along the centre varies from 150 to 200 feet, diminishing towards
the sides.  The deposit rests on a basin-shaped depression in the bed rock, which is composed
in some places of granite, in others of either trap or transition slate. In those places where
the superincumbent gravel has been washed away the bed rock is exposed to view, and presents a similar appearance to that of the present river, which flows several hundred feet
beneath. The water-worn appearance of the rocks, all the angles and projecting points of
which have been rounded off, show very plainly that at one time a powerful current of water
must have swept over them.
The gravel hills are composed of layers (in some places almost horizontal) of sand and
gravel, intermixed here and there with streaks of clay. The upper layers are composed of
sand and fine gravel; the gravel becomes coarser as the depth increases. The lower portion
is composed of boulders and gravel cemented together into a hard and compact mass, resting
on the bed rock. Gold is found throughout the whole of this deposit; the upper 50 or 60
feet contain it only in very small quantities; it increases with the depth, the lower 20 to 30
feet lying above the bed rock being invariably the richest. The gold is what is usually
termed "fine," being in very minute scales, in some cases almost resembling the fineness of
dust. Large and coarse gold is rarely met with in this locality.
Gold mining was at first only carried on in the beds of rivers and ravines or along their
banks, where coarse gold was found, with comparatively little labor or expense in the extractionii of it. When these places were partially exhausted the attention of miners was turned
to deposits such as these under notice, which could only be made available by a large supply
of water, brought in over the mining ground at a high elevation. It was to attain this object
that a number of miners joined together in 1853 and organized the Middle Yuba Canal Company, and commenced the construction of their works. When they were completed, a new
system of working was inaugurated here, by which water was made to replace the labor of
men.   Practical experience has since then proved that the more water is used the more economically and effectually can the deposits be worked. The water is conducted from the flume
or ditch into the measuring box, 12 to 14 feet square, in the side of which openings are left
two inches in depth, and extending along all the sides. The water is allowed to attain a
depth of six inches above the centre of these orifices. The measurements are made according to the sectional area through which the water flows; for instance, 20 inches in length by
2 inches in depth is called 40 inches in miners' measurement; 50X2=100, and so on. The
discharge is regulated according to the demand, and is allowed t9 flow during a working day
of 10 hours.  A cubic foot, or 7.49 U.S. gallons, equals 38 miners' inches.
The water from the main canal, or from the reservoir, is carried over high flumes and in
branch ditches to the different hills, where measuring boxes are fixed to receive it; from these
boxes it flows through pipes to the different companies at work. The main pipes at present
185 
PRESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
used are made of sheet iron one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, firmly riveted together;
(S,000 feet of pipe are in use oni the different hills.) The lengths are usually about 12 feet; the
diameter from 11 to 18 inches. The main pipe is connected to a cast-iron box, placed as low
down as circumstances will admit; to this box pipes of a lesser diameter are attached, at
different sides, so that the water can be thrown on different points.  At the extremities of
these pipes flexible tubes are fixed, to which are attached nozzles with metallic ends. The
diameter of their orifices is two to three inches. The nozzles are pointed against the bank
which has to be removed. The water used varies from 200 to 1,000 inches; 1,000 inches,
miners' measurement, equals 26+ cubic feet, or 197 U.S. gallons; in weight, 1,630 pounds;
being a constant discharge, under pressures varying from 140 to 200 feet.  This colossal
force brought to bear against the banks cuts and breaks them away to within a few feet of
the bed rock. Blasting is resorted to to break up the cemented gravel; sometimes long drills
and sand blasts are used, with only a small quantity of powder. Where the crust to be
removed is too thick for this a drift is run in a little further than the height of the bank, and
from I to 20 kegs of powder are used, according to the depth of the bank to be lifted.
In the centre of the hills the hard gravel is generally from 20 to 50 feet in depth. A drift
is run in onl the bed rock, and from 50 to 175 kegs of powder are used at one blast.
Some miners think it more economical and profitable to drift. They construct parallel
tunnels 100 feet apart on the bed rock, six to seven feet in height, running into the cliffs,
and connect them together with cross-drifts. The connecting walls are washed away by
hydraulic power, which causes the entire cliff to settle down and break to pieces in its fall.
The water is then brought to bear on this mass with such force that it sweeps everything
away through tunnels constructed in the bed rock. Timber sluices are laid through these
tunnels, varying in width from two and a half to four feet, and 18 inches in depth.  The
grade is usually 1 foot in 15. Two sluices are sometimes used in the same tunnel by different
companies, from two to two and a half feet in width each. Larger sluices and heads of
water, with a smaller grade, seem latterly to be preferred as more efficient.
Several methods are in use for the effectual saving of the gold. In some places the bottoms
of the sluices are paved with rounded stones of oblong shape, the lesser diameter being about
three inches. The gold, as it is carried along, is deposited in the interstices between them.
A "clean up " is made in every 10 or 20 days. In other places blocks are used, sawn across
the grain, and about two feet square and six inches in depth; a ba ten two inches wide and
two inches in depth is placed between them across the flume, which forms a hollow of four
inches in every two feet; in these crevices the gold is deposited. These blocks, of course,
wear out very rapidly, and have, about once in every two months, to be replaced. The
velocity of the water is so great that rocks weighing from 100 to 150 pounds are often carried
along by the current through the tunnels. The entire mass is precipitated over falls from 12
to 20 feet in height, which breaks up the boulders and cement; the fragments are taken up
anew by other sluices, again precipitated over falls, which operation is repeated several times
before the river is reached, several hundred feet below. In several places under-current
sluices are used. At the end of and in the bottom of the last sluice-box a grating is constructed of iron bars, through which a portion of the fine gravel, clay, sand, and water is
separated from the larger particles, and drops into a set of more gently-graded sluices undernreath, varying in width from six to eight feet, through which they are carried off by the current in one direction, while the main body of gravel and boulders is dashed over the falls, to
be again taken up by other sluices, along with the tailings from the under current, and subjected anew to the same operation, which is thus repeated several times before the river is
reached.
To show the enormous advantages gained by the present system of working, compared
with those formerly in use, I may add that, taking a miner's wages at $4 per day, the cost
of extraction of a cubic yard of deposit will be as follows:
With the pan................................................................. $20 CO
With the rocker.............................................................  5 00
With the Lotlig Tom...................... —---------------------------------------------------- 1 00
While with the powerful means now employed it is only.... —-----------------------'20
A considerably greater quantity of gold is retained by this operation than by any other
hitherto employed. Quicksilver is used more by some miners than by others, distributed
through their sluices so as to form an amalgam with the gold. They have no fixed rule to
guide them in its use.
The works of the Middle Yuba Canal Company were commenced by the construction of a
small ditch from Grizzly canion (a small stream which falls into the Middle Yuba) to San
Juan.  The water supply not being sufficient, the ditch was enlarged in 1855 to its present
size, while the works were extended from Grizzly cation to the river, across which a small
dam was built. It is situated about three miles below Moore's Flat, the latter place being,
in altitude, about 1,500 feet above it. The distance from the dam to San Juan is 22 miles,
and four miles further to the termination of the main canal, at the Sweetlands creek reservoirs.
186 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Four receiving reservoirs hold the water which flows at night and on SundaysSan Juan reservoir, having a capacity of discharge of...................... —----------------- 2,300 inches.
Manzanita Hill reservoir, having a capacity of discharge of................. ------ 2,000    "
Northrup reservoir, having a capacity of discharge of...................... 2.500   "
Garden reservoir, having a capacity of discharge of........................ 2,000   "
Total........................................................... 8,800 "
The various hills are supplied either by branch ditches from these rescrvoirs, or directly
from the main canal.
The branch ditches are connected with high flumes which span the low ground intervening
between the ridge and the mining ground.  At San Juan  a high flume connects with the
main caimal.
The length and greatest height of these flumes are as follows:
Length.   Height.
Feet.    Feet.
San Juan aqueduct............................................ 1,200     48
Mazanita Hill aqueduct.....................................-.  2, 000   54
Buckeye Hill aqueduct......................................... 400       35)
Birchville Hill................................................  1,000.  40
The aggregate length of the branch ditches is about 12 miles.
The dimensions of the excavated part of the main canal is as follows: bottom, four feet;
top, seven feet; depth, three feet; the grade from the dam to Grizzly caion is 10 feet per
mile, and firom there to San Juan, 12 feet per mile.
The dimensions of the ditch from San Juan to Garden reservoir are: bottom, three and
one-half feet; top, six feet; depth, two and one-half feet; grade, 12 feet per mile.
The main flume is of the following dimensions: bottom, four feet; depth, three feet, with
same grade as ditch.
The branch ditches are: bottom, two and one-half feet; top, four feet; depth, two feet;
grade, 12 feet per mile.
The safe capacity of the canal, as it is at present, is equal to a constant stream of 1,500
inches for 10 hours, miners' measurement, or 3,600 for 24 hours = 38 cubic feet per second,
The cost of the works has been as follows:
Construction of canal from river to Mazanita Hill..........................  $261,765 83
Construction of canal from Mazanita Hill to Birchville Hill, together with pur  chase firom Sweetlands, &c............................................ 31,237 50
Expenses and improvements, to May, 1857................................  70,954 29
San Juan, Mazanita, and Jones's reservoirs............................... 18, 099 29
Purchase of Grizzly Company's works, at San Juan.........................10, 000 00
Purchase of Pollard's, at Buckeye Hill....................................  1,500 00
Sandy creek extension................................................. 3,625 00
Total cost to June, 1858........................................... 397,201 91
*        *         *                  *        *         *        *         *        *
Water sales, receivts and expenses of the Midcl le Yuba Canal Com)pany, front Jan                          ttary 20, 1856, to July 1, 1864.
Sales.     Receipts.
January 20, 1856, to December 1, 1857..................... $164,834 45  $142,615 48
December 1, 1857, to January 1, 1859...................... 167,113 58   148,689 74
January 1, 1859, to January 1, 1860....................... 172,432 54   144,375 39
January 1, 1860, to January 1, 1863.......................  378,940 78   369,577 81
Jainuary 1, 1863, to January 1, 1864....................... 123,153 80   109, 480 87
January 1, 1864, to July 1, 1864.......................... 68,726 01    62,283 43
1,075,201 16   968,022 72
Expended in construction of extension ditches, reservoirs, and other improvements, and
working expenses in three years, ending January 1, 1863, $132,535 70.
187 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Statement of water sales, receipts and expenses from January 1, 1863, to June
30, 1864.
-~~~~~~~~~0 184
Working expenses.
'A
to
1:
._
'a m
aa o
to
,650
650
650
625
650
600
650
650
550
575
65(
615
650
650
650
650
625
650
Receipts.
e.~
1.I I
a            naa8 ~~~c: 
an ~~~ ~~ a     c)
~o 
t. A
a
cz
In
1863.
January..........
Februaryy.........
BMareh.......... — -
April..............
M ay..............
June... —----------
July..............
August...- -----
September.-.. —1
October.........
?ovember. —- -..
December.........
1864.
January...........
February.........
Mlarch.............
April.............
bay..............
tune..............
Total..........
~ue —--- -1,886,2   2       60      40  lO      8   5     16   7     1275 1450
|191,879 81  162, 764 30  11, 340  9,134 50  4, 330 64  3, 397 66  6, 302 20
The expense of $5,980 29, in November, 1863, includes State and county taxes.
It will be seen from the foregoing statements that the actual receipts for the sales of water,
from 1856 to July 1, 1864, a period of eight and one-half years, have amounted to $968,022 72.
The receipts from January 1, 1860, to January 1, 1863, (three years,) have
amounted to......................................................... $369,577 81
While the expenses have been........................................... ] 32,535 00
Net receipts...................................................... 237,042 81
And the receipts from January 1, 1863, to July 1,1864, (one and one-half year,)
have amounted to.................................................... $162,764 30
Expenses....................... --------------------------------------------------------- 34,505 10
Net receipts............................................... —---------------------------------------------—....... 128,259 20
*       *       *        *       *        *       *       *       *       X
In addition to the supply derived from the Middle Yuba, the canal also receives part of the
water from the reservoir of the Sierra Nevada Lake Company, which, after being used on
American lill, Chips, Alleghany, and Minesota, falls into the river or its branches, and
fi ws from thence into the flume
In like manner the water in Eureka Lake Company's reservoir, after being used at Snow
Point, Moore's, Orleans, Woolsey's Flats, and at other points along the north side of the
ridge, falls into the river, and also flows into the flume.
Very extensive mining operations have been carried on for some years on this section.
Tunnels, amounting in the aggregate to thousands of feet in length, have bee:i driven through
the bed rock to insure the fall necessary for the sluices. These tunnels have cost from $15
to $25 per foot run; some have taken years to complete, while others are still in course of
construction.
SAN JUAN HIILL.-The Eureka Claim embraces 80 claims of 180 feet by 80 feet-consequently an area of 26+ acres. The depth of the gold-bearing deposit is 100 feet to 175 feet. The
north edge of the granite basin on which it rests is at an elevation of 850 feet over the Middle
Yuba, which flows beneath. 500 to 1,000 inches of water per day, supplied by the Eureka
Lake Company, are used through three iron pipes 12 inches to 14 inches in diameter.
Upwards of five years-from August, 1855, to October, 1860 —were taken to oonstruct a
I
188
0
,4
Iz
1.
E
40
Iz
I
9
;4
El
J)ate.
Sales.
$10, 819 11.0
7,497 20
11, 522 40
10, 99S 00
14,124 60
If), 333 80
8, 352 30
12,941 20
10,144 30
10, 351 60
5,926 20
10, 142 O
11,011 80
7,863 20
10,1-100 60
16,165 30
1 10,666 45
12, 818 66
$9,204 04
8, 358 76
6, 981 96
7,963 05),
6, 077 40
9, 368 70
6,198 93
7,895 48
8,159 41
8, 900 45
9, 025 66
12, 347 06
10, 615 92
5, 678 24
5, 955 87
22,882 05
8, 429 63
8, 721 72
$700 00
700 00
700 00
625 00
607 00
535 06'
457 50
415 00
415 00
700 00
415 00
415 00
415 00
415 -00
405 00
405 00
405 00
405 00
$242 75
212 50
243 87
130 75
467 63
226 75
97 31
334 65
69 00
750
267 63
52 00
247 77
710 62
539 62
234 80
157 74
87 75
$915 46
48 04
561
81 87
69 72
20 75
164 40
745 75
102 17
30 75
567 48
44 30
113 76
169 05
29 06
250 64
69 28
169 57
$2,542 46
1, 7L'4 54
1, 557 48
1, 502 12
1, 794 35
1, 382 50
1, 545 46
2, 209 40
1, 58S 67
1, 333 25
5, 980 29
1, 128 30
1, 836 25
2,400 5'7
1, 633 43
1, 542 44
1, 308 52
1, 435 07
$34 25
114 00
8 00
39 50
..........
.........
176 25
64 00
452 50
20 00
4,280 18
2 00
409 72
515 90
9 75
2 00
51 r 0
122 75
34, 505 10 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
tunnel so that the gravel could be worked to the bed rock. The expenses incurred before a
dividend was declared were $142,000.
The expenses of working this claim from July 24, 1860, to December 21, 1862-two and
one-third years-were as follows:
Canvas and hose.........................................................   $4,654
Purchase of claims........................................................ 22,800
Water ------------------------------------------------------------------- 67,800
Labor, quicksilver, tools, &c ---------------------------------------------- 51,952
Lowering tunnel.......................................................... 20,000
Lumber................................................................. 6,400
Powder-................................................................20, 000
CavsPnosder.............................................................. 4,6540
193,600
Prochaed ofro claims....................................................... 2287,00
Watcedfro cam —-------------------------------------------------------— 87,200
Labr,t puc'vr, ofits, ---------------------------------------------------- 93560
Loet roingtsn.......................................................... 20,000
During the period of two and one-third years, eight months were lost in lowering the existing tunnel, so as to obtain the requisite fall for the flumes.
December 21, 1862, to April 1, 1863-three and one-fourth months:
Expenses for water....................................................... $11,000
Labor, quirksilver, &c.................................................... 8,000
19,000
Proceeds from claims...................................................... 50, 000
Net profits ----------------------------—. —------------------------ 31,000
In June, 1863, this company was regularly incorporated, and the office established in San
Francisco. The following is a detailed account of expenses and receipts since then:
Receipts and expenditures of the Eureka Gold Mining Company's Claim from June 5, 1863,
to August 11, 1864.
August 11, 1864:
Cash, labo- account ----------------------------------------------------
Expense, lumber, candles, coal, merchandise, incidentals...................
Claims account -----------------------------------------------------— 6 
Hose..................................................................
Powder. —-------------------------------------------------------— 9 —Water.................................................................
Quicksilver............................................................
Taxes.................................................................
Dividend account......................................................
Balance...............................................................
$24,986 56
4,568 42
602 50
1,488 10
9, 642 17
35, 782 49
272 81
-108 40
66, 000 00
4,078 45
147,529 90
August 11, 1864:
Cash received from claims from June 5, 1863, to date......................
SAN JUAN HILL.
Deadman Cut Mining Claims-superficial area, square feet.................
Average depth, feet................................-......................
Cubic contents, cubic yards.............................................
April 29, 1855, to February 4, 1859:
Water ----------------------------------------------------------— $23,565 76
Special expense -------------------------------------------------------- 20,017 78
Labor ----------------------------------------------------------------- 27,849 75
71,433 29
Cash received from claims ---------------------------------------------- 156, 307 73
Net profits ------------------------------------------------------- 84,874 44
This claim was entirely worked out in 1859.
The average quantity of gold in it was, per cubic yard..............................44
The total cost of extracting, including water, per cubic yard.......................20
189
$147,529 90
94.623
100
350,455 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
MANZANITA HILL.
McKeeby & Company's Claims, average length 851 feet by 315 feet, square
yards.... —-------------------------------------------------------------
Average depth, feet................... —---------------------------------------------------
Amount of gravel, cubic yards...........................................
Cash received from claims........ —---------------------------------------- 
Construction of tunnel........................ —-------------------------------—...... $18, 000 00
Water........ ---------------------------------------------— 81,555 25
Expenses......... —------------------------------------------- 142,717 53
Dividends paid............................................ 126,660 00
This claim has been in operation since 1855.  The total quantity of water used has been
339, 374 inches, the price of which has varied from 50 cents to 20 cents per inch. The average quantity of gold, 30 cents per cubic yard. Cost of water, 7+ cents per cubic yard. Total
cost of extraction, including water, 20 cents. The shaft sunk from the surface of the bed
rock to the sluice is 169 feet 10 inches. The size of the claims is 180 feet by 80, or one-third
of an acre in area, (each company owning several claims.) The average quantity of water
required for the complete working of each has been 18,614 inches; at 20 cents per inch,
$3,722.
The Middle Yaba Company's receipts over expenses for 12 months ending July
1, 1864.-.........................................................- $85,506
The Eureka Lake Company's receipts over expenses for 12 months ending July
], 1864, were, say........................ —----------------------------------------------—.. 145, 060
Net receipts....................................................... 230,506
*         *F         *   *                *         *         *         *
The safe capacity of discharge of the canals of both companies, being a constant stream
during 10 hours, is as follows:
Minors' inches.
Eureka Lake canal............................................... 3, 000
Miners' canal...................................................... 750
Other districts...................................................... 250
4 0(
4,000
Middie Yuba canal........................................................   1,500
5,500
5,500 inches for ten hours, equal for 24 hours....................... —----------------------------- 1.3,200
20 per cent. deficiency in supply, stoppages, and other causes................... 2,620
10,580
Say 10,000 inches per day, &C.
*         *                  *         *         *         *         *         *
In reference to the Eureka Lake canal, Mr. Black makes the following remarks:
The section of country which can be supplied by these works extends over a large portion of
Nevada county, commencing at the junction of the North and South Yuba rivers, four miles
below French Corral; thence it extends in a northeasterly direction between these rivers toward
the summit of the Sierra Nevada. A main ridge between these rivers gradually rises from
1,500 feet, the altitude of French Corral above the sea, to 8,000 feet on the summit. Numerous lateral spurs, with ravines separating them, extend from the main ridge on each side to
the rivers. In most cases the mining ground is situated on benches near the extremities of
these spurs; in some, however, it is situated in channels between them. From French Corral
to Eureka, a distance of about 32 miles, the average width between the rivers is seven miles;
from thence the width gradually increases to about 16 miles on the summit of the mountains.
The first portion is that in which the mining section is situated, and comprises an area of
about 175 square miles. The area of the different places where gravel deposits have been
found may together be about 15 square miles. The deposits in addition to those from French
Corral to San Juan, already described, extend on the north side of the ridge by Badger's
Hill, Grass Valley, Eurisko, and further up by Woolsey's, Moore's, Qrleans Flat, and Snow
Point to Eureka; and on the south slope of the ridge from Montezuma to Pleasant Hill,
Cherokee, Chimney Hill, Columbia Hill, Lake City, Bloomfield, Relief Hill, and Mount
Zion. The thickness of the deposits varies from 60 to 200 feet, nearly similar to those before
190
28,240
120
1,191,400
368,932 78 
WEST OF THlE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
described at San Juan, save that they are not so rich in gold, and are more intermixed with
seams of clay, which render them more difficult to be workled.
From Euireka to the summit of the mountains no deposits have been found.  The geological formation is mostly granite and gneiss, which rise into high and rugged peaks, some of
which attain an elevation of 8,500 feet above the sea.  The Middle and South Yabas, with
their tributary streams, such as Canion creek, Pass creek, and others, take their rise in these
mountains, amongst which are numerous lakes from 20 to 400 acres in area.  The Caion
Creel lake, situated at the head of Cation creek, about four miles west of the summit, is the
largest, anid forms the company's principal reservoir. A substantial dam formed of blocks
of granite has been erected across its outlet. The transverse width at bottom is 120 feet, its
height 70 feet, and length from bank to baulnk 250 feet. The front is protected with two
]ayers of 24-inch lumber, well secured to the face. An arched sluice is constructed through
the dam, by which the flow of water is regulated from the interior. WVhen full of water, the
area of the reservoir is 500 acres, the average depth of water 42 feet, and its contents
935,000,000 cubic feet of water.
Sources of supply, from the middle of April to the middle of August, are derived from the
mountain streams, which become swollen from the rapid melting of the snow, and afford a
fouir months' plentiful supply.  After that date recourse is had to the reservoirs.
MINERS' DITCH.
$57,900
180,000
237,900
EUREKA LAKE DITCH.
Cost of purchase of small ditches, water rights, &c...........................142
Eureka Lake dam.........................................................
Lakle Faucherie dam........................................................
Smaller dams..............................................................
Magenta and National aqueducts...........................................
Storage reservoirs..........................................................
Iron pipes to San Juan.....................................................
Main canal and flume.................................. --—............... —------
Saw-mill.................................................................
174,250
35,000
8, 000
2,000
23,  000
5:1, 000
12,,00
256,000
7,000
806,150
161,230
Management, law expenses, &c., 20 per cent...............................1...
966,380
with their
The following is a list of the storage reservoirs named
capacity and cost:
vLocality.~           No. of   Capacity
Locality.                   r         i'ches   Cost.
reservoirs. in inches.
Eureka............................................. 1           50       $300
Snow Point.........................................  1       2,500      1,000
Orleans............................................  4         500      3,000
Moore's............................................ 4          800      6,000
WVoolsey's..................................... — 3         1,000      7,500
Relief Hill.......................................... 1        300      1,500
Bloomfield......................................... 3         500      1,500
Lake City.......................................... 2        2,000      5,000
Kennebec...........................................'250     1,500
Grizzly Hill........................................  100               1,000
Columbia Hill...................................... 3        4,500    15, 000
Grizzly Hill......................................... 1      4,000     10,000
Cherokee........................................... 2          500      4,000
Lone Ridge...................-............ 1.........          700      2,500
San Juan........................................... 2        3,000     10,000
Pleasant Ridge......................................           250      1,000
Montezuma......................................... 2            200      1,000
33      21,150    71,800
191
in the above estimate, 
192       RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The average annual water sales of the Eureka Lake Water Company, according to the
annexed statements, amount to $161,369, over and above expenses of management, repairs,
&c. Deducting 10 per cent. from this for bad debts will leave a net income of $145,233.
Some idea of the magnitude with which mining operations are carried on along this ridge
may be inferred from the fact that since 1850 the annual quantity of gold transmitted to San
Francisco has amounted to from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000.
So great has been the quantity of ground washed away, that many of the ravines are covered with a depth of 20 feet and upwards of tailings from the sluices, composed of sand and
gravel. The fall, therefore considereel necessary for the sluices, of one foot in 15, can only
be obtained in those places that are situated above the rivers, such as those in the San Juan
district, and higher up the ridge at Badger Hill, Grizzly Hill, Woolsey's, Moore's, and
Orleans Flat.
In order to obviate this difficulty of want of fall, tunnels are being constructed at different
points, which take from two to five years to complete. Some of those I visited are through
granite or trap, and cost at the rate of from $20 to $60 per running foot. They are six to
eight feet in width, and seven feet in height; when completed a flume will be laid through
them and extended a long distance down the ravine.  All the tailings with which a ravine is
incumbered will be carried away through the flume by the current of water. After the present
year, many of those tunnels now being constructed will be finished, when numerous companies will be enabled to work, which are now precluded from doing so on account of insufficiency of fall in the creeks.
I annex a detailed statement of the localities supplied by the Eureka Lake Water Company, and the amounts realized during one week; it is a fair average statement of the weekly
sales during the year.
Water sales of the Eureka Lake [Eater Company for the week ending July 5, 1862.
Lake City, Grizzly Hill, and Kennebec.........................................................    $175 00
Snow Point.......................................................................... —------------------------------------------------------------------------—.... 62 16
Wvoolsey's.................................................................................... 4 07 09
Moore's.........................................................................-............. 243 84
Orleans.............................................................................. —--------------------------------------------------------------------------—......... 169 14
Pleasant Hill.................................................................................. 32 50
Cherokee...................................................................................... 208 02
Bloomfield.................................................................................... 10 50
Saln Juan...................................................................., 3 —-----------------------------------------------------------------------— 195 67
Columbia Hill.................................................................................    853 83
Chimney Hill.................................................................................. 484 35
IRelief Hill..................................................................................... 212 17
Lureka........................................................................................ 61  50
4,189 77
Abstract of monthly reports by secretary of the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company.
C               C~~~~ C. u 
C  C
a —
HR._
C   A  -
R: C:'A
P" to o
C) 
2.A
} $10, 476 86
22, 474 41
20,162 27
10, 247 73
24, 551 72
7,128 63
13, 612 47
14, 581 01
15, 945 97
4, 366 78
15, 442 78
.  
;z..
$5, 235 01
12, 242 11
3, 065 76
18, 946 37
22, 871 93
20, 049 69
29, 674 95
30, 361 94
35, 582 36
31, 726 71
33,173 07
30, 950 73
1866-January................
February..............
March..................
April..................
May...................
June..................
July................... 
August.................
September.............
October................
November.............
December..............
40,954 56   41, 623 54............ 158,989 23
3, 633 74      387 04   22, 705 36    13,112 87
3,187 32    1, 427 68   26, 699 17       8, 956 81
3,155 96       338 93   30,119 75       12,166 89
3, 361 01    1, 782 76   30,356 03    17, 647 43
3, 559 99    3, 040 33   27, 498 81    15, 775 49
3, 566 82    3,276 65   29,1]92 97    17,100 68
3,515 49     2,237 11   31,813 66        8,765 40
3, 463 50    2, 374 10   33, 992 04    17, 098 16
............   110, 623 73
I
.6
1.I
11
Iz
.a;
9
$10,079 51
25,96.5 33
30,173 51
24,866 78
21, 823 65
27, 715 34
23,885 24
20, 392 41
26,093 80
21,836 95
18, 474 98
19,590 32
$4,856 71
13, 740 97
27,109 38
26,496 69
1-7, 898 09
30,537 58
14, 259 98
19, 705 42
20, S73 18
5, 692 60
17, 028 62
21, 812 66
$3,142 17
3,107 58
3, 615 92
3,479 15
3, 563 49
3; 575 66
3, 366 30
3,462 29
3,358 55
3,317 49
3,392 99
3, 592 97
$895 36
976 71
1,019 05
2,855 27
4, 086 87
2, 416 20
3,802 05
2,740 31
3,103 99
6, 966 9U
9,700 96
3, 059 87
1867-January............
February..............
March..................
April..................
May...................
June...................
July...................
August.................
166,239 45 154, 276 21
27,443 83
15,864 60 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
FnENCir CORnnAL.-The Nevada Water Company was organized and incorporated in New Yorkl in November, 185.  It then purchased the Shady Creek
and Grizzly ditches, and now owns, in addition to these ditches, a large extent
of mining ground.  The Shady Creek ditch was located in January, 1851, and
the Grizzly ditch in 1852. Both were constructed for the purpose of conveying
water from Shady creek (a tributary of the Yuba river) to French Corral.
The Shady Creek ditch, the only one in present repair and use, has a running
capacity of about 2,500 inches, miner's measure.  Its width is eight feet at the
top and six feet at the bottom, and its depth three feet, having a grade of about
14 feet per mile.  Its length is about 12 miles, and with the exception of some
4,000 feet of fluming is excavated wholly in earth.  The cost of construction of
ditches and reservoirs owvned by the Nevada Company has been about $150,000.
They pass through Birchville mining district, but at present only supply water
to the French Corral district. Six or eight sets of claims in this district besides
the claims owned wholly or in part by the Nevada Company are supplied from
their ditches.
Another ditch firom Shady creek to French Corral, built in 1855, at a cost of
some $50,000, including reservoirs, hlaving a capacity of about 500 inches, is
owned by the Empire Tunnel Company of this place. The principal claims in
the French Corral district are the Kate Hayes Company, Bird & Smith, Black
& Brother, Empire Tunnel Company, Empire Flat Company, Dockum Company,
French's, Glaister's, Burke & Company, and the Nevada Water Company claims.
The price paid for water is 15 cents per inch, and the quantity used by different
companies varies from 200 to 1,000 inches per day.
The gold range of this district is a deposit of washed gravel filling a welldefined old river channel to the average depth of about 150 feet, varying in
width from 1,000 to 3,000 feet. This deposit is continuous from French Corral
to San Juan, a distance of six miles, broken only by ravines, but below French
Corral and above San Juan it is cut off by the deep canons of the Soutthl and
Middle Yuba rivers. This deposit is composed of what the miners call blue and
red dirt-the blue gravel or cement underlying the red or gray. Both strata have
until recently been worked by blasting with powder and wvashing by the hydraulic
process.  Hereafter it is believed that the blue cement will be crushed with greater
profit, besides saving a larger percentage of gold lost by the ordinary washing.
The Empire Tunnel Company have built and are running very successfully
a 10-stamp mill, crushing the blue cement. The American Company, at Sebastopol, are also realizing profits from their eight-stamp mill, worling the same
blue gravel.
The English or "Truckee Ditch Company," some 10 or more years ago,
expended nearly $1,000,000 in a ditch from the Middle Yuba to the mines on
the dividing ridge between the Middle and North Yubas.  The enteirprise proved
disastrous for the reason that paying hydraulic mines could not be found. The
gold deposits of that region were generally found in a thin stratum of gravellying on the bed rock, while the mass of earth above contained little or no gold.
The paying lead could be most readily worked by "drifting out," and required
but a small amount of water to wash it.  Under such circumstances an extensive!
and expensive ditch like the Truckee Company' s would not pay, and has fallen.
into disuse.  Their water right has recently been purchased by some San Pirancisco capitalists.
TUOLUMNRE DITCH.-IMost of the ditch water used in Tuolumne county is
supplied by the Tuolumne County Water Company, which takes its water from
the Stanislaus river about 20 miles in a direct line above Columbia. The company own two ditches known as "the old" and "the new." The former cost
$550,000, and the latter $1,000,000. The old ditch was commenced on the 1st
July, 1851, and it began to supply water in May, 1852, but the price of water,
introduced at such great cost, was necessarily high, and the miners formed at
13
193 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
combination to compel a reduction of prices and afterwards to construct a new
ditch.  The ditch was made, but in a very expensive manner, and when completed it was burdened with debt, so that it soon fell into the hands of those who
owned the old ditch, leaving many of the creditors unpaid. A bitter feeling
ensued and many threats of assassination were made, and the ditch and flumes
were maliciously injured in numerous places.  Although the new ditch was purchased at a small percentag(re on its cost, it did not pay much profit. Part of it
was built on the side of a miountain which is swept nearly every winter by snow
avalanches, and the repairs were very expensive.  Forty miles of the ditch near
the head are now abandoned.  The company has 75 miles of main ditch and
branches.  The river supplies an abtlundance of water till the 1st July, and after
that time the reservoirs are drained gradually. One of them covers 84 acres,
and another is a mile long, three-quarters of a mile wide, and 40 feet deep.   The
total capacity of the reservoirs is 1,800 inches for four months, in which time
they are exhaustedl, so that there is usually a month or two at the end of the dry
season when the company cannot supply water.  The ditch has a grade of 18
feet to the miile, and the flume is seven and one-half feet wide, four feet deep,
and has a grade of 16 feet to the mile.  The price for a 12-inch stream is $3
per day; of 15 inches $3 50; of 18 inches 84; of 21 inches $4 50; of 24
inches $5; of more than 24 and less than 48, 20 cents per inch; of more than
48 inches 18 cents per inch. The, capacity of the flume is 3,600 inches. In
many places flumes were constructed where it would have been much cheaper to
have had iron pipe, and this is being substituted now as the flumes give way.
Not less than $100,000 might have been saved by using pipe at first. The cornpany supplies Columbia, Yankee Hill, Gold Springs, Mormnon Gulch, Saw Mill
Flat, MIartinez, Jamestown, Montezuma, Chinese Camp, and their vicinities. The
amount paid by the company as dividends in 1S66 was $35,750.
PHNIX DI)ITcIE.-The Phoenix Ditch Company obtains its water from the
Tuolumne river in two ditches, known as the Phenix and Hydraulic, and supplies Sugar Pine, Soulsbyville, Sonora, Shaw's Flat, Poverty Hill, Algerine,
Cherokee, and Somerville. The company has 84 miles of ditching and 16 miles
of flume.  Both ditches were started in 1850 and supplied water in small
quantity the next year, but the Hydraulic did not get water from the Tuolumne
river till 1S53, nor the Phcenix till 1854. The highest flume is 65 feet high
and 360 feet long, and it has been blown down once. The flume at Shaw's
Flat, 300 feet hig(rh and 600 feet long, has been blown down twice. The flume
of the Phoenix line is five feet wide by two and one-half deep; that of the
Hydraulic four feet wide by two deep.  There are two reservoirs which hold a
supply for two months and a half.  The price for a 15-inch sluice is $2 per day
of 12 hours. The Phcenix ditch cost $380,000, and the Hydraulic $500,000.
Both have been sold twice at sheriffs' sale.  The receipts of the ditch company
were $38,000 in 1860, and $22,000 in 1866, and the annual expenses are about
$9,600. There are nine ditch tenders and collectors, who are paid $70 and $8S0
per month. In 1855 the price of water was $6 per day for nine inches. The
water is delivered through an orifice three inches high and under a pressure of
four inches over the orifice.  There are near Cherokee and Somerville some high
gravel hills, which may require a large supply of water when they are opened
and their wealth demonstrated. About one-fomrth of the water is sold to Chinamen, and one-twentieth for irrigation.
The Golden Rock ditch, south of the Tuolumne river, from which it obtains
its water, supplies Gravel Range, Big Humbug, First Garrote, Second Garrote,
Deer Il'at, Big Oak Flat, Moccasin Creek, Spring Gulch, Boneyard, Person
Blanco, and Horseshoe Bend. This ditch cost $300,000, and is very unprofitable.
There is a flume 1,300 feet long, and part of it is 256' feet high, supported by
wooden towers. The main ditch is 38 miles long. The price is $2 per day for
a stream of 20 inches.
194 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
MuirPYi's DITCII.-The Murphy's ditch was commencedI in 1851 and finished
in 1856.  The total cost was $260,000, of which sum $180,000 was obtained
by the sale of water.  Five years after the work was commenced dividends began
to come in, and twice as much was received by the shareholders as they had paid
out foulr years before.  In 1866 $10,000 were paid as dividends, and the Calaveras ditch was bought for $20,000.   The present market value of the ditch is
probably not more than one-sixth of its original cost.  The Caleveras ditch
obtains its water from the Stanislaus river, and supplies DoLuglas Flat, Vallecito,
French Flat, and Jenny Lind and Quail hill.  It was finished in 1858, and cost
$10,000.  Connected with this ditch is the Salt Spring reservoir, which covers
2,000 acres and is 30 feet deep, and is the largest resewrvoir in the foot hills of
California.
I)0KELUMXNi  DITCii.-The  lMoklemne Hill and Campo Seco ditch has 50
miles of main ditch. and cost, when constructed, $500,000.  The present assessed
value is $25,000.  The flume is 40 inches wide and 20 deep, and has a grade
of 13 feet to the mile. Originally it was all flume, but the fluming has been
replaced by ditchling, except for six miles, and most of that distance will be
ditch.  The water is obtained fromn the south fork of the Mokelumne river.   The
places supplied are 3Mokeltumne Hill, Campo  Seco, Chile Camp, Rich Gulch,
and Comaniche  Camp, and Cat Camp is to be supplied soon.  In the extension
of the ditchi to the' last-named place a depression 5,000 feet long and  80 feet
deep is to be crossed by iron pipe two feet in diameter, with 30 feet head.  It is
expected that the pipe will carry 1,000 inches of water. The charge per inch
is 25 cents for 12 hours to placer miners, and 15 cents per inch to quartz miners
and millers. The water is discharged under four inches of pressure.
The Union Water Companv's ditch is 35 miles long and takes water from the
Stanislaus river to supply the placers' mining district between that river and
the Calaveras, an area of 20 miles square. There are reservoirs large enough
to hold a supply of 600 inches of water for three months.
AMrADOI  DITCH.-The Amador Canal Company has two ditches, the Amador
and the Pioneer; the main trunk of the Amador is 20 miles long, all of it flume.
The water is obtained from the Mokelumne river.  The  original length was 31
miles, but the upper part was so much injured in 1862 that 11 miles were abandoned and will probably not be rebuilt, or at least there is no thought now of
rebuilding. Ditch might be substituted for flume for at least half the distance,
and the substitution is to be commenced soon, since portions of the flume will not
last long. The ditch carries 400 inches of water during eight or nine months
of the year, but previous to 1862 that quantity was furnished the year round.
There are parts of the ditch on which the charge for water is 10 cents per inch
in winter andl 15 in summer, and on the other parts the price is 16, cents
throughout the year.  The gross income in 1866 was $28,000; and the ordinary
expenses $20,000;  aind the extraordinary improvements $8,000, leaving nothing
for dividend.
The VOLCANO ditch has 35 miles of main trunk, and obtains its water from
its tributaries of the M3okelumne river. It carries 450 inches of water, but the
supply ceases in July.  The price for water is 12~ cents per inch per day.  The
cost of the ditch was $140,000.  The gross receipts in 1866 were $5,000, and
the ordinary expenses $3,000.
As the mines at Volcano were in a basin to which there was no sufficient outlet, the company cut a channel in the bed rock 15 feet deep and a mile and a
half long, at a cost of $80,000, into which a tail sluice was put.  The company
charges 50 cents per day for the privilege of running a sluice-head into the drain,
and the company have, besides, all the gold which they can catch in it~ and it
amounts to about $3,000 per year, leaving $2,000 net.
EUrEKA DITCIr, (EL DORADO CoUNTY.)-The Eureka Canal Company owns
two ditches, which were made as rivals to take water from the north fork of the
195 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Cosumnes. They supply Pleasant Valley, Diamond Springs, El Dorado, Missouri Flat, Logtown, Buckeye Flat, Shingle Springs, Clarksville, Western Diggings, and the divide north of the Costimnes to within 12 miles of Sacramento
city.  The main trunks of the two ditches are 170 miles long, and the trenches,
which carry not less than 100 inches each, are 180 miles more; making 350
miles of ditching owned by the company and tended by its 17 emploveys. The
length of small ditches made by the miners to carry the water from the company's
lines to their claims is not less than 450 miles. The original cost of the two
ditches and their branches was $700,000, and they are assessed at $30,000.
There are 16 miles of flume belonging to the company, and there is one reservoir that covers 160 acres.  Along the higher lines of ditch the charge for water
is 16 cents per inch for 10 hours for mining, and on the lower lines froma 10' to
12 cents; but farmers pay 33 cents, because the water is worked up and lost to
the company, whereas the miners' water runs down into the lower ditches, and is
sold from them again perhaps three or four times over. This company sells. for
an inch the amount of water that escapes through an orifice three inches high
and an inch wide without pressure.
INDIAN DIGGINGxs DITCHES.-Three ditches from the south and middle
branches of the middle forkl of the American river to supply Indian Diggings,
Brownsville, Fairplay, Slug Gulch, and Cedarville, carrying 1,000 inches in all
in the spring, and declining to 150 inches in September.  One of these ditches
was finished in 1853, and the other in 1854 and 1855.  The three are owned
now by one man. The original cost of the three was $125,000, and they are
now assessed at $15,000.  There is a mile and a half of flume.  The charge is
12S  cents per inch for 12 hours, and 18a cents for 24 hours.  The inch is delivered under six inches of pressure. There has been sale for all the water previous to 1867. The expenses of the ditches while full are about one-fourth of
the receipts.
NATOPrNA DITCH.-The Natorna ditch takes its water from the south fork of
the American river, 14 miles above Folsom, and supplies Red Bankls, Mormon
Island, Willow Springs, Rhodes Diggings, Texas Hill, Alder Creek, Rebel Hill,
Prairie City, and'Iates's Flat, which together contain about 500 miners. The
ditch was constructed in 1852 and 1853, and the total cost of the main trunk
and branches has been $200,000. The present assessed value is $75,000. The
main trunk is 16 miles long, eight feet wide on top, five feet wide at the bottom,
and three deep. There is also one mile of flume. The price of water varies at
different places, but the average is 20 cents per inch per day, and the inch is
delivered under six inches of pressure.  The net annual profits since 1860 have
been $30,800, and the gross receipts were twice as much.  Previous to 1861 the
gross receipts were about $75,000 annually.
In 1857 the company purchased 9,000 acres of land, most of it auriferous
ground covered by their ditches.  Having thus a large amount of land which it
becomes important to improve, the company have undertaken to build up a large
manufacturing town at Folsom, to which they are about to bring 250,000 inches
of water, with a fall of S0 feet. A canal is being cut a mile and a half long,
40 feet wide at the top, 25 at the bottom, and seven feet deep, with a grade of
four feet to the mile; and a dam is to be built in the American river, of granite
laid in cement, 400 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 57 feet high. The whole work
will be finished in- 1868, and with its assistance Folsom will become the most
important manufacturing town of the coast, next to San Francisco.  Water power
can be furnished here at one-third the cost of steam, and no other town on the
State coast can have power so cheap or so much of it, or so near San Francisco.
Souxn FoRE DITCH.-The South Fork canal, in El Dorado county, has a
main trunk 34 miles long, and carries 600 inches of water, which is taken from
the south fork of the American river to supply Placerville and vicinity. The
original cost was $500,000, and the present value is about one-tenth of that sum.
196 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The total length of the main flume, laterals, and branches is 1421 miles. The
length of the ditch from the dam on the south fork of the American river to the
reservoir near Placerville is 24 miles; from the reservoir to Coon Hollow, nine
and three-fourth miles, and from Hangtown Creekl to Buckeye Flat 32 miles.
The Poverty Point branch is four and one-eighth miles long; the Indian Hill
branch, four and a half; the Clay lill branch, two; the Shober Hill branch,
five; the Ilangtown Hill branch, one and one-eightlh; the Texas Hill branch,
one andl a half.  The Gold Hill canal is 10 miles long; its branches and later  als, 12-1; the Weber canal, 13-1; the Iowa canal, 21, and the Red Hill branch,
one and a half.  The South Fork ditch has three reservoirs: the Silver lake,
wvlich holds 170,000,000 cubic feet; the Red lake, which holds 115,000,000;
and the Willow valley, which holds 56,000,000 cubic feet.  The Gold Hill
ditch has very muddy water, and sells for an inch the water which runs through
an orifice two inches high and an inch wide under a four-inch pressure.  The
South Forkl canal sells for an inch the amount that escapes from a hole an inch
square under six inches of pressure.  The charge for water is 25 cents per inch
for mining purposes at all seasons.  Water for irrigation has been supplied in
some cases for $7 per acre of vineyard in its second year, when the vines need
water once or twice a week.  The grade of the South Fork flume is four and a
half feet to the mile.  In one place iron pipe is used to carry 50 inches of water
across a depression 1,600 feet long and 190 feet deep. The pipe has a diameter
of 10 inches, and the head of the inverted siphon is 20 feet higher than the foot.
The iron is about a sixteenth of an inch thick.  The proprietor, Mr. T. B. Hunt,
expresses the intention of constructing a ditch to supersede the present flume, to
be 27 miles longer, to have a grade of 10 or 13 inches per mile, to carry not
less than 5,000 inches of water, and to supply many places above the level of
the present flume.
PILOT CPREEK DITCII.-The Pilot Creek ditclh takes its water from Pilot,
Little Silver, and Rockli creeks, and supplies Georgetown, Volcanoville, Bottle
Hill, Fairplay, Kelsev, Johntown, Spanish Dry Diggings, Spanish Flat, Green wood, Pilot Hill, and Wild Goose.  The main ditch is 60 miles long, and cost
$180,000, and there are 65 nmiles of branches which cost $320,000, making the
total cost $500,000; and the present market value is $18,000. The ditch is
considered one of the best in the State, on account of the small proportion of
flume and the solidity of the bankls, which are seldom broken.  The largest
piece of flume is 300 feet long and 95 feet high,.  The capacity of the ditch is
1,500 inches, but it is seldom full. It carries 1,000 inches about nine months
of the year, and 300 inches at the close of the dry season for three months.  The
length of the main ditch terminating at Wild Goose flat is 60 miles; the Bottle
Hill branch, 10 miles; the Volcanoville branch, 5 miles; the IKelsey's branch,
10 miles; the Fairplay branch, 7 miles; the Spanish Dry Diggings branch,
three miles; the Rock creek feeder, 7 miles; the Rock  Caion feeder, three
miles, and the El Dorado ditch 20 miles. The price for water is 12~ cents per
inch.
MIcIIGAN FLAT DITcIH.-The Michigan Flat miners' ditch, on the north
side of the south fork of the American river, was commenced in 1858 and completed in 1860, at a cost of $65,000. It is now assessed at $3,000, but since
January, 1S65, the expenses have been greater than the receipts by $3,019.
From July, 1862, till January, 1865, the net profit was $13,673.  Much of the
flume was washed away last winter.  The water is sold at 20 cents per inch for
12 hours to placer miners; at 20 cents per inch to quartz miners for 24 hours;
and to farmers at $10 per acre for the season, on an average. The amount
received in a year for irrigation water is $1,200.
COLOMBA DITcHEs. —-Two companies supply Coloma on the south side of the
south fork of the American river, with ditches which caTy about 500 inches of
water and are 13 miles long. They supply Coloma and Uniontown, charge the
197 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
same rates as the Michigan Flat miners' ditch, and sell about one-third of their
water for irrigation.
BEAR RIVER DITcH.-The Bear river and Auburn Water and Mining Corn
pany has 75 miles of main trunk and 250 miles of branches, constructed at a
cost of $1,000,000, and now assessed at $25,000. In 1863 the receipts were
$90,000; in 1864, $75,000; in 1865, $55,000; and in 1866, $40,000. The
ditch takes its water from Bear river, and supplies Auburn, Illinoistowni, New
Castle, Pine Grove, Virginiatown, Clover Valley, Antelope Ravine, Secret Ravine,
Miners' Ravine, Mississippi Bar, Rattlesnaklie Bar, Horseshoe Bar, Doten's Bar,
Rose Flat, MIillertown, Doty's Ravine, Doty's Flat, and Whiskey Diggings-in
fact, the whole country between the American river and Bear river, extending 25
miles from north to south, and as many more from east to west. It is estimated
that $50,000,000 have been washed out by means of the water of this ditch, and
could not have been obtained without it. The Bear River ditch carries 3,000
inches when full, and the Gold Hill ditch 1,500; but in September the two do
not carry more than 2,000 inches. The Bear River ditch had 13 miles of flume
on the line when first made, but since then ditch has been substituted for all save
half a mile. In one place there was a flume 139 feet high and 900 feet long,
erected at a cost of $22,000, and ditch has been substituted for it. This comnpany has been notable for its litigation, in which it has expended $250,000, and
some of the judgments rendered against it have been notorious for their injustice.
MICHIGAN BLUFF DITCH.-The El Dorado Water Company obtains its water
from El Dorado canion, and supplies Michigan Bluff and vicinity.  The main
ditch is 20 miles long, and the total length of ditch and branches 35 miles. The
amount of water carried is 400 inches during the rainy season, but the ditch is
dry after the middle of July. The ditch was commenced in 1853 and finished
in 1855, at a cost of $100,000. It is now assessed at $8,000. In the spring
the demand for the water is not equal to the supply. The price is 15 cents per
inch, delivered under a six-inch pressure.
DUTCH FLAT DITcH.-The Dutch Flat Ditch Water Company's ditch has
a capacity of 3,000 inches, takes its water from the north fork of the American
river and from Little Bear river, and supplies Dutch Flat, Gold Run, Nary Red,
and Los'  Camp, and formerly it supplied Blue Bluff.  The length of the ditch
and branches is 60 miles, the original cost $100,000, and the present assessed
value $40,000. For three months 4,000 inches are sold per day; but for the
last four months of the dry season the amount is not more than 400 inches.  The
water is sold under six inches of pressure, at 121 cents per inch. The Central
Pacific railroad runs for portion of its route very near the ditch, and has done
very serious damage to it. The direct loss so far has been not less than $60,000.
The railroad has become owner of the ditch itself, where it crosses the sections
lb)elonging to the road; but has not charged the water company anything for the
privilege of using the land.  But in consequence of the near proximity of the
railroad cutting and embankment the ditch was ruined for about a mile and a
half, and it was necessary to erect 3,000 feet of flume, and to lay down 3,500 feet
of 31-inch iron pipe, and 837 feet of 32-inch pipe. The ditch began to supply
water in 1851.
SOUTH YUBA DITCHr.-The South Yuba Canal Company takes water from
the South Yuba, Deer creek, Rock creek, Meadow lake, and other lakes in the
neighborhood of Meadow lake, and supplies Nevada, Chalk Bluff, You Bet,
Omnega, Alpha, Blue Tent, Quaker Hill, Scotch Flat, and Grass Valley, in
Nevada county, and Dutch Flat and Gold Run, in Placer county. The company
owns several ditches, which measure in all 275 miles in length, and cost
$1,000,000. Bean's History and Directory of Nevada County says: "In 12
years the expense account of the company reaches $1,130,000, and its receipts
$1,400,000." A dam 42 feet high and 1,150 feet long was built across the outlet
of Meadow lake, which when full is a mile and a quarter long and half a mile wide.
198 
WVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
There is a tunnel 3,800 feet long, cut at a cost of $112,000 throuoh a divide be tween the South Yuba and Deer creek.  The company control about 12,000 inches.
The South Yuba ditch, in Placer county, is 26 miles lon-, beginning at the
lower end of Bear valley, and supplying Gold Run, India Hill, Caiion creek,
and Nary Red.  The ditch was completed in 1865, and it runs 2,500 inches.
There is usually demand for all the water. The assessed value is $20,000. The
grade of.the ditch is 13 feet to the umile.  The largest flume is 48 feet liih, and
100 feet long.  The head of the ditch is so elevated that the water is sometimes
full of snow, and is unfit for hydraulic washing or for any other kind of minin,g.
The cost of the ditch was $108,000.
TRPcCIEE D)ITC.-The Truckee ditch, to supply Minnesota and( other points
in the vicinity on the Blue lead, near the southern line of Sierra county, was
constructed in 1858, and was  abandoned and went to ruin in 1865.  It is
said the cost of the ditch was $1,000,000. As the diggings grew poor, the ditch
ceased to pay for the expense of repairs.  There were 13 miles of flume, eight
feet wide and four feet deep, hung on the side of a steep canion.  An artificial
lake was made for a reservoir.  The capacity of the ditch was 3,000 inches.
SEAPS'S DITcIE.-Sears's Union Ditch is, with its branches, 18 miles long,
and supplies Howland Flat, Pine Grove, Potosi, St. Louis, and Cedar Grove. It
carries 2,000 inches for four months in the wet season, and about 200 inches in
October.  There are two miles of fluming. Anl extension of the ditches has been
commenced, to be 20 miles long, and to cost $50,000.  The chiarge is 30 cents
per inch for 24 hours for piping companies, and 50 cents for drifting companies.
The water is sold under a pressure of 10 inches, measured from the middle of
the orifice. There is a demand for all the water, except inl the spring. The
extension is to supply Scales's Diggings and Poverty Hill. At the latter point
the company is also cutting a bed rock tunnel six feet high, six feet wvide, and
500 feet long to drain a basin nearly a mile square of rich ground.   The tunnel
is to be finished next year.
NEVADA RESERVOIR DITCH.-The Nevada Reservoir Ditch Company takes
1,000 inches of water from Wolf creek, and supplies Sucker Flat and Mloonev
Flat. The main ditch is 28 miles long, and in that distance there are not more
than 600 feet of flume, the highest 12 feet. The ditch was commenced in 1857,
and finished in 1860, at a cost of $116,000.  The company does not sell any wfater,
but uses it all on Sucker Flat, in its own claims.  There has been no washing
at Mooney Flat for two years.
EXcELSIOr DITCHa.-The Excelsior Canal Company owns the Excelsior, the
Bovyer, the Tunnel, and the Onsley Bar ditches. The first named takes 1,500
inches from the South Yuba.   It was commenced in 1854, and finished inii 1858.
The supply is constant, and the length is 28 miles. The Bovyer is 20 miles
long, and takes 2,000 inches from Deer creek, opposite Rough and Ready; but
the supply fails in the summer.   The work was commenced in 1858, and finished
in 1859.  The Tunnel ditch, commenced inl 1.851, and finished in 1852, is 20
miles long, and takes 1,000 inches from Deer creek.  It fails in the summer.
The Ousley Bar ditch is 10 miles long, and starts at Smartsville, where it is fed
with 800 inches of fresh water from other ditches.  It was commenced in 1852,
and finished in 1853.  On the Excelsior ditch there are five miles of low flume,
and half a mile of 40-inch iron pipe, a mile of 20-inch pipe, and half a mile of
38Linchl pipe.  The 40-inch pipe crosses a depression 150 feet deep, and with a
head of 32 feet, carries 2,500 inches of water. The original cost of the four
ditches was $1,000,000.  The water is discharged under 10 inches of pressure,
measured from the centre of the orifice. The price is 20 cents per inch for less
than 100 inches; 15 cents per inch for more, and for irrigation there is no fixed
price; but a field of 10 or 15 acres pays $50 for a season.  The amount of water
is about 5,000 inches for eight mouths, 3,500 for two months, and 2,500 for the
last two months befbre the rains come.
199 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
FORBESTOWVN I)ITCH.-The South Feather Water Company gets water from the
south fork of Feather river, and supplies Forbestown, Brownsville, Ilansonville,
E, vansville, Wyandotte, Bangor, and Brown's valley, and, in fact, the entire divide
between the South Feather and the North Yuba.  The main ditch is 30 miles lonrg,
and the branches 30 miles more.  The wvork was commenced in 1855, and finished
in 1857.  There is one mile of flume on the main ditch.  The highest part is
60 feet high, but very little of that. The original cost of the ditch was $300,000,
and its present assessed value is $25,000.  The ordinary charge per inch for 24
hours is 30 cents, and for 12 hours 20 cents; but there are places where the water,
after being sold, can be picked up and sold again, and there the price is 10 cents
for 12 hours. It is probable that a branch will be constructed to Indiana Ranch
and Oregon Hill, at which latter place there is a large body of rich ground.
OROVILLE DITcII.-The Oroville ditch has a main trunk 22 miles long, and
was finished in 1856.  The original cost was $250,000, and the present assessed
value is $20,000. The capacity is 800 inches, and the supply exceeds the demand.
The price is 50 cents per inch for drift claims, 10 cents for hydraulic and sluice
claims, and $1 25 per acre per week for irrigation.
TABLE OF CANALS AND) WATER DITCHES.-The following complete table
of all the canals and water ditches for mining purposes in the State is taken from
Langley's Pacific Coast Directory, a valuable work published biennially in San
Francisco. As many of these properties have been consolidated or changed hands
since the table was prepared, the names of the owners are omitted.  iIr. Langley
says:
There are 5,328 miles of artificial water courses, for mining purposes, constructed in this
State, at a cost of $15,575,400. In addition to the length here stated, there are numerous
subsidiary branches, thie aggregate length of which is estimated at over 800 miles, and several hundred miles of new ditches in the course of construction.
In addition to those enumerated above, there are numerous enterprises organized to furnish
water for municipal and agricultural purposes. Twenty-seven cities and towns in the interior are thus supplied, and the capital employed amounts to several millions of dollars. The
Spring Valley Water Works, of San Francisco, is an extensive and costly undertaking, with
a capital of $6,000,000. The county of Los Angeles has nearly 300 miles of ditches, and
extensive works for the supply of water have been completed in San Bernardino, Yolo, and
several other agricultural counties of the State.
Table of canals and water ditches for mining purposes in the State, with the loca                  tion, source of water, length, cost, &c., of each.
Name of ditch.                         Source of water.                 X    I   Cost.
AMIADOR COUNTY.
Amador..... -...         -—.................
Amador Co. Canal.............. —-----
Boyle........................... ------
Buckeye. —------------------— u              f —-.
Buena Vista......-... —............
Butte Canal................... —..                     -
Cosumnes Water Co............ —-----
Dry Creek.......................
Indian Gulch....................
Indian Gulch --.................
Kellum Ditches (3)...............
Lancha Plana  -................. —..-.
Lorees...-..    --—................... - - -.. - - -
Meeks.................. —--------------------------
Mile Gulch.......... —--------------------
Open Cut Flume..... —---------------
Pardees....... —...           J —----
Purinton's...... —-----------------               ----
I
200
$20,000
400, 000
3,500
3,000
18,000
125,,OOO
40,000
6- 000
1.0:000
2,000
22,000
30,000
2,000
1,500
2,000
90,000
.........
15,000
Sutter creek....................
Mokeluinne river, north fork... —.
- -r..ei...................
utter c e, north fork ----------
Sutter creek, north fork ----------
Mokelumne river, north fork.
Cosiimnes r;v3r. south fork
Dry creek......................
Jackson,creek, middle fork.......
Rancheria creek.. - - - -.. -....... -
Jackson creek, uaiddle. fork......
Jackson creek, i-niddle fork.. - -..
Rancheria creek, south fork.-.
Jackson creek, south fork
Raneheria creek. - - -... -..
Sutter creek....................
Jackson creek, south fork........
Sutter creek, middle fork..-.
13
66
A
5
15
50
22 -
4
10
3
22
30
5
2
4
if
......
1 25 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Table of canals and wvater ditches, &c.-Continued.
Name of ditch.                          Source of water.                         Cost.
AMADOR COUNTY-Continued.
Phelps & Co......... —-------------------
Pigeon Creek................ —--------------—. —
Potosi........... —--------------------—. —Proctor, Walker & Co.'s.. —--------
Reichling & Alt (2).... —---------—.Richtmyer................ —-------------------.. —
Rich & Co.'s........ —---------------—.Ritter... —--------------------—. —Sutter Creek and Volcano              c..8
Volcano...... —-----------------------
BUTTE COUNTY.
Abbott & Co........ —------------------
Butte Creek................. —----------------—. —...
Cherokee Co..... —-------------------
Deweys... —-----------------------
Forbestown..... —----------------—.Hutchings..... —-------------------—.
Little Butte......................
Oregon  Gulch....................
Rock Creek......................
Spring Valley....................
Table Mountain...... —----------------
Williams........................
CALAVERAS COUNTY.
Stanislaus river.................
Mokelumne river -------------—................Mokelumne, south fork..........
Molkelumne, forks... —-------------
Mokelumne, middle fork.........
Mokelumne, north fork-..........
Mokelumne, middle fork.. —... —    7
Mokelimne, middle fork.........
O'Niel's creek...... —--------------
Lincoln Fork, Mokelumne river-.
Willow creek............    8
San Antonio creek.......
San Antonio creek...............
Murray creek...................
Stanislaus, north fork. —..    3,
DEL NORTE COUNTY.
Independence creek.............
Myer's creek....................
Grider creek.. —------------------
Grider creek....................
Independence creek.............. — Myer's creek................. —Indian creek........ —------------------
PRuxton's creek ------------------
Buzzard Hill creek.. —------------
Buzzard Hill creek ----------—.............. -- 
Quartz gulch... —------------------
Coon creek and Craig's creek..0
Oak Flat creek.............. —--------------—....
I
201
$6,000.
8,000
2,500
16, 000
10,000
10,000
4,000
150, 000
18,000
140,000
Dry creek ----------------------
Cosumnes river, south fork --------
Dry creek......................
Jackson creek -------------------
Sutter creek, south fork..........
Dry creek......................
Big Bar caiion ------------------
Cosumnes river.................
Sutter creek --------------------
Mokelunine river, tributaries
6
7
5
14
8
15
5
25
7
43
ij
10
10
11
.....
2
14
3
3
4
4
2
700
10,000
5,000
20, 000
..........
1,000
8,000
3,000
1,200
4,000
6,000
2,000
-iiu te creel ------------ ---- ----
Table moun .i ------------
Feather river, west branch
South Feather river..............
.' t't -e - c- r- e' e,kOregon gulch...................
Rock creek.....................
Spring valley...................
Table mountain.................
................................
Calaveras County Ditch Co --------
Campo Seco & Mok. Hill Canal Co.
Clarli & Co.'s...................
Conrad's ------------------ ------
Fisher's -------- -----------------
Fisher's.........................
Harris ---------------------------
K,,,tdish --------------------------
Old Gulch.......................
Pillsbnry's ---------------- ------
Pope..
San Anio-i-o-.Table Mountain..................
Union ---------------------------
Union Water Co -----------------
36
36
25
8
15
20
7
12
10
12
7
15
28
10
50
150,000
.........
80,000
20,000
15,000
20,000
10,000
11, 000
15,000
10,000
, 000
15,000
40, 000
10, 000
350,000
18,000
1,000
3,000
1,500
4,000
3,500
8,000
Soo
1,000
2,000
400
15,000
2, OtO
Bunker Hill ---------------------
Cox & Frazier..
Curley Jack.....................
Grider's ----------------- --------
Independence. i..................
Indian Flat -----------------------
Lone Pine -----------------------
McLaughlin ---------------------
Moore's.........................
Patrick's -------------------- ----
Quartz Gulch --------------------
Stevens W. M. & M. Co ----------
Wingate Bar.....................
41
2
3
2
1
3
4
2
2
2
I.L
72
1 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Table of canals and water ditches, &c.-Continued.
Name of ditch.                          Source of water.. g o   Cost.
ID..p
EL DORADO COUNTY.
Brownsville..........-.......... -..
Cataract.........................
Clay Hill........................
Eagle..................
El Dorado & Tunnel Hill......... —------
Eureka Canal Co.................
Foster...........................
Gold Hill........................
Granite Creek....................
Iowa............................
Italian..........................
Jones's Hill......................
Michigan Bar..................-..
Montezuma.................... —- --—.. —-- - ---
Parker..........................
Pilot Creek......................
Mull's (3)...................... —- ---—.
Rock Creek & Michigan Flat.......
Rossington.....................Roush & Simpus.................
Shanghae........................
Shober..........................
South Fork Canal................
Texas....-.......................
Webber.........................
INYO COUNTY.
San Carlos..................... Owen's river..................... 30
KLI,AMATH COUNTY.
Camp Creek.....................
Cecilville........................
Nordheimer Creek................
Petersburg......................
Sawyer's Bar....................
Sundry other ditches............
LASSEN COUNTY.
Adams..........................
Adams & Batchelder............. 
Emerson........................
Susanville..............................
MIARIPOSA COUNTY.
Mortons....................... Maxwell's creek................ 1,0
Snow Creek.-............. Snow creek...................
MONO COUNTY.
Mono..... — -.................... -—.
NEVADA COUNTY.
Buckman & Currans..............
E. Williams......................Empire Co.'s....................
I
202
Cosumnes river, south fork -------
Cosumnes river, south fork -------
Ilangtown creek ----------------
Cosumnes river ------------------
American river, south fork --------
Cosumnes river, north fork -------
Hangtown creek ----------------
Hangtown creek ----------------
American river, south fork........
Iowa and Brush caiiions..........
Chunk canon -------------------
Otter creek: --------------------
Cosumnes river, middle fork ------
I-langtown creek................
Webber creek -------------------
Pilot -tnd Rock creek ------------
. H a D g t o w n -creek ----------------
Am. river S. F., and Pock creek
Webber creek and Chunk canon
Caiion (-reek --------------------
Cosunines river, middle fork ------
Big canon ----------------------
American river, soutbl fork --------
Hantown creek ----------------
Chuk ea-non...................
8
6
2
8
10
450
2
12
3
21
3
15
20
10
10
150
13
......
10
10
16
5
33-14
1.
131
$15,000
10,000
500
500
15, 000
500,000
1,200
12,000
9,000
20, 000
3, 000
10, 000
60,000
6,000
30,000
300,000
4, 000
150,-OOO
30,000
6,000
12,000
5,000
300,000
300
16, OUO
15
30,000
Camp creek ---------------------
Salmon river, east fcrk...........
N.rdheimer's creek --------------
Salmon river, south fork ----------
Salmon river, north fork...........
................................
1
71
2
.5
3
73
2,000
7,500
2,600
7,000
5,000
..........
Susan river --------------------
Susan river --------------------
Willow creek -------------------
Piute creek --------------------
5
4
8
ij
7,000
5, 000
12, ocro
2,000
10,000
Soo
15
10
Virginia creek.................
20
75,000
Steep Hollow creek..............
...... do.........................
Shady creek....................
13
16
13
20,000
40,000
50,000 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Table of canals and water ditches, &c.-Continued.
Name of ditch.                          Source of water.   Cost.
_.
NEVADA COUNTY-Continued.
Eureka Water Co.................
Excelsior Canal Co................
Gardner's.......................
Nevada Water Co................
Remington Hill.....................
Sargent & Jacob's................
South Yuba Canal Co.............
Stehr's..........................
Union..........................
PLACER COUNTY.
American River W. & M. Co......
Auburn & Bear River.....................  
Bartlett & Thomas................
Byrd's Valley.                          c..................
Dutch Flat Water Co.............
American river............. —---
Bear river.. —..-.-. —---—. —--
... do..........................
Volcano canon...... —--------
American river, north fork, and
Little Bear river.
El Dorado canion...... —--------------
Bear river.... —--------------------
Shirt Tail canion...... —---------------
Bear river.......................
Volcano canon..................100
Indian  canon....................
Volcan o  canion.................1      0
Indian canion....................
Canion creek....................
Indian canon....................
Shirt Tail canon..... —---------------
Owl creek......................
Shirt Tail canion, south fork.......
Deep cailon.....................
Shirit Tail cation.................
Secret  cantion....................
South Yuba river................
Volcano canon..................
Shirt Tail cation................
Union Yanke Jim —----------— do.. —------ ---- ---- ---— 1    12,0
V1g1 ~ol.an.do Wt.........................1
Volcano canon..................
El  Dorado Water Co..............
Gold Hill and branches............
Grizzly.......................1
Gtall & Hubbard's................
Hancock........................
Huills............................
Independent.....................
Indian.........................
Indiana Water Co................
Jamison.........................
McKee Pesn......................l3
McKinstry.......................
Miner's..........................
Mountain...................
North Shirt Tail....................
Secret Canion.....................
South Yuba......................
Todd's Valley...-.-..... —-------
Union...........................
Union, Yankee    Jim                            - -..........10Volcano......... —-------—.... —------------
PLUMIAS COUNTY.
Burton Gulch....................
Cascade Water Co...-......... —Feather River and Warren Hill
Grub Flat........................
Humbug........................
Hungarian Hill...................
Indian Bar.......
Mosquiito........................
Mount Pleasant.-..-....-.........
Nelson Point.....................
Pioneer.........-..-..... —------
Plumas...-.. —---—.. ——.-.-. —
Richmond Hill............... —--
Saw Mill & Taylor Hill...........
Spanish Ranch...................
Spring Garden................. —
Twelve-Mile Bar...........-.-. —
Do........................
Do ------------------------
Burton gulch....................
South Feathealr  river...............
..Sn. d........................S.3
Mead  Valley  creek...............       
Butte  creek.....................
Slate creek......................
Chipp'e creek..............
Mosquito creek.......
Silver lake......................
Nelson creek....................
Feather river, south fork......
Silver lake.................
Onion Valley creek.
Mill creek..-     -..
Spanish creek...................
Spring Garden creek.........
Rush creek......................
...... do........................
...... do.......................
I
203
Middle and South Yuba rivers. -..
South Yuba and Deer creek.......
Bear river......................
Shady creek --------------------
Steep Hollow creek..............
Greenhorn creek -----------------
South Yuba river ----------------
Greenhorn creek.................
------ do........................
150
69
1 13
16
r) 6
200
4
5
630, 000
40, 000
40, 000
30,500
1,500, 000
4,500
12,000
22
90
220
3
60
31
40
6
13
10
10
10
10
10
2
15
25
20
7
112
16
25
12
8
12
10
loo, coo
650,000
65, 000
2, 000
100,000
100, 000
110,000
5,000
50,000
15,000
10, 000
10,000
10,000
10,000
4,000
23,000
9,000
35,000
15,000
25,000
100,000
50,000
32,000
9,000
128,000
15,000
4
15
14
4
4
2
3
3
10
6
10
8
4
5
30
4
1 4
2
2
2
5,000
30,000
20,000
5,000
6,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
30,000
30,000
10,000
25,000
12,000
15,000
15,000
4,000
8,000
1,500
1,000
2,550 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIEM
Table of canats and water ditches, &c.-Continued.
Name of ditch.                          Source of water.               c l       Cost.
_ "
SACRAMENTO COUNTY.
American River W. & M. Co —--—......
Deer Creek W. & M. Co..........
Natoma W. & M. Co... —---—.          ------
Sacramento & Amador Canal Co... 
SHASTA COUNTY.
Arbuckle.........................
Bald Hill........................
Cedar Flat.......................
Clear Creek.......................
Cottonwood......................
Davis...........................      
Do...........................
Eagle...........................
Know Mucket....................
Prairie.........................
Quartz Hill......................
Sacramento......................
Spring Creek....................
Toson...........................
Watson.........................
Cottonwood, middle fork.......
Cottonwood creek..................  
Whiskey creek....................   
Clear creek......................
Cottonwood creek -...........1- 
Clear creek....................
...... do........................
Eagle........p......................
Clear creek.....................Cottonwood, north fork...........
Churn creek............ —------
Sacramento creek.....
Spring creek.......
Clear creek...........
Jerusalem......................
SIERRA COUNTY.
Little Grizzly creek............
Fiddle creek....................
Rock creek.....................
Yuba river..................... 
Indian creek....................
Feather river, south branch.......
Fiddle creek....................
Goodyear's creek................
Yuba river.....................
Grass flat......................
Little Grizzly canion.............
Cherokee creek..................
Cannon creek...................
Humbug ca-non..................
......do........................
Yuba river......................
Jim Crow canion.................
Ladies' canion...................
Bunker Hill.....................
Rock creek.....................
Sardine lake....................
Shower branch..................
Slate creek and tributaries........
Slate creek, west branch..........
Snow creek.....................
Truckeelake....................
Slate creek, west branch..........
SISKIYOU COUNTY.
Altona, Mugginsville.............
Altona, Oro Fino -..........                                               4-,00
Barker, Oro Fino..................
Barkhouse.....................    -      -—....                          20
Brown..........................
i
204
American river ------------------
Cosumnes river ------------------
American river ------------------
Cosumnes river ------------------
30
6
16
6
$300,000
133,000
390,000
125,-OOO
12
8
3
53
18
8
2
16
4
17
8
22
10
3
17
10,000
15, 000
3, 000
140,000
10,000
12,000
10,000
10,000
5,000
15,000
. 4,000
25,000
16,000
4,000
18,000
,kmerican........................
Arnott...........................
Council Hill ----------------------
Cox Bar -------------------------
Depot ---- -------- --------------
Fe-ather River....................
Fiddle
Fisk ------ ------ ----------------
Goodyear's Bar -------------------
Grass Flat -----------------------
Green & Purdy ------ ------------
Grizzly Hill ----------------------
Hosier ------ ------------ --------
Humbug ------ ------------------
Indian Hill...
Irish ---------- -------------------
Jim Crow.
Kanaka ------------- ------------
Kimball ------- ------------------
Rock Creek ----------------------
Said & Reese --------------------
Sailor ------ ---------------------
Sayer's Union (4) ----------------
Slate Creek & Gibsonville
Snow Creek ----------------------
Truckee
Waukegan ------ ----------------
7
7
3
1
ii
2
2
4
2
3
4
2
11
3
3
3
8
2
6
3
7
6
15
3
4
3
50,000
12,000
4,000
2,500
3,000
4,,OOO
1,500
18,000
5,000
2,500
13,000
3,000
50,000
2,000
6,000
5,000
12,000
14, 000
40,000
10,000
34,000
10,000
150,000
10, 000
9,000
7,000
Kidder's creek............. "I,,'
...... do........................
- -- -. - do........... -.. -.........
Barkhouse......................
Kidder's creek. -.... -. -. - - - - - - - - -
16
15
12
5
9
3,000
4,000
4,000
2,000
3,500 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Table of canals and water ditches, &c.-Continued.
Source of water.
SISKIYOU COUNTY-Continued.
Callahan's Ranch.................rvr 
Cottonwood......................
Crawford's.........     d....
French Flats.....................
Fort Goff.................
Hawkinsville....................
Jackson's Bar....................
McKinney's Creek................
Mugginsville...................
Quartz Hill...................
Quartz Valley...................
Scott Bar........................
Scott River..-.. —..-... —--. —
Shasta River Canal...............
Siad Valley...............r.2
Whiting Hill..............W.2
STANISLAUS COUNTY.
Kappelmann Co..................
Knight's Ferry & Table Mt.......
La Grange.......................
Mountain Brow..................
San Joaquin.....................
TRINITY COUNTY.
Attingers........................
Canyon Creek....................
Canyon Creek W. Co.'s. —--------
Carder's.........................
Carrier Gulch....................
Chapman's......................
Currie's.........................
Depinett's.......................
Dunham's.......................
East Fork........................
East Fork.......................
Eastman's.......................
Evans' Bar......................
Fegan's...... —-----------—.       ----------
Fenning's.......................
Gold Bluff.......................
Hatchet Creek-....................c 
Honest Bar......................
Junction City....................
Junction City....................
Lewistown......................
Mooney's Gulch..................
North Fork......................
North Fork......................
Ohio Flat...................
Pettijohn &  Co. (3)...............
Poverty Flat.....................
Red Flat........................
Red Hill.........................
Red Hill.........................
Ridgeville.......................
Rush Creek......................
Steiner's Flat....................
Stratton's........................
Swift Creek......................
Taylor Flat......................
Indian creek....................
Guzner gulch................1...
Canyon    creek...................
Eastman gulch..................
Carrier gulch...................
Soldier creek.......1                           15
Franklin creek..................
Canyon creek, east fork...........
Mooney gulch...................
East Fork......................
East Fork of north fork..........
Eastman's gulch................
Maxwell's creek —---------------         
Clear gulch... —-------------------
Grizzly gulch...................
McKinley gulch.................
Hatchet creek...................
Trinity river, north fork.........
Canyon creek...................
Canyon creek...................
Deadwood creek........
Mooney's gulch...........-.-.Trinity river, north fork..........
Logan creek....................
Grass Valley creek.... —...
Mooney and Calvin gulches.
East Weaver....................
Gwin gulch.-.-...... —--------
Conner's creek..................
Rush creek..........
Stuart's Fork, east fork...........
Rush creek.-.... —- --.. —----
Brown's creek.-..... —----------
Indian creek....................
Swift creek.....................
French creek....................
205
'ame of ditch.
Cost.
$300
10,500
8,000
800
3,000
4,000
2,500
3,000
2,800
2,500
2,500
4,000
40,000
300,000
2,000
2,500
Scott river, south fork............
Cottonwood creek................
------ do........................
Scott river, south fork............
Turner creek.
Greenhorn creek
McKinney creek..
Howard creek
Mill creek
Howard creekMill creek
Scott
Shasta riverKlaniath river
Lake Whiting...
3
8
4
5
6
3
4
5
4
7
5
20
85
4
3
Six-mile bar....................
Stanislaus river.................
Tuolumne river..................
Littlejohn's creek....-... - -.. -. -.
Stanislaus river.................
10
7
7
4
15
60, 000
25,000
40,000
5,000
40,000
2
2
4
1
2
2
2
5
2
5
2
3
2
3
2
2
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
5
1 -,x
1
2
ii
8
5
8
2
3
8
3,500
3,000
12,000
1,500
2,000
4,000
4,000
8,000
3,000
6,000
3,000
6,000
2,000
4,000
2,000
2,000
5,000
6,000
5,000
10,000
2,500
3,500
2,000
2,000
2,000
5, 000
1,500
1,000
6,000
1,500
10,000
8,000
10,000
2,000
4,000
10..OOO 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Table of canals andt water ditches, &c.- Continued.
Source of water.
TRINIrY COUNTY-Continued.
Trinity Centre....................
Turner Bar Co.'s.................
Wares (3).......................
Weaver Creek....................
Weaver Creek.............                 -------
Weaverville Basin................
TULARE COUNTY.
Broder & Van Gordan............
Brown's Mill.....................
Campbell & Martins.............        --------------
Davenport's......................
Everton's —------. —-------— I —-- 
Fisher's..........................
Jenning's........................
Johnson's.....................
Long Ditch.-...........
Lowry, Worthley & Co...........
Owen's.........................
People's.........................
Reservation......................
Rice's.... —------—. —--------------
Town Ditch...... —--------------------
Townsend's...... —---------—. ——...... —--
Union Vineyard & Farming Co..
TUOLUMINE COUNTY.
Big Oak Flat....................
Hydraulic Co.............      T     mo
Jamestown & Chinese Camp......
Phoenix Water Co................
Sonora and Yorktown D. Co-.                         f-1..
Tuolumne County Water Co.......
YUBA COUNTY
Birmingham.....................
Brown's... —---------------------                  --
Burnett's...... —----------------------
Camptonville......................
Collyer..........................
Deaver's...-.... ——. —---—. —Dennison's.....................
Dunn's..........................
Excelsior Canal Co...............
Feather River....................
Little Willow....................
lqcQueen's..-.-......... —-------
MIonroe & Cornell ----------------
Mrock's.........................
Mullan's......-..-...............
Never's.........................
New York.......................
Nine Horse......................
Oregon Creek....................
Peacock...............
Pine Hill........................
Sleighville.......................
...............................................
Secr.........................
Spencer......-..
Turffrey's     ----------------
Strawberry creek................
Oregon creek....................
Dry creek.......................
Denve's —------------- --— Orgo  guc —-------- ----------------— 0
~~~~~~~~~Dryennion' —---------------------------------------— 0
Oregon gulch....................
Dunn's —-----------— ~~~~ —---— lihil guc —--------------— 150
Sleighville gulch................
Deer creek......................
Feather river....................
Willow creek....................
Dry   creek.......................
New York ravine................
Dry creek.......................
Dry creek.......................
Indian creek....................
Oregon creek..........
New York ravine................
Oregon creek....................
Yuba river-.- v.-                1
Bear river......................
Pine  ill —-------------— Bear river ------------------------— 160
Sleighville gulch..................
Dry creek...............3
Oregon creek....................
Indian creek....................
Dry creek.......................
206
lu
9
.P".
Name of ditch.
Cost.
Swift creek.....................
Redding's creek................
East & West Weaver creeks......
Weaver creek....................
Weaver creek - - -...... - -..
Weaver creek...................
2
4
11
12
4
8
$2,000
6,000
12,000
2,000
6,000
10,000
Kawiah.......................
Packwood creek.................
Tule river.......................
Sand creek......................
Kawiah........................
Sand creek......................
Mill creek......................
Deep creek......................
Kawiah
Sand
Sand creek......................
Kawiah........................
Tule river......................
Kawiah ------- -------- ---------
Brown's Mill ditcli..............
Sand reek.....................
Kawiah........................
5
3
4
2
2
3
4
7
3
.2
4
10
4
5
4
ij
7
1, 000
4,000
1,500
1,500
3,000
800
1,000
1,500
800
700
1,000
8,000
2,000
2,000
2,000
500
1,500 -
Tuolumne river..................
Tuolumne river, north fork.......
Wood creek.....................
Tuolumne river, north fork.......
Tuolumne river, north fork.......
Stanislaus river, south fork........
600,000
300,000
15,000
300,000
.........
550,000
40
50
7
loo
10
35
1,500
500
10,000
3,000
600
900
500
1,500
500,000
10,000
1,200
8,000
12,000
. 600
1,000
2,000
600
500
6,000
1,000
1,600
2,000
3,000
10,000
6,000
8,000
......
......
......
......
......
150
......
......
......
......
......
------
......
......
......
------
......
......
......
......
...... 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
SECTION XX.
THE MISCELLANEOUS MINERALS OF THE PACIFIC COAST.
In refel-ring to the nature, extent, and development of the miscellaneous minerals found on the Pacific coast, exclusive of gold, silver, and quicklsilver, the
materials are so abundant, and the details so interesting, as to render it difficult to select such portions as will convey the desired information within the
limits prescribed. When it is remembered that there is scarcely a metal or mineral used in the arts, or known to science, but is represented on this coast-generally in greater proportion than in any other country- it will be perceived that
a mere list of their names, and of the localities in which they are found, would
occupy more space than would be desirable in an official document.  This branch
of the report is, therefore, confined to a few facts relating to the best known and
most important of these products. The details,though necessarilyincomplete, contaiii sufficient data upon which to base an opinion of the extent and variety of
the miscellaneous mineral resources of the Pacific slope.
CoPrEP.-This branch of mining, which was in process of development last
year, is at present in a depressed condition. Various circumstances, briefly referred
to hereafter, have caused a reduction in the value of metallic copper in the markets of the world.  The depression has been felt more severely by the minerson
this coast than by those of any other part of the Union, because copper mining
being in its infancy here, was struggling to secure the aid of capital for its extension; an object the attainment of which is hopeless under existing circumstances.
Another drawback has been the increased cost of freight, consequent on the
demand for vessels to carry wheat, flour, and other produce to the ports to which
it has been usual heretofore to ship ores and metals. This increase has been
equal to a reduction of $5 per ton in the value of the ores; because they must be
shipped in order to reach smelters and consumers, as there are no regular purchasers here, except such as buy for export.
Reference to some of the causes which have thus crippled the development
of this soure' of wealth affords the best means for judging whether such reduction is likely to be permanent, or of merely temporary duration.  India, for the
past quarter of a century, has absorbed all the ingot copper sent there from all
parts of the world.  TIany of the wealthy natives in the distant interior of that
country hoarded these ingots as treasure, and they passed as currency among
them. The importations of gold and silver since the discovery of these metals
in California and Australia, together with the extension of railroads and other
features of European civilization in Asia, have almost entirely abolished this
custom. The precious metals have superseded copper in the business of its
semi-barbarous people. This change has not only caused a stoppage in the
demand for copper in what was formerly the best market for its disposal, but
thousands of tons, the accumulations of years, have been brought out from hiding
places to be exchanged for the precious metals. It will require years to absorb
the present supply of copper in India by the manufacturers of that country, particularly as most of the utensils and ornaments made of that metal used by the
people are imported from Europe or the United States. -
The increasing supply of ores from Australia, Cuba, Chili, Africa, Europe, and
the United States, before the revulsion in India was severely felt, had already
begun to exceed the demand; and, of course, this excess has greatly increased
since, giving the control of every open market to those countries where it can
be mined and melted at the lowest cost.
The increase in the number of vessels built of iron in Europe, and the decline
in ship-building in the United States, have curtailed the demand for sheathing,
which a few years since was the chief use to which copper was applied in this
country.
207 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Another cause for the decrease in the demand for copper arises from the substitution of cheaper metals in the manufacture of articles formerly made of copper,
and the introduction of processes for depositing copper on other metals by electricity, by which a mere film of the dearer metal gives the cheaper one the appearance, and causes it to serve most of the purposes of the other.
The above are among the leading causes of the present depression in the value
of copper, and springing, as they do, from circumstances not likely to change
for the better, the prospects of the copper mines on this coast are not very flattering.
The mines of Bolivia and Chili, owned by European capitalists, worked at less
cost, and more convenient to the English and French markiets than those of Cali
fornia, can drive the ores from this coast out of those markets. The imports of
South American ores into England in 1866 reached 35,336 tons, while but 4,591
tons were received firom California, and the disproportion will be still greater
during the present year.  During the past six months only 1,211 tons havebeen
shipped from San Francisco to England, while the receipts from South America
during the same period exceeded 482,000 quintals of 96 pounds each. The
present prices of freight and ores forbid any increase of shipments hence during
this year. South America, in 1866, also sent 86,440 tons of ore to France, a
market to which our ores cannot be sent with profit, unless a great reduction can
be effected in the expenses of mining and exportation.
The copper mines of the United States have formidable competitors in the
European markets in the mines of Africa and Cuba.  The richest ores on the
English market for some time past have been brought from the Cape of Good
Hope, Africa.  These ores average from 30 to 50 per cent.  The mines of Cuba
have also yielded a large quantity of rich ores.  The product of fine copper in
Europe and America, during 1867, is estimated at 90,000 tons, of which Bolivia
and Chili will produce two-thirds.
The following tables, showing the value of ores in England during the past
three years, and the cost of their production on this coast, explain the causes why
California cannot compete with Chili in supplying the European markets. As
the prices at Swansea, Wales, regulate the whole European market, it is only
necessary to give the rates at that place.
Price of copper ores at Swansea in 1865, 1866, and 1867.
Grade.                                1865.    1866.    1867.
10 per cent..........................................per ton. $41 50  $33 87   $36 50
17 per cent................................... do.. -  66 62    58 75    66 50
21 per cent...........................................do...   91 62    67 62    69 75
Cost of extracting and delivering ores at Swansea.
Mining............................................................ per ton.
Bags................................................. —------------— do..Sorting. -..............................................do...
Wear and tear of machinery............................................. do.
Interest on capital _............................................- do..
Freight to San Francisco.................. -.................... - do.
Freight to Swansea. —---—...................................... do. —
Commissions, &c.........................................do... 
Insurance............................................................ do
Cartage, wharfage, &C..................................... do...
Total expenses............................................... do... 
208
$14 00
4 00
I 00
1 50
1 50
10 00
15 00
5 00
1 50
50
54 00 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
By comparing these expenses with the list of prices above, it will readily be
perceived that ores under 15 per cent. do not cover expenses.   As seven-eighths
of the ores obtained on this coast do not reach that standard, it is unprofitable to
extract them.  The same figures apply to the markets at New York and Boston.
As more than thlree-fourths of the ores smelted in Europe and the Atlantic States
do not average 15 per cent., it is clear that the mines whence suchli ore is ob)tained
possess a great advantage over those on the Pacific coast, entirely through the
saving in cost of labor and transportation.
The statistics relating to the copper mines of England, published by authority
of the government of that country in 1866, show that during that year 198,298
tons of ore were obtained firom the English mines, which yielded 11,88SSS tons of
fine copper, or an average of but 5.9 per cent.  This ore, estimated at $25 per
ton, was valued at $4,967,450.  As the mines on this coast could be made to
produce annually an equal quantity of ore of greater value, the proportions of
the loss the country sustains by3 their remaining undeveloped deserves considera tion.
The establishment of comprehensive smelting works at some  suitable place,
with ample capital to conduct operations on a liberal scale, would be a great
advantage to the country by encouraging the development of this interest, and
would doubtless in time yield fair returns for the amot it. i iv esteld.
The present plan of erecting temporary smelting w-orkls near each mine, for
the purpose of operating on the richest ores, is an injury to the Copper interest,
because it exhausts materials which might be more advanltageously employed.
These temporary works can only operate on the richest oxides, carbonates, and
silicates, which form but a small proportion of the ores. The great mass of them
consists of sulphurets, in the reduction of which the oxygen, carbon, and silica
of the richer ores serve an important purpose.  It is the opportunity of selecting
suitable ores for combining, which the smelters of Wales possess, with a market
for every kind and grade offered, that enables them to operate so successfuilly.
The ores from the Cornish mines are sulphides, and would be too poor to workl,
but for this arrangement.   Lime and silica being essential elements in the reduc tion of copper from its ores, common sense teaches that it is more economical to
employ these e]ements whenl combined by nature with the metal, than to collect
them from other sources and mix them artificially, at additional cost. It was to
secure this advantage that the Bostonl smelters, during the past year, sent to
Wales to purchase a cargo of carbonates to mix the sulphides received from this
coast, because the miners here, who have large quantities of carbonates, prefer
converting them into matte.
None of the English copper miners ever smelt their ores.   They are all sent
to the public market; smelting and mining being considered separate and distinct
operations in that country.
The method of transacting business in the Welsh ore market is peculiar, but:
gives satiskaction, owing to its fairness to buyer and seller. All the ores intended
for sale are piled and sampled ten days before the sale takes place. During that
time the smelters desiring to do so can take samples to estimate the value of'
such parcels as they want.  Each sends in his bid in writing, sealed, directed to'
the agent having the particular parcel for sale.  The  highest bidder for any lot
has it awarded to him.  This is a better plan than for miners to be obliged to
seekl purchasers, without knowing the value of the ore in the market.
NEW DISCOVERIES.-The circumstances above stated have had the effect of
preventing prospecting for copper to a great extent.   But some discoveries have
been made within the present year, though few of them have been much developed.
Among the most important are the following:
The Sierra Buttes copper mine, located near Iturd's ranch, Sierra county.  The
lode on this discovery, which may be traced by its outcrop for nearly a mile,
differs from that in any of the copper mines, in several material respects.   It is
14
209 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the only body of copper ores of any importance thus far found in the granite on
this coast, except at Meadow lake, Nevada county, hereafter referred to.
The ore is contained in a quartzose gangue rock, the lode having a well-defined
fltuccan (as the miners term the soft clay which usually accompanies true veins
of ore) on thie foot wall; the hanging wall being a hard, compact, feldspathic
granite, which also constitutes the "country" in which the lode is enclosed. There
are considerable quantites of molybdenum in the vein-stone, in the form of both
the sulphite and oxide of that metal.  There are other lodes of copper ores in
the same locality contained in the granite; but each differs somewhat in composition and appearance from all the others, forming an interesting field for scientific
investigation. The Sierra Buttes is the only one of these lodes that has been
worked to any extent, owing to its containing sufficient gold in the gangue rock
to pay for extraction, though the ore will average 10 per cent. of copper. The
cost of transportation from that distance to a market over such roads as exist,
under the present condition of affairs, causes such a grade of ores to be valueless.
A tunnel is in course of construction on this mine, which when completed will
strike the lode at a depth of 1,000 feet below the surface.  In a shaft sunk on it
to the depth of 60 feet, the lode was found to be seven feet wide.
A  promising outcrop of copper ore has been found near Mars,ngo Pass, San
Bernardino county, California.
A company was incorporated at San Francisco in July, 1867, with a capital
stock of $240,000, for the purpose of working a copper mine in the Moro district,
San'Luis Obispo county, California.
In the California mine, at Meadow lake, Nevada county, the highest inhabited
portion of the Sierra Nevada, at an altitude of 8,000 feet above the level of the
sea, metallic copper is found in the quartz, the gold and copper in which thouIgh
intimately mixed, are never alloyed with each other.
The vein-stone of the lodes in this elevated district carries a percentage of
copper, generally in the form of sulphurets, combined with those of iron, lead,
zinc cobalt, nickel, and arsenic.  In the Shooting Star mine, at the depth of 40
feet, the lode contains an ore which yields 15 per cent. of copper, $40 per ton
of silver, and $20 per ton of gold. It is proposed to erect furnaces to smelt the
rich but complex ores of this district.
The Lyons Company's mine, located about three miles from the town of
Ashton, Colusa county, in the Coast range, contains a body of oxides and carbonates.  A temporaryrfurnace was erected to work these ores, but being unfit
for the purpose, one of IHaskell's water-lined furnaces is now being built. This,
thou hl not a new discovery, had not been of much importance till smelting
operations were commenced.
Persons who have visited the new Territory of Alaska report it as being rich
ia copper.  Al. Foucoult, a French gentleman, who spent several months in the
T'erritory among the Indians, states that they Value copper as much as civilized
men value gold.  The chiefs wear masses of it suspended round their necks, as
highly prized ornaments.  Some of the higher chiefs have lumps of the metal
that weigh several hundred pouncds each, which are heir-looms of the tribe, and
,re kept in the great wigwam.   This gentleman states, that in order to obtain
these nuggets of copper, the Indians keep up large fires for weeks on the outcroppings of the lodes, which melts the carbonates and oxides near the surface.
It is a well-known fact, mentioned in the writings of the earlier visitors to this
coast, that the natives of that Territory, and those immediately adjoining, were
the only tribes that possessed copper weapons and ornaments when first discovered.
In August, 1866, a discovery of copper ore was made ill the mountains, on
the south branch of King's river, Tulare county, about 68 miles from Fresno
City. There are four distinct and parallel lodes, a few feet apart from each
other, in the locality, each containing a percentage of "horseflesh" ore, or
erubescite, in a quartzose gangue rock. The lodes are from two to eight feet
210 
WVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
wide, and are traceable for several miles, cresting a high hill and across a steep
canon. An analysis of the ore shows it to contain 60 per cent. copper, $20 per
ton in gold, and nearly $60 per ton in silver.  Owing to the mountainous
character of the country where this discovery was made, but little can be done
towards its development till a road can be made to coinvey materials.  This will
involve an expense, which capitalists are not disposed to incur in prospecting
copper mines at present.  If there were no copper in the ledges, there would be
less difficulty in obtaining funds to prospect them for the gold and silver they
contain; but the disasters which have befallen the copper interest within the past
year have cast a feeling of distrust over everything bearing the name or nature of
copper.  There is abundance of wood and water in the vicinity of the discovery;
and could one of Haskell's furnaces be erected there, the parties who own the
lodes would probably realize something for their labor and enterprise.
Several discoveries have been made within the past few months in the moun tains borderiing the Tule river, in Tulare county, which have been prospected
sufficiently to demonstrate their value.   The lodes are generally similar in
character to those found on the south fork of King's river, in the same county,
and described above.  The localities of the two discoveries are about 50 miles
apart.  The lodes on the Tulare are contained in the metamorphic slate, near
its junction with the granite.
A body of ore has been partially developed near Copper City, Shasta county,
on which a company of English capitalists have offered to erect smelting works,
provided the parties owning the mine will grant them a lease on terms they
propose.
It is stated by parties who have been prospecting in Utah during the past
season that the croppings of copper ore are abundant in the south and southeast
sections of that Territory. Copper ores are reported to have been found in the
Battle 3Iountain district, Humboldt countyv Nevada, about 90 miles north-northwest from Austin.
The surveyors employed by the Central Pacific Railroad Company report
the existence of copper-bearing loden in the Trinity mountains, Humboldt county,
Nevada.
RECEN,T DEVELOPMENT OF THE COPPER MIINES.- The condition of affairs,
resulting from the causes stated, will be best exhibited by showing the extent of
the development of the mines described in the previous report. This will also
afford a means for comparison.
TErE COPPErOPOLIS MINES.-TlThese mines, owing to their extent, the capital
expended in their development, the value of the ores extracted from them, and
the quantity at present available for extraction, place them at the head of the
copper mines on the Pacific coast.
The Union mine has been but partially worked during 1867. Its owners
find it more profitable to place it in a condition for future operations, than to
extract ore for sale at present prices. But little ore has consequently been taken
out-only such as it was necessary to move in making explorations. The number
of men employed has been reduced to 150; in 1865 and 1866 nearly 400 were
employed.  The chief work doing at the mine at present is keeping it firee from
water tiand making the necessary repairs to the workls above and below ground.
The explorations in the main shaft have extended to 500 feet in perpendicular
depth, where the lode on the north, near the line of the Keystone ground, is 15
feet wide.  At the 400-feet level in the same shaft, 100 feet above, the lode has
decreased to six feet in width.   This increase in its proportions is a favorable
symptom of pelmanence, and proves the correctness of the opinion that the contraction of the lode at the 400-feet level would not be permanent.   The total
quantity of ore talen from this mine from January 1 till July 15, 1867, was
8,382,855 pounds; total quantity since it was opened in 1861, 108,731,678
pounds; all of which has been exported to the Atlantic States and Europe)'
211 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
except about 2,376,000 pounds, or 1,000 tons, portions of which remain at the
mine, at Stockton, and San Francisco, ready for shipment.
THE KEYSTONE MINE.-Explorations in this mine have been extensive and
costly during the past year.  The cross-cut toward the south line, in the sixth
level, at a depth of 350 feet, running from the south or Houghton shaft, struck
the main lode where it was 10 feet wide, of 15 per cent. ore. It was deemed
best to sink the main shaft 200 feet, to avoid the necessity of working by a
winze at so great a distance from the shaft, as it was calculated the shaft would
strike tlh -ode at that depth.  At the depth of 552 feet a cross-cut was made 43
feet in length before the lode was reached.  Its width at that depth could not
be ascertained, owing, to the great increase of water, which prevented the men
drifting till a sufficiently large sump-hole could be made.
The company have taken out but little ore during the past year, having ceased
operations, except for exploration, early in April. At present they only employ
a few men to attend the machinery and pumps, to keep the mine from filling with
water. The total receipts from the sale of ores taken from this mine amount to
$375,000. The amount of assessments collected exceed $100,000, the whole of
which has been expended in developing the mine and purchasing machinery.
The company hasj never declared a dividend.
THE OTHEr COPPEPOPOLIS MINES.-The Empire, Consolidated, and Inim
itable were worked to some extent in the spring; but have been idle for several
months.  The owners of the latter mine (which is parallel and immediately
adjoining the Union} had sued that company for taking out ore firom their
ground. The case attracted considerable attention from its novelty and the
value of the interests involved. It was decided in favor of the lJnion Company.
THE NAPOLEON 3lINE.-The new shaft on this mine was sunk to the depth
of 195 feet, when workl was suspended.  No ore has been taklen from it during 1867.
THE  CAMPO  SEcO c IINE.-This mine has been partially worked for a few
months during the present year.  Smelting works were erected by the company
as early as November, 1865, and arrangements made for workling economically.
A railroad a mile in length was constructed for the purpose of conveying the ores
from the mine to the furnace. By a judicious arrangement in the location of the
works, the ore, after reaching the surface through the shaft, is carried down to
the furnaces by its own weight, and these being located on the banks of the
Mokelumne river, the slag and other waste is dumped into that river at trifling
cost for labor.
The smelting works consist of two cupola furnaces and a McKenzie  blast,
moved by a water wheel, and a roasting kiln.  The furnaces are built of sandstone and lined with steatite, both of which materials are abundant in the neighborhood of the works, and appear to be tolerably well adapted for the purpose.
The object of the company in erecting these works was not to make copper or
matte of a high standard, but to concentrate the ores obtained below  10 per
cent. into about 35 per cent. regulus.  The experience of the persons in charge
confirms the remarks heretofore made in relation to the impolicy of each mine
smelting its own ores. The ores here, like the bulk of all obtained from the
mines on the cupriferous belt which traverses the State from north to south, are
nearly pure sulphiides of iron and copper, rarely containing more than five per
cent of silica, and consequently difficult to reduce alone.   The average assay of
20 samples shows 45 per cent. sulphur, 40 per cent. iron, 6 to 10 per cent. copper,
the remainder being silica, water, &c.  To reduce such an ore to regulus it was
found necessary to add 20 per cent. of quartz, in order to supply sufficient silica
to combine with the iron after the liberation of that metal fromn the sulphur. ttad
silicates of copper or ores containing a considerable percentage of quartzose
gangue rock been available, a much larger product of copper would have been
obtained at the same cost of fuel, flux, and labor.
Even in the processes for roasting the ores in kilns the absence of silica is
212 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
a great disadvantage and source of loss. The sulphur, when in suca excess, as
in this class of ores, when heated, coats the ores fobrming a refractory material
for future operations.
The two furnaces on this mine, when in full operation, smelted about eight
tons of ore and 20 per cent. of quartz in 24 hours. To do this it required 250
bushels of charcoal daily, which cost about 20 cents per bushel; two men to
attend the furnace as smelters, two to supply materials, two to carry off the slag,
rghicl,0 owing to the large proportion of iron and the nature of the flux, was
lar,e, and two others to prepare the materials for the furnace feeders.  Most of
the work was performed by Chinese labor.
THE LANCHA PLANA MTINES.-These mines being under the control of the
proprietors of the Union, have not been wvorked during the year.
THE MIrNES INx AMADor CouNTY.-Thie Newton, Cosumnes, and Pionlee
mines, in this county, ceased operations in April, 1867.
TrE MINES IN AIARIPOSA CouNTY.-The principal mine in this county, La
Victorie, owing as much to disagreements among its stockholders as to the depreciation in the value of ores, has been idle nearly the whole of the present year.
Having given a description of this mine in previous report, the following
particulars relating to its working will be interesting for reference:  After an
examination made by order of the company, the engineer in his report states that
the mine firom the tunnel has been well opened. The foot-wall, where the tunnel enters the vein, is well defined; but, as yet, the hanging wall had not been
found, although the vein had been pierced about 70 feet.  Two thousand tons
of ore had been taken out of the mine, chiefly from pockets or smaller veins,
mixed with the materials which had been thrown into the larger vein.   A series
of deposits of ore exists above the foot-wall, more or less connected, containing
quantities of black oxide, and until the workls are carried below the surface disturbances the size, value, or permanency of the lode cannot be determined.
From the indications in the present workings there is reason to believe the mine
will prove permanent and valuable.  The company not having the means  to
obtain proper machinery, had done the best they could under the circumstances.
The mine is well timbered, and is in good condition for future operations.
A  shaft had been sunkl about 90 feet, on an incline which it was supposed
would intersect the lode. But by a cross-cut run firom the bottom it was found
that the lode had changed in dip.  The shaft was therefore sunk nearly vertical,
so as to strike it about 80 feet below, or on a level with the tunnel.  While running this cross-cut, seams and deposits of black oxide were met with.
The extraction of ores while the mine was worked was slow and costly, owing
to the broken nature of the country rock. The difficulties that beset the coinmpany are in part due to the isolated locality of the mine. It is too far fromnt any
travelled road to obtain the advantage of cheap transportation by teams returning empty from the mountains. The nearest point of shipment is 84 miles, over
a rough country. The cost of transportation swallowed up the value of the
ore. In addition to this, the company conducted its business on the same extravagant scale as the richest of the Washoe companies. Its officers, salaries,
office rent in San Francisco, and incidental expenses outside the mine amounted
to $16,000 per annum.  There are fewundeveloped mines that could stand such
a drain. Under more economical management, and with cheaper transportation,
this mine might add something to the wealth of the State, even at the present
low price of copper. Its ores are abundant, and of a higher grade than the
average.
TUE BUcUAXAX MIXrE is located in Hunter's valley, Mariposa county, and
has been worked at intervals during the past year. The shaft, in June, had
reached 150 feet in depth, where the lode was found to be seven feet wide, of
tolerably compact sulphurets. Having oxides, silicates, and carbonates convenient to the smelting works, this company, during the year has made 100 tons of
213 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
60 per cent. matte, most of which has been forwarded to San Francisco, where
it remains at present for want of a markiet.  There can be no better illustration
of the reduction in the value of copper than is afforded by the working of this
mine. The matte made from its ores in 1865, averaging 60 per cent. of copper,
sold at San Francisco for 16 cents per pound. The same grade of matte cannot
be sold at present at nine cents per pound.
At James's ranch the Green Mountain Company have erected smelting works
and made a few tons of matte.
None of the other copper mines in this county have been worked during the
present year.
THE 3MINES IN SAN  Luis OBISPO COUNTY.-But little having been done
towards developing the mines in this county during the present year, there are
no new facts to report concerning them.
THE  IINES IN Los ANGELES CouNTY.-With the exception of prospecting
among the claims near the Solidad pass, nothing has been done in this county
during the past year.
THE MINES IN PLUMAS COUNTY.-The Genesee Valley smelting woriks had
to cease operations during the winter owing to the weather, and work has not
been resumed since, the price of copper offering no inducements to the proprietors to incur the expense of refitting furnaces and mine.
THE MINES IN DEL NORTE CouNTY.-With the exception of the Alta none
of the copper mines in this county have been worked this year.  The Alta company have been engaged in developing their mine.  They have sunk their main
shaft to the depth of 500 feet, run their tunnel 200 feet, and drifted at several
levels, finding bodies of ore which appear to improve in quality as the workings
progress. The disturbed and broken character of the formation ceases at 200
feet from the surface.  The company has sent 400 tons of ore to San Francisco
since January, 1867, which has been reshipped to New York.  The average of
ore has been about 16 per cent.; but the costs attending its transportation to San
Francisco, and reshipment thence to New York, absorbs the value in expenses.
THE MINES IN CONTRA COSTA COUNTY.-Nolne of the copper mines in this
county have been worked this year.
THE MINES IN NEVADA COUNTY.-Capital and labor have been expended
in prospecting the copper mines in the western part of this county, where there
is a copper-bearing formation extending across it from north to south, on which
many claims have been located and to some extent explored. The lodes are
generally large, but the ores are of too low a grade to cover the costs of transpl-rtation.  Of several hundred tons sent to New York and Swansea the average
returns did not exceed nine per cent. of metal. Under more favorable conditioins, with cheap labor and transportation, these mines might be made to pay.
At present they can only be worked at a loss.
The first shaft in the district, called the Well, because sunk for the purpose
of obtaining a supply of water, is near Spenceville, in Rough and Ready township. It was used as a well for five years, till the excitement about copper in
1862, when, on cleaning it out, a deposit of sulphurets was exposed 70 feet wide,
and extending to an indefinite length in the direction of the stratification of the
enclosing metamorphosed clay slate, with a foot-wall and fluccan. But the ore,
only ranging from eight to nine per cent., did not pay for extraction and transport.
The Last Chance, the only mine worked for copper in this county, is located
on this belt, near the Empire ranch. It was discovered in 1863, and has since
been explored with such satisfactory results as to warrant its owners, who aro
among the most enterprising citizens in the State, (D. 0. Mills, of San Francisco,
A. Delano, S. D. Bosworth, and E. W. Roberts, of Grass Valley,) to make
application to procure title from the federal government to the land on which
the mine is located, 4he first application of the kind made. A shaft has been
sunk to the depth of 200 feet, where the lode is found 12 feet wide, of sulphur
214 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ets, averaging from 12 to 20 per cent. of metal.  Before the rise in price of
freight a shipment of this ore to Swansea returned a profit of 835 per ton.  The
company own 2,400 feet on this lode.
Considerable excitement was created in this county towards the close of 1866
by the discovery of ores in the Fox  mine, from which about 40 tons of oxides
and carbonates were shipped to Swansea in October of that year. But the excitement ceased as the price of copper declined, though nearly 100 claims were
recorded during the last quarter of 1S66.
Several small parcels of ores have been received at San Francisco during the
present year from the Western Star and Green mines, located near the Last Chance
and on the same lode; but at present and for several months past none of the
mines have been worked.
OTHER, CALIFORNIA COPPER MAINES.-With the exception of the Union
Company, who own a mine in Marin county which they prospected for a few
months in the spring, the above is a full statement of tie progress made in copper miining in California during the year 1867.
THE  OREGON  CoPPER  MINNES.-The Queen of Bronze and other mines in
this State have been idle during the past year.   New discoveries have been
made, but none of them have been developed sufficiently to prove their value.
They are re,erred to merely to show the extent of country on this coast in which
copper has been discovered.
The most important 6f the discoveries have been made in the southlern part
of Douglas county, where croppings of ore exist, not in the form of gossan, as in
California, but as masses of oxides and carbonates, wlhich will be of importance
if extensive smelting works should be erected.
The mines on Eagle creek, Baker county, have been explored with such results
as to have induced the owners to enter into a contract with the Oregon Steam
Navigation Company to carry their ores to San Francisco, at a stipulated price,
for a year.
THE  LOWER CALIFORNIA COPPER MINES.-Tlhe Sance mine, at Loretto, has
not been wvorked during the past year.  The shaft on this mine has reached the
depth of 114 feet, where the lode is seven feet wide, the ore said to average 12
per cent.
A  few tons of ore were received occasionally at San Francisco from mines
along the lower coast, dIring the past spring, but such shipments have entirely
ceased for several months.
THE COPPER M,INES OF NEVADA.* —Iost of the ores found in the district of
Pahranagat, though generally famous for the silver they contain, are more properly described as copper ores.  They  consist chiefly of gray copper, copper
pyrites, eribescite, and other familiar ores of copper, combined with sulphites of
silver, lead, iron, zinc, &c. No gold has yet been found in the district. These
ores are contained in a quartzose veinstone in some ledges; in others the gangue
rock is calespar, (a carbonate of lime.)  Some of the ores contain as high as 50
per cent. of copper.. This district lies in the extreme southeast corner of Nevada,
where it joins Utah and Arizona, in 37~ 37/ north latitude and 112~ longitude
west from Greenwichl.   The mineral wealth of the district is contained in a range
of mountains about six miles long and four miles wide, running nearly north and
Routh, the general name for which is Mount Irish, though each peak has a separate name. Some of the crests of the range tower to the height of 11,000 feet,
and aie covered with perpetual snow.  The lodes present the characteristics of
true fissure veins, and appear to consist of several series, crossing each other in
some places at right angles, the whole being contained in a metamorphosed limestone formation. In any other locality they would be valuable for copper mining.
' Described more fully in the section on Nevada.
215 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Similar ores are obtained in the mines of Inyo and Mono counties, California.
These, however, contain a per cent. of gold.  These ores are refractory when
worklied by the ordinary mill processes.  Some of this class of ore taken from
the Camanche mine, in Mono county, and sent to Swansea for reduction, returned
$1,000 per ton in gold, silver, and copper.   The mines in Kearsarge, Fish Springs,
Aurora, and other districts among the higher divisions of the Sierra Nevada produce similar ores.  The completion of the Central Pacific railroad will be of
great benefit to the miners of this extensive mineral region, particularly if a
process shall be discovered by which the gold and silver can be extracted without wasting the copper they contain-a contingency quite possible. If such an
establishment for smelting as the interests of the coast demand were erected at
some point convenient to water and railroad carniage, the refractory ores of the
Sierras would become valuable.
THEE PEAVINE MIINES.-In November, 1866, several tons of ores from this
district were brought to Sacramento by the Central Pacific railroad, which passes
within three miles of it, being the first shipment from the Sierras by railroad.
The total cost for freight by railroad and steamboat was $12 per ton.
Two of Haskell's water-lined furnaces have since been erected in the district,
one to operate for silver, the other for copper, but neither has yet been completed.
The ores are chiefly carbonates and silicates, and the furnaces will probably be
able to reduce them to a portable form for transportation. As they contain a
per centum of gold and silver it may be found profitable to ship them to Europe
for separation, till suitable works shall be erected here.
An excellent map of this district has been published by A. J. Ihatch, deputy
United States surveyor, which will be found useful for reference.
THE  IINXES IN ArIzONA.-Thle copper mines on Williams fork of the Colorado have been partially worked this year.  The developments have been satisfactory so far as the extent of the lodes and the grade of the ores are concerned,
but the difficulties attending smelting operations for want of furnace materials
and fuel, the scarcity of means for transport, the high cost of freights from the
mines to market, and the low prices paid for ores have caused a cessation of work
or confined operations to a limited scale. In March there were 100 men employed
at the Central and Planet mines, and about 150 about the works at Aubrey City,
nearly all of whom have since been discharged.
The receipts of ores from these mines since January 1, 1867, have amounted
to 1,156 tons, 600 of which were from the Planet mine. The whole quantity
ranged between 20 and 60 per cent. of metal.
The ores in this district would be valuable if suitable smelting works were
erected anywhere on this coast, as they are chiefly carbonates, silicates, and
oxides.
TIE GPEAT CENTRAL MiINE contains 3,600 feet on two parallel lodes, and
several hundred feet on other lodes adjacent. The ore is abundant and of good
grade, and contains some gold and silver. In May last, the company had about
200 tons, averaging 25 per cent., and 50 tons of selected, averaging 60 per cent.,
lying on the river bank awaiting transportation.  One of the smaller lodes the
"Marion," at the depth of 75 feet from the surface, is five feet wide, composed
of oxides of iron and copper. At the depth of 125 feet from the surface the
ain lode exhibits symptoms of sulphur.  This, while affording evidence of the
permanence of the lode, is not favorable to smelting operations. For 200 feet
on each side of the shaft on the main lode (which is the extent of its exploration) it is found to be from five to seven feet wide.
In April last the company completed a furnace capable of reducing 16 tons of ore
in 24 hours, and made about 50 tons of coarse copper, ranging from 60 to 70 per
cent., which has been sent to New York. But operations ceased in June.
THE PLANET MINE, though located near the Great Central, contains several
216 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
lodes and deposits of ore separate from those Workied by that company, and yields
ores of a different character. In one of the drifts a body of red, ferruginous, cal careous cement was found,,about 18 inches thick, but otherwise of unklnown
extent, which contains a per cent. of metallic copper in the form of fine spangles
and flakes, beautifully crystallized, imparting a peculiar brilliancy to each fiac ture as the lights of the miners are reflected upon the grains.  It differs entirely
from other copper ores found on the coast. There are no traces of sulphur.
At the depth of 80 feet, in the main shaft, the lode is composed of a coarse
3Ialachite, or carbonate of copper, nearly eight feet wide, quite compact, and
pencilled with darlk shadings like green marble.  Along the foot wall there are
masses of chrysocolla, or silicate of copper-much of it possessing great beautyappearing like bright green jasper, elegantly marbled with darker green and blue
pencillings.  Some of these masses, which are susceptible of a high and permianent polish, would be valuable for ornamental purposes.
It is estimated that $100,000 wvorth of ores have been sold from this lmine
since 1862.
AIINERAL I-ILL  IiXNE. —This and the Empire Flat mine are owned by Greenman & 3Iartini, of San Francisco, a firm long engaged in the purchase of copper
ores on this coast.  They have erected two furnaces and other works, with a 30
horse-power steam enginei to run the necessary machinery, at Aubrey City, a town
which has sprung up on the banks of the river since the opening of the mines,
having expended nearly $100,000 in opening the mines, building a wharf, making
roads, &c.
The Springfield Company own the Punta del Cobre mine, and several lodes
near the Great Central Comipany's mine, and there are other mines of probable
value in the district.
It is to be regretted that these mines, after having been brought to their present
stage of development at so great an expense, have been compelled to cease operations.  Only a few hands are now employed to keep the property in order.
The furnaces are idle.
The following details of the expenses of transportation from the Aubrey mines
may be useful in showing that some of the causes which prevent their development may be removed.
The expenses in bringing ores from the mines to San Francisco sum up about
$25 per ton; this, coupled with $15 per ton freight to Liverpool or New York,
makes $40 per ton, without calculating insurance, commission, interest on capital,
or costs for mining, which swell the actual cost of the ore to 870 per ton, nearly
equal to the present market value of 25 per cent. ore. No further explanation
is necessary to show wvhy it is unprofitable to ship even rich ores from this district.
The difficulties in the way of smelting are as discouraging as those attending
the exportation of the ores. No suitable materials so far as known can be had
in the Territory of which to construct the furnaces. All material has to be
brought fromn California at a great expense; steatite from El Dorado county and
sandstone from Catalina island, &C.  Owing to the depredations of the Indians
the wood-cutters were unable to go out of sight of the settlement to obtain wood
for charcoal, the supply of which was consequently deficient, the quality bad,
and the expense enormous; charcoal made of iron wood, musquete, and cottonwood costs 850 per ton. The total product of copper made under these circumstafnces did not exceed 40 tons.
Under more favorable conditions the mines might be made profitable. There
are places along the river banks where 100,000 tons of carbonates and oxides
of copper, averaging 18 per cent. of that metal, could be quarried like marble;
but such ores are valueless at present.
217 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The following table gives the exports of copper regulus and ores from San
Francisco since 1S62:
Exports of copper and ores since 1862.
To New York.               To Boston.               To England.                   Total.
Year.
Ores.  Copper        Ores        Copper        Ores.       Copper         Ores        Copper
regulus                  regulus.                  regulus.                   re. regulus.
Tos          T s Tns.                   Tns         T s          Tns          Ts           Tons. Tons.  Tons.  Tons.  Tons.
1862......... 86............. 3. 574 16-20.............................. 3, 660 ]6-20.........
1863......... 1,337..........    4,208 15-163......... 7 15-20..........   5,55310-20......
1864.........  4, 905 16-20..........   5, 064.......... 264 7-20.......... 10, 234 3-20. —--
1865.........4, 146 3-20            25  9, 050                       591 16-20..........    17,787 19-20   25
1866.. 9, 962 8-20         422  4, 536 13-20......... 12, 384 15-20 80 10-20  26, 883 16-20  592 10-20
1867........ 2,633                 178...................... 1,878              141 18-20   4, 511         319 18-20
Total..  23, 070 7-20           625  26,434 4-0..........17,126 13-20  222 8-20            68, 6314-20  847 8-20
The above table exhibits the decline in the exports during the present year.
A considerable portion of that which has been shipped has not paid expenses,
but was sent under contracts previously made.
COPPER-SMELTING WOPnS ERECTED ON THE PACIFIC COAST.-The following list of copper-smelting works erected on the Pacific coast, though not coinplete, shows the extent of the business and the amount of capital invested in its
development:
List of copper-smelting u,orks erected on the Pacijfc coast.
Where located.
Antioch....................
'Copperopolis................
Waldo.....-.............. 
Genessee Valley.............                                               -
James's Ranch...............
Bear Valley.................
Near Placerville.............
Hunter's Valley.............
Near Ashton................
Peavine Hill................
Williams Fork........... —Campo Seco................
C(ontra Costa......
Calaveras.........
Josephine.........
Pltimas...........
Mariposa..........
....do..............El Dorado.........
Mariposa..........
Colusa............
Storey............
'*Josephine........
................
Caaveras.........
....................
* Completed June, 1867.
Several concentrating and roasting works have also been erected near some
of the copper mines at considerable expense. The concentrating workls on the
Keystone mine, at Copperopolis, cost $50,000.  It is quite fair to calculate that
$5007000 have been expended in the construction of smelting and concentrating
works on this coast during the past four years, nearly all of which has proved a
loss for the reasons stated.
IMPOnTATION OF MIETALLIC COP'PER.-The increase in ship-building on this
coast, and the facilities for repairing large vessels by the construction of docks,
&c., at San Francisco, create a demand for sheathing-metal and nails.  The
general use of copper plates in the quartz mnills requires a large supply of this
mnetal, as much of it is destroyed by the chemicals used in the processes for amialgamating the precious metals.  The increase in the manufacture of machinery,
in the construction of which brass forms a considerable item, and of articles
218
Mine.
County.
State.
California -
.... do -. -..
Oregon....
California -
....do - " "
.... do -' —'
. —.do -'- "
....do - ----
....do, " "
Nevada,,,
Orego'l'- "
Arizona - - -
California -
............
Plan.
.Welsh. -..
German. - -
---- do -.. -.
Local
]Elaskell's..
....do.. -..
-...do.. - -.
-...do
..-.do..,
....do.. "'
German -'Welsh. -'....do
............
Cost.
$25, 000
75,000
40, 000
30, 000
20,000
20,000
10,000
20, 000
6, 000
10,000
20,000
IOD, coo
30, 000
406,000
....................
Union............
Queen Bronze
Cosmopolitan
..............
La.ctorie........
.ii................
chanan ---- ----
Lyo'S............
Peavine...........
Several...........
Campo Seco.......
....................
Total.................. 
WEST OF' THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
wholly composed of copper or brass, a branch of business wlfch gives emrployment to several factories and fore,dries, requires a constantly increasing supply
of this metal.
The following, statement, showing the imports of copper during 18S66 and for the
first six months of 1867, embraces only the rough metal and sheets.  All other
forms in which it is imported are included under the head of general mnerclalndisc.  Tlhough very incomplete, and confined to the imports received at San
Francisco, this table shows that there is a field for the manufacture of copper on
the Pacific coast which deserves the consideration (of capitalists.
Imports of copper at San Francisco  from January 1, 1866, to July 1, 1867.
Bars and packages: In 1866, 1,245; in 18w, 242; total, 1,487.  Cases of sheathing: In
1866, 1,203; in 1867, 386; total, 1,589.  The weight and value of the packages  are not
returned at the customin-house.
TIlE 3[ANUFACTURE OF SULPUATE OF COPPER IN CALIFORPNIA.-The annual
consumption of the sulphate of copper on the Pacific coast amounts to nlearly
500 tons.  The present whlolesale price is $200 per ton.  About four-fifths of
total quantity imported is used in the processes of amalgamation.  The greater
part of the other fifth, or aboiit 100 tons, is used by farmnners for soaking wheat,
&c.; sulphate of copper, or blue-stone, as it is generally called, being the best
known preventive of rust in that grain.  Till recently all the sulphate of copper used here was imported, chiefly from Eingland.   At present there is sufficient
made in San Francisco to supply the demand.  Crane & Brilghamn, a firm in the
drug business, have been engaged for several years in perfecting a plan for the
manufacture of this article from the silplhurets, whilich were too poor to pay for
export or concentration. They expendedl nearly $50,000 inl apparatus anid experimnents, and obtained a patent for a process which they discovered in 1864.  But
the costs of labor and strong opposition from importers made it an unprofitable
investment. In the spring of 1867, a method was discovered by them of making
this article from the carbonates and oxides brought from the Williams forkl of
the Colorado, Arizona, by which it is prepared in the greatest purity at a cost
bel6w that for which it can be profitably imported. The San Francisco Refinery
WVorlks, and other establishments in that business, of which there are several,
Malso make quantities of the sulphate of copper as a by-product of their chemical
operations. Under these circumstances it is not improbable that the importation
of this article will soon cease.
Inox.-The failure, till recently, to discover a deposit of coal on this coast
suitable for smelting purposes, has prevented much attention being paid to the
bodies of iron ores which are scattered throughout California and Oregon.  But
the discovery of good coal in Washington Territory, and in the late Russian possessions on this coast, within the past year or two, has brought the subject of
iron smelting into notice. Tihe consumption of pig, bar, plate, and every other
description of iron, already considerable, must increase with the progress of the
States and Territories on this side of the Rocky mountains, and the importance
of this metal in manufactures and arts imparts to the subject anl interest scarcely
second to that attached to the production of the precious metals.
With an abundance of material necessary for the manufacture of iron at their
doors, as it were, it is scarcely probable the people of this coast will be much
longer content to import so essential an element of prosperity from foreign
countries.
THE FIRST IRON-SMELTING WORKS ON TiE PACIFIC.-Oregon is entitled to
the credit of having erected the first iron-smelting works on the Pacific coast,
though several of the heaviest stockholders in the enterprise are citizens of
California.
219 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The Oregon Iron Works are located at Oswego, about nine miles south of
Portland, on the west bank of the Willamette river.  They are the property of
an incorporated company, having a capital of $500,000. The operations of this
company were commenced in September, 1S65.  In 1S866 the erection of the
furnace and necessary buildings was commenced, and completed in June, 1867.
But smelting was not immediately commenced, in consequence of an insufficient
quantity of charcoal, the fuel intended to be used. The destruction of the company's foundry and machine shop by fire on the night of July 2, which involved
a loss of nearly $100,000, further delayed operations.
The funliaces were erected under the direction of Mr. G. D. Wilbur, of Connecticiut and are constructed on the same plan as those in general use in that
State.  They are built of the basaltic rock which iunderlies the ore.  This material is found to be adapted to the purpose. The cupola is 32 feet high, and the
bosher or hearth nine feet six inches in diameter. The blast (hot) is applied
through three tiyeres, under a pressure of two pounds to the square inch, generated by suitable miachinery driven by water power.
The charcoal used is prepared from the Oregon fir, which has been found by
experiment to be adapted to smelting purposes, and is very compact, weighing
about 16 pounds to the bushel. Contractors supply it to the company at eight
cents per bushel, delivered at the works.  It is calculated the furnace will reduce
nine tons of ore daily, (24 hours,) each two and one-half tons of which being
estimated to produce one ton of metal in pigs.
The first pigs cast at these wvorks, and consequently on the Pacific coast, were
made on the 24thl August, 1867, when about six tons of very good metal were
run out.  The ore used ranged from 60 to 65 per cent.  The fiurnace has been
running continuously since, producing from six to eight tons of metal per day.
About 80 men are employed about thle works as miners, furnace men, teamsters, &c.
On the 1st day of October the Oregon Iron Company had produced 224 tons
of pig iron, 2,240 pounds to the ton, at an expense as follows:
For each ton (2,240 pounds) iron produced there were used166 bushels charcoal, costing at furnace 8 cents.... —----------------- $13 28
884 pounds lime, costing at furnace 40 cents...................... —-------------------- 3  53
4,970 pounds ore, costing at furnace $2 50 per ton. —---------------  5 50
Labor reducing each ton...................................... 6 67
Total cost of the pig on bank of river....... —-------------------- 28 98
This does not include interest on capital, or State and county taxes.
A  sample of this metal was received at San Francisco August 30, 1867,
which, after thorough tests by the various foundries in that city, was pronounced
a superior article.
The average cost of importing pig iron from Europe to San Francisco is about
$40 per ton, ranging from $35 to $45; the fluctuation arising from the rates of
freight, which is usually from $12 50 to $15 per ton.  Occasionally it is brought
by French and German vessels at a lower price, as these vessels generally carry
cargoes of light merchandise, which require heavy freight as ballast. The usual
freight from Atlantic ports is from $12 to $16 per ton in currency.
Within the past year small parcels of pig iron have been received from Austb'alia. The Australian iron costs about $40 per ton in gold, delivered on the
wharf
The following particulars concerning the cost of producing iron, copied from
the report of the United States Revenue Commissioners for 1865 and 1866, will
be found of interest in this connection. It will be seen by these figures that
220 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
while it is quite possible to make iron on the Pacific coast as cheaply as in any
other portion of the United States, it cannot be made as cheaply as in England:
An establishment capable of producing in the United States 10,000 tons of finished
iron per annum would cost for ore, leases, lands, blast furnaces, mills, houses,
and appurtenances necessary for the full equipment, from the ore to the fin ished iron, at the present time.......................................... $1,250, 000
Capital to carry it on.......................................    750,000
Total............................................................. 2,000,000
A similar one in Great Britain would cost.................................. $500,000
Capital to carry it on........................................ 300,000
Total............................................................ 800,000
Interest on $2,000,000 capital invested in American establishment at 8 per
cent............................. —--------------------------------------------------—. $160,000
On 800, 000 in England at 5 per cent................................ —------------------------------—....... 40,000
Leaving a balance of interest against American manufactures of........  120, 000
In the United States a fair average cost of producing pig iron is not less than $35 per ton.
In England or Wales the cost of producing a ton of pig iron averages $14. To the difference
shown by the figures given, it is just to add the difference per ton caused by larger interest
on the greater capital invested in the United States.  ( Vide report, pages 327 and 328.)
This question of interest on capital is felt more severely on the Pacific coast
than in anly other State in the Union, and forms an impediment to all manalufactures.
In the vicinity of the Oswego works are numerous beds of hydrous sesqulioyi de, which, according to estimates based on careful measurement, contain 50,000
tons.  This ore by analysis is found to contain from 46 to 56 per cent. metal.
Nearly one-lourth of these beds consists of solid masses of ore, the remainder
consisting of the same deposit very much disintegrated and broken, but equally
rich in metal.
At the distance of two and one-half miles from the works a similar body of
ore has been found, which measures 100 acres superficially, and of a thickness
varying from six to 12 feet. This body of ci'e is estimated to contain several
millions of tons. Similar bodies of ore have been found at several places within
an area of twenty miles of the works, extending as far as St. HIelen's, on the
Columbia river.  In everv case where these deposits of ore have been examined
they are found to be underlaid by volcanic lava and ashes, beneath which  are
heavy beds of basaltic rocks.  No vein or deposit of the ore has been found in
this basalt, but in many places the crevices and fissures in that formation are
filled with scales and fragments of the overlying ore.
These bodies of ore present all the appearances of having been deposited in
a liquid state, in indentations that existed at the time of the surface of the basalt.
The whole formation has subsequently been tilted up so as to dip to the east at
an angle of about 10 degrees.   The present surface of the ore beds is covered
with a deposit of sand, gravel, and clay, from a few inches to 10 feet in depth.
Similar bodies of ore exist in the vicinitv of Mount Vesuvius, Italy, which are
known to have been  ejected from that volcano in the form of chloride of iron
and subsequently metamorphosed to its present form.
Limonite is never found except in recent or secondary geological formations.
It is the most valuable of all the ores of iron, being readily convertible into steel.
The difference between limonite and hematite consists in the former containing
from 15 to 20 per cent. of its weight of water, while the latter contains none.
Limonite, owing to this difference, melts at a considerably lower temperature than
hematite, a most important matter in a country where fuel is expensive.
221 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
An analysis of this Oregon limonite, made by Kellogg, Hueston & Co., of
San Francisco, gave the following results:
Sesqui-oxide of iron.......................................... 77.66
Aloisture.................................................... 11.16
Silica..................................................... —-------------------------------..08
Sulphur and phosphorus --------------------------------------—.10
100.00
Its specific gravity is 4.25. By actual working, on the large scale, it yielded
54.37 per cent. of metal in pigs.
The extraction of the ore involves but little expense, as it is all near the surface.  It is estimated that it can be taken out and delivered at the furnace at
$1 50 per ton.
These Oregon iron works labor under a disadvantage in having no limestone
in the.r vicinity.  This mineral is as essential in smelting operations as fuel itself.
All the limestone used has to be brought from San Juan island, and costs $6 per
ton delivered. As it requires one-third as much of this mineral as of the ore for
smelting, this disadvantage is serious in point of expense.
IR,ON IN CALIFOP.NIA.-Every description of iron ores is known to exist in
California in abundance.  The most important bodies of them are found among
the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at too great a distance from the
manufhcturing centres to admit of smelting with profit, to compete with imported
iron at places along the coast having the advantage of cheaper supplies from
abroad.  The heavy cost of inland transportation from these central marts is an
advantage, lhowever, in supplying a local demand, because transportation upwards
to the mountains is always dearer than it is downwards to the plains. The cost
of castings received in the mountains from San Francisco rarely falls below $200
per ton; it is generally much higher. The consumption of cast iron among the
quartz, lumber, grist, and other mills located among the foot hills reaches nearly
2,000 tons annually, and the demand is limited by the difficulty in supplying it.
The cost of erecting smelting works on a scale sufficiently large to supply the
local demand need not exceed a few thousand dollars. The profits of such an
establishment located among the mines, or on the line of a railroad connected with
the mining districts, if properly conducted, would be remunerative. It is strange
that, with such facts patent to capitalists, works of this kind have not been established at points where materials and facilities are known to exist for carrying
them on to advantage.
The following particulars concerning bodies of iron ores found in this State,
which have been examined by competent persons, will be useful in showing the
character, importance, and location of these deposits. For convenience they are
divided under the heads of specular, hematite, magnetic, chromic, titanic, and
mixed ores.
SPECULAR IRON ORE.-Deposits of this ore have been discovered a few miles
north of the town of Santa Cruz, 75 miles from San Francisco, near the sea, in
the Coast range. There is abundance of wood and limestone in the vicinity.
Also on Utt's ranch, six miles from Auburn, Placer county, in the foot hills,
45 miles from Sacramento.
In the Coast range, in San Bernardino county, about 600 miles from Sacramento, is another deposit of this ore.
Also at Four Hills, a locality about 10 miles northeast from Downieville,
Sierra county, among the summits of the Sierra Nevada. The ore at this place
is very pure and abundant in a densely timbered country with limestone close
at hand.
222 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Plumnas county, also, contains valuable bodies of this ore.  On the side of a
broad cation in the southern portion of this county, in sight of the high peakls of
the Sierra Nevada, about 16 miles from 1)ownievillc, Sierra county, within a
couple of miles of the line of the proposed Oroville railroad, there is an iron
mountain composed in great part of this ore. It assays from 40 to 70 per cent.
metal.  Parties have pre-empted 320 acres of the land embracing the mountain
for the purpose of working it as an iron mine.  It is intended to erect smllelting
works on the ground during the present fall.  Wood, water, and linmestone are
close at hand, and the Beckwith Pass wagon road runs within a mile of the claim.
There are deposits at other places, but the above are among the most acces sible.
Specular iron ore is somewhat similar in composition to red hematite, b)ut is
readily distinguished from that ore by breaking with a bright metallic fracture,
almost like cast iron, to which peculiarity it owes its name. Like hematite, it
is of volcanic origin. The ores of Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain, 3issouri,
belong to this class.  It requires a much greater heat to smelt specular iron ores
than any others of that metal; this trait is important on this coast. The iron
made from this ore is the best known, when properly made.
MIAGNETIC IPON ORES. —Thle most important, because the most convenient,
body of this ore in California exists on the line of the Central Pacific railroad,
near Clipper Gap, where there is a mountain of considerable proportions com  posed almost wholly of the variety known in Germany as " spiegelien," from
which steel is made with so much facility in that country by the Bessemer pro  cess.
Thie advantages of having a plenty of wood, water, bulding materials, and
fire-clay for furnace purposes, and limestone for flux, and a railroad running close
by, have induced an attempt to erect smelting works in the vicinity.  Robinson,
Brown & Co.'s iron mines are located here, about three miles from the rail  road and three miles from Bear river.  These mines were located and patents for
the land from the federal government applied for in May, 1866.  The company
purchased the title of the railroad to the even sections of the land, to the extent
of about 1,500 acres. The greater portion of this land is well covered with
timber suitable for charcoal.  The ore crops out from the mountain in many
places.  There are two qualities in the deposit;  on the east side it is highly
magnetic, while on the west it is very much like the Oregon limonite.  Assays
made b)y Kellogrg & Hueston, of San Francisco, in March, 1866, gave the fol lowing results: the magnetic ore, 64.37 per cent. metal; the hematite, 44.67
per cent. metal.  A  specimen sent to Professor Jackson, of Boston, Mlassachu  setts, was analyzed by that gentleman, who states in the report on the subject
that it contains no phosphorus, sulphur, titanium, or other substance injurious
to the manufacture of iron.
A tunnel has been cut in the side of the mountain to test the thickness of the
stratum.  At the time of our visit, in June, 1867, it had been run for 30 feet,
with no signs of the end.  On the opposite side, where there were nlo croppings
near the surface, a shaft was sunk 15 feet; at that depth they struck good ore.
Estimates as to the probable expenses of making pig iron at this locality and
(delivering it c2t Scul FT,neisco sehov tYlat charcoal can be l)ade anld deliveried at
the furnace for 129 cents per bushel, (tle Oregon ivorks pay 8 cents;) the lime1
vill cost $2 per ton; the total cost for labor, mnatelrials, and interest on capital
reachingi $20 per ton, to which must be added $6 per ton for transport to San
Francisco by railroad and steamer. The average cost of pig iron in that city
during the past three years has been $41 50, landed on the wharf. Its price at
present is fiom $47 to $50 per ton.  The mines are 40 miles distant from Sacramento by railroad.
Arrangements have been made with the firmn of Coffee, Rlscten & Co. to erect
223 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
one of HIaskell's patent water-lined cupola furnaces, to test the working qualities
of tlie ore.  This firnace was to have been completed in August.
The parties interested in the enterprise, being men of limited capital, are not
prepared to conduct operations on a scale to insure success. It would be to the
benefit of the State if capitalists would take hold of the business.
Bodies of ore of a similar character exist near Gold lake, Sierra county, in
the vicinity of the line of the Central Pacific railroad.
A deposit of fine magnetic iron ore was discovered in the summer of 1867 on
Grouse ridge, 14 miles from Washington, Nevada county.  This ore is energeticallvy magnetic-so nmuch so as to lift knives or nails-and is said to contain sufficient gold to pay for extracting that metal from it.
In the summer of 1867 a body of magnetic iron was discovered near Chapparal Hill, Butte county, near the Grizzly, a tributary of the Butte creek, about
46 miles from Oroville, on the Susanville road. The ore is found in a locality
where the slate and granite formations unite. Some portions of it are so magnetic that fragments broken off can be lifted by the larger pieces. It was this
peculiarity that led to its discovery. An analysis made by Kellogg, Hueston
& Co., of San Francisco, yielded 65 per cent. of metal. The deposit is in the
form of a stratum or bed of unknown thickness and extent.  In July a shaft
had been cut to the depth of 20 feet without passing through it. It had been
traced 300 feet in length by nearly a quarter of a mile in width. Being located
on a densely timbered hill, covered with broken slate, it was not convenient to
trace it to its full extent. There is abundance of wood, water, and limestone in
the vicinity.
Bodies of similar ores are found in the Santa Ifiez valley, in the San Rafael
district, Santa Barbara county, about 450 miles from Sacramento.
Magnletic iron ore or magnetite is one of the most extensively distributed and
valuable of that metal found on this coast. It contains a larger per centum of
metal than any of the other ores; when pure it generally contains from 60 to
70 per cent.  It is changed in many places into specular ore by the addition of
oxygen, which it absorbs from the atmosphere.
HEMATITE OnES OrF IPON.-There are large bodies of simonite, identical in
composition with the ores found at Oswego, Oregon, on the banks of Spring
creek, a few miles west of Shasta City-at an elevation of nearly 6,000 feet
above the sea-among the granite peaks of the Sierra Nevada, about 180 miles
from Sacramento.
A deposit of red hematite was discovered in March last on the ranch belonging, to the Sisters of Charity, about 16 miles from the city of Los Angeles. The
ore presents itself on the surface for nearly a mile in a stratum averaging 15
feet thickl, enclosed in hard metamorphosed clay slate.
CarnoMIc IPON ORES.-This class of ores, so rare and valuable in the Atlantic
States, is abundant on this coast, being found in the Coast range, the foot hills,
and among the Sierra Nevadas, wherever there is serpentine in the country.
Among the most important deposits of it are the scattered and broken masses
which cover the ground for miles in the vicinity of the New Idria Quicksilvel
mine, in Santa Clara county.  There is another body of it cresting the ridge
which forms the boundary line between Monterey and Fresno counties.  In
Tuolumne county, near the Crimea House, are deposits which are found between
the strata of talcose slate, lying in a vertical position, the weathered portions
of which stand out from the surrounding hills like tombstones in a graveyard.
In Del Norte county to the north of the copper mines on the "Low Divide," there
is a peculiar deposit of chromic iron disseminated through the serpentine, which
constitutes the greater portion of the country thereabouts. This ore weathers
into round grains like shot, from the size of a pin-head to a four-pounder, and is
224 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
appropriately called iron-shot by the miners ill the vic'lity, who find abundance
of it in the sluices when washing up.
There is another body of chromic iron in Del Norte county, of different appearance, on Smith's river, about 20 miles from Crescent City.  This ore is compact,
and as black as jet.
In San Bernardino county there are extensive deposits of this ore along the
coast, some of whichl contain fine specimens of vauquelinite chromate of lead and
copper.
On the south side of San Diego gulch, Calaveras county, on. the crest of the
highest hill, opposite the Nol-le Copper mine, there is an isolated mass of this ore
that will weilgh thousands of tons, whichl surmounts a rather singular formation
A tunnel run in the hill beneath, in search of copper, cut throulgh several wvide
strata of serpentine, brucite, talc, and other magnesian minerals.  Chromic iron,
or chromate of iron, is of considerable importance in the arts, but not as a source
for obtaining the metal.  Thloullgh  abundanlt on this coast, it is very rare in the
Atlantic States and Europe.   England contains scarcely any; that country
imports about 5,000 tons annually, for the purpose of manaufacturingr the various
compounds of chromium, used in calico printing, painting porcelain, making
igments, chromic acid, &c. A large quantity was formerly shipped to England
rom the Barehlills, near Baltimore, 3Iarylandl, where the miost valuable deposit
on the Atlantic side exsits.  With cheap transportation and labor this ore wvould
pay to export.
TITANIC InoxN OrE is generallv found on this coast in the form of fine grains,
formning the greater portion of the ~' black sand," so difficult to separate from the
fine gold obtained from the alluvial washings.  All volcanic rocks contain titanic
iron in the form of grains.  As these rocks disintegrate the grains are set free.
There are several varieties of titaniferous iron in the grains, most of which are magnetic.  It has been found in a number of thin seams in trap, in E1 Domado
county, near Diamond Springs.
Some excitement was created in San Francisco, about a year since, by the
discovery of titanic ihon in the sand on the beach within the harbor.  Small
quantities of it were collected, and some of it smelted, under the impression that
it wvould make pig,-iron, and that there was at "lead" of it in the vicinity.  The
above explanation of its source slhowvs how unreasonable such conclusions were.
3IIXED OrnEs OF Irox.-There is a body of iron ore on Pratt's lill, near Ione,
Amiador county, on the border of the Sacramnento valley, vlwhich does not belong
to any of the varieties above described.  It is of an earthy nature, and evidently
of sedimentary origin, formiing a stratum nearly 20 feet thick, exteinding, for a
mile near the top of a lode bluff, which projects into the valley.  It contains a
large per centumn of iron.  In several localities along the margin of the San
Joaquin and Sacramento valleys there are deposits of iron ores in the form of
ochres.  It is not necessary to give details, as there are such abundant sources for
obtainiing better ores; they will be described under the head of "clays," &c.
Inox ORNES IN NEVADA.-The surveyors employed by the Central Pacific
Railroad Company report the discovery of extensive beds of magnetic iron ore,
within a short distance of the line of that road, near Crystal Springs.  Also at,
Neilsburg, within a mile of the road, and at Long Valley.  There are many otherdistricts in Nevada whichl contain iron ore.  There is a series of regular veins of
specular ore, from S to 20 feet thick, near the east fork of Walker's river, in
Esmeralda county.
InoN OnES IN UTAH.-This Territory abounds in iron ores. There are several
deposits of carbonate of iron within 20 miles of Salt Lake City.
IRON ORES IN ARIZOXA. —The abundance of nearly all kinds of iron ores in
this Territory is quite remarkable. Whole ranges of mountains along the Colorado
are in great part composed of them.  The copper mines at Williams fork are:.
15
225 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
surrounded with beds of iron ores.  In the Mineral Hill and Planet mines the
ores are pure oxides of iron and copper. Several of the tunnels run in workiing
these mines have been cut through solid beds of iron ore.  The wall rock enclosing
nearly all the copper lodes are of the same mineral.
CONcLUDING REMARKrS ON ORES.-Thie above examples, selected from a great
number of a similar character, are sufficient to show the abundance of the ores of
iron on the Pacific coast, particularly in California, and the advantage that State
possesses in having fiunace materials and limestone convenient to the mines.
It will be observed by reference to the analyses that the "' lay," or per centuin
of metal in the'ores found on this coast, ranges from 46 to SO, or an average of
upwards of 50.  This, however, is applicable only to the hilghler grades.  According to the government returns, published in England, the ores obtained from the
mines in Wales do not exceed 33 per cent., and those from the mines in Staffordshire, the great iron district of England, do not exceed 30 per cent.  Most of
the ores found in that country require roasting as a preliminary process, owing to
their containing deleterious elements.   The ores on this coast, being nearly all
oxide, can be smelted at one operation, and will produce a very pure metal.
THE CONSUMPTION OF IRON IN CALIFORNIA.-TlThe consumption of iron in
this State is large, and constantly increasing. The imports of crude metal, given
in the accompanying table, constitute but a portion of the total quantity used, as
much of it is obtained by remelting worn-out or useless machinery, and other
articles, of which there are many thousands of tons in the State.
San Francisco is the centre of this trade.  In addition to supplying California,
as the following table will show, iron and machinery are exported to Nevada,
and the adjoining Tenritories, the Sandwich Islands, Mexico, British Columbia,
and other countries.
The following list of foundries and machine shops in San Francisco will convey
an idea of the proportions of this business there.  There are also 23 other foundries
in California, and six in Nevada.   The establishments at Sacramento, Nevada
City, ]4arysville, Stockton, Sonora, and one ortwo others, are able to make almost
any description of machinery.
IROIT FOUNDRIES IN SAN FRANcISco.-The Vulcan covers the block embraced
by 137 feet on Fremont street. and running 275 feet to Beal street, and extending
thence to Mission street. On this block there are brick and(l frame buildings,
suitable for an extensive business. Every description of machinery, from a coffeeroaster to a locomotive, including boilers, and everything complete, is made
here.  Many improvements in the manufacture of engines and boilers have been
introduced in this establishment. Most of the machinery used at the Mission
woollen mills was made here, as wvas also the machinery for the mints at Mexico
and British Columbia. The most powerful engines in use on the Comstock
lode, Nevada, were also made here. A few months since a quartz mill was made
here and shipped to Nicaragua, and a pumping engine for use on a mine at
Parquiqua, Bolivia. The capacity of the furnaces at this foundry is sufficient to
melt 35 tons of metal. Nearly 100 men are employed on the premises.
The Fulton is located on First street, and employs about 50 moulders, doing
an extensive business in architectural casting; machinery of all kinds is also made.
The Et~na is a similar establishment to the Vulcan, but on a somewhat smaller
scale. It has facilities for melting six tons of metal. It is located on Fremont
street.
The Franklin is also located on Fremont street. The engine used for printing the Evening Bulletin was made at this establishment. It has conveniences
for melting 10 tons of metal, and employs 25 men.
The Golden State is located on First street, and is of about the same capacity
as the Franklin.
The Pacific is an establishment reaching from First to Fre'mont street. It was
226 
WEST OF THlE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
commenced in 1850.  The buildings, chiefly constructed of brick, cover two 50vara lots.  The machinery for the new rolling mills was made here, the fly-wheel
for which weighs 25 tons.  It can melt 20 tons, and employs about 75 men.
The Miners' is also on First street, and extends through to Fremont.  It
employs about 250 men, and can turn out a 20-stamp mill, boiler and all complete, in 30 days.  The iron castings for the State capitol, at Sacramento, were
madehere.
The San Fraczcisco is located at the corner of Fremont and Mission streets,
where it covers a fifty-vara lot.  All descriptions of machinery (.e made here.
It can melt 15 tons of metal, and employs about 40 men.
The  City Iron  Works are located on Fr'miont street.  Employ about 20
hands.  Considerable machinery for the Sandwich Island suganr-mills has been
made here.
The California Foundry is also on Fremont street.  This establishment does
an extensive business in architectural castings, which it makes a specialty. The
fironts of several of the most elegant buildings in the city were cast here. It has
facilities for melting six tons of metal, and employs about 20 hands.
The Union Foutnclry, corner First and Mission streets, is the oldest and largest
establishment of the kind on this coast.  It was commenced in 1849.  The
buildings include a three-story brick, having a frontage of 187 feet on First street,
extending 275 feet, and fronting 120 feet on Mission, the whole covering nearly
50,000 feet; 300 men are employed hlere.  The machineryforthe United States
steamer Saginaw was made at this foundry.   The first locomotive made on this
coast was cast and finished here.
The Atlas Iron IVorks are located on Fremont street.  They are chiefly
engaged in casting for agicultural purposes.  Can melt seven tons of metal, and
employs about 30 men.
The Jackson Foundclry is located on Jackson street.  Its operations are confined to casting stoves, ornamental railing, and other light and fancy goods.
The ranges used in nearly all the first-class hotels in the city were made here.
It gives employment to about 30 men.
The E2)?)ire Foutndry is on Mission street, near Be,ale.  AJll descriptions of
machinery and castings are made here.  It employs 30 men.
It is withlinlimitsto estimuatethe consumptionof ironinCalifornia andthe States
and Territories dependent on it for supplies, at 30,000 tons annually. The business gives employment to nearly 3,000 men.  There are 30 machine-shops in
San Francisco, in addition to those connected with the above-named foundries.
The largest iron vessel ever cast in the United States was made at the Union
Foundry in 1861. It was a shallow pan, capable of holding 1,316 gallons, and
weighed 8,114 pounds.  It was for use in one of the local soap factories.
A rolliig-mlill and steam forging establishment has recently been completed
at San Francisco, with machinery and apparatus for making every description
of bar and rod iron, from one-fourth of an inch diameter, and one-eighth of an
inch thick,to 12 inches wide, of any shape required by-'manufacturers, including
all sizes and patterns of railroad iron.  This establishment furnishes a markiet
for all the scrap iron that can be obtained. It is proposed to erect puddling
furnaces for converting cast into malleable iron, as the supply of materials is not
equal to the demand.
The above facts are sufficient to show that there exist on the Pacific coast a
fair demand for iron and some facilities for its manufacture.
227 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Imports of iron (chiefly railroad) into San Francisco during 1866, andcl first six
mnonzths of 1867.
Desecription.                                1866.       1867.
Pig iron, tons................................................. 9,388                   2,063
Bars......................................................... 157,5 58               100, 378
Bars, bundles................................................. 40,088                 30,229
Pipes.................................. —---------—.. --------------------------------—.. 18,278 14,429
Pipes, bundles................................................ 14,584                   7,451
Hoops, &c., bundles........................................... 31,985                  19,607
Hoops, cases..................................................   395   394
Sheets, bundles................................................ 21,604                  4,048
Sheets, cases..................................... —-----------------------------------—............. 331 121
Plates........................................................ 7,622                  10,134
Exports of iron and machinery from  San  Francisco during 1866, and first six
months of 1867.
Articles.                                              E
H E                  H             EH
1866.  1867.  1866.  1867.  1866.  1867.  1866.  1867.
Iron, bars...................... 1,577    500 2,012...... 300            77     83    138
Iron, bundles.......... —-------------—. 648    229    432  12     37    167     16       18
Iron, pig, tons.........-...... —.....10..............................
Sheets, packages.............. 33. 14..............................
Hoops, &c., bundles.. 177....                     383...............
Hoops, cases................... 254. 23 —.. 8..................
Pipes, bundles.................. 120          27      5....-........ —. 2......
Pipes, pieces.......... 121.... 12                                        98      30......
Castings, pieces................. 3,. — 107..............................
Plates......................... 40.................. 14...... 56......
Machinery, packages............-   2,482 2,342............ 47  155  54......
Machinery, pieces............... 889  1,.108........................ 207                 7
Machinery, cases.............. 396-.................... 19......
COAL.-The importance of coal as an element of national and local prosperity
is so generally recognized, that it is unnecessary to make any remarks touching
the advantages of an abundant supply. But the relative value of the several
varieties of coal for domestic and manufacturing purposes not being so generally
understood, mnay render some explanations on this point appropriate.
The varieties of coal to which England owes its prosperity, and which are so
abundant in Pennsylvania and other Atlantic States, do not exist, or at all events
have not been found, on the Pacific coast. But there are extensive beds of other
varieties, which differ as much in their composition and heating qualities as the
coals of other countries differ from each other. In the northern parts of the coast
the coal is as superior to that found at 1Mount Diablo and further south as the
Welch coal is to the Scotch, or the Pennsylvania anthracite to that found in
Ireland.
Modern geologists have abandoned the idea that coal, to be of good quality,
must be found in one particular fonrmation. Experience, the most reliable guide,
228 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
contradicts such a theory. Researches in India, China, Australia, New Zealand,
Chili, and on this coast, prove that good coal, adapted to nearly all purposes, is
found outside of the carboniferous formation. Science has failed to demonstrate
that good coal may not be found in any geological formation.  There are many
reasons for believing that when the mines on this coast shall be worked to a
depth approaching that of the mines in other countries, the quality of the coal
will be found to bear a favorable comparison.  Analyses made by Professor
Blake and other scientific gentlemen, of coal taken at a greater depth than the
samples tested by Professor Whitney, in 1S61 and 1862, shortly after the California mines were opened, exhibit a marked improvement.
The following reports exhibit the change in composition of the Mount Diablo
coal as the depth of the mines increases:
Analysis of sample of coal fi-om Pittsburg mine, taken from thick seam, 600 feet
from surface, in 1867, by Professor W. P. Blake.
Moisture....................................................................  3.28
Bituminous matter........................................................ —-. ------ 47.05
Fixed carbon................................................................ ----------------------------------— 44.90
Ashes...................................................................... 4.71
99.94
, There was no trace of sulphur in the sample.
Analysis of coal taken 800 feet below surface on the incline in Blacck Diamond
mine, in Slay, 1867, by Professor Price, superintending chemist to Golden City
Chemical Works, and to San Francisco Refininy Works, &c., sc.
Moisture.....................................................
Ashes..............,..e.,...............................
Sulphur....................................................................
Oxygen and nitrogen........................................................
Hydrogen..................................................................
Carbon.....................................................................
9, 54
8.25
3.'25
20.50
3.75
54.71
100. 00
Analysis of  ~Iount Diablo coal, taken fronm near surface, in 1861 and 1862, by
Professor TVWhitney, State geologist of California.
I
c3     e                         -  
Water........ —--------—......  --------------— 13.47    14.69   13.84   14.13    20.53
Bituminous matter.......................  40.36   33.89   40.27   37.38    35.62
Fixed carbon............................    40.65   46.84   44.92   44.55    36.35
Ash.................................. 5.52    4.58    0.97    3.94              7.50
It will be seen by comparing these reports that the proportion of moisture in
this coal is much less in the recently examined sample. This change in composition increases the power of the coal for generating steam and other purposes
at least 25 per cent. It was the excess of moisture in the coal taken from near
the surface that caused it to crumble on exposure to the air, or when thrown into
229 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the fire. These defects decreasing with increased depth of the mines, the value
of the coal increases in proportion.*
There is a very material difference, however, in the quality of the coal taken
from each of the seamls in the Mount Diablo mines, as well as between this coal
and that obtained from other mines on the coast, leading to the inference that
each is separate in origin.
The Clark or upper seam at MIounit Diablo is enclosed in soft sandstone above
and below, with scarcely any shale or slate.  The Bleachl Diamond, or lower
seam, is overlaid by three or four feet of slate and shale, and underlaid by two
seams of tough clay, separated by slate highly charged with sulphur, while the
coal is comparatively free from that element. The middle seam is divided by
slate and contains a large per cent. of sulphur.
The following are the prominent traits of the coal found on this coast: The
Mount Diablo, California, is an inferior quality of coal, but answers tolerably
well, where bulk is no great object, for generating steam. Being cheap it is
used to a considerable extent for domestic purposes.
The Nanaimo, Vancouver's Island, is excellent for generating gas. It is also
extensively used for steam and domestic purposes.  It burns With less smoke
than Mount Diablo coal, but leaves more ashes.
The Bellingham Bay coal is considered the best on this coast for domestic
purposes, as it is tolerably free from odor, and burns with a bright cheerful flame
and very little smoke. It may be compared with the lower grades of English
coal.  The mine is in Washington Territory. 
* In this connection it may not be uninteresting to give results of an analysis made by
Messrs. Falkenan & Hanks, San Francisco Chemical Works, of some Sagbalien coal from
East Siberia, with a comparative table of the results obtained from different kinds of coal, as
to their constituents, and the effect obtained in their use:
5.56
11.34
7.33
5.49
5.40
6.05
'I
'A
7,4
0
,o
c2 r
5.28
12.67
15. 53
23. 81
?5.83
35.70
C 
:q
0                5e
It O
0a),o
P D.
*~ C)
dt <X
I- 
E 
5'
v2
c:
d
P.
89. 15
74.53
76. 69
67.57
5~. 00
56. 45
Designation.
bD
03
.5
1'3
298
505
424
595
.......
'E
rn
Lehigh, (Pa.)...........Cumberland, (Neff's)....
Cumberland, (A. & T.). -.
Sydney.................
Newcastle...............
Coal analysed...........
We have also examined the sample of coal forwarded by you, with a view of determining
its commercial value, and have arrived at the following results:
Specific gravity........................................................ 1.2887.9
Volatile combustible matter................................................   35.70
Moisture........................................................ 1.8
Fixed carbon.................................................  56.45
Earth           y matter............................................................ 6.05
Amount of gas evolved by 10 pounds avoirdupois of coal, 32 cubic feet.
The amount of sulphur contained in the sample was so minute as not to warrant a quantitative determination. In regard to its constituents, the coal examined seems almost identical with that of Newcastle, England.
On igniting the coal, cakes forming a light solid coke, yielding fine reddish gray ashes,
which did not show the least tendency to form slag, but passed freely through the grate,
were produced.
230
.2
I
0
;G
P.
14
pg
792
877
828
764
827
........
1.590
1.337
1.333
1.338
1.257
1.288
8. 35
8.82
.10. 00
7.47
8.09
....... 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The Coos Bay, Oregon, is a fair coal for many purposes. When first taken
from the mine it appears as compact and solid as "cannel," but as it contains a
large per centum of moisture it soon loses this appearance, and crumbles when
exposed to the air. It leaves but little ashes,
The Fuca Straits, Washington Territory, coal is moderately well adapted to
steam or manufacturing purposes, burning with a bright, clear flame and but
little smoke, leaving but a small quantity of dark sandy ashes. This coal
"cakes" a good deal, which is its chief defect.
The coal found farther north not being much used in California, its traits are
not well understood.
It is found by experience that the coal of this coast is less destructive to boilers
and grates than the anthracite imported from Pennsylvania or the bituminous
coals of Australia.
The article on the geology of the coal formations of the Pacific coast, furnished
by MIr. W. 3M. Gabb, of the California State Geological Survey, and published
in the previous report, gives much general information on this branch of the
subject, and may be referred to for geological details respecting the formations
in which coal is found on the Pacific coast.
NyV DISCOVERIES IN CALIFORNXIA.-A company has been organized within
the past few months for the purpose of working a seam of coal recently discovered near the mouth of Bear creek, a tributary of the San Lorenzo, a few miles
above  Santa Cruz.  The seam is stated to be nearly five feet thick, and the
quality good for surface coal.
It may be well here to state that coal is much influenced by the atmosphere.
Experimnents made by the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company of England, prove that coal obtained from the best mines in that country loses 20 per
cent. of its heating power when expesed to the atmosphere for a few months in
hot climates.  The steamers belonging to this company, when in the tropics,
consume one-fourth more fuel than when in the temperate climate of Europe.  As
the temperature of the atmosphere on this coast ranges as high on land during
the summer months as in the tropics, it would be unreasonable to expect the
coal found near the surface to be as good as it will be at a depth out of reach
of atmospheric influences.
A seamn of coal is being worked on the south fork of Clear creek, Shasta
county, a few miles west of Piety Hill, and about 30 miles from the silver mines.
It was discovered in 1863, but was not worked till the discovery of the mines
in 1865 afforded a market for the coal, which is used to generate steam for the
engines since erected.  A shaft has been sunk on this seam about 60 feet deep,
at the bottom of which the coal is found, about four feet thick, and of fair quality.
In this part of Shasta county there exists a belt of shales nearly a mile wide,
tilted to an angle of about 25 degrees, wlhich contains thin seams of coal. These
might be made to yield a supply of fuel for local use.
Mr. John S. Royal, in January, 1867, discovered an outcrop of coal in Corral
Hollow, San Joaquin county, about 30 miles south of Mount Diablo, in a ravine
from which the previous rains had washed the soil to the depth of 25 feet. The
seam, where exposed, is about eight feet thick. It is generally believed that
the beds of coal worked at Mount Diablo pass through this locality.   The cost
of transportation and labor has heretofore prevented the working of coal with
profit in this vicinity.  The projected railroad from San Jose to Stockton passing
within four miles, and the San Joaquin river being accessible by a wagon road,
it is probable the new discovery-may at some future time prove valuable.
Nearly 1,000 tons of coal were taken from mines in this vicinity in 1863-200
tons of wlich came from the Commercial, and 800 tons from the O'Brien. The
quality was good and well adapted for generating gas.
In 1866 a company was organized for the purpose of distilling oil from this
coal, of which it is sail to contain 65 gallons to the ton. The quantity of water
231 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
that entered the shaft, and the wvant of proper pumping machinery, caused a suspension of operations.  It is possible that with proper machinery the coal
deposits of Corral Hollow might be profitably worked.
Clark, BruLce & Company have recentlv discovered three seams of coal on the
west side of Butte mountains, on the Colusa road.  The position and other condclitions lead to the supposition that these seams may be continuations of those
wvorled at MAounlt Diablo.  Samples of the coal tested at Marysville gave satisfactory results.  The wvorkli of prospecting is being carried on.
Deposits of coal have been discovered in San Luis Obispo county, in the
Salinas valley, about 70 miles from Monterey.  The coal crops out in a small
oval valley about a mile in length, at the head of the Salinas.  There are six
or seven distinct seams in this outcrop within the distance of 300 feet. The formation has been considerably dislocated and the strata tilted up, but the outcrop
may be traced for 20 miles.  The third seam from the top is nearly seven feet
thick and has been examined to some extent.  The coal is a lignite.  The lowest
seam in the series is about five feet thick and has also been examined by means
of a short tunnel. The other seams vary from 10 inches to four feet in thickness.
THE IMoUNT DIABLO COAL MINES are located on both sides of a high ridge
which projects from the north side of Mount Diablo.  They are favorably situated for access to navigable water, being in Contra Costa county, about five
miles south from the San Joaquin river, at a point where it is deep enough for
vessels of 1,000 tons to approach the bank.
The first mine in the district-the Teutonia-was located in 1858.  Though
coal was discovered there in 1852, none of the valuable mines were located
till 1859.  Several of the most productive have been located since 1860.  It
will be perceived by these dates that California coal nining is still in *,ts
infancy.
The majority of the locations have been made on the outcrop of coal, which:s
traceable for several miles, trending easterly and westerly.  The Peacock mine
is ct the western edge; the Pacheco and San Francisco are west of the Peacock
but not on the outcrop. The disturbed condition of the seams has caused the
abandonment of these three western mines.  The Cumberland, or Black Diamond
one of the most valuable mines in the district, is located about three-qularters oi
a mile to the north of the Peacock. Somersville, a small town created by the
working of the mines, is situated about a mile to the east of the Black Diamond,
from which it is separated by a high ridge, and is the centre of operations at
present.  This place contains about 200 buildings, including hotels, stores, a
temperance hall, and a school-house, and has about 800 inhabitants. Within
half a mile of it are the mouths of five different mines, from which coal is, or has
been, extracted.  On the northwest is the Union, a short distance from which
is the MIanhattan; a few hundred yards further east, and somewhat lower down
the side of the ridge, is the Eureka; southeast of this, in a ravine at the base of
the western side of the ridge, is the Pittsburg; about 1,000 yards to the north
of this, and still lower down in the ravine, is the Independent.  All these mines
thus clustered together about the sides of a steep, rugged mountain present a
singular appearance. The lofty chimneys of the steam engines belching fori-th
columns of dense black smoke; the dark, dingy dwellings of the miners and
those who minister to their wants; the tall trellis-like viaducts across the ravines,
over which the locomotives are constantly passing between the mines and the
wharves; the clanking of machinery, and busy hum of workmen and teamsters;
the great piles of black waste at the mouth of each mine, all tend to give a peculiar interest, if they do not impart much beauty, to the scene. The distant view
of the surrounding country, as seen from the ridge, embraces stretches cf grassy
meadows teeming with cattle and sheep; purple hills breaking in rugged outline
against the sky, and glimpses of the San Joaquin meandering through its tule
banks, dotted with the white sails of sloops and schooners, while here and there
232 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
a neat cottage embosomed in orchards and surrounded by yellow   ramn fields,
presents a scene of quiet beauty, suggestive of the progress of civilization.
The Central mine, one of the first worked, but at present idle, is located near
the base of the hill, three-quarters of a mile to the east firom Somersville, from
which place it is separated by the hill. The Pacific, the most recently opened
in the district, is located near iIarshl's creekl, seven miles east of Somersville.
The above are all the mines at present in a state of development.  Thie  Iount
Hope is on the Black Diamond Companv's ground, of whichl that company
resumed possession in August last, and is lnot described as a separate mine.
The mines now producing coal are the Black Diamond, Union, Pittsburg,,
Independent and Eureka.  The workings in these mines are extensive, some
of the levels in one connecting with those in another, so that a person may travel
a mile on the line of the seam.
It is estimated that during the six years ending July, 1S867, 500,000 tons of
coal have been taken from these mines.  The quantity received at San Francisco, as shown by the following table, amounted to 302,554 tons, while the
consumption on the ground, the waste in handling, &c., and the quantity sent
to the interior by water and teams, will make up the difference:
An?nual receipts of M1ount Diablo coal at San Francisco.
Tong.
1861............................................ —........................ 6,620
1862...................................................................... 93,400
1863...................................................................... 43,200
1864....................................................... 37,450
183....... —-—.................................................. 59,559
186    6....................................................... —--- 79,110
First six months 1867....................................................... 53,215
Tota       l.................................................. 302,554
The discovery of this coal has caused a reduction in the price of the imported
article.  In 1857 the average price of imported coal was $35 per ton.  In 1867
the average price is about $15 per ton. A reduction of $20 per ton.
The Alount Diablo coal is used almost exclusively by the river, ferry, and
coasting steamers, and by most of the stationary engines at San Francisco, and
at places convenient to the rivers.  The flour mills at Napa, Suisun, and other
places, use it, and considerable quantities are consumed at Sacramento and
Stockton. Shipments are occasionally made to the Sandwich Islands, where it
is used for running the engines on the sugar plantations. During the first six
months of 1867, 1,300 tons were shipped to Honolulu.
The working of the mines has created several prosperous villages in their
vicinity, among which may be named Somersville, Clayton, Nortonville or Carbond,ale, and Pittsburg Landing, the terminus of the Black Diamond railroad,
about two miles from Antioch and four miles from New York.
From the known dimensions of this coal field it is calculated to contain about
12,000,000 tons. It is probable its extent will be traced beyond the present
recognized limits.
THE BLAcK DIAMrOND.-The company owning this mine was incorporated
in 1861, and have worked their property continuously since. In August, 1867,
the mine produced about 4,000 tons, which was its average monthly product for
some time previously.   It employs about 150 men.   The coal is extracted
through two levels, but there is another in progress which, when completed, will
strike the vein about 800 feet below both the present adits.
The uipper level is run on what is known as the Black Diamond seam, and is
reached by a tunnel 430 feet in length, cut through the sandstone which encloses
the coal. The workings on this level extend three-quarters of a mile on both
sides of the tunnel. This coal seam is four feet four inches thick.
233 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The second level is about 550 feet below the above, passes through the Clark
seam, whiclh is three feet six inches thick, and extends 300 feet beyond to the
Blackl Diamond seam.  The worling on the Clark seam extends about half a
mile oni both sides of the tunnel and several hundred feet on the BlackI Diamond.
The third opening is being made by an incline, which will strike the coal
about five hundred feet below both the other levels.  It will cut the Clarkl and
the Blackl Diamond seams.  When this incline shall be completed this company
4ill have a sheet of coal to workl about 2,000 feet deep, running the length of
their claim, nearly a mile.  They also own the Manhattan, which they expect
to worlk through the above levels by means of a drift now being cut.
In working the Blackl Diamond the miners pass through several bodies of coal
of fair quality, but too small to work with profit, ranging from 12 inches to 18
inches in thickness, each being separated by a stratum of hard black slate.  Two
miles south of the tunnels on this mine the Black Diamond seam is found to be
divided by two lenticutlar beds of tough clay, each from 10 to 12 feet thick,
divided by a body of hard clay slate.  This clay furnishes materials for the pottery at Antioch, and makes good fire brick.
The mine is worked by stoping and drifting, the men laboring by contract.
Every facility is afforded by the company to take the coal out in as compact a
foru  as possible.  Thie arrangements for conveying it from the pitto the vessels
on the river afford an illustration of California engineering skill.  The mouth
of the main adlt is situated nearly midway up the side of a steep mountain,
several hundred feet above the level of the plain.  To overcome this obstacle,
a massive incline has been constructed of framed timbers 900 feet in length, the
angle of whiclh is 15 degrees.  A double car track is laid on the ilncline.  By
means of a stout wire rope passing over a drum, nine feet in diameter, the loaded
car is made to haul up the empty one.  A car carrying 20 tons of coal descending
pulls up 10 tons of timbers and other materials used in the mine. The foot of
the incline connects with a railroad over which the cars are hauled by a locomotive to New York, on the San Joaquin river, where the arrangements are completed for loading the fleet of vessels engaged in carrying coal to San Francisco
and other places, without any further handling.
The railroad used by this company has no connection with the Pittsburg road,
to be described hereafter; this latter is the property of another corporation. Its
teiminus on the river is four miles distant from New York.
THE PITTSBIUPG is worked by a stope cut at an angle of 30 degrees, by which
the coal is reached at a distance of 350 feet. The monthly product is from 1,500
to 1,800 tons.   The coal is hoisted by a horizontal winding engine of sufficient
power to raise 200 tons per day.
THE PITTSBUPG COAL RAILrOAD.-In 1862 a charter was granted to a
company by the State legislature to construct a railroad from the mines to the
river.  But little was done towards its construction till the summer of 1865.  It
was not completed and furnished with rolling stock till February, 1866.  The
road, a remarkable specimen of engineering skill, is only five and a half miles
in length. From the mines to the plain, a distance of a mile and a half, the
grade of the track is 274.56 feet to the mile. The four miles from the river to
the base of the mountain is constructed on a gradient of 40 to 160 feet to the
mile.  To overcome the inequalities of the surface of the country eight trestle
bridges had to be constructed, the most extensive of which is 340 feet in length;
a tunnel 300 feet long had to be cut, and a number of heavy banks and culverts
built.  All the timber used in making the bridges is selected Oregon pine and
California redwood. The rails, of English iron, are laid on square redwood ties.
The gauge of the road is four ~eet eight and one-half inches. To overcome the
friction of such a steep grade, two locomotives of a peculiar construction have
been made at San Francisco. They have powerful engines and three pairs of
36-inch driving-wheels each, with cylinders 14 by 18 inches. Each weighs
2 I!lz 4 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
about 17 tons when loaded with fuel and water, vwhichl they carry themselves,
hlaving no tenders.
The total cost of the road is about $145,000.
All the mines in a position to do so have constructed side branches to connect with this road.  It is estimated that it can deliver 3,000 tons of coal daily
on board the vessels at the wharf. The coal is shipped from the cars to the
vessels by shutes.
The fiction on the brakes when the locomotives are coming down the incline
is tremendous, but thus far no serious accidents have happened.
The coal from the Union, Pittsburg, Indepencldent, and Eureka mines is carried by this road.
THE TEUITONIA, the pioneer of the district, has been explored to a depth of
500 feet by means of ani incline cut at an angle of 30 degrees. At this depth
the upper seam of coal, two feet thick, was reached.  A horizontal drift from the
bottom of this incline strikes the Clarki seam where it is 3 feet 10 inches thick.
Another drift, run in an opposite direction, strikes the lower or Black Diamond
seam.  It is known that there are two other seams of coal in this mine, the lowest of whlichl is about five feet thick.  The want of cheap facilities for conveying
the coal to market prevents the owners froim  working it to advantage.  The
company owns 640 acres of coal land; have good engines, pumps, and hoisting
gear.  The mine faces the property of the Pacific Company;  the ground nearly
four miles between the two mines is almost a level plain.  The land belonging to
the Pacific Company extends to the hills bounding the Teutonia Company's
ground.
THE UNION.-Operations on this mine were commenced in 1861.  The coal
is reached by a stope, which, in July, 1S67, was 500 feet in length, having a
vertical depth of 230 feet. The seam averages three feet six inches in thickness, and is on the Clark, or upper seam. The monthly product ranges from
1,800 to 2,000 tons. The hoisting is done by a horizontal driving engine.
THE INTDEPENDENT.-Work on this mine was commenced in 1861, though
the coal was not reached till 1S66, owing to the quantity of water that entered
the shaft, the mine being the lowest in the district, and worked by a perpendicular shaft 700 feet deep.  Upwards of $180,000 was expended for machinery,
pumps, labor, &c., before the coal was reached.  The pump in use at present,
and which is barely sufficient to keep the mine dry, is driven by a 75-horse
power horizontal engine, and lifts 130,000 gallons per hour.  So great is the
influx of water that a stoppage of the pumps for 24 hours would require 20 days'
pumping to clear it. The hoisting and other machinery is powerful. The
cages, or hoisting cars, each holding nearly a ton, are lifted by a rope four inches
in circumference. About 200 car-loads are hoisted daily. The product of the
mine averages about 1,500 tons-monthly.
THE EUREIKA is owned and worked by the Independent Company. About
160 men are employed in both mines. This produces about 1,500 tons per month,
but could produce more. The company, in ilarch, 1867, increased their capital
from $500,000 to $3,000,000, in order to conduct operations on a larger scale,
and have since made improvements.
The coal is obtained by an incline 600 feet in length, at an angle of 45~.
It i3 taken from three seams.  The upper, or Clark seam, is three feet eight inches
thi(kl; the middle, two feet six inches; and the lower, or Black Diamond, four
feet.  The two upper seams are passed through in reaching the lower one.  The
distance between the upper and lower varies from 225 to 350 feet.  The Eureka
uses a horizontal winding engine for hoisting.
THE CENTnAL, which, prior to the construction of railroads by the Pitsburg
and Black Diamond Companies, furnished a large portion of the coal sent to
market, is at present idle. The slow and expensive transportation by teams
places it out of the field in competition with mines having the advantage of rail
.1
235 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
roads.  It Is in contemplation to construct a railroad to connect it and the Teu tonia with the river.  Both these mines are located on the same side of the
mouintain, and suffer alike from want of cheap transportation; both contain
unbrolkeni seams of coal; have been well opened, and have powerful machinery
for working purposes.
TilE PACIFIC, the property of a wealtlNhy corporation of New York capitalists,
is located about six miles east of Somersville, on the Rancho de los Meganos, or
Marsh's ranch, as it is now called.  The ranch covers three square leagules of
land, embracing a portion of the foot-hills at the base of Mount Diablo, and
extending to thie San Joaquin river.  Borings and other explorations have sat isfied the engineers and agents of the company that the seams of coal worked
in M3ount Diablo pass in a nearly horizontal position under this ranch, covering
a space of six miles square.  A shaft is now in progress at a point near the
western extremity of the ranch, several miles west of the disturbed formation in
the Peacock, Pacheco, and San Francisco Companies' ground.  It is calculated
that this shaft will strike the Black Diamond seam at a depth of 400 feet.  The
calculation is based on the dip of the seam, which was reached by an incline
sunkl about 1,200 feet, from which the seam was prospected 200 feet laterally
and found to average four feet four inches in thicknesss.  The Clark and middle
seams were reached in July last, dipping at an angle of 30~, leaving little room
to doubt that the more important seam will be reached at a sufficient depth.
The coal taken from the mine at present is used in running the machinery.  The
shaft in progress is intended to serve as the general outlet of the mine. Its
dimensions are 16 feet by 8 inside the timbers. It is timbered all through and
divided into three compartments, two of which are fitted for hoisting purposes.
The centre serves as the pump shaft.  It is estimated that when the mine is
fairly opened and the machinery in operation, 20 tons of coal can be raised peir
hour.  In July last, the shaft had reached 150 feet in depth.
The machinery was made at the Union Iron Works, at San Francisco.  The
pumLping engine weighs 20 tons and is of 175-horse power, with three boilers,
each 35 feet long and 42 inches in diameter.  The pump is what is known as a
Cornish "lift," having a six-feet stroke and 123-inch bore.  It is estimated to
be capable of raising a body of water the size of the bore 1,000 feet.
The company have a lease of 13,316 acres of coal land. A railroad from the
mine to the river is projected.
LABOR, WAGES, &c.-It is estimated that 1,000 men are employed in and
about the mines at Mount Diablo.  The miners work chiefly by contract.  The
general price for breaking out the coal is $1 per square yard.  The men who
perform this labor make from $4 to $6 per day. The unskilled laborers are
paid from $40 to $65 per month, in gold. Board and lodging costs from $6 to
$8 per weekl. No Chinese are employed.
The monthly wages paid by the several mines in this district aggregates
about $50,000 or $600,000 per annum.  The average cost to the companies for
extracting and delivering the coal is $6 per ton, divided as follows: Miners'
wages, hoisting, wear and tear, and interest on capital, or total cost of coal in
the bunkers at mouth of mine, $3 50 per ton; freight by railroad to Pittsburg,
$1 per ton; shlipping from thence to San Francisco, $1 per ton; commissions
and general management, 50 cents per ton.
The present market value of Mount Diablo coal suitable for domestic purposes
is from $8 to $9 per ton. As only 80 per cent. of that placed in the bunkers is
marketable, 20 per cent. being screenings, which are sold at $5 per ton, the
margin of profit, after all expenses are paid, is very limited.
The above shows as nearly as can be ascertained the present condition and
future prospects of the coal mines in California. It has not been a remunerative business to the capitalists who have engaged in it, owing to inexperience in
the working of the mines, injudicious management, the high cost of roads to
236 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
navigable waters, and the difficulties to be overcome in  rea'tingr a lmarlet where
the best imported coals had been so long in use. All these obstacles to success
are gradually disappearing, and it is believed the coal interest in California will,
in time, pay a fair percentage upon the capital invested in it.  Incidentally it
has been of advantage to the country, having furnished employment to a considerable number of laborers, created a demlanld for machinery, and supplied cheap
fuel for domestic use and for purposes of mand'acture and navigation.
THE COAL MI.NES OF OFr.EGoN.-A  seami of coal was discovered in May,
1867, on the land belonging to Mr. Frank Cooper, in Marion county, about 30
miles from Salem.  Considerable quantities of the coal have been sent to that
city, where it sells readily.  A  vwagon road is being constructed tlhence to the
mine, in order to supply the demand.  At the depth of 65 feet the seami is about
five feet thick, and the quality of the coal better than at the surface.  Good coal
has been found near the Premier mnills, on Bear creek, a tributary of the Yaquina
river, in Benton counts, about 30 miles west from Corvallis.  Five separate
seams of coal have been found in this locality, varying from six inches to four
feet in thicklness.  The most valuable seam is within five miles of Yaquina bay.
This is about four feet thick, and nearly horizontal in position.  It has been
prospected over a considerable extent of the adjoining country.  It is estimated
that coal in this vicinity can be delivered at $3 50 per ton, owing, to natural
facilities for working and transportation.  MIost of the mines are not more than
five miles from navigable waters, and that distance over an almost level plain.
A railroad could be cheaply constructed to the place of debarcation.
Towards the close of 1S66 a seam of coal was discovered on the balnk of Tillamook bay, 50 miles south of Astoria and 60 miles northwest from Salem.
There is another coal seam of a similar character on the shore of Nehalem,
about 25 miles further up the river.
Extensive beds of coal are in progress of exploration about three miles from
Farwell bend, on the Snake river.  A tunnel has been run on a vertical seam
about 300 feet, where a number of smaller seams connect and form a body of
coal about 10 feet thick.  The mouth of the tunnel is close to the bank of the
river.  Another seam of coal discovered, 200 feet above the original discovery,
is said to contain good coaf, and to be five feet thick.
Coal has beeni found in the Calapooya mountains, wvithin a few miles of
Barry's survey for a railroad from the Columbia river to California.  This discovery is considered of importance in that part of Oregon.
There is a coal field on both sides of the Coquille river, in Coos county. The
Coos Bay mines are in the northern edge of this field, which extends into Curry
county.  The seams, of which there are three, are thicker and the coal of a
better quality on the Coquille river than at Coos bay.  The two larger seams
unite on the river and form a body of coal nearly 13 feet thick.  There is another
field between the south and middle forks of the Coquille, which is 1,600 feet
higher in the mountains than the last mentioned. It has been traced for 22 miles
in length by eight miles in width. One seam is 10 feet thick. The Coos Bay
deposit extends about 25 miles north and south, and 20 miles east and west.  It
is most valuable on the south, but is only worked on the north.
Coos BAY COAL.-What is known as Coos Bay coal bears a good reputationl in California. It is found in a number of seams which crop out on the surface of the ridge that diyides Coos bay on the south from the Coquille river.
The locality of the best mine will be understood from a brief description of
the bay. Coos bay is about 14 miles in length, varying from one and a half to
two and a half miles wide.  The main part of it has a direction northeast by
southwest. At the upper end there is a sharp bend to the north. The Coos
river rises some 30 miles inland and enters the upper end of the bend. Four
miles fiom the mouth, in a densely timbered and hilly country, is Miarshfield, the
centre of the coal mining. The facilities for working the mines are crude. If
I
2,3 7 
RESOUJRCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the arrTangements were more complete the supply of coal could be increased.
There is a good entrance to the bay. The bar at its mouth has 14 feet of water
at high tide, and there is a government light-hiouse convenient.   Four miles from
the entrance of the bay, on the south shore, is Empire City, the seat of Coos
county, a thriving little place.
The supply of Coos bay coal at San Francisco has increased during the past
three years, as the following table will show. The consumption has increased
in Oregonr to an equal extent.
1865...................................................  500 tons.
1866.................................................... 2,120. 
1867, (first six months only)............................... 2,520  "
COAL IN WASI[INGTON TErRIToRY.-A seam of coal is being worked on the
bank of the Cowlitz river, six or eight miles from where it unites with the Coluinbia. The Cowlitz coal differs in appearance and composition from other coal
found on this coast. It is light, its specific gravity scarcely exceeding 1. It
breaks with a bright glassy fracture, burns with a peculiar white flame and very
little smoke, leaving but a small per cent. of white, powdery ashes. It contains
no sulphur, does not soil the fingers in handling, makes a hot fire, which continues
longer than most of the west coast coal.  It cakes in burning and makes a considerable per cent of coke. Professor W. P. Blake has made an examination
of this mine and coal, and considers them valuable.
A  coal mine of some reputation is at Bellingham bay, near the northwest
boundary of the Territory. About two years since it became the property of a
San Francisco corporation, which had commenced making improvements for
mining and exporting the coal, when, from some cause not clearly understood,
the mine took fire.  The fire could not be subdued till the underground works
were flooded. This misfortune prevented operations in the mine for nearly a
year, and caused a serious loss to the company.  It was reopened inl February,
1867. The first cargo of coal since the fire was received in May. Since that
time the supply has steadily increased. The following table gives the quantity
of coal from this mine received at San Francisco during the past three years:
1865 —.................................................- 14,446 tons.
1866...................................................11,380'
1867, (first six months only)................................ 1,275 "
TiE FuCA STRAITS COAL MINEs are situated in the northern part of Washinugton Territory, on the south shore of the Straits of Fuca, about 45 miles southwest from Victoria and 40 miles southeast from the Pacific ocean.  The company
owniing the mines possess 2,080 acres of the surrounding country.  The land
embraces the shores of Clallam bay for several miles. The surface of the country is exceedingly hilly and broken, and is covered with a dense forest of spruce,
fir, and cedar to the water's edge.  Its geological formation is exposed by several
landslides of recent occurrence, some of them being quite close to the mine. It
consists of sandstones and shales, with occasional conglomerate, the whole broken,
divided, and tilted up in different (kiections by dikes of indurated sandstone.  To
such an extent has this displacement been effected that it is difficult to trace the
continuity of the stratification. The largest bodies of the exposed strata dip
toward the land at angles varying from 15~ to 40~. The croppings of the coal
are conspicuous from Clallam bay to Pillar Point, eight miles to the southeast.
The lowest seam is about two feet thick, and is seen some 60 feet above the
water line of the bay, in the face of the hill where the mine has been opened.
It dips towards the land at an angle of 35~.  About 250 feet higher in the hill
is another seam about 15 inches thick, and 300 feet still higher another eight
inches thick. The mine is located on the lowest of these seams. The work
done by the company includes a tunnel run into the face of the hill 70 feet,
238 
WEST OF THiE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
where it reaches the coal, at a convenient level for shipping.  From this point
an incline 250 feet in length has been run on the seam, the lower part of which
changes its dip from 35~ to 25~.  Lateral drifts have been run 350 feet to the
east and S180 feet to the west, the latter terminated by a thick sandstone dyke.
Two dikes of similar materials were met in the other drift, one four, the other
nine feet thick.
About 1,500 tons of coal were taken from this mine upto the close of 1866, when
operations were suspended for want of funds to carry them on.  In 1867 a company was incorporated for thie purpose of working this mine, under the title of
the Phcenix Coal Mlining Company.  Operations now give better promise of
success.  The original owners, having no other machinery than a hand pump and
windlass, labored under disadvantages.  The coal, owing to the expense of labor,
cost $7 50 per ton, delivered at San Francisco. The new company, having
pumps and hoisting gear worked by steamn, can obtain it at less expense.
The first cargo, 500 tons, from this mine since it has been reoponed, was received
at San Francisco in August, 1867, where it sold at $12 per ton, costing the company $6 per ton to deliver.
The English government steamer Zealous has been supplied from this mine.
The engineers of that vessel speak favorably of the coal, stating that it makes
less soot in the flues and less ashes than any other obtained on the coast.
The new company have extended the workings on the original incline to 1,300
feet, where the seam is nearly four feet thick.  In making lateral drifts from the
bottom of the incline, the dilkes mentioned as interfering with the workings on
the upper levels were not met with, though these lower drifts were extended 300
feet northeast and nearly 700 feet northwest.
About 40 men are at present employed at the mine, who take out 100 tons of
coal per week.
Investigations by experienced mining engineers and geologists lead to the con clusion that there is an extensive bed of coal in Clallm valley, of which the
seams above described are but the margin.
A bore 292 feet deep was sunk in this valley in 1866, at a point about a mile
and a half from the bay.  It passed through the following formations:
Feet. Inches.
Sandstone.............................................. 11            6
Till...................................................1              0
Sandstone..............................................  5            0
T       ill................................................... 7      0
Hard sandstone.......................................... I1           0
Beds of hard clay........................................  5          0
Sandstone..............................................48              0
Fire-clay............................................... 5             0
Sandstone.............................................. 4             6
Till....................................................1             6
Sandstone, in b e d s....................................... 8  10
T       i       l l................................................... 5   0
Sandstone.............................................. 1              6
Till................................................... 6             6
Sandstone.............................................. 3             6
T i l l................................................... 1   4
Clay, in beds........................................... 12          6
Hard freestone........................................   0    10
Sandstone.............................................. 13            6
Coal................................................... 0             8
Below this the bore passed through alternate layers of sandstone, shale, and
conglomorate, till work was stopped for want of machinery.
2 3 9 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
It is' a matter of some importance to ascertain the extent of the deposit in this
locality, as the quality of the coal in Fuca Straits mine is such that a good supply
,-f it is desirable.
OTHrEP COAL MIXIES IN WASHIXGTOX TEPnITorY.-In July, 18S67, the Coal
Creek Road Company, of Seattle, Washington Territory, was incorporated under
a special act of the territorial legislature, with a capital of $30,000, for the purpose of constructing a road and making other improvements for developing the
coal mines opened to the east of that town. These mines are reported to contain excellent coal.
A seamn of coal has been recently opened near Monticello, Cowlitz county,
about 740 miles northeast of Mount Diablo.  Some of it, tested on board the
Oregon Steam Navigation Company's vessels, was found to be good for steam
purposes, burning with a clear flame and but little smoke, leaving but a small
residue of ashes.
COAL IN NEVADA.-It is believed by persons who have travelled over this
State that good coal exists near its northern and western boundaries.
A seam of lignite is reported to have been found during the past summer a
few miles from Hiko, the county seat of Lincoln county, near the Pahranagat
district.
The surveyors employed by the Central Pacific Railroad Company report the
existence of coal at the eastern base of the mountains near Crystal Peak, convenient to the Truckee river, in the immediate vicinity of the line of that railroad.
Parties prospecting for gold and silver among the Goose Creek mountains
report croppings of coal at several places in that part of the State. The Goose
Creek mountains are on the line of the Central Pacific railroad, above the valley
of the Humboldt.  Coal has been known to exist in these mountains for many
years.  The early emigrants who crossed the plains in 1850 frequently spoke of
having seen it.
An inferior quality of coal is known to exist in the mountain ranges of western
Nevada, and in the Walker river country.
COAL IN UTAII.-A seam of bituminous coal, about six feet thick, has been
explored on Webber creek, a few miles from Great Salt Lakle City.  It is nearly
horizontal in position, overlaid by strata of sandstone and a deposit of conglomorate.
Coal has also been found at Beaver creek, about 300 miles south from Salt
Lake.
THE VANCOUVER ISLAND MINES are being worked to some extent.  Exports
in June from the Nanaimo mine reached 3,636 tons, and July 4,676 tons.
The imports of this coal at San Francisco during the past three years has been
as follows:. 1865, 18,1S81 tons; 1S66, 10,852 tons; 1867, 9,160 tons, for first
six months only.
CONCLUDIXG REMAPHKS.-The existence of coal along the northwest coast
of the Pacific has been known since the discovery of the country. The seams
cropping out in the face of nearly every bluff and promontory from Oregon to
Sitka are too conspicuous to have been overlooked. The cost of and difficulty
in procuring labor and transportation, as well as the lack of enterprise on the
part of the settlers along the coast, have retarded the development of this important resource. The condemnation of valuable discoveries by pretended experts
on account of presumed subterranean disturbances in the vicinity has discouraged
capitalists from testing the value of many good mines. It is proper here to
remark that the subterraneons disturbances on this coast are remarkably local in
their effects, rarely extending for any considerable distance. The developments
in the Mount Diablo district illustrate this fact. The section in this district on
which is located the Peacock, Pacheco, and San Francisco mines is found to be
so much broken and distuibed as to render the workings of these mines unprofit
240 
WEST OF THiE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 
able, while to the north and south the coal has not been broken or displaced.  It
is. therefore, probable that many bodies of coal which are now considered too
much broken to pay for development will be found valuable on more thorough
examination.
The extent of the coal formation on the Pacific coast is surprising. Mr. Foucouilt, a French gentleman, who spent several years examining the northern coast
from Washington Territory to the newly-acquired territory of Alaskla, states that
anthracite exists at Skidegate inlet, Queenl Charlotte's island, and that a seam
of the same kind of coal is seen cropping out on the mainland opposite, about
40 miles distant. Specimens have been sent to San Francisco, where they were
examined by competent persons, who pronounced them of good quality.  Th,extent of these deposits is unknown, but they establish the fact of the existence
of anthracite on this coast.
Vancouver's island contains sheets of'coal, which may be seen cropping out at
various points along its shores on the east and west. From Cape Flattery to
Admiralty inlet, in Washington Territory, there is an almost continuous outcrop
of coal.  The Fuca Straits mine, described above, is only 16 miles from the
croppings on Neah bay.  Unfortunately this part of the coast is destitute of a
good harbor, or doubtless the coal would have been developed to a much greater
extent. But capital and engineering skill can overcome even this defect if the
inducements are sufficient.
From the above data it will be seen that the coal deposits west of the Rocky
mountains, though yielding an inferior quality of coal, are quite extensive, and
furnish such promise of improvement as to justify the belief-that the supply will
be sufficient in the future for the denlands of all branches of industry on the
Pacific coast.
MAi BLE, LIMESTONE,  &c. -Thei use of marble for domestic, artisti-3 and
funeral purposes is very general in California, especially in San Francisco.
Marble mantels, tables, and slabs are to be found in almost every residence,
workshop, and store.  The graves of all, save the utterly friendless dead, are
adorned with marble tablet or monument of some kind.  This taste has created
an important branch of productive industry.
There are fourteen factories encazed in the manufactures of marble in San
Francisco, some of wvhich employ 30 or 40 men.   One has steam machinery for
cutting and polishing the marble, and turns out 3,000 feet of slabs per imonth,
in addition to tombstones, mantels, and other ornamental work.  There are marble factories at Sacramento and Marysville, and one at each of the following
towns in the interior: Stockton, Sonora, Petaluma, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Downieville, Folsom, and other places.  Probably 1,000 persons are employed in
California quarrying, transporting, and working marble.
The consumption in San Francisco averages 500 cubic feet per month; the
factories in the interior use about one-fourth as much; total consumption in the
State, say 600 feet per month, or 7,200 feet per annumn.  The average price of
marble at present is $5 per foot.  It thus appears that the value of the raw
material used in this business amounts to $36,000 annually.  The value of manlufactur(cd marble in the State is estimated at $2,500,000.
I'he most singular and suggestive feature in this business is presented in the
fact that, although California contains an abundance of marble of great beauty
and variety, most of that used in San Francisco is imported from Italy or New
York.  This fact mav be attributed to the want of good roads and cheap transportation.  It is found more economical to bring the raw material from Genoa,
Italy, including transhipment at Bordeaux or Marseilles, than from the foot hills
in the State, less thlan 100 miles from Stockton or Sacramento.
There are tuwo firms in San Francisco engaged in the importation of marble.
Brigadelli & Co. are in the Italian branch of the business.  They own a vessel
of 300 tons register, sailing between San Francisco and Genoa.  Large quanti?
16
241 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ties are brought )by French vessels from French ports.  From June, 1866, to
Julne 1867, this firm imported 545 tons of Italian marble and had 600 tons more
on the way, the whole of which was sold, leaving orders still unfilled.  The
present price of Italian marble is 50 cents per superficial foot, in slabs of seveneighths of an inch thick; in blocks of ordinary dimensions, $5 per cubic foot;
bl)ockls weighing several tons, at $6 per cubic foot.  California marble cannot be
laid down inl San Francisco at these rates.  Myers & Co. import Italian marble
from New York, where it is brought in vessels from Genoa.  Trhis firm also
imports white marble from Vermont, which sells at $15 per cubic foot, being used
in the finer kinds of work. Some of the ornamental mantels in the homes of the
wealthy cost $750 to $1,000 each.
The marble dust used in the preparation of effervescing beverages is imported
from New York.  Five hundred tons annually are consumed, at a cost of about
$30 per ton.
The cost of transportation, which gives the imported marble a monopoly of the
markets along the coast, prohibits its introduction in the interior..  All the factories in towns above Sacramento, Marysville, and Stockton use the native marble,
because it is cheapest at these places. Withi reference to the quality of the
Pacific coast marble, as compared with the imported article, the fact should be
taken into consideration that it is excavated from near the surface.  None of the
quarries have been opened to any considerable depth; consequently the marble
is scarcely as fine in color or texture as it will be found at a greater depth.   Much
of it, nevertheless, when compared with the Italian, loses nothing by the contrast.
lIany samples of the California marble are superior.  The block of white marble, from the quarry at Columbia, Tuolumne county, from which the sculptor
Devine formed the bust of the late Senator B: oderickl, compares favorably with
the Carrara in color, texture, and purity.
The recently-discovered quarries of black and white marbles near Colfax,
Placer county, on the line of the Central Pacific railroad, will probably stop the
importations from Italy.  The beauty of the black marble from this locality, the
exquisite polish it retains, and the advantage the owners of the quarry possess in
railroad communication, which enables them to deliver it at San Francisco cheaper
than the Italian, will probably give it the control of the market.
There are many localities in California where quarries of marble are known to
exist, but, with few exceptions, they remain undeveloped. A belt of limestone
traverses the State from north to south, between the foot hills and the Sierras,
said to be 20 miles wide, forming a prominent feature in the topography of the
counties famous for placer gold, particularly in Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador,
Nevada, E1 Dorado, and Placer counties. This belt abounds in white or grayish
marble; and it is not improbable marble of variegated colors will be found on
more thorough examination, as local causes are known to control the color.  In
illustration, it may be stated that in the gulch on the south side of the road
between Columbia and Gold Springs, Tuolumne county, there are bodies of
marble of a jetty blackness, colored by manganese; on MIatelot gulch, about a
mile to the east, there is a deposit of marble which, through the action of salts
of iron, has been mottled with red, brown, vellow, blue, and green spots;  on
Mormon gulch, about three miles to the west, are masses of marble of very fine
texture veined with pale'green by the action of chlorine. This variety of color
is not peculiar to that locality, but may be observed throughout the State. The
Suisun marble, of Solano county, and the black and white marbles recently
found near Colfax, Placer county, are cases in point.
Little attention has thus far been paid to the marble quarries of the State,
because the working of them has not been profitable, except in a few localities.
As soon as railroads and cheaper labor shall remove existing impediments,
they will pFobably become a source of profit, both to individuals and to the
State.
242 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The most important quarries at present workled are the following:
INDIAN  DIGGINGs. -This quarry is located on the limestone belt, above
referred to, in E1 Dorado county.   It was opened in 1857.  A  considerable
quantity of marble has been taken from it, darkly and coarsely marked with
gray and black. It is very beautiful in large masses, but has a smeary appearance in small pieces; it is susceptible of a high polish, which it retains well.
Monuments, after exposure for 10 years to the heat and cold peculiar to the foot
hills of California, are as bright and glossy on the surface and edges as when
erected.
The COLUMBIA is located on the same limestone belt, on the Tuolumne county
side of south forkl of Stanislaus river, near Abbey's Ferry, 70 miles from Stockton, the head of navigation on the San Joaquin river.  This quarry was opened
in 1860, and has been well developed. The quality of the marble is fine in
grain and nearly white, with pale gray pencillings, and has improved with the
depth of the workings.  Blocks of 20 feet square, without flaw or blemish, may
be obtained from this quarry.  Machinery was erected for working it, and a mill
built for cutting the blocks into slabs and polishing them. The works consisted
of a revolving derrick with a boom 60 feet in length, by means of which two
men could take blocks weighing 10 to 15 tons from any part of the quarry and
place them on cars which ran on a track laid around it and connected with the
mill.  This mill had 100 saws and four polishing machines, moved by water
power.  Mlany thousands of tons of marble were cut here between 1862 and
1866. The increase of importations, erection of similar machinery at San Francisco, and the impossibility of sending the product to market during the winter,
owing to the want of good roads, has caused the proprietors to cease operations,
except during the summer.  Some of the handsomest monuments in the State are
made of this marble; that erected to the memory of the late Senator Broderick,
in the Lone Mountain cemetery, at San Francisco, is a beautiful specimen.
TIIE COLFAX QuArrIJIES.-The most noted of these was discovered in 1866,
in the mountains bordering the Bear river, about two miles to the east of the
towvn of Colfax, Placer county, near the line of the Central Pacific railroad.
The marble difiers from all others found on the coast, being a dark gray, with
jet blackl venation. When polished it is very beautiful. The mantels in the
view Bank of California are made of this marble, which contributes to the beauty
of the interior of that structure.
The proprietors of the quarry are among the first to derive direct benefit from
the Central Pacific railroad, and their case illustrates how great an advantage
that road will be in developing the resources of the State. Without such a
means of transportation the marble could not be delivered at San Francisco for
less than $20 per ton; with it freight is only $8 per ton. The owners of the
quarry at Columbia pay $10 per ton for hauling their marble to Stockton when
'he roads are good, but from $12 to 815 per ton during the winter, with an addi.ion of $2 per ton from that place to San Francisco by water. The expenses
ior transportation are still higher from the Indian Diggings quarry. Expense
3f transportation alone has thus far prevented the development of this valuable
esource, and cost the State as much for imported marble as would have nearly
)aid for a railroad to the quarries.
There is a quarry of nearly white marble recently discovered on the Appleton
ancli, about seven miles from Colfax and two miles from the railroad.  Some
ine blocks have been sent from it to San Francisco.
Both these quarries are in the limestone belt.
Tlhe SuIsux marble is found in the Peleoo Hlills, a short distance north of
he city of Suisun, Solano county. It occurs in the form of irregular beds, in a
,eculiar sandstone formation, and is of various shades of brown and yellow,
)eautifully blended in bands and threads, similar to the famous stalagmites of
_~ibraltar, which it resembles in origin and structure, as well as in appearance
243' 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
It has been formed by water, holding lime and iron in solution, percolating
through the sandstone and depositing the mineral in cavities; consequently it is
only found in limited quantity, though much of it, of an impure quality, is
burned for making lime.
OTHEP. LOCALITIES WHERPE  IARPBLE HAS BEEN FOUND.-A quarry oI marble
has been opened recently on Butte creek, about 40 miles from Oroville, Butte
county, near the lately-discovered iron mines. The quality is good, the color
gray and white, and the deposit extensive, being on the limestone belt.
There are other localities in the State where marble has been found, but the
explorations have been too limited to determine their value.
In 3Iay, 1867, Mr. J. R. Brown discovered and located a quarry of marble a
few miles north of Aubulnl, Placer county, of a nearly white color.  Samples
sent to San Francisco are considered fine. The quantity is abundant.
A marble quarry has also been found to the south of the Bay of Monterey, in
the Coast range.
LIMESrONE AND LIME.-The supply of these materials is abundant in nearly
all parts of California. The great belt of limestone so frequently referred to
furnishes materials for lime for the towns in the foot hills and among the Sierras;
vwhile in the coast range there are other calcareous'ocks, which supply the
demands for lime in the towns and cities along the coast and on the plains. The
consumption of lime at San Francisco averages about 100,000 barrels annually,
three-fourths of which is obtained from the vicinity of Santa Cruz, on the ranch
of the Canada del Rincon, where there is a supply of white metamn6rphlic limestone, which makes good lime.  Considerable quantities are also brought from
Sacramento. Since the completion of the Central Pacific railroad in that vicinity,
lime is brought to San Francisco from near Auburn and Clipper Gal), Placer
county.  About 5,000 barrels are brought to Sacramento monthly by the railroad,
and the supply is increasing with the facilities for its preparation and traLsportation.
The imports of lime at San Francisco, since 1864, have been as follows:
Barrels.
1864........................................................... 73,553
1865...................................................................... 90,037
1866...................................................... 89,786
1867 (for first six months only)............................................... 67,840
Total........................................................ 321,216
Average price during this time, $2 25 per barrel.  The consumption of lime
in San Francisco during the past three and a half years has cost $722,736. The
increase of brick and stone buildings during the latter half of 1867 has greatly
augmented the consumption of lime.
The construction of railroads and increase in buildings in the interior towns
has also increased the consumption. The lime used for var'ious purposes in the
State aninually probably exceeds $1,000,000 in value.
The Golden City Chemical Works, at San Francisco, have made a few tons of
chloride of lime as an experiment, but the demand for this compound is so small
on this coast that its manufacture is unimportant.  It was ascertained in making
these experiments that the California lime will not absorb as much chlorine as
that made in the Atlantic States or Europe. This may be the effect of a variety
of causes; but it is of importance, both in practice and to science. Some of thelc
English lime will absorb 50 per cent. of chlorine.  None obtained in California
would take up 30 per cent. The general per cent. of chlorine in imported
chloride of lime does not exceed 10. It loses its strength during the voyage.
OTHER CALCAREOUS MIINERALS-SULPHATE OF LIME.-There are deposits
of this mineral in various forms in all the States and Territories on this coast. II
is valuable when burned as a fertilizer on heavy clay lands, such as constitute
244 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
much of " tule" and "adobe" bottoms in California.  It is abundant in the coast
range. A body of it is found in the form of selenite in the hills near Stockton,
within a few miles of the San Joaquin river.
Considerable quantities of the same mineral are known to exist in most of the
mountains which have been examined for silver in Alpine county, among the
the high SieTrras.
Sulphate of lime, in the form of alabaster, is found in Tuolumne, Los Angeles,
Solano, and several other counties.
Near Silver City, Story county, Nevada, alabaster of great beauty is found,
but it soon crumbles on exposure to the atmosphere. In 1862 this deposit was
quarried as marble. It wvas soon discovered that blocks cub from it fell to pieces,
and were useless for building and ornamental purposes; but it makes good plaster
of Paris.
Beds of friable sulphate of lime exist in the vicinity of the Sulphur Springs,
near Red Bluffs, Tehama county, in the form of loose grains, deposited by the
waters of the thermal springs, which cover acres of ground in the vicinity. All
the hot springs on this coast deposit sulphate of lime, in some foim or other.
In the Granite mountains, between Chico, in Tehama county, and Idaho, there
are numerous deposits of gypsumn.  Anhydrate, or dry sulphate of lime, is found
in Plumas and Sierra counties. Professor Whitney, State geologist of California,
has various specimens.
Excellent materials for the manifacture of plaster of Paris exist on this coast.
Considering the simpleness of its preparation it is remarkable that its manufacture has not been attempted.   The imports of plaster of Paris amount to
about 6,000 barrels annually at San Francisco, at an average cost of $4 per
barrel, or nearly $25,000 per annum.  Nearly all imported is from New York.
DOLOMITE or,  MAGNESIAN LIMESTONE.-This mineral  has been found
during the present year, on the Mlerced river, between Horseshoe Bend and Don
Pedro's bar. It is fine grained, of a yellowish gray color, having much the
appearance of "Turkey stone," and is prized for hones for sharpening razors,
penknives, &c.  It has been mistaken for lithographic limestone.   The deposits
are abundant, and it mav ultimately be found an important resource.
HYDRAULIC LIMESTOoE.-California contains deposits of this valuable mineral,
of good quality. The best known are found in a range of hills at the back of
Benicia, Solano county.  Hydraulic, or Benicia cement, as it is called, is made
here in considerable quantities, a company having been incorporated in 1860
for the purpose of caltying on its manufacture. The company has good machinery,
kilns, and the necessary arrangement for maling several thousand barrels per
month. An impetus has been given to this business by the action of the State
harbor commissioners, who having charge of the construction of the sea-wall, in
the harbor of San Francisco, have had experiments made with the various cements.
The Benicia cement proving satisfactory, has been selected for use in the wall,
which will be several miles in length, and of great depth and thickness, and
will consequently require many thousand tons of cement. This action of the
commissioners has had a tendency to remove a prejudice that had been cultivated
by interested parties against the California cement. The imports of cement have
been heavy for several years at San Francisco, the damp nature of the foundations in the business portions of the city requiring the bricks or stones to be laid
in cement for several feet in extensive buildings. In 1866, 23,812 barrels were
imported, at a cost of $91,648. During the first six months of 1867, 14,517
barrels were imported, at a cost of $50,000. These figures show the importance
of this business.
The mineral in the vicinity of Benicia is found in a series of deposits extending for several miles. Though there does not appear to be any regular stratum
of it, there is sufficient to last formany years, should the consumption reach 100,000
barrels annually.
245 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Hydraulic limestone is a sub-carbonate of lime, which owes its value to its property of hardening under water, to a certain proportion of clay in its composition.
Too much clay causes it to set too slowly, while too little renders it unfit for use
as a cement. It is necessary to make this explanation to render the following
statements intelligible:
There are two varieties of this mineral at Benicia, the one making a cement
which hardens very rapidly, the other very slowly.  Experience and observation
prove that a combination of the two makes a hard, durable cement, which may be
regulated to harden in any required time.  Common limestone exists near the
cement rock.  The workmen first employed in making the cement, not being
aware of the difference, mixed all together in the kilns; the consequence was to
spoil the whole, and give the product a bad character in the market.  But the
processes for its preparation are now better understood, and the workmen more
experienced. Such contaminations are avoided, and a really good cement is
prepared.
This Benicia cement stone is of a dark yellowish color, speckled with black,
tolerably soft; breaks with a dull, earthy fracture, without any appearance of
crystalization.
The following table gives the results of some of the experiments made with
various kinds of cements, to test the time each requires for "setting" in the air
and under water:
Compositin..Time setting  Time setting
~Composition.~ ~in air.                      in water.
1st quality Benicia cement.................................         3       5       8      10
2d quality Benicia cement................................. 25              30      30      50
Mixtureof both........................................... 50   1.00  1.20    1.25
Roman  cement........................................... 30                50     45    1.00
Eastern cement........................................... 1.00   1.20   1.50    2.20
Mixture of equal parts Benicia cement and sand... ---------— ]. 20   1.50  2.40    3.10
Mixture of one part of Benicia cement and two parts sand....  1.50  3.10  4.10    5.25
This cement is much used in the manufacture of drainage and water pipes.
There are several factories of these articles in California. Mliles of such pipe
a'e laid down in San Francisco. Other places in the Coast range and foot hills
have been found where cement stone is known to exist. On the banks of Hospital creek, a few miles south of Corral Hollow, San Joaquin county, there is a
deposit of it similar in appearance and composition to that worked at Benicia.
Within the past few months a hydraulic limestone has been discovered inll
Washington Territory, on the Columbia river, about seven miles north from
Astoria.  Works are in course of erection to manufacture cement at this place.
There can be but little doubt that this mineral will be found abundantly all
along this coast whenever an intelligent search shall be made for it.  The metamorphlosis of the rocks in the Coast range has been of a nature to form it extensively.
OREGOx.-Limestone and marble are not so abundant in this State and the
Territories north and west as in California. As mentioned in the report on iron,
the Oregon smelting works have to import the limestone used in that establishment firom the Island of San Juan. The limestone formation extending from
Siskiyou to Los Angeles, in California, does not appear to extend into Oregon.
At all events, its existence has not been reported.
The recent discovery of a bed of limestone on Beaver'creek, Clackamas county,
about 18 miles from the WVillamette, is considered of much importance by the
local press. It is presumable this mineral is scarce in that part of Oregon.
246 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
NEVADA.-In addition to the alabaster mentioned above, in Story county,
cement rock has been found in the Pinewood district, Humboldt county, and at
many other places. No marble has thus far been found in this State, but there
is sufficient carbonate of lime in other forms, in nearly all parts of it, to supply
material for making lime for building purposes.
BUILDINxG  3ATEPIALS.-Thle mountainous nature of the Pacific coast, and
the geological formations to which the rocks composing the mountains belong,
suggest the existence of a great variety of building materials.  Few countries
possess greater abundance or variety of these materials than California, and there
are few cities in the United States where equal opportunities are afforded for
comparing the merits of the materials used in other countries with those obtained
at home, than are presented at San Francisco. In the early days of this city
everything was imported, from bread and clothing for its inhabitants to lumber,
brick and stone for their houses. The city hall is built of Australian freestone,
several of the banks and other large edifices are built of China granite, and there
are hundreds of steps, pillars, lintels, and other portions of buildings, of sandstone and granite imported from the Atlantic States and Europe.   The foundations of many of the old buildings in the city are laid on imported bricks. None
of these materials are found to be as durable or as handsome as those since obtained
in California. In this, as in other mineral resources, the cost of labor and transportation has impeded development. It is only under favorable conditions that
stone for building will pay to ship to San Francisco from the interior of the
State; while the cheapness, excellence, and abundance of the lumber, and the
general adaptability of the soil for the mnanufactmue of bricks, cause these materials
to be used for building almost everywhere throughout the State.   The introduction of iron mouldin,gs for the decorative portions of large structures prevents
a demand for stone for such purposes. The Bank of California building, at
San Francisco, is the only structure of cut stone of any magnitude, outside of
the government fortifications, on the Pacific coast. Under such circumstances
little attention is paid to opening quarries to test the quality of the stone.  The
consumption of stone is confined to granite for curbing and paving the streets,
and the basements and steps for a few of the more costly buildings at San Francisco.
The following details concerning the supply of building materials will show
how varied and valuable they are in California:
GPA\ITE.-QQuarries of this rock are in nearly every county, including portions
of the foot-hills or sierras. But as none of them are convenient to railroads or
rivers, except the following, only these will be referred to:
The oldest and best known is located near Folsom, Placer county; another
quarry worked to some extent exists at Natoma, in the cai-on of the American
river, a few miles from the first; another at Riocklin, 22 miles from Sacramento;
and a fourth at Peirvn, 28 miles from that city.  The last two are on the line
of the Central Pacific railroad.
There is a marked difference in the appearance of the rock from these several
quarries.  That from Folsom is hard and darki, containing feathery crystals of
black hornblende in patches, on a dark bluish-gray ground of quartz and feldspar.
Very little mica exists in any of the California granite. That from Natomna is
as dark as that from Folsom, but the components being more evenly distributed
gives it a lighter appearance. The stone-cutters consider this the best rock for
smnoothl blocks. It has a clean and fresh appearance, never changing color. The
granite from Rocklin is of a nearly snowy whiteness, remarkably fine grained,
and free from stains and blotches, and is susceptible of a fine finish.   The upper
portion of the State capitol at Sacramento is being built of this stone. The
mouldings and other architectural ornaments are cut with sharpness and elegance.
The lower portion of the structure is built of the Folsom stone, which has a dark
and dingy appearance in comparison with the lighter and marble-like stone above.
247 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORTFS
The fortifications in course of construction near San Francisco are being built
of Penryn granite, which is somewhat darker than that from Rocklin, but lighter
than the others described above.  The basements of nearly all the large stores
and warehouses in San Francisco arc built of Folsom rock.  The quarries at
Rocklin are verv extensive.  It is possible to break off blocks of large dimensions-masses 100 feet lolg by 100 feet deep, and 10 feet thick, have been
qu,arried out and afterwards split into smaller blocks, of any required thickness,
across the grain, by means of gads and sledges. The rock splits evenly. There is
a body of this rock several miles in length and breadth and of unknown depth.
In San Francisco are 10 stone-yards, at whichl about 350 men are employed
dressing and trimming granite for building and paving purposes.  These yards
use about 400 tons of stone per month. The curbs and crossings of the principal
streets are made of this rock.  There are 20 miles of such curbing and crosswalks.  The Central Pacific railroad carries about 5,000 tons of granite from
Rocklin and Penryn to Sacramento, the greater portion of which is brought
to San Francisco by schooners.  About 1,000 tons per month are brought from
the quarries at Folsom and Natoma.
The price of granite at San Francisco is $1 50 per cubic foot, or $21 per ton
in blocks delivered at the wlharf.  The cost of trimming it is high; stone-cutters
being paid $4 per day in gold for nine hours worik.
SANDSTONES, &c.-Brown stone of good quality for building purposes is
quarried near Haywvard's, Alameda county.  Some of this stone is used in the
city cemeteries as bases for monuments and for building vaults. Its sombre
appearance is considered an advantage.
Greeniish-gray sandstone is obtained from Angel island, in the Bay of San
Francisco.  Of this beautiful stone the new building of the Bank of California
has been built. The scroll-work and sculpture on the front are fine and smooth
in outline as it cut in marble, while the color is soft and pleasant to the eye.
Each pillar, lintel, and post of the doors and windows is formed of a single block,
some of them 10 feet in length.  The wheels used in the linseed oil factory at
Steamboat Point are also made of Angel Island stone.  These wheels are seven
feet in diameter and 18 inches thick, each weighing five tons.
In several of the interior counties are deposits of a variety of trachytes, forming portions of table mountain, which make good materials for buildings.  It
is generally of a pinkish or gray color, fine in grain, and when first taken from
the quarry is sufficiently soft to be trimmed with a common hatchet, but a few
months' exposure to the air renders it quite hard. A valuable deposit is found
near Iokelumne Hill, Calaveras county.  Wells & Fargo's office, several hotels,
and other buildings in that town are made of it. Some of these buildings are
14 years old, and the stones in them retain the marks and edges as when first
made.
A quarry of freestone, of a pale drab color and fine texture, is found near
Mlarsh's creek, six miles from the Mount Diablo coal mines.
Near the MPerced river, in Mlariposa county, on the road between Bear Valley
and Stockton, there are beds of freestone well adapted to building purposes.
The stone is of a pleasant pinkish tint, with wavy lines of brown and purple,
and is compact and stands exposure well.  With cheap transportation it would
become a favorite for many purposes, as it can be cut cheaper than granite, and
is better adapted to building than marble, and is more elegant and durable than
brick.
Bricics.-The manufacture of bricks is carried on extensively in nearly every
county in the State. The tough clay of the Sacramento valley probably makes
the best. Some of the earth used in one or two localities along the coast in
early times, contained a per centum of soda and potash.   Such bricks are illsuited for a climate as humid as that of San Francisco. The moisture causes
the alkali to exude, injuring the paint or plaster with which the bricks are covered.
248 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The consumption of bricks at San Francisco amounts to about 100,000,000
annually.  The average price is $12 per 1,000.  About  20,000,000 are used
annually in the interior of the State, at an average cost of $16 per 1,000. Until
recently the bricks made were the product of hand labor.  A  brick-nmakling
machine was introduced in July, 1867.  The increase of building consumes all
that are made. The city corporation uses many millions annually in the colnstruction of sewers, of vlwhich there are 10 miles within the city limits.
ROOFING SLATES.-Notwithstanding the abundance of slate on this coast,
but little of it fit for roofing purposes has thus far been found. The use of
shingles, asphaltum, and tin for roofing, which are so much cheaper and lighter
than slate, is almost general, so that but little inducement is held out to fulrnis!
slate.  In 1865 a comlpany was organized in Amador county for the purpose of
worlking a slate quarry found in that county.  Experienced Welsh slaters were
interested in the enterprise.  They say the Amador slate is quite equal to any
found in Wales.  The causes above stated, together with the cost of labor and
transportation, rendered the enterprise unprofitable, and it was abandoned.  No
doubt a proper search would result in the discovery of an abundant supply of roofing slates on this coast.
STEATITE, or SOAPSTONXE, though not strictly a building material, is classed
under this head because it is valuable in various department of arts and manufactures.  There are localities in all the States and Territories on this coast,
except Arizona, where this mineral is knowvn to exist in great abundance, but
its consumption is limited at present. Only one or two deposits are found profitable to work, and these only to an inconsiderable extent.   There is but one
cstablishment on the coast for the manufacture of articles from soapstone.  This
is at San Francisco, where it was commenced in 1866.  As marble can be obtained
cheaper than this stone, its use is confined to blocks for lining furnaces, slabs
for the chemical worklss, liningsfor stoves, beds forovens, &c.  Itspeculiarproperty
of standing a hi,gh temperature, and retaining the heat a long time, makes it valnable for such purposes.  About 200 tons are used at San Francisco annually;
part of it in the form of powder by soap-makers, chemists, boot-makers, and others.
Twenty tons of this powder are sold annually at $3 per 100 pounds.  The price
of the stone, in blocks, is $4 80 per cubic foot, or $40 per ton. In slabs of one
inch thick, 75 cents per superficial foot.
I()ost of that used at San Francisco is brought from near Placerville, El Dorado
county, where the company owning the factory have a claim containing 3,000
feet in length on a bed of this material 363 feet wide, and there are "extensions"
on the same "lead" for miles on both sides of the original claim.  Other quarries
are wvorked to some extent-one near Sonora, Tuolumne county; another on
Santa Catalina island, off the southern coast, near Santa Barbara; another on
the south of the San Jose valley, near the city of San Jose, in Santa Clara
county; another at Copperopolis, in Calaveras county, &c.
The cost of transportation from Placerville amounts to $12 per ton for freight
alone, divided as follows: For hauling by team from quarry to railroad, nine
and a half miles, 06 per ton; by railroad to Sacramento, 40 miles, $4 per ton;
to San Francisco by steamer, $2 per ton.
The Caliolbrnia steatite is superior to that obtained in the Atlantic States or
Europe for many important purposes.  It contains neither mica nor iron.  The
Golden City Chemical Works, an extensive establishment, uses steatite to line the
retorts for distillation of nitric and sulphuric acids.  When commencing operations this company imported steatite from New York, which, owing to its containing mica and iron, was soon destroyed by the fumes of the acids.  Induced
to try some of the California stone, it was found to last for a long time, the acids
having but little effect on it.
Don Abel Stearns states that when hle came to California, in 1825, the common people cooked their food in vessels made of this stone, which is abundant
241.9 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
in all the southern counties, and almost as soft as wood.   These "          crocks" were
made of various sizes, usually about an inch thick on the sides and two inches
on the bottom.   Such vessels are occasionally found by the surface miners in
various parts of the State. Parcels of California steatite have been exported to
China, where it is used for various purposes.
The furnaces at the copper-smelting works at Aubrey City, Arizona, are lined
with steatite taken from Santa Catalina island.
CLAYS.-Under this heading will be included materials used in the manufac ture of pottery, glass, colors, &c.
As already stated, reference can only be made to such products of the earth
as are of immediate economical importance.   Many minerals of interest and
prospective value must necessarily be passed without notice, and several articles
of dissimilar natures are included under one head, for the purpose of securing
conciseness.
Clay, suitable for the manufacture of fire-bricks, is found beneath the coal in
the Mount Diablo coal mines, in Contra Costa county; at Grass Valley, Nevada
county; near Colusa, Colusa county, and at other places in California, Nevada,
and Oregon.
Clay suitable for pottery is found near Marsh's creek, six miles west of the
Mount Diablo coal mines; also at Pratt's Hill, near Ione City, Amador county,
in the foot-hills.
The manufacture of pottery is carried on to some extent in all the Pacific
States and Territories. In California there are factories of earthenware at San
Francisco; Antioch, Contra Costa county; San Antonio, Alameda county; Monterey, Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Clara county, and at several other places.
In Nevada there is a pottery near Virginia City, at which brownstone ware is
mnade from clay obtained in the vicinity. There are several potteries in Oregon.
The  establishment  at Antioch was commenced in 1867.  Various kinds
of earthenware, both coarse and fine, are made here.  It gives employment to
about a dozen mouldlers and throwers, and a number of laborers.  The potters
work by contract, earning from $3 to $7 per day, according to their industry and
the description of wvares made.
The cosmopolitan character of the population of California is singularly illustrated by the articles made at this pottery. The French, German, Mexican,
Prussian, Chinese, and other nationalities represented here, each require differently-shaped crocks and pots in their culinary and other domestic arrangements.
The storehouse of the pottery, in which a stock of these goods is kept, presents
a curious medley of oddly-shaped articles made from designs to suit the tastes
of all classes of customers.
Some of the moulded teapots, jugs, and wvater-pitchers, made in imitation of
French and English ware, are very handsome, and exhibit the excellence of the
material used as well as the skill of the workmen.   Fancy articles of many
kinds, cornices and mouldings, crucibles, muffles, fire-bricks, and tiles, drainage
pipes, and a variety of other articles used by the local manufactories, are made
here.
The clay is obtained from the deposit which underlies the coal at Mount Diablo.
The pottery at San Francisco is located at the Mission. Stoneware and utensils
used by refiners, assayers, metallurgists, artists, and manufacturers are made here.
The clay is obtained from a deposit near Michigan Bar, Sacramento county.
There is a bed of bood fire-clay near Grass Valley, Nevada county.
KAOLIX. —Deposits of this clay are found in }Iarin, Amador, Tuolumne,
Calaveras, and several other counties. It exists in many places in the coast
range, the foot-hills, and the high Sierras. One of the most noted of these
deposits is at Michigan Bar, Sacramento county.  In E1  Dorado county there is
a peculiar deposit of pure white clav, formed by the decomposition of the granite
in the vicinity, which is well adapted to the manufacture of porcelain.
250 
WFST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
PIPE CLAY.-This material has been foundl near Dutch Flat, Placer county,
and at San Jose, Contra Costa county; also in Tuolumne, Amador, and Calaveras
counties, and at several other localities in the Coast range and foothills.
CoLorING EARTES, &c. -Terra de sienna, umber, red, yellow, and other
ochreous coloring earths, are found in abundance and purity in many places
in the Coast range and foot-hills of California. Several deposits have been
opened.  The colors prepared from them are varied and excellent.  The limited
miarlket for their sale, and the importations from the Atlantic States and Europe,
render their manufacture on a large scale unprofitable, though considerable quantities are used by the local painters and others.
The most noted of these ochreous deposits was discovered in 1860, near the
town of Martinez, Contra Costa county.   Six well-defined beds of oclire have
been f(eund in this locality, which ralnge from 10 to 20 feet thick, and extend
from El Humbre creek to San Pablo bay, a distance of six miles. In 1862
a company was organized to make colors from these materials.  A  factory, with
a 20-horse power steam engine, for grinding the colors, was erected, and about 100
tons, of as many as 84 tints, from white to black, embracing a pale buff and
bright vermillion, were prepared.  But the causes above mentioned rendered the
enterp.ise unprofitable, and it was abandoned withlin a year of its commencement.
Some of the colors made are as brigtht to-day as when first prepared.
In 1866 a deposit of terra de sienna was found on Gold gulch, about six miles
from San Lorenzo, Santa Clara county.  Yellow ochre is found in the same
locality.
There are bodies of coloring earth, red, purple, and white, about five miles
est of Ione City, Amador county, whlich form a portion of what is known as
Pratt's HIill, a promontory extendling some distance into the Sacramento valley
from the foot-hills.
Beds or sienna and umber exist in the mountains in the vicinity of San Jose',
Santa Clara county.  Fuller's earth is found in the same locality.
Red oclhre is found on Red Rock, in the harbor of San Francisco, and at other
places along the coast.
The above localities are named because the materials found in them have been
used and are known to be valuable. But there are many localities where color ing earths, clays, &c., are known to exist, which are omitted because they have
not been developed.
SANDS.-Since the introduction of the manufacture of glass at San Francisco,
the quality of the sand along the coast has been tested in order to obtain a sup ply of such as is best adapted to this business.   lIuch of the sand obtained along
the shores of the harbor of San Francisco contains too much iron to be used in
making glass.  Near the harbor of Monterey there is an exhaustless supply, free
from impurities. The sand used by the glass factories is imported chiefly from
this place. A small quantity is obtained along the bay shore in Alameda county,
near Oakland. Eight miles north of Santa Cruz there is a hill of wlite sand
w-ell adapted to glass-making, being free from iron and manganese.
Tile sand dunes, which form a peculiar feature in the scenery at some points
in the bay of San Francisco, do not contain materials suitable for glass-makling.
The pinky lhue of these dunes is imparted by the grains of iron they contain.
Tlhey are not without value nevertheless. Parties owning them malke as large
a revenue from their product as is derived from equal quantities of fertile soil.
This sand is adapted to building purposes, for which it is used.   Small vessels
are employed in carrying it to Napa and other counties where suitable sand
is scarce. Such vessels are charged $5 per cargo. It sells at $1 50 per ton to
bnickmakers and builders in the interior.
The consumption of sand for glass-making is considerable.   Two glass works
at San Francisco make $250,000 of glassware annually, giving employment to
about 150. men and boys. These works make nearly all the wine bottles, carboys,
2,51 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
demijohns, pickle, spice, and sauce bottles, &c., used in California.  They also
make lamp chimneys, vials, and chemical glasses.  The Pacific Glass Works
was established in 1860, and has been enlarged during, 1867. It recently made
12 retorts of white glass for one of the local chemical workls, each of which holds
20 gallons; and 24 others of 16 gallons each, for another chemical establishment.  These operations show the capacity of the glass works, as well as the
extent of the chemical preparations made in San Francisco.  Glass for the lighthouses in this district was made at one of these factories.  Preparations are nearly
complete for manufacturing window and plate-glass.
PLrUMBAGO, Or. BLACKLEAD.-rThis mineral is found in several localities in
California and Nevada.  The largest deposit exists near Sonora, Tuolumne county.
As the exports from that place have recently assumed some commercial importance, a description of the principal mine there, and of the processes used to prepare the lead for market, may be interesting.
THE EUPExKA PLUMBAGO MINE was discovered by its present owners in
1S53, while they were workling a placer mine in the vicinity.  Its value was
not ascertained, however, till 1865, when a process was discovered by which the
earthy matter with which the mineral is contaminated near the surface could be
separated. Since that discovery, several hundred tons of plumbago have been
collected, nearly all of which has been exported to England, France, and Germany, the demandbeingverylimitedin California.  Theretuinsfrom the shipments
to Europe have been satisfactory. The work of development has since been
carried on successfully. The exports to Liverpool amounted to 300 tons between
July and September, 1S67, the estimated value of which is $100 per ton.  There
is some plumbago at present in course of shipment.  The total quantity sent
from the mine up to 1st of September, 1867, was about 500 tons.
TiE 3IxE.-The lode or vein from which this mineral is obtained extends
about 4,000 feet in a northeasterly direction, conformable to the general stratificationl of the country, and ranges from 20 to 40 feet in width.  It is considerably
broken up and mixed with the surrounding earth and rock to the depth of 30
feet from the surface.  Below this it appears to be well defined between wvalls of
sandstone and claystone.  It dips irregularly to the east, in some places being
nearly vertical, at others lying at various angles. The northern, or under side,
rests on a stratum of coarse, pliable, yellow sandstone, which is much broken
near the surface, but is compact and solid at a depth of 30 feet. The upper
side is enclosed in a soft clay slate, which rapidly disintegrates upon exposure to
the atmosphere, but is sharply defined and hard below. The lode is frequently
divided by lenticular masses of this clay slate, from a few inches to several feet
in thickness, which have their longer axis in the same direction as the lode.  It
is also divided by lateral dikes of sandstone, similar in appearance to the underlying wall rock, but harder.  The whole formation abuts on the eroded carboniferous limestone, which forns a peculiar feature in the geology and topography
of that section of the foot-hills which embraces Tuolumne, Calaveras, and Amador counties.
A sliaft sunk on the lode to the depth of 65 feet, revealed the fact that the
mineral is purer and more solid at that depth than near the surface. At the
greatest depth reached it was found to be 25 feet wide, and much of it sufficiently
pure to be shipped without any preparation.
ProcEssEs rFOP CL,EANING THE OPE.-As stated above, a great portion of the
mineral taken out below the surface influences is shipped without any prepara
tion whatever.   Two laborers extract and sack about two tons of the pure
material daily. Such of it as is contaminated by admixture with the wall rock or
the enclosed masses of clay slate is wheeled out, washed, and dried before shipment. All the operations in the mine are carried on in open cuts; everything
taken out from the surface downwards being washed that is not pure enough to
ship without such preparation.
252 
'EST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Tiur   SErPAATIXG WOpmS.-These consist of reservoirs, settling vats, and
drying frames.  The chief washing apparatus consists of a sort of arrastra, or
puddling machine, having a bed 20 feet in diameter, with water-tight sides three
feet highl.  In the centre of this vat is a stout upright post with four arms set at
iight angles, to which are attached, by chains, four wooden frames with oaken
teeth, like roughly made harrows.  The teeth, or pegs, are only intended to stir
up the materials, which readily separate in water.  To grind them would render
the separation difficult.  A small water-wheel sets this apparatus in motion, and
separates about 50 tons daily, the average of which produces 30 per cent. of pure
graphite, which is separated by passing a small stream of water through the
machine.  The graphite, being finer and lighter than the sand and slate, is held suspcnded near the surface of the water  whlichl passes out through a shallow spout
near the top, taking the graphite with it, falling gently into a "' sand box," a long,
shallow trough, in which any remaining imnpurity is precipitated. From this
box the water containing the fine particles of graphite is conveyed by iron pipes
into large reservoirs capable of holding from 3 to 20 days' production.  After
remaining in these reservoirs for about 24 hours, the graphite subsides to the
bottom in the form of a black slum, the water above being quite clear; this is
let off by means of suitable arrangements for that purpose, till the sediment
is only sufficiently fluid to flow, when it is run into a series of shallow vats
arranged conveniently around the reservoirs.  An exposure to the sun for 24
hours in these vats is sufficient to dry it to the consistence of tough clay, when
it is cut up into irregularly-shaped blocks and placed on wooden  staging for a
few hours and becomes hard and dry, and is then put up in sacks weighing about
300 pounds each.
The capacity of the works at present is sufficient to turn out 500 tons per
month, but it can be indefinitely extended to meet the demand. In addition to
the puddliing machine there are several small separating apparatuses, which atre
worked by hand, producing about five tons of blacklead per week.
The labor on the mine is performed by Chinamen, of whom there are about
30 employed, who are eaclh paid $8 per week] without board.
A great waste of mater-ial occurs from the want of experience in working;
still the muine is profitable.
TIIE COSTS OF PnoDucTiox.-The owners estimate the costs for excavating
washing, drying, and bagging the pure material at $1 per ton.  The sacks used
cost about $2 for each ton.  Freight, by teams to Stockton, the head of navigation on the San Joaquin river, ranges from $8 to $9 per ton, (the distance is
about 65 nmiles;) from Stockton to San Francisco, by steamer, $1 50 per toln;
by sailing vessels, $1 per ton; from San Francisco to Liverpool, whence all that
can be prepared is sent, the freight is from $12 50 to $14 per tonl, or thlus:
Cost of preparation per ton.............................. —--------------------------—........... $1 00
Bags, per ton............................................ —-----------------------------------------------—.............. 2 00
Freight to Stockton, per ton................................. —------------------------------------—....... 9 00
Freight to San Francisco, per ton............................ —--------------------------------—.... 1 50
Freight to Liverpool, per ton........................................... —--------------—..... -------------------- 14 00
Commissions, insurance, &c., per ton........................................ 12 50
Total costs..................................... —---------------------------------------------............ 40 00
Its market price is about $100 per ton.
OTHER DEPOSITS OF GRAPHITE.-Other bodies of this mineral are found in
California and Nevada, but they are all insignificant in value when compared to
that above described.  Among them is one within the limits of the city of Sonora,
about a mile south from the Eureka mine.  This has been worked to some
extent.  It is probably part of the main lode.  There is another body of it on
Jarvis's ranch, near Gold Springs, about four miles north from the Eureka, also
supposed to be a portion of the main lode. It has not been examined sufficiently
2, 3
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
to test its extent. Small deposits of this mineral are found in Marin, Plumas,
and SierrTa counties.
A body of metamorphosed limestone exists on the border of Tomales bay, in
the Coast range, which contains graphite in thin scales.  There is a somewhat
similar deposit near Summit City, Alpine county, among the lofty peaks of the
Sierra Nevada.
Another body of plumbago is found near Fort Tejon, at the junction of the
Coast ranoe and Sierra Nevada.
The surveyors engaged by the Central Pacific Railroad Company report the
existence of this mineral in the Truckee canion, Nevada, also near Crystal peak.
It has also been found in Storey, Washoe, Ormsby, and Lander counties, in that
State, but generally of an inferior quality, though but little effort has been made
to test the quality below the surface.
IMPORTANCE OF GRAPHITE IN THrE AnTS.-Reference to some of the purposes for which this mineral is used in the arts and Tnanirfactures will exhibit the
influence a full supply of it will have on these important branches of industry.
The manufacture of blacklead pencils gives employment to thousands of persons in Europe. Mlillions of these indispensable articles are annually imported.
No suitable material for their manufacture has heretofore been discovered in our
own dominion.
Crucibles made of this material are indispensable for melting g6ld and silver.
because they withstand the high temperature necessary to melt these metals, and
do not absorb the metal.  It is also used in tho manufacture of gunpowder.
By co)ating the grains with graphite they are not only polished, but their explosive power is greatly increased.  Good blasting-powder contains nearly one-tenth
of its weight in graphite.
It is also of importance in the art of electrotyping, being one of the best known
conductors of electricity for that purpose.
It is employed as an anti-friction for the bearings of heavy machinery.
Also, for covering the moulds for iron, brass, and bronze castings, imparting
a smooth surface to these metals, and for numerous other purposes not necessary
to particularize.
So much importance is attached to the supply of this mineral in Europe, that
in 1860, when a Mr. Brockedon invented a process by which the powder from
the European mines wvas solidified by hydraulic pressure, he was hailed as a
public benefactor, and was honored by special markls of distinction from the
hi,ghlest scientific associations and many of the crowned heads of Europe.
The plumbago obtained in California is so much finer and purer than that
prepared in Europe, that a demand for it has already been created.
When it is taken into consideration that the same pressure (50,000 tons) used
to solidifv the powder of graphite will also solidify iron filings, pulverized
anthracite, and other impurities, it will be perceived that such a process affords
a convenient means for adulteration; while the simple but effective process used
in California leaves the graphite pure. This mineral will probably become
in time an article of export.
SALT.-Next to coal, no mineral is more necessary to the prosperity of a State
than salt. Of this article the States and Territories on the Pacific coast possess
an abundance.  But for the high price of capital and labor, and the difficulties
of transportation, it might be produced as cheaply here as in other parts of the
Union.
The following statement will convey an idea of the number of salt deposits
on this coast and the extent of their development.
SALT IX CALIFOnNIA.-The product at present reaches about 25,000 tons
annually, about three-fourths of which is made in Alameda county, on the eastern
side of the bay of San Francisco, where there are works for concentrating and
evaporating the waters which cover the mrmsh land in that locality. These works
254 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
extend from Centreville to the San Lorenzo creek, a distance of fifteen miles.
They are the property of 17 companies, and some individuals.  The aggregate
capital invested is about $1,200,000.  One hundred laborers are employed in the
business during the season. The worlks are such as are usually constructed for
obtaining salt from sea water, and do not require special description.  Till recently
the salt collected was of an inferior quality, but experience has effected an
i.nprovement.  There are six steam mills in Sanl Francisco, chiefly employed in
cleaning and preparing it for domnestic purposes.  The capital invested in this
branch of the business is about $250,000.  These mills dluring 1S66 ground and
prepared 24,500 tons of bay salt, which will probably be exceeded during 1S67.
The works commenced in 1860.  The importation of foreign salt has since
fallen off.  The total imports for 1866 did not exceed 7,000 tons, about 5,000
of which were from Carmen island, Gulf of California, and 2,000 from Liverpool,
which consisted of a refined article for table and dairy use.  The quantity imported
from England in 1867 is less than in 1866, in consequence of the local salt makers
preparing a better article which they sell at a lower price.
Salt works are established in San Bernardino county, the products of which
were formerly sent to the San Francisco market.   But the cheapness of the bay
salt and the costs of transportation from so great a distance have driven it out
of this market thou-gh it is used in the southern counties.
In 1867 works for collecting salt were erected near San Rafael, Santa Clara
county.
Saline springs and marshes exist in various parts of the State, from which salt
is obtained; but as it is consumed in the locality, no estimate of the amount can
be made.
A spring about 14 miles from Los Angeles yields a good salt, shipments of
lwhich were formerly sent to San Francisco.   Five hundred tons of it were received
in 1866, but for the reasons given in the case of San Bernardino, it is now
unprofitable to transport it so great a distance.
A deposit of salt is found in the Tehachepi valley, Tulare county, from which
a small quantity was obtained during the summer of 1867.
Salt beds and saline springs are found in the valley of Keri-n river, Tulare
county, 10 miles from the mouth of the Canada de las Uvas.  The country for
miles is impregnated with salt.  Holes dugi in the ground during the wet season
fill rapidly with brine, which deposits a coating of salt when dried during the
summer.
The consumption of salt has increased in California during the last four years,
owing to the demand created by new manufactures. The codfishery in the Ochotsk
sea, commenced in 1864, requires a supply of the coarse article.  The vessels
engaged in this fishery in 1S65 cured 587 tons of fish; in 1866, 960 tolns, and in
1867 will probably cure 1,000 tons.
The increase in pork and beef packing has increased the consumpton of salt.
The success of the chlorination process for working auriferous sulphurets has
also increased the consumption, the chlorine used being generated from this mineral. The chlorination works in the vicinity of Grass valley, Nevada county,
consume about 1,000 tons per annum.
Farmers consume it as a fertilizer, for which it is well adapted on light, gravelly,
or heavy loamy soils intended for wheat.  They also use it in baling hay, &e.
The increased production of butter and cheese has materially increased the
demand for refined salts.  The returns of 42 counties for 1S66 show a production
of 2,250,000 pounds of butter. The product of cheese in 27 counties amounted
to 1,601,7829 pounds. The product of both butter and cheese will probably be
one-half larger in 1867 than in 1866.  These figures show the inmportance of the
salt trade, and the reasons for predicting its future increase.
SALT IN OnEGON is prepared from brine obtained from springs, of which there
are numbers in the Willamette and Umpqua valleys, and at other places. Salt
255 
, RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
worlks are located in Douglas county, in the Umpqua valley, which for several
years past have produced from 700 to 1,000 pounds of salt daily durillng the summuer season.  But the distance from Portland, the chief marlet, prevents the
owners from deriving any advantage from that market.  A cheaper supply is
furnished from the vworks erected in the lower Willamette valley.
TirE  WILLXAMETTE SALT Wonrs are located about 13 miles from Portland,
half way between that city and St. HIelens, and half a mile from the banks of
the Willamette slough.  A range of low hills at this locality extend nearly east
and west for about 20 miles, at the base of which are the salt springs.  From
one of them the b)rine used by the workis is obtained. By means of a single fuLrnace this spring yielded from 600 to 700 pounds of salt daily when the works
were commenced; but for several months past it has yielded 4,000 pounds per
day.
This salt is pure and white.  Samples of it analyzed by Professor W. P. Blake
were found to be free from lime and magnesia, making it peculiarly adapted for
use in preparing butter, fish, and meats.
Mr. Blake took samples to the Paris exhibition, where it was admired for its
crystallization, purity and color.
Springs in Jackson county produce about 10,000 pounds annually of a similar
quality of salt.
Beds of rock salt are repoited to exist near the base of Mount Jefferson, in
the Cascade range of mountains.
SALT IN NEVADA.-There is probably no portion of the globe so abundantly
supplied with salt as the State of Nevada.  Thousands of acres of its surface
are covered with saline marshes and beds of salt, and there are lofty mountains
witlhin her borders composed of rock salt of the purest quality.  A detailed
account of these deposits will be found in that part of the report relating to the
miscellaneous resources of Nevada.
SALT IN ARIZONA, somewhat similar to that at Pallranagat, has been discovered near the Muddy river, about 100 miles from the Big bend of the Colorado.
This body of rock salt is stated to be nearly a mile wide, several miles in length,
and nearly 400 feet hilgh.
SALT IN UTAII.-The Great Salt lake, in this Territory, is a prolific source
of this mineral. Its waters are more saline than those of any similar lake known.
CARMEN ISLAND SALT is obtained from Carmen island, near the harbor of
Loreto, Lower California, about 1,800 miles from San Francisco.  This bed of
salt is three miles in length by half a mile wide, and is the property of the Mexican government, who supply it to vessels at a stipulated price.  It has recently
been leased or purchased by the Holliday Steamship Company.  It is similar in
quality and appearance to that found at Sand Springs, Nevada. Like it the
supply is perpetual. Eivery excavation fills wvith a fresh deposit in a few days.
It is also solid, and has a pinky tint vlwhen taken out of the pits, but soon crumbles and whitens.  California imports from 3,000 to 5,000 tons per annum.
TiaE PlICE OF SALT has greatly declined since the establishment of the works
in Alameda county. The present prices are: Liverpool, stored, $25 to $27 per
ton; Carmen island, $12 to $16 per ton; Bay, $8 to $13 per toln. These prices
are an advance of 20 per cent. on Carmen  island and Bay during 1866, the
falling off in importations and increase in the demand having enhanced the value.
ASPHALTUM.-This mineral is abundant in California, but has not been found
in any of the other States or Territories on the Pacific coast. Though generally
admitted to be of the same nature and of the same origin as petroleum, andi
usually found in combination with that substance, it is different in appearance,
and is applied to different purposes.j-~As one of the mineral products of the coast,
it is classed under a separate heading.
The principal deposits of asphaltum are found in Santa Barbara county. It
is seen along the coast from the Kayamos river, the line of San Luis Obispo
256 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS,
county, to the boundary line of Los Angeles. In this distance it assumes a
variety of forms-hard as rockl, soft as putty, oozing from the cliffs in lazy streams
like molten pitch, or flowing clear and liquid like oil.  There are reasons for
believing that a deposit underlies the country embraced within bounds above
given, and extending from Buena Vista lake to the sea.  A spring of it bubbles
up in the ocean several miles from the shore, opposite the northern end of the
island of Santa Cruz.
Near Carpentaria solid blocks of it lie piled up on the sea beach, while near
the Dos Pueblos ranch it is found as glassy and brittle as rosin. Near the mission of San Buenaventura the earth for many acres is covered with it in various
stages of hardness. Deposits of a similar character are seen in the vicinity of
the Santa Inez river, and in the valley of the Kayamos, to the eastward, and
near Buena Vista lake, to the south.
The most accessible deposit is on the Galeta ranch, about nine miles from
Santa Barbara. The residents of this part of the coast have supplied themselves
with materials for roofing their houses and paving their streets from this deposit
for the past 50 years, and quantities are annually sent to San Francisco for the
same and other purposes.
It is estimated that the asphaltum here covers 300 acres, and extends some
distance under the sea.  classes of it are seen enclosed in the rockls which form
the cliffs along that portion of the coast. In some places it is quarried and carr;ed in boats to vessels anchored at a convenient distance. At others it is gathered up along the beach, when it is loaded, in the following manner: The vessel
waiting for a cargo is anchored some 300 feet from the shore.  A hawser is fastened to the land; on this a large block is riven, by means of which a flat-bottomed
boat is hauled to within fifty feet of the shore, just far enough to keep it out of
the surf which breaks continuously on the open coast. The party on shore,
having collected two or three tons, pile it on a cart with a single pair of high
wheels, when three or four yoke of oxen, trained for the purpose, haul it through
the surf to the boat, into which it is shifted. It sometimes happens that the
cattle employed in this business are completely submerged by the rolling billows, -but they appear used to it, and stand patiently up to their ears in the salt
water. The boat, when loaded, is drawn to the vessel by means of the block
on the hawser. This is a crude way of performing such work, and will soon be
abandoned, as increase of business has induced some parties to construct a wharf
of sufficient length to enable vessels to come alongside to load.
There are deposits of hard asphaltum at points between the rivers Gaviota and
Buenaventura, a mile or two from the sea beach; also on the ranches of Laguna,
Todos Santos, Los Alamos, and others, ranging from 30 to 50 miles from the
sea; but none of these are used as a source of supply at present.
The Pacific Asphaltum Company have a quarry of this mineral six miles from
Los Angeles, from which shipments are made to San Francisco.   The asphaltum
is hard and black, requiring to be blasted with powder to break out sufficient to
supply the demand. Inl July, 1867, it presented a face 30 feet in depth by 75
feet in length, very compact and of good quality.
Previous to 1867 most of the asphaltum used at San Francisco was brought
fiom Santa Barbara county, the rest from Los Angeles. Recently considerable
quantities have been received from San Buenaventura. The latter article sells
at $17 per ton when that from other places is offering at $15 per ton.
About 2,000 tons are annually used in San Francisco for making sidewalks
and roofs of buildings, purposes for which it is well adapted when properly pre pared. There are a dozen firms in San F aaged in this business. It
affords employment to about 120 men.  It was introducen  material for pave ment in San Francisco in 1855.  At the present time the prin Il thorough fares have the sidewalks laid with it.  Some of it, after a trial of-'0 years,
exposed to a variable climate, is still hard and smooth.  It is also used for other:
17
257 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
purposes, and its consumption is increasing. The Spring Valley Water Company use it for coating their pipes, lining their reservoirs, &c., for which it is
better adapted than cement or paint.
MIany of the springs on this coast deposit asphaltum; others exude petrolel.n.
None of the petroleum springs or lagoons north of Cape Mendocino produce
asphaltum. Some of the springs in Santa Barbara and other southern counties
do not deposit asphaltum, though in the midst of those that do. The petroleum
spring on the Canada Larga is an illustration of this latter class.
The deposits of asphaltum in California are sufficient to supply a very large
demand. The present price (August, 1867) for asphaltum delivered at San
Francisco is from $15 to $20 per ton. At the quarries and along the coast it
may be had from $3 to $5 per ton.
During the summer of 1867 quarries of asphaltum were opened near Alviso,
10 miles north of San Jose and three miles from Santa Clara, in Santa Clara
county. Both of these points are convenient to the line of the San Francisco
and San Jose railroad.
PETPrOLEum.-Differenees of opinion between scientific authorities respecting
the mode of occurrence, quality, and quantity of petroleum in California have
impaired public confidence in this resource. Many persons have invested time
and money in searching for "oil" in localities where it does not exist because
experts said it would be found there; while others have permitted good petro..
leum to run to waste because experts said it would not yield oil. It is not
intended here to take sides with either the "oil" or "no oil" party.   The discussion and its results are only referred to in order to show why this product has
not been more extensively developed.
MIr. Gregory Yale, in his valuable worki on Titles to 3iinin',claims  in California, says:
According to the results arrived at by the State geological survey, there are two questions
settled in regard to bituminous oils: first, that with the facilities and conditions which now
exist, asphaltum cannot be profitably used for the manufacture of burning or lubricating oil;
and, secondly, that no fluid oil exists on the surface in sufficient quantity to pay for collecting in a large way.
Professor Whitney says the question resolves itself into this:
"It is probable that flowing wells will be struck by boring, as in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, and that these will deliver a liquid oil or petroleum in sufficient quantities to take up
the business and carry it on in a large way.  The question, then, whether the geological
structure and conditions in the Coast ranges south of San Francisco bay are such as to justify a large expenditure of money, in the expectation of striking copiously-flowing wells by
boring to a considerable depth, is discussed and answered in the negative upon the following
geological facts:
"The great bituminous slate formation, of tertiary age, extends through California from
Los Angeles as far north as Cape,Mendocino.  No doubt it contains bituminous matter
enough to supply the world for an indefinite period, could this be made available without
expense. But it will be observed that the strata of this formation, all through the region
north of the bay of San Francisco, are turned up at a high angle in this respect, occupying
a very different position from the oil-producing beds in the eastern States. There the strata
in which the petroleum is found in abundance, and in which all the wells. which yield any
considerable quantity of this material are sunk, are horizontal or inclined at a very moderate
angle. Nowhere is oil obtained in large quantity where the stratum in which it originates is
exposed to the air by being turned up on edge, or is only covered by light and porous accumulations of detritus.  The reason of this is very evident: the oil is slowly elaborated or
brought together in a certain bed or set of beds, and unless confined in some way so that it
cannot escape, it must be forced to the surface by capillary attraction, hydrostatic pressure,
or that of gas generated at the same time, when it escapes and is lost; to allow it to accumulate, there must be an impervious covering of rock over the oil stratum proper, which will
confine the fluid material within limits, and allow it to accumulate away from the influence
of the air. For this reason a large flow of oil on the surface cannot be considered as a favorable indication for boring wells, and much less can heavy accumulations of asphaltum be so
regarded. If, then. flowing wells are struck in California, it is more likely to be in those
portions of the region north of the bay of San Francisco where the bituminous slates are less
disturbed and not set upon edge, and where they may perhaps be covered by formations of
later age, which will act as covers and receptacles for the elaborated oil. In the Coast ranges
258 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
south of the bay of Monterey, as the bituminous shales are everywhere turned up on edge
and have no cover of impervious rock, the inference is unavoidable that flowing wells, or at
least those delivering any considerable quantity of liquid petroleum, cannot be expected to
be got by boring to any depth; the probabilities, at least, are decidedly against it. While,
therefore, we would not object to a reasonable and prudent expenditure of small amounts to
test the question whether fluid oil can be obtained in California in sufficient quantity to pay
a moderate profit on a bonafide investment, we would caution all against paying to speculators an immense premium for the privilege of making these experiments on lands which
they have secured for a small sum, and where there are no better, if as good, chances of success as on many other tracts which have not yet fallen into the hands of these monster stock
companies.
"Whether the asphaltum of California is derived from thickening or oxidation, by exposure
to the atmosphere of exactly the same substance, chemically speaking, as that which is called
petroleum in Pennsylvania, is a matter of chemical investigation. In the light of the facts
and considerations just presented it does not appear to be economically important that it
should be settled at once. How large a portion of the numerous hydrocarbons which
are originally contained in the bituminous slates of California evaporate on exposure, and
haow many of them become oxidized into asphaltum, is a delicate subject for investigation.
From the well-known fact that there are few, if any, deposits of asphaltum or asphaltic material existing on the surface in the oil region of Pennsylvania, although the oil itself appears
to have been escaping at numerous points for an indefinite period of time, it appears to be
probable, at least, that the original chemical constitution of the mass of bituminous matter
in the oil-bearing shales of paleozoic age is different from that material which occurs in the
tertiary rocks of California, and of which at least much the largest part does, oni exposure,
become consolidated into a hard and brittle material, which certainly no longer contains
more than a very small percentage of light oil."
These conclusions have met with some opposition, which seems to resolve itself into a
question of fact as to the existence of petroleum in small quantities, which is not denied,
and does not refute the conclusion that it is useless to pursue an enterprise which will not
prove pecuniarily profitable.
That petroleum exists in California is no longer a matter of doubt. It has
been obtained at various places from Los Angeles to Humboldt, and merchantabl] e oil has been made from several localities within this range, including San
MIateo, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Collisa, Lake, Napa, Tulare,
Humboldt, Klern, and several other counties.   The quantity available will probably be sufficient to supply the demand of the coast. The quality undoubtedly
differs from that prepared in the Atlantic States; also the means for obtaining
the crude material. Experiments made with oil from different sources show that
it differs in composition from the eastern oils in containing a larger per centum of
carboi. It burns with less brilliancy in ordinary lamps. With lamps so arranged
as to give an increased supply of oxygen  by creating a larger current of air
through the chimney, it produces as bright and white a light as the oils from
Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Canada.
The excess of carbon increases the value of petroleum for fuel, a use for which it
is now attracting attention. In a country where fuel is dear an abundant supply
of petroleum of this character becomes an important resource.
THE COMPOSITION OF CALIFORNIA COAL OIL.-In 1864, 20 gallons of crude
oil from the Buena Vista springs, in Tulare county, were sent to Mr. C. Humphrey, of the Chemical College, London, to be analyzed. In his report Mr.
Humphrey stated that it contained a small per cent. of illuminating and 80 per
cent. of lubricating oil.   "If the materials sent," adds the report, " were in their
natural state, (which they were,) they are a most extraordinary product, and
unlike anything that has been found in the United States or in Europe."
One hundred pounds of crude material analyzed by Mr. Benoist, a French
chemist, gave the following returns:
Material of the density of 720 Baumd, or naphtha.................................. —-------  7-+
Material of the density of 65~ Baum6, or benzine.................................. 7+
Material of the density of 44~ Baumd, or illuminating oil..............-..-.. 37.:
Material of the density of 100 Baumd, or lubricating oil.. —--------------        - 37+
&sphaltum......_..........................................10
100
259 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
In 1866 the crude materials obtained from the Buena Vista springs yielded 50
per cent. lubricating and 40 per cent. illuminating oil. When obtained from
the pits it was of the specific density of 20~ to 25~ Baume.
A remarkable difference exists in the density of this material when obtained
at different depths from the,surface. On the surface it averages 18~; at 20 feet
below, 22~; at 30 feet, 26~. The residuum in the stills after extracting the oil
furnished fuel for future operations.
A sample of 30 ounces of crude oil from Mattole valley, Humboldt county,
analyzed by Professor Rowlandson, a member of the English Royal Geographical Society, gave the following result:
Ounces.
Illuminating oil.............................................................. 23
Lubricating oil............................................................... 4.25
Residuum............................_......................A....... 2.75
30
Upwards of 90 per cent. of merchantable materials. ~ ~ ~
Upwards of 90 per cent. of merchantable materials.
There is a marked difference in the composition of the petroleum found in the
northern and southern portions of California. Under the head of asphaltum it
has been mentioned that the northern petroleum deposits no asphaltum, while
the latter mineral is abundant in the southern counties.   So also under the head
of coal, the difference in the quality of that mineral in the north and south is
referred to. Without entering into speculations as to the cause, the subject is
of some interest to science. It is generally conceded that there is an affinity
between coal and petroleum.
All the crude petroleum found in the coast range south of San Francisco is
nearly identical in composition, though varying from  16~ to 30~ Baume, and
nearly all of it deposits asphaltum.
That found north of the Golden Gate is generally of a higher specific gravity
and deposits little or no asphaltum.
There is no paraffine in most of the southern oil, while that from the north is
prolific in this substance.  The oil from the south contains a per centum of nitrogenous matter which is unusual in hydrocarbons.   Some of it, when kept in
open vessels in a warm room for a few weeks, generates a peculiar kind of worm,
which would be remarkable if this oil be of a purely mineral character, as stated
by the French chemist Belthelot.
Professor Silliman, in an article on this subject, read before the California
Academy of Natural Sciences, in April 1867, stated the following interesting
particulars on the subject:
That he had made the experiments with a sample of surface oil obtained in Santa Barbara
county, consisting of parcels from 5 to 10 gallons each, of dark, almost black material, which
at ordinary temperatures resembled coal tar. Its density at 60~ Fahrenheit was 131 Baum6,
retaining a considerable quantity of water mechanically entangled, without any odor of sulphohydric acid, usually very decided in such surface oils. Distilled to dryness, it produced:
Oil having a density of 0.890 to 0. 900........................................  69.82
Coke, water, and loss....................................................... 30.18
100.00
iln one trial, the product was divided as follows:
Oil of density of 290 Baum6, at 520~...........................................
Oil of a density of 24 Baum6, at 58o.......................................
Coke, water, and loss......................................................
50.00
17.05
32. 05
100. 00
The coke was large in quantity, strong, and would make good fuel, resembling gas-house
coke.  The odor of ammonia was strong towards the close of distillation.
260 
WEST OF THE  ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The illuminating oils obtained by these experiments, after treatment with sulphurie acid
and soda in. the usual manner, acquired an agreeable odor, a light straw color, and burned as
well in a lamp as good commercial oil.
No paraffine could be detected by refrigerating the heavy oils in a mixture of salt and ice.
It is, no doubt, the absence of this body from the series of products obtained from the Call
fornia oils generally, that accounts for the illuminating oil burning well at a density considerably below the commercial standard for oil obtained from Pennsylvania petroleum-a difference enhanced also by the absence of any considerable quantity of light naphtha. The
lubricating oils of this series, likewise free from paraffine, retain on this account their fluidity at low temperatures.
The light oils obtained in these experiments corresponded respectively to 12.96, 14.56, and
18.96 per centum of the crude oil.  The total commercial products were about 60 per cent.
of the crude body, which likewise yielded sufficient coke to supply the fuel required in the
distillations.
The excess of carbon in the heavier hydro-carbons of California suggests the probability
of their having a value in their crude state as fuel.  For this purpose they may be employed
to give cohesion to coke, or fine coal, or any other cheap form of carbon, as has already been
done with coal tar in England.
TirE MANUFACTURE OF COAL OIL IN CALIFORNIA.-Small  quantities of
coal oil have been made in this State for many years. The materials in some
localities require but little preparation for illuminating purposes. Between 1S65
and 1867, Hayward & Coleman, a firm in the oil business in San Francisco,
made 40,000 gallons of illuminating oil from springs of petroleum near Santa,
Barbara; but suspended operations in June, 1867, because imported oil was selling at 54 to 55 cents per gallon, a price so low as to render the manufacture
unprofitable, owing to the high price of cases to contain it, transportation, and
labor.
These gentlemen have expended capital and labor in efforts to render valuable
the California petroleum. After many experiments to test its adaptability for
fuel, they state that, although it costs $5 per barrel to bring it from the springs
to San Francisco, it is cheaper as fuel than coal or wood.  It saves expense of
hauling and splitting, and of feeding the furnace; it makes no ashes to be carted
away; causes no waste in lighting or extinguishing the fire; while with wood or
coal there is waste of time and material in these operations. The heat is under
control, and may be easily regulated. The operations of this firm have been
carried on for a year, with petroleum as fuel, for distillation and driving their
engines, thus establishing the practicability of its use.
A number of establishments in the southern counties also use it for running
machinery. A gentleman interested in the oil business has recently perfected an
apparatus for burning it for domestic purposes. Hle has made application for a
patent. This invention it is said performs the duty satisfactorily, burning the
crude material without smoke or offensive odor.
Stanford Brothers have also expended capital and labor in efforts to manufacture oil fiom California petroleum, and have succeeded so far as to make oil; but
not with profit. Up to July, 1867, this firm had made 100,000 gallons of illuminating oil, and a nearly equal quantity of lubricating, and have been making
about 20,000 gallons of illuminating per month, since. Their works are still in
operation.
For reasons stated, much of this oil is prepared to a standard density of 35~
Baume, which causes it to burn better, and exempts it from the tax of 20 cents
per gallon levied on coal oils of 36~.
This firm purchase the crude oils from several localities, but obtain their chief
supply from tunnels and pits near San Buenaventura. The high cost of vessels
to contain the oil when made; of transportation and interest on capital, and the
low prices ruling for the imported article, are impediments to the successful devel
opment of this resource.
It costs six cents per gallon for second-hand cans. New cans would cost 15
cents per gallon.  Each 40-gallon barrel of crude material costs $3, or 71 cents
261 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
per gallon for transportation from the springs to the refining works. As the crude
petroleum only averages 45 per cent. of marketable oil, each gallon of such oil
costs 21 cents without the expense of refining, or the 20 cents for tax, or any
allowance for commissions, loss, interest on capital, or other incidental expenses.
For these reasons the interest is in a depressed condition. It is unp'rofitable to
make oil -when the imported article is less than 60 cents per gallon.
The material used by Stanford Brothers, in addition to the illuminating oil,
produces about 25 per cent. of lubricating oil, which if it could be sold at 25 cents
per gallon would make the other branch of the business profitable.  But tben
is no market for it, owing to a prejudice against its use. The consumption o'
lubricating oil in California amounts to 500,000 gallons annually, including castor
and China Out oils. That of illuminating oils reaches 900,000 gallons annually.
Of course this creates an important trade for importers.
The Buena Vista Company made about 4,000 gallons of illuminating oil at their
works near the springs, and other companies made more or less. Nearly a dozen
companies had stills in operation for a short time. Mr. Stott has made about 5,000
gallons at San Francisco. Mr. Williams, of the same place, has also made about
the same quantity. Altogether it is safe to estimate the quantity of California
made coal oil at 175,000 gallons. The capacity of the stills for making it is
sufficient to turn out 100,000 gallons per month.
The idea that the manufacture of California petroleum may yet be made profitable is not abandoned.  A company was organized at San Francisco as recently
as September, 1867, with a capital of $1,250,000, for the purpose of working
petroleum and asphaltum deposits.
TirE MiODE OF Occurr,ENCE.-The oils of California do not "occur" in the
same manner as those found in the Atlantic States.  Here there are no flowing
wells, nor is it probable any will be found.  Some of the wells sunk in the Mattole valley, Humboldt county, reached the depth of 1,166 feet without obtaining
t flow, though sunk in a district overflowing with oil on the surface.  Other
wells of nearly equal depth have been sunk in other counties, through various
fonrmations, with similar results.
Without entering into speculations as to the cause of the abundance of oil
on the surface, and its deficiency below, it is enough to know that oil exists in
sufficient quantity. There are many natural wells or springs of it in the Coast
range, some forming pools of oil; others showing but little more than "indications" of that material.  From some of these springs petroleum flo,ws in a black,
viscid stream, like tar; from others, clear, colorless, and comparatively pure. In
exceptional instances it has been used without preparation in common coal oil
lamps. At somnse places the springs are widely separated; at others, scores of
them are found within the space of an acre. Generally the single springs prc —
duce the most petroleum.  About some are large deposits of asphaltum, while
none of this mineral is seen within miles of others, though the oil has been flowing for centuries and its course can be traced for miles along the surface.
Where a record has been kept the flow of petroleum has been larger during
the night than the day, and more abundant in winter than summer. Usually
where petroleum is found there are salt springs and alkaline waters.
Reference to the oil wells of San Fernando district, Los Angeles county, will
convey a general idea of the oil formation in the Coast range.
This district is situated 30 miles northwest from Los Angeles.  The formation lie, in a range of mountains extending in a course nearly east and west
The central stratum is shale, which seems to contain the most oil, and incline,
north and south at an acute angle, the top being from 150 to 200 feet wide, slightly
depressed, and covered by a stratum of sandstone of yariable thickness. This
shale is bounded by a similar sandstone, alternating with thin seams of limestone
and hard conglomerate. At the base of the mountains the formation is hard
262 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
sand and limestone, both containing marine fossils of a recent era. These mountains reach a height of about 700 feet above the local river beds, and about 4,000
or 5,000 feet above the sea level.
The oil stratum varies in width, being in some places a mile or more, as in
Rice caion, in others only a few hundred feet; but is continuous for many miles.
In the gulches and calons, where the water has eroded the formation and exposed
the shale to the action of the atmosphere, the oil is found oozing out. The water
in the district is unfit for use. Oil is also found on the summit of the mountains,
which are crested with shale, being carried through the shale by capillary attraction. At some places beds of " brea," or asphaltum, have accumulated, where the
oil has evaporated. The rocks, forming beds of streams which dry up during the
summer, are covered with a complex alkaline efflorescence.
The manner of collecting the oil in this district is by sinking pits in the vicinity
of the natural springs, in which oil and water collect. The oil is skimmed off
by hand, each pit of 20 by 20 yielding about two barrels per day.   Wlhenl collected it is dark green in color, and about as thick as sirup in summer, and contains about 80 per cent. of oily matter, mechanically combined with 20 per cent.
of water, from which it is difficult to separate it.
In other places tunnels are run into the mountain. The oil drips from the
slate when it is cut through.
The Buena Vista oil claim is located on a belt of bituminous shale from two
to three miles wide, and from 30 to 40 miles long, running parallel with the Coast
range, near Buena Vista laklie, Tulare county. From this formation petroleum
exudes at a number of places.
The oil obtained was the seepage of one of these springs collected in pits dug
for the purpose. These pits are generally 20 feet deep, five feet wide by eight
feet long, each producing about 300 gallons of crude materials in 24 hours, containing 40 per cent. of light, and 50 per cent. of lubricating, or heavy oil. The
claim was worked from February, 1864, till April, 1867, when, owing to the low
price of oil, it was found unprofitable to prepare it-for the San Francisco market,
and the local demand was fully supplied.
A notable difference exists in the density of the oil from this place when obtained
at but slightly different depths firom the surface, ranging from 18~ Baum6 to 22~
at 20 feet, 22~ and 26~ at 30 feet.
Similar surface deposits are met with in nearly all the valleys of the Coast range.
It will be seen from this imperfect sketch, that although not occurring in the
same manner as the earth oils of other countries, the California oils are nevertheless valuable for illuminating purposes.  The cost of production is the material point which must govern the development of many natural resources of this
State.  It is a question that must be candidly met.  So far as petroleum is concerned, it must be acknoivledged the facts are against us.  But cheap labor and
increased facilities for transportation will naturally follow an increase of population. WVith capital and labor as cheap as in New Yorkl or Europe, California
petroleumn would be a source of wealth to the country. At present it is an unprofitable resource.
QUICKSILVEP.-TIrE TNEW ALMADENX MIINES were so filly described in tio
preliminary report, that a brief reference to their present condition will be sufficient here.
The production of quicksilver in these mines has fallen off nearly one-half
during the present year owing to various causes, the chief of which is, the limited
demand for the article as compared with former years, and the increased production from other sources. A large quantity has accumulated in the markets of tho
world, estimated by some as high as 100,000flasks.  The mines of Almaden, in
Spain, have furnished a large proportion of this supply; and the production has
been considerable in Austria and South America.
263 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The product of the New Almaden mines from January to August, 1867, inclusive, has been as follows:
Flasks.                                            Flasks.
2,270  July............ —----------—...... —-----—.... 1,931
2,195   August..........................    2, 000
2, 338
2,169 Making...................... 17, 063
2, 160
2, 000
January.........................
February.....-.-.-......... —---
March............ —------------------—.
April................ —------------------—......-.....
May............. —---------------------
June...........................
The present condition of the principal mine is poor, both in the quality and
quantity of its ores; its future is uncertain, and any conjectures in regard to it
would be valueless.
THE NEW IDRIA AIINE yielded during the six months ending June 30,1867,
as follows:
Flasks.                               Flasks.
690  June............................    852
859,
915     Total........................  5, 014
879
829
January.........................
February...... —-----------------—..................
March.....................
April............................
May —---------------------—............................
THE REDINGTON MINE, of wlhich no description has heretofore been given,
(sometimes called the XLCR, as named by the original locators,) is situated at
Knoxville, Lake county, 55 miles northwest of Napa, from which point the pro dluct is shipped. It was located in March, 1861, but the locators having neither
the necessary skill nor capital, leased the mine for a term of years.   Work was
commenced thereon in the spring of 1862, and energetically prosecuted, withi
various vicissitudes ever since, its product up to January, 1867, aggregating 9,009
flasks of 76~ pounds each, selling for a total of $344,594.
Up to January, 1867, the ore was reduced in retorts, but at that time there
was completed a large and expensive furnace and condenser, constructed of a
stone peculiar to the region, which proves itself quite the equal of the best English
fire-brick in its capacity to resist the action of fire. By the aid of this improved
means of reduction, the product has been largely increased, aggregating in the
nine months from January, 1867, to October 1, 1867, 5,145 flasks of 76~ pounds
each. A second furnace of equal capacity with that now used, and having many
improvements never before introduced in the construction of quicksilver reducing
furnaces, has just been completed, and the product is hereafter expected not to
be less than 1,000 flasks per month.   The mine is situated in a hill, and is workled
by a tunnel about 700 feet long, not counting the numerous side drifts.
Various shafts have been sunk from these side drifts, and trouble being experiened( from water, an artesian bore of seven inches diameter was sunk on the
hillside before the mouth of the tunnel, to the depth of 250 feet.  In this was
placed a pump of five and a half inches diameter, and this, though generally
looked upon at first as a very doubtful experiment, is found effectively and permnanently to free the whole mine from water, thus saving the great expense of a
pumping shaft.
The mine emrploys 150 men, has built and maintains 20 miles of road, andt
from its isolated position is compelled to create from its own resources all the
facilities needful for carrying it on.
BoHAX.-The production of refined borax by the California Borax Company
for eight months, beginning January 5 and ending September 7, 1867, was
481,912 pounds. The present product averages about 120 boxes (112 pounds
each) per week. The company is about to erect a machine to lixiviate the mud
of the lake, at a cost of $30,000.
Mr. J. Arthur Phillips, a distinguished mining engineer from England, made
264 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
a careful examination of the company's property last year. The following is an
extract from his report on Borax lake:
The borax occurs in the form of crystals of various dimensions, imbedded in the mud of
the bottom, which is found to be most productive to a depth of three and a half feet, although
a bore-hole, which was sunk near the centre to a depth of 60 feet, is said to have afforded a
proportion of that salt throughout its whole extent.
The crystals thus occurring are most abundant near the centre of the lake, and extend
over an area equivalent to about one-third of its surface, but they are also met with, in smaller
quantities, in the muddy deposit of the otber portions of the basin, some of them being, in
the richest part before alluded to, over a pound in weight, The largest crystals are generally
enclosed in a stiff blue dclay, at a depth of between three and four feet, and a short distance
above them is a nearly pure stratum of smaller ones, some two and one-half and three inches
in thickness, in addition to which crystals of various sizes are disseminated throughout the
muddy deposit of which the bottom consists.
Besides the borax thus existing in a crystallized form, the mud itself is highly charged with
that salt, and, according to an analysis of Professor Oxland, when dried affords, in the por tions of the lake now worked, (including the enclosed crystals,) 17.73 per cent. Another
analysis of an average sample, by Mr. Moore, of San Francisco, yielded him 18.86 per cent.
of crystallized borax.
In addition to this, the deposit at the bottom of the other portions of the basin, although
less productive, still contains a large amount of borax, but no analyses of samples appear to
have been made, except from the portions of the bottom at present worked.  It has further
been ascertained, by making pits on the lake shore, that clay containing a certain proportion
of borax exists in the low ground, at a considerable distance from the water's edge.
EXTRACTION OF BORAX.-The borax at present manufactured is exclusively prepared
from the native crystals of crude salt, while the mud in which they ate found is returned to
the lake after the mechanical separation of the crystals by washing. The extraction of the
mud is effected by the aid of sheet-iron coffer-dams and a small dredging machine, worked
by manual power, but the latter has been very recently put into operation. Until within a
few weeks the only apparatus employed consisted of a raft, covered by a shingled roof which
has an aperture in its centre about 15 feet square, and above which are hung, by suitable
tackle, four iron coffer-dams, six feet by six feet, and nine feet in depth.  This raft or barge
is moved in parallel lines across the surface of the lake, and at each station the four dams are
sunk simultaneously by their own weight into the mud forming the bottom. When they
have thus become well imbedded the water is baled out, and the mud removed in buckets to
large rectangular washing vats, into which a continuous stream of water is introduced from
the lake by means of Chinese pumps-the contents of the cisterns being at the same time
constantly agitated by means of rakes. In this way the turbid water continually flows off,
and a certain amount of borax is finally collected in the bottom of each tank, which is subsequently recrystallized; but from the density acquired by the washing water, of which no
less than 70,000 gallons are daily employed, it is evident that less than one-half of the borax
existing in the form of crystals is thus obtained, while that which is present in the mud itself
is again returned to the lake.
The dredging machine recently introduced is a decided improvement on the coffer-dams,
and may, by the aid of some trifling modifications, be made a very efficient machine; but
the mud brought up by it is subjected to the washing process before described, and a small
proportion only of the borax is obtained for recrystallization.
CRYSTALLIZATION.-The crystals of rude borax thus daily obtained now amount to about
3,000 pounds, and after being carefully washed they are deposited in boiling water and recrystallized in large lead-lined vessels, from which the purified borax is removed into boxes
containing 114 pounds each, for the purpose of being forwarded to San Francisco.
The produce of refined borax now daily obtained appears to vary from 2,500 to 2,800
pounds, which is prepared and packed for the market, as nearly as my data will allow me to
calculate, at a cost of about $90 per ton of 2,240 pounds.
CAPABILITIES OF PRODUCTION.-It is evident from the foregoing description that the
present system of working is by no means calculated to develop the best results which this
property is capable of affording, and that in order to do so it will be necessary to adopt some
method for the lixiviation of the mud, its removal from the bottom of the lake, and the crystallization of the borax thus obtained. The total extent of the muddy deposit considerably
exceeds three hundred acres, and if we assume that, of this area, only one hundred acres, or
that portion now worked for borax crystals, is alone sufficiently rich to pay the expenses cf
treatment, we shall arrive at the following figures:
One hundred acres are equivalent to 484,000 square yards, and if the mud be worked to
the depth of only three and one-half feet, this represents about 565,000 cubic yards; or,
allowing a cubic yard to weigh a ton of 2,240 pounds, which is a very low estimate, the total
weight of one hundred acres of mud, in its wet state, will be 565,000 tons.  If we now
assume that the mud extracted from the lake contains 60 per cent. of water, this will correspond to 226,000 tons of dry mud, containing, according to the mean of the analyses of
265 - 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Professor Oxland and Mr. Moore, 18.29 per cent. of borax; but if, in practice, only 12 per
cent. of borax be obtained, this will represent 27,120 tons of crystallized salt.
The present wholesale price of borax in Europe is $320 per ton of 2,240 pounds, and consequently the total value of the amount contained in this portion of the lake would be, on
the foregoing assumption, delivered in the market, $8,678,400, If, however, we estimate its
value in San Francisco at $275, it is at the port of shipment worth $7,458,000. The expenditure, in plant and appliances, of a further sum of $30,000, would, by the process proposed
by Dr. Oxland, allow of a daily production of four tons of borax. This could be produced
and delivered in San Francisco at a cost, exclusive of interest on capital and depreciation of
plant, of $70 per ton; $1,898,400 for the 27,100, and leaving a difference of $4,559,600
between the expense of production and the market value.
The above calculations are made in accordance with the data furnished by the analyses
already quoted of the mud in the central portions of the basin, but exclusive of a consideration of the borax contained in the deposits of other portions of the lake, as well as of the
6,000 tons of this salt, indicated by analyses, as existing in solution in its waters.
A careful consideration of the phenomena attending the production of borax also leads to
the belief that its formation is continually going on by the decomposition of carbonate of
soda, (which is abundantly contained in the waters of the lake,) by boracic acid emitted
from sources beneath its bed, since large quantities of carbonic acid constantly escape from
the surface. Should this prove to be the case, it is probable that any moderate extraction ot
borax may be replaced by the formation constantly taking place.
The quantity of carbonate of soda contained in the mud and water is considerably in excess
of the amount of borax present, and could be readily extracted from the mother liquors.
Whether this operation could, however, be profitably conducted, with a view to the exportation of soda ash, is a matter of considerable doubt, but the yearly consumption of this substance in California being understood to be about 500 tons, this local demand could, at least,
be supplied, at a profit of say 2i cents per pound-$25,000 per annum.
SULPIIUP.-Mr. Phillips thus describes the sulphur bank belonging to this
comupany, and the mode and cost of refining the crude sulphur:
SUIJLPHUR BANK.-The sulphur bank, which presents the usual characteristics of such formations, is situated on the shore of Clear lake, and covers an area ot about 40,000 square
yards. In addition to sulphur, small quantities of cinnabar are found in this locality.
The deposit has not, as yet, been extensively developed, but has already afforded 400 tons
of refined sulphur, of which about three tons daily can, it is stated, be readily sold in San
Francisco at $70 per ton.
From the limited extent of the explorations which have been made, it would be difficult
to estimate the probable total yield of sulphur, but it is not unreasonable to anticipate that
the bank contains at least from 15,000 to 20,000 tons of that substance.
In order to make immediate returns of sulphur, a refinery has been recently erected for the
treatment of the richer portions of the deposit, which frequently do not contain above 10 per
cent. of impurity; but there are also vast quantities of tufaceous matters, containing from
5 to 60 per cent. of sulphur, all of which will be ultimately treated with advantage.
The cost of extracting, refining, and delivering a ton of sulphur in San Francisco is now
stated to be about $35.
The refinery consists of sundry iron retorts for the purposes of sublimation, together with
the necessary condensers and receivers. It is well laid out, and connected with the sulphur
bank by a railway 1,300 feet in length.
SECTION XXI.
AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA.
CALIFORNIA AS A HOME FOR EMIGRANTS.
INQUIRIES FROM LOUISIANA-RESPONSE OF THE EMIGRATION SOCIETY-PUBLIC LANDS,
AGRICULTUTRE, MANUFACTURES, ETC.
NEW IBERIA, LOUISIANA, September 25, 1867.
SIR: Some six weeks or two months ago I presumed to address you, not directing the letter,
as is now advised, by Panama. I think it more than probable, on account of Indian disturbances, it will not reach its destination.
In that, the first letter, I made many inquiries in regard to your favored State, and if I
repeat them in this, I trust you will not esteem me troublesome. There are several families
266 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of us desirous of escaping from the evils that afflict this section, and try our fortunes in
States not cursed by negro supremacy.  We lost nearly everything by the war, and we wish
only protection and health, that we may try to live and educate our children, and where, if
we should be so fortunate as to make anything, we would be protected in its enjoyment.
With politics we are disgusted, and cannot care again to exercise the privilege of voting, but
heartily wishing to be governed by our own race.
To the following inquiries we most respectfully ask answers, and should your time be otherwise employed, we ask that you hand this to some one that will honor us with the solicited
information:
1. Are the public lands entirely absorbed?
2. Can they be entered, if public?
3. Are there any special laws regulating the entry?
4. In what part of the State are these lands mostly situated?
5. WVhat is the price of unimproved lands not very close to the city?
6. Of improved places?
7. What are the wages of laborers by day, or month, or year?
S. Is there a demand for labor?
9. Is mining more profitable than farming, or vice versa?
10. What section would you advise poor people, desirous of making a living, and, if possible, more, to settle in?
11. At about what price could work-horses, milch cows, &c., be bought in the rural districts?
1'2. Are goods of all descriptions very much more costly than in New York or New Orleans?
13. Are there any diseases peculiar to the climate?
14. And any information that you may judge would be of interest or service.
Several of us are professional men, but we care not for profession if we can only have a
white man's chance to work, and thereby support and educate our families. We would
arrive in your city with but little money, and it would be well for us, I suppose, to remain
but a short time, and not be very long in locating.  At what season would it be best to arrive?
Cotton crop a failure in this State; corn and cane very fine.  Yellow fever has been very
severe. Permit me again to ask the favor of an early and full answer to the above inquiries.
Yours, respectfully,
THOS. T. FOLSOM.
His Honor the MAYOR of San Francisco, California.
PEPLY.
Query. "Are the public lands entirely absorbed?"
Answer. No. There are millions of acres yet in the keeping of the federal government
officers, which can be had for $1 an acre in gold.  Only in the neighborhood of the great
thoroughfares, the navigable rivers, the fragments of railways yet constructed, the mining
camps and the like, has ever the government surveyor yet erected his theodolite. The whole
population of the States of California, Oregon, Nevada, and the Territory of Washington, does
not come to a million of souls, and they have more land to live upon than the entire German
family of 30 nations and 60,000,000. There are plenty of good spots where small colonies
of immigrants may squat upon and await the coming (for years) of the federal government
surveyor, and when he shall come, the $1 an acre demanded by the government will have
long before been realized out of the land.
In the San Joaquin valley, 60 miles back from Stockton, (a city of about 5,000 inhabitants,
and one night's journey by steamer from San Francisco,) plenty of land can be got for $1 in
gold per acre from the government office in Stockton. This valley is about 100 miles long,
a width varying from 10 to 30 miles, through which streams, navigable for flatboats, flow
down to the Sacramento river.  The soil is deep and rich, and the bottoms near the water
are exceedingly fertile, and able to support abundance of kine. This valley would absorb
100,000 settlers.
We have received from Mr. Merry, of Red Bluff, (a growing town of about 2,000 inhabitants, at the head of navigation on the Sacramento river, and to be reached in two days by
steamer from San Francisco, at an expense of from $10 to $12,) an elaborate report of the
agricultural and business facilities in that section. He says:
"The slopes of the Sierra hills and coast range, being well watered, afford good pasturage
for sheep and horned cattle during the year. The arable land of the country lying along the
'bottoms' of the Sacramento river and its tributaries bear grain crops of from 16 to 40 bushels
of wheat to the acre. The best lands in the county (Tehama county) are covered by Mexican
grants, to which patent titles from the President of the United States have been obtained.
These lands can be purchased from present holders for $10 to $15 per acre.  They are adapted
to the growth of grain, potatoes and beets. All kinds of vegetables and firuit grow in the
greatest luxuriance. Sheep breeding pays well. The flocks in this county number about
267
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
100,000 sheep. The quality of wool has a very good name in the San Francisco market, and
brings 20 cents a pound. Butter will pay well for skilful dairymen, and cheese also.
"For swine there is no better county in the State.  Over 4,000 head of grain-fed( hogs
have been sold out of the county during the past year. A pork and bacon-packing house in
this place is doing an extensive business. The establishment of a woollen-mill here would
be the best investment of capital extant. Lumber is cheap, firewood plenty, and water power
abundant, going to waste. An iron foundry would pay well here. Money is dear, it brings
two per cent., and two and a half per cent. per month. Farm laborers get $30 per month
and board.  Blacksmiths and wagon makers do well.  Some have got rich.  Good board
can be got for $20 to $25 a month. Cottages can be got for from $8 to $15 a month rent.
Town lots for building can be entered at government prices. Common necessaries from the
farms are cheaper than in San Francisco. Imported articles are about 30 per cent. higher.
As to vine culture it is the best locality for that industry in the State. Here is the celebrated
Bosquejo vineyard, where the'Gerke' wine is made, which is a fair sample of our vine lands.
Thousands of acres of equally good lands can be had here for $1 25 an acre."
The section of country referred to by Mr. Merry would absorb and maintain 100,000 persons.
In the counties south of San Francisco-Monterey, for instance-two days' journey by
stage from Francisco, large tracts of the richest land, owned by easy-going people of Spanish
descent, can be purchased or rented upon very advantageous terms; purchased for $1 or $2
an acre, or rented on shares for one-forth of the annual product of the land. The chief and
greatest cost is the cost of fencing.
In many places the old Spanish settlers own tracts of 30,000 to 50,000 acres, unfenced and
undivided, over which numberless flocks of sheep and cattle roam and breed and die, without
control or much care from the proprietors, who live in rude ease, and almost secluded from
the outside world. Their slumbers will soon be broken by the hum of busy immigrants, who
will come crowding by sea and land into their fruitful territories. Further south, towards
Los AAgeles, the best lands can be purchased from those old-fashioned settlers for $1 an
acre, or even less. There is very little timber to be cleared from any of these lands,
To go upon these lands, several families should form themselves into villages or companies,
and go out together on the land and help each other. This co-operative system is sure to make
immigrants happy and prosperous. Farming implements can be got here better and cheaper
than in England, or in any of the American cities of the Atlantic. Farm horses can be pure
chased for $20 to $40 apiece; milk cows, $20 to $30 each. The expense of transporting one
person from this city to the government land may be set down at $20. Markets can be found
for any quantity of grain, butter, wool, and fruits. The vine is slow in its returns, but
quite certain to pay at the end of four or five years, and will yet be the great occupation
of Californians. The climate in most parts of California is moderate; in winter there is
neither frost nor snow.
The population of California is about 500,000. About 90,000 of these have votes, and
are entered on the great register. Being an American citizen, and residing three months
in one locality, gives the privilege of voting for all public officers. The voting is done in
one day, by ballot, all over the State, and there is no property qualification required in the
voter or in the public officer. A person born out of the United States must be two years
resident in the United States, have sworn fealty to the American government, and have
registered his name on the great register before he can vote.
There are about 50,000 Chinese, and about 10,000 negroes in the State. Neither of them
have any political rights allowed them. They cannot vote for any public officer, nor is it
likely that ever they will enjoy such privileges. The Chinese are looked upon with mluch
jealousy by the white race.  Opposition to them has assumed an organized shape, and there
are numerous anti-coolie clubs existing in our city, whose object is to resist and discourage
the importation and employment of Chinese labor. About 8,000 Chinamen are employed
on the Pacific railway works; about 20,000 are working in and around the mines, and the
remainder are scattered over the State engaged in doing the lowest kind of work about the
cities and towns; washing, gardening, dealing in fish and vegetables, &c.
Question 2. "Is there a demand for labor?"
Answer. We are anxiously and carefully gathering information from every side, from
reliable sources, with the intention of forming a small hand-hook for the intending immigrant.
We are full of the great idea of inviting an extensive immigration from Europe, and from the
southern and eastern States, to the Pacific slope, but we shudder at the thought of misleading any one. It is almost unnecessary to repeat that we have room and work for millions
of people in our fields and mines, but the great trouble is to support people while they are
finding the work suited to their strength, their habits, and their experience. The idea that
fills the minds of many persons in making towards California is, that they shall go a goldhunting in the mines, make lucky hits, and return at some distant day to their old homes in
Europe or the Atlantic States to enjoy their good fortunes. This idea has been the unseen
rock that wrecked many an emigrant to this golden land. None should come to the California
mines but miners.
On the first discovery of gold in California, and for several years afterwards, every kind
of laborer went into the mines, and many of them did very well; but of late years the Chinese
268 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
got in, and swarmed over the "placer" or stream mines, and as they work in well organized
companies, live upon little, they are able to scrape a living from the oft-washed sands in the
older washing grounds of the earlier miners. The principal mining now carried on in Cali fornia is quartz mining, which is as like coal or iron mining as possible-penetrating the
bowels of the earth several hundred feet-men working in gangs, in "watches" of eight
hours each shift, so that the work never stops, night or day. For this kind of work miners
get $4 a day. Their board and lodging in the neighlborhood of those quartz mines comes
high, about $8 or $10 a week, as a general rule; two and a half days' wages is required to
pay for a miner's board and lodging for a week.  A great deal of the work on the Pacific
railroad on our side of the Rocky mountains is performed by Chinamen, under white over seers.  They get about $1 a day for their labor.  White men could get that wages and board,
but they won't work for it. A dollar a day is the lowest notch which the strong man's labor
has touched in any part of California. Common labor, according to skill, ranges up to
$1 50 and $2 a day. We are not now talking of skilled mechanical labor, such as carpenters,
bricklayers, plasterers, smiths, machinists, foundry men, tailors, shoemakers, and the like.
The labor of these sort brings $3 to $5 a day in all the cities and in all the towns of the
Pacific coast. As to clerks and light porters, and those who are always waiting for an easy
berth or something to "turn up," there is little encouragement for them. The cities are full
of them. This sort of helpless people are the production of an erroneous system of education,
which has weaned the boy from labor, and left the man a helpless, pitiable mendicant.
You are, doubtless, impatient to learn, then, what sort of people are likely to do well here,
and we answer, any sort who are thoroughly determined to work-men and women, young
and old.
The lowest wages for labor among us is about twice the wages of New York, and four
times thILe wages obtained in Great Britain, Ireland, or Germany. The price of wheaten flour
is about one-half what it is in Liverpool or New York-$8 a barrel of 196 pounds just now.
Tea, sugar, and coffee about the same as in England or New York.  Clothing and house
rent about double the English rates, and about the same as in New York. All the foregoing
rates are in gold.
Question 3. "Is mining more profitable than farming?"
Answer. This question is one still more difficult to answer. Farming has lately acquired
.a fixed character. The fine qualities of wheat and flour which California yields-the vast
quantities of wool, of butter, of fruit and wine, and the high prices these products realize in
New York and Liverpool, have latterly decided great numbers of our population to go into
farming.  One only drawback which farming in California will ever experience, and that
will occasionally arise from long seasons of drought.
The last three years the seasons were very well mixed with rains about the time they were
wanted, and sunshine when wanted; and our farmers have had splendid crops and obtained
high prices.  About four years ago there was a long drought and a cattle famine was experienced.  Flour ran up to very high rates, and there was much suffering among the working
people. This has passed away and is forgotten in our present prosperity, but it is well for
all immigrants facing to this country to be made aware of these things.
We have, in general, about seven months of the year when there does not fall a drop of rain,
yet vegetation is nourished by copious dews. Then we have four or five months when it
pours down plenteously, and this rain it is that brings us the means to obtain the food that
lies intact in the earth, and enables our miners to wash the clay and sand that contains the
gold dust.
The total produce of our gold and silver mines may be set at $50,000,000 to $60,000,000
a year. Our farming and general agricultural products will very soon, if they do not now,
foot up to $50,000,000 worth a year. The value of the wheat and flour shipped from California since last harvest comes up to $9,000,000; and as fast as good ships come into the
harbor they are engaged to take out wheat and flour, wool, hides, &c. The general demand
for all sorts of mechanics in this city, and throughout the State, was never better. The
wages, as we have said, range: For Chinamen, $1 a day; common laborers, $2 a day;
skilled mechanics $3 to $4 a day-some of superior skill, $5 a day; female servants, $15 to
$25 a month, and board; farm laborers, $30 a month, and board. All these prices are gold,
and all our dealings here are managed on a gold basis.
Question 4. "Are there any diseases peculiar to California?"
Answer. The climate of California is the most healthful to be found in the world. It is
equable all the year round. The thermometer ranges from 50~ to 90~ throughout the State.
We lay from 32~ to 420 north latitude. We have neither frost nor-snow, except on the high
mountains of the Sierra Nevada, and some of the mountains in the Coast range. The only
drawback to health is experienced in the neighborhood of the mines, where the water is overstrongly impregnated with mineral matter, which generates ague and peculiar fevers; but in
the agricultural regions the people live on from year to year their whole lives without experiencing a day's sickness, and the children multiply in numbers and develop in symmetry
and beauty beyond those of any race on the face of the globe.
Next to the employments under the head of "ordinary agriculture" is the vine culture,
which is peculiar to California; its vines and wines are now celebrated all over the world.
269 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
But a few years ago it was not supposed the vine would flourish anywhere but in the southern region and Los Angeles. Latterly, experiments have demonstrated that it will flourish
in the acclivities around the mining camp as well as amid the sheep-walks and pastoral plains
and valleys; that whether it is pressed into wine or distilled into brandy, it will reward the
labor bestowed upon its cultivation. The California wines begin to make their way in the
New York market, and each new year will confer on their quality more richness and more
reputation.
The grape vines of California, when five years old, yield plenteously; one has only to own
half dozen acres, well planted with vines of that age, to realize a life-long indepedence. In
a few years from the present time, the wine and silk of California will form some of the leading articles of its export.
The fruits of California are now so rich and plentiful that the farmers begin to dry, and
press, and ship them to the Atlantic cities, from whence, but a very few years ago, we
imported dried fruits, flour, &c.
The raising of the silk-worm has been commenced in California, and has succeeded. It
is proven that the climate is quite as favorable as that of France or Italy for this branch of
industry. Arrangements are in progress to start a silk factory. The success of this experi
ment will lead to national results by and by. We shall soon come to the raising of tobacco,
beet root, and manufacture of beet and cane sugar, cotton, flax, linen, hemp, and hops, for
all of which the soil and climate are admirably fitted. Some cotton has been raised in the
southern parts of the State in a desultory way, but the soil awaits the enterprising hands of
toiling men to bring about those great results from the vast and varied material that sleeps
neglected in the soil, and hovers over us in the overhanging climate.
We are building small coasting schooners of 50 to 200 tons. All those craft are well
employed in carrying lumber, coal, and the produce of the fields into market, and latterly
groups of those small craft have gone fishing for cod in the North Pacific with great success.
The salmon and other fish caught in our waters are certainly the best in the world.
Our progress in manufacture is infantine and rude. Three or four woollen mills and one
cotton factory are all that California can boast of, but these are doing well, and in good time
others will start.  Our tanneries are numerous in city and country, and their manufactures
well liked and in good demand. We should say the business is healthy, with fair profits.
Soap and candle factories are experimenting on the native tallow and beeswax of the country
-this is the land for bees and honey.
They have begun one factory for making boots and shoes, and so far it is prosperous,
employing two hundred hands. There is room here for many paper and flour mills. We
have two glass factories, on a small scale, doing well, and any number of iron foundries, all
at full work. There has been a glove factory lately started, and is doing well; also a rude
pottery-ware factory. We want half a dozen hat factories, in which the hat from the foundation would be made, trimmed and finished. WVe have plenty of printers and an abundance
of newspapers. The population of San Francisco is about 120,000. We have eight morn
ing and evening newspapers, and 12 or 15 weeklies. We have a score of banks, 15 insurance companies, any number of hotels, boarding houses, and public schools. About half
the population are native-born Americans from the Atlantic States; the other half is divided
among the Germans, Irish, French, Spanish, Chinese, and negroes. The Jews have two
synagogues, the Roman Catholics eight churches, and the Protestants a dozen or so. Take
them as a whole, they are the most hospitable and generous crowd of citizens to be found in
any seaport round the whole earth. No man nor womanwill be suffered to want food here,
and no industrious man nor woman need be afraid of casting their destiny in the fertile grazing
lands of California.
We hope these few hints on our new and growing State will be useful. The worst time for
travelling through our interior districts are the winter and spring months, when the roads
are softened by the rains. Rains usually begin in December and continue down to April.
We remain, respectfully,
tt. A. COBB, President.
THOMAS MOONEY, Vice President.
J. W. McKENZIE, Secretary.
SAN FRANCISCO, October 29, 1867.
270 
WEST.-. OF,i THE' ROCKY. MOUNTAINS.
Tabular statement of receipts and exports of agricultural products at San Fran                cisco, California, fro, Jutne, 1860, to July, 1867.
RECEIPTS.
Year.            Flour.       Wheat.      Barley.       Oats.       Wool.
barrels.   100-1b. sacks. 100-lb. sacks  100-lb. sacks.  Pounds.
1861..................  122,809   2,164, 320        671,414      305,208   3,721, 998
]862..................   111,269    1, 45l, 465     612,014      343,808   5,990, 300
1863..................   149,825    1,890,777      435,945      172,896   6,268,480
1864..................   99,298    1,843,840        623,266      304,504   7,435,670
1865..................   61,670        509,163      415,9114 255,839   8,889,931
1866..................   167,316   2,138,442        984,208      322,528   7,851,629
1867.................. 301,449   5,214,196         767,938      326,119  *7,166,680
~~~~~~........._.,.
Totals........... 1,013,636  15,212,203   4,510,699   2,030,902  47, 334,688
* To August 1.
EXPORTS.
Year.            Flour.      Wheat.       Barley.       Oats.        Wool.
Barrels.   100-lb. sacks. 100-lb. sacks. 100-lb. sacks.  Pounds.
1861......... —--------—... ----—.. 197,181   1,529,924  339,537  116,462   3,721,998
1862..................    191,652      851,844      188,619       154,587   5,990,300
1863.-......... 144,882   1,043,652  49,809     39,985   5,268,480
1864.................. 152,633   1,071,292           40,260       91,082   5,935,670
1865.................. 91,479           25, 360       13,920        3,389   6,549,931
1866.................. 279,554   1,039,518        349,994       113,961   4,662,129
1867..................  485,337   3,636,194         142,157        88, 33l  2,104,000
Totals........... 1,452,718 9,197,784   1,124,296 60        7,797    34,232,508
Countries to wh7ich7 exportedl during the year 1867.
Destination.         Flour.     Wheat.        Barley.       Oats.       Wool.
Barrels.   100-1b. sacks. 100-1b. sacks. 100-1b. sacks.  Pounds.
New York.............. 201,478          510,784      27,625........ 2,758,000
G(reat Britain........... 38,921    3,131,553        2,797           83..........
China................. 69,270         151,124       1,700       3,544.........
Japan............. 1,410                  544      28,579       2,700...........
Hlawaiian Islands  4,171   366               1,763       2,487........... —British Columbia........  1,676         2,950       7,788         565...........
Mexico................ 3,149                 10      2,130          187....
Australia..............   1,650        172,069      70,892       1,281...
Rio de Janeiro........-  22,669...............................................
Other countries.........  40,732        58,546       1,223         196...........
Totals........... 385, 126    4,027,946    143,497        11,043      2,758,000
271 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND  TERRITORIES
SAN FRANCISCO IN 1867-'68.*
The total population of the city, August 1, 1867, is estimated at 131,100.  The estimate
for 1858 was 83,223, showing ai increase in eight years of 47,877. The particulars of the
estimate for 1867 are as follows:
White males over 21, names in the present volume.............................. 45, 000
White females over 18, estimated....................................... —------------------------------------------- 27,000
White males under 21 and females under 18, estimated......................... 40,000
White males, names refused, and foreigners, estimated......................... 4,000
Chinese, male and female................................................... 3,600
Colored, male and female..................................................... 2,500
Total permanent population............................. 4.22,100
Whiteeale overmanentestimlteio —---------------------------------------— 27,1000
To which should be added a large element of our population known as "floating,"
which consists of: 1st. Transient boarders, &c., at hotels, boarding-houses, &c.
2d. Soldiers at the fortifications in the harbor. 3d. Persons engaged in navi  gating the bay, who claim the city as their residence. 4th. A large number of
persons who have no permanent place of abode, together amounting to about...  9, 000
Total population..................................................... 131,100
The school census of July, 1867, gives the number of children under 15 years at 34,710.
The number of males between 15 and 21, and females between 15 and 18, is estimated at
5,290, making the aggregate 40,000 of all ages.
IMPROVEMENTS OF THE YEAR PAST.-The number of buildings erected in San Francisco
during the year ending June 30, 1867, is 1,050, of which 340 are of brick; total in the city
and county, 17,368, of which 3,857 are of brick. The estimated cost of the improvements
during the same period is nearly $9,000,000.  The sales of real estate for the first seven months
of the present year exceed $10,000,000. The operations of the department of streets and
highways, for the year ending June 30, 1867, show an expenditure exceeding $1,000,000.
The cost of a number of the principal new buildings is thus given: Bank of California,
$275,000; Mercantile Library, $110,000; Merchants' Exchange, $190,000; Fireman's Fund
Insurance, $45,C00; Pacific Insurance, $80,000; Merchants' Mutual Insurance, $60,000;
Hibernia Savings and Loan, $65,000; Murphy, Grant & Co.'s four-story iron-fronted brick
block, $170,000; enlargement and improvements Lick House, $175,000; Dr. Scudder's
church, $64,000; Trinity church, $75,000; St. Joseph's, Catholic, $18,000; Tehema street
school-house, $26,000; almshouse, $60,000; Oriental buildings, $200,000; additions to Occidental Hotel, $125,000; Blanding & Pringle's bloclI, $70,000; Ellis's block, $65,000; Brannan's new building, $60,000; Savings Union building, $50,000; Hayward's building, corner
California and Leidesdorff, $90,000; Morrow's building, California, near Montgomery,
$50,000; Tucker's building, $45,000.
STREETS AND SEWERS.-The total expenditure in the department of streets and highways
for the year ending June 30, 1867, amounts to $1,009,883 85, viz: For grading 1,191,257
cubic yards, at a cost of $327,333: paving 166,083 square feet cobble-stone and 236,005 square
feet Nicholson, together, $117,594; brick sewers, 21,203 lineal feet, $156,745; planking,
2.571,083 feet, $96,897; sidewalks, 69,925 front feet, $96,154; cross walks, 6,296 feet, and
curbs, 19,193 feet, together, $47,423; macadamizing,  1,560,119 square feet, $1l7,272; redwood sewers, 12,137 tbfeet, $49,578. The entire cost of street work friom July 1, 1856, to June
30, 1867, is $5,439,287.  The total length of sewers constructed from July 1, 1856, to June
30, 1867, is 165,583 lineal feet, or nearly 30 miles of sewerage. The principal improvements
have been the grading of McAlister street, from Larkin to Fillmore; Tenth street, from Market to Howard; Townsend street, between Third and Fourth; Brannan street, between
Second and Third; Fillmore street, from Sacramento to Pacific; Clay street, from Jones to
Leavenworth; O'Farrell street, from Larkin to Polk; California street, from Polk to Franklin;
Fulton street, from Buchanan to Fillmore; Van Ness avenue, from Bush to Geary; Franklin
street, from Ellis to Turk; Main street, from Mission to Folsom; Fourth street, between
Brannan and Townsend; Taylor street, between Broadway and Vallejo; Spear street, from
Harrison to Folsom, and Bush street, from Larkin to Cemetery avenue.
WATER FRONT IMPROVEMENTS.-The work of constructing a sea wall for the protection
of the city front and better accommodation of shipping has been commenced during the past
year. It will be 8,336 feet in length when completed. It is estimated to cost $2,462,470, or
$295 374 per linear foot.  It is to be constructed of solid granite, eight feet thick at base and
six feet at top, resting on a broad embankment of rocks and cement.
The new dry dock, nearly completed, at Hunter's Point, about four miles southeast from
Folsom street wharf, is one of the most important enterprises ever undertaken by private
citizens.  This work was commenced in September, 1866, and is expected to be completed
by the close of the present year.  The dimensions of the dock are 465 feet long by 125 feet
* Compiled from Langley's City Directory.
272 
WVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
wide on the surface, and 400 feet long by 80 feet wide on the bottom, and of sufficient depth
to permit vessels drawing 22 feet of water to float in it.  Nearly the whole of this great exca  vation has been cut out of solid rock The materials extracted have been sufficient to cover
]10 50-vara lots of the adjoining swamp land to a depth to bring them up to the grade of the
city.  The whole front of the dock will be covered with solid blocks of cut granite, 13,000
square yards of which have been brought from the quarries at Rocklin, Sacramento county,
for that purpose.  Powerful engines, pumps, and every necessary arrangement for rendering
the works complete have been constructed, the whole cost of which will exceed $1,200,000.
The Merchants' Dry Dock Company have completed a floating apparatus, calculated to
sustain vessels of 1,000 tons burden.  This dock cost $60,000.
The Union Lumber Association are constructing a dock near Beale street, which is esti  mated to cost $150,000. This association has expended $185,000 in the construction of
wharves and other improvements on lands adjoining the new wharf of the Pacific Mail Steam  ship Company. The improvements made and in progress under the direction of this latter
company have quite changed the topography of the western front of the city. This company
owns the block of overflowed land bounded by First, Second, Townsend, and Brannan streets,
about 12 50-vara lots. They have constructed wharves, which have required 1,200 piles,
3,000,000 feet of sawed lumber, 35 tons of iron bolts, and 300,000 cubic yards of earth to
complete.  They erected a two-story brick warehouse, 195 feet deep by 230 feet wide, cut
down hills and filled up swamps to such an extent that what had been the most useless por  tion of the city front has become the centre of an extensive business. Hundreds of men and
teams are at present engaged cutting down the hills in the vicinity and filling up the shallow
bay with the materials, extending the area of the city hundreds of feet over what had been
useless territory. The erection of several large warehouses is contemplated in the vicinity.
MARKETS AND ROLLING MIlLS.-The new California Market, extending from California
to Pine streets, was commenced and has been completed during the past year. This is one
of the most useful improvements in the city, being centrally located and most conveniently
arranged.  It is a most substantial structure, with elegant iron fronts on each of these streets,
resting on a solid cut-granite basement. It cost about $200,000. Another extensive market,
which cost about $60,000, has been built on Howard street, between Third and Fourth.
Among the new branches of manufacture introduced during the past year the Pacific Roll ing Mills holds a prominent position. It is located at Potrero Point, and has been fitted up
with every requisite for manufacturing iron bars and rods of any shape or form, from a i
inch up to 36 inches in diameter, including railroad iron of all descriptions.  These works
cost $1,000,000.
REAL ESTATE.-Statistics in the office of the city and county assessor place the value of
our real estate improvements for the past fiscal year at $58,000,000. The number of sales
of property made for the 12 months ending July 31, 1867, was 5,213, at a valuation of
$l5,383,196.  The above figures include only the sales recorded.  The prices paid at the
Beidman sale would swell the total to nearly $16,000,000.
EDUCATIONAL FACTS.-There are 34,710 white children under 15 years of age in the city.
Our juvenile population has increased nearly 300 per cent. in seven years.  The average
number of pupils belonging to the public schools June 30, 1867, was nearly 1 1,000. Eight
new school-houses were erected during the year. The disbursements of the school depart ment of the public school fuind upon the assessment roll of the last fiscal yearwere $320,958 88
-slightly within the receipts.  Basing the amount of taxes for the benefit $80,000,000, at
the school tax rate of 35 cents on each $100, the amount raised firom this source the present
year will be $280,000; apportionment of the State school fund, $60,000; poll taxes, $2,500:
dog tax, $1,000; rent of school property, $600; evening schools, $200. Total revenue for:
the present year, $344,300.
The whole number of private educational institutions in San Francisco is about 70, with'
an aggregate attendance, including students at the different colleges, of 4,250. Of this numher 12 are under the control of the Catholic denomination, and the regular aggregate attendance upon the same is over 3,400.
There are 21 schools connected with the Protestant Sunday School Union. The average
attendance at these schools is 4,340; other Protestant schools, 2,405; Catholic schools, 3,600;.
Hebrew, 690. Total who receive religious instructions on the Sabbath day in this city,
11,035. Libraries —number of volumes Sabbath School Union, 19,927; other Protestant
schools, 12,000; Catholic schools, 6,000. Total number of volumes in Sabbath schools in'
this city, (Hebrew not included,) 37,927.
NENW MANUFACTUREs.-Among the most prominent of the branches of industry put in,
operation are the Pacific Woollen Mills, located at the Mission, manufacturing knit goods of
all descriptions at the rate of $500,000 annually, and employing nearly 400 persons; the
Golden City Chemical Works, with a capital of $2,000,000, and manufacturing  a, great
variety of chemicals and medicinal extracts; the San Francisco Glass Works, manufacturing
both white and colored glassware to the extent of $150,000 a year, and the San Francisco
Linseed Oil and Paint Works, with capacity to supply the entire wants of the coast. These,
with minor enterprises inaugurated during the same period, have absorbed more than $3,000,000
capital, and will turn out manufactures to half that amount annually. The most prominent
of the enterprises yet unfinished is the Pacific Rolling Mills, which promises to be in such
18
273 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
cessful operation within the next twelve months. This establishment is much needed, both
to do away with the importation of a vast amount of manufactured metals and  to stimulate
new branches of labor by furnishing supplies of home materials which are required to make
them successful. The large capital of these mills, and their contemplated extensive scope of
manufacture in copper as well as in iron, promise to do more to develop the resources of the
State in these metals than all similar enterprises now in operation combined.
GENERAL MANUFACTURING ITEMS.-The pecuniary results of all the manufacturing interests in this city for the past year are favorably reported. The sugar and petroleum factories
are alone complained of as being less successful than in former years. The Pioneer and
Mission Woollen Mills manufactured for the year ending June, 1866, goods to the value of
$899,734. The Mission mills alone turned out, with 425 hands, 80,000 pairs of blankets,
125,000 yards of broadcloth and cassimere, 500,000 yards of flannel and cloaking, besides a
quantity of shawls; the whole consuming 2,000,000 of wool. The Pacific Woollen Mills
will make up into knit woollen goods this year 500,000 pounds of fine wool. Mayer & Sons'
cotton wadding, batting, and twine works can turn out 2,000 pounds of wadding and batting
per day. The cotton they use is imported chiefly from Tahiti and Mexican ports. The Pacific
Cordage Factory turned out last year 2,000,000 pounds of cordage.  The rope-walk is 1,500
feet long, and the works altogether employ 47 men constantly. The Pioneer Woollen Mills,
during last year, employed 350 hands, and made 30,000 pairs of blankets, 60,000 yards of
broadeloths, tweeds, and cassimeres, and 375,000yards of flannels, whichconsumned 1,300,000
pounds of choice wool. A very large portion of the flannels manufactured is made up at
once into shirts, the company employing 60 sewing machines in that and other work connected with their manufactures.
There are three manufactories of acids and other chemicals in the city, which supply the
assay offices and mint on this coast. The Phoenix Oil Works have a refining capacity of 400
gallons per day. Mallon & Co.'s glass-cutting works manufactured to the amount of $6,000
in 1866. The Pacific Saw Works turned out manufactures valued at over $3,000,000. Dana's
neat-f'oot oil works turned out 33,997 pounds of glue and 5,007 gallons of oil. Cameron,
Whittier & Co. made mirrors to the value of $18,000.  Zech made 12 pianos last year, of
an average value of $450, using native ash, laurel, and other domestic woods.  John Mayer
made two large organs of good quality. The glass manufactures of the year aggregated
$80,000.
There are 11 extensive flour mills in the city, which exported the first eight months of this
year 136,958 barrels of flour via the Isthmus of Panama. Eight mills turned out last year
an aggregate of 247,708 barrels, besides large quantities of other meals.  Eight saw-mills
turned out 8,950,000 feet of lumber.
Up to the present time the principal foundries and machine shops located in this city have
turned out machinery for the propulsion of 1,000 ton vessels, stationery engines, batteries
of heavy guns, the most powerful quartz-crushing machinery, saw and flour mills, and for a
multiplicity of business not needed to mention.  With the exception of the raw materials
used for castings and machinery, the foundries of the State have rendered its people independent of other countries and given profitable employment, directly and indirectly, to several
thousands of persons. At the present time there are 14 large foundries and machine shops,
some of which have no superiors anywhere in excellence of work and adaptation of materials
to meet the wants of the people.  During the year 1866 these foundries, with some few
smaller ones, employed 1,018 men, using 6,921 tons pig iron, 1,448 tons bar and rod iron,
1,027 tons sheet and boiler iron, and 110 tons rivets. Several of these establishments have
extensive boiler shops connected with them.
The three sugar refineries in this city have a capacity nearly double the local consumption.
One establishment alone has a capacity torefine 120,000 pounds daily.  Altogether about 300
men are employel in these refineries.  Twenty thousand boxes of maccaroni and paste were
made by one firm last year. Another house made 3,000 gross of yeast powders. About
24,000 brooms were manufactured.  Wooden ware and box manufacturing is extensive and
profitable. The new linseed oil works can crush 4,000 pounds seed per week. Two firms
have made 5,000 billiard tables in this city in 16 years. During 1866 they employed 12 men
and made 70 tables, worth $480 each.
The products of several other manufactories may thus be condensed:  Ten soap establishments, 2,831,419 pounds; three match factories, 250,000 gross; five tanneries, 2,400 hides,
615 dozen calf and 515 kip skins; hose and belting, 6,000 feet hose, $7,000 worth of belting,
and 400 dozen horse collars; boots and shoes, total manufactures, $750,000, employing about
500 men; type foundry at the rate of $20,000 per annum; 24 breweries, of which 17 turned
out 76,602 barrels of beer; furniture establishments employ over 300 men and turned out
about $800,000 worth of furniture; 800 cigar makers, employed by 100 firms, turn out nearly
3,000,000 cigars a month; the clothing manufacturers employ 700 persons and turned out
last year $1,500,000 worth of goods; 20 firms are engaged in making carriages and wagons.
TRADE FLUCTUATIONS.-A general table of the fluctuations of trade shows that the number of persons in business in this city has increased from 5,300 in 1862 to 6,942 in 1867.
Only the leading branches of trade are included in this table. Of those in business in 1862
only 3,956 are still found in existing trade circles. The yearly changes among small dealers
wvill not fall short of 40 per cent. per annum.
274 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MIOUNTAINS.
MUNICIPAL FINANCES.-The total assessment for 1866-'67 is $96,700,397.  Of this valuation $53,485,421 is assigned to real estate, and $43,214,976 to personal property.  The total
of State, city, and county taxes is $3 10 on each $100.  The amount absolutely collected on
is much less than the aggregate valuations for the last two years. In 1865-'66 it was
$22,730,719 personal against $39,775,500 assessed, and $45,436,924 real estate against
$49 138,027 assessed; in all, $68,167,643 collected oni against $88,913,527 assessed.
The city expenditures for 1865-'66 were $1,437,281 20, which amount was divided as
follows: Curlent expenses, $916,934 45; permanent improvements, $90,995 90; interest,
$256,198 38; reduction of debt, $154,055; old claims, $19,097 47. The expenditures for
1866-'67 are  thus stated:   Current expenses,  $939,285 05; permanent  improvements,
$188,073 75; interest, $213,353 06; reduction of debt, $354,686  *2; old claims, $71,166 66:
total, $1,766,565 34. Increase this year, $329,284 14.
The total revenue for 1865-'66 was $1,624,408 06. That for 1866-'67 was $1,841,753 96,
showing an increase of $217,345 90.  The revenue is derived this year as follows: Taxes,
$1,482,476 31; State and county licenses, $93,901 50; municipal licenses, $31,762 50; sale
of bonds, $125,965 38; other sources, $107,647 97.
The bonded debt aggregates $4,748,667, bearing interest at from 6 to ]0 per cent. The
annual sinking fund is about $198,500. The bonds in aid of the Pacific railroad alone
amount to $650,000, bearing 7 per cent. interest.
CLIMATE OF CALirFOENiA.-The following interesting and instructive observations on the climate of California are from thlie proof-sheets of a forthconming
work on the Pacific Coast, by M1r. T. F. Cronise, soon to be issued by Miessrs.
II. H. Bancroft & Co., of San F'rancisco:
THE VARIETY OF CLIMATE.-There are essentially two climates in California, the land
climate and the sea climate. The latter derives its low temperature from the ocean, the water
of which along the coast stands at from 52~ to 45~ all the year round.  The evenness of the
ocean temperature is owing to a steady current from the north, which is accompanied also
by winds in the same direction during the entire summer season, or rather from April to
October, inclusive. Almost daily during this period a deluge of cold, damp air, of the same
temperature as the ocean over which it has passed, is poured upon the land.  It is mostly
laden with mist, in dense clouds, which it deposits at the foot hills and on the slopes of tle
highlands, or carries a short distance into tlhe interior, wherever there is a break in the land
wall.
The land climate is as nearly as possible the opposite in eveiy respect. In summer and
atuumn it is hot and dry.  It undergoes various modifications from the configuration of the
surface of the earth. Even the mountains, which retain the snow till a late period, present
a high temperature in the middle of the day, and the presence of the snow on their summits
in June is owing to the great mass which has accumulated on them rather than to cold
weather.
A large district of territory lies between the jurisdiction of the two climates, and subject to
their joint influence. It is composed chiefly of valleys surrounding the bay of San Francisco,
and penetrating into the interior in every direction. There is no climate in the world more
delightful than these valleys enjoy, and no territory more productive. While the ocean
prevents the contiguous land from being scorched in summer, it also prevents it from being
firozen in winter. Hence ice and snow are not common in the ocean climate. The difference
in temperature is comparatively slight between winter and summer.
The cold of winter in the interior is not intense, even on mountain elevations, with the
exception of the tier of counties in the extreme north.  Its degree depends much, however,
on the altitude of the locality. The severity of winter is due, not to extreme cold in any part
of California, but to violent and prolonged snow-storms in one section, and cold and prolonged
rains in the others.
It is interesting to cast the eye over the map of the State, and trace out climatic modifications as governed by topography. First, look at the long range of coast, the slope of which, as
fIar back as the first mountan wall, is under the control of the ocean, and has the most uniform
of climates.  It is a narrow strip of territory, the only part of the State preserved from dessication in summer by daily showers of mist, and therefore admirably adapted to dairy purposes.
Then survey the counties bordering on the great bay, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Contra Costa,
Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Mateo, borrowing one-half their climate from the ocean, and
the other half from the interior; inexhaustible in agricultural resources, and forming the
granary of the Pacific. The Pajaro and some other valleys further south, to which the sea
winds gain access, belong to the same system, and those also of the Sacramento and San
Joaquin, although in a lesser degree, being further removed from the ocean. Then regard
the mountain range, with its countless little valleys, buried up with snow in winter, bursting
forth into a paradise with the spring, and converted into furnaces by the summer's sun, and
yet luxuriant with all kinds of delicious fruits. In this section are concentrated the mining
interests. Finally, view the southern section, embracing one-foutrth of the State, removed
alike from both extremes, which operate in the north, controlled neither by mountain nor
275
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ocean, and enjoying the most genial temperature-a section of country wanting only in the
certainty of winter rains to make it an Eden.
CLIMATE OF SAN FRANCISCO.-The record of the climate of San Francisce, as kept by
Mr. Henry Gibbons, extending from the autumn of 1850 to January, 1868, a period of 17 years,
shows the coldest weather during that time to have occurred in January, 1854, when the
mercury fell as low as 25~. The coldest noonday for the same period was 37~. Persons
who do not rise early may see no ice in that city for several years in succession. When it
is cold enough to preserve ice in the shade all day, the circumstance is noted as a phenomenon.
It is not uncommon for the entire winter to pass away without bringing the thermometer down
so low as the point of freezing. In the year 1853, it fell at no time lower than 400, or 80
above the freezing point.
The extreme of heat in the same period occurred on September 10 and 11, 1852, when the
thermometer reached 97~ and 980 on the two days respectively. This, however, was entirely
exceptional, and might not again occur in half a century.''he air was dry as a sirocco, and
had a curious effect on the wood-work of houses, causing a constant crackling noise, from
the shrinking of the timber and the plaster breaking on the wooden partitions. In a locality
somewhat exposed to reflected heat from the sun, and where the temperature was 100c, a
thermometer with a wet bulb fell to 68~, the evaporation reducing it 320.
With the exception just noted, the hottest day in the 17 years was on the 6th of July, 1867,
when the thermometer stood at 93~. In October, 1854, and in September, 1865, it reached
91~; and in July, 1855, it rose once to 900. Thus, it appears there were but six days in 17
years when the temperature was as high as 90~, and only two of these six days were in the
summer months.
The absence of warm weather in the summer months is characteristic of the coast climate,
and strikes a stranger forcibly. The most ordinary programme of this climate for the year
is as follows, beginning with the rainy season: The first decided rains are in November or
December, when the country, after having been parched with drought, puts on the garb of
spring. In January the rains abate, and vegetation advances slowly, with occasional slight
frosts. February is spring like, with but little rain. March and April are pleasant and
showery, with an occasional hot day. In May the sea breeze begins, but does not give much
annoyance. In June, just as warm weather is about to set in, the sea breeze comes daily,
and keeps down the temperature.  It continues through July and August, occasionally
holding up for a day or two, and permitting the sun to heat the air to the sweating point.
In September the sea wind moderates, and there is a slight taste of summer, which is prolonged into the next month. The pleasant weather often lingers in the lap of winter, and is
interrupted only by the rains of November or December.
By running the eye over the following table, a general idea can be gained of the coast
climate as regards temperature.   The first column represents the average temperature of
each month at sunrise, for 17 years; the second at noon, and the third is the mean of the other
two:
Months.                  I                   Months.
0    0                                  0          0
c3    S o                                  ~    ~ 
January....................... 44.  56.  50.   August......................... 53.   67.   60.
February............. —--------------—.... 48.  60.  53.5  September.5.................... 53.5  69.5  61.
Iarch.......................... 48.   63.  55.5  October.... —---------------  53.   68.   60.5
April.............. —-----------------—... 49.  64.  57.   November................. 49.   62.   55.5
Iay........................... 50.   64.  57.   December...................... 45.   55.   50.
June....... —------------------—.. 51.   68.  59.5
July....... —-------------------- 52.  67.  59. 5                        49.5  63.7  56.6
Observe in the table the regular increase from January to September, and the rapid decrease
from October to December; nine months of increase and two of decrease. Notice, also, the
uniform increase of the night temperature as represented in the first column, and the irregularity in the noonday increase, the sea-breeze arresting it in May, and the sun giving it an
upward impulse in June, before the sea wind has gained undisputed control.
MEAN ANNUAL TEMPERATURE.-The mean annual temperature at San Francisco is 56.6,
which may be set down as the mean of the coast and bay climate.  As we recede from the
ocean, the days are warmer and the nights colder, the sun being the great disturber of
temperature, and the ocean the great equalizer. But the increase of the day corresponds so
nearly with the diminution of the high temperature, that the mean varies but little within
the range of the sea breeze.
Washington and Richmond, nearly in the same latitude as San Francisco, have a mean
of 54 or 54i, two degrees colder than the latter. This appears, at first sight, to be a small
276 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
difference; but its value is made evident by reflecting that it is a difference for every day in
the year-each day of the year in San Francisco, from January to December, having an
average of two degrees higher than the corresponding day on the Atlantic border. Cold as
our summers are in proportion to those in the east, it appears that the winters are warmer,
in still greater proportion.
In the Atlantic States the mean annual temperature diminishes in going northward about
one degree for every degree of latitude. This is the general rule in all climates. But the
climate of California presents an extraordinary anomaly in this respect. Along the coast,
from the mouth of the Columbia river to Monterey, a range of nine degrees of latitude, the
mean temperature varies but little-not more than three or four degrees at most; and even
this difference does not correspond exactly with the difference of latitude. On the other
hand, the interior climate varies indefinitely, every valley having a climate of its own. The
summers, however, are generally hotter in the north. One might start from Los Angeles,
near the south line of the State, in summer, and travel northward, inland, 500 or 600 miles,
and find it growing hotter every day; and he might go in a southeasterly course less than
half that distance, and arriving at Fort Yuma, on the Colorado, he would find one of the
hottest places in the world.
The sudden fluctuations of temperature, incident to the climate of the Atlantic States, are
unknown in California. WVe have none of those angry outbreaks from the northwest, which
change summer to winter in a few hours. The sea breeze is chilling enough, especially
when it comes in suddenly to reassert its sway, after one of the occasional warm days of sum mer. But the sea breeze can never bring the thermometer down below 520.
In the summer months there is scarcely any fall of temperature through the night in the
coast climate. The early morning is sometimes clear, sometimes cloudy, but always calm.
A windy morning in summer is uncommon at San Francisco. A few hours after sunrise the
clouds break away and vanish, and the sun shines forth cheerfully and delightfully; not a
breath of air stirring. Towards noon, or a little after, the sea breeze sets in, and the weather
is completely changed. From 650 degrees the mercury drops to 530 or 54~ long before sunset, and at that point it remains almost motionless till the next morning.  This is the order
of things in three days out of four in June, July, and August.
In the climate of the coast the nights are never uncomfortably warm. The extreme heat
at 10 p. m. at San Francisco, for 17 years, was 75~. The thermometer reached this point on
three different nights; on two nights it reached 750, on four nights 730, on two nights 720,
and on five nights 70~0-making only 16 evenings in 17 years when it was warm enough at
bed-time to sit out of doors with thin clothing. The warmest morning in 17 years was 69~.
These facts have special interest in relation to sleep.
Though the nights in the interior are not so uniformly cool, yet there are few localities,
even in the valleys, where they are too warm for sleeping, even though the day temperature
may have reached 1000. This is a remarkable feature of the climate of the Pacific States,
and it has an important bearing on the health, vigor, and character of the population.
In the southeastern corner of the State is a section having a climate of its own. It is
known as the Colorado desert, and is comparatively barrren of vegetation, owing to the
small quantity of rain which falls there. The mean temperature of Fort Yuma, though not
exactly in the desert, is, in the month of July, upwards of 1000 at noon, and 900 at 9 p. inm.
In contrast with this, is the winter climate of Yreka, near the extreme northwest corner of
the State, and representing a small alpine section bordering on Oregon. During the stormy
weather of January, 1868, when the thermometer at Marysville and other localities in the
north were telegraphed as ranging from 250 to 350, at 8 a. m., the despatches from Yreka
placed it below zero day after day, and sometimes 100 or 12~ below.
We will conclude the subject of temperature with a table, representing the mean of the
several seasons at a number of prominent points in California, and also further northward.
The first column gives the temperature of the spring months, March, April, and May; and
so on, the other seasons are arranged. The last column is the mean annual temperature.
Localities.                      Spring.  Summer. Autumn.  Winter.    Year.
o        o          o         o          o
0    0              0          0          0
San Francisco....................................... 56.5         60.0      59.0      51.0         56. 6
Sacramento.........................................    56.0  6.59     61.0       46. 5        58.0
Benicia..............................................    56. 5   67. 0      60.5      49. 0        58. 0
Monterey'..........................................   54.0       59.0      57.0       51.0        55.5
San Diego..........................................   60. 0    71.0       64.5      52.5        62.0
Fort Yuma.......................................... 72.0         90.0       75.5      57. 0        73.5
Humboldt Bay*.....................................     52.0      57.5      53. 0      43.5        51.5
Port Orford.........................................    52. 0    60.0       55. 0     47.5       53.5
Dalles, Oregon......................................   53. 0     70.5      52. 0      35.5        53.0
Astoria............................................. 50.0       61.5       54.0      42.5        52.0
Fort Steilacoom, W. T............................ 49.0            63.0      51.5      39. 5        51.0
I The figures for these localities are probably too low.
277 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
There is this difference between the summer in the interior of California and the Atlantic
States, that in the former it is unbroken by the showers and storms which in other regions
temper the heat and give variety to the climate. From the beginning of June until November the sky is mostly unclouded, and the sun shines out brightly the whole day.
THE ANNU.AL RAINS.-In the entire absence of rain during one portion of the year, and
its restriction to another portion, California has but one climate. There is this difference,
however, between one part and another, that the rain commences sooner and continues later
in the north, and that both the quantity of the rain and the duration of the rainy season
diminish on approaching the southern part of the State, or rather on receding from the mountainous section. The rain year of California does not conform to the calendar year, but
extends from summer to summer, embracing the latter part of one year and the former part
of the year ensuing. The natural division is in July or August-say the first of August.
The calendar year fails to represent properly either a dry winter or a rainy one.  Thus, the
smallest quantity of rain in any one of the 17 calendar years was 10.50 inches, in 1865, while
the climatic year 1850-'51 had but 7.12 inches, and 1863-'64, 8.49. On the other hand, the
calendar year 1865 had but 10.50 inches, or half the average supply, from which it would be
inferred that one, at least, of the two seasons in which it enters was dry; whereas, by reference to the table, it appears that both of these seasons had the full supply, being a fraction
over 21 inches. It so transpired that the rain of one season was mainly in the latter part of
1864, and that of the latter season in the early part of 1866, leaving the intervening calendar
year deficient.
In seasons of scanty rains the deficiency is not confined to certain districts, as in the
Atlantic States, but it is general. The annual supply, however, varies greatly in different
sections. Taking the gauge at San Francisco as a basis, very nearly the same quantity falls
in the valleys surrounding the bay, and also in the Sacramento valley as far north as the
capital. Speaking more precisely, the quantity in Sonoma and Napa counties is greater, and
in Santa Clara, south of the bay, rather less, than at San Francisco. Proceeding southward,
it diminishes rapidly, the rain-fall at Los Angeles and San Diego being only one-half that of
the bay. In the north and northeast, among the Sierras, it is generally much greater, being
three or four times as much in some localities.
In San Francisco [according to a table which we cannot conveniently reproduce] the rains
of each month, during a period of 17 years, averaged as follows, in inches and fractions of
inches: January, 4.51; February, 3.08; March, 2.76; April, 1.74; May,.82; June,.05;
July,.02; August,.01; September,.09; October,.57; November, 2.74; December, 5.37.
The greatest quantity of rain for any one month, as the table shows, was 18.14 inches, in
January, 1862-a winter memorable on account of destructive floods on the Pacific slope.
The greatest quantity in any one month in eastern Pennsylvania, during a period of 30 years,
was 13 inches; and this was in one of the summer months.   So much as this never falls in
a winter month in the Atlantic States. For one season of excessive drought there have been
two of excessive rain. No two seasons in succession have given as much rain as 1866-'67
and 1867-'68.
The rains of each season are exhibited in the following table, in juxtaposition with the
rains of each year:
Year.                                       Rain.
1851......................................... 15.12
1852...........................................25.60
1853...........................................  19.03
185 4...........................................  22.12
1855...........................................27.80
1~56...........................................22.01
185 7...........................................20.55
188...........................................19.65
1859............................................18.03
1860.................................-........15.15
1861............................................18.43
1862...........................................31.05
1863.........................................16. 63
1864...........................................13.05
1865..................................-.......10.30
1866.............................................32. 98
1867 -..........................................33. 0
Mean............................-21.62
It appears that December is the month of greatest rain.  The rainy tendency reaches its
climax about Christmas, and then diminishes gradually until the termination of the season
of rain, towards the latter end of May. June, July, August, and September are dry, with
exceptions so light as scarcely to deserve notice, only 2.50 inches having fallen in these four
months collectively in 17 years.
In almost every winter there are two rainy periods, with a drier period interposed, showing
an analogy to the earlier and later rains of Palestine and other oriental countries.  The month
of February is the most frequent representative of the dry period; but the spring rains,
which sometimes commence in this month, and other heavy rains which occasionally fall,
swell the aggregate so as to prevent the exhibition of a deficiency in the table.
278
Season. Rain.
1850-'51...................................... 11-12
1851-252...................................... 18. CO
1852-'53...................................... 33.46
1853-'54...................................... 22. 80
1854-'55..................................... 24.10
1655-'56...................................... 21.13
1856-'57...................................... 19.90
1857-'58...................................... 19. 05
1-858-'59...................................... 19. 76
1859-'6-3...................................... 17.10
1860-'61...................................... 14. 54
1861-162...................................... 38.04
1862-'63...................................... 15.19
1863-'64...................................... 8.49
1864-'65...................................... 21.30
1865-'66...................................... 21.19
lS66-'67...................................... 32.22
Mean.............................. 20.79 
WEST OF TIlE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
In speaking of the "rainy season," strangers will not infer that rain is perpetual, or nearly
so, during that time.  The term is employed only to contrast with the dry season, and it
implies the possibility rather than the actual occurrence of rain.  In more than half the winter
there is not a drop beyond the necessities of agriculture, and even in the seasons of most
rain much very pleasant weather is interspersed. If the winter be not extraordinary, it is
generally regarded as the most pleasant season in the year. In the intervals of rain it is
bright, sunny, and calm. It is spring rather than winter. The grass starts as soon as the
soil is wet. At Christmas nature wears her green uniform almost throughout the entire State,
and in February and March it is set with floral jewels. The blossoms increase in variety
and profusion until April, when they are so abundant in many places as to show distinctly
the yellow carpeting on hills five miles distant.
There is great irregularity in the time of the commencement of the rainy season. It never
sets in before November, and sometimes not till the latter part of December. In the northern
section the rains commence earlier than at San Francisco, and in the southern section later.
The spring rains, which are of immense importance to agriculture, rarely fail. March is one
of the surest months in this respect. April often gives a copious supply. There is a remarkable tendency to rain about the 20th of May, and a complete cessation soon afterwards. It
is a striking feature of the climate, that when the weather puts on its rainy habit, the rain is
apt to continue every day for one or two weeks, and then an interval may ensue without a
drop for several weeks.
The rains of California are tropical in one respect, being showery, and not often regularly
continuous for many hours. The monotony of an easterly storm, such as the Atlantic climate
furnishes, is almost unknown here. The sun breaks forth frequently in the midst of a shower,
and directly the sky is almost clear. Presently, when it is least expected, the rain is heard
on the roof with the suddenness of a shower-bath.
The night is more favorable to rain than the day. No matter how dense the clouds, how
fair the wind, how resolute the barometer in its promise of falling weather, the sun rarely
fails to break up the arrangement before noon, and to tumble the clouds into confused masses
or dissipate them altogether. But before night, or during the night, the clouds resume their
function. 
The prevailing direction of the cloud-current is from south to west, and the cloud supplying the rain is mostly of the cumulo-stratus or nimbus form, and quite low in the sky.
What is singular, the rain begins most frequently to the northward, although the cloud comes
from the south. The horizon in the south may be entirely clear under these circumstances,
the cloud forming in view, and growing denser and denser in its northward travel, until it
precipitates the rain.
The followintg table exhibits the mean quantity of rain falling at different stations, and the
number of years on which the mean is computed. The stations are arranged in the order of
their latitude, beginning with Fort Yuma and San Diego, which are about on the same
parallel:
Localities.                                  Term.         Mean.
Fort Yuma................................................ Four years.                  3.24
San Diego................................................  Three years.               10.43
MIonterey... —----------------------------------------- Four years.                   12.20
Stockton............. —---------—.................................... Four years.    15.10
San Francisco............................................ Seventeen years.            20.79
Benicia..................................................    Eight years.             22.86
Sacramento.............................................. Twelve years.                18.23
Placerville............................................... 1861-'62.                  86.00
Placerville................................................ 1862-'63.                 26.00
South Yuba.............................................. 1861-'62.                   109.00
South Yuba.............................................. 1866-'67.         81.56
Red Dog, Nevada county................................. Three years. 64.00
Fort Jones............................................... Three y ears. 16.77
Hoopa valley, Klamath county............................ 1861-'62.                  129.15
Port Orford.............................................. Four years.                71.63
Astoria, Oregon.......................................... One and a half year. 86.35
Dalles, Oregon........................................... Two years.                  14.32
Fort Steilacoom, Washington Territory..................... Five years.                61.75
A comparison with the Atlantic slope presents a striking contrast.  The smallest amount
of rain that falls in one year, in any locality on the eastern side, say 20 inches, is at least
equal to the average annual supply in the great grain-growing valleys of California; while,
on the other hand, no locality on the eastern side, until you reach the tropical latitude of
Florida, approaches the maximum of the Pacific slope. Thus California, with a range of 10
degrees of latitude, has a minimum of 3i inches at Fort Yuma, with a maximum exceeding
100 inches on the Sierras; while the Atlantic slope, with upwards of 20 degrees of latitude,
and an expanse of territory vastly greater, with mountainous elevations of considerable
height, presents a minimum of 20 inches with the same maximum as California.
279 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
To make the contrast more striking it may be added that the annual supply of rain has a
greater range in California, in a distance of 50 miles from Sacramento City, than on the
Atlantic slope, from Maine to Florida.  Two or three times as much rain may fallin a single
night in the mountains of California as in the entire year in the southeastern corner of the
State.
The enormous quantity of 129 inches, at Hoopa valley, is stated on the authority of Dr.
Kirkpatrick, of the United States army. In general, such extreme results are to be accepted
with caution.  The gauge may not have been fairly exposed, or it may have been wrongly
graduated. But Dr. Kirkpatrick gives, in detail, the supply for each of three months, which
seems to confirm his report: November, 44.10 inches; December, 23.79 inches; January,
30.95 inches. An observer on the South Yuba, Nevada county, reports 41.95 inches as fall
ing there in the month of December, 1867. Instead of being surprised at the floods in the
Sacramento valley, we may wonder what becomes of so much water.
It is worthy of note that Hoopa valley is but about 40 miles west of Fort Jones, where
the annual supply is set down as 16.77 inches. Both places are on the northern border of
the State, among the Coast mountains, and remote from the ocean.
In reference to the climate of California and its effect upon diseases of tihe lungs,
Lorin Blodget says:
In California the proportion of cases of this class has been given imperfectly for two prints,
on the authority of Dr. Hatch. Three years at Sacramento, which would represent the
average of Upper California quite correctly, give 113 deaths in a total of 1,251, or 90.03 per
1,000, but of this he remarks: "Certain it is, however, that few of the cases of consumptive
diseases hitherto met with in the valley have originated here. In most if not all the instances
the disease has been implanted before reaching the country, and the most that can be said is,
that it has not been benefited by the change. Of admissions to the city hospital, San Francisco, for nearly two years, August 7, 1851, to July 1, 1853, there were 84 In a total of 1,870
belonging to the respiratory class. Of these but 11 were of consumption-45 per 1,000 of
all, and 5.8 1,000 of consumption. It is believed that the cases of all diseases of this class
originating in California will not reach four per cent. on the number of deaths, and will thus
stand at less than one-third of the number of the eastern States. (Climatology of the United
States, p. 475.)
PRINCIPAL ROUTES THROUGH CALIFORNIA.
Tables (f distances, fares, andfreights.*
STEAM NAVIGATION-INLAND SERVICE.
San Francisco to Sacramento, 125 miles.-Steamer Chrysopolis, 1,300 tons, and steamer
Yosemite, 1,100 tons, daily, at 4 p. m.; returning, leave Sacramento at 2 p. m. Through
fare, $4 and $5; to Benicia, $2; to Rio Vista, $3.  Through freight, $3 per ton.
San Francisco to Stockton, 127 miles.-Steamer Julia, 600 tons, and steamer Cornelia, 600
tons, daily, at 4 p. m.; returning, leave Stockton at 4 p. m. Fare, $4 and $5. Freight,
$2 50 and $3 per ton.
Sacramento to Marysville, 45 miles.-Steamers Flora and Governor Dana, daily, at 7 a. m.;
returning, leave Marysville at 7 a. m. Fare, $4. Freight, $5 per ton.
Sacramento to Red Bluff, 105 mtles.-Steamers Gem and Lark, every Saturday morning.
Fare, $10. Freight, $17 per ton.
San Francisco to Napa, 47 miles, via Vallejo and Mare Island.-Steamer Amelia, summer,
daily, at 9 a. m.; winter, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, at 10 a. m. Fare to Napa, $3;
to Vallejo and Mare Island, $2.  Freight, $2 50 per ton; grain from Vallejo, $1 per ton.
San F'rancisco to Suisun, 40 miles, via Benicia.-Steamer Paul Pry, Tuesday, Thursday,
and Saturday. Fare, $3; to Benicia, $2.
* Compiled from Holdredge's "Guide-book of the Pacific," and other authorities.
280 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Tables of distances, fares, and freights-Continued.
SAN FRANCISCO AND SAN JOSE RAILROAD.
o o
C)
t..
x C)
- ~
C;C r/2
QQco
......
$0 20
25
35
50
60
70
75
90
1 00
1 25
1 50
1 70
1 8O
2 10
2 25
2 40
2 50
Stations.
e.
M C3
P-4
San Francisco............
Mission..................
Brannan's................
Bernal........... —---------------—.....
San Miguel...............
School House......... —-----------
12-Mile Farm.............
San Bruno......... —------------
17-Mile House..... —----------
San Mateo................
Belmont......... —--------------
Redwood City.... —--------—.
Menlo Park......... —-----------—.
Mayfield..................        
Mountain View........... 
Lawrence's...............
Santa Clara..............1
San Jos6............... —
SACRAMENTO TO STOCKTON.
Stations.             Distance.  Fare.           Freight.
Buckner's..........................   14    $2 00
Hicksville.......................... 22    3 00
Liberty............................  29        3 50
WVoodbridge........................  35.    4 00
Stockton...........................  50       5 00
Steamers run at irregular intervals between Sacramento and Stockton, carrying freight
only.
SACRAMENTO TO NAPA.
Stations.           Distance.  Fare.         Freight.
Solano House....................... 17........ Through freight, 5 cents per
Silveyville.......................... 25. ----   pound.
Vacaville..........................  35   $2 00
Suisun..............................47........
Rockville........................... 51........
Suscol.............................. 61...
Napa...............................65    4 00
Connect at Suisun with stages for Benicia, and at Napa with Healdsburg with stages, and
line for St. Helena and Calistoga.
281
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD.
.2
bD,
.a5 w
P.
o 6
li
..4
w
9
a, 12
Stations.
Sacramento...............
Arcade...................
Antelope..................
Julaction..................
Rocklin...................
Pino.....................
Newcastle.................
Auburn...................
Clipper Gap...............
Colfax....................
Cisco.....................
$0 70
1 50
1 80
2 20
2 50
3 10
3 60
4 30
5 50
.......
$1 05
2 25
2 70
3 30
3 75
4 65
5 40
6 45
8 25
.......
.......
-------
-------
.......
$0 40
45
50
65
75
.......
1 05
1 15
1 25
1 5. 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
' Tables of distances, fares, and freigqhts-Continued.
SACRAMENTO TO KNIGHT'S LANDING.
Stations.              Distance.   Fare.            Freight.
Woodland.......................... 20           $1 50  Through by team, 25 cents per
Cucheville......................... 25          2 00    cwt.
Knight's Landing.. —-----------------   35  3 00
The Buckeye and Cache Creek mail branches off at Woodland.
STOCKTON TO CAMPO SECO.
Stations.              Distance.   Fare.           Freight.
Waterloo........................... 8    $1 00  Through freight, 4 cents per
Locust Shade....................... 14           1 50    pound.
Lockeford..........................      18      2 00
Poland's............................ 20          2 00
Camanche.......................... 28            3 00
Poverty Bar........................   30     3 00
Campo Seco......................... 38           4 00
Connect at Campo Seco with stages for Ione City, via Winter's Bar, Lancha Plana, and
Buena Vista. Distance, fifteen miles; fare, $2.
STOCKTON TO COPPEROPOLIS.
Stations.             Distance.  Fare.           Freight.
Twelve-Mile House..................    12    $2 00  Stage, 4 cts. per pound; team,
Farmington......................... 16         2 50    i cent to Telegraph City;
Rock Creek.......................... 21        3 00    stage, 4 cents per pound;
Shafer's............................ 28        4 00    team, - cent to Stockton.
Telegraph City...................... 29        4 00
Copperopolis........................ 36        5 00
STOCKTON TO SAN ANDREAS.
Stations.             Distance.  Fare.            Freight.
Fifteen-Mile House.................. —----------------    15    $2 00  Through by express, 10 cents
Gorham....................... —------------------------—......... —------—... ----—.. per pound; team, 1 cent per
Spring Valley.............. —-------------------—. 37  3 50    pound.
San Andreas................... —---------------------- 45 5 00
Connect with stage at Mokelumne Hill.
282 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Tables of distauices, fares, and freights-Continued.
MARYSVILLE TO LA PORTE.
Stations.               Distance.   Fare.              Freight.
Oroville, via Northern railroad --           28    $2 00
Forbestown....................... 48...... —------  By team, $15 per ton.
Clipper Mills.........................     56.
Strawberry Valley......................60
Eagleville.......................... 62.....
La Porte...........................  74  10 00
Connect at La Porte with stages for Gibsonville.
Clipper Mills is situated near the eastern edge of Butte county, within one quarter of a
mile of the Yuba county line, and in one of the best surgar-pinoe sections of the State,
from which large quantities of clear lumber are made for the San Francisco market.
MARYSVILLE TO FORBESTOWN.
Stations.              Distance.   Fare.            Freight.
Sewalls..............................  12    $1 50
Bangor............................. 20            2 50
Miller's Ranch.........................24        3 00
Brownsville......................... 32           4 00
Forbestown.........................  37           5 00
Connect at Forbestown with stages for La Porte.
MIARYSVILLE TO DOWNIEVILLE.
Stations.              Distance.   Fare.            Freight.
Brown's Valley...................... 12    $1 00  Express, 2 cents per porund.
Foster's Bar........................ 36.
Camptonville....................... 41            5  00  6 cents per pound.
Goodyear's Bar............ 57                      9 00  9 cents per pound.
Downieville.......................       62    l0 00  10 cents per pound.
MARYSVILLE TO NORTH SAN JUAN.
Stations.              Distance.   Fare.            Freight.
Empire Ranch...................... 16    $2 00  By express, in summer, ~ to l
French Coral..................... 30             3 00    cent per pound; in winter,
Birchville...........................   32        3 50    1 to 1i cents per pound.
Sweetland.......................... 34            4 00
lNorth San Juan..................... 37           5 00
Freight from Lincoln, 35 miles distant, to North San Juan, in summer, l to 1 cent per
pound; in winter, l~ to 2 cents per pound.
Connect at North San Juan with North Bloomfield, Forest City, and Nevada stages.
283 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Tables of distances, fares, ond freights-Continued.
OAKLAND TO SOMERVILLE.
Stations.             Distance.  Fare.            Freight.
Lafayette........................ —-----------------------—... 12 $1 00
*Walnut Creek.................... —------------------—.. 16  1 50
tPacheco...................... —-------------------------- 21    2 00
Clayton....................... —------------------------—. 30 2 50
Carbondale........................ —------------—. 33  2 75
tSomerville.................... —---------------------—... 35 3 00
* Connect with Danville stages.    t Connect with Martinez stages.   + Connect with Antioch stages.
WALNUT CREEK TO DANVILLE.
Stations.             Distance.  Fare.            Freight.
Alamo.......................... —.... 3       $0 50
Danville............................ 7           75
ANTIOCH TO SOMERSVILLE.
Stations.             Distance.   Fare.          Freight.
Somersville -------------------—. -   6    $0 50  $4 per ton.
Connect at Antioch with Stockton boats.
OAKLAND TO SAN JOSE.
Stations.             Distance.   Fare.           Freight.
San Antonio........................    3    $0 50  1 cent per pound.
San Leandro....... —..................  9        75  1 cent per pound.
San Lorenzo........................   12       1 00  I cent per pound.
Alvarado................. —-------------------—....... 17  1 00 I cent per pound.
Centreville -------------------------- 21       2 00  2 cents per pound.
Mission.............................. 26      2 00  2 cents per pound.
Warm Springs......................   30        2 00  2 cents per pound.
San Jos6...........................  42        2 50  2+ cents per pound.
SAN JOSE TO ALMADEN MINES.
Stations.             Distance.  Fare.           Freight.
Mines -—..........................- 12    $1 00
284 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Tables of distances, fares, ad fireigh7ts-Continued.
SAN JOSE TO LOS ANGELES.
Stations.             Distance.   Fare.           Freight.
Natividad.......................... 52    $4 50  4~ cents per pound.
Burns's............................   62        6 00  6 cents per pound.
Salinas.............................  82        8 00  8 cents per pound.
Cock's............................    108    11 00  11 cents per pound.
Jolone.............................  120       12 00  12 cents per pound.
Plieto..............................  132      14 00  14 cents per pound.
Hot Springs........................  166    16 00  16 cents per pound.
San Luis Obispo....................  190    18 00  18 cents per pound.
Foxeil's............................  240      19 00  19 cents per pound.
Santa Juez.........................  265    20 00  20 cents per pound.
Santa Barbara......................  310    20 00  20 cents per pound.
San Buenaventura...................  342    23 00  23 cents per pound.
Las Posio..........................  36'2 25 00  25 cents per pound.
Mountain Station....................  382    26 00  26 cents per pound.
Lone Station........................ 402    27 00  27 cents per pound.
Los Angeles......................... 418    28 00  28 cents per pound.
Connect with stages for San Pedro, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Clear Lake.
SAN JOSE 1'TO SOUTH SAN JUAN.
Stations.             Distance.   Fare.           Freight.
Fifteen- Mile House..................    15    $1 00  1 cent per pound.
Twenty-one-Mile House.............      21      1 50  1  cent per pound.
Burnett's.............................................
Gilroy............................. 30        2 00  2 cents per pound.
San Juan............................42         3 00  3 cents perpound.
Connect at San Juan with stages for Watsonville, Salinas, and Monterey.
SAN JOSL TO VISALIA.
Stations.             Distance.  Fare.            Freight.
HIallenbeck's.........................50    $5 00  5 cents per pound.
San Luis...........................   66  7 00  7 cents per pound.
Lone W      illow........................   84  9 00  9 cents per pound.
Temple's............................98    11 00  11 cents per pound.
Firebaum's.........................  110    14 00  14 cents per pound.
Fresno City........................  128    17 00  17 cents per pound.
Elk Horn..........................  150    20 00  20 cents per pound.
King's River.......................  168    21 00  21 cents per pound.
Cross Creek........................   180    23 00  23 cents per pound.
Visalia............................. 192    25 00  25 cents per pound.
Connect with 10.30 a. m. train from San Francisco.  Semi-weekly in winter; through ils
three days.
285 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Tables of distances, fares, and freights-Continued.
SAN JOSE TO LEXINGTON.
Station.                Distance.   Fare.              Freight.
Lexington................... $1 00  50 cents per 100 pounds.
PETALUMA TO BODEGA.
Stations.                Distance.   Fare.              Freight.
Stony Point.......................             8    $1 00  Express I cent per pound.
Sebastopol.. 1.......................         6      2 00  Express 1 cent per pound.
Bodega............26                                 2 50  Express 1 cent per pound.
Connect at Petaluma with boats for San Francisco, and stages for Cloverdale and Mendocino.
PETALUMA TO CLOVERDALE.
Stations.              Distance.  Fare.            Freight.
Santa Rosa.........................   16    $1 50  ~ cent per pound.
Mlark West.........................   22         2 00  1 cent per pound.
WVindsor............................  26  2 25  1+ cent per pound.
Heardsburg......................... 32           3 03  Team, 50 centsper 100 pounds.
Geyserville.........................   39        3 50  1I cent per pound.
Cloverdale.......................... 49        4 50  2 cents per pound.
Connect at Hleardsburg with stages for Skaggs's and the Geyser Springs.
Connect at Cloverdale with stages for Big River and Ukiah, and Long Valley.
PETALUMA TO DUNCAN'S MILL.
Stations.              Distance.  Fare.             Freight.
Two Rock Valley................... 8    $1 00      cent per pound.
Bloomfield..........................  14          1 50      cent per pound.
Valley Ford........................  18          2 00  + cent per pound.
Bodega Corners....................  22           2 50  1 cent per pound.
Bodega Bay........................ 27  3 00  1 cent per pound.
Duncan's Point.....................  31       3 50  1 cent per pound.
Duncan's Mill.......................  36         4 00  1 cent per pound.
SUISUN TO KNOXVILLE.
Stations.              Distance.   Fare.            Freight.
Gordon Valley.......................................
Big Canion.......................... 25         $2 50
Berreyesa Valley....................   30         3 00
Sulphur Spring House............... 44          4 00
Knoxville.........................   50        5 00  1 cent per pound.
286 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Tables of distances, fares, and freights-Continued.
NAPA TO UPPER LAKE.
Stations.            Distance.  Fare.           Freight.
Sebastopol --------------------------. 9    $0 50 
St. IlHelena............. —----------------------—. 20  1 00 
Calistoga...... -.. -....... -----------------------— 27  2 00
Lower Lake........................ 62        7 00
Kelsey Creek............... —---------------------   72  7 50
Lakeport................. —-------------------------   87  8 50
Upper Lake...... —----------------------  101    10 00
I.
Connect at Napa with Sacramento stages and boats for San Francisco.
LOS ANGELES TO SAN DIEGO.
Stations.            Distance.  Fare.           Freight.
Anaheim............ —-----------------------—. 30   $3 00
San Juan Capistrano. —--------------    60   6 00
San Luis Rey........... —---------------------    3  8 00
San Diego.....,_ -      -    -      130    12 00
LOS ANGELES TO SAN BERNARDINO.
Stations.            Distance.  Fare.           Freight.
El Mrnte........................ 14    $1 00
Mud Springs................ —------------------—. 30  2 50
Sosamongo................. —-----------------------   45  4 00
San Bernardino.................. —-----------------—... 65  5 00  2- cents per pound.
Connect with Los Angeles and San Jos6 stages, and Los Angeles and Cleveland stages.
LOS ANGELES TO SAN PEDRO.
Stations.            Distance.  Fare.           Freight.
Sausee.............................   7    $0 25
Los Cuervos........................   11     0 25
Wilmington........................   22      0 50
San Pedro..........................  26      0 50
287 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Table of distances from Hlonolulu, Hawaiian Islands, andfrom San Francisco,
California, to various ports of the Pacific and the world; prepared by J.
H. Riley, Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department, and verified by J. E.
.Hilgard, esq., United States Coast Survey Office, to accompany statistical
report on the Sandwich Islands.
From-                    To-                                    Shortest dis- I Shortest sail                         |From-~~~ To- ~~tances.                           ing routes.
N laut'l miles.
14,376
6, 587
4,560
5,364
5,990
3, 282
2, 856
3, 012
2,658
2,262
2, 080
2, 330
2, 330
2,410
2,370
3;475
5,017
4, 820
5,280
5, 580
6, 740
7, 000
6.700
7,160
11,380
14,000
5,287
3,260
4, 0L0
5,300
1t, 850
1,550
i, g90
1,530
1,145
450
570
746
815
1,290
4,900
4,500
4,540
7,690
9, 577
New York, via Cape Horn..........
New York, via Panama............
Panama, New Granada............
Callao, Peru.......................
Valparaiso, Chili...................
Acapulco, Mexico..................
Mazatlan, Mexico..................         
DGuaymas, Mexico..................
D-Cape San Lucas, Mexico............
San Diego, California..............
San Francisco, California...........       
Portland, Oregon...................                23
Victoria, Victoria Island............
New Westminster, British Columbia..
oNew Archangel, (Sitka Isl'd,) Alaska.
Yokohama, Japan..................
Canton, China......................
Sydney, New South Wales..........
IMelbournle, Victoria................ Jeddo, via Honolulu................
Shanghai, via Honolulu............
Hong Kong, via Honolulu..........
Sydney, via Honolulu..............
Melbourne, via Honolulu............
Calcutta, via Honolulu............
New York, via Cape Horn...........
New York, via Panama.....................
DPanama...........................| Callao..........................
D......Valparaiso.................., 1           5-300
Acapulco, Mexico..................
Manzanillo, Mexico.................
Mazatlan, Mexico.................. —
Guaymas, Mexico..................
Cape San Lucas, Mexico............
San Diego, California................
Portland, Oregon....................
Victoria, Vancouver's Island.......
New Westminster, British Columbia..
New Archangel, (Sitka Island)......
Kanagawa, Japan.....................
Milford Haven, England............
l Tahiti, Society Islands.............
Sydney, New South Wales.......... —----
I Canton, China....................
I
I
288
Naut'l miles.
4,320
4,560
5,172
5,928
3,282
2,856
2,580
2,658
2,262
2,080
2,256
2,310
2,358
2,370
3,354
4,848
4,405
4,810
4,460
5,328
6,012
6,456
6,860
6,810
............
............
2,886
3,912
5,124
1,740
1,472
1,200
864
1,104
400
462
654
690
1,284
4,390
4,430
7,638
8,760
Honolulti - ------------
Do
Do ---------------
Do ---------------
Do ---------------
Do ---------------
Do...............
Do ---------------
Do..... —.
Do ---------------
I)o ---------------
I)o
I)o ---------------
T),, -. -.. -. -.... -..
Do ---------------
Do ---------------
Do —" —--
San Francisco
Do - --------------
Do-... —.
DiG ---------------
Do...............
DID ----------------
I.)o...............
Do...............
Do ----- ----------
Do ---------------
Do ----------- ----
Do...............
Do-. —-..
Do ---------------
Do ------------- --
Do - --------------
Do ------- --------
Do ---------------
Do —
Do ----------- ----
Aspinwall -------------
Panama -- ------------
Do - --------------
Do --------------- 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
SECTION XXII.
GENERAL SUMMARY.
AREA OF CALIFORNIA, ARABLE LANDS, POPULATION, PRODUCT OF PRECIOUS METALS,
SHIPMENTS OF TREASURE, COINAGE, &C.
The Commissioner of the General  Land Office, in his Report for 1867, says:
California extends along the Pacific coast 750 miles, with an average breadth of 230. Its
area is 188,981 square miles, or 120,947,840 acres, of which not less than 89,000,000, including swamp and tule lands capable of reclamation, are suited to some kinds of profitable husbandry. Of these over 40,000,000 are fit for the plough, and the remainder present excellent
facilities for stock-raising, fruit-growing, and all the other branches of agriculture. This agricultural area exceeds that of Great Britain and Ireland, or the entire peninsula of Italy. The
State also contains about 40,000,000 of acres of mineral land, unsurpassed for productiveness.
About 30,000,000 of acres have been surveyed, leaving a residue unsurveyed of 90,000,000.
Nearly 9,000,000 have been granted to the State by the general government, under various
acts of Congress, for common schools, agricultural colleges, public buildings, and internal
improvements.
Of the 40,000,000 acres of arable land, 14,000,000 are found in the basin of the Sacramento
and San Joaquin rivers, 16,000,000 in the coast valleys, and the residue in the region called
the "Colorado desert," in Owen's river valley and the Klamath basin. When irrigation is
practiced on an extensive scale, as it must be within a few years, and the valley of the'Colorado is brought under its influence, much of what is now characterized as "desert" will
become productive and valuable. The land not fit for the plough, but valuable for grazing
and in a measure for horticultural purposes, especially the grape culture, is to be found on
the foot-hills and slopes of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range mountains.
Langley, in his Pacific Coast Directory, estimates that 65,000,000 acres are
adapted to agriculture, 15,000,000 to grazing purposes, that 4,000,000 are swamp
and overflowed lands; also, that the greater portion of the latter is capable of
reclamation, and is to a great extent each year being added to the cultivated
lands of the State.  The area of lakes, bays and mountains he estimates at
14,000,000.
Of the 65,000,000 acres of agricultural lafind, [says the same authority, ] there were returned
by the county assessors, for the year 1865, as under fence, 4,055,690 acres, and under cultivation 1,504,680 acres. It will thus be seen that there is but six per cent. of the agricultural
land of the State under fence, and little over two and one-half per cent. under cultivation.
The returns for 1866 will increase these estimates about 15 per cent.
19
289 
290       RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
[From Langley's Pacific Coast Directory.j
Table exhibiting the county seats of the different counties, legal distances,.opulation
of 1860 and 1866, &c.
a                                                      - n
.
.o I
PI C
It
";i
..1 c
c11e
c3
County seat.
=  0C
c) u
con~:t
Miles.
135
1,10
55
75
60
75
90
465
50
190
390
t
t
450
120
200
550
135
145
t
115
260
245
60
65
35
145
Capital.
600
750
117
51
335
140
435
150
,245
]85
110
350
90
130
85
50
145
255
250
115
16
50
Alameda............
Alpine..............
Amador.............
Butte.............-.
Calaveras...........
Colusa............. —----------- -
Contra Costa... —------
Del Norte... —-------—..
El Dorado...........
Fresno... —---------—.Humboldt...........
Inyo................
Kern...............
Klamath............
Lake................
Lassen........... —---------—.Los Angeles —--—....... —Marin...............
AMariposa....          --------—.
Mendocino..........
Merced................
Mono.... —------------         
Monterey...........
Napa... —------------
Nevada.............
Placer...............
Plumas..............
Sacramento.........
San Bernardino.... --
San Diego..........
San Francisco.......
San Joaquin.........
S           an Lu is Obisp o.....
San Mate           o..........
Santa Barbara.......
Santa Clara.........
Santa Cruz..........
Shasta..............
Sierra...............
Siskiyou............
Solano..............
Sonoma.............
Stanislaus...........
Sutter...............
Tehama............
Trinity..............
Tulare..............
Tuolumnc...........
Yolo...............
Yuba...............
Total —-----------------------------------— 380, 016 103, 135 137, 498 456, 437 197, 133, 145
NOTE.-Total estimated population in 1867, 480,000.
* The figures in the above table referring to the population of this State for 1866 are taken from the report
of the State superintendent of public schools, Mr. John Swett, and are estimated upon the basis that the
school children under fifteen years of age constitute thirty per cent. of the population. In the absence of
official data, this is probably as fair a mode as can be adopted to arrive at an approximation of the population
of our State.  We think, however, that the estimate for San Francisco is at least 18,000 too low.-Compiler.
t Not yet defined by law.                                      + Estimated.
I9 I
It -
x-:
11
0 
,. IZ
,4
10
r..
,- -1
;I
5.2
r,
.5
. 0
I. 2 
I I
-  '6
0 0
.< Iz 
1;
6
Counties.
San Leandro. - -.
Silver Mountain -
Jackson.........
Oroville.........
San Andreas....
Colusa..........
Martinez........
Crescent City....
Placerville......
Millerton........
Eureka.........
Independence-..
Havilah.........
Orleans Bar... -.
Lakeport........
Susanville.......
Los Angeles.....
San Rafael......
Mariposa........
Ukiah...........
Snelling........
Bridgeport ------
Monterey.......
,Napa City.......
Nevada City...-.
Auburn.........
Quincy..........
SacraTnento - -...
San Bernardino-.
San Diego:......
San Francisco -. -
Stockton........
San Luis ObispoRedwood City-..
Santa Barbara. - -
San Jos6........
Santa Cruz......
Shasta..........
Downieville.. -..
Yreka -----------
Fairfield........
Santa Rosa......
Knight's Ferry. -
Yuba City.......
Red Bluff.......
Weaverville. -. -
Visalia..........
Sonora.........
Woodland -------
Marysville......
1853
1864
1 S54
1850
1850
1850
1 811)0
1857
IF50
1856
1853
1866
1866
1851
1861
1864
1850
1850
1850
1850
1855
1861
1850
1850
1851
1851
1854
1850
1854
is5o
1856
1850
1850
1856
1850
1850
1850
1850
1852
1852
1850
1850
1854
1850
1856
1851
1852
1850
1850
1850
8,926
.........
10,933
12,107
16,302
2,274
5, 328
1,992
20, 562
1 4,605
2, 694
.........
.........
1,803
.........
2,278
2, 591
2,856
3, 635
699
1, 480
306
5, 071
451
685
261
618
5,'4
1,299
1, 095
1, 609
1, 354
291
305
779
1, 328
4, 577
,, 792
1, 497
5, 956
736
294
21, Ot9
3, 276
408
977
43
3,132
1, 426
1, 471
3, 088
1,882
2,163
4, 362
623
1, 263
846
1, 114
1,167
3,155
1,128
3,203
4, 631
23 L
2,816
2, 806
3, 600
956
2, 682
299
3, 892
486
1, 601
28
197
995
426
3, 882
1, 347
1,253
2, 301
596
2,123
2,175
4, 970
3,1%-3
982
6, 914
1, 679
454
30, 694
5,143
856
1, i544
1, 641
6, 509
2, 7SO
1,276
1, 555
1, 727
4, 755
7, 585
940
1,739
1, 016
728
1, 363
2, 951
2,125
3,126
15, 430
9,380
9,350
12, 000
3,180
8, 960
12, 970
1, 680
5, 330
3,350
1,420
12,940
4, 490
4,170
7, 670
1, 980
7,000
7, 250
16, 560
10,410
3, 670
23, 000
5, 260
1, 500
102,313
17,140
2,850
5,148
5, 470
21, 696
9,260
4,250
5,180
5, 756
15,850
25, 280
3, 460
5, 796
3,.-,86
2, 426
4, 890
9, 836
7, OSO
10, 420
-$4,533,560
450, O,-,O
1, 907,252
5,128,358
1, 890,657
1, 689,155
2,544,282
379,025
3,476, 526
826,000
2,2CO, 000
'500, 000
819,825
288, 089
395,708
.,750,000
2,353,392
2, 247, 571
1,237,470
1, 900, 000
842, 847
57, 961
1,265,450
2, 797, 688
5,173,837
2, 826,243
1, 192,521
10, 316, 976
695, 201
448, 766
SS,402,274
5, 275, 016
758,330
2, 700, 000
771, 861
7, 972,899
1,441, 739
1, 091,723
2,314,096
1, 617, 822
3, 044,120
5, 346, 686
1, 026, 216
1, 778, 268
1, 59s, 500
653,189
1, 299,379
12,300.000
2, 15d, 427
4, 150, 500
11, 336
3, 334
6, 243
3, 967
1,141
4, 739
5, 515
16, 447
13, 270
4, 363
24, 145
5, -,54
4, 326
56, 805
9,434
1, 782
3,1214
3, 545
11, 912
4, 945
4, 360
11, 389
7,629
7,170
11, 867
2,245
3,390
4, 044
5,125
4, 638
16, 229
4, 716
13, 671
Total...........
197,133,345
380, 016 103, 135 137, 498 456. 437
................
.......
..... 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Statement of the  ntumber of passengers by sea arriving at and departing from t7he
_port of Satn Francisco during the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of
1867, as declared at the customh-ouse.
Arrivals.                             Departures.
a       a       a       a      _               a       a       a D
,,   J  o +,, n oElC, E
Panama, New Granada.......  3, 089  6,409  5, 654  5,630 20,782  2,227  3,168  2,194  2,434  10,074
San Juan del Sur............. 1, 766  1,519  1,674   1,835  6,791    867  1,413   1,005  1,055   4, 340
Victoria, British Columbia.... 242    236    341    405  1, 224           77    134       120     71      402
China and Japan............. 463  2,129  1,429    273  4, 294    424    410  1,232  2, 433   4,499
Europe, direct................. 12.......  6      13      31       1.......       2       1       4
Eastern ports, direct.......... 4.................... 4 --- --- ------ -------
Australia.....................15          315    702       98  1,267.................            67       67
Mlexico....................... 193          73    230      97    593    156    lII         67    107       441
Hawaiian islands.............     145     227      67    105    544        63      51     47       99      260
Other countries............... 20          18      47      54    139       15       9    344       14     382
Total.................. 6, 086 10,926 10,150  8, 510 35, 672  3,881  5,296  5, 011  6,281  20,469
RECAPITULATION.
1st quarter.  2d quarter.  3d quarter.  4th quarter.  Total.
Arrivals.....................................    6, 086  10, 926        10,150       8, 510    35, 672
Departures.................................. 3, 881          5,296       5, 011      6,281     20,469
Gain.................................. 2,205    I
One of the most agreeable features of the past year is the increase in population which
reached our shores during its passage. The arrivals during the second and third quarters were
more6 numerous than in the first and fourth quarters, while the departures for the fourth quarter
exceed those of any other. This we believe to be contrary to the general rule. Heretofore
the greatest nimber of arrivals by sea have been during the last quarter, and the departures
fewer.  People at the east are generally more anxious to leave when the rigors of their severe
winters commence, while those who have been residents of the Pacific coast usually evince
more desire to go eastward when the spring has fairly opened and our winds commence.
During the year 1867 the arrivals by sea exceeded the departures by 15,203. But we have
also received large additions overland.  Our probable increase from abroad will reach 27,000
souls. Large numbers are known to be on their way from Sweden, Germany, and Norway,
and considerable tracts of fine farming land have already been purchased and made ready for
their reception.-[Commercial Herald and Market Review.
PRODUCT OF PRECIOUS METALS, ETC.
RECEIPTS AND EXPORTS OF TREASURE.-The following tables derived from
official sources are copied from the Commercial Herald and Market Review:
TREASURE PRODUCT, IMPORTS, ETC.
The receipts of treasure from all sources through regular public channels during the past
twelve months, as compared with 1866, have been as follows:
1867.
$40,927,309
4, 477,461
6,192, 734
, 3, 969, 322
55, 566, 826
1866.
From California northern mines.......................... $38,715,340
From California southern mines......................... 5,149,749
From Coastwise ports, Oregon, &c......................         5, 940,536
Imports, foreign, British Columbia, &c -------------—................ —..  2,887,028
Total............................................ 52,692,653
291
5, 630 5,139 2, 229 15, 203 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
From an examination of the statements of treasure received in this city, it will be seen that
there has been an increase of more than $2,000,000 in the amount received from the northern
mines the past over the preceding year; the greater portion of this increment being due to
the State of Nevada. The receipts from the southern mines have meantime fallen off materially, while those from coastwise ports, Oregon, &c., have increased slightly, and those from
British Columbia and other foreign ports very considerably. The bullion transmitted the
past year to this city, through Wells, Fargo & Co's. express, as being the product of the
State of Nevada, amounted to $1,000,000. To this sum may be added, perhaps, $500,000
to represent the amount of bullion arriving during the year in private hands, making a total
product for that State for 1867 of $18,500,000.  Of this sum about $2,000,000 maybe set down
as the product of Reese river and other outside localities, leaving the balance $16,000,000 to be
credited to the Comstock lode. In apportioning the product of these several outside localities,
about $1,500,000 should be set down to account of what is usually termed the Reese river
country, which, for the end in view, should be made to embrace all the outlying districts about
Austin; in fact, the whole of Lander, Nye, and Lincoln counties, excepting, perhaps, the Silver
Peak district, which lies in Esmeralda county, and which has turned out but little bullion
the past year. The remaining half million may be divided between Humboldt and Esmeralda
counties in the following proportions: $300,000 for the former, and $200,000 for the latter,
none of the other counties in the State, except Storey, containing the Comstock lode, producing any bullion worth naming. These figures, as will be seen, denote for the year in
question a very marked increase in the State at large over the yield of any former year; this
rate of increase being in about the same ratio for the Comstock lode and the outside precincts.
The product of the former for 1866 was estimated at $16,250,000, and of the other localities
named, $1,250,000, of which,1,000,000 was assigned to Reese river, and $250,000 to Humboldt and Esmeralda.  While, however, such gratifying gains have, during this period, signalized the progress of Nevada, the year has rather been one of preliminary preparation than
of progress and fruition; the most of the companies owning what may be considered the more
promising of the outside mines, having been engaged at heavy expense in developing their
claims, and erecting mills-very few of them in active productive operation. These mills will
soon be completed, and the mines be thoroughly explored, and placed in condition to yield
ores largely, rendering it probable that still more marked additions will be made to the bullion
returns of the State the present than was done the past year, and almost insuring for that
State a total product for 1868 of $20,000,000.  Even if the Comstock mines should not
advance their yield, or should suffer some small abatement, this result will probably be attained,
as there is an almost certainty of the mines at Silver Peak and those about Belmont turning
out a large amount of bullion the current year, to say nothing of the promised gains for
Humboldt and Esmeralda.
The following table shows the value and destination of treasure shipments from this port
during the past 14 years-from 1854 to 1867, inclusive:
Years.   East'n ports.  England.       China.       Panama.    Other ports.    Totals.
1854... $46,533,166  $3,781,080       $965,887      $204,592      $560,908  $52,045,633
1855....   38,730,564    5,182,156      889,675       231,207       128,129   45,161,731
1856... 39,895,294    8, 666,289    1,308,852        253,268       573,732   50,697,434
1857...  35,531,778    9,347,743    2,993,264         410,929       692,978   48,976,692
1858....  35,891,236    9,265,739    1,916,007        299,265       175,779    47 548,026
1859.-..  40,146,437    3,910,930    3,100,756        279,949       202,390   47,640,462
1860-.. 35,719,296    2, 672,936    3,374,680         300,819       258,185   42,325,916
1.861.-.- 32,628,011    4,061,779    3,541,279         349,769        95,920    40,676,758
1862... 26,194,035   12,950,140   2,660,754           434,508       322,324   42,561,761
1863. — 10,389,330  28,467,256    4,206,370   2,503,296              505,667   46,071,920
1864.... 13,316,122  34,436, 423   7,888,973          378,795       686,888   56,707,201
1865..  20,583,390  15,432,639    6,963,522   1,224,845    1,103,832   45,308,227
1866.-.- 29,244,891   6,532,208    6,527,287           5 11,550    1,548,457    44,364,393
1867.... 23,355,903    5,841,184    9,031,504         372,552   3,075,149    41,676,292
Totals. 428,159,453  150,548,502  55,368,810   7,755,344    9,930,338  651,762,446
292 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MIOUNTAINS.
RECEIPTS OF TREASURE.
The following tables comprise the receipts of coined and uncoined treasure from the interior and coastwise during the years 1865, 1866, and 1867:
FRO3I THE NORTHERN MINES.
1865.                              1866.                              1867.
Uncoined.   Coined.    Total.   Uncoined.  Coined.           Total.   Uncoined.  Coined.        Total.
Jan....... $3,236,768  $440, 637 $3, 677, 405 $2, 347, 832  $452, 288 $2, 800,120 $3, 077, 269  $439, 264 $3, 516, 533
Feb. ----— 2,995,163    245,174 3,240, 337 2, 846,130    173, 030 3, 019, 160  2, 262,155   265, 857  2, 528, 012
Mfarch       3, 875, 331   216,853 4, 092,184 2, 567, 000   182,000  2, 749, 000 2, 7]19, 436    281,876  3,001,312
April...  3, 258 420    279, 504  3, 537, 924 2, 951.030    599, 415  3, 550,445 3, 943, 605    246,910 4,190, 515
MIay......3,851,533   211, 808 4, t63, 341  3, 523, 482   360, 670 3, 884,152  3, 521, 435    250, 354  3, 771, 789
June.....3, 416, 3434   271, 438 3, 687, 742 3, 357, 702    230, 373 3, 588, 075 3, 465, 576    273, 403  3, 738, 979
July...... 2, 860, 830    274, 776 3,135, 606 3,158, 584    445, 000 3, 603, 584  3, 701, 611   291, 524 3,993,135
Aug......3, 058, 004    23,9, 118 3, 267,122 3, 293, 276    243, 097 3, 536, 373  3, 736, 035    209, 890' 3, 945, 925
Sept...... 2, 613, 623    185, 342 2, 798, 965 2, 802, 649    241, 443 3, 044, 092 3,101, 754    185, 920 3, 287, 674
Oct......2, 688, 079    225,977 2, 914, 056 3,128, 320    198, 420 3, 326, 740 3, 082, 637    307,219 3, 389, 856
Nov...... 2,614,218    250,853 2, 865, 071  2,621, 219    196,337  2,817, 556  2, 968, 419    253,263 3, 221,682
Dec...... 2, 181, 064    281, 630  2, 462, 694 2, 595, 531    200, 512 2, 796, 043  1, 998, 695    343, 202  2, 341, 897
Total..-  36, 649, 337  3, 093, 110 39, 742, 447 35, 192, 755 3, 522, 585i38, 715, 340O37, 578, 627 3, 348, 682140, 927,309
FROM THE SOUTHERN MINES.
Jan.......$425, 711      $123, 374   $549, 085  $289, 984  $138, 836   $428, 820   $220, 367   $166, 707   $387,074
Feb.....     386, 287      72, 283   458, 570   308, 716    65, 431   374,147    203, 918    57, 452   261, 370
March   53       0, 210    129 073    659, 283   250, 000    57, 000   307, 000   203, 250         98, 674    301,924
April      471, 963    79, 600    551, 563   355,295       64, 479   419, 774   287 478    123 275   410 753
May......   501, 267    135, 444    636, 711    269, 045       84, 080   353,125    290, 543   130, 600   421, 143
June...  433, 818       86, 534    520, 352   296, 168    119, 350   415, 518    314, 402    114, 107    428, 509
July......  408, 903    136 363    545, 266   306, 373         70,432   376, 805.  309, 661    87, 910   397, 571
Aug......  407, 355    100 404    507, 759   309, 361          79, 595    388, 956    262,188    75. 825    338, 013
Sept......  421,033        82 261    503, 294   256, 683       97, 608    354, 29]    237, 027    104, 969   341, 996
Oct.......  437,274    156 642   593, 916    488,450           87, 614   576, 064    263, 728    132, 028   395,757
Nov......   373, 433    122 935   496, 368   490, 300    92, 330    582, 630    254, 921   184, 837    439,758
Dec...... 311, 159       95, 634    406, 793    486, 600     86, 019'  572, 619   165, 873    187, 72]   353,594
Total...  5,108, 413 1, 320, 547 6, 428, 9609 4,106, 975 1, 042, 774 5, 149, 749 3, 013, 356 1, 464,105 4, 477, 461
COASTW,ISE.
Jan....... $333, ]23   $128. 611   $461, 734   $257, 930    $30, 853   $288, 783   $344,449    $15, 381  $359, 821
Feb......   219, 926      59, 978    279, 904    174, 219     80, 972    255,191    128, 799     10, 884    139, 683
MIarch..       167, 411     40, 911    208,322    197,023       20, 577    217, 600    119, 398    23, 284    142, 682
April.... 291, 949         60,873    352, 822   274, 620       29, 974    304, 594    344, 075     7,450    351, 525
May......  362,150         47, 975    410,134   411, 427    90, 956    502, 383    380, 780       11, 636   392, 416
June..    791, 928          52, 669    844, 597   460,132      42, 388   502, 520    366, 265       8, 976    375, 241
July......   823, 641       31,269    854,910    680,953    37, 591   718,544   760,693    214, 744   975,437
Aug...... 78    6, 538     32, 241    818,799    932, 392    56, 959    989, 351  1, 006,186        2, 536  1, 008,722
Sept......  954, 813        28, 876    983, 689    621,426      7, 618    629 044    490, 853       5,556    496 409
Oct.......  634,116         23, 864    657, 980    559, 212    54, 055   613, 267   744, 349)   80, 980   825, 329
Nov......  794, 085         16, 818    810, 903   412,183    45,300   457, 483  - 536, 548    100, 520    637,068
Dec...... 788, 802  24,180    812,982    415, 583      32,193   447, 776    442,951       45, 450.   488, 401
Total...  6, 948, 511    548, 265 7, 496, 776 5, 397, 100    529,436  5, 926, 536 5, 665, 337   527, 397 6,192, 734
RECAPITULATION.
1865.           1866.           1867.
Uncoined.................................................... $48, 706, 261  $44, 696, 830   $46, 257, 320
Cloiaet................................................. 4, 961, 922    5, 094, 895    5, 340,184
Total.................................................. 53, 668,183  49, 791, 725   51, 597, 504
293 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Statement of the amount and destination of treasure exported from San Francisco
during the year ending December 31, 1867, as declared at the custom-house.
TO NEW YORK.
$2,809,235 55
1,396,207 24
1,646,058 86
1,186,780 34
2,535,232 56
2,661,643 57
2,389,688 29
],610,041 45
1,337,755 30
1,024,552 18
1,957,828 43
2,800,881 68
$23,355,903 45
TO ENGLAND.
In January.........................................
In February.......................................
In March..........................................
In April..............................................
In May............................................ 
In June...........................................
In July...........................................
In August...................... —...................
In September......................................
In October......................................... 
In November.......................................
In December.......... —-------—.............................
5, 841,183 99
TO FRANCE.
In January..........................................
In February.......................................
In March -.......,..............................7..
In April............................ —--------------------------------------—...
In May.............................................
In June...........................................
In July...........................................
In August.........................................
In September...................................
In October......................................
In November.......................................
In pecember.................................4                    5
1,283,235  73
TO CHINA.
In January.................................... —-----------------------------------—....
In February...................... —------------------------------------
In March —-----------------------------------—.........................................In April............................ —--------------------------------------
In May... —----------------------------------------
In June................................ —---------------------------------------
In July....................... —------------------------------------—...., 
In August............................. —-----------------------------------—....
In September.-.. -............. —--------------------------
In October........................................
In December.......................................
9,031,504 35
TO JAPAN.
In January........................................
In March..........................................
In April...........................................
In May............................................
In July...........................................
In September......................................
In October.........................................
In December.......................................
641,949 52
294
703,070 85
384,098 00
357,661 60
297,174 02
788,772 13
502,834 36
616,302 22
515,691 91
493,065 34
704,600 43
321,514 42
156,408 71
122,331 56
105,079 91
67,000 00
69,537 25
101,509 48
117,400 57
]83,751 64
234,905 70
106, 600 42
34,772 40
65,555 27
74,79t 53
806, 076 27
376,206 32
110,642 72
1,081,513 57
760, 027 73
698,933 73
1,746,078 69
385,540 53
1,180,308 18
~ 1,]19,629 84
766, 546 77
21,685 46
10,000 00
2, 238 72
2, 845 00
1,100 00
10,000 06
650 00
593, 430 34 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
TO PANAMA.
In January........................................
In February.......,................................ 
In March........................................3
In April...........................................
InMay...........................................
In June...,.....................,,...................
In July...........................................
In August.........................................
In September......................................
In October..-......................................
In November........................................
In December........-.................................
$372,551 70
TO CENTRAL AMERICA.
In February.......................................... 
In April...........................................
In May...........................................24..
In June...........................................
In July...........................................
In October.........................................
In December........................................
171,980 00
TO HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
InApri........................................... —-----------------------------------------
In June................ —-----------------------------------------
In July........................... —---------------------------------------—. 
In August.........................................
In October.........................................
In November..........................                 4...........
57,032 45
TO MEXICO.
In January........................................
In February.......................................
In March..........................................
In October.........................................
In December.   _.................110.
42,000 00
TO VALPARAISO.
In February.......................................
In March..........................................
723,460 97
TO TAHITI.
In February......._ —------—.................
TO VICTORIA.
In February........................................
In October........................................
In December.......................................
155,000 00,
-41,676,72-0 16
44,364, 393 05
2 688,100 89
Total, 1867     -............... 41 —-...........-                                    1
Total, 1866............................. —----------------------------------—... —-----
Decrease this year............................................
* To the figures representing the amount of treasure shipped hence in 1867 would justly be added about
$6,000,000 sent east by the United States sub-treasurer in this city, whereby the total sum sent out of tho
country reached $48,000,000 for the last year. This officer shipped on government account $11,500,000 in 1866k
though, so near as we can learn, not over $6,000,000 were shipped by him last year.
295
$30,000 00
30,000 00
30,000 00
29,000 00
30.000 00
30,000 00
30,000 00
32,127 40
40,000 00
30,000 00
31,424 30
30"000'00
. 20,000 00
45,550 00
28,400 00
8, 000 00
3,000 00 -
8,660 00
58,370 00
].,300 00
i,ooo 00
1,000 00
5,000 00
18,906 00
29,826 42
10,000 00
3,000 00
13,000 00
5,000 00
11,000 00
399,849 08
323,601 89
-500 00,
50,000 00
80,000 00
25,000 00 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
AMOUNT OF BULLION ASSAYED AND TAXED.-The following table, prepared at the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, shows the total
amount of bullion produced in the United States, upon which the revenue tax
of one-half of one per cent. has been collected during the calendar year 1867.*
It should be observed that the bullion is not always assayed and assessed in the
State or Territory in which it is produced.  California, for example, shows a
total estimated value of gold and silver bullion in coin of $28,840,139; this
includes a considerable portion of the product of Idaho, Washington Territory,
and Oregon. Nearly all the bullion produced in Nevada is assessed in that
State; whilst in New York and Pennsylvania the assessments are upon bullion
deposited there from other sources.  The table, therefore, is chiefly valuable as
showing the aggregate product upon which taxes have been collected.  The
total value assessed, viz: $58,175,047, and the actual product for 1867, as estimated in letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, (page 3,) viz: $75,000,000,
show a difference of $16,824,953. Of this amount a portion may be accounted
for as remaining unassayed, and some may have escaped taxation.
Statement showing the tax returned on bullion as assayed from each State and Ter  ritory of the United States for the calendar year 1867; also, the value of the
bullion in currency and its estimated value in coin, assuming that the average
.premium on gold for the year was 358  per cent., or that one dollar in currency
was worth seventy-two cents in coin.
Tax incurrency Taxincurrency  Valueofthegold Value of the sil        States and Territories.       o        n ldbulliny   on silver bul-   bullion,in cur-   ver- bullion, in
lion.              rency.            currency.
California............................. $193,366 74                $6, 912 00      $38, 67,3, 348      $1, 389, 400
Colorado...............45................,447 45  289, 490........ —--
Idaho................................. 5, 680 12                   1,682 02         1,136, 024           336, 404
Montana..............................           11,413 70                  44        2,282,740                  88
Nevada...-............................ 43, 865 20                  77, 021 21        8, 773,040        15, 404, 242
New York............................. 28,140 27                     3, 007 70        5, 638, 054           601, 540
Oregon.................................. 10, C24 60        4 61         2,004, 920                922
Pennsylvania.......................... —----------- ----------- 14, 030 14  1,747 00  2,806,028           349,400
Utah.................................. 4, 087 16................                      817,432................
Washington.........................-              1, 563 02....-.-......... 312,604................
Total.......................... —------------------------- 313, 618 40  90, 374 98  62, 723, 680  18, 074, 996
Total value of Estimatedvalue Estimatedvalue  Total estimated
g~~~~oldand builver             of silver bul- vauofol
States and Territories.             ~l and silver f                           goldbullio,ll                                      bullion, in cur-   i                                     d silver bul                                      rency.                                      coin.    lion, in coin.
California............................. —--------------------------- $40, 055, 748  $27, 844, 811  $995, 328  $28, 840,139
Colorado.............................. —----------------------------    289, 490  208, 433................ 208,433
Idaho................................. 1,472,428                    817,937           242, 211.1,060,148
Montana..............................           2, 282, 828       1,643, 573                 63         1,643, 636
Nevada............................... —----------------------------- 24, 177,282  6, 316, 589  11,091,054  17, 407, 643
New York............................. —--------------------------- 6, 229, 594  4, 052,199  433,109     4, 485, 308
Oregon................................ 2,005, 842                  1, 443, 542              664         1,444,206
Pennsylvania.......................... 3,155, 428                  2, 020, 340         251,568          2,271,908
Utah.................................. 817,432                       588,551................ 588,551
Washlugton...........................             312,604            225, 075. —--------------           225,075
Total........................... 80,798, 676              45,161, 050        13, 013, 997       58,175, 047
* This tax is abolished under the new internal revenue act.
296 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
DEPOSITS AND COINAGE.-The following is a statement of the deposits and
coinage at the branch mint of the United States, in San Francisco, during the
year ending December 31, 1867:
Value.
Gold deposits............................. —------------------------------—.......... ----------------— $18, 923,152 17
Silver deposits and purchases........................................ 613,117 94
Total deposits................................................ 19,536,270 11
Statement of coinage executed.
Denominations.                            No. of pieces.    Value.
GOLD.
Double eagles............................................................ 920, 750   $18,415,000 00
Eagles................................................................. 9  000          90,000 00
Half eagles.............................................................29, 000        145,000 00
Quarter eagles......................................................... 28,000           70, 000 00
Total.......................................................... 986, 750   L8, 720,000 00
SILVER.
Half dollars............................................................,196, 000      598, 000 00
Quarter dollars......................................................... 48, 000         12, 000 00
Dimes......................................................................  140,000     14,000 00
Half dimes........................................................... 120, 000            6, 000 00
Fine b a r s...............................................................   20  20, 534 92
Total............................................................ 1,504,020      650,534 92
RECAPITULATION.
Gold coinage............................................................ 986, 750    18,720,000 00
Silver................................................................. 1, 504 020      650, 534 92
T    ota             l............................................................ 2, 490, 770   19,370,534 92
The deposits for the year ending December 31, 1867, were of the following character:
GOLD DEPOSITS.
California, bullion.................................... $5,700,871 12
Idaho, "................................... 1,144,483 04
Oregon,     " —--------------------------------— 319,62048 904
Oregon, ".................................... 319,620 90
Montana,    ".................................... 309,843 32
Nevada, "............................ —--------------------------------—... 49,030 47
Arizona, ".......................... —---------------------------------- 48,797 73
Parted from silver bullion.............................  168,901 92
Fine bars................ —----------------—. 10,980,791 94
Foreign coin.......153,453 31
Foreign bullion...................................... 47,358 42
$7,741, 548 50
11,181,603 67
18, 923,152 17
Total gold....."-............-..-..-.. —-- --    18      32....
297 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
SILVER.
Nevada, bullion................-.. -- $205,618-87
Arizona,  "  ----------------------------------- - 8,425 74
Idaho,    "......................................    39,727 45
Parted from gold bullion.............................. 69,999 56
Bars.................... —--------------------------—... ----------- 239,799 25
Foreign coin...... —---------------------------------- 27,595 31
Foreign bullion................. —----------------------------—. — 21,951 76
$323,771 62
289,346 32
613,117 94
$20, 534 92
19, 536, 270 11
20, 534 -92
Total silver..................................................
Silver bars stamped................................................
Total gold and silver..............................
Fine bars, total.....................................................
TOTAL DEPOSITS AND ConAGE.-The Secretary of the Treasury in his annual
report for the year 1867 states that the total value of the bullion deposited at
the mint and branches during the fiscal year was $41,893,100 76, of which
$40,069,200 06 was in gold and $1,823,900 70 in silver. Deducting the redeposit, the amount of actual deposit was $34,537,048 39.
The coinage for the year was, in gold coin, $28,217,187 50; gold bars,
$11,621,691 32; silver coin, $986,871; silverbars, $575,823 18; nickel, copper,
and bronze coinage, (one, two, three, and five-cent pieces,) $1,879,540. Total
coinage, $31,083,598 50. Total bars stamped, $12,197,514 50.
The gold deposits of domestic production were, at Philadelphia, $2,418,1I 7 89;
at San Francisco, $17,936,169 40; at New Yorkl, $10,320,821 55; at Denver,
$130,559 70. The silver deposits were, at Philadelphia, $37,399 72; San
Francisco, $744,387 48; New York, $274,893 19.
The gold and silver deposits of foreign production were $2,674,619 46.
The amount of gold coined at Philadelphia was $10,072,060 86; at San
Francisco, $18,225,000; of silver, at Philadelphia, $357,490 38; at San Francisco, $780,048 54; of bronze, nickel, and copper, at Philadelphia, $1,879,540.
Total number of pieces struck, 54,110,384.
298 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
NEVADA.
SECTION I.
TOPOGRAPIHY. PHYSICAL FEATURES, AND NATURAL PRODUCTIONS.
SYSTEM OF MIOUNTAINS, PLAINS, AND VALLEYS.-This State, in common
with the entire region lying between the Sierra Nevada and the Rockly mountains,
is an elevated plain, having a general altitude of about 4,000 feet above the level
of the sea. Crossing this plateau are many mountain ranges, the most of which
have a northerly and southerly course, being separated from each other by valleys
from 5 to 20 miles wide, which is also about the width of the adjacent mountains,
measured on a straight line from base to base. These mountains have an abso lute height varying from 5,000 to 12,000 feet, being from 1,000 to 8,000 feet
above the common level of the country. The Sierra Nevada, forming for some
distance a natural barrier along the western and southwestern parts of the State,
varies in height from 7,000 to 13,000 feet. This range is covered with heavy
forests to its very base, while all the others in the interior of the State are barren
of wood, or but sparsely timbered. This alternation of mountains and valleys
is preserved with great uniformity throughout all parts of the State, more especially in the central and eastern portions. In places these mountains disappear,
or so contract as to transform the valleys into broad plains or basins, some of
which are open and unobstructed, while others are dotted with buttes, or covered
with groups of rugged hills. At points along their course these ranges are much
depressed, or cut by ravines striking across their summits, forming passes so low,
and with such gradual slopes on either side, as to greatly facilitate the construction of wagon roads, and even railways, across them. In some parts of the country
the mountains, instead of running in parallel chains, are broken into confused
and detached masses, their longitudinal axis conforming towards no common
direction. The sides of these mountains are everywhere cut by deep ravines or
canions, the most of them running from crest to base, and usually at nearly right
angles with their general course. In some places these ravines are but one or
two, while in others they are five or six miles apart, dividing the mountain slopes
into enormous ridges, some of them 2,000 or 3,000 feet above the separating
canions.  The latter are in some cases well watered, perennial streams flowing
through them, rendering irrigation of their banks always feasible, while in others
there are neither springs nor running streams, whole mountain ranges being, like
the adjacent plains, nearly or quite destitute of water. As in the Sierra Nevada,
these interior ranges contain a few high ridges and peaks, upon which in places
sheltered from the sun, or where deep drifts have been formed, the snow lies
throughout the year. Granite, sienite, slate, limestone, and porphyry, are the
prevailing rocks in the composition of the Nevada mountains, which have generally a rounded and dome-like contour, though occasionally shooting up into
pyramidal peaks and spire-shaped summits. The tops of the divides between the
lateral cations are especially apt to be sharp and rugged, the bare and splintered
rocks occasionally standing far above the crest of the ridge, and sometimes strongly
inclined towards the comb of the principal mountain. While the most of these
ranges are covered with a scanty growth of bunch grass, and with patches of
pinion, juniper, and other scrubby trees, much of their surface is destitute of both
grass and every other species of useful vegetation, fully three-fourths being without any kind of timber.  Along some of the streams flowing through the caions
are narrow strips of arable land which frequently, at the point where the former
opens into the valleys, spread out into tracts of several acres, affording a sufficiency of tillable land for gardens and small farms. Some of these streams are
fringed with cottonwood, birch, willow, wild cherry, and similar trees, the most
299 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of them small, and of but little value, mixed with which are often varieties of
wild vines, rose, currant or gooseberry bushes, and other shrubbery. Up the
most of these canions it is no difficult matter to construct wagon roads leading
quite to the summits of the mountains, a consideration of moment, as the latter,
the principal repositories of the precious metals, are thus rendered easily accessible to loaded teamns; and these mountain ridges sometimes run for 100 miles or
more without any material deviation from their general course.  So also do the
adjacent valleys extend for a like distance without other obstruction than perhaps
an occasional butte, or outstanding spur, and with no perceptible variation of
level. Sometimes these valleys, owing to a subsidence of the mountains, or a
change in their general course, expand into immense plains, as in the southern
and northwestern parts of the State, or connect with other valleys having the
same or nearly the same level, or, may be, are separated from the latter only by
low ridges or swells of land so inconsiderable as to present no obstacle to the
building of railroads throughout the entire series. A more favorable region for
the construction of railways than is offered by this system of communicating plains
and valleys, especially where these improvements are required to pursue a generally northern and southern direction, could not be desired. Besides, being so
nearly level, and wholly unobstructed, the soil, for the most part a dry sand, or
a compact sandy loam, affords the best possible material for a road-bed, whether
facility of construction Qr durability be considered. Upon these plains and valleys
nothing of a vegetable growth is to be found larger or more formidable of remo.val than the wild sage, a shrub that can, as a general thing, be ploughed up
with a single yoke of oxen, while their surfaces are almost entirely free from
rocks, loose stones, or other obstructions.  But while these valleys are, longitudinally viewed, so nearly level, they all have a slight descent from the foot of
the adjacent mountains to their centres, caused by the wash that, going on for
years, has been gradually wearing down the mountains and filling up the valleys.
The difference in altitude between the tops of the mountains and the level
of the valleys, now varying from 1,000 to 8,000 feet, vwas formerly much greater,
since at one time the bottoms of the opposing mountains met, no doubt, in the
middle of the intervening valley, making the difference in altitude two or three
times as great as at present. While many of these valleys receive a great number of small streams from the mountains on either side, or about their heads, very
few of them have any large stream flowing through the centre, the most of these tributaries sinking into the arid and porous soil as soon as they reach the edge of the
valley.  As a consequence, the latter, few of them having any common outlet,
are great natural reservoirs; but the water, resting upon the bed rock, can only
be reached by penetrating the immense mass of superincumbent debris.  Hence
wells in these valleys require to be sunk to a great depth, nor is water always
obtained even then; though it could no doubt be reached in many places by
artesian boring, a method not generally adopted, if in any instance yet resorted
to in this State. In the few cases where there is a sufficient accumulation of
water to cause a stream to run through the valley above ground, there are
usually at points along it, patches of alluvial bottom constituting good plough
or grass lands, the quantity generally being in proportion to the size of the stream.
Reese river, Carson, Umashaw, Paradise, and Franklin valleys, afford good exam-.
ples of this kind. In Ruby, Big Smoky, Degroot, and Toquima, we have examples
of large valleys containing much good land, yet without open streams running
through them; while in the Great Salt, Fairview, Ralston, Sinkavata, and
Sand Spring valleys, there is neither arable land nor running water. In the
case of the Big Smoky and similar valleys, the mountain streams after disappearing make their way underground towards their centres, where, meeting with
obstructions, or gathering into natural basins, they saturate the earth and render
it productive. Much of the soil, both in the valleys and upon the mountains, is
rich and friable, being easily tilled and abounding in the elements of fruitfulness,
300 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
but unavailable for agricultural purposes because of its aridity and the lack of
means for its irrigation. Both the open plains and the more contracted valleys
are, for the most part, destitute of timber, the only exceptions being where they
are traversed by considerable streams, as the valleys of the Carson, Walker,
Truckee, and Humboldt rivers, along whichl are a few scattered cottonwoods
and copse of willow, there being no other trees, large or small, along them. Both
the valleys, plains, and mountains are, in some sections of the country, wholly
destitute of wood, and but ill supplied with grass and water, the latter, where
it does occur, being often so impregnated with mineral substances as to render it
unwhlolesome, or so warm as to be unfit for immediate use.  Several of the more
extended of these plains are so arid and barren as to justly merit the appellation
of "desert," popularly applied to them.  The regions most strongly marked in
this respect are those adjacent to the sinks of the Humboldt and Carson, the
vicinity of the Big Alud lakes, and the belt of country stretching from the Great
Salt valley of Churchill county south through the centre of the State, and
spreading out in the desolate and sandy wastes that surround Death valley and
the sink of the Amargosa, reputed to be depressed many!eet below the level of
the sea.  The characterizing of these sections, however, as peculiarly sterile does
not imply that there are not many other considerable tracts in the State almost
equally worthless, the only difference being in their more contracted area.  To
this system of mountains, valleys, and plains, the latter so spread out, and often
connected togetlier, as to constitute a series of basins, each having a drainage of
its own, but no outlet to the sea, Nevada is indebted for its singular hydrography, this common receptacle of its gathered waters becoming, according to circumstances, a lake, sink, meadow, alkali flat, or a salt bed.
SINKS, SLOUGHS AND LAKES.-The only waters of Nevada that are supposed
to reach the ocean consist of a few inconsiderable streams in the northern, and
a still smaller number in the southern part of the State.  The former are tributaries of the Owyhie and the Snake rivers, and the latter of the Colorado.  With
these exceptions all the surface flow of the country is collected in lakes, none of
them of large size. and most of them extremely shallow, and in sinks, a name
popularly applied to a certain class of these lakes from the circumstance that the
streams emptying into them or received from other lakes are here supposed to
sink aind finally disappear beneath the surface.  The idea, however, is erroneous,
as these bodies of water, while they are not deep, are quite as permanent as any
other, though fluctuating in area with the size of the streams by which they are
fed.  3iost of the mountain streams in this State do sink, as already stated, as
soon as they reach the plains or valleys. Some of the larger streams flowing
through the latter as RPeese river, also disappear in like manner, being abDsorbedcl
by the earth without accumulating at any point in a lake.  These are the only
cases to which the term sink properly applies.  The fact that some of these lakes
having no visible outlet receive each a large stream without overflowing its
banks, or being greatly raised even whene these tributaries are at high stages of
water, has led to the supposition that they communicate with the sea, or perhaps
with subterranean lakes, through underground passages.   The  consideration,
however, that but comparatively little rain or snow ever falls in this region,
while the extreme dryness of the atmosphere and the soil causes evaporation and
absorption to go on rapidly, dispenses in a great measure with the necessity for
such a theory.  The only lakes of any considerable size in Nevada are those
formed by the Humboldt, Walker, Carson and Franklin rivers, and bearing the
names of these streams respectively, together with Pyramid lake, the largest of
the group, formed by the waters of Truckee river. To Lake Tahoe, lying onethird within its limits, Nevada can only advance a corresponding claim. By the
the early emigrants the name Sink was given to Humboldt lake, and a large
shallow lake situate in the northern part of Churchill county is still called the
301 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Sink of the Carson, from the fact that it receives the surplus waters of that river
through a sluggish tortuous stream, in some places having numerous channels,
and in this country generally designated a slohgs.  There is also a slough run  ning firom Humboldt lake to this sink, through which the former, at high stages,
discharges its water. Through a similar channel Pvramid lake, when above its
ordinary level, sends its water into Winnemucca lake, a large shallow basin
lying east of Pyramid, and at certain seasons of the year nearly dry. In addition
to the above there are small lakes and ponds in I)egroot, Franklin, and various
valleys in the State, the waters of which are in some cases fresh and pellucid,
while in others they are more or less opaque and impure. About these ponds,
which are mostly shallow, there is often a body of good grazing or agricul  tural land. Lake Tahoe, which has a depth of over 1,500 feet, is of an iineg  ular oval shape, 21 miles long and 10 miles vide, and, though elevated more
than 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, it never freezes over, nor does the
temperature of the water vary much from 57~ winter or summer, a circumstance
owing, probably to its being fed largely by springs. That it receives most of
its supplies from this source is evident from the fact that it has but one tributary
stream of any magnitude, while its outlet, Truckee river, carries a heavy body
of water. This lake, like Pyramid, abounds in trout of large size and fine
flavor, and is surrounded on every side by lofty mountains, which, rising abruptly
from its shores, are covered for nearly two-thirds of the year with snow. These
mountains are heavily timbered with forests of pine, spruce and fir. Pyramid
lake, the largest body of water wholly within the limits of the State, is about
30 miles long and 12 wide, and is situate in the southern part of Roop county,
near the western line of the State.  This lake, which derives its name from a
pyramidal rock standing near its centre and rising 600 feet above its surface,
has an elevation of about 4,000 feet above tide level.  Like the Walker, it has a
considerable depth, and the scenery about it is extremely grand, it being walled
round with precipitous mountains rising from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high.  Walker
lake has about the same altitude and length, but is not so wide as Pyramid, its
average width not being over six or seven miles. Like the latter it is of an
irregular oblong shape. The shores are indented with numerous small bays.
Besides an inferior species of fish it contains the salmon trout; but the latter are
not so large, numerous or well flavored as in Pyramid or Lake Tahoe, the
water here being neither so deep nor pure. Wallier lake is flanked on both sides
by high mountains and rugged hills, the whole extremely arid and barren, almost
entirely destitute of wood, grass or water.  Carson lake has a diameter of about
12 miles; Humbold and Franklin are somewhat smaller.  They are all of an
irregular circular or oval shape, have low, flat shores, and are nowhere over 50
or 60 feet deep.  They contain no fish except suckers and others of an inferior
kind, the water of these, as well as most of the other small lakes and ponds in
the counltry, being brackish and slightly alkaline-that of Humboldt lake and
Carson sink so much so as to render the fish quite unpalatable and hardly fit
for culinary puiroses. The same is true of the water in most of the sloughs,
and also in some of the rivers, especially the Humboldt, which becomes greatly
deteriorated at its lower stages, particularly as it approaches the lake.  Washoe,
Toshepab, Pueblo and Guano are all small and shallow lakes, the water of wvhich
is in some cases clear and sweet, while in others it is discolored with earthy matter,
or so inmpregnated with salt, soda or other substances as to render it distasteful
if not unwholesome. About some of these lakes, as well as along a few of the
rivers, occur patches of tule lands, or ground overflowed at high water and covered with a species of large-sized bulrush. Where susceptible of easy drainage,
these patches can readily be converted into excellent meadows. The most extensive tracts of this land are found at the mouth of the Humboldt river, around
Carson lake and sink, and above Genoa on Carson river, along the west shore
302 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of Franklin, and at the outlet of Washoe lake, smaller patches being met with
at the sinks of the Umashaw, Weatherlow, and Wemissa creeks, Humboldt
county, and around several small lakes in Franklin valley, Lander county.
As Honey, Mono anld Owens lakes, though not within the boundaries of Nevada,
all lie west of the Sierra, and form a part of the system of valleys and lakes
stretching along the western rim of the Great Basin, the first two being very
near the line of this State, it may be proper to give here a passing description
of them.  Honey Lake, so named from the honey-dew abundantly precipitated
throughout this region during the summer months, is. a small and very shallow
body of water, even at high stages, andwholly disappears in extremely dry seasons.
Its principal confluents, Willow creek and Susan river, sink into the tule marsh
before reaching the lake, the shores of which are in some places low and swampy,
while in others they are dry and elevated. It has no outlet, and is destitute of
fish, the water being strongly alkaline.  To the west of the lake is an extensive
valley, skirted by the Sierra Nevada in that direction, a strip of hilly country
separating it from Pyramid and MAud lakes on the east.  3loino lake, lying about
10 miles southwest of the dividing line between California and Nevada, derives
its name from the tribe of Indians originally inhabiting the vicinity. It is about
14 miles long and 9 wide, and, though never sounded, is supposed from the con figuration of the adjacent mountains to be very deep; some trials said to have
been made with a 300-foot line failed to reach bottom. It has been suggested
that the bed of this lake is the centre of an extinct volcano filled up with water,
,a hypothesis that assumes plausibility friom the crater-like form of one of its
islands, as well as of numerous small mountains in the neighborhood. By chem ical analysis a gallon of this water weighing eight pounds is found to contain
1,200 grains of solid matter consisting principally of chloride of sodium, (com mon salt,) carbonate of soda, borax, sulphate of soda, (glauber salt,) and silica,
with indications of the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen.  Holding such a large
percentage of these substances in solution the water of this lake is, of course, so
acid and nauseating as to render it not only unfit for drinking but even for 
bathing. Leather immersed in it is soon destroyed by its corrosive properties,
and no animal, not even a fish or frog, can for more than a short time exist in
it. The wild fowl in visiting it keep about the mouths of the creeks, where the
lake water is mixed with that flowing from the mountains.   The only thing
able to live within or upon the waters of this lake is a species of fly, which,
springing from a larvae bred in its bosom, after an ephemeral life, dies, and collecting on the surface, is drifted to the shore, where the remains collect in great
quantities, to be fed upon by the ducks or gathered by the Indians, with whom
this forms a staple comestible.  Nestling under the eastern water-shed of the
Sierra, this lake receives several considerable tributaries; and, although destitute of any outlet, such is the aridity of the atmosphere that it is always kept at
nearly the same level by the process of evaporation. So dense and sluggish is
the water rendered through supersaturation with various salts and other foreign
matters, that none but the strongest winds can raise a ripple on its surface. As
the Sierra in, this neighborhood reaches nearly its greatest altitude, the scenery
about Mono is varied and majestic, some portions of it being at the same time
marked by a most cheerless and desolate aspect. This lake may aptly be termed
a dead sea, its bitter and fatal waters rendering it literally such, while all its
surioundings-wild, gloomy and foreboding-are highly suggestive of sterility
and death. Owen's lake, lying to the south of Mono, though somewhat larger
and not so deep, does not otherwise differ materially firom the latter. It has the
Sierra on the west for a back ground, while its water is almost equally saline
and bitter. Like Mono, it has no outlet; and, though receiving the waters of
Owen's river, a large and rapid stream, its surface is observed to be every year
getting lower, a process that its former shore-line marks indicate to have been
going on for a long time. This subsiding for the last five years has been at tho
303
v 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
rate of nearly two feet per year. Former beach lines along the shores of Mono
lake indicate that it has in like manner fallen by gradual stages many feet below
its ancient level.  The larvae generating the insect found on Mono lake also
breed abundantly in these waters, being the only form of animal life adapted
to live in or about them. The decomposing action of this water is shown by its
effect upon the bodies of a company of Indians, some 20 or 30 in number, who,
while seelking to escape the whites several years ago, having taken refuge in the
lakle, were there shot by their pursuers, who left them in the water. In the course
of a few weeks not a vestige of their bodies was to be seen, even the bones having
been decomposed by this powerful solvent.
ALKALI FLATS AND MUD LAKEs.-The surface of many of the plains and
valleys in this State being composed of a stiff clay nearly impervious to water,
and at the same time quite level or but slightly basin-shaped, are readily con verted, during wet weather, into shallow lakes, some of which exist but for a
few days, while others last until the dry season comes on, a few sometimes con tinuing throughout the year.  These bodies of water, though often covering a
large area, are rarely more than a foot or two deep. When drying up they
usually leave behind a slight deposit of argillacious sediment, to which circum stance and their generally miry condition they are indebted for the name Ad
take, commonly applied to them. When covered with water, or even but mod erately wet, these spots are mostly impassable to teams or even horsemen.  To
obviate this difficulty roads require to be thrown up and impacted by travel during
the dry season. Besides this clayey sediment many of these lakes on drying up
deposit a variety of salts, the most of them of alkaline nature, whence the name
alkali flat given them when in this condition.  These salts are white, and glisten
in the sun, so that these localities are very hot in summer as well as trying to
the eyes of persons crossing them. WVhen dry their beds become so hard that
the hoof of an animal or even the tire of loaded wagons leaves but a slight impression. In some instances while the greater portions of these flats become dry
and hard, others remain moist, the water in places coming to within a few inches
of the surface. From these damp spots a constant efflorescence of saline matter
goes on. The sublimated particles are left upon the surface or adhere to the
shrubbery if there be any near by. The most of these desiccated lakes, however,
are wholly without vegetation, not even the artemesia being able to take root
upon them. These spots, so transformed alternately into mud lakes and alkali
flats, are, also the localities of the salt beds and marshes characteristic of this
country.  Though met with in nearly every part of Nevada, the most extensive occur in the northwestern, central and southern portions of the State, where,
in the wet season, some of them cover more than a hundred square miles.
RIVEP,s AND STPrEAMrs.-In proportion to its size Nevada has, perhaps, fewer
large streams than any other State or Territory in the Union; none of those
within its limits being navigable, and not more than four or five justly entitled
to be called rivers. The Humboldt, the largest and longest river in the State,
is at ordinary stages fordable at many places, as are all the others nearly everywhere along them. But, while possessing so few rivers, this State contains a
great number of small streams, which, issuing from the various mountain ranges,
afford an extensive propulsive power and means of irrigation. As a general
thing the rivers have a swift current, with occasional rapids, though nothing like
a cataract exists in any part of the State. The most of the mountain streams
have a great descent, some of them falling a thousand feet every two or three
miles. Where running through valleys or plains, the immediate banks of the
streams are apt to be low; in the case of the smaller ones only a few feet above
the water, though some have higher benches further back. Reese river, for
example, flowing through a channel having nearly parallel banks, is scarcely
anywhere more than 10 or 15 feet below the adjacent plain. Except towards
its terminus it never dries up, and rarely ever overflows its banks. At one point
304 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
it disappears for several miles, having no channel above ground. The water
here is diffused throughout the soil, forming, by a system of natural irrigation,
an extensive meadow. Below this it reappears at several points, and being
finally collected again in one channel flows on as before.  This stream has an
average width of 15 feet and a depth of about two feet.  After pursuing its
course for more than a hundred miles it begins to diminish, standing only in
pools, and finally disappearing altogether. During high stages of water it runs
for a greater distance, making its way nearly to the Humboldt, where it termi nates in a tule swamp, which dries up in one summer.   Weatherlow, Wamissa,
Umashaw, and several other considerable creeks in the State resemble Reese
river in their leading features. The most of them in like manner terminate in
small fens, usually called sinzks. Nearly all the running waters of the Nevada
are palatable and wholesome. That of the mountain streams is always excel lent. In most of the sloughs it is disagreeably brackish, which is also the case
in the hIumboldt river, and some other of the larger streams, particularly at low
stages of water, the impurities increasing as the stream descends. In consequence
Qf waste from evaporation and absorption most of the larger streams lose as
much water from these causes as they gain from their tributaries, rendering them
sometimes larger near their sources than at points further down. The Humboldt,
for instance, a stream about 40 yards wide and four feet deep, is scarcely so large
where it enters the lake as it is 200 miles above. The Walker and Carson riv ers are also smaller where they empty into their respective lakes than at points
higher up.  The Truckee, though not so large, being a more rapid stream, dis charges a greater volume of water throughout the year than the Humboldt. In
point of size, Walker river ranks next to the Truckee. Carson river has an
average width of 20 yards, with a depth of three feet, and is about two-thirds
the size of Walker. Franklin river is a much smaller stream than Carson. The
entire length of the Humboldt, including its two main forks, is over 300 miles.
That of the others is much less.  Both the Humboldt, Carson, and Walker liv ers are formed by the union of two main forks or branches, below which none of
them have a single affluent of any size, the Walker none whatever. Truckee
river, issuing a large stream from Lake Talioe, receives a number of tributaries
before leaving the mountains after which, though not enlarged by any affluents,
it preserves a nearly uniform volume, running with a swift current until it empties
into Pyramid lake.  The water of this stream is cold and pure throughout its
entire course, and, as it has a great descent, it could be made to supply an immense!
propulsive power.  That it will be largely diverted to this use, as soon as the Central Pacific railroad is completed, admits of no doubt, since this improvement follows along its banks for more than 50 miles, nearlyhalf the distance through heavy
forests of spruce and pine, which supply, in connection with the extensive water
power, great advantages for the manufacture of lumber. The Humboldt river
takes its rise in the Goose Creek mountains, in the northwestern corner of the
State, whence, running in a westerly course about 250 miles, it deflects to the
south, and flowing 50 miles farther falls into Humboldt lake. It runs through a
tortuous channel with a moderate current, falling about 500 feet while traversing
a distance of 250 miles. It passes through an exceedingly dry and sterile
country. The only good land is comprised in a narrow belt of alluvion along its
immediate banks. While this belt contracts at some points to very narrow limits,
or disappears altogether, it expands at a few others, as at Lassen's meadows,
into grassy bottoms of considerable extent. During the period of high water,
which occurs on the melting of the snow in the mountains about its sources, in
the months of April, May, and June, the river is swollen to a size somewhat
larger than above stated, occasionally overflowing its banks, while at low water
it shrinks into smaller dimensions, a condition common to most of the other large
streams in the State. The only tree found in the valley of the Humboldt is a species of small willow, growing on the banks of the stream. Nothing but a little
20
I
I
i
I
305
I
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
scrubby juniper and pine, and these very sparsely, is met with upon any of the
mountains adjacent. In the Goose Creek range, however, about its head waters,
there are some groves of large-sized timber, with fair supplies of bunch grass
and water.  The grass along the river bank consists of several wild varieties,
such as wire, rye, blue, clover, and bunch, some of which are so injurious to
stock that experienced drovers will not allow their cattle to feed upon them, but
drive them into the mountains, where the grass, though less abundant, is more
nutritious and wholesome.  The only fish found in this stream, or the lake into
which it discharges, are minnows, of little value. During the summer the Humnboldt swarms with mosquitoes, gnats, sandflies and other troublesome insects.
These pests are very numerous alone the lower portions of the river and about
the lake.
In their leading features and surroundings the Truckee, Carson, and Walker
rivers do not, except as to size, differ materially from the Humboldt, having first
a narrow and partially fertile valley near their immediate banks, with another
much more extensive, but wholly barren, lying somewhat higher and stretching
away to the base of the mountain ranges that bound them on either hand. The
cottonwoods that once formed a narrow fringe, or stood in small clumps along
these streams, have mostly been cut down, and there is little left except a willow
copse to mark the meanderings of the rivers through the plains, or their passage
through the deep canons that sometimes occur along their routes. These caiions,
by subdividing the main valley into different parts, sometimes cause the waters
of the same river to be designated by separate names. After leaving the mountains from which they all take their rise, there is, with the exception of a little
willow and the few cottonwoods mentioned, no timber along- any of the streams
in this State or in the valleys through which they flow.  In Reese River valley,
proper, more than 100 miles long, there is not a stick of timber large enough
for a fence rail, and nearly all the other valleys and plains in the country are
equally destitute of timber.
THE SPRINGS OF NEVADA.-These abound in many parts of the State, and
are to the economist not more objects of value on account of their utility than
of interest to the scientist because of their size, temperature, modes of occurrence,
chemical properties, and other natural peculiarities. They are met with at all
altitudes, and often under such strange conditions as justly entitle them to be
considered geological curiosities. They are found on the mountain sides, in the
valleys, and far out on the desert-large, small, deep, shallow, cold, hot, and
tepid.  Some are in a state of ebullition, leaping up with a gurgling sound, as
if heated by fierce fires below, while others are quiescent. Some are pellucid
and perfectly pure, while others are impregnated with a great variety of mineral
and metallic substances. In some places they occur solitary and at others in
groups, as many as a hundred being found within an area of a few acres.  In
temperature they range from 50 to 204 degrees, the latter about the boiling point
of water in this region.  In diameter they vary from 1 to 100 feet, and in depth
from 3 or 4 to 150. In shape they incline to be circular, many of them being
perfectly round, with funnel-shaped or perpendicular wvell-like walls.  The min eral and thermal springs are generally situated on a mound formed from the silicious
or calcareous particles brought uip and deposited by their own waters.  Some of
these mounds cover several acres and reach a height of 50 or 60 feet, or even
more. In some cases the walls of the springs are formed of these limy or sili cious concretions, which, shaped into huge basins, lift them several feet above the
level of the mounds, while in others they are composed simply of earth or turf.
The water in most of them is soft and palatable when cold, and so clear that the
smallest object can be seen at a great depth, even the minute orifices through
which the water enters at the bottom of the deepest spring being visible. Fre quently a hot and a cold spring are in such proximity that a person can dip one
hband into each at the same time.  From some a small, and from a few quite a
306 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
large, stream of water issues, while in others the water merely keeps even with
the top, or does not rise so high. Some of these springs emit an odor of sul   phuretted hydrogen, and taste slightly of sulphur, while others have a chalybeate
taste.  Analytical tests of the waters from the more highly mineralized of these
springs show them to contain, in various proportions, the chlorides of sodium and
magnesium, with soda in different forms and a small percentage of lime, sulphur,
silica iron, and organic matter.  A few of these have an intermitting or tidal
action, the water coming to the surface with a gurgling sound and sinking away
every few minutes, this subsidence sometimes continuing for a much longer period
-occasionally for weeks, or perhaps months.   The mounds and orifices of ancient
thermals are frequently met with, being now destitute of water, a condition to
which many seem rapidly, and perhaps all are gradually, approaching.
These fountains, both mineral and thermal, are much frequented by the Indians
for their supposed medicinal virtues; and that some of them do possess valuable
curative properties has been abundantly shown by the benefits conferred through
their use upon multitudes of invalids who, during the past few years, have had
recourse to them. Some of the cold springs, especially those in the larger val  leys, are quite as limpid as the thermals, while they are often not only larger
and deeper, but also freer from mineral substances than the latter. It frequently
happens that the mountain streams, after sinking, reappear in the form of springs
near the margin or out in the middle of the valleys; and while some of these are
small or of but moderate size, others are immense pools, being from 10 to 100
feet in diameter, and often 100 feet or more in depth, some of them sending off
large streams of water.  Not all the cold springs, however, are free from distaste  ful and deleterious matters, some being so repulsive that even animals, though
suffering from thirst, refuse to drink from them.
The most remarkable group of thermals in this State is that known as the
Steamboat Springs, so called because, when first discovered, they are said to
have emitted a puffing noise something like that of a high-pressure steamboat.
The only sound escaping from them at present is a seething, gurgling noise like
that of a boiling caldron. These springs are situated in Washoe county, about
16 miles north of Carson City and four east from the Sierra, near a range of low
basaltic hills, an extensive flow of this rock overlying granite. They occupy
a rocky mound about half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, having an
elevation of 50 or 60 feet above the adjacent valley. This mound, which is
composed wholly of silicious matter deposited by the waters, is rent longitudi nally by a number of irregular, scraggy-edged fissures, from six inches to a foot
in width, caused, apparently, by some upheaving force from below.  Gurgling
utip through these chasms, which probably extend to the bottom of the mound,
come, at intervals of a few minutes, volumes of hot water, which, after hissing
and foaming for a minute or two, subside, leaving the aperture again nearly
empty. From some of these'openings small jets of steam constantly escape,
accompanied with the emission of gas. Besides these fissures there are pools
filled with hot water, one of which, occupying a basin three feet in diameter and
one foot high, built up by the deposition of solid matter held in solution by the
water, rises and falls with great regularity every six minutes. For about five
minutes the water left in the bottom of this basin remains quiescent, when it
gradually rises, the ebullition increasing until it runs over the rim, when it again
subsides, the agitation lasting a little over a minute.  By throwing a few ounces
of soap into this basin the water, after rising and falling a few times, as usual,
begins to boil with fury, throwing up the spray six or eight feet and sending off
volumes of steam. In this manner its action can for hours be preternaturally
exclted, with varying degrees of energy, until it finally comes to rest, the water
disappearing entirely from the basin, and not rising again for some time, as if
exhausted by these vehement exertions. The temperature of the hottest of these
springs is 204~ Fahrenheit, this being about the boiling point of water at that
307 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
altitude. The temperature of others, however, is much lower. The air about
the spot smells of sulphur, the ground in the vicinity being in places impregnated with that mineral.  Along the eastern base of the tumulus on which the
springs are situated flows a rivulet pure and cool, till it mingles with the warm
and mineralized water of the latter.  At times the chemical agents at work here
seem more active than at others, the sounds emitted being louder and more frequent and the steam more abundant.  It is even probable that a gradual but
general subsidence of action is going on, as the loud puffing sounds said to have
been observed here when the springs were first discovered, some  20 years ago,
are no longer heard.  The country about also affords evidence that the springs
in this neighborhood were formerly much more extensive than at present.
Other groups of warm springs, scarcely less renmarkable, besides many  less
worthy of note than that above described, are met with in different parts of the
State. In the valley of the Great Salt Bed, southern part of Humboldt county,
occur three clusters of thermals, separated by a distance of six or eight miles
one on each side and one in the centre of the valley-but all so much alike that
a description of one will serve to give a good idea of the others. The principal
group at this place, being that in the centre of the valley, consisting of over 20
springs, occupies an oblong mound covering 10 acres and rising 60 feet above
the level of the valley. This mound, formed wholly by the carbonate of lime
brought up and deposited by the waters, is covered withli short, coarse grass.
Some of the springs are fringed with rushes and tules. Much of the surface is
saturated with water from the overflow of the springs. This overflow runs in
small channels out upon the plains, where it is soon evaporated or absorbed by
the dry and porous earth. Upon the summit and about the sides of this tumulus
are situated the springs, some occupying well-shaped openings in the turf and
others issuing from huge basins composed of limy concretions resembling alabaster, or firom the tops of - tumuli formed of the same material and raised six or
eight feet above the surface of the mound.   Some of these springs, or rather
pools, are more than 60 feet wide, while the diameter of others is not muore than
two or three feet, the whole varying as much in depth as in superficial area.
There is also a wide difference in temperature, some being at boiling point while
others are simply tepid or quite cool, the hot and cold springs in some instances
being separated only by a few feet. The water in all is soft, pure, and limpid,
and so transparent that the smallest object can be seen at a depth of 50 or 60
feet. Bubbles of gas are seen constantly ascending through it, but there is no
ebullition nor perceptible escape of steam. While all these springs keep quite
or nearly full but few overflow, the aggregate amount of water discharged being
small. The cluster of springs on the west side of -the valley contains eight pools,
hot, warm, and cold, the most of them larger and deeper than those in the cen tral group, while those on the eastern side, though equally numerous, are not so
large. At Wilson's ranch, in the southern end of the valley, are a number of
small springs, some of them quite hot, while along its eastern side are to be seen
the crater-shaped basins and tumuli of extinct thermals.
At the following additional localities in this State hot springs occur, either
isolated or in groups, and of different dimensions, some large and in a state of
active ebullition, others small and wholly quiescent: at several points in Carson
and Eagle valleys; on the desert between Truckee river and Humboldt; in the
vicinity of Black Rock, very numerous; along the eastern base of the Pine Nut
mountains; on the desert between the Big Bend of the Carson and Walker rivers;
near Kepler's station on the Wellington road, 16 miles west of the Sinkavata
mountains and 40 east of Walker's lake; at a number of places in Lassen, Alpine,
and Mono counties, California, near the Nevada line; upper end of Degroot's
valley, western part of Lander county; east side of Reese River valley, 60 miles
north of Austin; south end of Smoky valley; in first range of mountains east of
Toqcuima valley, and in the valley beyond; along the south side of the Upper
308 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
HIumboldt, and great numbers scattered over Franklin valley, besides, in many
places throughout the State, the mounds and other evidences of extinct thermals,
now without signs of heat or moisture. At some of the localities enumerated the
springs are large, deep, and numerous, the water being kept at a high tempera ture and in a state of violent commotion by internal heat; at others these con ditions are nearly all reversed, the orifices, once apparently much deeper, being
nearly filled up and the temperature of the water scarcely above blood heat, jus tifyinlg the conclusion that the cooling process is general, and that the chemical 
action upon which it is dependent for its elevated temperature is constantlv diminishing, and will, in process of time, cease altogether.  There are cases, however,
in which this action is supposed to be on the increase and in which the springs
appear to be of recent origin, not being contained in the usual rocky basins nor
surrounded with the mounds formed by the deposition of silicious or calcareous
matter. Of this kind are the springs situate in the IHot Creek districts, Nye
county, the surplus water of which is so copious and hot as to have given the
name Hot creek to the stream' issuing from them. Besides this there are other
hot creeks in the State, having their origin in a similar cause.
Some of the cold springs in Nevada are scarcely less remarkable because of
their size, depth, or the great volume of water they discharge than the thermals
above described. The most noted of these occur in the central and eastern part
of the State.  Along the western side of Smoky valley are a number of pools,
varying in diameter from 20 to 80 feet, some of them being at least 100 feet
deep-so deep, in fact, that the water, which is soft and clear as crystal, has a
dark blue appearance. Several of these are filled with small fish and send off
a large stream of water. So immense are some of these fountains that it has
been conjectured they must have their sources in subterranean lakes; a more
plausible theory, however, is that they originate from the mountain streams
which, sinking on the margin of the valley, pursue their way under ground until
they meet with some obstruction, when they collect in reservoirs that ultimately
find an outlet in these springs. In the second tier of valleys east of Smoky
occurs another group of these springs, also circular in form, very deep and full
of clear cold water, but having no apparent outlets or inlets. These also swalrm
with small fish, the number of which leads to the belief that there mustbe more
room for them beneath the turfi-like sod by which they are surrounded.  In one
of the lateral valleys on the Upper Humboldt is a meadow covering 1,200 acres
and clothed with luxuriant grass, in the midst of which are several hundred circular openings, from three to six feet wide, through which the pure, pellucid
water rises nearly to the surface.  They are very deep and full of small fish,
the number of which becomes greatly increased on shaking the surrounding turf,
which can easily be done by the weight of the person, favoring the supposition
that these apertures are really the vent holes of an extensive underground lake.
Franklin river, a good-sized stream, is formed almost wholly from tributaries that
take their rise in a series of large springs ranged along the base of the mountains bounding its valley on the west. Some of these springs send off creeks
15 feet wide and over a foot deep, which run with a rapid current. The number
of springs contained in Thousand Springs valley, on the Upper Humboldt, is
sufficiently indicated by its name; many of these are distinguished for their size
and the excellence of their water.
SALT BEDS.-These deposits, through their extent and number, become not
only a notable feature in the chorography, but also an important item in the
economical resources of Nevada. Like the alkali flats and mud lakes they are
confined to the valleys and plains, in which they cover the points of greatest
depression, the most of them being adjacent to or encompassed by a belt of alkali
lands. They are doubtless of lacustrine origin, occupying what were formerly
the basins of inland seas and salt lakes, their deposition being effected through
th6 evaporation of these bodies of water. Besides the extensive'beds of this
309 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
mineral occurring in Churchill, Esmeralda, and Lincoln counties, there are several smaller deposits, as well as a number of saliniferous springs, elsewhere in the
State, all of which may become of local value on account of their proximity to
supposed valuable mines. The most productive bed at present is that of the
Sand Spring Salt Mining Company, 75 miles east of Virginia.  The claim of
this company, consisting of 1,600 acres, occupies a depression in the southeastern
corner of an extensive alkali fiat, the centre of which for a space of several
hundred acres is damp and marshly, and some portion of it covered with a few
iinches of water.  This damp surface is coated to a depth of - two or three inches
with a crystallized incrustation of salt formed by sublimation of the particles of
this mineral with which the clayey strata below are charged. On removing this
coating of salt a thin body of fine white clay is exposed, overlying a stratum of soft
black clay, which, in turn, rests upon another seam of green and black clay, containing coarse globules of salt. Beneath this seam occurs a deposit of crystallized salt, hard and massive but of unascertained thickness.  In collecting the
salt at this place, a tract embracing a score of acres or more is selected, and
divided into strips, from each of which, in regular order, it is scraped into large
heaps with a broad wooden hoe. These heaps, after being exposed for a few
days to drain and dry, are conveyed in wheelbarrows or cars running on wooden
tracks laid down for the purpose of facilitating transportation over the soft
ground, and thrown upon platforms or dumps, when the salt is ready for sacking
and shipment to market. After one of these surface sections has been stripped
of salt, the incrustration immediately begins to reform, and so rapidly do the
secretions from the saliniferous clays below proceed that a few weeks, and sometimes less, is sufficient to fully replace it, admitting of the gathering of a fresh
crop at least every month.  As the masses of crystallized salt underlying these
clayey strata are probably inexhaustible, it would seem as if this process of
replenishment might go on forever. These clays are not the primary sources of
supply, though no doubt serving a useful purpose in promoting by their heat the
sublimation of the saline particles as well, perhaps, as in aiding their condensation upon the surface. Large sections of the alkali fiat at Sand Spring, lying
outside of this company's claim, are, during the dry season, covered with a coating of Salt; but it is neither so heavy nor pure as that owned by them, being
rarely more than an inch thick, and largely mixed with alkaline and other foreign matters, resembling, in these particulars, the deposits in Smoky valley, and
in the Cortez district, and other salt fields of limited extent elsewhere in the
State. The leading features of the larger beds, however, are almost identical
with those of this deposit at Sand Spring, the character of the salt and the mode
of collecting it being also very much the same. Prior to 1862, all the salt used
in this State was brought from San Francisco, at an average cost, laid down ill
Virginia, of about $150 per ton. During that year parties, having imported a
herd of camels for the purpose, began packing this commodity in from the salt
pools, 45 miles southeast of Walker lake, whereby the prices were somewhat
reduced. The following year, the Sand Spring Company having commenced
operations, the price of salt suffered a further reduction, and for the past two years
this article has been delivered to the mills about Virginia at the uniform rate of
$60 per ton, being considerably less than the average cost of freight from San
Francisco. During the year 1866 this company disposed of about 150, and
during the past year of about 250 tons of salt per month, the most of which was
consumed in the mills and reduction works, a little, also, after grinding, having
been used for meat-packing and culinary purposes, for which it is well adapted.
The Sand Spring Company have over $100,000 invested in this business, and,
though owning several large teams, hire many others to haul the product of their
salt fields to market, their freight bills amounting to from $10,000 to $15,000 per
week. Large as is the amount of salt they are thus enabled to deliver, the supply
is scarcely equal to the demand, some of the larger mills consuming between 35
310 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
and 40 tons per month. The company, finding their salt well suited to table
use, have erected a steam mill at Virginia, where considerable quantities are ground
and put up for this purpose. About 40 miles north of the Sand Springs bed,.
also in Churchill county, is another and still larger but very similar deposit of
salt. At this place there is, first, an incrustation of salt an inch or two thick
overlying a stratum of blue clay 18 inches thick, filled with cubical crystals of
salt, and resting upon a heavy body of these crystals free from earthy matter and
reaching downward to an unknown depth. This property is also owned by a
company, who have laid down a tramway for running out, a platform for receiving,
and a house for storing their salt. From this locality the Humboldt mills obtain
their supplies of this commodity, a little, also, having been sent to Virginia and
Austin, it being extremely white and pure.  In the Silver Peak district, Esmeralda county, occurs the most extensive salt field in the State, its area covering
some 40 or 50 square miles, much of which is coated with a thick incrustation
of the pure chloride of sodium, underlaid by seams of clay and a crystallized
mass of salt of unknown thickness, as at Sand Spring and Big Salt valley.
Situate near the edge of this bed are a number of saline springs, the water of
which evaporating is constantly increasing the deposits of salt about them. Holes
dug in the earth in this vicinity are in a short time completely filled with a solid
mass of salt, deposited from the supersaturated water seeping into them.  It is a
curious circumstance that situated in close proximity to these pools of perfect brine
are a number of springs of soft fresh water. In the Columnbus district, and within
half a mile of the principal mines, layers of salt interstratified with clay are
found near the surface; and by removing a foot or two of earthy matter on top,
the water coming in fills the excavation in the course of four or five days with
a compact mass of pure white salt.  North of this spot five miles are the pools
from which the camel train several years since procured their loading for Virginia, and at a point 10 miles to the west is the extensive deposit known as
T''eal's salt marsh, and from which the mills at Aurora obtain their supplies.
Besides these, there are several other salt beds of minor importance both in this
vicinity and in other parts of Esmeralda county, as well as also in Owen's valley,
Inyo county, California, adjoining Esmeralda on the southwest. In the Pahranagat district, southeastern part of Lincoln county, on the upper waters of the
Rio Virgin, masses of crystallized salt exist in such quantities as to constitute a
notable part of the mountain in which they occur. They lie in strata, are almost
chemically pure, and so transparent that ordinary print can be read through blocks
of this material a foot square.  Tle salt deposits before alluded to as occurring
in Smoky valley and near the Cortez district are slight and impure. The former
and the more important of the two lies 40 miles south, and the latter 60 miles
north of Austin.  The incrustation of salt at these localities is scarcely more than
half an inch thick. It is deposited as elsewhere by efflorescence, and though
destitute of any heavy bodies of salt below, possesses the usual power of reproduction, renewing itself as often as removed. It is dissipated, however, by the
least amount of rain, though readily reappearing on the return of dry weather.
From the Smoky valley bed, where a considerable amount of salt is collected,
and also some manufaictured for table use, the mills about Austin, at Belmont,
and those around the valley procure their needed supplies of this article. This
salt is sold on the ground ready for sacking at one cent a pound, the cost of
hauling it to the mills where used being about as much more. Most of the salt
of Nevada as found in its natural condition is remarkably pure;  samples taken
from the Silver Peak and the Great Salt valley beds gave  by analysis 98 per
cent. chloride of sodium, that from Sand Spring giving 96 per cent. Samples
from Smoky valley show by assay 909 per cent. chloride of sodium, the impurities consisting of sand and sulphate of soda-ingredients which do not appear
to detract from its efficacy for amalgamating purposes, though rendering it less
fit for table use. With salt in such illimitable quantities, of such excellent
311 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
quality and easy procurement, there can be no question but this article, besides
supplying all local demands, will be largely exported from this State whenever
railroad transportation shall have been extended to it.
SECTION II.
WOODLANDS-SOURCES OF FUEL AND LUMBER SUPPLY-COAL, ETC.
The only timber in this State suited for making first-class lumber is that
found on or near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. There
are, as observed in the remarks on the central and eastern parts of the State, a
few groves of spruce and white pine in that quarter; but the trees are comparatively small, and the wood for the most part soft and brittle. The prevailing
tree, where there is any east of the Sierra, is the scrubby pitch pine, already
described, having a low bushy trunk, from 10 to 15 inches in diameter, and from
12 to 30 feet high. Being compact and resinous, it burns freely, even when
green, emitting much heat, and though worth but little for lumber, constitutes a
valuable fuel. Mixed with these are a few juniper and mountain mahogany
trees, equally scrubby with the pinon, though the mahogany, when dry, burns
well. Some of the mountain streams are fringed with a narrow belt of willow,
birch, and cherry, all slender and dwarfish, and fit at best only for fence rails or
fire-wood. With so great a scarcity of large timber, the better qualities of lumber
necessarily command high prices in most parts of Nevada; the rates increasing
with the distance from the Sierra, the principal source of supply.   Thus, while
this article can be purchased at the mill for about $20 per 1,000, it costs nearly
three times that amount delivered in Virginia, five times in Austin, and six or
seven at Belmont. The price is proportionally increased where delivered, at
points still further in the interior. This question of fuel and lumber supply is
more fully elucidated in the pages relating to the working of the Comstock ores
and mines.
COAL.-Although no heavy deposits of coal have yet been found in Nevada, it
is too valuable an article to be overlooked in making up a summary of the mineral
resources of the State.
THE WHITMAN COAL MINES-DEVELOPMrP,NTS AND] RESULTS. —The first
locations of mineral coal lands and efforts art working the same were made in
1861, when parties encouraged by the outcroppings of na,row seams of lignite
in the Pine Nut mountains, at a point about 12 miles northeast of Dayton,
Lyon county, proceeded to form a mining district, adopting a set of laws and
regulations for governing the locating and holding of claims therein. These
laws were similar to those used in taking up and holding quartz lodes, but with
this difference, that individual claims, instead of running longitudinally with, and
being confined to a narrow space along the ledge, consisted of square plats of
40 acres each, the same requiring to be surveyed by the territorial surveyor, and
to be recorded after the manner of real estate.  The coal signs observable in this
locality are distributed over an area of several square miles, all of which, and
much more was taken up soon after the district was formed. Quite a large
amount of money was subsequently expended upon these claims in the work of
exploration, road building, &c. Upon the most promising, shafts were sunk to
a considerable depth. Whitman, the discoverer and his associates, besides opening several short inclines, and performing other preliminary labor, ran a tunnel
175 feet in length, from the extremity of which a shaft was sunk to a depth of
100 feet. The entire outlay of this company amounted to'some $8,000 or $10,000,
a portion of which, however, was spent in constructing a wagon road leading
from their claims to the valley of Carson river, six miles distant.  The invest
'% 1 2 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ment proved nearly a total loss. Less than 100 tons of coal was disposed of, as,
indeed, scarcely more than that amount of a markietable quality was ever raised from
the mines. None worth speaking of has been obtained from the other claims in
the neighborhood. This coal delivered at the quartz mills or other points where
required for consumption, commanded from $8 to $12 per ton, rates at which
most of that of local production has since been disposed of. Numerous trials
were made to test its adaptability for generating steam. The proprietors of the
Sacramento quartz mill, in Gold Caiion procured such alterations in their furnace
grates to be made as seemed necessary to afford ample draught, and although
their mill was run upon it for a short time, its use was soon abandoned.  The
large percentage of non-combustible matter present, choked the draught, and
prevented the production of sufficient heat for the rapid creation of steam. The
attempts made to introduce this coal, and that procured from Eldorado Canon,
near by, as a domestic fuel, were somewhat more successful. Considerable
quantities were obtained from the latter place for a year or two, and consumed
in Virginia City and vicinity.
The geological features of the Whitman district are not such as to indicate the
presence of heavy bodies of carboniferous matter. The country about the mines
is dry and barren; the surface in places discloses traces of former volcanic action,
and although there is here a species of coarse sandstone, the old red sandstone,
and most other rocks accompanying the true coal series are absent.  There is
also here a shale, but like the sandstone, it evidently belongs to the pliocene
age, and indicates for these coal beds a comparatively modern origin. The followinmg strata encountered in sinking a perpendicular shaft 110 feet on the Whitman
grounds, serve to exemplify the general geology of the district. The first foot
passed through consisted of a clay shale, below which lay several feet of steatite,
mixed with talc; next nearly one foot of bituminous ]ignite, underlaid with a bed
of talcose slate was encountered. This slate rested upon sandstone, followed by
another thin seam of lignite. Then followed in succession a stratum of slate;
30 inches of lignite, of a somewhat improved character-a narrow seam of slate;
six inches of coal; various strata of sandstone alternating with thin beds of steatite,
shale, and coal, the shaft terminating a thick layer of white sand. The planes
of these successive strata are nearly parallel, the whole pitching at an angle of
about 20~, the dip varying slightly at different points.
OTHEPR DISCOVvEnIFs. —Soon after the location of the Whitman mines a still
heavier deposit of lignite was found 12 miles further south, in Eldorado canon,
resting in a similar geological formation.   From this place several hundred
tons of this material was soon afterwards taken, the most of which found a market
in the neighboring towns, where it was used chiefly in stoves and grates. As a
domestic fuel this coal has met with more favor than that from the Whitman
mine, though unfit for furnace or forge purposes. Upon the claim of the Newcastle Company, the principal claim in Eldorado canion, a good deal of exploratory work has been done, yet no heavy body of coal has been developed. The
contents of this vein resemble the brown coal of Germany, with which they
coincide in their chemical constituents.  An analysis of the coal from the vein
of the Newcastle Company, shows it to contain, moisture 19.65, hydro-carbonaceous
matter 40.59, fixed carbon 28.31, and ash 11, with traces of sulphur and iron.
The resultant from distillation is a charcoal, and not a coke, as from the English
coal, which generally contains more sulphur, but less volatile matter and ash.
As the Nevada coal contains but little sulphur, it would be valuable for forge
use and iron works, were it not for the large percentage of volatile substances
it carries, composed mainly of water, which detracts from its merits as a fuel, as
well as for the generation of gas.  For the latter purpose it might be made to
answer by the addition of some carbonaceous material, since by this plan, as has
been ascertained, it could be made to produce about 9,000 cubic feet of gas to
the ton, which owing to the absence of sulphur, would posses high powers of
813 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
illumination.  Soon after the above discoveries further coal signs were noticed
two miles southeast of Fort Churchill, where a number of thin seams of lignite
crop along the steep and barren hills that abound in that neighborhood. To
secure these a district was laid out, and several claims taken up, on two or three
of which open cuts were run and other work done, but without establishing for
them any positive value. Discoveries of coal in other parts of the State have
from time to time been announced, but with two or three exceptions they do not
appear to have had any substantial foundation. As early as the summer of
1860, parties excited by the finding of a black slaty substance, a few miles east
of Sand Springs, took steps for securing a tract of land there, but abandoned
the purpose on ascertaining the worthless nature of the material.  There was
a rumor prevalent some years ago of mineral coal having been found in the
country to the north of the Humboldt river, but the report lacks verification.
In 1864, some miners prospecting to the north of New Pass station, Churchill
county, having come upon a species of obsidian possessing a cleavage and lustre
similar to hard coal, for which it was ignorantly mistaken, quite an excitement
supervened on its being made known in Austin. The non-combustible nature of
this substance was readily established, and the interest so suddenly awakened
by its discovery speedily subsided. Two years later a company of miners searching after silver lodes, picked up in the Eureka district, 60 miles east of Austin,
some pieces of float coal, which on trial were found to burn freely, emiting a
strong heat, and leaving but little ash.  This float was not traced to its original
bed, concerning which nothing is known, though the sample picked up was of
a superior quality, and there is reason to hope that mines of good coal will yet
be found in that quarter of the State, valuable seams having already been met
with ini the adjacent Territory of Utah.  In the Volcano district, Esmeralda
county, at a point about 80 miles easterly from Aurora, two veins of coal, the
one 12 and the other 30 inches think have been discovered. They can be easily
traced for several rods by the bituminous debris on the surface; are evidently of
all earlier period than the lignite found elsewhere in the State, and are highly
carbonized, and bear the appearance of a silicious anthracite coal mixed with
calcite. The impurities in this article amount to 40 or 50 per cent,, yet it emits
a strong heat, and burns almost entirely to a white ash. It has been used successfully as a substitute for charcoal by blacksmiths and assayers; that tested
came firom but three or four feet below the surface, to which depth only have the
seams yet been opened.  The fissures are well defined; have an argillaceous
shale on the one side, and limestone of the Jurassic age on the other; but whether
these coal measures will prove to be of greater extent or value than those at the
localities already described, we have not the data to determine. They remain
as yet wholly undeveloped.  Should they afford even a moderate amount of
fuel, their presence in a region where there is but little wood and much mineral
wealth would hereafter prove important. This coal is but three or four miles
from a series of copper-bearing lodes, and there are also in this district promising
veins of gold and silver-bearing quartz. Outcroppings of soft coal can be traced
for several miles along the foot hills of the Wassack mountains.  This locality
is about 25 miles north of Aurora, and four miles east of the east fork of Walker
river.  In thickness this seam ranges from a mere thread of shale to 6 or 7 feet.
The coal burns readily. A lot taken from a shaft 30 feet below the surface
underwent perfect combustion on being ignited, while lying in an open heap on
the ground. The vein runs nearly northwest and southeast, anrid dips southwesterly
at an angle of 20~ degrees. The accompanying formation consists of shale,
sedimentary rock, sandstone, &c., the whole having a range corresponding with
that of the coal seam. The deposits at this place are not in their natural situation much exposed, and but little work has yet been done upon them. It is
difficult to form an opinion as to their value, though competent judges speak
favorably of the chances for finding here a fair article of soft coal. Recently &
314 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
coal vein of the anthracite variety is reported to have been found 15 miles from
Iiko, the county seat of Lincoln county, in this State.  The vein is represented
to be 15 inches thick on the surface, and its contents are said to ignite readily,
and burn with freedom, leaving less than three per cent. of residuum. In gravity
and external characteristics it compares favorably with the best coal found on
this side of the continent, though assigned to a later geological period. Should
the deposit prove at all extensive it would greatly benefit the surrounding region,
vwhich, with much mineral wealth, is rather limited in its supplies of fuel.
CRYSTAL PEAK.-At this locality, some 35 miles northwest of Virginia City,
coal signs similar to those in El Dorado canion occur in a depression known as
Dog valley, lying near the eastern base of the Sierra, distant one mile from the
Truckee river, and two from the line of the Central Pacific railroad.   The adjacent hills, as well as the valley, are covered with a stately growth of spruce and
pine timber, which, should the coal fail, might still afford profitable employment
to a considerable population, as good lumber can be made here at small cost.
The Truckee affords amnple water-power for saw-mills to manufacture, and the
railroad a ready means for transporting it to market. There are also some gold
and silver-bearing lodes in the district, which, with the facilities at hand for
reducing the ores, may come to be workled with remunerative results. The discovery of coal at this place was made about four years ago, fragmentary portions
of a dark-colored, lustrous lignite, strongly marked with the structure of the trees
and plants from wvlich it was formed, having been found along the line of the
outcropping coal seams. A good deal of work directed to the exploration of these
beds has since been done. Several thousand dollars have been expended in sinking shafts and artesian borings, and in excavating cuts and tunnels. Some of
the former have been carried to a depth of 300 feet. In some cases the work of
prospecting was first effected by means of boring, after which workling shafts
were put down and steam machinery was employed to facilitate hoisting and
pumping operations.  The carboniferous strata at Crystal Peak vary in thickness from a few inches to two and a half feet; they are much compressed in spots,
and largely intermixed with foreign matter. Although a considerable quantity
of this lignite has been extracted, and one company claim to have reached, by
boring, a seam eight feet thick at a point 300 feet beneath the surface, the developments made have not, in the main, proved satisfactory; and of the several enterprises at one time set on foot for the purpose of exploring these beds, none are
now being actively prosecuted; and as some of those interested may contemplate
resuming operations, it may be expedient to copy here the opinions of the State
mineralogist of Nevada, as to the probabilitiesof any considerable bodies of coal,
even of the lignite class, ever being found at this place.   Mr. Stretch, having
given the locality a personal examination, remarks concerning its geology and
coal prospects as follows:
As so much imperfect knowledge relative to the probabilities of finding coal in Nevada is
prevalent, it may be well to speak more fully of the indications in this neighborhood.  The
seams of coal originally discovered at this place are interstratified with thin beds of coarse
sandstone or volcanic tufa, of light colors.  This formation is traceable easterly for a distaace
of 15 miles, being intimately associated with trachytes and basalt wherever it is found. Where
it is exposed in Long valley, north of Virginia, it contains great numbers of fragments of willow leaves, grasses, &c., remains resembling some varieties of sage-brush, and in one instance
the elytron of a beetle, apparently the same as a species now found on the same mountains,
and attached to the pifiou. These remains indicate for the formation a comparatively recent
date, a conclusion confirmed by the manner in which it is associated with the surrounding
rocks. The rocks of the Sierra at Crystal Peak are entirely igneous or metamorphic in their
character, and have been tilted into every conceivable position by the agencies which seamed
them with intruded granite and basalt. Did any of the formations which are known to accompany the coal fields of Europe and the eastern States occur in this vicinity, even though covered up by lava beds, their immense thickness, and the distortions to which they have been
subjected, would certainly have disclosed their presence, and they might have been recognized
by their peculiar fossils. They certainly do not exist at Crystal Peak. Had the tufas and
sandstones containing the so-called coal seams been formed before the elevation of the Sierra,
I
315 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
they would have necessarily been tilted and displaced in the same manner as the associated
rocks, partaking of all the flexures and faults of the mountain range near which they lie.
Instead of this being the case, the stratification is nearly horizontal, or only slightly inclined'.
In some places the beds have been somewhat tilted, probably by the causes which finally
raised them above the water level, and gave the present configuration to the surrounding
country. The conclusion is almost. irresistible, that whatever coal is found in the neighborhood of Crystal Peak will be confined to the small valleys in that vicinity., which, at the period
when Steamboat valley was an inland sea bounded by the Sierra on the west and the Virginia
mountains on the east, formed small arms of the lake, and collected more or less of the vegetable d6bris which during violent storms was washed down from the pine forests on the surrounding hills. There is yet another consideration to be taken into account in estimating the
probable extent of the deposit. The loss of bulk during the conversion of vegetable matter
into coal is equal to about three-fourths of the original mass. It becomes evident from this
that an extensive bed of coal can only be found where there has been, at some remote period,
most luxuriant forest growth and water sufficient in quantity to convey the debris to vast
tracts of marshy ground favorable for decomposition. The coal fields of the Eastern States
and England afford abundant evidence that they were at one time extensive tracts of swampy
forests, with a tropical climate and a luxuriance of vegetation with which even equatorial
forests in the present day cannot compete. On the other hand, the remains of plants found
in the associated rocks at Crystal Peak do not warrant us in entertaining the belief that such
conditions ever existed in that neighborhood.   What we do find point rather to a scanty
growth, such as is found on the hills to-day. The almost entire absence of animal remains in
the beds strongly supports this idea. Where there is an abundant vegetation there is generally a corresponding abundance of animal life, which could scarcely have failed to leave some
mementos of its existence. If these views are correct, as there is good reason to believe they
are, no body of coal will be found in this vicinity which, from its extent or thickness, will
repay the capital expended in its development. The mere fact of the formation having accumulated in a contracted mountain valley, limits its extent and value at the same time. The
thin seams of bituminous matter found between the layers of tufa may have been the product
of dense growths of tule and other water plants,
SECTION III.
COPPER.
Among the more promising cupriferous localities in the State, is
THE PEAvINE DISTRICT, situate about 30 miles northwest of Virginia City,
being six miles north of the Truckee river, and about the same distance firom the
Central Pacific railroad, with all which it is connected by good wagon roads.
This    district, erected in March, 1863, has a length of about 20, and an average
width of 10 or 12 miles. Near its centre is a cluster of small springs, at which
a house was built in 1860. About these springs grow quantities of wild peavines,
hence the name of the station and subsequently of the district, which covers a
region of low hills stretching along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada.  The
country about the mines is dry, barren, and treeless, though it contains several
small lakes with a number of springs, and water can be obtained in many places
by digging wells from 30 to 50 feet deep, while wood, both for fuel and lumber,
abounds in the Sierra, four or five miles distant.  The lodes in this district, found
almost invariably in a granite and metamorphic formation, have a northerly and
southerly strike, and are from 3 to 12 feet in thickness, with a few of greater
dimensions.  They do not project much above the surface, and although a small
number have been traced by the outcrop for several hundred yards, and have
been found persistent for a considerable depth, many of them have the appearance
of segregated rather than deep fissured veins. The lodes possessing the best local
reputation as based on size, assays of ore, and extent of development, are the
Great Eastern, 20 feet thick, th. Bevelhymer, American Eagle, Enterprise, and
Metropolitan, upon which tunnel. have been run, varying from 50 to 300 feet in
length, and the Pacific, Indian, Occidental, Young America, Great Western,
Orient, Challenge, and Bay State, all somewhat explored by means of shafts,
open cuts, and other excavations. The Tolls Company have expended some
316 
WEST OP THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
$4,000 iii prospecting their lode, from whicli they liave taken quantities of ore
assaying from 15 to 40 per cent. of copper, and from $60 to $500 per ton in gold
and silver. While the above-mentioned claims, as well, perhaps, as many besides,
cover large and permanent lodes, others in the district have the appearance of
being merely limited and superficial deposits. The Peavine ores, composed
chiefly of carbonates and oxides, besides assaying largely in copper, contain a
sufliciency of the precious metals to defray cost of transportation to the seaboard,
when, as will, be the case in the course of next year, railroad transit can be had.
In the metalliferous portions of these veins free gold can frequently be detected by
the unassisted eye; particles of this metal beino sometimes found on the surface
where the veinstone has undergone deco b
mposition. The ores of this district give
by assay from 10 to 50 per cent. of metallic copper, selected samples often going
much higher. Small lots of the better class of ores have been found by working
tests to yield from 30 to 40 per cent. of metal. By an assay of these ores made
Gold................................0005  $2 50 per ton.
Silver...................................................0200    7 85 "
Oxide of copper........................................... 34.1000  135 00 "
Peroxide of iron........................................... 2. 3200
Alumina.................................................. 2200
Sulphur................................................... 3600
Carbonic acid............................................. 11.2000
Silicia.................................................... 46. 6600
Water.................................................... 3.8400
Loss......................................................2795
100.0000  145 35   "
Some choice ores reduced at the English Company's mill, seven miles distant
from the mines, yielded 100 ounces of silver to the ton. Smnelting works
on the Swansea plan, with a capacity for operating 10 or 12 tons of ore daily,
have been erected in the district, plumbago, obtained from a bed of that mineral
near Washoe City, having been employed in their construction.  This material
is abundant in the locality mentioned, and although not yet thoroughly proved,
there is good reason for believing it well adapted to this and similar uses.   Sev eral other furnaces, some of them on a different plan, have been projected, and
there is a likelihood that one or more of these will be completed and in operation
in the course of a few months. It is probable, however, that the bulk of these
ores will be shipped to San Francisco for a marklet, or sent elsewhere for treatment when the railroad shall have been completed to this point; an event that
promises to revive operations, now nearly suspended, enhance the value of claims,
and repopulate this eligibly situated and promising district. A town, also
named Peavine, was laid out in 1863, at the group of springs mentioned. It
contains several houses, and being adjacent to the mines, should the latter turn
out according to expectation, its growth will no doubt keep pace with their future
development.
TilE WVALEER RIVER COPPEr REGION covers a considerable scope of country
lying between and adjacent to the east and west forks of that stream.   The principal mines, so far as developments extend, are distant from the latter in a westerly
direction, from 3 to 10 miles. This cupriferous belt has an average width of eight
and a length of about 25 miles. Within these limits some strong veins occur,
and here most of the labor and money laid out in that region have been expended.
Like the Peavine, this is an arid, sterile, and timberless district; the only water
in the immediate vicinity of the mines is afforded by a few small springs, while
the only vegetable products consist of a scanty growth of bunch grass, artemisia,
and a few other equally scraggy and worthless shrubs. There are, however,
scattered groves of pinion on the Pine Nut mountains a few miles to the west,
while the west branch of Walker river, in close proximity, and at all seasons a
317 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
strong and rapid stream, supplies every requisite for reduction works. The volume
of water is ample for propulsive power, and also for floating down fuel and lum ber from the heavy pine and spruce forests 30 miles above. The veins here,
which are numerous, well defined, and of fair average dimensions, have a gener ally north-northeast trend, assay from 12 to 50 per cent. in copper, and from $15
to $30 per ton in the precious metals. Afost of the country rock is of a calcareous
nature. The ores embrace almost every variety, an(l often carry small particles
of virgin metal. The first discoveries were made in this district in 1862, since
which time a good deal of work in a promiscuous way has been done. Although
several lodes have been opened to a considerable depth, it can hardly be said
that any have been thoroughly explored.  Active exertions, except upon a few
claims, have been suspended for the past two years.  On the Bewley mine an
incline shaft 6 feet by 10 has been sunk to a depth of 100 feet. From this lode
several hundred tons of ore have been extracted which gave an average yield of
nearly 40 per cent. of metal. It is well formed, has a thickness of about six feet,
has a northerly and southerly strike, and an easterly dip in conformity with the
prevailing pitch in the district.  Other veins located near it and partially opened,
promise almost equally well. Upon the Constitution, Peacock, Ward, and
Weister lodes, some prospecting worlk has been performed with encouraging
results.  The former, which is the most extensively opened, exhibits a vein 16
feet thick, and carries ores that assay from 20 to 30 per cent. of copper, with a
large percentage of iron, and from $15 to $18 per ton in gold and silver. The
quantity of iron diminishes as depth is attained on the lode. The Ward and
Weister lode, lying near the Constitution, and some 10 miles to the westward
of the river, is about six feet wide, carries a pure gray sulphuret ore of high grade
with native copper, and firom $25 to $30 per ton in gold and silver. The Peacock, four miles from the river, is a four-foot vein, impregnated with yellow sulphuret ore assaying about the same as that from the Constitution.  In the foot
hills that flank the Tollock mountains lying between the forks of Walker river,
as well as in the country contiguous to the main stream and that stretching along
the western base of the Wassack range west of the Walker lake, occur numerous
copper-bealing lodes, which, judging from surface indications-none of them
having been much opened-will yet constitute a cupriferous field of considerable
extent and value. As in the district further west, a variety of ores is met with
in these localities. The facilities for transportation and reduction are about the
same.
In Battle Mountain district,* in the eastern part of Humboldt County, are
several deposits of the red oxide of copper. The Dunderberg, the principal lode
in the district, consists of a mass of silicious rockl and limestone nearly 200 feet
thick, permeated by numerous small veins of this ore, assaying throughout 50
per cent. of metal. Owing to the remoteness of the district, 90 miles north-northwest of Austin, and about the same distance easterly from the settled portions
of Humboldt county, these deposits, though apparently rich and extensive, possess only a prospective value, since they cannot be opened to advantage or worked
with profit until the railroad, to pass within 10 miles of them, shall be completed.
With that auxiliary they will probably command the means necessary for development. The country about these mines, though generally barren, contains
some patches of good land, with a narrow strip of fertile bottoms along the Humboldt river a few miles dstant, to the north. Being without timber, however,
and the other agents essential to an economical reduction of the ores, the mass
of them will require to be shipped elsewhere for treatment. In the Volcano district, Esmeralda county, at a point about 80 miles northeast of Aurora, have been
found some'of the heaviest and apparently richest copper lodes in the State. The
deposits at this place consist of well-defined veins, some of them of considerable
* See section on Eastern Nevada.
318 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
magnitude, and of ore-bearing masses lying upon or projecting friom the surface.
The top ores are carbonates, with a sprinkling of other varieties, and at greater
depths sulphlurets, the average assays of which indicate a fair percentage of copper and the presence of from $25 to $30 per ton in silver, and from $2 to $10 in
gold.  The region for a considerable distance around is forbidding and desolate;
it is scantily supplied with wood and water, and wholly destitute of arable lands.
Moreover, it is far removed from the line of any contemplated railway, and otherwise unfavorably situated for the cheap extraction of the metals and exportation
of ores; so that an early development of its mineral resources, of whichl copper
forms but one, can hardly be anticipated. About 50 miles southeast of Volcano
in the San Antonio district, signs of copper manifest themselves over a considerable scope of country.  The ores at this place are said to be rich, yet nothing
has been done to indicate the extent or probable permanence of the mines. One
of the ledges located here at a point two and a half miles east of Montezuma
Spring, called the Ruby, has a thickness of 12 feet, and, although it carries a
variety of metals, copper appears to predominate. In the Bolivia, Mammoth,
and Palmetto districts, as well as in numerous other localities in different parts
of the State, strong and well marked veins of copper ore occur. Although many
of these bear superficial evidence of permanency, no positive opinion can be pronounced on this point, since only upon a few of them has any work been done.
Upon none have explorations been prosecuted to decisive results.
SECTION IV.
METEOROLOGY, BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, ETC.
Of the climate of Nevada so much has been said elsewhere that it only remains
here to notice a few of what may be considered its meteorological peculiarities;
among which the most remarkable are what have been denominated cloud bursts,
a heavy precipitation of rain caused by the meeting of two clouds surcharged
with moisture.  This phenomenon is thought to be produced through electrical
agencies, though not enough has been ascertained to settle this fully. Numbers
of these " cloud bursts" occur every summer. They are most frequent in the southern and western parts of the State.  In some instances an immense amount of
water falls to the earth in a few minutes, filling up gulches and sweeping away
everything opposed to its progress. Several lives have been lost and considerable property destroyed in the State during the past few years through this cause.
The mirage, an optical illusion caused by saline particles floating in a heated
atmosphere, is often seen in great perfection on the deserts of Nevada. Sometimes it takes the form of lakes, with islands and headlands bathing in their limpid waters; assuming, at others, though more rarely, the appearance of extensive
groves and wooded lawns, the wholo so closely resembling nature that it requires
an effort of reason to dispel the illusion. The same or similar atmospheric conditions sometimes so refract the rays of light as to distort and magnify in a
strange manner objects seen at a short distance. A sage bush viewed through
this medium has the appearance of a large spreading tree, and the little cones
formed by the drifting sand loom like pyramids on the deserts.
Snow slides, though often happening in the Sierra, where they sometimes occur
on a large scale and with fatal results, are not common in the interior of the
State. Nearly every winter some unfortunate traveller loses his life in the Sierras
by being overwhelmed by these descending masses of snow.
Sand stora))s and sand clouds are regular features of the climatology of this
region. The former is brought about by certain strong winds, which, blowing
steadily for some days, so completely fill the air with sand and dust that it is
I
319 
RESOURCES O}' STATES AND TERRITORIES
impossible to see for more than a few rods. Respiration becomes labored, and
the atmosphere often grows oppressively warm during their continuance, which
rarely lasts more than a single day. The sand clouds or pillars are formed after
the manner of water-spouts, and consist of immense bodies of fine sand and dust
carried to a great height by a rotary and upward, but at the same time advanc ing, current of air, sometimes at a slow and again with a rapid pace. Frequently
these columns sway high in the atmosphere, and many of them can be seen at
the same time following each other in majestic procession arcoss the plains.
This region, like California, has its wet and dry seasons, though the latter is
scarcely so long or uninterrupted here as there, nor is the precipitation during
the wet season so great. Summer showers, accompanied with thunder and light ning, are more frequent in Nevada than in California, though much less common than
in the States east of the Rocky mountains.
Both the fauna and flora of Nevadalack fullness and variety. The indigenous
plants and flowers are few, while the animal kingdom, except in the department
of insect life, is barren almost beyond example. With the exception of the pine nut, a few wild currants and gooseberries, and one or two other inferior kinds of
berries, found only in a few localities, and none of them very plentiful, there is
little in the vegetable world that civilized man considers eatable.  There are few
or no wild plums, blackberries, strawberries, or grapes.  The wild cherries found
growing on a scrubby bush in some of the canons are small, bitter, and astrin gent. The Indians find many medicinal herbs and esculent roots, but neither
are much esteemed by white men.  In the tul6 about the sink of the Humboldt
and Carson grows a species of cane which exudes a sweet sirup that, drying in
small lumps on the surface, forms a tolerable article of sugar. Wild flax and
tobacco are found occasionally growing on the hills, and along the Humboldt a
species of wild hemp is met with, having a long and stout fibre, which may,
with cultivation, come to form an important textile. The artemesia or wild sage,
a scraggy shrub growing from one to six feet high, is found nearly everywhere.
This species is worthless for anything except fuel, though there is a small white
kind of sage upon which cattle feed with avidity after it has been visited by the
first frosts of autumn. The cactus, growing but sparsely in the northern and
central parts of the State, is common further south, where, also, the mesquit tree
abounds.  Game, with the exception of sage hen and hare, is scarce in all parts
of the State. There are no wildcats, panthers, bears, or other animals that can
justly be called beasts of prey. The nearest approach to these are the coyote
and wolf, of which there are a few in all parts of the country. On some of the
mnore lofty ranges are to be seen occasionally small herds of mountain sheep.
These animals are shy and fleet, keeping usually in the more rugged and inaccessible parts of the mountains. The beaver, otter, martin, foxes, fishers, and
other ftir-bearing animals that drew the trapper into this region in the early day,
have nearly all disappeared, and now rarely fall a prey to the hunter. About
the sinks and lakes geese, ducks, cranes, and pelicans are, at certain seasons of
the year, plentiful. These, with the sage hen, raven, an occasional eagle, and
a sprinkling of small birds, comprise all there is to represent the feathered race
in the country. Reptiles are also scarce, and aretmostly confined to a few horned
toads, spotted lizards, and snakes, of which the only venomous kind is the rattlesnake.
320
t 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
SECTION V.
SOCIAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS.
In all these departments Nevada has made rapid and gratifying progress.
Her population is distinguished for industry, order, and a ready obedience to
lawful authority.  Already nearly 30 church edifices have been erected inll the
State, at a cost ranging from $2,000 to $40,000 each, and an aggregate expense
of about $300,000. These represent the leading Christian denominations, and
are in some cases spacious and handsome buildings. Numerous well conducted
schools have been established under an enlightened educational system, for the
support of which liberal provision has been made by the State. There is also
a number of academies, seminaries, and high schools sustained by private pat  ronage. Capacious halls for literary, social, and benevolent purposes have been
erected in all the large towns, several of which are supplied with gas and water
works and commodious buildings for municipal uses. Besides many minor indus  trial establishments, several large foundries and machine shops have been erected
in the vicinity of Virginia, and one, also of considerable capacity, at Austin,
near the centre of the State. A salt mill, an acid factory, and a tannery and
pottery speak of the diversified pursuits now obtaining a foothold, and a well  patronized press, issuing five daily and as many weekly journals, indicate the
intelligence and enlightenment of the people. Of the agricultural capacities
and products of the country so much has been said elsewhere in this report that
they need only be glanced at in a sunmary way in this connection. The entire
amount of land, arable and grazing, enclosed in the State may be roughly esti  mated at 150,000 acres, of which one-quarter at least is planted to grain, givirg
an average yield of about 20 bushels to 1. Nearly every cereal grown in the
most favored regions elsewhere can, with proper care, be successfully grown here.
Even the more delicate fruits common in the temperate zones, such as pears,
peaches, and grapes, can be raised in Nevada if the soil and site be judiciously
selected and their culture properly attended to, while in the matter of vegetables,
except the more tender kind, no country can produce them with greater facility
or of better quality if the requisite attention be paid to their culture. Besides
the vegetables and grain raised in this State, large quantities of butter and
cheese are annually produced, and these commodities are very justly esteemed
for their excellent flavor. Taken in the aggregate, the amount of stock kept in
the State is quite large; the neat cattle number between 11,000 and 12,000, and
the horses and mules kept for farming purposes and draft about 6,000, besides
between 3,000 and 4,000 sheep and about the same number of swine. The
ranges of mountain pasturage found in many parts of the State, with an almlost
universal absence of weeds, burs, and wild animals to injure the wool and endanger the lives of the flock, should recommend this country to wool growers and
sheep herders abroad. The tulk lands furnish a good field for raising swine.
These animals thrive well on the root of that rush, even without other food,
It is estimated that there were 75,000 tons of hay cut and 6,000 tons of grain.
raised in the State the present year, besides sufficient vegetables for home con -
sumption.  There are three flour mills, one in operation and two in course of
erection; 24 saw-mnills, driving 35 saws, and having a capacity to cut daily from
5,000 to 20,000 feet of lumber each, or an aggregate of 180,000 feet. The
most of these mills are propelled by steam. Their cost ranges from $5,000 to
$15,000; total cost, about $175,000. The number of quartz mills and reduction works in this State, including such as are in course of erection, having their
machinery and material on the ground, with the prospect of an early completion,
may be set down at 160.  The most of these mills are driven by steam, the whole
carrying an aggregate of about 1,300 stamps. The individual cost of these
establishments varies from $3,000 to $950,000, the cost of the greater part rang         21
321 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ing from $40,000 to $60,000 each, though quite a number have cost $100,000,
and several much larger sums.  At tlhe present time nearly all of these establishments are in constant and profitable operation. None of those completed and
in condition to do good work are idle. About 60 miles of ditching, the most of
it of large capacity, has been constructed in the State for the purpose of conducting water to points where required for the use of mills or for domestic wants,
besides a large amount of work expended on other projects of this kind but partially completed and a multitude of smaller ditches dug for irrigating purposes.
Over 1,000 miles of toll-road, some portions of it very costly, has been built,
either for subserving local necessities and wholly within the State, or for the
purpose of improving thoroughfares over the Sierra, or connecting those with
points in the interior. The sums expended on account of these improvements
amount in the aggregate to scarcely less than a million of dollars
SECTION VI.
DOUGLAS COUNTY.
This county, named after the late Stephen A. Douglas, is situate centrally on
the western border of the State, having Ormsby and Lyon counties on the north,
Esmeralda on the east, and California on the west and south. It has an area of
about 1,500 square miles, forming in this respect the fourth counmty in the State,
though it contains more valuable timber land than any other, except Washoe, as
well as a greater quantity of good agricultural land in proportion to its size.  In
1861 it contained a population of 1,057; the present population is about 2,000.
The western part of this county is covered by the Sierra Nevada mountains, and
the eastern by the Pine Nut range, Carson valley, embracing about 200 square
miles lying between them.  About one-third of this valley consists of good
farming and meadow lands; the remainder consists of gravelly and sandy sage
barrens, the most of it incapable of producing good grain crops, even with the aid
of careful culture and irrigation. There are in this valley several thousand acres
of tul6 land, which by diking and drainage might be converted into valuable pasture and hay lands. With the exception of about 2,000 acres of arable land
lying in Jack's valley, one mile northwest of Carson, nearly all the tillable soil
inl this county is embraced within the limits of the latter, or the mountain ravines
tributary to it. Outside of these, Douglas county possesses a generally rugged
surface and a barren soil, the latter incapable, except where covered with forests,
of producing anything beyond its native growth, the artemesia, and a scanty
crop of bunch grass. Much of the soil on the hills and mountains would grow
fair crops of grain could it be irrigated, but for this there are, unfortunately,
but limited facilities. Carson river, flowing centrally through the valley, together
with the numerous streams comning down from the Sierra, afford, to a certain extent,
means for irrigation and for the propulsion of machinery.  To the latter use a
sufficiency of it has been diverted for driving the machinery of six saw mills
and one flour mill, without more than partially appropriating the power that
could be obtained. These mills, including also a steam mill situated in the
western part of the country, cost in the aggregate about $40,000, and have
a united capacity for cutting 50,000 feet of lumber per day. The timber
lands, from which a good article of lumber can be made, amount to between
60,000 and 70,000 acres within the limits of the county.  This timber is situate
on the Sierra Nevada. The Pine Nut range contains only scattered groves of
pifilon, the greater portion of it is destitute of even this. There are no quartz
mills in this county. As yet no productive mines have been developed within
its boundaries. Agriculture, hay making, and stock ranching constitute the
322 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
principal pursuits of its inhabitants; the number of work horses and mrnes eontained in it being estimated at 800; the neat cattle at 1,800, and the swine at
400.  Much poultry is also kept by the farmers, and considerable quantities of
butter and cheese are made annually. The amount of hay cut here in 1866
reached 15,000 tons; the grain raised was estimated at 570 tons. Thirty thousanda acres of land have been enclosed, of which between 6,000 and 7,000 are
under cultivation.  Douglas is well supplied with wagon roads.  The extensive
valley occupying its centre, and the numerous mountain passes leading out of it,
favor their construction. Genoa, the county seat and only town in the county of
considerable size, contains about 400 inhabitants. Besides a brick school-house
and two churches, it contains a handsome court-house erected at a cost of $20,000.
The value of taxable property in the country is estimated at $600,000. There
are numerous hot springs situate in and along the margin of Carson valley, but
none of them are of a magnitude or possessed of other features requiring special
notice.
While, as observed, no mines have been developed to a productive state in this
county, it is believed to contain some valuable cupriferous, if not also argentiferous, lodes, upon some of which a large amount of exploratory labor has
been expended.  Commencing in 1859, several mining districts have since been
laid out in the county, the earlier with a view to operations on silver-bearing
lodes; one or two, more recently erected in the eastern part of the county, for
the purpose of securing and working the copper veins existing at that point.
These latter districts, and one or two others, are all that still maintain their
organization. The rest, created under excitement and insufficient exploration,
have long since been abandoned. For fuller information touching these cupriferous lodes the article on copper may be consulted. The Eagle district, situate
on the Pine Nut range in the southern part of the county, contains a number of
quartz veins, some of them displaying prominent outcrops. In the work of
exploring two of these ledges, the Peck and the Mammoth, a thousand feet of
tunneling has been run.  Operations, commenced in 1860, were continuously
prosecuted for four or five years thereafter, and although the ledge has been penetrated in these claims at a considerable depth, no paying body of ore has been
developed.  It is said the work, for some time suspended, is to be resumed.
Already about $100,000 have been expended upon these two claims, from neither
of which has any amount of millable ore been extracted.  Adjoining Douglas
on the south are situate 3iIarkleyville, Mogul, Monitor, Silver Mountain, and
several other less important districts, all silver-producing and lying east of the
Sierra, though in Alpine county, California.  They are located on the head-waters
of Carson river, distant from 20 to 40 miles from Genoa. In the vicinity of the latter place is a district bearing the same name and stretching along the base of the
Sienrra, in which a good many claims were located about six years ago. Here
afterwards a large amount of workl was done and money expended, but with no
very determinate results. The outlay at this point, divided among some ten or
twelve companies, could scarcely have been less than $200,000, over 3,000 linear
feet of tunnelling havingbeen excavated, besides other work done. For the past
year or two operations have been suspended, and, as is generally supposed, with
no prospect of an early resumption. Could a heavy body of moderately rich
ore be found at this spot it could hardly fail to impart value to these mines,
owing to the cheapness with which it could be worked by reason of their proximity to wood and water. The prospect, however, of reaching even this result
is not encouraging. In a range of low hills at the north end of Carson valley
some small veins of gold and silver-beaiwg quartz were found about a year ago.
Upon these several shafts have been sunk, and in the limited operations conducted
at this place is to be found nearly all the work now being done upon mines within
the bounds of this county.
323 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
SECTION VII.
ORMSBY COUNTY.
This county, which adjoins Douglas on the north, takes its name from William
Ormsby, an early settler on the eastern slope and one of the founders of Carson
City. Though of small dimensions, devoid of productive mines, and containing
but a moderate amount of arable land, its central and otherwise eligible situation, extensive pineries, and ample water power have built up within it important
industries, rendering the population among the most thrifty in the State. Carson
City is the capital of the State, and has been selected for the site of the United
States branch mint. The census report of 1861 showed the county to contain
2,076 inhabitants, a number now increased to about 2,500, of whom two-thirds
perhaps reside in Carson City, and a sixth in Empire, a milling hamlet, situate
on the river three miles east of Carson. A large proportion of the inhabitants
are engaged in teaming, lumbering, and cutting fire-wood. Three-fourths of the
county is covered with mountains. The Sierra occupies the western and the
Pine Niit range the eastern parts. These mountains are here timbered as in
Douglas county, and the broad and sandy plain, fertile only in its westernlm part,
known as Eagle valley,. lies between them. Across from south to north runs the
Carson river, affording good water-power and an easy channel for floating down sawlog,s and fuel from the forests about the head-waters of this stream. The quantity of these materials thus brought down to Empire amounts to 5,000,000 feet
lumber and 5,000 cords of wood annually. The streams issuing from the Sierra
also supply a considerable amount of propulsive power, besides furnishing Carson
City with water for domestic uses, and the arable land about it, of vwhich there
are several thousand acres, with means for irrigation, nearly the lwhole of this
water having thus been utilized. A considerable amount of lumber is made
in this county.  The forests of pine and fir with water power in their midst, and
the proximity of the Comstock mines, insure a constant market and supply
many advantages for carrying on the business. The wood lands consist of about
20,000 acres of large timber, situate in the Sierra, and 2,000 or 3,000 acres of
scattered pinion fit only for fuel.  About 2,000,000 feet of lumber and 14,000
cords of wood are annually cut within the limits of the county, besides that
floated down the Carson. There are three saw-mills in the county, built at an
aggregate cost of $30,000; daily capacity 40,000 feet. About 6,000 acres of
land are under fence, of which 200 are sown to grain and 100 planted with vegetables. Last year 200 tons of hay were cut and 180 tons of grain raised, 25 of
wheat, 50 of oats, and 105 of barley, the average yield being nearly 40 bushels
per acre.  This is about the proportion in which these several kinds of grain are
raised throughout the State, though this yield is much above the average.  The
county contains 430 horses and muLles, 700 head of neat cattle, 200 of which are
milch cows and 450 work oxen, 250 sheep, and 500 swine. A tannery and acid
works at Carson City, with sandstone quarries near by, together with lime and charcoal burning, and the several pursuits already mentioned, give to this county a more
varied industry than is common elsewhere in the State. The acid works have
engaged in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, an article employed in the beneficiating of silver ore, with fair prospects of success. About 2,000 pounds of
sulphur, procured from the beds in Humboldt county, are consumed here weekly.
The sandstone quarries yield a good article of building material.  It is easily
gotten out and is readily shaped by the chisel when first quarried, but hardens
on exposure to the atmosphere. The United States branch mint is constructed
of this stone, as are also the penitentiary, county buildings, used for State purposes, and many of the better class of edifices in Cars6n City. Near the town
are two large hot springs, one of which has been handsomely improved for
bathing purposes. Five miles to the; northeast is a bed of white marble, very
324 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
pure and easily wrought. Granular limestone is found at several places. Cop  per, iron, and coal are among the mineral products of Olrnmsby, as elsewhere
related.  There are eight quartz mills in this county, five driven by water and
three by water and steam, the whole carrying 175 stamps and costing $450,000.
They are all kept running on ores from the Comstock vein. The Mexican, one
of the largest of the number, has been engaged for some time past in working
over the sulphurets which for several years had been accumulating in'the coin  panv's reservoir.
Although numerous mining districts have been laid off in this county, some as
early as 1859, and a large amount of work done on a few of the ledges located,
no mineral deposits of value have been reached, nor has much attention been
paid to the business of mining for the past few years.  In the Eagle district, the
earliest erected, lying along the base of the Sierra west of Carson City, several
lodes were located in 1859, some of which having been extensively prospected
the following year by means of shafts and tunnels, and not turning out according
to expectation, the whole was abandoned. The next season a fitful interest was
awakened in regard to supposed valuable discoveries made on the bald hills south west of the town, which having led to the locating of many claims in that neigh borhood, eventuated, soon after, in their total abandonment, since which time
nothing further has been done either towards locating or working mines in the
district. The same year the Clear Creek district was the scene of much excite ment and activity. Extensive mining grounds were taken up and prospecting
operations initiated.  Here a number of long tunnels were afterwards driven
and deep shafts sunk, but none of them availed to reach ore deposits of a remu nerative kind, and the district, under an absence of population and an entire
cessation of labor for several years, is considered practically abandoned. In the
S-.llivan district, east of Carson river, organized in 1860, there were many locations
made and much desultory worli done during that and the following year; and
although some of the lodes proved highly auriferous in spots, they failed, so far
as penetrated, in the matter of persistence and regularity.  Another drawback
upon the success of these mines was at that time experienced in the absence of
mills for working the ores, which were, therefore, unavailable, compelling claimholders who were without means to suspend work, leaving the problem as to the
character and value of these lodes still unsolved. The ores in most of these
districts carry considerable copper, and in some cases a notable percentage of
free gold. Washings for the latter metal have been found remunerative at
several localities in the county. At a spot three miles west of Carson sluicing
operations were for some time catried on, having been in progress until recently.
Although no regular vein was found, the surface earth gave fair returns in free
gold.
SECTION VIII.
WASHOE COUNTY.
This county takes its name from the tribe of aborigines who formerly inhabited this part of the State. It lies north of Ormsby; its western portion covers
a large and well timbered section of the Sierra, and its central a chain of fertile
valleys, of which Washoe, Pleasant, Steamboat, Truckee and Long are the
principal.  With the exception of these valleys, which contain about 150,000
acres of farming and grass lands and the timber lands mentioned, nearly the
entire county consists of sage plains, rugged hills and mountains.  The most of
it is arid, barren, and unfit for cultivation, the only vegetable growth found
upon it being a sparse crop of bunch grass, and in a few spots groves of scrubby
325 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
pine. The valleys, however, are extremely fertile, and with careful cultivation
and irrigation are made to produce hay, grain and vegetables.  Considerable
quantities of butter and cheese are also made.  At the south end of Washoe
valley is situated a shallow lake five miles long and two wide, the surplus waters
of which run through a slough and are made to do service in driving several
quartz mills at WVashoe City, a few miles below. The numerous streams falling
fiom the Sierra are also employed for propelling quartz and saw mills located
along them.  Pleasant valley, a small but fertile basin, lies two miles north of
Washoe.  Steamboat valley, the site of the hot springs elsewhere described, lies
three miles north of Pleasant valley. It contains some good land, opening eight
miles below the hot springs into the Truckee meadows, a tract embracing several
thousand acres of partly arable and grass lands. The population of this county
numbers about 3,000. It contains several small towns, of which Ophir, situate
near the mill and reduction works of the Ophir Company, has 500, and Washoe
City, the county seat, three miles further north, 800.  Franktown, Galena,
Crystal Peak, and Glendale-the latter two on the Truckee-are small agricultural and mining hamlets containing from 100 to 200 inhabitants each.
While the wealth of the county consists largely of its agricultural resources,
the business of lumbering and quartz milling is also extensively engaged in.
The annual product of hay amounts to about 7,000 tons, and of grain to 1,500
tons. There are 800 horses and mules and 1,000 head of neat cattle in the
county, nearly half of the latter being milch cows; sheep and swine number
about 500 each. There are 20,000 acres of land enclosed, of which 4,000 are
under cultivation.  There are 15 saw-mills, most of them driven by steam power;
the whole cut about 1,300,000 feet of lumber per month, besides lath and
shingles, for making which several of them have machines attached.  In addition
to this, 400,000 feet of hewvn timber and large quantities of cord wood are cut
for the Virginia market. Although this county, like Douglas and Ormsby, is
without productive mines, there are ten quartz mills within its limits, several of
which are large and first-class in their appointments.  The Ophir Company's
mill carries 72 stamps and cost half a million of dollars.  Dall's mill at Franktown, burnt last spring but since rebuilt, carries 60 stamps and cost a quarter of
a million.  Most of these mills are propelled by steam;  several employ both
steam and water. They calty, in the aggregate, 281 stamps, and cost $1,420,000.
With the exception of the English Company's mill on the Truckee, built in
advance of mining developments, all these establishments are now running on
Comstock ores, and generally with remunerative results.
The amount of taxable property in the county, in 1861, was $1,140,000; in
1863, $2,527,500, and is now believed to bLa at least $3,000,000.  There
have been 30 miles of canal built for conducting water to mills and other enterprises of this kind projected, some of which may be carried out. Although
aboundingin metalliferous lodes and mineral deposits of different kinds, the county
is still without ore-yielding mines, a circumstance attributable, in the case of gold
and silver-bearing lodes, partially to the barrenness of the latter in their upper
portions, and in part to the superficial and ill-directed character of prospecting
labors. Of the deposits of copper and coal, mention has been made elsewhere.
A number of mining districts have at various times been formed, some of them
as early as 1859, the year of the, silver discovery. In the spring of 1860 the
Argentine district, lying in the range of mountains east of Washoe valley, was
erected; and although the ledges there have periodically since been the subjects
of sanguine expectation, the ore procured from them has done little towards
meeting the expenses incrred in their partial development. Scarcely any work
has been done in the district for the last three years, and the lodes can
hardly be said to possess any present value.  The history of this, the first district formed, will serve to illustrate that of all others subsequently erected, in
every one of which the high hopes at one time entertained failed of final realiza
326 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
tion. Of the many claims located throughout the county nearly all may be
considered abandoned, nor is it probable that workl will ever be resumed on more
than a few of them. The quartz veins, though of fair size, are generally hard
and vitreous, the country rock being mostly metamorphic slate and granite.   The
ores are usually impregnated with compounds of iron and copper, carrying also,
in some cases, a small percentage of sulphuretted silver, with particles of native
metal and a sprinkling of free gold.  So much of the latter has been found in
the earth at several points as to afford fair surface digging for a short time.  In
the Wisconsin district, at the south end of Washoe valley, several companies
made wages for a period of some months sluice-washing the auriferous ground
at that place.  The Galena district, as its name implies, abounds in the sulphuret
of lead, which here occurs in the shape of an argentiferous galena.  The metal
extracted from it assays about $200 per ton in silver. The vein matter carries
from 20 to 60 per cent. of metallic lead. Between the walls of the veins and the
gangue rests a thin stratum of arsenical pyrites, so placed, however, as to render
their mechanical separation easy. Upon several of these lodes work has been
done. The Alford has been explored by means of a tunnel several hundred feet
long and an inclin, shaft sunk at its terminus.  Various attempts have been
made to reduce this ore by smelting, none of which have met with entire success.
The principal lode having lately passed into the hands of a company possessed
of ample means and the requisite skill, better results, it is believed, will be reached
through the efforts now about to be made for smelting it on a large scale.  The
Silver Peak district, besides the beds of lignite there found, contains a number
of metalliferous lodes, some of which prospect well in the precious metals.   The
facilities enjoyed through the forests and water power at that place will secure
the working of low grade ores with profit, if only the quantity be large and easily
procured.  A lot of ore taken from the Truckee Ophir, a large ledge and the
only one yet much opened, was found to yield by mill process at the rate of $30
per ton in gold and silver. A town has been laid out near these mines which,
as it is within two miles of the Truckee river and the Central Pacific railroad,
and surrounded with forests, has the promise of growth. Several saw-nmills in
the vicinity already find market for all the lumber they can make, and, with the
railroad completed, quantities of this article will probably be manufactured at
this point.
SECTION IX.
STOREY COUNTY.
This county, named in honor of Captain Storey, who lost his life in the Indian
fight near Pyramid lake, in the spring of 1860, is not only of limited extent but
extremely barren, containing a smaller amount of good land, less timber, and
fewer streams than any other in the State.  It is, in fact, without agricultural,
luimbering, or even milling resources, except in the latter case where some have
been supplied by steam. The only pasturage is that afforded by the bunchgrass-short-lived and scanty at best, since there is little of it except on the
mountains, and when once eaten off does not readily grow up again the same
season.  Originally there was a sparse growth of pinon on the hills about Virginia, but it is now nearly all cut away, leaving both the town and the mills
dependent on outside localities for fuel. Nearly all the northern and western
part of the county, embracing fully three-fourths of its area, lies on the high and
barren chain of mountains known as the WVashoo range, and whicli, commencing
near Carson City, extends to the Truckee river, forming a sort of spur or off-shoot
of the main Sierra. Situated along the eastern slope of this range, about half
327 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
way up its side, and running parallel with its longitudinal axis, is the Comstock
lode, with Virginia City built immediately over it, and Gold Hill, half a mile
further south, a little below the line of its strike.* The eastern part of the county
is composed of the desolate sage barren stretching from the Carson north to the
Truckee river-a treeless, arid and sandy waste, alike destitute of vegetable and
animal life.  Storey, like all its sister counties, has been the theatre of numerous
mining excitements, leading to the creation and sudden peopling of new districts
to be almost as suddenly abandoned and soon after forgotten. In this manner
at least a dozen districts have first and last been formed, scarcely any of which
continue to maintain their organization or are recognized as having a legal
existence. Still there are a number of districts in the county besides those of
Virginia and Gold Hill that continue to be recognized as valid, and in some of
which, as the American Flat and Flowery, there is much work being done, and
in a few instances with satisfactory results or good prospects of ultimate success.
The amount of land enclosed by fence does not exceed 5,000 acres in the county,
of which 1,000, perhaps, are under cultivation, a good share of it being planted
with vegetables, which in a few choice localities are found to do well. Some
attempts at raising fruit in a small way have also been attended with success.
About 100 tons of hay are cut yearly in the county, but as yet no grain has been
raised. Storey contains about 1,000 head of work-horses and mules, 500 neat
cattle-one-half of them milch cows-100 sheep and 400 swine.  An immense
number of beef cattle, sheep and hogs are slaughtered here annually, the most
of which are driven in from California.  For its size there is a great extent of
costly toll road in this county, several hundred thousand dollars having been
laid out in this class of improvements, some of which return large revenues to
the owners.  The assessable property in the county amounted  for 1866 to
$6,343,353, the estimate for the present year being about $7,000,000. Storey
county contains 63 quartz mills carrying 665 stamps, all, except two or tliree of
small capacity, driven by steam, the aggregate c9st of the whole being $3,500,000.
The population, which in 1861 reached 4,500, is now estimated at 12,000.
SECTION X.
LYON COUNTY.
Lyon county, named after General Lyon, who fell in Missouri during the late
rebellion, bears a strong resemblance in its general features to Storey, except
that it contains a considerable tract of pislon on the Pine Nut range, occupying
the eastern part of the county, and a belt of good land situate along the Carson
river running through the centre. A multitude of ledges have been located in
the various mining districts formed from time to time within the limits of this
county, the money expended upon which has amounted in the aggregate to millions of dollars; yet, with the exception of the Daney mine and some small lodes
along Gold canon, nothing affording a steady supply of pay ore has been developed
in the county, though there are unquestionably many lodes that a more persistent
mode of exploration might have brought to a paying point. The only districts
in the county that continue to maintain an organization are the Devil's Gate, the
earliest formed, the Blue Sulphur Spring, Brown's Indian Spring, and Palmyra,
in none of which has much active mining been carried on for the past three years.
Of the coal deposits situated in the Pine Nut mountains a description will be found
in the article treating of that mineral. In the absence of productive mines, milling,
teaming and wood-chopping have become the leading pursuits of the inhabitants
* See Section XVI, on the Comstock lode.
328 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
very little attention being paid to agriculture, as, indeed, there is but little arable
land in the county. The hay cut amounts to about 1,000 tons annually; the
grain raised to 100 tons; a good many vegetables of fine quality being also raised.
Lyon contains 500 horses and mules, 200 head of neat cattle, 100 sheep, and
150 swine. About 5,000 acres of land is fenced in, of which 1,500 is under
cultivation. The inhabitants, numbering 1,650 in 1861, are now estimated at
2,500.  There are 41 quartz mills in the county-13 driven by water, 22 by
steam, and six by water and steam-the whole carrying 600 stamps and costing
$1,500,000. The only considerable towns in the county are Silver City in Gold
caion, and Dayton on Carson river, each containing about 1,200 inhabitants.
SECTION XI.
ROOP COUNTY.
This county, occupying a long and narrow strip of territory in the northwestern part of the State, is named after Isaac N. Roop, an early settler in Honey
Lake Valley, and at one time governor of the Provisional Territory of Nevada.
It was at first called Lake, having been changed to Roop in 1862. The county
has never been organized, but is attached to Washoe for judicial and political
purposes. At the time it was first erected, in 1861, it was supposed to embrace
within its limits Honey Lake valley, the only settlement in it. The adjustment
of the boundary line between Nevada and California, in 1863, having thrown
this valley into the latter, left this county almost without population. The
settlement since then of Surprise Valley, in the extreme northwestern part of the
State, has brought within the boundaries of Roop a population of several hundred, a number which is likely soon to be further augmented, as the county is
reputed to be rich in mineral wealth, and there are known to be considerable
tracts of good land in the northern part still open for occupation. This region,
including also the northern and western parts of Humboldt county, has for
a long time been infested by a vicious race of Indians, whose presence has
tended greatly to retard its exploration and settlement; but as these savages
are now pretty wvell subdued, the country is likely in a short time to become
more thoroughly prospected and its value for mining and agricultural purposes
more fully ascertained. The greater portion of it is undoubtedly very barren and
forbidding, consisting for the most part of rough, arid, and timberless mountains,
or equally dry and sterile plains. All accounts, however, agree in representing
Surprise valley as being extensive and fertile, and one of the finest districts, both
for stock-raising and grain growing, in the State.  This valley, a portion of
which lies in California, is 50 miles long and from 10 to 15 broad. It extends
north and south; contains three lakes which cover nearly one half its area. It
is walled in on the west by a lofty spur of the Sierra Nevada, having a range
of low rolling hills on the east. The mountains on the west are well timbered
with white and yellow pine, and along their lower slopes with cedar. The
arable land lies along the base of this range and between it and the lakes, having
a gentle declivity towards the latter, and is covered at all seasons of the year
with a luxuriant growth of blue-joint, clover, timothy and rye grass, some of
which is six and seven feet high, and standing so close that in places four tons
of hay can be cut to the acre. Across this alluvial belt, which is several miles
wide, course every few miles streams of pure cold water, affording propulsive
power and the facilities for irrigation. The land is light, warm, and easily cultivated, and produces with little trouble prolific crops of grain.  The planting of
1866 yielded an average of 50 bushels of wheat and nearly 60. of barley to
the acre. The grain is clean and heavy. This year the crops, under more
329 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
extensive planting, have been equally good. Vegetables can be grown with
very little care. The climate of this valley is mild and healthful. Very little
snow falls in winter, and sickness amongst the inhabitants is of rare occurrence.
Stock require neithlier shelter nor fodder in the winter, but are able to keep fat
the year round on the native grasses.  There are at the present time about
10,000 head of cattle, and 3,000 horses grazing here, many of which having been
driven in from California for the purpose of being recruited, will, as soon as they
become fat, be taken away. The population numbers about 250, and is constantly increasing, as the settlers feel safe under the military protection now
extended to them, against further Indian depredations. Along the base of the
mountain on the west side of the valley are a multitude of warm springs, some
of them remarkable for their depth and volume. Free gold has been found in
small quantities on several streams in this part of the country, and there is reason
for believing that both vein mining and surface digging will yet be carried on
here with profit. With a mining population to consume the products of the
farmer, this region could scarcely fail to fill up rapidly with a hardy and prosperous people.
S}ECTION XII.
HUMBOLDT COUNTY.
This county, named after the principal river running through it, ranks among
the larger counties of the State. Its western half is covered with sandy deserts,
low ranges of monutains, isolated hills, and extensive alkali flats, converted in
the wet season into mud lakes.  The northern and eastern portions consist of
lofty chains of mountains, broken towards the northeast into irregular masses,
arid running in the southeast in narrowv parallel ranges separated by valleys of a
similar conformation. Taken as a whole the region is dry, desolate, and but
illy supplied with grass and water.  Timber is also very scarce in most parts of
this county, there being none fit for lumber. The only trees found here are the
pinion and a scrubby species of juniper, the latter of little value even for fuel.
The quantity of agricultural land is also comparatively small, being confined mostly
to the valleys of the Humboldt river and of Weniessa, Umashaw, and Weatherlow creeks, with some isolated spots of good soil in the larger valleys and at the
entrance to the mountain canons. Bunch grass is found nearly everywhere
except on the alkali flats and arid deserts, though in many places it is much
scattered and far from abundant.  High basaltic table lands cut by fissure-like
chasms, constitute a feature in the northwestern part of the county. In many
of these depressions, which have precipitous sides varying from 200 to 1,000
feet high, are small alkali lakes, the beds of which become perfectly white on
drying up in summer, from the depositions of magnesia, salt, and soda left
behind.  To the south of this region occur in their greatest extent the mud lakes
peculiar to the geography of Nevada, in the midst of which is situated the
Black RPock mining district, the Pueblo and Vicksburg districts, the only ones
in this part of the State, lying further north and very near the Oregon line.
Humboldt county contained, August, 1861, about 400 inhabitants.  The present
population is estimated at between 1,200 and 1,300, not so many by one-half as
it was four years agTo, a falling off due to the great disadvantanges under which
the mines here have to be opened rather than to the poverty of the mines themselves. Among these disadvantages the lack of timber, and in some localities
of even wood for fuel, and the cost of freights stand foremost.   When the Pacific
railroad, striking through the very heart of the Humboldt mining region, shall
have been completed, thereby obviating in sonime measure these difficulties this
330 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
section must receive an impulse that will awaken the energies of the inhabitants
and restore the confidence once felt in the district. It is estimated that there
are 200,000 acres of arable land in the county, much of which is now a natural
meadow, being covered with a coarse species of grass, and all of which could,
with irrigation, be made to produce crops of grain or the cultivated grasses.
Without artificial moisture but little of the soil is capable of maturing either
grain or vegetables, though with its aid both can be grown.  There is nearly
everywhere pasturage enough both winter and summer for a small amount of
stock, or for a large amount if the latter be sufficiently scattered.  The stock is
estimated at 500 head of horses and mules, 400 head of neat cattle, 200 sheep,
and 300 swine. There are 15,000 acres of land enclosed 4,000 under cultivation; 3,000 tons of hay are cut, and 17000 tons of grain raised annually, the
most of them in Humboldt and Paradise valleys, the latter embracing betweeii
20,000 and 30,000 acres of well-watered aud fertile faiming land.  Here a
number of settlers have located during the past three years, nearly all of wlhom
are doing a thrifty business raising grain and vegetables, or in cutting hay for
the Humboldt and Owyhee markets, or for supplying the military post established in the valley. The yield of the cereals here is prolific, both grain and
vegetables being grown without much trouble.  Even the vild rye on beiiig culltivated produces a large and plump berry.  The barley sownl ol sod freshly
turned up yielded last year at the rate of 23 bushels to one, and of 1,100 acres
of barley, and 1,300 of wheat grown in the valley the present year, the yield
has been equally good. Barley delivered on the farmis sells at the rate of about
$2 50 per bushel, and wheat at about the same, though the price of the latter
will now probably depreciate, as a flour mill is about being erected in the valley.
The quantity of grain raised here in 1866 amounted to 33,000 bushels, the crop
the present season being still larger. So green does the grass remain, and so
genial is the climate in this valley, that good hay can be made in the month of
December.  The principal towns inl the county are Unionville, the county seat,
with a population of 400, Star city, 300, and Humboldt city, 100; besides which
there are several mining hamlets niumbering from 40 to 60 inhabitants.  Some
of these towns contain a number of fine buildings, which being erected at a
time when labor and material were very expensive, have cost large sums.  The
most noteworthy improvement in the county is the Humboldt canal, designed to
takle water from the river and introduce it into or nlear the mines, and now in
course of construction.  This work is more than half finished, and will, when
completed, be 80 miles long, 15 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, carrying water
sufficient to drive at least 600 stamps.  It will cost, construction of dami included,
a little over $1,000 per mile.  The route of this canal lies near many of the
best mines in the county, and must, when these come to be developed, prove a
verv valuable and important property in a country having so little fuel for generating steam power.  Already this work has been rendered to some extent
available for the propulsion of machinery.  There are 12 quartz mills in the
county, two of them provided with furnaces for smelting the ores, the whole
number carrying 112 stamps and costing $400,000.. Of these mills, nine are
propelled by steam and three by water.  The power for driving one of these
mills recently constructed is obtained by damming up the outlet of Humlboldt
lake, by which means a sufficient force is generated for carrying a laige number
of stamps, and which it is intended shall be applied to that purpose should the
ores of the Desert district, on which the present mill is to be run, prove remunerating. Mlany of the ores in this region are so mixed with lead, antimonly, copper,
and other refractory agents as to require smelting, for which purpose several
establishments have already been erected and are in operation.   Two of these,
the one situated at Etna, and the other at Oreania, on the humboldt river, have,
after many difficulties, succeeded to such an extent that the business is now rerannerative, the shipments of bullion from them amounting to $3,000 per week.
331 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The crude metal turned out by smelting consists of lead, silver, and antimony,
which is then passed through calcining and refining furnaces, whereby the silver
is liberated from the base metals coming out from -o    to so7 fine.  Much of
the crude metal is sent away, as it will not pay for refining here where the
expenses are so high. The cost of smelting and refining ore at these establish menits is $50 per ton, about double the cost of reduction here by ordinary mill
process.  The price of wood delivered at the mills varies from $6 to $14 per
cord, depending on localities.  The extraction of the ores costs about $10 per
ton; hauling to mill from $  to $8, according to distance.  Some of the lodes
in this region carry in the outcrop chiefly gold, while others contain only silver
or both of these metals mixed. Many of the smaller ledges are rich in free gold,
and are worked as gold mines.'Tbis is especially the case in the Oro Fino.
Sierra, and other districts in the mountains, designated as the Foist Range east.
While some of the lodes in this county are large, well walled and symetrical,
carrying all the features of regular fissure veins, others are narrow and broken
and marked by irregular distributions of ore.  An immense amount of work has
been done ill this part of the country, but there has been too little concentration
of labor and much of it has been lost. Some of the tunnels have a length varying from 500 to 2,000 feet, showing that a great deal of persistent work has
been done. Yet only in a few cases have these excavations reached the lodes
for which they were driven, so that not much practical benefit has been reaped
from their construction. Besides these tunnels a great number of shafts have
been sunk, being the more common method of prospecting claims here. These
shafts vary in depth from a few feet to several hundred, some of them being
canied down on and following the inclination of the vein.  Most of the coinpanies have in this manner been able to bring small lots of pay ore to the surface, while others, drifting upon thin lodes, have raised considerable quantities.
The ore is usually of high grade, yielding by mill process from $40 to $200 per
ton, and in some cases much more. That taken from the Sheba mine several
years since, yielded from $200 to $500 per ton, the average being $140.  With
so large a number of veins, some of them carrying a good body of high grade
ores and displaying evidence of permanency, this can hardly fail to become in
the course of a few years a productive mining district. Prior to 1867 the annual
shipments of bullion from Humboldt scarcely exceeded $200,000, whereas the
amount will be nearly double that sum for the present year, with the prospect
of a larger increase hereafter.  Much prospecting as well as exploratory labor is
now being done in different parts of the county, and generally with encouraging
results. Capital is being invested more freely than for several years past, a
number of new mills are being put up and others projected, while population
that had for some time been falling off is again on the increase. In the northwestern part of the county adjacent to a fertile and well-watered valley, is situated the Pueblo district, with the Vicksburg district a short distance further
south. There are good mines here, but the remoteness of the locality, and the
hostile disposition of the Indians there have retarded their development as well
as prevented the settlement of the country. The only mill ever erected in Pueblo was burnt by the savages, who at the same time murdered two of the early
settlers of the district and wounded others. With the adoption of more vigorous
measures for the prevention of these outrages there is a probability that operations, for several years nearly suspended, will be resumed at both Vicksburg
and Pueblo.  This valley, in its general features, resembles Surprise valley,
already described, only that it is more extensive, though not so much settled.
The Black Rock mines are situated in the western part of the county, some 40
miles south of the Vicksburg district. The region about there is sterile in the
extreme, being almost without any arable or meadow land, and very deficient in
wood, grass, and water. But that the mines at this place are extensive and valuable is now beyond dispute, though for a long time the peculiar appearance of
332 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
the ore, in the absence of developments and workinig tests, rendered this a matter
of considerable doubt. Recent crushings of ore, claimed to represent average
masses in these mines, have tended to dispel doubts of their richness, if indeed
they may not be said to have established for them a high value. The deposits
here lie in huge masses rather than arranged in ore channels walled in the ordinary way, and should they be found persistent in depth, must prove valuable,
notwithstanding the remoteness of their locality and their unfavorable surroundings.
SECTION XIII.
CHURCHILL COUNTY.
This county took its name from Fort Churchlill, the first military post ever
established in this reg,ion, so called after an officer in the United States army.
The entire western half, except near the waters of the Carson, is a sandy sage
barren, the most of it an absolute desert, over which are scattered low ranges of
black basaltic hills. Across the central and eastern portions run in a north and
south direction three high ranges of mountains, the Silver Hill the most westerly,
Clan Alpine the centre, and the See-da-yah or Look-out chain on the east, each
separated from the other by a broad and generally barren valley. Tlhe county
contains in proportion to its size but little good land, the amount fit for haycutting or grain-raising not being over 50,000 acres in an area of nearly 6,000
square miles. This good land is nearly all found along the Carson river, or
about the lake, slough and sink formed by its waters, the greater portion consisting of natural meadows, kept for cutting hay.  On the mountains there is a
scanty growth of bunch grass; elsewhere almost none at all.  The mountains also
contain all the wood there is in the county, and nearly all the water except
that supplied by Carson river.  About 2,500 tons of hay are cut, and 300 tons
of grain, with as many vegetables, are raised annually. There are 400 horses
and mules in the county, and 600 cattle, one-half of them work oxen. The
population numbers about 4007 of whom I50 are residents of La Plata, the county
seat. Besides its auriferous veins, Churchill contains a variety of minerals and
metals, its western portion, owing to its great depression, being a vast receptacle
of the various salts distilled from the drainage of more than half the State.  The
sink of the Carson may be considered the grand central basin of all northern and
western Nevada; hence, about it we find deposited those alkaline, saline, and
sulphurous substances with which most of the waters of this State are impregnated. From the waters of two small lakes situated in the great desert plain
west of Carson sink, the carbonate of soda is so abutndantly deposited that tons
of the article could easily be collected quite pure.  One of these, on drying up,
which it does every summer, leaves a thick incrustation of this salt behind.
Sulphuir and the chloride of soda are also plentiful; and two of the principal salt
beds in the State are in the western part of this county.  Hot springs occur
at several places with many tumult and other signs of extinct thermals. In the
article on sinks anad sloughs will be found some remnarks on these hydrographical
features of Churchill county. Some 10 or 12 mining districts have at different
periods been laid out within the bounds of this county. Silver Hill, situated in
the mountains of the same name, and organized in 1860, contains some large
lodes heavily charged with auriferous and argentiferous galena, a number of which
have been prospected.   Considerable work has been done in the district.  Its
inconvenient situation, however, joined with a scarcity of water, as well as a
prospective scarcity of wood, has served to defeat all efforts for getting in mills
or otherwise bringing the ledges to a productive state. Very little work has been
f
I
333 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
done here for the past three years, and latterly there have been but few inhabitants in the district.  Desert district is located in the northwestern corner of the
county on what is known as the Forty-Mile desert. It is an arid dreary timberless plain, being. without even a sufficiency of water for culinary uses.  The
lodes are small and blind, but rich in firee gold, which occurs in a gangue, composed principally of red oxide of iron, easily reduced; and if there were only the
ordinary facilities for working these mines they might prove very remunerative.
A five-stamp mill was built near them four years ago, and though operated for
a time with success has since remained idle, the difficulty of getting wood and
water supplies proving too great.  A mill has been built lately at the outlet of
Humboldt for working these ores, and though distant some 14 miles firom the
mines, the enterprise may turn out profitable, and as there is a considerable
amount of propulsive power at that point, these lodes may yet be worked extensivelv.  In the Mountain Wall district, situate on the eastern slope of the Silver
Hill range, a great many veins were located some five years ago. The surface
indications being good, considerable work was afterwards done upon them. But
the lodes were found to be faulty and uncertain, which led to the abandonment of
most of them.  Experts are of opinion that deeper exploration would reach permanent bodies of pay ore in these mines. Three years ago the Silver Wave Company
completed at La Plata a 20-stamp mill, at a cost of $125,000.  They had, however, failed to prove their mine in advance. and it having failed to furnish sufficient
pay ore, the mill after running for a short time was obliged to stop, and has been
idle ever since.  About the same time another company, supplied as in the case
above, with eastern funds, erected at Averill, a few miles from La Plata, a 20stamp mill, at a cost of $150000, and although this has not as yet accomplished
much in the way of taking out bullion, they are developing their mines with a
prospect of obtaining sufficient pay ore to start the mill and keep it running.
It is by no means certain that similar persistence on the part of the Silver Wave
Company in opening their ledge would not be attended with good results. With
the exception of the work doing by the Averill Company there are but few
mining operations now in progress in the district. The history of operations in
the Mountain Well district is so like that of those in Clan Alpine, 30 miles farther
east, that it is unnecessary to go into details of the latter, where also, after but
a superficial examination of the mines, a 10-stamp mill was two years ago put
up to run a few days; and then remain idle. Yet there are unquestionably good
mines in this district, besides plenty of wood and water to insure a cheap
reduction of the ores. Of the several other districts in this county nothing is
required to be said other than that many of them show encouraging signs of pay
ore, though but little work has been done, and most of them are but poorly supplied with wood and water.
SECTION XIV.
ESMERALDA COUNTI'Y.
This county, named after the principal mining district in it, occupies the southwestern portion of the State.  In its general features the country does not differ
materially from most of that already described, except that the mountains contain a greater extent of pinon forests than those of Humboldt; Roop, or Churchill.
The proportion of agricultural land, however, is scarcely greater than in those
counties, if so great as in Humboldt.  The mineral productions of Esmeralda
are varied and abundant, the veins of gold, silver and copper being numerous,
often large, and scattered over a vast region. The number of mining districts
laid out in the county, first and last, is so large that it would require consider
334 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
able space to repeat their names.  The first discovery of silver lodes was made
near Aurora, in the summer of 1860; immediately after which a large population
was drawn to that vicinity, and for several years mining operations were carried
on with activity.  Mills were erected, and a town built up which at one time
contained 3,000 inhabitants. The prices of real estate advanced to extravagant
figures, and mining properties were bought and sold at rates out of all proportion to their real value.  In the mean time the titles to many of the leading
mining claims became involved in litigation, whereby workl  was for the time
being suspended, and capitalists deterred from further investments. The mills,
left without sufficient supplies of ore, ceased, first to pay dividends, then
expenses, and finally closed up altogether.  Suffering under these conjoint disasters, business fell off, the population left, stocks depreciated, and the Esmeralda
mines were practically abandoned just at a time when, by proper caution and
good management, they might have been rendered permanently remunerative.
This occurred nearly four years ago, and although matters have been slightly
improving about Aurora, the great mining centre of the county, for a year or
more past, they are not yet restored to their former prosperous condition. The
population of the county, which in the summer of 1861 numbered about 3,000
souls, had two years after increased to more than 4,000. At present it does not
exceed 2,500. The principal part of the farming and hay lands are situated on
the forks of Walker river:  The following figures indicate something of the
agricultural resources and products of this county: 500 horses and mules, 1,000
head of neat cattle, 300 sheep, 400 swine, 3,000 tons of hay cut, and 600 tons
grain, besides a large quantity of vegetables raised, annually.  There are 15,000
acres of land under fence, of which 5,000 are cultivated.  The first quartz mill
was erected at Aurora in 1861, since which time 15 others have been built in the
county-10 at that place, one in the Columbus district, two at Silver Peak, one
at Pine Creek, and one at Red Mountain.  Besides these there are several in the
Bodie and other districts adjacent, generally spoken of as being in Esmeralda,
though really in California. These mills carry 200 stamps, all told, and will
have cost, when that now in process of building at Silver Creek is completed,
about $600,000. The most of those at Aurora having been put up in 1862-'63,
when labor and material were high, cost considerably more than similar establishments would at present.  After the building of the first mnill at that place
the shipments of bullion from the county steadily increased for several years,
until they reached nearly $1,000,000 for 1864. From this time they fell off
heavily for two years, but are now again on the increase, and there is reason to
believe they will be steadily augmented for years to come. In addition to the
troubles already mentioned, the millmen at Aurora experienced the further difficulty of having in some cases a rather refractory class of ores to deal with; many
of the ledges, also, which had prospected fairly in the croppings, failed to yield
any large bodies of ore at greater depths. In some cases the exposed portion of
the ledges here, and even the quartz boulders, of which there were many lying
loose onil the sirface of the ground, were found to be heavily charged with the
sulphuret of silver. Much free gold was also found in several of the veins and
occasionally in the earth adjacent, all of which leading to the belief that an
abundance of pay ore could be easily and certainly obtained, a number of large
and costly mills were erected in advance of mining developments, many of tlhemn
to meet with subsequent embarrassment and often to remain idle for want of ore.
This district also suffered severely from excessive speculation in mining stocks
and properties, much of it brought about through very questionable agencies
and modes of procedure, the odimn of which, extending beyond the guilty ins,truments, attached to the mines themselves thus discouraging the work of exploration and bringing them into disrepute. Within the past two years parties conversant with the geology of the mineral veins in this district, and well posted as
to previous operations, satisfied that the principal cause of failure was to be found
335 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
in the superficial and insufficient character of the explorations before carried on,
have commenced a series of deep prospecting shafts on a number of the more
promising ledges at Aurora, with a view to prosecuting them to determinate
results.  In several cases these operations have already been crowned with complete or partial success, in one, at least, that of the Juniata, a vein well charged
with pay ore having been developed at no great depth beneath the surface, a
circumstance that, besides encouraging those engaged in similar works to persevere, will be likely to lead to the initiation of other enterprises directed to the
accomplishment of the same end.  Stimulated by these results, business has
begun to improve in Aurora, and mining enterprise has everywhere received a
wholesome impetus throughout the county. Some of these prospecting shafts
are already down several hundred feet, and, being supplied with efficient hoisting
works and directed by parties of experience and energy, are progressing favorably. The ore in this district is a sulphuret of silver, much of it carrying a percentage of gold, either free or in combination with other metals and minerals.
Taken as a mass, it is of high grade, yielding from one-third to one-half more
bullion than that from the mines about Virginia City and Gold Hill.  Most of
the ore raised at Aurora yields by mill process from $40 to $70 per ton, $50
being perhaps a fair average; while the cost of reduction is, or might be, less
than at those places, wood being considerably cheaper. The only trouble seems
to be the insufficiency of the ore supply, and this, as above stated, may be considered in a fair way of being overcome. Wood costs, delivered at the mills in
Aurora, about $6 per cord —a little less in most of the outside districts in the
county-a price that cannot be materially advanced for some years to come,
owing to the abundance of pinon in the vicinity of the principal mines.  In the
proximity of the latter to good agricultural districts a further guarantee is had
against exorbitant demands for grain and many other staples of subsistence.
The only towns in Esmeralda county of any size are Aurora and Pine Grove,
the former, the county seat, containing a population of about 1,500, and the latter
of about 300. There are two saw-mills in the county capable of cutting about
10,000 feet of lumber per day, and a large extent of toll-roads, some portions
of which have been built at heavy expense. Lying in a northerly and easterly
direction from Aurora, and distant from 10 to 30 miles, are several mining districts, all of which, having had their day of popularity, generally resting on
misapprehension or a hasty inspection of their claims, are now nearly depopulated.  Of these the Walker River, Lake, Cornell, Desert, East Esmeralda,
iasonic, and Van Horn form the most notable examples.  In some of these are
promising veins, and in nearly all much work has been done, yet generally
without such decisive results as to secure capital for the erection of mills or
to warrant continued operations. In the Wilson district, situated in the Tollock mountains, 40 miles north of Aurora, were discovered in the summer of
1866 a number of auriferous lodes, several of which, having since been partially developed, are likely to prove valuable.  Here, within the present year, a
considerable town-Pine Grove-has been built up, a number of arrastras driven
by steam and a 10-stamp steam quartz mill have been erected, and another mill
of larger size partially completed. The lodes are of fair average size, some of
them large, from 10 to 20 feet thick, and as a general thing show signs of permanency. So far as opened they display regular walls and linings, with other
evidences of true fissure veins. The exploratory works consist of shafts and
tunnels some of the latter nearly 1,000 feet long and several of the shafts over
100 feet deep.  From these excavations and from open cuts on the lodes a quantity of ore-bearing quartz has been extracted, a portion of which has been crushed
with good results, the greater part being still retained awaiting better facilities
for reduction. The gangue consists of an ochreous quartz, much of it easily
pulverized from partial decomposition.  The yield of the ores so far reduced has
run from $30 to $90 per ton, worked by simple settling tub and blanket process.
336 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Tile gold is generally diffused throughlout the veinstone and is extremely pure,
being 917 fine and worth withini a fraction of $19 per ounce.   There is sufficient
water near the mines for the use of several large steam mills, Walkecr river,
eight miles distant, to whichl there is a good road witlh a descending grade, also
supplying, a large propulsive power.   TIhe mountains throughout the district are
covered with forests of pifioni, rendering  the supply of fuel at cheap rates certain
for some years.  These minies are accessible over good wvagonl roads firom California, and in the vicinity of a productive agricultural district, with fine tilbler
lands but 40 miles distant, conditions that must tend greatly to facilitate theii
development.  In the Washingtonl district, 20 miles south of Pine Grove, a
number of argelntiferous veins, carrying, also copper, galena, and antimony, were
discovered in the early part of the present year, some of which have since been
prospected. A 10-stamp steamn mill for the reduction of tile ores has lately been put
lup in the district, wilere there are now about 150 men at work oni the mines. The
lodes are of good size, and carry ore which, from  the limited tests made, it is
thloulght will yield well by mill process.  The situation of this district and the
sutipply of wood and water are much the same as of the Wilson district.  A good
deal of ore is now out lyin, on the dumps awaiting means of reduction.  Bunch
grass is abundant thlorolioiit all this region, and as the climate is mild, but little
snoIw falling inl the w initer except on the hihlier moiiitaiis, stock keep in good
condition the year througnh without fodder.  lIaniinlg fiom 30 to 50 miles inll a
southeast direction from1  Aurora, and lying  partly  in California, are the Hot
Spring, the Blind Spring, and the  Ionlltgomery districts discovered in  1864,
since vwhie,h time a considerable amount of ore has been extracted from some of
the lodes, though but few well-planned or persistent efforts appear to have been
made looking to a systemnatic development of the mines. Some of this ore has been
sent to San Francisco for sale or reduction; a small quantity has been beneficiated(
at the mines, while a large amount remains on the dump piles undisposed of.  A
difficulty with many of the lodes in these districts is the want of well-defined
ore clhannels, the deposits occurring more in the shape of pockets or bonanzas
than of retguiar strata, and hence deficient in continuity and persistence in depth.
These bunches, however, are frequently large, and beimg easilv broken out call
usually be mined with a remarkable prospect of profit.  Most of the ole here is
an argentiferous galena, the large percentage of base and refractory nmetals it
contains, of which manganese, antimony, and copper are the principal, rendering smelting necessary, not more than 30 per cent. of the fire assay being saved
by ordinary modes of reduction.  Some, however, is rich in silver, yieldinlg,
wshere thoroughly treated, from $300 to $500 per ton, selected lots turniln out a
great deal more.  Two small mills and a number of  smelting furnaces have
been put up, which, considering their limited capacity, have made a fair turn-out
of bullion. These districts are moderately well supplied with wood, grass, and:
water, 3Iontgomery, containing an abundance of pinion; and the opinion may be
expressed that with the aid of capital and skilled labor a thrifty mining business
may yet be estab]ished.
Columbus district, situate about 50 miles east of Aurora, and the same dis,
tance souttheast of Walker lake, is another of the more noted mining centres of
Esmieralda county, at least so far as the possession of numerous lodes is concerned.   The developments have  not been extensive.  Adjacent to this are
several other districts, the most of which have been too little explored to justify
notice, though all contain metalliferous veins of either the precious or useful
metals and often of both.  But little workl, however, has been performed in any
of them, and they are mostly deficient in wood and water, which latter is also
the case in the Columbus district. Hlere, however, a number of the veins have
been partially prospected and working tests made of the ores, which have generally yielded good returns. The ledges are mostly in the hands of men of small
means, while the remoteness of the district has prevented it from being visited
22
337 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
by strangers and perhaps from attracting thie attention it deserves.  Certain it is
the lodes are of fair dimensions, some of them very strong and marked by regular walls and well-stocked ore-channels.  Tile top ore consists largely of chlorides
mixed with sulphurets, often exhibiting a little free gold and native silver; the
accompanying metals are copper and lead.  Various crushings of small lots,
some of which it is claimed were not closely worlked, have given proceeds ranging
from $50 to $200 per ton, a good result considering the quantity of ore of this
class that can easily be obtained; so that the prospect is not unfavorable. The
country here is rugged and generally barren, consisting of high hills and mountains,
interspersed with sandy plains and salt beds.   The mountains are scarred with
volcanic outflows and masses of basalt, intermingled with trachlytic rock and dikes
of trap, indicating a period of great upheavals and disturbance of the earth's
crust.  Along the flanks of the volcanic breaks portions of tihe original metamorphic and stratified rocks are found traversed and seamed in many cases by the
metallic bearing veins of gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron. The elevated portions of this district consist of a northeasterly extension of the White Mountain
range, which a short distance to the soutlihwest rises to a height of 10,000 feet, their
tops and northern slopes being covered a good portion of the year with snonv.
A small town containing some 200 inhabitants has been settled near the principal
mines, distant from which about eight miles are forests of pinion.  There is but
little wood in the immediate vicinity. A number of extensive salt deposits exist in
the district, from which this article can be obtained quite pure and at small cost.
One of these salt beds is estimated to cover an area of 30 square miles.  Hay
and other agricultural products can be procured from Fish Lake valley, a fertile
farming district 20 miles southeast of the mines, at which place several hundred
tons of hlay were cut, and considerable quantities of grain and vegetables were
raised the present year.  While springs and streams are scarce, water can be found
in many places by digging to a moderate depth, though it is often slightly brackish.
A four-stamp steam mill has recently been put up in this district and is now operating with satisfactory results.  Another and larger mill is about being erected,
creating a probability that the business of mining, long dormant, will soon
be prosecuted with energy. Tile Silver Peak district lies about 90 miles a little
south of east from Autora, the great salt bed of this region, covering over 40
square miles, bordering it on the east, and the Red Mountain district onl the west.
The lodes in these districts, taken in connection with the vast improvements contemplated and in progress, a portion of them completed, render this a promising
and important mining locality. The metalliferous lodes are numerous, and, as
shown by workingtests, well charged with thepreciousmetals.  Those in thie Silver
Peak district are for the most part arentiferous, while the Red Mountain veins are
chiefly gold-bearing. All the valuable lodes, so far as discovered in these two
districts, are now owned by the Great Salt Basin Mining and Milling Company,
who are proceeding to develop them with skill and energy.   The first discovery
and location of mineral lodes in this region was made at Red Mountain in 1863,
which having been followed up the next year by the erection there of a small
three-stamp mill, the value of the auriferous veins at that place was soon established.  The same year, (1864,) the Silver Peak mines were discovered, and
here a 10-stamnp mill was built in the fall of 1865, which after running for a
short time with moderate success suspended for repairs, but never after resuined
operations, the owners having disposed of it in common with their mining properties to a company of eastern capitalists, the same who are now proceeding to
work the mines on a liberal and extended scale. The present property of this
company in these districts consists of about a hundred different lodes, some of
them of good size and supposed value, a 10-stamp mill., intended to reduce ores
without roasting, as practiced at Gold Hill and Virginia, or for testing them and
ascertaining the best methods for their reduction, a three-stamp mill, operating
,on the auriferous ores at Red Mountain, and a 1.000 acre tract of pition forests
,") 3 8 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
lying adjacent thereto and embracing the best lands of this kind in the country,
together with numerous improvements in the shape of shlops, corrals, stables,
offices, storehouses, and buildings for workmen.   On the margin of the Great
Salt bed, adjacent to their principal mines, and a large spring of fresh water, a
site has been secured for a mill and all attendant uses.  On this spot a first-class
mill is now being erected, most of the lumber, machinery, and other material
being on the ground.  This establishment, whicli it is intended shall be complete
in all its appointments, will start with 20 stamps at first, to which others will
probably be added, the intention being that 60 stamps shall be running  there
before next summer.  Among the improvements projected by this company is a
system of railwvays, embracing a main trunk running to the centre of their principal claims, to be extended to the most distant in Red mountain and having
branches ramifying throughout both districts.  This railway will terminate at
their principal mill, and over it all their ores will be transported, dispensing with
the necessity for team-hiauling almost entirely, and thereby effecting a great
economy in current expenses.  As justly remarked by Air. J. E. Clayton, a wellknown engineer, after a careful examination, the property of this company constitutes a favorable combination of available resources and local facilities. With
their plans carried out they will probably be able to mine and reduce their ores
at a profit.  In the quantity of average grade ores and easy transportation to
their mills-the prime agents of cheap reduction, water, salt, and fuel  close at
hand, and a good agricultutral district, IFish Lake  valley, not far distant-are
supplied some of the necessary requisites of a promising mining enterprise.
Experience thus far had encourages the hope that these investments will prove
romutn(rative.
SECTION XV.
LINCOLN COUNTY.
This county, named after the late President Lincoln, was erected from Nye
county by act of the State legislature at its last session.  Its boundaries are as
lbllows: beginning at the Red Bluff springs, about 15 miles east of the Reville
district, and running thence east to the State line, which it follows to the south
boundary of the line separating it from Arizona, along which it runs west until
it reaches a point due south of Red Bluff, and thence north to the latter place.
It occupies the extreme southeastern corner of the State, and does not differ
materially in its physical features and natural productions from the adjacent portions of Nye county, elsewhere described. The country is corrugated, like that
farther north and west, by alternating ranges of mountains and valleys, the former
lofty and covered with a sparse growth of bunch grass, with numerous small
streams of water and patches of pinon and occasionally larger timber, while the
latter contains a number of fertile spots on which hay can be cut from the
native grasses and good crops of grain raised with the aid of irrigation. The
county seat has for the present been fixed at Hico, the principal settlement.
The county is now fully organized, having a full set of officials and constituting the ninth judicial district of the State.  The first discovery of silverbearing lodes in this region was made about three years ago, since which time
a population of several hundred has been gathered there, though as yet no
great amount of work has been done.  Mlany of the mountain ranges are found
to contain metalliferous veins of greater or less magnitude and value, but the
most valuable so far as discovered, and the only ones yet at all developed, are
situate in the Pahranagat district, in the eastern part of the county, in a high
339 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
range known as Quartz mountain, its altitude being about 11,000 feet.* The
geographical position of this district is nearly in 37~ 37/ north latitude, and
112~ west longitude. Tile principal mineral deposits are found in a belt about
five miles long and two wide, stretching across the foot-hills and spurs of the
mountain.  This belt contains several distinct systems of lodes, all bearing
the features of true fissure veins, having smooth and, in places, striated wall:
with clay linings.  They are of medium  size, many of them cropping boldly
and traceable for a good distance. The country rock is principally a metamorphic limestone, the stratification greatly disturbed.  The ores on the surface are associated with copper and argentiferous galena, and show by assay
a percentage of silver varying from $50 to $2,500 per ton. The vein stone is
quartz and calspar, carrying iron, zinc, and manganese, rendering reduction
somewhat troublesome, and necessitating roasting as a general thing, or a resort
to smelting where the sulphuret of lead prevails. After roasting the ores are
tractable, rendering amalgamation easy and giving bullion from 800 to 900 fine,
there being but little gold present.  Some of the copper ore here assays as high
as 50 per cent. of metal, making it probable that it will yet be of economic
value when better facilities for its transportation elsewhere are extended to this
region.  The veins are for the most part well situated for extraction of their
contents, with available ores accessible from the start.  The mountains adjacent
to these mines are tolerably well stocked with pinon and juniper, but water is
not abundant, in consequence of which all reduction works will probably, for
the present at least, be located in Pahranagat valley, 12 miles east of the mines,
where the mountain benches afford good mill sites, with plenty of water issuing
friom several springs.  Thirty miles east of Pahranagat are found groves of
timber suitable for making a fair article of lumber. Many of the ranges furither
west also contain similar trees, a species of white pine, with some fir.
The climate of this region is milder than its geographical position and elevation-over 7,000 feet-would indicate, the atmosphere being tempered by the
warm current of air from the Gulf of California, flowing up the valley of the
Colorado. Pahranagat valley, which is 35 miles long north and south, and 10 wide,
contains about 20,000 acres of natural meadow land, or of soil that can be rendered
arable by irrigation.  Most of this will grow crops of grain and vegetables, that
cultivated there the present year having yielded largely. Until the population
becomes numerous, enough of hay, grain, and vegteables can be grown to meet
local demands; afterwards supplies can be drawn from the Mormon settlements
not far distant to the southeast, and firom which grain is now brought and sold
in the valley, at six cents per pound; flour at 10 cents, and beef at 15, cents.
Hiico is but 135 miles from Callville, at the so-called head of navigation on the
Colorado river; that is, as the wagon road now runs, which can probably be
reduced to 100 miles, rendering it possibe that goods and machinery may yet reach
this region through that channel.  There is now one five-stamp mill completed,
with two others of larger capacity underway, in this district. The first not
having facilities for roasting the ores, failed in the earlier efforts. Furnaces
having been built, with which also the new mills are to be supplied, no further
trouble in saving the metal is apprehended, and there is now a fair prospect that
the more extended operations about to be inititted will prove remunerative to
the pioneers of this distant region.
*See section on eastern Nevada, Pahranagat district.
340 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
SECTION XVI.
THIE COMSTOCK LODE.
The mining interest in Storey county centres almost exclusively in the Com stock lode.  Not that it is the only silver-bearing lode in the district, but
the others vwhich are worked yield so small a proportion of the bullion produced
as almost to be overshadowed by their great neighbor.  The Comstock  lode
may be called the "mother vein" of the district, but both tothe east and the
west of it lie veins which may become at no distant day valuable property.  Of
these the New Brunswick lode, on whiich are located the St. John, Occidlental,
and other mines, is worthy of most attention, not onlv from its steady yield of
bullion, but on account of its peculiar veinstone.'Thle usual gangue in the
Comstock lode is quartz; in the New Brunswick it is almost entirely carbonate
of lime, an analysis of the rock showing the following composition:
Gold.......... —----------------------------------------------—....0016  5 0.2
Silver.......................................................-.. 0250    10 98
Peroxide  of iron................................................  1. 6370
Peroxide of manganese............. —-----------------------------------.2500
Alumina....................................................... 7750
Carbonate of lime........................................ 83.7240
Sulphur -------------------------------------------------—.0050
Chlorine...................................................... Traces.
Silica......................................................... 13.2500
Loss...........................................................3324
100.0000    16 00
This analysis shows less than the usual amount of the precious metal, the mine
at present yielding about 30 tons of ore daily, of an average value of about.$25.
In the southern part of Gold Hill are many small veins or deposits of decomposed quartz and lime, yielding gold worth about $10 an ounce; these veins are
worked chiefly by private individuals on a small scale, and furnish employment
for several arrastras in Gold canon.
But, as before stated, tlhe mining interest centres chiefly in tihe Comstock lode.
In the preliminary report a large amount of information was furnished relative to the general features of this district and its mining resources. To avoid
repetition the remarks in the present report will be confined mainly to the condition of the lode at this time. In order to preserve continuity, however, it will be
necessary to go over some of the ground already traversed. For concise description the subject is divided into separate headings.
CHAPRACTER OF TEE COMSTOCK LODE.-The Comstock lode runs along the
eastern slope of the Washoe mountains, at the foot of Mount Davidson, its loftiest
summit. Its outcrop is not by any means continuous, consisting of parallel belts
of quartz, extending from east to west, in some places nearly 1,000 feet, which
show themselves chiefly on the tops of the spurs, running down from the main
ridge. The western of these quartz seams, being of a hard crystalline texture,
form the most prominent outcrops, but experience has shown them to be of less
value than the eastern bodies, which from their different composition have been
more easily disintegrated, and are often covered up by the debris from the higher
and steeper portion of the mountain.
LENGTH OF LODE.-Thie vein has been more or less thoroughly explored,
(see table of mines in preliminary report, pages 72 and 73,) and its continuity
established by underground workings for a length of about three and a half
miles, though the productive portion forms but a small proportion of the whole,
as barren spots of great extent intervene between the bonanzas or ore bodies.
STRIKE OF LODE.-Its "strike" or course, as shown by the exposure of the west
wall, in numerous places, is nearly magnetic north and south, (north 16~ E. by
true meridian.)
341 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ExNCLOSXING RocKs.-But little if any doubt now remains that the Comstock
is a true fissure vein.  The enclosing rock on the east throughout its entire length
as far as knovwn is "propylite,  a species of porphliyry. varying nmuch in its
appearance at different points, as the crystallization is coarser or finer, and decoimposition more or less advanced.  The country rockls on the west vary considerably.
)in the slopes of M3ount Davidson and 3Iount Butler it is sienite; north of this
propylite occurs on )both sides; while in southern Gold Hill various mnetamorphlic
roclis oc)(cur on the western side.
WEST WALL.-The west wall of the lode is separated from the country rock
by a well defined clay selvage, and maintains a remarkaby uniform dip of about
3S~8 or 40~ to the eastward at the surface, gradually increasing to about 45~,
wvhichl it maintains to the lowest depths hitherto explored.  The east wvall near
the surface has a false dip to the westward, graldually becomingi, vertical, and at
a depth of 400 or 500 feet turns to the eastward, and continues down more or
less parallel with the west wall.  Owing, to the flat dip of the lode this eastern or
hangingi wall is less clearly marked tlihan the western or foot wall, frequently
dropping down on or near the foot wall.  When this is the case, another clay
is usually found to the eastward, and this structure will probably continue for
an indefinite depth.  Developments appear to show it to be most frequent where
the walls of the lode approach each other rapidly.
W)IDTH OF LODE.-iThe jaws of the fissure at the surface, as before stated, are
from 500 to 1,000 feet apart, gradually approaching each other in depth until the
fissure is reduced to an average widftli of 150 feet. This is not maintained, however, with any reg,ularity.  The west wall maintains a tolerably straight course,
tlloulgi conformingi to soime extent to the general direction of the mountain range;
but the eastern clays are full of sinluosities, which produce in the vein a series of
swells and nips.  In Virginia these are very strongly marked, the nips usually
occurring where the lode intersects a ravine, and the swells corresponding to the
prunuient spurs of the mountain.  One of the best illustrations of this structure
occurs in the ground owned by the Savage, Hale and Norcross, and ChollarPotosi Mining Companies. At the north line of the Savage mine the clays,
including what is generally termed the vein, are probably about 100 feet apart.
Going southward they diverge to a width of 500 feet or upwards, again contracting
to the southward, rapidly at first, and then more gradually, until, at a point in
the Chollar-Potosi mine 1,900 feet south of tbche starting point, the vein matter
included between the same clays is not more than 20 feet in thickness, and consists principally of an irregular clayey mass, caused by the unimiol of several seams
of clay, which show themselves in the vein to the northward.  This great swell
of the eastern clay unites the clay bounding two subordinate swells, spanning
at the same time what was supposed to be a nip of the vein, and recent developments render it probable that clays will yet be found to the east of apparent
contractions of the lode, uniting the swells which bound them to the north and
south. The importance of thloroughly understanding this feature of the lode
will become apparent when the difficulties of exploring the Comstock lode come
under consideration.
FILLINGC OF TiE VEIN.-It must not be supposed, however, that the whole
of this immense fissure is filled with valuable ore.  Near the surface the aggregate thickness of the quartz seams is in many places not more than five-sixths
of the total width of the lode. There are points whlere developments show
upwards of 150 feet of quartz, occurring between the clays without any intermixture of foreign matter, but when this is the case the mineral is distributed
through the whole niass too sparingly to make it valuable at the present time.
Considering the vein as a whole, it is safe to say that at least two-thirds of it
are filled with immense "horses" or masses of country rock, chiefly detached
from the hanging wall, between which are found the belts of metalliferous
quartz. These masses of country rock are frequently of such great length and
'0'4 2 
WEST OF THlE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
thlickness as to have forme(d one of the strongest arguments in favor of the theory
that there was not merely one lode, but a belt of lodes runniing along the foot of
3Iount Davidson.  They are usually bounded by clay selvages, uniting  and
dividing, both in the length of the lode and vertically, producing a complicated
network of clay seams throughout its entire length, which materially interferes
with its draina,ge.  Other portions of the lode are filled with a brecciated mass
of porphyry quartz and clay, vwhichl, firom the rounded character of the enclosed
pebbles, gives evidence of the intense dynamic action of the vein.
BoxANZAS, or OrE BODIES.-Thie ore bodies lie chiefly in the swells of the
vein, usually forming in their upper portion, at or near the eastern clays, and, as
their position is more vertical than the dip of the lode, they gradually drop down
on the west wall, leaving room to the eastward for the formation of new bodies.
In Virginia their form is usually that of lenticular masses, with their longer axes
in the direction of the lode, dipping at the same time to the southward.   In
Gold Hill the ore occurs in sheets, lying more or less parallel to the east wall,
the change from one structure to the other occurring in the Chollar-Potosi mine.
The bonanza in the Ophir-Iexican mines was about 200 feet in length and
330 in depth, attaining a maximaum tlicklness of about 45 feet, and tapering
above and below to two or three feet.  The Gould and Curry bonanza was
nearly 650 feet long, over 500 feet in depth, and about one hundred feet wide at
its greatest expansion.  The immense deposit of ore in the Savage and Hale &
Norcross mines first showed at a depth of about 500 feet.  It partakes of the
crescent shape of the east clay, which it follows closely, varying' in width from
10 to 50 feet.  It is klnownl to extend to a depth of over  250 feet, and will
probably continue as much lower.  Its total length is upwards of 800 feet.   In
the Chollar mine a large lenticular mass of red ore, 200 feet long, 300 deep, and
about 25 wide, has been developed.  In the Potosi the ore lies in a slheet near
the eastern clay.
OrES. s.-The  ores of the Comstock consist chiefly of vitreous silver ore,
steplhanlite, native silver, and argentiferous galena, imbedded in a quartz gangue.
Beside these, ruby silver, horn silver, and polybasite occur in small quantities;
also, native gold, iron and copper pyrites and zinc blend.  These all usually
occur in an amorphous condition, good crystallized specimens being remarlkably
rare.  In the IKentuck mine (Gold Hill) carbonate of lime occurs in the gangue,
and in the deep workings in Virginlia sulphate of lime is an abundant mineral.
The Fairview mine formerly produced fine crystals of the latter.
DEVELOPMIENTS ON  TiHE  COMSTOC:K  LODE.-TlThe structure of the lode, as
shown by the undergrounld works, has already been spoken of.  The true dip of
the lode was not understood for some tine after its discovery.   The false dip of
the east wall ait the surface induced a belief that the vein wvould pitch to the
westward, and, consequently, the first working shafts were located accordingly.
Tile majority of ti.cse, at least in Virginia, reached the west wall at depths
varying from 450 to C0O feet, and owing to the intensely hard nature of the
western country rock had t' be abandoned as far as deeper explorations were
concerned; the cost of sinking and drifting back into the vein, the constant
repair required by shafts located in thTe vein, and the necessity of more powerful
machinery as great depth was attained, all tending to this result.   The principal
companies mining on the Comstock, in Virginia and( North Gold Hill, have
accordingly erected newv hoisting works, about 1,000 feel east of the old shafts,
on ground not likely to settle to any serious extent, and in these shafts the followinig depths have been attained:
Gould & Curry................................................  50
Savage....................................................... 670
Hale & Norcross............................................. 500
Chollar Potosi............................................... 830
Empire-Imperial (Gold Hill)...................................... 920
343 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
These shafts are, or will be, furnished with machinery of the finest description,
capable of working to depthls ranging from 1,200 to 2,000 feet.  In Southern
Gold Hill the original shaft of the Belcher Company has been carried down to
a depthl of 850 feet.
While many cf the originally discovered bonanzas have been worked out,
depreciating the value of the mines where they occurred, as in the case of the
Ophlir and Gould & Curry, the comparatively recent discovery of the Savage Norcross bonanza gives good foundation for believing that they will again become
productive.  This deposit was not found until the Hale & Norcross Company
had been at worli for nearly five years, anrd had attained a depth of 700 feet.
Their location covered what was supposed to be a nip of the vein, and having
exhausted all other means, as a last resource, the supposed east wall was pierced
and a drift run to the eastward from the 700 feet level, witli but little encourage mnent until, at 360 feet east of what had hitherto been considered the east wall,
this magnificent discovery was made.  The body of ore has been followed up
200 feet, and lying so far from the west wall, will, judging by analogy, continue
down for a great depth. This discovery made valuable 800 feet of ground,
which up to that time had produced nothing, though lying between the valuable
deposits in the Gould & Curry and Chollar-Potosi mines.
Nearly 1,500 feet of ground between the Gould & Curry works and the Ophiir
mine is to-day in the former condition of this ground, having been prospected
only to a depth of about 350 feet, and found to contain nothing, or merely ores
of too small a value to pay for extraction.  \I'uch other ground which has been
examined, chieflv in the neighborhood of the west wall, should be prospected to
the east, experience clearly shlowing that all valuable ore bodies originate onr that
side of the fissure.  The bodies of quartz formring on the west wall are uniformly
barren, or of very inferior quality.
The development of the vein has been greatly retarded by various causes.
Among these the most prominent have been the fear of causing litigation by
prospecting to the eastward aid makiing discoveries which were certain to be
claimed by sonie of the innumerable locations made in early times, and the fact
that almost all mining stocks are here owned only temporarily for speculative
purposes.  In the first respect a happier era is dawning.  Repeated litigation
has only tended to show conclusively that the many parallel outcrops of quartz,
each of which was located by a different company, unite in depth or disappear
entirely, and the titles to the pincipal mines are now nearly firee fromn further
dispute.  As far as the latter cause is concerned, the trouble will probably continue for many years.  To thorou,hly understand any arbitrarv section of ground
a knowledge of the adjoining property is almost indispensable. This is frequently
attainable only to a limited extent.  It too often happens that the true condition
and structure of a mine is concealed, lest the information should affect the schemes
of those who are operating in its stocks.  A combination of mining superintendents and the establishment of a general office, where maps of the various
mines could be consulted by those desiring information, would prove prejudicial
to mnining-stock speculators, bult would tend greatly to check the useless expenditure of money, and materially increase the legitimate profits of our miining
enterprises, by enabling superintendents to lay out their work with jtudgment and
greater certainty than is at present the case.
MLODE OF MINING ON SHOE COMSTOCK.-SITAFTS. —Mining on the Comstockl
is carried on almost exclusively through perpendicular shafts, explorations having
penetrated below the deepest adits, whichli are now used almost exclusively as
drains, to avoid the necessity of hoisting the water to the surfice.  The original
shafts were much less substantial than those now in use, being merely lined with
planks about three inches thick, the compartments being" two or three in number
and about fbur and a half feet square. The principal shafts now in use are fine
specimens of mining engineering.  The a,,rt;. shaft of the Savage Company
344 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
has four compartments, three of them, for hoisting, being five feet square, and
the fourth, which is occupied by the hoisting machinery, five feet by six. The
Bonner shaft of the Gould & Curry Company and the Chollar-Potosi and
Empire-Imperial shafts are similar in their character, while the Hale & Norcross
shaft, being intended for the exploration of much less groulndl, has only three
compartments.   The mode of construction in all these shafts is similar, cribs of
12-inch timbers being inserted every five feet, supported by vertical posts of the
same size. This cribbing is covered on the outside by lagging of three or fourinch planks.  Wooden guides are then inserted down each side of the compartments for the purpose of retaining the platform cages, used for ascent from and
descent into the mine, in their' places. For some years iron guides were mlehl in
use, but have now been superseded almost entirely by wood, as less liable to
accident.  The cost of sinking these shafts varies, of course, with the nature of
the ground encountered.   The Bonner shaft was put down to the depth of 525~
feet, at an average cost of $100 78 per foot, including such a proportion of the
total cost of pumping and hoisting as wvas chargeable to this account. The following table shows the amount expended for each department of the work.  It
is made up for a depth of 6921 feet, and shows that the last 67 feet of the shaft
cost considerably more in proportion than the upper portions, as it raised the
average cost per foot to $109 36.
Cost of sinking the Bonner shaft.
Paid for excavation...................................................... $22, 324 50
Lumber....-........................................................... —----------------------------—. 5,460 05
Timber................................................................. 9,670 67
Framing timbe:s —-........................................................ 3,518 00
Placing timbers............................... —----------------------------------------------—. —--—. 1,570 50
Carmen............................................................... 3,530 00
Lowering pumps, &c., &c................................................. 4,683 75
Picks and drills.......... —-------------------------------------------—. 2,041 50
Powder and fuze........................................................  291 00
Candles....................................... —-------------------------------------------------—. 1,054 30
Other materials.................. —------------------------------------------- --- 1,777 13
Cost of running machinery, keeping pumps in order, pitmen, &c............ 19, 817 00
75,738 40
TUN-XELS A-N'D DrIFTS.-From these shafts drifts are run to the vein, generally about 100 feet apart vertically; )buLt it seldom happens that the levels in
any one mine correspond with those in the mines adjoining.  This arises from
the mines being worked entirely independent of each other.  But few of these
tunnels will stand without protection. The main working drifts are usually
timbered every five feet, the timbers varying from eight to twelve inches square,
according to the nature of the ground to be sustained.   In many places, even
12-inchll timbers cannot resist the immense pressure brought upon them by the
slacking, and expansion of the material through which the drifts are run, immediately on its exposure to the atmosphere.  It is not uncommon to see timbers
completely crushed, notwithstanding the utmost precautions, in six months after
they have been placed in the mine.   Iain workling drifts, after timbering, are
usually about six feet high in tile clear, three and a half to four feet wide at the
top, and somewhat more in the bottom.  Temporary prospecting drifts are much
smaller in size, and generally left unitimbered, if practicable, till they develop
something of value.  In each drift is laid a wooden track shod with iron, on
which thile material extracted from the mine is run out to the shaft in dumnping
cars, holding from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds.  To avoid repeated handling of the
ore or waste, the same cars are hoisted on the cage to the surface, and their contents there distributed to the proper places.  The following tables will give
some idea of the cost of this branch of mining:
345 
I                            
i.    -5 o          -.                                               o   ffe
~~~~ ~~Price paid per foot.
I   ~ ~~~     ~Total cost of exea              I                    ~~~~~~~vation.
;;   ~~~~~~~~               I ~~~~~Timber.
ml    ~ ~ ~~       Lumber.
$;$f.    $#z,IIII;3;2;~;Th~i:;.~;~;~;jj;;timaner.pi
~~    ~ ~ ~           m    ~~~~~   ~Track  iron  and
~~~   ~ ~ ~ ~~   ~~~~~        ~~~~~  ~                  screws.
m~~~    ~ ~ ~     ~Picks and drills.
I               ~~~~~Powder.-and fuze.
w-mmm~-~ Candles.
I   ~ ~~~   ~Air boxes.
m    ~~~~~  ~Totals.
~ -1 ~, II ~    1.,.                                  m ~ 
mnm'mn,m. 
w    I
_                                  I
c....
Cost per lineal foot.
sazoiiii, ([NV savi  ao saaio
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
i
I
I
I
I
I
I
1.
No. of feet
1.
I
-1 1. 11  -cl,..
-1......;=
,.1  w -. -. -, ID
0.... O.Cclooo
.0.0... O.O.
,P
1.
,
...
C,. Iz, 0  10 C,
p
$t
11.
z
z
z
z
Q
:2.
Q
Z,
,.     z  I  cl, -1 ,.  
-1. -  Z,..1 I- I-.01, -1 
. C,   11.  11 C,.  
I.
t,
t',
3
t-11
tt
t,
m
t-I
t-t,3
m
51
1.
I
cl,
zo
WI.. 11 -.  c, 
, , I..  -1 "I. c;l  
.... 1-1 , ...
0. Ic.. .. 0. Q
C,
w
, -1 cl,.1   w - n  .
CZ0.0  0.    -1
,  C, t...  . 10
-.-q                        ,
w
11,
I',
I
5i
ZID
,P
-1
m
I::: I: I:: I
9to 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
STOPING is universally conducted by opening a level below the body of ore
to be extracted, and workingi upward on the vein.  On the Comstockl, the openings made in mining the ore are so large that a complicated system of timubering(
is requisite to replace thle material extracted.  A  rectangular system of timbers
is usually adoptedcl, the posts being about seven feet in lengtil, 12 inches square,
anid placed about five feet apart from centre to cenltre.  rThese are retainecd in
their lplaces by " caps" andcl " sills," and further to secure the mine each floor, as
far as practicable, is filled up wvitlh waste material as soon as it is vworlked out.
In early days too little attentiotn was paid to this last precaution, resultiing in
extensive " caves" or giving way of the ground from the superinlcum-bent pressure.
If a lbody of ore is entirely extracted the result is not serious; but should any
remain untouchled, the cost and difficulty of securing it after a "cave" has occurred in its vicini,ty is usually grently increased fromn the broken and shattered
condition of the ground.   The quantity of timber used in these stopes is imlumense,
as will be seen by the details of thle annual consumption on a future page.  Any
meancIs which wlouldcl diminish its price would be a great gain to the entire comnmunity.
PlO0SPECTI-G for new- ore bodies forms a serious item in the cost of mini(ng on
the Comstoclk.  Ahen the great and irregutlar width of the vein, the irre(rgular
distribution of the ore bodies, thle uncertainty of their occurrence, and our imperfect kiowle(ldge of the structure of thle vein are taken into consideration, the difliculty of lay-ing out prospecting workls to the best advantage becomes apparent.
Immense sIIIums of money are spent annually in this kindcl of work, which must be
taklcei entirely fiom the pocklets of the shareholders when a mine is unproductive.
If only moderately productive the entire revenue mav be consumed in looking
for more valuable bodies of ore; at the same time, the certainty of being ricllv
rewarded for years of waiting if tlhey are found, induces the continuation of workl
on mines whiclh hlave not yielded a dollar for years.  They  are known on the
main fissure of the Comstock to be surrounded by good property, and may become
valuable at any moment.   The Hale and Norcross mine is a good illustration.
']'Thle following extract is taklen from the annual report of the president of the
company, for 1S66:
Heretofore the entire expense of opening the mine, erecting machinery, &c., had to be borne
from money collected by assessments, until they aggregated the sum of $350,000, equal to
$875 per foot.  For the y,ear just ended the trustees havebeen enlabledto returntothe stockholders, in dividends, the sum of $490,000, equal to $1,225 per foot, or, in one year to repay
the assessments collected in five years, wvith the handsome sum of $350 per foot in addition,
besides carrying over the large surplus in cash of $133,288 99, equal to a further sum of
$333 22 per foot, miaking altogether the handsome profit, in one year, of $1,558 22 per foot,
or 155 per cent. on the par value of the stock.
In this connection tihe adlvantages of a community of knowledge and interest
among the mining superintendents wvouldl be of immense value, the experience
of all becoming available by each, thus reducing the cost of explorations by
shlowing in what portion of tlle different mines deposits of ore are m1ost likely to
be found, and thus directing attention more particularly to them. ELvery dollar
spent on an unproductive mine is so much taken out of the aggregate net profits
of the mining interest, and every dollar which can be saved would be equal to
the same amount distributed in dividends.  But because a mine on thle Comstock
is unproductive to-day, is no reason why it should be abandoned.  The only
point to be considered is how it may be developed in the most economical lmanner,
and the plan suggested above appears to afford a solution of the difficulty.  The
inefficient character of the results obtained by many companies workling on the
Comistockl lode, when compared with the money expended, is well Iknownl to persons familiar wvitll our mines, and can only be remedied by some such organization.
347 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
'Iumber of engines on the lode.
Pumping.
c,
~
_=
.-           aJ                -
a    ~ O  a    ~ O C._
oisting and
pumping.
Name of mine.
Allen.... —-------------------------------------------------—.
.ierrat Nevada.. —-----------------------------------                                   1
()phir Mexican...... ----—......................... —---------------------.......
Sidep, —----------------- ----------------------------—.. -                                           -  -     -5....
(ould & Curry -----------------------------------                                          
Savage, old shaft..................................... 1
Savage, new slft................ —---------------------------------- 3
Hlale & Norcross, old shaft.... —------------------------- 1
I-Hale & Norcross, new shaft.... —-----------------------'1
Potosi...............................................  1
Chollar  Potosi........................................ 
Bullion..............................................        1
Exclhequer...............................................
Alpha....... ----------------------------------------- --—......
Imperial......... —------------------—..................................... --—.... 
Empire...................................                                                                             3
IEclipse —-—. —---—.. —-------- ------------------— 1
[Eclipse.............................................. 1
Plato & Bowers...... —------------—....................................
Consolidated....................................'...... 
Cha]!enge............................................ 
Ctifi(uge —----—. —. — ------- -- ----- --- --- -------------------                                    
Confidence...........................................1                                                                2
\Yellow Jacket, old shaft..............................,,
Yellow Jacket, new shaft.............................
Kelnttck       -------—........................................
Crown  Point -----------..............................          1
13Blcher.............................................. 1
Seg. 1'elcher.. —----------------------------------------—.
Overman............................................ 1
N'orth American..... —           ---           ----—.....................................
Tot,al-.......................................... -22
m
o
.PlQ
a._
r4
1
......
1
......
._.. _.
1
1
......
1
2
1
1
I I
...... 
2
1
16
..........
60
30
60
60
60
60
............
40
60
20 S
60
............
...........
........o.'"
...........
...........
............
............
............
60?
60
........
40
60
...... ~.....
40
..........
* Donkey engine.
These engines were almost universally, in early times, attached to friction
hoisting gear, but the increase of depth attained has almnost banished this
mode of operation, the great weight of the rope and car rendering it unsafe.  Flat
wiire ropes have almost entirely superseded the hemp ropes origilnally employed.
For hoistnig ore cages are employed in all instances, buckets being nsed only
for sinklin in the shafts.  These cages are fitted with a variety of appliances to
insure -safetv in case of accident to tlhe ropes or hoisting machinery.
PuMPS.-The largest pumps in use are 1-4 inches in diameter; the greater
number, howoeverl, riange f-from 10 to 12 inchles.  The amount of water to contend
with varies greatly in difierent mines, being, as a whole, more abundant in the
north end of the lole.  The Ophir 3Iexican pump throws about 300 gallonls per
mninute, and must be rIun steadily to keep the mnine free of water.  The Bullion
rsine, about one mile to the southward, is comparatively dry, and in most cases
*a few hours' pumping daily is sufficient to rid it of water.  Small punping
machinery vwould generally be sufficient was there not always a rislk of tapping
bodies of water dammed up by the clay seams in the vein already spoken of.
These reservoirs generally yield a large volunme when first struck, but rapidly
diminish to a small stream.  The machinery must be adequate, however, to the
duty imposed upon it at suchl times, otherwise serious detention and damage may
be the result.
I
I
i
I
348
Iloistiiig.
30
50
60
60
30
3.3
10
-2
3.,
25
Go
30
I
1
............
200
200
............
150
............
2150
150
------------
............
60
60
............
............
............
............
............
............
............
............
............
............
100?
............
40
40
............
60
............
............
......
I
------
I
I
......
......
I
1
......
......
......
......
I......
......
......
......
......
......
I
......
I
I
......
I
------
11 
WVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
AMOUNT OF ORE RAISFED FrOM THE MIEs\.-The aimounit of ore raised from
the mines on the ComstocL lode imay be )put downi at the present time at about
1,500 tons daily, and the total amoiunt raised since the co-mmencemenlt of operations at about 2,000,000 tons.  The following table, conmpiled by S. 1TI.  arlette,
the surveyor general of Nevada, from returns made to the assessor, for the year
1866, shows the nmttber of tons produced qnarterly by the several miies wilhich
yielded more than $20 per tonll.  Some mines, owvning mnills of their own, work
rockl yielding as low as 815 per ton, but no record of this becomes public, and
is very difficult to obtain, chiefly owing to disinclination on thle part of owners of
unincorporated mines to make their operations public.   The table also slows the
yield of thie ore per ton.
,YIELD OF OrnE PrEP Tox.-I1rom informnation furnished by tihe superintendents
of thle following minles, the yieldl per ton appears to be   Savage minie-30,250 tons produced in the last six months of 1S66, yielded
an average of $42 93 per ton.
Ihale a1nd Norcross mine-16,S836 tons produced in the same time, yielded an
average of $50 33 per ton.
Gould and Curry mnine-62,425 tons produtced in 1S66, yielded an average of
$28 64 per ton.
Thle following ta.ble shows tihe number of tons of ore, worth more  than $20
per ton, produced quarterly by mines on the Comstock lode, names of tllCe Tines,
and yield of some of the ores:
349 
350    ~RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
. 11...I,..   -           -
.........
-F
.-          -..
..  ~........,
o~~~~~~~~~~~.. ~...I..-     
::.,:::::
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,,::C,"    In.. ~.   
:.:::::::                              ~: ~::    C =:::~,     
..0..0:11:11.
~~~~~~v  C",C
~~~.                          0~~~~~~~~~~~~o
i
I
I
350
I
1z
I
I'
I
I
I
16i
I
:1
F
;4
I
14::::
I:::
0::::
El....
....
...:.:.:::::::: I I:....
.......
:::::::::.:1:.:::
:::: 11:::::: -1:::::
14
;i
0
E.
;4
. li
;; 1. z "I::
.:: I::
....:
;4
12I
vz
4
0
;4
0
cc
z
: H,:::::::,,.:::: ::::::::::::
::::::::,,:::: 11.1::: 1.:::::::::
.......L:1:::.... ::;:M...:::::::::
E-1
;i
t
.4ct
-s
1:
I
;z
0Iz
E.
....
....
....
:::::... 17 -::
:... G::
:..  11
... I.:::::
......... I
n
r,
0
u
0
I..14
;4
0
I
I
r,
;:. -  a,::
:: C,. - 11::
:: -11 1. 1, ::
C, I, C,
4
El
16
0
El
It:z
'i
2
I
P.
C""
:::,:::: . 1. ". 1.:::: I',:: I-::: a,,:,.v:::::
.................
-::O:151,:1:....
CD....:::111,::'::::,.
::: 11 I:::.. I.1 I " C,......... IN v'IV v I.....
: I
:1:::
::z- C,. I    I. I::
::::
. -. C,  1.::
:.
: c,:::
: I:.:
...
: I 1.::
'A
E;i
I
11I
r.
;i
4
:z
5,
i-. -=
.2
9
cl,
P.
Ei
Q 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
COST OF  PINIxIG PrF  Tox.-The following items are from official sources:
Savage,i)ie —avcrage cost  cr toni (f the ltest six vio)tlths of 1866.
(ficials. ------------------------ ---------------------------------- $0 39
Extracting ore.... —--------------------------------------------------   3 00
Prospecting,,,,. —-------------------------------------------------- 65
Accessory work...... —----------------—...... -----------------------------—......   1 64
Improvements....... —------------------------------------------------------ 2 04
Incidental expenses.............. —--------------------------------------------—.. 1 10
Total cost per ton............................ —------------------------------------------ 8 82
Goutld and Cturry vdiie-avcrage cost per ton for the 12 inonth7s ending November
30, 1866.
Officials..................................... —---------------------------------------------------—.. $0 21
Prospecting and dead work -----------------------------------------—'2 1i
Extracting................................................................... 3 10
Accessory............................ ----------------------------------------------------— 1 82
Improvements.................... —----------------------------—.  --------------------- 62
Total cost per ton.................... —-----------------------------------------—. 7 86
Hale and (lTorcross )tiiie-average cost per ton for the 12 mnonths ending Xarch
20, 1867.
Managerial........... —--------------------------—............ -------------------—. $0 31. 7
HIeisting..................... —--------------------—...... ------------------------------ 2 38.7
Mining........ —---------------------------------------------------- 4 79
Improvements........................ —------------------------------------------------—.. 65.9
Incidentals.... ------------------------------------------------------ 92.9
Total cost per ton..................................................... 9 08.2
Thiese results show a marked improvement on previous years, and enable lower
grade ores to be wvorkedmore profitablythan was formerly the case. Some portion
of the diminution in cost is due to the lower price of material, but by far the
greater part to more efficient management and systematization of labor.
I
351 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Tabular list of mills crus?ting orefrom mines
Owners.
ra
I
._
a.
.a
I
STOREY COUNTY.
Atlas......-...... —
Atwood's...........
Bay State...... —--
Bowers'..........-.
Central.............
Crown Point (1) )...
Comet (1)..........
Douglas (1).-. —----
Eclipse.............
Empire State.......
Empire No. l (1).
Empire No. o (1).
Gold Hill.-........Gould & Currv...
Hoosier State.......
Imperial...........
Land's.............
Mariposa...........
3farysville (1). —---
Ogden.-... —-------
Pacific.............
Petaluma (1).......
Pinte...............
Rhiode Island.......
Rigby's (1).........
Rogers's (1)..... —--
Sapphire...........
Simcooc............
Stevenison's (1)...-.
Succor (1)..........
Summit............
Union.............
Winfield...........
Lower Gold Hill.............
Flowery (Six Mile Creek)....
ABnerican Flat...............
Crown Point Ravine, (G.H.)..
Virginia.....................
Crown Point Ravine, (G. H.) -.
Gold Hill....................
Lower Gold Hill............
Gold Hill....................
Seven Mile Cai,on...........80
Virginia.....................
Lower Gold Hill.............
Gold  Hill....................
Seven Mile Caion...........
Virginia.....................
mLower  Gold 11111till.............
Seven Mtile Caon............
...... do.....................
Lower   Gold  Hl,.iL.............                    
Vi~ginia.....................
Lower Gold Hll.............
...... do.....................
.... —.do....................
Gold Hill....................
Amnerican Flat...............
Seven Mile Ca'ion...........
Lower Gold Hill.............
Seven Mile CaLi on...........
Gold Hill....................
L ower Gold Hill.............
Virginia.....................
Gold Hill....................
Seven Mile Calon...........
Total.... —.33...........................
LYON COUNTY.
Silver City......... —----------------
Dayton.....................
Johntown...................
Silver City. —........0 —--
Dayton.... —------- --------
Daytn  do.....................
3 miles from Dayton.........
Silver City............. —----------------
Below Silver City.-. —-------
Carson River, near Daylon. ---
Johntown...................
Carson River, near Dayton...
Silver City..................
]acon..............
Birdsall & Carpenter
Cole & Co..........
Confidence.........
Dayton No. I.......
Dayton.No. " (1)....
Daney.............
Eagle..............
Eastern Slope. —----
Eureka............
Excelsior...........
Franklin...........
Gold Cai-on Reduc  tion Works.
Golden Eagle.......
Illinois.............
Imperial (Rock Pt)
Island..............
Monitor............
Ophir (New)........
Phoenix No. 1 (1)...
Pioneer (1).........
Sacramento (1).....
,San Francisco......
SwanEea...........
Carson River, near Dayton.
......   do.......... do.........
o....... do........do.200
......    do.......... do.........
Gold Caion, near Dayton....
Carson River..........7 —Below Silver City...........
Silver City.................
Johntown...................
Carson River, near Dayton.
Johntown..................
.352
Names,
Locatiou.
$35, 000
35, OCC
40, CG'O
100, 000
7; —,, 0 0 0
40, 000
40, 000
40, 000
50, 000
35, 000
75, 000
80,000
30, 000
380, coo
40,000
7,-,, 000
60, 000
20, 000
50, coo
50, coo
75, 000
30, coo
so, 000
loo, coo
25, 000
.t.,, coo
60, 000
35, 000
15,000
50, 000
50, 000
25, 000
so, 000
2, 000, 000
Ilaggin & Tevis...........
George Atwood............
Bay State 31ill Co..........
L. S. Bowers..............
J. D. Dickenson...........
Crown Point G. & S. M. Co
New York & Nev ada.Al. Co
C. S.'NVheeler.............
E,,-Iipse Al. & M. Co........
Wm. Sharon, Agent.......
W. S. Hobart.............
Elupire M. & M. Co --------
Gold Hill Q. M. & 31. Co - - -
Gould & Curry I%Jl. Co......
Clark & Hearst............
.Tmperial S. 1%1. Co..........
Charles Land..............
J. V. 1NIcCurdy ------------
O'Neale, Rule & Glasier. - -
O. S. Carvill...............
Sharon & Co..............
C,reely Bros ----------------
AT. Livingston.............
Crown Point G. & S. M. Co -
Rigby & Co - -------------
Rogers S..Al. Co -----------
W. S. Hobart --------------
A. Bassett & Co...........
C. C. Stevenson...........
O'Neale, Rule & Co --------
MasOD, Carville &Wright-.
Win. Kidd.................
L. A. Booth...............
1861
1.862
1862
1860
1860
1860
IS62
1860
1863
1863
1862
1862
1861
1860
1861
,$21,000
]9, 550
24, OCO
15, 4CO
23, OCO
20, COO
12, COO
35, 000
8, 800
12, 000
26, 500
25, 000
305, COO
14, 730
40, 000
15, 000
10,100
12, 000
24, OCO
45, 600
12, 500
47, 000
48, 000
10, I co
10,400
2,t, 000
15, COO
5,000
22, 500
20, 5Q5
10,000
19, COO
953, 705
............................
.....
$85, coo
1)110,000
10, 000
35. 000
50, coo
40, 000
70, 000
.........
60, 000
300,000
25, 000
50, 000
40,000
.........
30,000
250, 000
40, 000
6, 000
75, 000
40, 000
40, 000
50, coo
40, 000
60, 000
Lowe & Fair..............
Birdsall & Carpenter.......
Cole & Co -----------------
Confidence lkf. Co ----------
Winter-,4, Kiistell & Co - - - - -
...... do........ do.........
Dancy 31. & 31. Co........
............................
Stevenson.'NVinters &Co
'VVheeler, I-lurd & DunkerJohn Briggs...............
'NVm. Sharon, -gent........
'NVm. Sharon, agent........
1863
1865
1864
1861
1861
1864
1863
1 S64
1862
1861
1861
1861
1861
1861
1864
1861
1862
IS-65
1864
1861
1861
1861
1861
1862
O'iNeale, Rule & Co........
Wn,i. Sharon, agent........
Iraperial',Nl. Co............
O'Neale, Rule & Co........
Hirschman & Co -----------
Ophir S.,Af. Co ------------
Hentsch and Berton........
Sheldon & Hickok.........
Hunt, Woodruff& Co
Charles Schad.............
V-7. Sharon, agent.......... 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
on the Comstock lode during t7e year 18S6.
STAMPS.                 %VHEELS.          WVATER   WVOOD.
~.~
Motive power.;                       - 3C
55, 5 sz ~  m       Kind.           -                   ~
5 V
................................
..................
.............
...................
................................ 
......................
............
-...6....
..................
....................
.......................
....................
.................
........................
.........................
.....................
......................*
....................
....................
...................
........................
..........................
...................
......................... 
............
.............
...............
.................
..............
................
..................
...........................
.................
Steam.............
..-.do..............
...do..............
...do..............
.-...do..............
.-...do..............
. do.............
... do........... 
..-.do..............
...do..............
.-..do..............
..do..............
....do....... —------------
.... do..............
....do..............
.... do..............
....do   ------                                  --------------
.... do..............
.-...do..............
....do.............. 
....do.... —---—.......... 
....do..............
.-.do..............
.... do.do... —----—..........
-...do..............
.... do... —--—........... 
.... do..............
.... do..............
....do..............
....do..............
....do..............
...o   - - d- --------— 2                      2 - - - - -0 —---------------— 6                                          1
...do..............
..-.do..............
Oeh...........
Overshot..........
....................
O..........
2-central discharge 
...............
Overshot ----------                   
..............
Turbine...........
Centeam d10 650-reWater —------------— 10   600 —----— Central discharge —----— 2  0                                
...............
...............
..............
2-Overshot.......
Central discharge..
.a.... 4 —-----------
Turbine......1....
...........................
....................
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~j fil -'d- 4    15    700-6-;g'e'.'
6Central discharge.        1
Steam     40     12       900 —------------------------—..........-............-.......
..do.............
.. -.do.............
Steam and water.-.
.-.-do.............
Water.............
.... do.............
Steam.............
...do.............
.... do.............
Steam and water.
Steam.............
23
353
36
......
......
......
......
35
......
......
......
60
60
45
......
20
60
......
......
......
......
so
30
60
(1) 150
......
....:   4;)
......
......
......
......
40
......
......
15
16
23
20
13
8
16
10
15
15
16
1-6
14
so
8
44
20
(1) 12
9
22
30
10
20
25
10
8
16
16
(2) 8
20
.20
14
is
607
600
..........
..........
10-600
10-700
..........
500
..........
650
..........
..........
650
650
6-750
8-600
..........
750
600
..........
..........
..........
...........
650
700
6O
600
..........
..........
750
..........
500
..........
625
10-650
4-500
..........
..........
41
4'
6
4
8
5
44
4
4
5
51
8
3
QO
3 2   6
51
4
5
6
8
31
5 ,
8
4
3-',
5
5
21
6 
6
2i
5
isoi
1 $i:i
14
14
14
121
14
15
14
14
14
14
14,
14
14
14
..-.i
13
14
14
14
9
9
8
....
9
9
70
....
70
- - - -
78
so
80
84
70
....
....
72
. -5.
8
so
....
so.
76
----
70
60
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
....
....
71
9
8
....
10
10
10
6
10
...................
$1
1(
it
Si
Si
11
12
10
10,
10
Steam.............
Water.............
Steam.............
.... do..............
Water.............
Steam'.............
....do..............
Water.............
Steam.............
Water.............
Steam.............
Water.............
Steam.............
60
......
20
33
......
60
45
......
60
- - - - - -
40
......
30
40
30
50
25
......
40
45
45
40
30
1 40
20
30
5
(1) 12
20
15
15
5
12
20
10
10
15
10
20
56
10
5
24
16
15
12
10
12
720
613
480
900
600
Soo
550
400
1, 100
650
650
600
700
850
400
16-600
40-550
720
450
650
650
700
750
650
900
10
9
9
10
10
10
9
75
85
65
75
75
50
7a
so
8
2I5
1
5
6
i
..........
50
..........
..........
54
..........
..........
37
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
1-14
2 4-5
'2
o
..........
..........
..........
10
..........
12
141
32
14
......
......
......
......
1, 500
......
......
100
......
2, 500
......
., 500
......
------
......
3, 600
1, Soo
1, 200
......
......
......
1, 100
......
0
6
3
24
2
6
3-X,
5
6
4
-,X
I ,
6
6
5
3
5
81 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Tabular list of mills crushing orefrom mines on the
-a
Names. Owners. Location. I
-a
8 z
LYON COUNTY.-Con.
Joseph Trench............ Silver City..................
Wm. Weston.............. Johntown...................
Wm. Weston....................do.....................
............................
$75, 000
35, 000
8, 000
1, 424, 000
25 mills.
ORMSBY COUNTY.
1 mile below Empire.........
3 miles west of Carson.......
I1+ mile below Empire........
Empire....................
4 miles below Empire,  on
Carson river.
3 miles west of Carson.......
3+ miles below Empire.......
Empire......................
............................
WASHOE COUNTY.
Washoe.....................
...... do.....................
...... do.....................
...... do.....................
Galena......................
Washoe.....................
Franktown...................
Atchison -----------
Buckeye...........
Xanhattan (1)......
Minnesota..........
Napa...............
New York & Washoe
Ophir Reduction
Works (1.)
Temelec............
Washoe Valley Re duction Works.
Total........9
Baldwin & Bonne          r......... Washo e.....................
J. H. Dall................. Franktown..................
Total-9-794,000
354
Trench.............
Weston's (1)........
Weston's (1)........
Total........ 27
1861
lE62
1862
......
........
........
........
--------
........
............................
Brunswick.........
Carson -------------
Merrimac (1).......
Mexican (1)........
Santiago -----------
Williams & Sharon........
W. Sharon, agent..........
Rice & Yerrington.........
Alsop & Co...............
Santiago M. Co ------------
1863
1862
IS62
1862
1862
......
1860
1864
......
$50, 000
t?5, 000
100, 000
300,000
100,000
25, 000
75, 000
150, 000
825,000
$75, 000
60, 000
100,000
75, 000
34, 000
100,000
150, 000
60,000
140,000
794,000
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
........
Sierra -------------- Beach & Harrington.......
Vivian............. P. Frothingham...........
Yellow Jacket ------ Yellow Jacket M. Co......
Total........8
...........................
Savage Co................
Lambert & Co -------------
New York & Nevada Co - -.
Savage M. Co.............
James Hill & Co...........
New York & Washoe Co...
Ophir M. Co...............
1862
1863
1863
......
......
1863
1862
1865
1863
................ I.........
............................
..... 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTA1INS.
Comstock lode during thte year 1866-Continued.
STAMPS.                WHEELS.           WATER.   WOOD.
CJ
Motive power.,
03~         ~.,           Kind..,, 
P  a)i   $      a                          Q       a)   a  V   V
Steam............. 30 20 600................................................-   6...
.... do............. 40 15     550 9 80............ —-—,,,,,,-.............- - - -  4~  11
Water................... 10    250 9 70 Overshot.......... 40 42   80 s 11
........................... 424...................................................................
..........................  29...................................................................
395...................................................................
Water................... 8   1, 000  10 80 Central discharge............ 21......   I   71
.. do................... 10................................................. 1 6
.... d        o................... 20............................................................   2   7i
Steam and water......... 44. —.-.-.-.-.-.-. — ---- ----------------------—, —-------   4 71
Water................... 24.................'-Central discharge..................... i   71
.... d        o................... 8............................................................   1'6
Steam and water.......... 16 650  10 80 Central discharge.- 7 14...... 9
Water................... 40.......................................................... 1 71
.......................... 170..........
----.......................... --------- -- -...............................
I
I ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ i
Steam..................  20......................................-..................... 6....
.... do.- ----------— l —- 10.........-..... —..-......-................... —-----—. — 6,,
Steam and water......... 24......... 6...
Stam -d —— o —-..................................................                  11
Steam and water..        20..................................... 4......
Steam.-......,....................................2........................... 8
Wate 7..................................
do.........................................  20
Steam and water..      5 ----------—....... —- -......... ——.... —.... - --... 4    6
...do..............300.... 30..6.............        Breast............ 6....... 20
...i.....do............. 26......... 
Stea and — wae.....16  65   1l 28 Ce-rl d r    7  -        -     ----------
Wae...................4. I......'-......... ~.... ~....,...................:..........1  7+-i....I,.
. I
3b5 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Tabular list of mills crusiting orefrom mines on the
Location.
._
.a
a                   a
1;
~
m
E. 
iso 
STOREY COUNTY.
Atlas..............
Atwood's..........
Bay State..........
Bowers'...... —--
Central............
Crown Point (1)....
Comet (lI..........
Douglas (1)........
Eclipse............
Empire State.. —---
Empire No. 1 (1)..
Empire No. 2 (1).
Gold Hill.-.......Gould & Curry..-..
Hoosier State......
Imperial...........
Land's.............
1%Iariposa...........
3Iarysville (1)......
Ogden.............
Pacific.............
Petaluma (1).......
Piute..............
Rhode Island.......
Rigby's (1).........
Rogers' (1)...... —Sapphire...........
Sircooc...........
Stevenson's (1).....
Succor (1).........
Summit............
Union..... —------
Winfield...........
Lower Gold Hill.............
Flowery (Six Mile Creek)..
American Flat...............
Crown Point Ravine, (G. H).
Virginia.....................
Crown Point Ravine, (G. H)..
Gold Hill....................
Lower Gold Hill.............
Gold Hill....................
Seven Mile Cation..............
Virginia.....................
Lower Gold Hill.............
GGold Hill....................
Seven Mile Cation............
Virginia.....................
Lower Gold Hill........... —
Seven Mile Cation............
darpo.....................M r1
Lower Gold Hill.............
Virginia.....................
Lower sold Hill.............
Pt m  d...  do..................
P.... do...................L1
Gold Hill....................
American Flat...............
Seven Mile CaRlon...........
Lower Gold Hill...........- 8
Seven Mile Caiion............
Gold Hill....................
Lower Gold Hill.............
Virginia.....................
Gold Hill....................
Seven Mile Cation............
.............................
11
.....
]2
......
6
13
]3
15
......
16
15
14
......
1l
30
......
......
......
......
"i
9
14
15
......
......
17
......
5
20
8
......
263
mills.
LYON COUNTY.
Silver City.................. 3 
Dayton.....................
Johntown...................
Silver City..................
Dayton.....................
.Dy   do....................16
3 miles from Dayton.........
Silver City..................
Below Silver City............ 
Carson River, near Dayton 
Johntown................1 -    -
Carson River, near Dayton 
Silver City................ —
Bacon.............
Birdsall & Carpenter
Cole & Co..........
Confidence.........
Dayton No. 1......
Dayton No. 2 (1)...
Daney.............
Eagle..............
Eastern Slope......
Eureka............
Excelsior..........
Franklin...........
Gold Catlon Reduc  tion Works.
Golden Eagle......
Illinois.............
Imperial (Rock Pt.).
Island...-.-.-.....
31onitor............
Ophir (New).-.-. —
Phoenix No. 1 (1)..
Pioneer (1).........
Sacramento (l)....
San Francisco......
Swansea...........
O Neale, Rule & Co........ Carson River, near Dayton..
Wm. Sharon, agent ----       do..........do.........do.
Imperial M. Co............... do.........  d do.....1     0
O'Neale, Rule &Co...........do.......ddo.........
Hirschman & Co........... Gold Cation, near Dayton ----
Ophir S. M. Co............ Carson River..............16   4..
Hentsch & Berton.......... Below Silver City............
Sheldon & Hickok.........  Silver City................ —
Hunt, Woodruff & Co...... Johntown...................
Charles Schad............. Carson River, near Dayton..
W. Sharon, agent..........  Johntown..................
I
i
I
I
I
i
I
I
356
4
PI
Names.
Owners.
Ilaggin & Tevis...........
George Atwood............
Bay State Mill Co.........
L. S. Bowers --------------
J. B. Dicken,on...........
Crown Point G. & S. 1NI. Co
New York & Nevada'iNI. Co
C. S. Wheeler.............
Eclipse M. & M. Co........
Win. Sharon, agent........
W. S. Ifobart -------------
Empire M. & l. Co........
Gold I-Iill Q. M. &.Nf. Co - - -
Gould & Curry M. Co......
Clark & Hearst............
Imperial S. Bi. Co..........
Charles Land..............
J. V. McCurdy ------------
O'N,eale, Rule & Glasier....
0. S. Carvill...............
Sharon & Co..............
Greely Bros...............
INI. Livingston -------------
Crown Point G. & S. M. Co
Rigby & Co...............
Rogers S. M. Co............
W. S. Hobart..............
A. Bassett & Co...........
C. C. Stevenson...........
O'Neale, Rule & Co.......
Mason, Carville & Wright - -
Wm. Kidd................
L. A. Booth...............
1861
1862
1862
1860
1860
1860
1862
1860
1863
1863
1862
1862
1861
1860
1861
25
20
35
25
12
8
20
16
25
15
30
33
17
100
13
30
30
15
18
20
50
12
40
50
12
12
28
25
5
26
35
14
30
846
I ,
4
2
-51
-L
6
0
1 -li
0
3
II
-lx
-k
2
I i
3 ,
2
1 -L
I I
I I
I
I 7,i2'
11
3y
1
3
1
24,
1
1
3
48J  19
Total....... 33
..........................
Lowe & Fair...............
Birdsall & Carpenter.......
Cole & Co..................
Confidence Al. Co..........
Winters, K-Ustell & Co
...... do......... do --------
Daney 31. & Al. Co.........
.........................
tevenso", Winters & Co..
Wheeler, Hurd & Dunker..
John Briggs...............
Win. Sharon, agent --------
Wm. Sharon, agent --------
1863
1865
1864
1861
1861
1864
1863
1864
186,)
1861
1861
1861
1861
1861
1864
lS61
1862
1865
1864
1861
1861
1861
1861
1862
30
75
5
14
20
30
20
1 21
20
22
is
16
25
18
is
90
19
3
40
20
23
is
14
20
3
7-i
5
21,
7
7
6-1
3
3 -,X
6 
5
8
3
18
Ql
5
9
10
15
10
2
11
11
9
11
13
13
10
48
10
3
13
10
12
12
it
14
7
7
7
7
7
71
31
2 3,
5
6-.',
41 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Comstock lode during ttie year 1866-Continued.
PANS.
1.c
c I
0,
e,
u
'I
p
I 
1.
U2
5
_4
1
su
o                                                        0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;
0                 -                                  0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;
-                     0                0~~~~~~~~~~~~r
- ~  ~~~~~~~~                  -t
$~50
..........
250
(1)    100                            3
(1)    100
75
350
75
300
..........
300
300
225
.........'
300
..............
150
75
..........
400
150
300
400
150
..........
250
..........
,30
150
300
200
..........
,..........
26
(~) 30'
..........
8
..........
.............. 
,..........
(0) 20,
..........
..........
24
'h.......
a'4
74
..........
2
..........
..........
..........
18
..........
()   13,
56
..........
10
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
(B) I
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
(B)        1
8
..........
..........
(2) 4
..........
..........
..........
8
e1
..........
..........
..........
39
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
12
8
..........
..........
..........
2
..........
2
..........
..........
8
750
000
1,400
750
670
250
600
415
700
700
*900
1, 000
475
3, 500
400
1, 100
1, 000
600
500
1,000
1, 305
300
1, 200
1, 350
400
360
850
700
150
600
900
400
1, 000
1 60      200     14 —------------------------------------------— 1 —------------------— 400
8              4 —-----— (B)   1    1       1,000
5,380       27        305    91           93         9
25 mills.
..........
..........
..........
............._.
..........
..........
,,,........
2 
..........
..........
18
(1 7
24
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
1 75 —-----------              1 —-----------------— 8                                                     5              3 —------— 65
3 0 —---------------— 6 —-------— ()       ()   ------------— 0
3 0 —--------------------------—.4                                                                                       3 —----------— 0
t750 tons per month; October 15, 1866.
+.Now 2,800 tons.
I
I
I
I
357
'A
8
'A
I
4
p
16
1
8
9
I
16
1
m
1.11
'I
9
Iz
E.
$1 -,5
7
1 7a
75
1 00
75
I 7i)
I 00
I 00
70
1 25
1 00
I 00
I 00
14
......
2
14
......
......
......
......
......
......
2
... i..
2
......
......
......
......
10
6
......
12
15
......
......
......
......
......
4
(3) 1
......
11
......
......
........
4
(1)   5
4
(1) 6'
4
4
........
2
3
........
1
4
........
4
101.
17 4 8
26,820
17
20
4
......
6
......
......
......
10
......
2
......
......
......
......
......
2
......
......
......
......
------
......
4
(2) 10
2
(2) 2,5
4
........
.f).....
3
5
1
2
........
1
2
(1) 7
3
........
6
4
........
........
........
3
2
5
........
3
(3) 2
3
........
........
1
2
2 00
3 00
3 00
1 75
3 50
3 50
3 25
2 00
1 50
3 23 00a
4 25
1 50
3 50
3 59
3 00
3 00
3 00
4 25
2 00
1 75
3 00
3 00
2 75
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
6
..........
..........
2
6
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
(2) 1
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
......
I
......
......
------
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
........
1,900
125
650
500
Soo
500
40
550
1,100
530
500
t 600
500
500
112,400
500
75
1,200
500
550
550
500
600
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
........
........
........
........
......
.... l.      15
........
........
........
........
5
........
........
. -
27
........
........
........
........
........
........
7
(1) 22 1
........
........
........
........
3
3
........
........
I
........
......i.
........
........
..........
6
14
..........
..........
12
..........
..........
..........
3
..........
I Soon will be 1,200 per month. 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Tabular list of millsfrom mines crushing ore on the
d
Names                   Owners.                       Location.  
0 -1
0             c
H PI
LYON COUNTY.-Con
Trench............ Joseph Trench............. Silver City..................
Weston's (1).......  Wm. Weston.............. Johntown...................
Weston's (1)....... Wm. Weston.................... do.....................
Total.......27..........................................................
......
4,.
.....
9 
18
9
9
8
ORMSBY COUNTY.
1 mile below Empire.........
3 miles west of Carson.......
1+ mile below Empire........
Empire...................... 
4 miles below Empire, on
Carson river.
3 miles west of Carson.......
3w' miles below Empire.......
Empire......................
rotal........8...........................
WASHOE COUNTY.
Washoe.....................
...... do.....................
...... do.....................
...... do.....................
Galena......................
Washoe.....................
Franktown..................
Atchison...........
]Buckeye...........
Xanhattan (1)......
Minnesota.........
Napa..............
New York & Washoe
Ophir Reduction
Works (1.?
Temelec...........
* Washoe Valley Re diuction Works.
Baldwin & Bonner......... Washoe.................1....
J. H. Dall.................Fr.n k tow n..................
Total......9 —-------------------— I-308
I
I
I
I
I
I
358
1861
1862
1862
......
30
25
7
641 '
4 -
637-y!
20
1 1
30
45
45
9
30
90
280
2 -lx
4
4
15
15
4
315
------
......
10
......
......
......
......
......
9 1
......
------
Brunswick.........
Carson.............
..Merrimac (1).......
Mexican (1)........
Santiago...........
Sierra.............
Vivian.............
Yellow Jacket
1863
1862
1862
1862
1862
......
1860
1864
......
Williams & Sharon....,....
W. Sharon, agent..........
Rice & Yerrii)gton.........
Alsop & Co................
Santiago Al. Co ------------
Beach &Harrington.......
P. Frothingham............
Yellow Jacket 1NI. Co.......
is
9
81 t',
......
............................
1862
1863
1863
......
......
1863
1862
1865
1863
30
20
45
30
15
45
33
30
60
308
14
14
13
1 4
14
14
16
14
......
......
Savage Co.................
Lambert & Co.............
New York & Nevada Co...
Savage Bf. Co.............
James Hill & Co...........
New York & Washoe Co...
Ophir M. Co...............
......
......
......
......
......
......
43
......
......
......
Total........9....I........................
............................
..... 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Comstock lode during the year 1866.-Continued.
PANS.                                              C,
~~C)  0~.                                                                           a
)      o                                                                              C;;
:~ ~ ~~~~~~CC                           C                      C) 0 
Q Q F X e;;;  -                                                   0:  
$1 75 —-..  ----—, ---—,,,         -----—,, —--—, —-—, --—, —— 800
;, 00.... - ----. —----- ----------— 9 —-------—' —— 5         1 —----------------— 700
2t 75.................................................................................... Soo
0............................ 9.................. 5               1................ 700
2 0.............................................................................................
..................76         51   70        49      24 69          27         3     1 -.........
............................................. 6........ 64       2.........................
4...................01 —-------- -------- 6 6 —------------------— 8  4 —--------------    0
4 00............................................ 8         4.................. 1         600
.....................................................................................................
.-...................... 4    15 --------—. I    1   (1)  6     10 ---------- ------ 1, 3.50
........................................ 12..................................... 1'.*1,260
................................... 14      4........ 9........ (B)...... 1,100
....................................................................................................
3 75-....................... 8..........4  1 (1)   1..... 750
........................................ 30........ 15             2        -      -    -- 2  2, 300
......................... 4    37           46       9      38     13         2    3.........
.................................. 16.................. 8........ 8.......1, 200
.................................. 8........ —------—...... —------—..-....... —-—... 4 1...... 700
.......................................................... 8.................. 1        1,300
.................................. 12.................. 6       ]         1...... 1,000
......................................................................................................
.-............................................... 16     8 ------------------ 1       1, 300
''........................................ —. ——. — -. —-----------....................... t450
..................................    12.................. (1)  3..........................  800
.................................................. 6................ (2)   2 ------    1,725
.................................. 48.......... 22       33      5         5     2........
* By wet process 1,000, and dry 260 tons.        i tFull capacity 750 tons.
:Wet, 1,050; dry, 675 tons.
I
359 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
NOTES ON MILLS.
STOREY COUNTY.
Bowers (1)-Paid this for 5 months only; has been idle four months; ncw running, with
own water; (2) 5-foot pans.
Central (1)-To Virginia and Gold Hill Water Companies; also, pays $            to Ophir
Company.
(2)-Hepburn and Peterson's, working 500 tons per month wet; four furnaces and six
barrels, working 170 tons dry.
Crown Point (1)-Just dismantled; engine used to drain mine.
Conmet (I)-Been idle for seven months; just started again.
Do,uglas (I)-10-inch cylinder, 30-inch stroke, 26 plain pans.
Empire No. I (1)-Increasing stamps to 21; capacity to be 40 tons per day; to employ
16 men, 27 Wakelee pans.
Empire No. 2 (1)-Concentrators and two stamps for breaking.
Empire State ( [)-4-foot pans.
Gold Hill ( )-6-foot tubs.
IToosier State (1)-With steam chambers.
land's (B)-Throughout the table designates Blake's breakers.
MIariposa (1)-Also oiLe prospecting stamp; (2) large.
Mlarysville (1)-30 5-foot plain pans.
Pacific (1)-Large.
Petaluma (1)-Stamps being increased to 16; capacity to 26 tons per day; men to 11;
wood to five cords; adding eight improved Wheeler pans, four settlers and one agitator.
Piute (1)-8-foot settlers.
Rhode Island (1)-8IS-inch cylinder; (2) 7-foot pans.
Rigby's (])-One extra pan and settler for tailings and one barrel.
Rogers's (1)-Not running for four months.
Saphire ( I)-Wheeler.
Simcooc (1)-Improved.
Stevenson (l )-8 —inch cylinder; (2) Howland's rotary battery; can crush seven tons and
amnalgamate five tons per day; (3) small.
Succor (1)-24 Wakelee fiat-bottomed pans.
Summit (1)-Burnt and rebuilt in 1863; (2) small pan and settler.
LYON COUNTY.
Birdsall (1])-Mill, $110,000; ditch, $40,000; total, $150,000.
Carpenter (2)-Large-sized Wheeler.
Dayton No. 1 (1)-Four of these for prospecting; (2) 8-foot settlers; (3) Knox.
Dayton No. 2 (1)-Two roasting furnaces.
Eastern Slope (1) —Large.
Eureka (])-Break 80 tons per day.
G. C. Reduction Vorks (1)-5-foot pans.
Imperial Rock Pt. (1)-7-foot tubs and settlers; (2) breaker, large size.
Phoenix No. 1 (l)-Eight tubs and Wheeler pans.
Pioneer (1)-15 tubs and Wheeler pans.
Sacramento (1)-12 7-foot iron pans.
Swansea (1)-6-foot tubs and one prospecting battery and pan
Trench (1)-16 flat 7-foot pans, one excelsior and two Wheeler and Randall pans.
IVeston's (Steaml)-(1)-Worked but about 1,000 tons of Comstock ore this year; hauling
about $3 per ton.
IVeston's (Water) —(1 )-Six flat-bottomed pans; has run but little this year for want of water
ORMSBY COUNTY.
Merrimac (1)-Also, one prospecting battery and pan; (2) large.
Mexican (1)-Four furnaces and 10 barrels.
'aivian (1)-Hanscom's.
WASHOE COUNTY.
Manhattan (1)-16 pans.
Ophir (1)-Working but 36 stamps-Freiberg process-nine furnaces.
Reduction fVorks-24 amalgamating barrels.
'lemelec (1)-Large.
* Wvashoe Valley (1)-Wheeler 12-feet breast; full capacity about 300 horse-power.
Reduction Forks-40 stamps used for Freiberg process, and 20 for wet; eight furnaces and
20 barrels for dry process; four Wheeler and Randall's pans for wet; four more Varney pans
to be introduced; (2) Blake's improved saw.
360 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
PROCESS OF REDUCTIOxN.-The ores from the Comstock lode are probably the
most docile silver ores found in Nevada, and the process used for their reduction
is of the simplest kind. After crushing by the stamps, the large boulders being
first reduced to a moderate size by hand labor or by Blake's patent crushers, the
material as it passes from thie battery is collected and settled in tanks to avoid
as much as possible the risk of fine particles passing off with the superfluous
water.  In spite of all precautions much loss is sustained from this source, experience showing that the most impalpable of the slum is the richest in proportion.
Out of 40,432 tons of ore workedl at the Gould & Curry mill 4,431 tons were
lost in this manner.
From the tanks the crushed ore is passed to the iron grinding pans, a description of whlich will be found in preliminary report, pages 76 and 77.  The charges
vary from 500 to 1,500 pounds, according to the character and capacity of the pans
used. In these pans the ore is ground from four to six hours, being in that time
reduced to an almost impalpable powder. The mode of treatment varies considerably, some mill men using a variety of chemicals, such as sullphate of iron,
muriatic and sulphuric acids, &c., while others dispense with them almost entirely.
Their object is to assist the reduction of the silver in combination, but much
uncertainty exists as to their beneficial operation. Each charge is invariably
mixed with a considerable amount of salt, varying with the richness of the ore.
Towards the end of the process the quicksilver is usually added, the muLllers of
the pans being at the same time slightly raised to prevent the grinding or " flouring" of the mercury.  After a sufficient time has elapsed to allow  a thorough
amalgamation, the pulp is thinned by the addition of water, and revolved ill such
a way as to allow the amalgam to settle to the bottom.   For economy of time, this
is usually accomplished in large vats called a settlers," especially adapted for that
purpose. The refuse matter is then drawn off and treated by various methods of concentration, to be spoken of afterwards.  This process is used only for second and
third class ore, it being found better to employ the Freiburg process for first-class
ores.  The Central mill in Virginia, and the Washoe reduction works and Ophir
mill in WAVashoe valley are the only ones adapted to this method, the amount
of ore requiring this treatment being but a small percentage of the entire product
of the lode.
Some mill men amalgamate in the battery while the ore is being crushed, but
the practice is not by any means universal. In fact, the treatment of ores is in
a great measure empirical, but little attention being given in Nevada to analytical chemistry, and the adaptation of the working processes to the results developed.  In this connection the following assays or rather analyses of Comstock
ores may be found of interest:
Ophir mine-a first-class ore and metal produced therefrom by the Freiburg process, by
George Attwood.
Gangue........................................................ 63. 380.00
Silver -----------------------------------------------------------— 2.786  41.51
Silver...........................................................786 41.51
Gold. -..-..-........-..-..-..-.059  1.'8
Lead...-...................................................... — 4.151 39.01
Antimony -........................................................087.00
Zinc....-.....................................................- 14.455.56
Sulphur....................................................... — 7.919.00
Copper........................................................ — 1.596  17.04
Iron................................................................ 5.463.17
99.896  99.87
361 
RFESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Swansea.
No. 1.  No. 2.
67.5    65. 783
8.75    11.35
1. 30    1.31
2.25    2.28
1.75    1.76
. 059.57
12.85   11.307
5.75     6.145
.25
100. 00   100. 00
Silica-............................................................
Sulphur..........................................................
Copper...........................................................
Iron.............................................................
Silver............................................................
Gold.............................................................
Zinc............ -----------------------------—............................................. -—. —--
Lead.............................................................
Loss.............................................................
Y   W. F. Rickard, F. C. S.
White.           Brown.            Mixed.
.005=$-30 03.001=  $7 52.002=$]0 04
. 150=- 62 83.050= 21 99.157=- 65 98
.575            2.800              1.230
Traces.           Traces.          Traces.
Traces.          Traces.           Traces.
.693.160.457
Traces..000              Traces.
98.310            96.560            97.850
.267.429.304
100.000 $92 86  100.000 $29 51  100.000  $76 02
_
The difference in the composition of these ores is worthy of notice.   The
Ophir and California mines are situated in the northern part of the explored
portion of the lode, where a much larger percentage of base metal is encountered than elsewhere.  These ores are evidently unsuited to the simple process
just described. The analysis of Yellow Jacket ores presents a fair sample of the
general composition of second and third-class rock from the Comstock mines.  It
will be seen at a glance that the amount of base metal present is extremely small,
the ore consisting almost entirely of sulphliuret of silver and iron and native
metals.
COST OF REDUCTION.-Thle following details taken from the published reports
of mining companies show a material diminution from the cost in former years,
due in great measure to improvements in machinery, systematization of labor,
and increased knowledge of the method of reduction:
Savage mine, average for 12 months ending July 1, 1867........................ $14 04
Savage mine, for the previous year................................... ——. 16 74
HIale & Norcross mine, average for 12 months ending March, 1867............. 14 26
Gould & Curry mine, average for 12 months ending November, 1866............. 13 30
.The following table, from the report of the Gould & Cun'y Company, will
show the relative proportion of the various items. It will be noticed that the
total cost per ton is less than the average given above. This arises from the fact
that the company had ores worked at custom mills, the cost of which was greater
than at their own mill as given below:
362
Gold.-.-..... —-------------------
Silver.............................
Iron..............................
Lead..............................
Copper............................
Sulphur...........................
Lime.. —-. —---------------------
Silica.............................
Loss.............................. 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Cost per ton in detail of ore reduced at the Gould' Curry mill.
0~~~~
..,a     0,,      a,        a.'       a        Q
.
Foreman, watchmen, and laborers... $0 71.33..............................................$0 71. 3
DIriving power....................... 58.88$3 97. 84....... —--------- $0 12.49 4 61.21
Breaking ore........................ 041.32........,............0 03.33 0 44. 6i
Batteries............................ 0 65.98 —---— $0 20.85..              0 10. 39  0 97. 2
Amalgamating....................... 0 76. 81 0 04. 65 0 59.36 $0 43. 50 $0 27. 06 $0 86. 59 0 10. 96 3 08. 9t
Repairs............................. 0 84.10............................0 69.41 1 53.41
Hauling............................................................................. 0 90    0 90
Totals............ 3 90.42  4 02.49 0 80. 21 0 43. 50 0 27.06 0 86. 59 1 96.48 12 26. 71
Great as has been the decrease in the price of reducing ores since the commencement of operations in Virginia, the construction of a railroad into Virginia
from any point on the Truckee river (wvlere fuel is abundant) would result in a
still furthler reduction.  In this connection attention is called to tile following figures from the last report of the State surveyor general:
STOREY COUNTY.
The table contains a list of 33 mills, all steam, estimated to have cost $2,000,000, with an
assessed value for 32 of $953,705, say, for the 33, $970,000, containing 607 stamps, with a
crushing capacity of 846 tons per day, nearly 1.4 tons per stamp, consuming 180.4 cords of
wood per day, average cost about $14 per cord; total, $2,527, or nearly $3 per ton, and about
$4 15 per stamp.
Twenty-four mills pay the Virginia & Gold Hill Water Company $5,280 per month foi
water; add water tax, $130 per month; total, $5,410, cost of water per month for 24 mills,
which contain 399 stamps, with a crushing capacity of 562 tons, or 14,612 tons per month
of 26 days.  Cost per ton of ore worked for water, 37 cents, or 52 cents per stamp.
Aggregate distance of 33 mills from the mines about 481 miles; average distance about
1] mile, (for custom mills the distance is estimated, with one or two exceptions, from the
divide between Virginia and Gold Hill;) and the average cost of hauling is about $11 per
ton, ranging from 70 cents to $2.
846 tons per day for 26 days would equal21,996 tons, at $3 for wood.............................................. $65,988 00
*21,966 tons, at 37 cents for water.......................................  8,127 42
21,966 tons, at $11 for hauling........................................... 27,457 50
Total per month for wood, water and hauling....                          101, 572 92
or $4 62 per ton.
LYON COUNTY.
Total mills, 27. Steam, 16; water, 8; steam and water, 3. Estimated cost of 15 steam,
7 water, 3 steam and water mills-$1,464,000.
The 27 mills contain 424 stamps, from which deduct 4 used for prospecting, and we have
420 stamps, with a crushing capacity of 641+ tons per day; from which deduct 1 mill with
10 stamps, capacity 7 tons, which has run but little during the year; also 1 mill with 15
stamps, capacity 25 tons, which has crushed but about 1,000 tons during the year of Comstock
ore; and we have 25 mills with 395 stamps, with a capacity of 619+ tons per day, or 1.57
tons per stamp; using 100 cords of wood per day, costing about $10 per cord. Total, $1,000:
equal to $1 61 per ton, or $2 53 per stamp.
The aggregate distance of 25 mills from the mines is about 135 miles; average distance
5.4 miles, and average cost for hauling about $2 75, ranging from $1 50 to $4 25.
25 mills employ 315 men, or one man for 1.97 tons.
619+ tons per day for 26 days equal 16,107 tons; add for Weston'st steam mill 93 tons per
monthly average; total per month, 16,200 tons.
16,200 tons, at $2 75 per ton for hauling................................... $44,550 00
16,200 tons, at $1 61 per ton for wood...................................... 26,082 00
Total per month for wood and hauling............................... 70,632 00
or $4 36 per ton.
363 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ORMSBY COUNTY
Six water, and two steam and water mills. Estimated cost, $825,000; with 170 stamps,
crushing capacity, 280 tons per day, or 1.65 tons petr stamp; aggregate distance from mines,
80 miles; average distance, 10 miles; average cost for hauling, say $4 per ton;  11l cord
of wood at, say, 8 per cord, $94, or 331 cents per ton, or 55 cents per stamp.
280 tons per dlay for 26 days equal6,780 tons, at $4 for hauling................................................. $27,120
(;,780 tons, at 33~ cents for wood............................................. -2, 260
Total per month for wood and hauling.................................. 29,380
or $4 33 per ton.
W'VASHOE COUNTY.
Five steam, and four steam and water mills; estimated cost, $794,000; containing 261
stamps; crushing capacity, 308 tons per day, or 1.18 tons per stamp, consuming about 82
cords of wood at, say, $5 per cord; total, $410, or $1l per ton, or $1 57 per stamp.
Average distance of mills firom mines, say 14 miles, and average cost of hauling $4 50
per ton.
308 tons per day for 26 days equal8,008 tons, at $4 50 per ton for hauling.................................... $36,036 00
8,008 tons, at $1~ per ton for wood................................-..1... 10,677 33
Total per month for wood and hauling............................... 46,713 33
or $5 83 per ton.
From these tables it appears when wood is worth in Virginia $14 per cord, the
cost of this item per ton of ore reduced is about $3.  Any railroad could put
wood down at the same mills for $9 per cord, with great advantage to the company.  This would be a saving of $5 per cord, or about $1 07 per ton.  Making
this alteration in the details of Storey county mills, the cost of reduction per ton
for the items of wood, water and hauling, the total would be $3 55 per ton, or
81 cents less than the most favorable average results at mills workling Comstock
ores, or $2 02 less than the most unfavorable. Competent judges estimate that
)by taking these ores to the Truclee river the total cost of reduction per ton
w-ould not exceed( about $9 or $10.
PErPCENTAGE OF YIELD AND Loss.-Experience has shown that for the ordinary ores of the Comstocl, 65 per cent. of the assay value of the ore is about the
proportion which can be extracted by the process in use, and custom mills are
required to return at least that proportion. Careful assays are made daily of the
ore as it is raised from the mine it being customary to takle a handful of ore from
each car load as it is brought to the surface, and place it in a box placed near the
shaft for the purpose. Several times during the day the contents of this sample
box are thoroughly mixed and several assays made of them; the average of
wliclh will show very nearly the quality of ore being raised at any particular
time.  In some cases the value of the ore is ascertained by sampling the contents of each wagon load as it leaves the mine, in thie manner just described.
l)uring the process of reduction, assays are taken of the pulp as it leaves the
batteries, which of course from the intimate admixture of the ore will be more
reliable, but if amalgamation for free metal in the batteries is adopted, as at some
mills, the millman can gain but little idea of what he is doing, as the quantity
of metal saved in the batteries is an unknown item, to be ascertained only when
a thorough clean up is made.  To avoid unnecessary detention from this source,
which requires a stoppage of all machinery, this is not done much oftener than
about every two weeks.  The following tables are valuable in this connection.
The statistics from the Hlale and Norcross mine may be taken as a fair illustration of the average results of milling operations in this section.  It will be noticed
that the percentage of gold lost is small compared with the silver, showing the
former metal to be present chiefly in anl uncombined form.  The table suggests
some important questions. It shows that we are losing annually about 35 per
364 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
cent. of the value of the ore mined from the Comnstockl.  The yield of bullion
last year was in round numbers, say, $15,000,000, which would show the loss to
have been about $8S,000,000.  The enormous extent of this loss is well understood,
ibut so far no feasible means of lessening, it without diminishing- the net profits
on the result have been suggested, or at least shown to be practicable.  Exceptional lots of ore will work nearer to the assay value, but only in rare instances.
loow small a percentage of the metal which escapes the mill is saved by future
operations will appear under the next heading.  The great difficulty to contend
witlh lies in the cost of labor and fuel.  The average yield of all ores worled at
the present time does not probably exceed $35 per ton, equivalent to a loss of
$1S 90 per ton, supposing $35 to represent 65 per cent. of tlhe assay value of
the ores.  If by using the Freiburg process we saved 80 per cent., the average
yield per ton would be $43 12, or an advance of S$8 12, which would not cover
the additional cost of labor and fuel.  The price charged for treatment )by the
Freiburg process in this district is $45 per ton, with a guarantee of only 80 per
cent.  Its no-n-applicability to low grade ores is at once apparent, the cost of
reduction being greater than the average yield of the ores. To malke it available, it is evident that the additional 15 per cent. of the assay value saved  must
cover the increased cost of reduction, which is, say, $31, so that it will prove valuable only when the ores are worth $200 per ton and upwards.   In practice a
lower grade than that may be adopted, it being found by experience  that the
percentage of loss in working ores by the net process increases with the greater
value of the mineral. Under these circumstances we must look rather to improvemients on the present modes of treating the' tailings" from the mill by concentration or othierwise.
HALE AND NORCROSS MINE.
Table showing the assay value of the ore extracted during twelve months oper  ations, also the yield and loss per ton, the percentage of yield and loss, and
the entire results.
.es   au   foe.Yed                                        os
Ore.
d
6p
11
-.
P.,
o
P-1
;i
.2
s4
-4
El
a                              a          a                   a         a~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,.
a  -                           a                       a      a~
Tons. Lbs.
............
............
First six months     Gold.................
Silver................
$306, 582 90 $20 92 85.8 $263, 043 90 $3 46 14. $
512, 895 43 21 30 52. 2  267, 764 65 19 50 47. E
Total..............
Second six months     Gold.................
Silver................
Total..............
Total for 12 months     Gold....__.............
Silver................
Total..............
NOTE.-This table is copied from records on file in the office of the company.  The original, prepared by
Mr. Thompson, was marked out to six places of decimals for the cents.  The omission of these will account
for its apparent trifling discrepancies.
0
5
5
8
7
4
2
8
5
6
0
6
s
QI
0
2
1
31
8
6
8
5
5
4
1
f
365
Assay value of ores.
Yield.
Loss.
r,
4
;z
(V
e
I
.v
E.
$43, 539 f,'O
245, 130'ZS
$24 39
40 79
1-2, 571 1, 950
............
------ ------
16 C64 30
------ ------
............
-28, 635 1, 980
819,4-,S 33
468,734 00
829, 5 —14 11
1,298,258 11
775,316 90
1,342,419 54
2,117,736 44
42 42
64. 7
85. 3
51. 2
63. 5
85. 5
51. 6
63. 9
539,SCS 55 22 9
400,016 IS 4 2S
424,395 67 25 2
824,411 S,-,1295
663,060 08 39
692,160 3 22 71
1,355,220 40 26 6
5.
QSS,669 78
68,717 82
405,1.28 44
473,846 26
112,256 82
650,259 22
,62,516 04
65 18
29 is
51 64
so 82
'2 707
46 88
73 95
24 90
26 42
51 3Q
14. 6
S.
6.
i4.
S.
6. 1
23 15
24 1.7
47 , 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
GOULD AND CurnY MIINE.-Table showing the average value of the ore
reduced during the year ending November 30, 1866, the yield at the mill and
the loss per ton. (G. & C. annual report for 1866:)
Average assay per ton, —------------------------—...... —------------—...    $43 95
Average yield per ton, 75 per cent.. —--------—.. ------------ ----------—. 33 02
Average loss per ton, 25 per cent., —----------------------------------—...... 10 93
Total value of ore as per assay...... —-----------------------------—. $1,582,247 43
Bullion produced:
Gold... --------------------------------------—...    $363,803 92
Silver...... —---------- ------------—... --------------—.. 825,277 85
-      - 1,189,081 77
Total loss, about 25 per cent................. —--------------------------------—... 393,165 66
NOTE.-This table does not show the entire yield of the mine for the year, large quantities
of ore being reduced at "custom mills." The statement refers only to oies reduced at the
large mill owned by the Gould and Curry Mining company.
CONCEXTR,ATIOX.-Concentration is employed only in the treatment of the
"tailings," or sands from which all the metal has been extracted which could be
saved in the mill.  The tailings are usually turned into the nearest watercourse,
(many mills being so situated as to have no facilities for the construction of reservoirs,) and the right to use them rented to other parties. Many plans have been
suggested for their concentration, but the one in general use is extremely simple.
It consists merely in passing the sands through shallow sluice boxes, the bottoms
of which are covered with thick blankets. The fall of these sluices is considerable to prevent packing of the sands, but the stream of water is regulated so as
to cover the blankets with a thin sheet only. In this way the heavy metalliferous
particles are retained in passing over the rough surface of the blankets, the lighter
sands passing off in the water. After a sluice box has been running several
hours, the water is turned off, the blankets washed in a tank of water, and
returned to their places.  This constitutes the entire treatment.   When  the
tank is nearly full of tailings, it is emptied and the resulting mass considerably
increased in value by the elimination of waste sands, is ground and amalgamated
in the manner already described. Latterly this has become quite an extensive
branch of our mining business, and is said to yield a good return on the capital
employed.
The following items are taken from the report of the surveyor general for 1866:
Details of blanket washings in Six-mile canon for 1866 and 1867.
Number of mills discharging tailings into the canion, 12.
Probable number of tons worked during the year 1866, 100,000.
Estimated value of tailings saved and worked in 1866, $72,000.
Saving per ton of ore worked, 72 cents.
Length of sluices, 22,000 feet.
Cost of sluices, $20,000.
Estimated value of "tailings saved and worked in 1867, $164,000.
Savingo per ton of ore worked in 1867, $1 64.
Average value of tailing saved per ton, $20.
These items show only a portion of the operations. The total value of all
tailings saved in this manner was probabiy about $200,000 for 1866, which will
be doubled for 1867. These figures can only be considered approximations, but
they serve to show how small a percentage of the gross loss is saved by these
means, and how large a field is yet open for improvement.
366 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
SECTION XVII.
YIELD OF THE MINES, NET PROFITS, ETC.
The following tables, taken from the circular of the San Francisco Stock and
Exchange Board, will be found of interest in this connection:
Table of the p)rod(ucts of somne of the principal )    ic ) es ie     Viryizia and Goold Hill;
also showi)ig divi(lencls paid and assessmeints levied on the samne &elring the year
1866.
Company.                      Bullion produced.
Lady Bryan...................................... —-------------------------------------—... —---------------- 
Daney.................................................... —-------------------------------------------------------------—...... 
Sierra Nevada...... —-------------------------------------------------------- 
Ophir............................................... $450, 000
Gould & Curry...................................... 1, 605, 228
Savage..............................................   1, 805, 800
lIale & Norcross..................................... 1,199, 768
Chollar-Potosi........................................  848, 750
Bullion.... —---—............................................................
Exchequer.............................................................
Alpha.................................................................
Imperial............................................. 910, ]S7
Empire.............................................. 486, 778
Bacon.................................................................
Confidence........................................... 303, 920
Yellow Jacket....................................... 2, 310, 000
Crown Point......................................... 1, 313, 357
Belcher..................................................................
Overman............................................ 27, 953
Baltimore American.................................................
Total........................................ 11,261,741
Prodiuction of bullion by Storey county cduring the year endingy December 31, 1866.
January............................................................
February..............,.............................................
March........................................... —------------------------------------------------—...........
April......................... —-------------------------------------------------—. 
May............................. —--------------------------------------------------—.
June...... —---------------------------------------------
July........................................ —-----------------—.
August.............................................................
September..........................................................
October..... —-... —----....................................................
Novembp,r..........................................................
December..........................................................
$816,430 43
971,643 46
1,061,577 65
1,052,759  89
1,145, 293 41
1,244,297  54
1,198,741 56
1,420, 902 35
1,169, 391 46
1,409,220 00
1,327,985   00
1,348, 828 80
14,167, 071 55
;.__
In United States currency this represents a value of $18,072,934, on which
federal taxes were paid as follows':
From January to July, inclusive, lt of one per cent. on $9,402,062.... —-----
From August to December, inclusive, i of one per cent. on $8,670,872....
Total tax.......................................................
367
Dividends. Assessments.
$15, 000
26, 000
55, 500
184, 800
..............
............
..............
............... 
175, 000
32, 000
144, 560
.............
,...........
18, ooo
78, 000
180, 000
..............
143, 520
208, 000
13, 000
..................
..................
..................
..................
$52, 000
360, 000
350, 000
...........
..................
..................
............................
176, 000
32, 400
..................
.......................   
390, 000
234, 000
......................
... *...............
1, 794, 400
1, 273, 3S0
$56,412 37
43, 354 36
99,766 73 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Prottcetioi of bullion i, Storey couitnty for the first seven months of 1867.
January............................................................ $1,330,832 80
February........................................................... 1,233,811 63
MIarch........................................................... —.  979,786 78
April............................................................... 1,567,427 60
May............................................................... l, 784,724 25
June............................................................... 1,594,794 22
Total.......................................................... 8,501,377 28
July............................................................... 1,613,559 75
Total.......................................................... — 10,114,93   03
NOTE.-The month of MIarclh was characterized by the most severe snow-storm
which has yet been experienced in Virginia.  The roads were nearly impassable
for two weeks-to such an extent, indeed, that firewood rose from $16 to $45 per
cord, and was scarcely obtainable even at that price.  The mills situated at some
distance from the mines were entirely cut off from new supplies of ore, and reduced
only such reserve as had been accumulated; hlence the marked diminution in the
tmonthly production of bullion.
Table of assessments levied on Comstock mines during the first six months of 1867.
Company.                                       1st quarter.    2d quarter.
Baltimore American.......................................................             $5, 200..............
Belcher.................................................................... 28, 080                   $15, 600
Bullion..................................................................... 25,000                    50, 000
California................................................................................ 30, 600
Confidence................................................................. 39, 000                      1, 300
Ophir...................................................................... 84,000..............
O verman................................................................... 32, 000..............
Sidees...................................................................... 1, 500                    14, 060
Sierra Nevada.............................................................. 12, 000                    42, 000
226,780         153,500
226, 780
Total for six months................................................................ 380, 280
Dividends of leading claims on the Comstock lode.
SECOND QUARTER IN 1867.
Company.                              April.       Mlay.        June.        Total.
San-; e............................................ $80,000    $120,000    $160, CO0O               $360,000
Hale & Norcross...................................... 50, 000           50, 000      50, 000        150, 000
Imperial....................................       60, 000       60, 000      40, 000        160, 000
Yellow Jacket..................................................... 60, 000             90, 000        150,000
Chollar-Potosi..................................................... 70, 000             70, 000        140,000
Kentuck —------------.......................................... 40,000                60, 000        100, 000
Crown Point........................................... 48, 000            48, 000............ 96, 000
Gold Hill Q. N. & M. Co............................... 5, 000               5,000        5,000          15,000
Lmpire Mill and Mining Co............................. —--------------------............ 7, 200............ 7, 200
Gould & Curry........................................................................................
Total........................................... 243, 000     460,200            475, 000     1,178, 200
First quarter 1867.................................................... 790,000
Total since January, 1867..................... —-...........................   1,968, 200
>~~                                                                     ~      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...
368 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Divideinds of tilte leaclig claims on the Coinstock7 lode-Continued.
SECOND QUARTER OF 1866.
Savage...............................................
Hale & Norcross.......................................
Imperial...............................................
Yellow Jacket.........................................
Chollar-Potosi.........................................
Kentuck..............................................
Crown Point..........................................
Gold Hill Q. M. & M. Co...............................
Empire Mill and Mining Co.............................
Gould & Curry........................................
Total...........................................
First quarter 1866.......................... —.....
Total since January, 1866........................
The aggregate yield of the Comstock lode since its opening has been so fully
spoken of in the preliminary report, that I shall here confine myself chiefly to a
comparison of the operations of 1866 with the first six months of the present
vear.
Although the first table does not show the entire yield of the mines for 1866,
which reached, as shown elsewhere, the sum of $14,167,071, it will answer as a
basis for an inquiry into the actual profits of mining enterprises in this district
for the year, inasmuch as mines owned by private companies, the returns of which
are not madepublic, are generally worked only while they prove profitable, or at
any rate yield sufficient bullion to cover the actual expenses of their development.
By striking out of the assessment table the items relative to the Lady Brian
and Daney mines, which are not on the Comstock lode, we have the following
result:
Dividends paid during 1866........................................... $1,794,400 00
Assessments paid during 1866......................................... 1,232,380 00
Net profit for the year 1866..................................  562,020 00
Equal to about five per cent. of the gross yield of the mines under consideration.
' he table shows, however, that out of the 11 mines producing bullion, only seven
realized sufficient over working expenses to warrant them in distributing the
surplus to the stockholders in the form of dividends. These dividends show the
net profits of the seven mines for the year 1866 to be the following percentage
of the gross yield.  Gould and Curry 15.5, Savage 20, Hale and Norcross 29,
Imperial 19, Empire 6.5, Yellow Jacket 9, and Crown Point 17.
The first six months of 1867 show a very marked improvement on 1866; for
there is not only an actual decrease in the amount of assessments levied, but an.
increase in the number of dividend-paying mines, a very great advance on thei
production of bullion, and a really gratifying improvement in the percentage of
profit on the gross operations.
From the tables it will be seen that during this period dividends were. distributed to the amount of $1,968,200, from which deduct the assessments of
$380,280, and there remains $1,587,920 as the net profit on $7,064,653, or about
22 per cent., against five per cent. for the year 1866. This result is due to many
causes, among which may be mentioned freedom from litigation, final settlement
of conflicting interests, reduced cost of milling, and small expenditures for necessary outside improvements. In 1866 the latter item was unusually heavy. To
such causes as these may we look for the improved financial condition. of mining
interests on the Comstock lode.
The actual profits on the capital invested in our' mines is a difficult question
to approach, surrounded as it is by so many uncertain and fluctuating conditions,
24
369
............
$20, 000
40, 000
............
............
............
48,000
............
............
............
...........
20, 000
............
............
............
............
48,000
............
............
96,000
----- -6....
6 000
40: 000
............
............
............
144,000
............
............
192,000
...........
20, 000
............
............
............
............
48.000
............
............
96,000
164, 000
............
............
108, coo
............
............
164, 000
............
............
436, 000
90,000
526, 000 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
and has probably been spoken of in the preliminary report, as fully as the
information at command will allow.
The San Francisco Bulletin gives the following figures showing the aggregate
gain in the market value of 15 of our leading mines during the past year:
Alpha................................................... $249, 600            $150,000         $493,200
Belcher...............-..................................   ]72, 640    137, 280    457, 600
Bullion.................................................. 142, 500              72, 500          82, 500
Chollar-Potosi............................................ 540, 400            585, 200       1,260, 000
Confidence............................................... 99, 840               96, 080          99, 840
Crown Point............................................. 570, 000              750, 000       1, 086, 000
Empire M3ill.............................................. 168,000             240, 000         224, 400
Gould & Curry........................................... 840, 090              804, 000        846, 000
Hale & Norcross............ —--------------------------------------- 600, 000  1, 000, 000    1, 240, 000
Imperial................................................ 412, 000              528, 000       1, 040, 000
Ophir...................................................  308, 000  198, 800       532, 000
Overman................................................ 76, 800                 64, 000         736, 000
Savage ------------------------------------------------- 720, 000             1, 672, 000     3, 640, 000
Sierra Nevada........................................... 6, 000                  9, 000         25, 500
Yellow Jacket.......................................... —---------------------------------------—.. 834, 000 1, 488, 000 1, 920, 000
Total..............................................   5, 739, 780      7, 794, 860     13,683,040
Using the valuation for July 1, 1867, the dividends paid during the first six
months of 1867 (deducting assessments) would show a profit on the gross operations at the rate of rather more than 23 per cent. per annum for this period. The
majority of our mining stocks are held, however, for purely speculative purposes,
and fluctuate in value so greatly and incessantly that such a calculation is of
little value, most stockholders depending for their profits on sudden rises in the
value of their property, caused by favorable developments or skilful I"manipulation," rather than on the dividends paid out of the product of the mines.  These
have been looked upon too much in the light of means by which to "bull" stocks,
and too little thought has been bestowed by stockholders on the means by which
they have been obtained.
Instances are not wanting where they have been paid out of borrowed capital,
and in many cases they have been made only by working the mine in a ruinous
manner.  Many thousand tons of rock have been worked during the past year,
which ought never to have been taken firom the mines until such time as it could
be worked more cheaply than at present.  Had the stockholders of the mining
companies looked to the actual profits of mining enterprises for their remuneration,
they would have extended to irailroad matters a helping hand, and could have
been realizing to-day on low-grade ores a profit of $10 or $12 per ton, instead
of $4 or $5. The fear of temporarily reducing the value of their mining stocks
by granting such assistance has always stood in the way. The absolute necessity, however, of better modes of transportation has at length been realized, and
before the expirationi of another year we shall have the means of greatly reducing
the cost of mining and milling operations at our command, and so increasing the
amount of our legitimate profits.
TiHE CosTS AND LossEs IN SILVEr  IINING.- There are few facts connected
with the development of the mineral resources of the country that deserve more
immediate attention than the costs and losses which attend gold and silver
mining.
The following tables, compiled with the greatest care, exhibit details connected
,with the subject of silver mining in a form more convenient for reference than
an elaborately written treatise. The accounts of the mine named have been
selected for compiling these tables because they were more convenient and correct
than any others at our command, and because this mine affords a fair sample of a
-well-managed enterprise in Nevada.
I
,-I 70
Company.
July 1, 1866.
January 1, 1867. July 1, 1867. 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Similar tables have not been prepared for gold mining, because the books of
no gold mining company afford the necessary data for their compilation.
Table No. I is a complete balance sheet of this company's operations for six
months, exhibiting every detail of its expenditure for that period, divided under
appropriate heads.  This table explains the numerous expenses attending silver
miining, the excessive cost of material and labor, and the large proportion of
non-productive work necessary to be done in developing a mine.
Table No. 2 shows the proportions of the precious metals saved and lost;
gives the names of the various mills at which the ore was workled.  This portion of the subject is very suggestive, as exhibiting the fact that some of these
mills return a larger per cent. of metal than others. This table also exhibits
the varying proportions of gold and silver in the bullion saved by the various
mills, which appear to be influenced by the processes used for its extraction.
This important feature in the table wvould have been more valuable had the books
of the company shown the depths and localities from whence the ore reduced
had been extracted.
It is suggestive also to marlk that thie loss of metal, according to assay, foots
up $471,155 17, while the total quantity saved only amounts to  8S16,979 62,
out of $1,288,132 79. Of 32 lots sent to mill, only two returned over 70 per
cent. of the fire'assay value; this, too, in one of the best managed companies,
and when the mills are boasting of the improvements in their machinery and
processes.  What must have been the waste during  the early days of silver
mining, before the present incomplete experience had been attained?
That the present enormous waste of the precious metals by custom and company's mills might be avoided, is clearly demonstrated by the success of the
companies which re-worlk the tailings thrown away by these mills. In the vicinity
of Virginia City there are several miles of flumes, all lined with blankets, which
require hundreds of men to change every few hours. The tailings thus collected
yield a larger profit, according to the cost of their production, than the ores
worlked in the mills.  Nearly one-third of the bullion shipped from Storey county,
Nevada, is obtained from the waste of the mills collected in these flumes.
Table No. 3 shows the total product of this mine for a year; exhibits the percentum of metal to the ore; the costs of production and reduction. It is hoped
these tables will be carefully studied, as they contain much valuable information
conveniently arranged for reference.
TABLE No. 1.
Detailed statement of the cost of production of 29,4041803-O tons of ore daring
the year ending March 1, 1867, by t/,e Hale and Norcross Silver Mining
Company of Nevada.
SALARIES-Continued.
Materials consumed:
Stationery......................... $434 60
Total.......................... 511 35
Team expenses:
}torse-hire........................ -$120  00
Hay and grain...................... 229 90
Horse shoeing.............          26 75
Repairing buggy....................     25 00
Total................ 401 65
Personal property:
Office farniture..................... $172 69
1 stove............................. 12 25
18 towels........................... 12 00
1 banner.......................... $120 00
1 horse............................. 350  00
1 buggy and robes..................   560 00
2 horse blankets.................... 17 00
Total..........................  1,243 94
Total managerial.............. $9,331 25
2 brooms.........................     60,____
Officers:
Superintendent..................... $              4, 753 28
Clerk..............................      2, 277 48
Total.......................... 7, 030 76
Office expenses:
Telegrams......................... $52 80
Newspapers........................  15 50
Petty cash..........................  16 25
Papering...........................  19 80
Repairing clock..................... 10 00
Express charges. —        -     -------------—. 25 70
3Iiscellaneous...................... 3 50
Total.......................... 143 55
Materials consumed:
5{ cords of wood.................... $74 75
2 brooms........................... 2 00
I
371
1%IANAGERIAL.
SALARIES. 
372       RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Detailed statement of the cost of production, Ac.-Continued.
ENGINE DEPARTMENT.
Salaries................................ $7, 030 76
Office expenses......................... 143 55
Materials.....-...     -.... —------------- 511 35
Team expenses.........................           401  65
Personal property...................... 1, 243 94
Total.......................... 9, 331 25
Materials consumed:
1,916i cords wood..................  $26, 770 16
93 gallons lard oil................... 295 95
103 pounds'rubber packing.......... 179 13
31 pounds hemp packing............ 14 75
316 pounds soap and soda -----------      55 95
38 gallons oil and turps.............. 8 25
6 pounds sponges................... 20 73
1 gallon varnish.................... 8 00
Sundries...........................3   00
Total.....   T...................... 27, 355 92
Materials consumed:
2,665 pounds tallow................. $,96 78
44 pounds machine oil............... 11 00
36 pounds sulphur.................. 18 00
60 pounds spun yarn................ 24 00
133 pounds white lead............... 35 25
98 yards duck...................... 131 35
19 brooms.......................... 20 00
Rope and freight.................... 2,053 69
Hardware.......................... 1,119 00
Total.......................... 3, 707 07
Lights:
300 gallons coal o il.................. $366 75
13 dozen chimneys..................        63 29
12 reflectors...........................    48 87
17 dozen wicks..................... 14 26
8 gross matches..................... 19 40
Total.......................... 512 57
Auxiliary:
Water, 1 year...................... $2, 767 50
Hardware..........................     701 03
171 files............................ 117 00
Total.......................... 3, 585 53
Pump:
Foundry bill, pump, &c............. $l, 565 96
77 feet pipe......................... 462 00
3621 pounds pump leather........... 130 87
2 hides............................. 8 C0o
Total.......................... 2,166 83
17 ozn  ics —-----------— 4_- 
Repairs:
Mason work........................ $101 05
Machine work...................... 940 63
Freight............................ 238 30
Foundry bill.......................     1, 437 25
Boiler work........................ 862 80
Total.......................... 3, 580 03
Cars, cages, &c.:
1,828 pounds iron for cars...........      $2:'7 50
247 pounds nuts.................... 60 68
653 bolts...........................             187  76
52 gross screws..................... 138 27
3, 303 pounds iron for cages..........      462 42
811 pounds steel for cages...........        150 33
1,020 bushels charcoal............... 336 60
2,046 pounds stone coal............. 132 11
61 pounds borax.................... 27 80
Total.......................... 1,723 47
Labor:
Engineers, 7561 days................    $4, 673 C0
WVood passer, 365 days.............. --------— 1, 460 00
Pumpman, 365 days................         2,190 00
Total.......................... 8,323 00
Personal property:
9 yards matting..................... $13  50
15 lamps............................              6 00
24 fire-buckets —-- ---                      - 1....................... 17 00
1 clock.............................             25  00
1 set stocks  and dies                                                  --------------—.................- 15 00
Total.......................... 156 50
Lab    or:
Brakeman, 1,4153 days.............. $6,186 00
Blacksmith, 665 days................ 9, 810 00
Carman, 7301 days.................. 3,176 00
Plitman, 1,078~ days.................         4, 314  00
Total..........................       16, 486  00
O,:ltside works:
7,500 feet timber....................          $210 00
17 shovels.......................... 34 00
12 pick handles.....................              5 50
2 sledges...........................  $10 00
Laborers, 5855  days................          2, 342 83
Total.......................... 2, 602 33
Total hoisting department......       $25,187 94
Hoisting department:
Materials consumed................. $3, 707 07
Lights.............................       512 57
Cars, cages, &c..................... 1,723 47
Personal property.................. 156 50
Labor..............................    16, 486 00
Outside works..................... 2, 602 33
Total.......................... 25,187 94
Engine department:
Materials consumed................. $27, 355 92
Auxiliary expenses................. 3, 585 53
Pump............................ 2,166 83
Repairs............................   3, 580 03
Labor..............................  8,323 00
Total2.......................... 45, 011 31
Total hoisting.................. 70,199 25
SUMMARY.
HOISTING.
HOISTING DEPARTMENT.
SUMMAP,Y. 
WEST. OF-THE E'ROCKYi MOUNTAINS.
Detailed statement of the cost of production, 3c.-Continued.
MINING.
PROSPECTING AND DEAD WOORK.
Prospecting.                  Materials consumed.                    Labor.
Location.        Feet run.        Timber.         Lagging.          Miners.      Carpenters.
-:
Name of drift.                                                               u             u
400 foot............ 450...... 10,770 $368 45 1,257 $251 40................2 1 $105 00.                   ---------
535 foot............ 865...... 20, 760  726 60 2, 422  484 40 1, 038 $4,152 00  41  205 00 -.               --------
Do.................... 211    5, 060  177 10   591  118 20   252  1, 008 00  10   50 00..........
70C foot............ 980...... 47, 040 1, 646 40 3, 920  784 00 1,152  4, 608 00  94  470 00 -.             --------
Do....................     261   6,265  219 27   728  145 60   312  1,248 00  12   60 00.
Incline............  125...... 37. 500 1,312 50   352   62 20   420  1, 680 00  85  425 00.
780foot............ 378......  9, 000  31500 1,050  21000             30    120 00  18   90 00..........
Totals..........                            I, 79  i~
Total........, 79    472136, 3954~ 765 32o1, 320 2, 055 8,241,86G   8145G  2,021
DEAD WORK.
Materials consumed.                    Labor.
Work done.
Timber.         Lagging.          Miners.      Carpenters.
Character.        Location.
Retimbering........Vein.            10, 000 $350 GO 1,o170 $234 GO  I25   $500 00  26 $156 00   $156 00
Repairing.......... 700 foot.  5, 000  175 00   830  166 00G   53    212 00............  400 00
Do............. Incline.    6, 200 217 00.............. 108  432 00.
Do............. 535 foot        3,600  126 00...............  50         200 00............   868 00
Filling in..........Vein....................................480   1,920 00.............3,26400
Totals...................... 24, 800  868 00 2, 000  400 00   816  3, 264 00  26  156 00..........
PROSPECTING-ADDITIONAL EXPENSES.
Materials consumed:
268 boxes candles. —---------------- $1, 474 00
87 gallons lubricating oil............. 189 20
1,070 bushels charcoal...............  353 26
8 kegs powder...................... 49 00
875 feet fuze........................ 25 50
5 sets car wheels.................... 162 50
186 pick handles.................... 116 25
36 sledge handles.................... 18 00
Total.......................... 2, 387 71
Contractor. ~Feet
8 anucn9   Contracto.   Location.  run.   Amount.
E. D. Owens..... 400 feet level. 430    $2, 952 00
E. D. Owens..... 700 feet level.   40           192 00
T. Cassins........ 780 feet level.   20        140 00
E. D. Owens..... 780 feet level.  371         2,230 00
Total..................    861       5,514 00
Tools:
57 shovels.......................... $114 00
9 sledges............................ 45 00
29 picks, old........................ 14 00
280 pounds steel for picks............ 80 co0
Total.......................... 253 00
Summary of prospecting:
Miners, 3,204 days.................. $12, 816 00
Caruenters, 281 days................ 1, 405 00
Carmen, 981 days................... 3, 924 00
Blacksmiths, 2S5 days............... 1,710 00
Timber, 136,395 feet................ 4, 765 32
Lagging, 10,320 pieces............... 2, 055 80
Additionalimaterials................. 2, 387 71
Additional tools, &c.................  25,200
Additional, auxiliary.................1  (40
Total..........................  29, 567 23
Labor:
Carmen, 981 days................... $3, 924 00
Blacksmiths, 285 days............... I, 710 00
Total.......................... 5, 634 00
Summary of dead work:
Miners, 816 days.................... $3, 264 00
Carpenters, 26 days.................  156 00
Timber, 24,800 feet..................  868 00
Lagging, 2,000 pieces................  400 00
Total.......................... 4,688 00
i
11
373
PROSPECTING-Continued.
Contracts:
I
Auxiliary:
3 casks............................. $10 50
12 rubber coats..................... 108 00
Ice................................. ]31 90
'al.,,.,.................. 250 40 
374       RESOURCES OF STATES ANDD.TERRITORIES
Detailed statement of the cost of production, ~c. —Continued.
PROSPECTING-Continued.
Contracts:
861 feet running -------------------- $5, 514 00
Total prospecting and dead work. $39, 769 23
Mlaterials consumed:
I1 gallon boiled oil...................    $2 50
1 quire emery paper................ 1 50
1,750 bricks, &c ---------------------  42 00
431 pounds packing -----------------   48 06
30 pounds white lead ----------------.7 00
Chalk and line...................... 3  00
Stationery --------------------------  23 00
511,13fetimbe$4,376 Total............. 4, 638 39
536 b~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ote  anles.....: —-----------— 2,998    _____
Materials consumed:
511,813 feet timber.................. $14, 330 76
536 boxes candles -------------------- 2, 969 87
62~ kegs nails....................... 908 92
81 gallons lubricating oil............. 179 60
1,121 bushels charcoal............... 398 25
5,820 pounds iron tacks.............. 727 50
4,600 pounds turntable.............. 529 00
3,1131 pounds cars.................. 367 15
40 gross screws..................... 90 00
10 sets car wheels................... 300 00
2 sets incline wheels................. 130 C0
7 brooms........................... 7.00
Total.......................... 20, 938 05
Materials on hand:
8 windows.......................... $44 C0
102 bolts............................ 39 66
12 coach screws..................... 3  84
30 tool handles ----------------------   15 59
20 feet belting...................... 19 29
3 brooms ---------------------------   3 60
7 pairs hinges....................... 13 15
8 locks and latches.................. 8 50
7Rope..................... -........... 947 73
482 pieces pipe and joints............ 189 88
1 iron tuyere........................ 8 50
Total.......................... 1,293 31
Tools, &c.:
115 shovels......................... $175 30
16 sledges -------------------------- 91 13
16 axes............................. 33 50
19 saws ---------------------------- 75 75
16 hoes ----------------------------- 16 21
7 wheelbarrows --------------------- 62 50
454 tool handles --------------------- 27 6 50
470 pounds steel for picks ------------ 120 00
Total.......................... 850 89
Engine aidjuncts:
2 reels.............................. $558 00
9  pump ---------------------------- 135 00
Boxes, collars, &c -------------------   59 70
1 valve ---------------------------—.9  00
6 flanges, &. —---------------------— 7 25
8 cocks -----------------------------  32 00
1 steam stop ----------—. —-------—.3 50
l oil cup ---------------------------- 10 00
Total.......................... 534 45
Labor:
Mainers, 14,938+ days................ $59, 852 00.
Head miners, 614 days.............. 3, 625 50
Carmen, 1,963 days................. 7, 852 00
Carpenters, 838 days................ 4, 463 50
Blacksmiths, 326 days............... t, 357 00
]Foreman, 365 days.................. 2, 229 00
Totald.......................... 79, 379 00
Labor:
Foreman, 36 days................... $216 00
4Machinist, 161.days................. 99 00
lMasons, 6 days...................... 34 50
Blacksmiths, 54 days................ 272 00
Carpenters, 264+ days............... 1, 330 75
TMiners, 82 days..................... 328 00
Laborers, 3671 days................. 1,471 00
Total.......................... 3, 751 25
Contractor............................ $300 00
Summary extracting ore:
:Materials --------------------------- $20, 938 05
Tools.............................. 850 89
.Labor.............................. 79, 379 00
Total.......................... 101, 167 94
Materials used:
1 grindstone........................ $37 12
1 shaft hook........................ 30 00
1 set bellows, &c.................... 100 00
7 wheelbarrows..................... 102 00
C2 sets car wheels.................... 60 00
1 hoisting cask...................... 8  00
1 can............................... 1 25
3 lanterns...........................       6 50
14 pieces furniture.................. 60 25
Total.......................... 405 12
IMPROVEMENTS.
FAIR SHAFT.
Real estate:
].6 lo~ts and expenses................. $1., 970 50
1 stable............................. 70 00
1 tract and expenses ---------------- 2, 258 50
Closing F street..................... 160 00
:Mloving dwelling.................... 85 00
Total.......................... 4, 484 00
Tools, &c.:
20 shovels.......................... $40 00
33 picks............................ 122 50
4 sledges........................... 17  00
4 axes.............................. -10 25
M14 durable tools..................... 53 88
2 saws............................ 11 25
25 files............................. 17 75
I paint brush....................... 250
53 assorted brushes.................. 20 00
186 pounds steel.................... 46 50
Total.......................... 341 63
Materials consumed:
127,015 feet timber................... $3, 806 46
15+ kegs nails....................... 208 50
11 gross screws..................... 31. 55
1 cord wood........................ 14 00
1 box candles....................... 5 50
12 bushels charcoal ----------------- 40 32
1,811 pounds irons.................. 327 90
201~ pounds nuts, &c ---------------- 47 60
3 kegs powder....................... 21 00
;300 feet fuse........................ 8 50
Incidenta,l expenses:
c4 Hauling ----------------------------- $107 50
Advertising ------------------------- -4 00
Total.......-..- -......';'.'....'.:4 il  l 1   50
FAIR SHAFT-Continuc-d.
EXTRACTING ORES.
31ining recapitulation:
Extracting ore...................... $101, 167 94
Prospecting......................... 29,567 23
Contracts........................... 5, 514 00
Dead work......................... 4,688 00
Total.......................... 140, 937 17 
'1
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Detaied statement of the cost of production, 4c.-Continued.
CLASSIFICATION —Continued.
Summary:
Real estate.........................
Materials consumed.................
Mlaterials on hand...................
Engine adjuncts.....................
Labor..............................
Contractor.........................
Materials used......................
Tools, &c...........................
Incidental expenses.................
Tools:
3 shovels................. $9 00
2 brooms................. 2 00
3   brushes................ 4 25
Incidental expenses:
Assaying................. 2, 306 00
Tontraltoweighingandsamplin3..$2, 496 50
Total weighing and sampling-...-..-  4, 262 58
Auxiliary expenses:
Surveying......................... —. $500 00
Hauling........................... 134 25
Premium on coin ------------------- 2, 012 01
Assaying bullion.......... $8,827 69
Less clips.................  605 90
8,,221 79
Total.......................... 10, 868 05
Real estate:
Superintendent's resi  dence........... $1,050 00
Repairing ditto............;........ 271 04
Total.......................... 1, 321 04
Taxes:
Federal bullion.......-.. -...........  $7,239 83
State bullion ---------------------- 2,189 70
City bullion........................ 203  20
State and county property.......... 1, 023 62
City property....................... 346 43
Federal license.....................7  50
Total..........................    11, 010 28
22,700 feet timber................... $794 50
19,000 shingles......................    167 00
6 kegs nails......................... 84 00
830 pounds iron chutes.............. 91 30
Total.......................... 1,136 80
Labor:
Carpenters, 45 days................. — 25 00
Blacksmiths, 19 days................ 114 00
Laborers, 20 days................... 8s0 00
Total.......................... 41 —   9 00
Scales:
6,000 feet timber.................... $168 00
1,240 pounds  iron...................  130  60
i of a keg spikes.................... 4 00
2 gross screws...................... 20 00
24 coach screws..................... 7 20
Total.......................... 329 80
Labor:                                        _
Carpenters, 15 days................. $75 00
Blacksmiths, 8 days................. 48 00
Laborers, 24 days................... 96 00
Total.......................... 219 00
Contingent expenses:
Law expenses, fees, &c.............     $250 00
M3aps............................... 55 00
Miscellaneous.......................       51 80
Subscriptions.......................  250  00
6Iedical attendance.................     133 00
Gratuity to Mrs. Farge.............. 387 00
Brandy and whiskey................ 53 50
Total.......................... 1,180 30
Summary:
Weighing and sampling.............    $4, 262 58
Auxiliary expenses.................   10, 868 05
Taxes.............................. —------------------------- 11,010 28
Contingent expenses................ 1,180 30
Total relative expenses........ 27, 321 21
Expenses:
Freight.............................         $71 01
Sundries........................... 20 00
Total..................... -...           91 01
RECAPITULATION.
Managerial cost........................
Hoisting expenses:
Hoisting dbpartment...... $25,187 94
Engine................... 45,011 31
Summary of improvements:
Fair shaft.......................... $15, 859 65
Real estate.........................   1, 321 04
Ore house.......................... 1, 555 80
Scales..............................    639 81
Total improvements............ 19,376 30
Mining expenses:
Prospecting............... 29, 081 23
Contracts................. 5, 514 00
Dead work.................. 4, 688 00
Extracting ore............... 101,167 94
CLASSIFICATION.Iprovements-co9t
$99  00
7 50
3 36
1, 608 00
96 00
1,813 86
47 28
-  $1, 766 08
Improvements —cost:
Fair shaft, total expenses.. - 15, 859 65
Real estate purchased-... -1, 321 04
Ore house and scales......  2,195 61
Sampling:
10 cords  wood............
6 yards oil cloth...........
Twine, paper, &c.........
24 sample bags............
10  Io d  wo d - - - - 1 0 9-   -27, 321    21
Total cost of production............ 266,679 18
I
I
375
FAIR SHAFT-Continued.
$4,484 00
4, 638 39
1,293 31
534 35
3, 751 3.3
300 co
405 12
341 63
IIL 50
I
Total.......................... 15,859
MISCELLANEOUS.
Ore house:
22,700 feet timber...................
19,000 shingles......................
6 kegs nails.........................
830 pounds iron chutes..............
TOTALS.
$9,331 25
70,199 25
34,595 23
105,855 94
RELATIVE.
CLASSIFICATION.
19,376 30
Rela
T
c
130 00
9 00
34 25
5 00 
TABLE No. 2.
Comparative tabular statement of the prodeuction, loss from assay value, per centum,
tons of ore by the.Hale  i Norcross Comrn
eons of ore bj' (ke Hale  Noreross Com]
Assay i
Silvei
$17, 604
27, 732
7, 955
42, 974
40, 899
65, 464
38, 955
25, 266
18, 261
9, 577
29, 369
12,779
63, 472
26, 031
28, 710
6, 134
24, 078
57, 029
53, 657
]0,465
28, 833
52, 923
5, 260
8, 776
13, 969
40, 775
7, 325
6, 706
11, 828
25, 000
9, 389
3, 731
822, 942
Mills at which reduced.
Date of work     ing.
Weston's........... —--------------------------------------—.
Brunswick................. —--------------------------------------
Mariposa...................................... —---
C. Land's..........................................
Summit............................................
C. Land's..........................................
Summit...........................................
Brunswick...........................................
Rigley & Co........................................
Eureka No. 1......................................
Eureka No. 2.......................................
Summit............................................
C. Land's..........................................
Brunswick......................................... 
Rigley & Co.......................................  
Rigley & Co.......................................
Brunswick........................................
C. Land's..........................................
Winfield's..........................................
$10, 059    91
16, 929 90
4, 545 98
27, 956 48
24, 543 70
35, 357 41
2, 370 96
14, 666 12
10, 405 26
6, 048 79
16, 713 31
9, 621 05
36, 695 42
14, 292 34
16, 527 22
3 612 61
13 998  58
33, 447 03
30, 127 00
5, 782 19
16, 470 58
30, 084 36
2 875 54
3, 908 24
6, 982 07
19, 896 26
3, 493 73
3, 212 55
5, 859 61
12, 358 51
4, 541 56
1, 745 87
465, 190 14
1867.
January -....
Winfield's..........................................
Brunswick........................................
C. Land's..........................................
Union.............................................
Ophir..............................................
Brunswick........................................
C. Land's...........................................
Eureka No. 1......................................
Union.............................................
Ophir..................................................
Bacon's..........................................                          5..    0
New York.........................................4 
Woodward's.......................................
.Tota..................................................
I'
Quantity reduced.
Gold.
1866.
September..
Touts.
370
630
155
839
750
1, 003
625
554
404
239
506
201
1, 042
608
505
123
496
1, 118
1, 027
155
509
969
112
36
353
970
202
144
42
617
240
100
15, 639
Poutnds.
975
925
995
905
-1
555
8
67
13
535
59
33
47
235
775
14
435
22
215
45
365
605
76
415
7
1
455
188
- 325
258
]3
68
36
October.....
November..
December....
Febru,ary....
Total.... 
TABLE No. 2.-Comparative tabular statement of the production, loss
Amount lost.
Date of work-        Mills at which reduced.          Quantityre     ing.                                                duced.
Gold.       Silver.
Weston's.........................
Brunswick........................
Mari     posa..........................
C. Land's.........................
Summit...........................
C. Land's.........................
Summit...........................
Brunswick........................
Rigley & Co......................
Eureka No. I.....................
Eureka No. 2.....................
Summit...........................
C. Land's.........................
Brunswick........................
Rigley & Co......................                      
Rigley & Co......................
Brunswick.......................
C. Land's.........................
Winfield's........................
Ores.
$10, 375 16
15, 834 18
5, 544 43
22, 719 69
21, 283 34
33, 073 15
22, 360 82
13, 550 68
10, 673 74
5, 471 39
18, 265 40
8, 896 42
38, 058 22
14, 898 23
17, 215 00
2, 72 73
15, 350 87
34, 934 95
37, 941 93
5, 719 15
18, 731 44
29, 475 08
4, 329 24
4, 553 09
6,121 88
20,195 72
3, 514 35
4, 797 78
8, 264 37
11, 036 28
4, 212 24
1, 034 22
1867.
January.....
Winfield's..........................
Brunswick........................
C. Land's.........................
Union............................
Ophir.............................
Brunswick........................
C. Land's........................
Eureka No. 1.....................               
Union............................
Ophir............................
Bacon's..........................
New York........................
Woodworth's.....................
36    68, 474 45  403,123 02  471,155 17
$0 81.
88.
82.
78.
86.
94.
88.
95.
86.
95.
84.
75.
80.
96.
88.
1 06.
80.
77.
69.
96.
83.
$9.
74.
67.
99.
90.
99.
79.
51.
94.
99.
1 11.
$8, 539 95
13, 860 60
4, 757 37
16, 750 22
17, 917 94
31,203 24
19, 872 82
12, 959 90
9, 310 42
5,188 02
15, 992 41
6, 555 46
30,856 04
14,425  31
15,348  29
2, 969 41
12, 651 19
27,309  73
28,888  15
5, 514 76
15,952 03
26, 196 22
3, 593 13
3, 282 25
6,115 87
18, 309 77
3, 484 90
4,-1:30 41
5,422 96
10, 356 88
4,177 53
1, 229 84
1866.
September.-..
Tons.
370
630
155
839
150
1,003
625
554
404
239
506
201
1, 042
608
505
123
496
1,118
], 027
155
509
969
112
36
353
970
202
144
42
617
240
1C0
Pounds.
975
925
995
905
1
555
8
67
13
535
59
33
47
235
775
14
435
22
215
45
365
605
76
415
7
1
455
188
325
258
13
(8
$1, 835 21
1, 973 58
787 06
5, 969 47
3, 365 40
1, 869 91
2, 488 00
590 78
1, 363 32
283  37
2, 272 99
2, 340 96
7, 202 18
472 92
1, 866 71
............
2, 699 68
7, 625 22
9, 053 78
204 39
2, 779 41
3, 278 86
736 11
1,270 84
6 01
1,885 95
29 45
667 37
2, 841 41
679 40
34 71
............
October......
November...
December....
February....
Total....
15, 639
.......
................................................... 
TABLE No. 3.
Table showing product of th7e Hale and Norcrogs silver mine during
Quantity worked.
Ore produced  Tons  Lbs   Tons  Lbs
and delivered.
Assay valu        es.
Per ton.    Amount.
Produced from
335 and 700 ft.
levels, lst class.
Ordinary......
From  780 feet
level, 1st class.
Total ore...
Delivered   to
mills and reduced, 1st class.
Ordinary......
Sold to mills,
ordinary......
Oii hand.......
At mills.......
In ore house..
Gold..  29 17.913112  468, 734 00 24 90.1382
Silver-  51 63.865385  829, 524 11 26 41.9028
Total.   80 81. 77849711, 298, 258  11 51 32.0410:
_nIe_...
20 07. 491167  775, 316 90
46 87. 875432 1, 342, 419 54
73 95. 366599 2, 117, 736 44
In ore house -. -   558   669   765 1, 850   Total.... 28, 635 1, 980  TotaL   73 95.366399 2 117, 736 44 47 32.5774.
MEMORANDA.
Amount of reduction..........................................
Rleclamations................................................................
Net cost of reduction...................................................
Per cent of reclamations......................................................
Net cost of reduction, per ton.................................................
Ore.
Per ton.
$20 92.3037
21 29.8535
42 2'2.1572
_       _    _:
Period.    Tons.  Lbs.
$306,582 90
512,895 43
819,478 33
Gold..
Silver.
Total.
$24 38.62161l
40 79.672685
65 18.294301
78
28, 727
.....
....
1, 486
l, 650
.....
....
......
28, 806
595
'~9, 401
,.i....
1, 130
700
1, 830
1st half yea
12, 57] 1, 950
78
28,1152
404
....5.
207
558
1,480
990
1, 510
l, 190
,660)
......
28, S3.5
765
,.....
765
1, 980
1, 850
.....
l, 850
2d half year
Total -..
16, 064
28, 635
30
1, 980
Gold..
Silver.
Total.
23 ] 5.47817
24 17.0993,
47 32.5774. 
Bullio, product of t7?e principal mines on t7e Comstock lode.
DURING THE YEARP 1867.
October.   Novemb'r
$49, 980 22 $57, 655 81
352, 066 00 310, 681 00
42, 071 23 52 299 30
100, 000 09 60, 000  00
65, 474 86  90, 235  69
253, 866 89 164, 976 67
20, 571 43  18 757  48
68, 897 94 63, 395 48
13, 5 47  71    686 50
i102,326 6a5 65,egt25()        16
10, 995 79  12, 182 26
- - - - - - ------
Company.
Hale & Norcross..
Savage...........
Crown Point......
Yellow Jacket....
Gould & Cturry...
Chollar-Potosi.....
:Empire M. & M. Co.
Imperial..........
Confidence........
Ophir, (aggregate)Keintuck -........Gold I-Iill Q. M. &
M. Co -----------
Overman, (agg'ate)
Total.........
.1
m
H
0
It
tt
0
Overman,~~~~~ (ag'te —----------------------------------------------------— * —--------------                                                       9,381
1, 022, 377 57 1, 014, 238 101728, 916 44 1, 26;, 937 09 1, 599, 796 66 1, 436, 387 81|1, 379,115 60 1,306, 548 86 1, 171, 326 82 1, 079, 798 721894,120 35 646, 627 78
Company.         January.    February.    March.    April.         May.         June.        July.     August.   September.    October.   November.  December.              Total.
lIale & Norcros.............. $51,546 03 $64,059 33 $62, 027 18 $55,942 46  $104,247 33 $125,073 00 $119,447 38  $153,666 63  $152,363 74 $167,034 89 $131,135 41 $1,186,543 38
Savage......-     - $140, 000 60  150, 000 00 110,000 00 66, 553 70 115, 000 00  130, 000 00 140, 000 00  162,478 0   145,  003 0   210, 00       231,  00 00   214, 847 39  1, 814, 879 0 
Crown Point...... 5,327 14  155,461 63 148, 552 35 115,102 11 110 514 82  109, 601 05                    3 557 0    80 41 10  116 573 76  111, 150 17   91,326 00    184, 854 0  1 312 471 13
Yellow Jacket..  111,'794 13   85, 000 00 96,519 65 84, 827 28 130,366 24  292, 274 00 281,706 00 379, 699 92  292, 566 78  180, 288 67  202, 090 27  160, 000 00   2, 297  132 94
Gould & Curry.    133, 153 95  152, 964 76 174, 096 46 142,472 28 150, 804  21  146, 640 49 125, 000 00  134,'         39 5  23   17,82L 35    114, 321 67   124, 683 61  108, 427 00  1, 624, 781 01
Chollar-Potosi....   43,200 00   59, 745 00 85, 950 00 87, 338 00  90, 359 00   74, 862 00  71,641 00   6 668  00  59,367 00  58, 962 00            60, 645 00   10, 000 00    848, 751 00
Empire 1I. & M. Co.   38,191 82   36,000 00 27,697 00 29,542 49  34,363 04    34,482 75   28,440 76   31,520 25   41,813 15   42,00 03    45,0(0 00   33,240  12   422,291 38
Imperial.......... 81,891 21   74,823 60 48,223 90 91,533 61  67,755 89   62,240 90  65,408 16   75,840 52   78,459 87   99,476 87   83,687 17   81,045 67    910,387 37
Confideface........  19,474 12   10,141 19 12, 474 01  17, 624 09  15,869 42   20,869 47  46, ]96 74   29,96 5    37,59 56   41,563 72   27,975  69  25,987 12    304,931 71
Ophir, (aggregate)- 51,523 04   27, 478 51 49, 604 45 84, 340 81  81,593 57    25, 665 89  19, 582 60   27,684 56          20,683 22   22, 586 24   6, 729 19...........      417, 472 C8
Kentuck............. —-------------------------------------—.................................. —-------------------------------------------—.............................. —--------------—................. —---------—...................................................... 571,506 79
Gold Hiill Q. Mi. &
M. Co-...-. —----------                 
5 M. Co.........................................................................................................................
Overman, (agg'ate) 487 —----------   1       5 —----------  5 8 —------— 3 8. —-------- ----------- ------------ ----------- l —----------  0 0 —--------— 3 7, —----—.. 73,  1     00 
Total.........671,555 411 803,160  711817177 15 781,61 55 852,;568 6511, 0C-~,883 88 93-,9,605 26 1, 166, 895 54 1,0 04,0 11 32 0, 032,71  98 1    171 8     3       7  1
7
I
I
6
I
i
D
1
0
4
i
i
6
a
September.
Total.
$1,097,297 45
3,737,100 12
920,717 96
1,729,276 91
614,620 51
2,668,885 36
278,607 17
1,106,495 50
142,049 46
4,108 00
1,140,741 94
106,399 42
192,318 17
January.
February.
$117,639 44
270,000 00
129,850 001
117,488 97
45,165 41
100,000 00
26,7S7 00
116,200 00
11,411 86
............
70,095 42
9,600 00
------------
.,qarch.
79,144 02
150,000 00
64, 541 58
108, 913 85
52,878 47
86,000 00
23, 081 00
90, 431 96
8, 052 71
- - - - - - - - - -
58,572 85
7, 300 00
..........
April.
May.
June.
July.
August.
ecemb, r.
$102, 571 72
250,000 00
140,000 00
156,200 37
66,423 00
80,000 00
38,153 00
115,948 67
24,006 10
------------
43,674 71.
5,400 00
............
$76,462 58
3'37, 000 00
63,971 00
2-2-,075 44
63,130 19
245,094 06
2-2,884 66
95,162 91
18,202 78
.......:-...
108,9a3 53
10,000 00
............
$150,826 68
40-1,000 00
82,000 00
278, 684 6:3
74,862 68
334, 289 17
21, 933 00
94,000 00
12, 000 00
............
132,333 88
10,866 62
............
$117, 728 23
370,493 96
77,550 00
195,913 65
44,446 46
345,000 00
21,500 00
107,000 00
14,000 00
------------
130,255 51
12,500 co
............
$71,950 24
360,295 29
49,000 00
130,000 00
75,842 74
252,000 OD
18,689 40
97,980 00
11,310 11
............
101,000 00
3,259 04
------------
$133, 906 17
375,000 00
12,043 00
1.60,000 00
------------
311, 681 1.7
6, 312 3 -2
99,627 54
16,527 5
......
125,.67 31
10,250 57
------------
$124,664 69
35t),644 37
54,291 85
159,000 00
30,043 11
350,000 00
22,333 80
89,280 00
12,304 17
..........;.
104,215 -5
9,771 52
------------
$14, 767 65
193, 919 50
47,100 00
50,000 00
6,117 90
145,977 46
:17, 604 08
i68, 571 00
I. -. -- -'., -'.,.,., -.
98,'296 57
4, 273 62
..........
13,738,617 97
DURING THE YEAR 1866.
4
0
(:i
x
t4
9!,
w 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
BULLION PRODUCT OF THE COMSTOCK LODE.-The foregoing tables, from the
Commercial Herald and Mfarlket Review, show the bullion product of the leading claims on the Comstock lode during the year 1867, as compared with 1866.
The bullion product of the Yellow Jacket claim has been estimated for the last
six months of 1867.  The total product of the Comstock lode for the year ending
December 31, 1867, is estimated by the most reliable authorities at $17,500,000.
It is estimated that other districts in Nevada have yielded during the same period
$2,500,000, making the total product of Nevada for the calendar year 1867,
$20,000,000. The average percentage of gold and silver is shown in table 2, on
the workings of the Hale and Norcross, being about 66 per cent. silver, and 34
per cent. gold. Inl the outside districts the proportion of gold is considerably less.
ASSAY OFFICES, &c.-There are four assay offices in Virginia and three in
Gold Hill; some few of the mining companies assay their own bullion.
The amalgam is usually retorted at the mill and delivered to the assayer in
the form of "crude bullion."  After melting and refining it is assayed by the
ordinary process of cupellation with lead, the accuracy of these assays being
checked from time to time by the humid method.
The charge on bullion for transportation to San Francisco is one per cent., and
on coin from San Francisco to Virginia one and one-eighth per cent., the latter
being somewhat the highest to cover the extra risks of loss and robbery.
STAGE ROUTES CENTRING AT OR PASSING THROUGH VIRGINIA CITY.
ROUTE NO. 1. Virginia to Sacramento, via the Central Pacific Ptailroad, with
which it connects at Cisco depot.  Two coaches daily each way.  Fare, including
railroad charges, from Virginia to Sacramento, $20; firom Sacramento to Virginia, $25. This route crosses the Sierra by the Donner Lake Pass, the one
selected by the C. P. R. R.  The fall of snow during the winter is very heavy,
and sleighs run from the terminus of the railroad to within 30 miles of Virginia.
During the winter of 1866 and  1867 they ran for a short time into Virginia
without changing.
IIOUTE NO. 2. Virginia to Sacramento, via Placerville and  the Sacramento
Valley railroad, passing through Gold Hill, Silver City, Empire, Carson, and
Genoa, connecting with the railroad at Shingle Springs. One coach daily each
way. This route crosses the Sierras at the south end of Lake Tahoe. Snow
on the summits of the mountains heavy. During the severest portion of the
whiter sleighs run from the summit nearly down to Carson valley.  Before the
construction of the Central Pacific railroad, nearly the entire freighting business
between California and Nevada passed over this route. At the present time the
Donner Lake road takles probably three-fourths, and will gradually secure the
balance as the railroad approaches Virginia.
ROUTE No. 3. Overland  route, fron the Atlantic to the Pacific States, passes
through Virginia, one coach arriving and departing daily. Passengers complete the journey to Sacramento by either of the two previously mentioned routes.
Fare to Austin from Virginia, about $15; to Salt Lake, $70; to the eastern railroad terminus, $100.
ROUTE NO. 4. Virginia to Carson, passing through Gold Hill, Silver City,
and Empire, one coach each way daily.
ROUTE NO. 5. Virginia to Dayton, passing through Gold Hil and Silver City,
one coach each way daily.
ROUTE No. 6. Virginia to Washoe and Ophir, one coach each way daily.
ROUTE NO. 7. Virginia to Idaho Territory, passing through the Humboldt
county settlements, one coach each way every other day. This line connects
with the stag,es on route No. 1, at Hunters crossing of the Truckee river about
24 miles from Virginia.
380 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ROUTE NO. 8. Fast freight, via Donner La7ke and the C. P. i. B. one coach
each way daily. Brings perishable freig,llt to Nevada, carrying passengers only
from Nevada to California, the amount of return freight being small.
ROUTE No. 9. Fastfr eight, via Placerville and the Sacramento Vatley railroad,
details the same as route No. 8.
ROUTE No. 10. Fast freight to Belmont, in Central Nevada, via Austin, one
coach each way weekly.  Carries freight and passengers both ways.
ROUTE NO. 11. Fastfreigh7t to Belmont, one coach twice a week each way,
carrying passengers and freight.
STAGE LINES CENTRING AT CARSON CITY.
ROUTE No. 1. Carson to Dayton, via Enipire, one coach each way daily.
ROUTE No. 2. Carson to Washoe, via Franktowni and O0hir, one coach each
way daily.
ROUTE No. 3. Carson to Aurora, via Genoa and TVellington's station, one
coach each way every other day.  The mines at Pinegrove lie a few miles to the
east of Wellington's.  At Genoa this route connects  with stages for Silver
mountain and AIarkleeville, and at Aurora with stages for Blind Springs, Fort
Independence, Kearsarge, and Owen's River valley.
The majority of these routes have been established for several years, and, as
will be seen by the following table of postal routes, usually receive government
aid, in the form of subsidies for carrying the United States mails. But few of
them, especially those operating between distant settlements and through thinly
settled countries, could exist without such assistance. Though suffering less
severely from Indian depredations on this side of the Rocky mountains than on
the eastern slope, these lines of travel, in some instances, absolutely require the
presence of soldiers to make them safe modes of communication.
SECTION XVIII.
VIRGINIA AND ADJACENT DISTRICTS-FACILITIES FOR OBTAINING FUEL
COAL.-NO coal deposits which are likely to prove of permanent value have
been found in the neighborhood of Virginia.  Considerable prospecting has been
done in the neighborhood of E1 Dorado canon, a few miles from Dayton, where
inferior lignite is found associated with triassic (?) limestones and shales, and at
Crystal Peak, on the Truckee river, near the California State line, where lustrous
black lignite is found in small quantities, in recent geological deposits. In the
Palmyra mountains, a few miles from Como, a small vein of lignite is also found,
but none of these localities can be relied upon for a supply sufficient to warrant
an outlay of capital. AIany other points have been located as coal lands, wvithout any foundation whatever, the deceptive appearance of some metamorphic or
igneous rocks having misled persons ignorant of geological formations into costly
and useless expenditure of time and money.*
The entire district is dependent on wood for fuel.  When  the mines on the
Comstock lode were first discovered, the surrounding mountains were covered
with a scanty growth of scrubby pines, (known as the pinon or pinenut,) and a
variety of juniper, generally called cedar. This supply has been entirely exhausted,
the nearest remaining timnber of these kinds coming to the market from the mountains
east and south of Dayton, and north of Virginia, both localities about 12 miles dis tant from the place of consumption. Even at these points the amount easily acces sible is rapidly diminishing.  The rugged character of the mountains compels
* eearice  n                                  mounain decitofmead,petonlspg32
See article on coal deposits of Nevada, section 2, page 312.
381 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the lumbermen to packl the wood on mules, frequently two or three miles to
places which are accessible to wagonis.  This and the distance from market
make the price hIigh, ranging from $14 to $16 per cord.  The pifson is considered
the most valuable firewood, being a hard, resinous, fine-grained variety, growing
from 10 to 30 feet in hleig,ht, and comniands about $2 per cord more than the
cedar.  The whole district will ere long be entirely dependent on the practically
inexhaustible forests of the Sierra Nevadas.  Even now large quantities of firewood are brought from this source, though the fuel is considered inferior to the
pinion.  There are many mnills working ore friom the Comstock mines, located at
the foot of the Sierras, and the teams hauling ore to these points bring return
loads of firewood or lumber.  Large quantities are floated down the Carson river
yearly, a distance of 60 to 100 hundred miles from the forests at the head waters
of the river to Empire City, in Eagle valley, and are shipped from that point to
the mines and mills.  The vicinity of Carson, Washoe valley and Galena also
yield an abundant supply, but a wagon ifreight of 12 to 18 miles keeps the price
at about the figures mentioned.
CONSUMPTION  OF FIREWOOD AND LUMBER.-The following table shows
approximately the daily consumption of firewood in the district:
Cord,.
By hoisting works on mines................ —-.................................... 70
By mills crushing ores........................................... —----------------------------------------------------- 378
For domestic use......................-....................................... 120
Total.................................................................... -------------------------— 568
The average cost of this firewood will be about $10 per cord or $5,680 per
day, giving a yearly total of over $2,000,000. Of this sum at least 60 per cent.
is paid for hauling to the place of consumption.
The consumption of lumber and mrnining timbers in the district will reach somewhere near 25,000,000 feet, (board measure,) of which about 17,900,000 feet are
used in and around the mines on the Comstock lode. The total annual value
of this branch of business will not fall far short of $800,000 per annuLm.
OTHER MIINEPnAL DEPOSITS.-The mining district under consideration may
be called exclusively a silver region, its other mineral deposits being relatively
of small value.
GOLD occurs in small quantities in many of the ravines along the foot hills of
the Sierras, and Gold canon was worked as a placer mine before the discovery
of silver; but both of these operations have been discontinued for some years.
COPPER. ORES are found in many localities, both east and west of Carson,but
the difficulty of making copper mining remunerative in Nevada, with the existing
high rates of labor, transportation, and supplies have prevented their development.
Inox ORES are abundant in the mountains southwest of American Flat, and
about four miles south of Virginia, but they are unfavorably situated for working,
and not likely to be of value.
LEAD ORES containing a considerable percentage of silver occur frequently
in the neighborhood of Galena, in Washoe county.  The mines have been opened
to some extent, passing into the hands of several different parties, who have failed
to work them profitably, thlough admirably situated as regards both water power
for concentration and fuel for smelting. The galena is associated with considerable quantities of mispickel, whlich renders careful sorting essential to the production of good marketable lead, but the manner of the association is such that
no difficulty need arise on this account.
PLUIMBAGO of inferior quality is found extensively in the mountains east of
the Carson river, a few miles from Empire, but has never been utilized. It also
occurs between Virginia and Washoe, in the Washoe mountains, and at one time
was used in the manufacture of crucibles.
SULPHIUR occurs at the Steamboat Springs, condensed in the earth from the
rising vapors, but not in any large quantity.
382 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Lir,STONE of fine quality is plenty in the mountains east and south of Virginia.
NUMBER OF 3INING LOCATIONS CLAIMED AND OPENED.-The number of
mining claims recorded on the books of the mining recorders of Virginiia and
Gold Hill does not fall far short of 5,000. If to these are added other claims
throughout the district under consideration, the number will not fall far short of
8,000.  When we compare this number with the claims on which workl is being
dlone at the present time, (probably not more than 50) we begin to realize the
character of the wild mining fever which raged here from 1860 to 1863.  It
must not be supposed, however, that all claims at present lying untouched are
worthless.  -Iany of them developed ore, but too low in quality to pay a profit
at the time they were abandoned.   Still all the claims which may at any time
in the future become valuable will not exceed a few hundred, a vast proportion
of the 8,000 locations having no foundation whatever, and many of which could
scarcely be pointed out even by the locators themselves.
COST OF MATERIALS.
The following table may be taken as a fair illustration.  The few articles
used in the mines not occurring in this table are added at the end, the average
price being derived from the same source:
Materials consumed at the Gould' Curry mill during the year ending Novem                                           ber 30, 1866.
Articles.                              Quantity.            cost.           Average price.
'Wvood, cords........................................
Lumber, feet....3................     6..(per...
Lumbger,fet —------------------------------------— 2150186056
Shingles...........................................
Charcoal, bushels...................................
Iron, pounds.....................1 —----             -----
Gas pipe, pounds...................................
Castings, pounds...........-.-.         -  -  - -------
Rivets, nuts, &c., pounds............................
Steel, pounds.......................................
Copper, pounds....................................      
Babbit metal, pounds...............................Nails, pounds.......................................
Zinc, pounds...........-............................ —---------------------
Turpentine, gallons.................................Belting, pounds....................................
Packing, pounds........................ —............ —----
Rope, pounds...................................... —----------------
Hose, pounds.......................................                     0
Sulphate of copper, pounds.........................
Salt, pounds........................................ 0 
Lard oil, gallons. —-...................................
I(erosene oil, gallons................................
Linseed oil, gallons.................................
Quicksilver, flasks.....................................  
Cut bolts, pounds...................................
Screens, pounds...................................       
Candles, pounds....................................
Axes and handles...................................
Picks..............................................                 -
Shovels............................................
Feed, sacks........................................
Ilay, bales.........................................
Axle grease........................................
Copper rivets, pounds...............................
Tallow, pounds.....................................
Alcohol, gallons....................................
Brooms............................................                        
Oakum, pounds....................................
Sledge handles.....................................
Lamp chimneys....................................
Hoes............................................... 
WVhite and red lead.................................
Blankets.......................... —-.................   - - - --
Leather............................................                  
Stone coal........................................                                    -
WVater.............................................
Sundries...........................................
3lining timbers.........................................
Hay...............................................
Barley.............................................
383
Articles.
Quantity.
Cost.
$168,830 00
3, -,25 00
185 00
1, 659 00
1, 698 00
258 00
33,880 00
175 00
315 00
142 00
120 00
417 00
42 00
72 00
2,192 CO
497 00
96 00
97 00
17, 588 00
10, 943 00
2, 487 00
1, 615 00
99 00
35, 013 00
214 00
633 CO
819 00
67 00
20 00
231 100
2,087 00
1, 120 00
58 00
280 00
1, 361 00
60 00
147 00
46 00
77 00
1,74 00
71 00
242 00
347 00
246 00
714 00
6, 835 00
3,833 00
................
................
................
Average price.
$14 72
(per M) 42 40
860
28
13i
20
25
so
46
11
25
300
....................
1 00
25
....................
20
3
183
164
2 47
51 89
23
Ito.75
271
....................
1 39
....................
....................
50
1loo
121
400
77
32
50
32
1co
20
8co
- 421
(per ton)..150 00
...................
....................
$28 to $30 per M feet.
$37 50 per ton.
4i per pound.
11, 442
172, 857
21, 500
5, 848
112, 639
450
395,1099
853
1, 253
178
262
3, 832
1', 2
23
2, 888
494
393
136
87,353
34.,3, 668
1, 360
985
0
615
923
743
2, 980
71
42
239
487
196
116
280
10, 863
15
189
126
157
531
76
1, 241
43
575
9, 751
................
................
................
................
................ 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
absence of census tables it is extremely
n  this head.  The population of the differthe following figures, which will probably
Lar~k:
.............G............. S12, 000
,..........................   1, 000
..................... —-'''''............ -1,000
.......n...................  1, 000
-----—..........................       500
..........................  20, 000
ployed directly in the mines, and about
1er, whether engaged in farming, lumberpendent on the mining interest for their
tractions, the district would in all proban 1859, before the discovery of the Comrted only a scanty population, who made
on over the plains.
from $3  50 to $4 per diem, and blackineers, from $5 to $8.  Mill hands earn
ibility of their positions.
following list of prices current for articles
the daily papers:
Salt, 3-pound sacks......... $0 25
Whiskey, Monongahela...-  5 00 a$6 00
Whiskey, Bourbon......... 4 00 a 6 00
Whiskey, quart bottles...... 1 25 a 1 50
Coal oil, per gallon.......... 1 20 a 1 50
Eggs, per dozen.. —-------- 621
Eggs, per box 50 dozen......   50
Mackerel, per kit...........   5 00
Mackerel, per barrel........18 00 a20 00
Trout, Lake Tahoe......... 20 a 25
A   Codfish, per pound......... 20 a 5
Salmon, salt, per pound.-.  20 a   25
Salmon, smoked, per pound.   20 a   25
Salmon, fresh, per pound...    25 a   37+
Herrings, fresh, per pound 25
Herrings, salt, per pound.. 25
Potatoes, per pound........ 2ja 3
Potatoes, sweet, per pound..  12ia  16
Cabbage, per pound........    7 a    8
Green peas, per pound   -.-... 12i
Asparagus, per pound.... —. 20 a   25
Onions, per pound.......... 6 a   10
Beets, per pound.-. —------ 4 a 5
Turnips, per pound......... 4 a    5
Flour, per 100 pounds. --—.$6  00 a$6 50
California bacon............. 25 a 27
California hams.............. 28 a 30
Eastern bacon...........-..-   20 a 25
Eastern hams.-. —-. —------ 20 a   25
Butter, ranch................   421-a   50
Butter, eastern firkin......      40 a   50
Green coffee, per pound, Rio..    35
Green coffee, per pound, Java.   40
Coffee, Chartres, I lb. papers.. 50
Cheese, n ew California,                  per lb... 25 a   37
Candle    s, per pound............. -a        30 a 37
Corn-    meal,    per pound.........  10
Lard, California, per  pound.    25 a   30
Cr ushed sugar, per pound..... 19 a 25
Brown sug ar, per  pound...... 16  a 20
Powdered sugar, per pound..    25
Golden sirup, per gallon. ——. 1 50 a 2 00
Tea, black, Comet, per pound-  1 ]2 a 1 35
Tea, green, Comet, per pound. 1 25 a 1 50
Tea, Japanese, per pound  -- I 00 a 1 25
Plug tobacco................ 85 a 1 50
Salt, 10-pound sacks......... 75
Salt, 5-pound sacks... —-- ------ 50
Even in the towns a large proportion of the population board at restaurants
or hotels, at rates varying from $8 to $12 per week. Many mills are so situated
that thley are compelled to keep a boarding-house for the men employed, in which
case they are usually paid so much a month including their board. This system
is the inevitable result of the unsettled disposition of much of our population,
who, in spite of oft-repeated warnings, are yet ready to believe that every new
mning camnp discovered is better than the one in which they are located, and
rush to it accordingly, in the hope of making the "big strike" which shall bring
them wealth and comfort in a day, instead of winning them by the old well-tried
rule of patient industry and perseverance. There are many signs, however, of
improvement in this respect; but the number of those who have come to look
upon Nevada as a permanent home are very few, indeed.
IIouse servants receive from $30 to $40 a month. Many Chinamen are employed
in this capacity at about the same wages.
384
4 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The great majority of private residences in this district are built of wvood.
BENEFITS OF THIE PACIFIC RPAILPROAD AND ITS BRANCIrES.-Tlle Central
Pacific railroad at the nearest point will be about 20 miles distant from Virginia.
Even were there no railroad connection between the two points, we should yet
feel the advantage of this great thoroughfare, in more rapid and certain coinmmunication with the seaboard, and in reduced rates of freight.  But its benefits
are likely to be largely increased by the construction of a line from Virginia to
a point on the Truckee river, about 26 miles east of the State line. This line
has been carefully surveyed, its chief features being enumerated in the following
abstract:
Length of road from the Savage mine in Virginia to the Truckee river and
Central Pacific railroad, 20 miles.
Total length of road, 22 miles.
Total elevation to be ovexcome, 1,996 feet.
Average grade per mile, 115s4- feet.
Heaviest grade per mile, 180 feet.
Minimum curve, radius, 300 feet.
Percentage of straight line, 65.
Total estimated cost including equipment, &C., $1,105 743.
Total estimated revenue per annlum, $1,3658,320.
Probable net profits, 60 per cent. of gross revenue.
This line follows a hillside grade along, the Washoe mountains to a point 1~
miles north of Virginia, where it descends into Long valley, and follows the
vaters of that valley to the Truckee river.  These flow through smooth valleys,
occasionally interrupted by deep gorges bounded on either side by lofty precipitous
bluffs of trachyte or basalt; but in all cases the bottom of the canion is comparatively smooth, and wide enough to admit of the construction of a good road without being compelled to adopt a hillside grade, except in one instance, for about
11 miles. Owing to these circumstances, a good road can be built for a very
moderate outlay, though the route lies throughl very rough and broken mountains.
A preliminary reconnoissance of this route was made early this spring, and the
detailed location has just been completed with very flattering prospects. The
importance of the early completion of this road to the mining interest of this district is almnost beyond calculation. Its effects will be felt in the reduced price of
freight on general merchandise, in the reduced cost of firewood and lumber, and
in the possibility of working ores at present valueless fi'om their too poor quality.
At the present time about 30,000 tons of general iierchandise are brought from
California to Nevada annually for consumption in this district, at a cost for transportation of about $1,800,000.  Throughl railroad communication with  Sacramento will result in a saving of upwards of $900,000 per alnnum, of which about
10 per cent. or $90,000 may be credited to the Virginia and Truckee railroadl.
The road will also make the pine forests of the Sierra Nevadas easily accessible
from Virginia, and from this source both lumber and firewood can be supplied to
Virginia and Gold Hill at a reduction of fully 35 per cent. on present rates.  The
following details of the probable business of the road are from the report of the
chief engineer, J. E. James.   The figures show the present actual consumption
in the localities where the openfing of railroad communication with the Trucklee
river and the Central Pacific railroad would affect their price:
According to the estimate of parties likely to be well informed, firewood can be delivered
at the Truckee terminus of the read at $3 or $3 G0 per cord. They propose to cut this firewood in the Sierras and float it down the Truekee river.  Logs are at present furnished to
Eastman's saw-mill (only a few miles higher up the river) from this source, showing the plan
to be feasible, and furnishing data on which to base an estimate. Supposing, however, that
these estimates are too low, and that the price at the terminus is $5 per cord, your company
can supply the entire demand of Virginia, Gold Hill and Silver City at $10 per cord. In
Virginia and Gold Hill this would be $4 per cord less than ruling rates to large consumers,
.385
25 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORTEiF
and $6 or $7 less than is usually paid by private families, and would certainly control fhy
entire business, shown by the accompanying tables to be as follows:
For mills as per schedule, daily.............. —-------------------------------------—. 223 cords.
For mines as per schedule, daily............................................ 72  "
For domestic use........................................ —--------------------------------------------------—. 60 "
Total.............................................................. 355 "
The present price of timber and lumber for mining purposes ranges from $28 to $30 per
1,000 feet, board measure.
In the report of the county assessor to the surveyor general of the State, for 1866, the cost
of delivering logs and manufacturing them into lumber at Russell & Crowe's mill, at Empire
City, is given at $12 per 1,000 feet, which is probably not far from a correct estimate. These
logs are floated down the Carson river a distance of from 60 to 100 miles, from the forests of
Alpine county, California.  Lumber can be manufactured on the Truckee at rates equally
favorable, thus enabling your company to place it in the market at a price not exceeding
$21 per 1,000 feet. The following condensed statement shows nearly the present annual
consumption:
Required by mines............................ —-----------------------------------------—......-. 17, 910, 100 feet.
Required by mills.......................................... 920, 000  "
Required for other purposes......................................    5, 000, 000 "
Total.............-.-.-.-.. —.-.......... —..-....-....  23,830,100 "
We have then the following result per annum:
Saving on 127,800 cords of wood, at $5........................ $639, 000
Saving on 23,800,000 feet lumber, at $7 per 1,000................  166, 600
Saving on 30,000 tons merchandise............................ 90, 000
895, 600
equal to $1 50 onl every ton of ore raised from the mines.
We again quote from the report of the chief engineer:
The facilities afforded by the Truckee river will doubtless create an immense business in
the transportation of low-grade ores to that river forreduction by water-power.   Competent
judges estimate that rock yielding $12 per ton can be reduced with profit both to mine and
mill by taking advantage of its capabilities. All persons at all familiar with our mines are
aware of the vast amount of low-grade ores now standing in the Comstock mines. We
believe that 1,000 tons of this class of ore would be extracted daily in a short period after the
completion of the road, but allowing for the gradual growth of the traffic, have based our
estimate on 500 tons daily for the first year of operations.
On a basis of 500 tons daily, there would be from this source alone an increase
on the annual production of bullion as follows: 180,000 tons, averaging $15
per ton, $2,700,000 or, supposing the quantity to be increased to 1,000 tons, the
amount would be $5,400,000.
This bullion can be secured to circulation in no other way.
Neither will the advantages cease at this point. The ability to work $15 ores
to advantage will immediately enable many mines at present lying idle to resume
operations, and very mnaterially lessen the annual assessment list. Neither can
it be doubted that the reduced cost of working will gradually cause the removal
of other mills to the Truckee.  If all the ores were worked at that point the
saving to the community would amount to upwards of $1,000,000 per annum,
equal to nearly seven per cent. on the gross yield per annum of the Comnstock
lode.  The minimrum cost of mining ores has probably been reached; we must,
therefore, look to improvements in the mode and cost of reduction5 as an offset
to the increased expenditure necessary to deeper mining operations, if we woul]d
keep our net profits at their present position.
-ID, 8 6 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
SECTION XIX.
THE SUTRO TUNNEL.
One of the most important enterprises connected with the milling interests of
the Pacific coast is the proposed Sutro tunnel, briefly referred to in preliminary report.
The magnitude of the work, its bearing upon tihe future yield of the mines
located upon the Comstock lode, and its probable influence in demonstrating the
continuity of mineral lodes in depth, in other parts of our territory, where the
conditions may be similar, have been set forth in various reports upon the subject.
The Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco, a body composed of highly intelligent men, some time since appointed a committee to make a report upon the
proposed tunnel, as being a work beneficial to the mechanical interests of the
coast. The following extracts are taken from the report, which is quite an elaborate document:
YIELD OF BULLION.-These mines have now a world-wide reputation; the yield of the
precious metals from the Comstock lode far exceeds that of any other locality.
The annual produce for the past five years has been in round numbers as follows:
1862......................................................................................... $4, ----------— 000,000
1863......................................................................... 1o, 000, 000
1864............................... —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16, 000, 000
18Ca5................................................................. 15, 000, 000
1866 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------— 15, 000, 000
1866......................................................................................... 16, 000, 000
Total produce in five years......................................................... $63, 000, 000
The total annual production of silver in the world in 1854 is stated by Professor Whitney
at $47,443,200. The bullion obtained from the Comstock lode in 1866 is, therefore, equal to
more than one-third in value of all the silver produced in 1854. Mexico, in its most flourishing days, from 1795 to 1810, produced an annual average of $24,000,000 from several
thousand mines. After 1810, when the revolution took place, the yield of the mines fell in
some years to as low a f-gure as $4,500,000, but the average from 1810 to 1825 shows
$10,000,000. At the present time the entire product of Mexico does not exceed that of the
Comstock lode.
The celebrated mines of Potosi averaged about $4,000,000 per annum for 300 years; those
on the Veta Madre (mother vein) of Guanajuato about $3,000,000 for an equal period, and
the mines of the Real del Monte Company, on the Biscanya vein in Mexico, over $400,000
for the last 110 years, or a total of $44,000,000, a less amount than has been obtained from the
Comstock lode in the last three years.
PROFITS OF MINING.-The immense yield of bullion from the Comstock lode will lead one
to suppose that the profits realized by the owners have been proportional to the yield, but
this has not been the case.
It is true that the value of bullion obtained by some companies has greatly exceeded the
current expenses, as, for example, the Gould and Curry; the net profits of which amount to
over $3,000,000.  But some other companies have expended large sums of money and realized
little, and some nothing at all. We have no accurate figures for the earlier years, but comparing the dividends with the assessments levied, we find that the aggregate produce of the
mines has been swallowed up by expenses. In 1865 the dividends paid amount to $1,900,000,
and the assessments levied to $1,950,000, or $50,000 more than the dividends.
In 1866 the dividends paid were $1,794,400; the assessments levied, $1,232,380. Dividends
over assessments, $5662,020. In the first years of operations on the Comstock lode, the
expenditures for machinery, which had to be transported from California across the Sierra
Nevada mountains, for the erection of costly reduction works, and for other permanent
improvements, together with the extravagant prices paid for reducing ores in a very imperfect
manner, absorbed nearly the whole produce.  Latterly, the only increase of expense has been
in mining operations; as greater depths were reached a large amount of prospecting or dead
work had to be done, and additions made to the pumping and hoisting machinery, almost
counterbalancing the reduction in the cost of crushing the ore, of labor, and of freight, and
we consequently find that the aggregate profits of the mines at the end of the last year bear
but a small ratio to the production.
The cost of labor and of reducing ores will gradually diminish from year to year, and on the
completion of the Central Pacific railroad from Sacramento to the valley of the Truckee river,
which will certainly be effected in the year 1868, the price of transportation from San Francisco
to the mines will not be more than one-third of the average rates heretofore paid. But we do
not believe that any reduction of expenses on these items which can be made will be sufficient
to meet the increased cost of working the mines, after a few years, when greater depths are
'387
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
attained, if the present system of pumping out the water, and of raising the ore and refuse
through shafts to the surface, is continued.
In the late report of R. I. Stretch, esq,, State mineralogist of Nevada, we find it stated
that 47 steam engines are now in operation on the Comstock lode, which answer all the present
requirements, but every addition to the depth demands additional power, correspondent
augmentation of capital invested in machinery, and a larger annual demand for fuel. The
little wood there was originally in the vicinity of Virginia City was long since exhausted; it
has now to be obtained almost exclusively from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and as the nearer timber is destroyed, it must be hauled a greater distance and at an
increased price.
If we take into consideration the cost of machinery, of annual additions and repairs, and
of consumption of fuel, wages of employ6s, delays caused by breaking of pumps, expense of
explorations, obstacles in securing good ventilation and increase of heat with the depth, and
the financial result of past years, we are forced to the conclusion that the mode now adopted
of working these mines cannot long be prosecuted with profit to the owners.
The result of similar operations in other countries, as furnished by Humboldt, Ward, St.
Clair Duport, and other writers, conveys an instructive lesson to persons interested in mining enterprises. These authorities agree that mining from the surface must always prove
suicidal to the interests of the owners when the position of the mines will allow the construction of adits or tunnels, which will drain the water, ventilate the mines, and diminish the cost
of removing the ore and valueless material.
Humboldt, in his "Assay Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne," published in 1803, in reference to the Veta Madre of Guanajuato, a lode much resembling the Comstock, exclaims:
"It is, indeed, strange that mines of such richness have no tunnels for draining, when the
neighboring ravines of Cata and Marfil and the plains of Tumascatio, which are below the
level of the lowest works of the Valenciana mine, would seem to invite the miner to commence works which would serve for drainage, and at the same time afford facilities for transporting materials to the smelting and amalgamation works."
A gentleman of intelligence, whom Humboldt questioned in regard to this want of wisdom,
replied "that the excavation of a general tunnel would be a work very expensive, and perhaps impossible, on account of the want of union among the proprietors of the different mines."
TIIE VALENCIANA MINE.-Upon this lode is located the celebrated Valenciana mine,
which, according to Humboldt, was first opened by Obregon, a young Spaniard, who, without means, commenced prospecting on a part of the vein which up to that time had been
unproductive.
After undergoing many privations, he at last struck an immense body of ore, from which
alone was extracted, from the 1st of January, 1787, to the 11th of June, 1791, the sum of
$14,764,492 of silver, out of 134,988 tons of ore. Sefior Obregon, afterwards known as the
Count of Valenciana, became the richest man in Mexico, and probably in the world, at that
time.  As greater depths were attained, the increase of expense became such that the mine
ceased to yield a profit, and before the breaking out of the revolution in 1810, it was allowed
to fill with earth and water.  In 1825, this mine, together with many others, fell into the
hands of a wealthy English company, who expended 21 months in draining it of water, but
the expenses of mining and pumping were so great that after some years the lower works
were again abandoned.
TIIE ENGLISH REAL DEL MiONTEL COMPANY.-The most remarkable and disastrous experience made by any foreign company in Mexico has been that of the English Real del Monte
Company.
They became, in the year 1823, the possessors of the Biscanya and several other veins, the
former having been worked for many years, and having yielded large amounts of silver,
prior to 1749. At that date an intelligent miner, named Bustamente, concluded to run an
adit, or tunnel, in order to effect their drainage. He labored long and patiently, and was
supplied with means by Don Pedro Terreros, who continued the work after the decease of
Bustamente. In 1759 the vein was reached, after running a tunnel 9,000 feet in length,
cutting the vein at a depth of 600 feet beneath the surface, and exposing to view an immense
body of ore.  Terreros, in the 12 succeeding years, drew from his mines a clear profit of
$6,000,000; he obtained the title of Count of Regla by the munificence of his donations to
the Court of Madrid; he presented Charles III with two ships of the line, (one of 112 guns,
constructed at Havana of the most costly material,) and accommodated him besides with a
loan of $1,000,000, no part of which has been repaid.
His successor, the second count, continued the working of the mines, but not with equal
profit, for the upper portions of the vein being worked out, he was compelled to go below the
adit, and the water encountered required 1,200 horses to pump it out, at an annual expenditure of $250,000. After struggling for many years, and after a depth of 324 feet under the
adit had been reached, the work was abandoned, and the mine allowed to fill with water.
It was in this state when the English Real del Monte Company took possession; they
expected, by substituting powerful steam machinery for the horse whims which had been
employed by the Mexicans, to make the mines again profitable. The result, however, was
very disastrous, for in the 2I3 years they held the mines the expenditures were $15,381,633;
while the total yield was $10,481,475, showing a loss of nearly $5,000,000.
388 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
They first erected two steam engines of 36-inch cylinders each, which freed the mine from
water to a depth of 324 feet under the adit; at this point another one was required and erected
of 54-inch cylinder, by which the working was carried to 724 feet under the adit; but here
again the engines were overpowered, and still another engine of 75-inch cylinder was erected.
Mr. John Buchan, the superintendent of the mine, in one of his reports, made in 1852, says:
"After the mine had reached a depth of 710 feet under the edit (1,310 feet below the sur  face) the difficulties of drainage had so increased, both from augmented quantity of water
and the greater height to raise it to the point of discharge, that three powerful steam engines
could barely stem the coming waters of the mine.
"With the increased difficulty of drainage, seeing three bunches of ore worked out, and
a debt of $5,000,000 still outstanding, it is not surprising that the energy and perseverance
of the English adventurers were at last exhausted.
"Had the company prosecuted a projected deeper drain tunnel, it would have secured the
continued prosperity of the mines for many years to come. It will be remembered that the
first-Count of Regla distinguished himself and made the fortune of his family by driving
the present adit; the second count reached down 324 feet below it, being the limit to which
the mines could be worked with profit by horse-power drainage.  The English company, by
the powerful aid of steam machinery, carried down the workings to 720 feet below the adit;
but here we find another limit to profitable working, as the deeper excavations of the Bis  canya vein are again abandoned to fill with water.
"A deeper adit, which had to be driven a distance of 13,500 feet, had been commenced by
the second count. The English company unfortunately adopted the more speedy plan, as it
was supposed, of employing steam engines, instead of the slower but surer plan of driving
home the deep adit, which could have been done with the investment of but little more
capital than that expended in applying steam engines, and would no doubt have given a
verv different turn to the fortune of that company."
Mr. W. P. Robertson thus relates the financial history of this company:
"The London Real del Monte Company commenced working on a magnificent scale;
then, under the influence of a panic, suddenly deserted, in the most critical time, their judi cious and indefatigable agent at the mine, and the result has been unmitigated ruin. The
mania in London at the time (1823 to 1825) was so strong and so general that no expenditure
was for a moment grudged.  People thought they were laying out tens to receive back
thousands, so they paid up their tens with surprising alacrity.  The management in London
of many of the new companies under the reaction was miserably bad, and in the end many
of the shareholders were completely ruined and retired to cottages, there to abandon forever
their'Chateaux en Espagne.'
"In 1825, the late Mr. Kinder, the enthusiastic leader of the Real del Monte Company,
was offered $8,000 for each of his 30 shares of $500 paid up in that concern; he refused to
sell, that is, he would not take $240,000 for what had cost him $15,000. The reaction set
in, and down went all shares. In 1845-'46, those of Real del Monte were to be had at
$12 50 each; that is, Mr. Kinder's 30 shares, which in 1825 were worth $240,000, had gradually dwindled down to $375! The company was all but bankrupt; no more assessments
were listened to; and the debts could not be paid with unsalable engines, though they kept
up the steam, nor yet with stones, although silver was in them. The shares have since gone
to nil; no one will have them fenced in, as they are with unknown responsibilities and
debts.  In vain did their new, active, intelligent, and enterprising, though prudent manager
and agent, Mr. Buchan, write to the shareholders to talic heart and not to throw away their
property. They had been panic-stricken in the first instance, they had got sick of the
business in the second, and inll this last and most helpless fit, they entered into negotiations
for the sale of the property to a Mexican company. A bargain was struck, and the perpetual
lease of Real del Monte, with everything on it, passed from the hands of the Real del Monte
bondholders for an old song. The entire sum paid was $130,000, for a business on which
$7,000,000 had first and last been expended; and even of the mite to be recovered, threefourths were not to go into the hands of the bondholders ait all, but to be appropriated in
Real del Monte itself in the liquidation of sums still due to the servants of the old company.
What a winding up!  Shares once worth $8,000 each, now not worth 30 cents! and the
actual movable property on the estate, in houses, workshops, machinery, crushing establishment, timber, wood, iron implemerits, utensils, steam engines, horses, horned cattle, mules,
and many valuable miscellaneous materials, must be worth altogether some millions of
dollars.  The house of Regla alone cost a million and a half, and now is valued at a million
of dollars-all gone for $130,000.
"Thus did Real del Monte pass from the Counts of Regla in Mexico, and thus has it
passed from the luckless shareholders in London-the first paying the penalty of personal
extravagance, the other an equally severe one of wild speculation and injudicious management. It is now in wiser hands than theirs, and prosperity dawns again on this almost
national establishment or colony."
This history of the Real del Monte mine teaches a valuable lesson, confirtued by the result
of almost every similar enterprise in Mexico. They show t.hat after a certain depth has been
reached and no drain tunnels constructed, the mines have been abandoned and the proprietors ruined.
389 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
St. Clair Duport, who published a work on the mines of Mexico in 1843, gives a general
sketch of mining operations, which is a perfect representation of recent experience in California and Nevada. He says:
"Opening a mine by accident, somebody discovers, guided by the croppings elevated
above the soil, quartz containing some metal. He exposes some pieces to white heat, and if
he discovers thereon globules, or pearls of silver, he takes up the claim. The discoverer
now seeks partners with capital to work this claim, as generally the means of one man are
not sufficient for such an enterprise. At first they generally seek to extract the ore by following down on the vein, and open a number of shafts along its course; but in the same ratio
as these shafts increase in depth the water increases too; galleries and new shafts become
necessary, and finally, as is generally the case when the largest portion of the yield has been
expended in such operations, particularly in mines which are not extraordinarily rich in
minerals, the work has to stop on account of bad air and abundance of water, the improvements being of no further use.
"The owners now look for new partners; if the vein presents probabilities of richness at
a greater depth, persons can be found who, for a portion of the stock, generally for half,
advance the necessary means, which is to be repaid out of the first yield of the mine.
"After the water has been removed, and the shafts and galleries are made, and really rich
ore is found, then commences the good time of the mine. Arrived at a depth where silver
generally is abundant, and when the expenses to bring the water and ore to the surface are
not too great, mining is a good paying business; that is what is called in the mliner's language'la bonanza.' This time is hoped for with ardent desire, not only by the owners of the
mine and the miners employed, but also by the entire neighborhood. In this case labor, and
all necessary articles for mining, are in demand, and well paid for; the money earned with
ease is spent freely, and everybody in the whole mining region having any claims is full of
hopes to strike it equally rich. The buildings for the reduction of ores are now erected, and
very often in a style altogether too costly for their use. Next, underground works are constructed to facilitate the hoisting of ore and water. In case the mines in'bonanza' belong to
private individuals, these works are executed on a substantial basis, with a view of usefulness for the future. But in most cases, when a mine is divided amongst a number of shareholders, they present such a diversity of ideas that they often cannot agree upon anything at
all, except to extract the most money from their mine in the shortest time possible, without
even looking ahead for a few months.  For this reason we cannot find one single  wellworked gallery in such mines. The richest ore is torn from the mine, and less rich ore
remains untouched to be taken out when' la bonanza' ceases. It is difficult to understand
why in times of prosperity a small portion of the yield is not spent to make new developments.
ABANDONMENT OF THE MINE.-" The pay streak once traversed, and the increased depth
rendering the price of extraction too considerable, the'bonanza' ceases.  The less rich ore
left in the mine is now taken out, and one of the greatest expenses being the keeping down
of the water, the lower qualities of ore are abandoned.
"The reserved middle class of ores will pay expenses to explore the mine for a while, but
the time arrives when a day's work, or the value of a pound of ore, ceases to pay, and the
mine is thereafter entirely abandoned."
The author of the above description of mining operations in Mexico, written 25 years ago,
could not have given a more truthful account of operations in the Comstock lode had he
spent the last six or seven years in Virginia City.  Our mining companies have been pursuing exactly the same course, and have followed in the footsteps of their Mexican predecessors.  Ruin of the owners and abandonment of the mines has been the result there; ruin
and abandonment must follow upon the suicidal course pursued here.
MINING IN EUROPE.-If we turn to Europe, however, we find that mining is carried on
with intelligence, economy, and with a view to permanency.  In England but few mines
are located at any considerable elevation above sea level, and deep drainage by adits is
impossible. But each mine has its adit, however small its depth may be beneath the surface,
and in stating the depth of shafts in England they are given from the adit downwards; what
is above the adit is not counted at all.
The most remarkable work of this kind in Great Britain is the great adit in Cornwall, of
which an English writer says:
"The advantages of working mines by adits are well shown at the United mines, near
Redruth, where an adit has been driven, commencing only a few feet above the sea level,
which, with its branches, has a length of from 30 to 40 miles, and a depth under the mines
of from 180 to 420 feet. By means of this work a saving in the consumption of coal is
effected amounting to 24,000 tons per annum. This magnificent undertaking was completed
in 1768."
MINES IN GERMANY. -The mines in Germany present i)y far the finest field for studying
mining operations reduced to a science. There mining schools and learned professors have
for years prepared young men, who were to be placed in charge of mines, with a thorough
knowledge of all the varied branches required of mining engineers. It is owing quite as
much to intelligent management as to the low rates of wages that mines are profitably
worked in Germany which would be considered valueless in California or Nevada. There
we see the most complete systems of drainage and ventilation, and mines placed beyond the
390 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
usual contingencies of such enterprises, yielding nearly uniform dividends, and regarded by
capitalists as good security for investment.
THE FRIEBERG DISTRICT.-A few years since it was proposed to drain the Frieberg mining district by an adit-level of the extraordinary length of 24  mliles, which would  cut the
vein at a mean depth of 2,000 feet.  This plan was vigorously supported by Ton Beust and
other eminent mining engineers, and received the sanction of the Saxon government.  This
gigantic work has not yet been commenced, but a deep adit is now being driven, which will
drain the mines 400 feet below the present deepest natural drainage, and will have a length
of a little over eight miles.  It is eight feet wide, nearly 10 feet high, and rises in the whole
distance 12 feet 6 inches.
In the Harz district some mines have attained an immense depth.  The mine of Andreasberg has a depth of 2,450 feet, being one of the deepest mines in the world: adits have been
there for centuries, the largest of which was completed three years ago.
THE ERNST AUGUST TUNNEL.-We make the followingfr condensed extract from a report
made by Dr. Geissler concerning this great work, called the Ernst August tunnel, after the
late King of Hanover:
"On the 22d of June, 1864, a drain tunnel was completed which may be called the greatest work of the kind ever executed. To explain its objects and importance it will be necessary to give the following details:
"The mines of the Harz were about to be abandoned, or, more properly speaking, about
to be drowned out by water beyond redemption. In the course of time the explorations in
those mines went deeper and deeper, until they reached a depth of 2,000 feet.  While the
higher situated galleries ceased to yield pay ore in sufficient quantity, the exceedingly rich
ores discovered in the lowest levels could not be reached on account of great bodies of water,
which pumps and engines could not master, and the lower levels had to be, for the time
being, abandoned,
"There have been drain tunnels in the ITarz for a long time, which were used as canals
for the transportation of ores. Already at the commencement of the 16th century mechanical means to remove the water from the mines were insufficient, and drain tunnels were constructed at that early period. The first tunnel was commenced in 1525, another in 1548, one
in 1551, and still another in 1573.  By aid of these tunnels mining was continued in those
districts for 200 years, but about the middle of the last century it became difficult again to
master the water.
"In 1799 another deep tunnel-having a length, including gaileries, of 57,000 feet, or
nearly 11 miles-was completed. But this also, afterwards, was considered insufficient for
future purposes, for notwithstanding additional engines might have been used for a while,
their dimensions and cost in mines which had reached such an enormous depth would have
been very great. And, after all, the surest and cheapest way for water to be removed is by
its natural flow; the engines have enough to do in pumping the water up to the Ernst August
tunnel, as that gives the deepest natural drainage which can ever be obtained.
DESCRIPTION OF TUNNEL.-" In 1850, after careful surveys and due consideration, the
construction of the Ernst August Tunnel was resolved upon; it was to commence at Gittelde,
a little town at the foot of the Harz mountains, and it was estimated that 22 years would be
required for its completion, but it only took a little over half that time, for it was entirely
completed in 12 years and 11 months. Nine shafts had been sunk, from which 1IS galleries or drifts were run, and one from the mouth, so that the work progressed from 19 different points. The connections were made with such perfection that they could not be recognized after they were completed.
"This tunnel has a uniform fall of 5 -4- inches to each 630 feet, or I in 1,400; its height
is eight feet three inches; its width, five feet six inches, and its shape that of an egg.  The
water has a sufficient depth to allow the use of long flat-boats, for the transportation of ore.
A part of the water-course is covered over, to be used as a sidewalk for the miners."
NECESSITY OF A TUNNEL TO THE COMSTOCK LODE.-We have thus far reviewed the
results of mining experience where drain tunnels have not been, and where they have been
constructed, and the conclusion your committee arrives at is, that a deep drain tunnel to the
Comstock lode will not only greatly facilitate mining operations, but is an absolute necessity;
the sooneer it is constructed the more benefit will be derived therefrom, and without it nothing
is more certain than the abandonment of those mines before the lapse of many years.
The necessity of the tunnel having been sufficiently demonstrated, it remains to show that
the ore which will probably be obtained from these mines will justify the cost of construction.
The first question to be examined is, whether the ore in the Comstock lode extends to an
unlimited depth. This question has been so ably handled by Baron Richthofen, an eminent
geologist of the highest European reputation, that we content ourselves by giving some
extracts from a letter written by him upon this subject, in February, 1865, and published in
one of the pamphlets issued by the Sutro Tunnel Company.   For a more detailed account
of the geology of the Washoe country we refer to his able report, to be seen on the tables of
this institute.
CONTINUITY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE.-The learned Baron says:'The value of a deep
tunnel will, of course, chiefly depend upon the question whether these mines will ever be
worked to considerable depth; that is, whether the Comstock vein will extend far down, and
391 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
whether it wvill retain its metalliferous character in depth.  Both questions will have to be
decided from the study of the structure and nature of the Comstock vein, and from compar
iDg the results with the observations at such mines in other countries which have already
been worked to great depth.  My experience on the Comstock vein is based on close and
repeated examinations of nearly all the mines on its course.  I believe I concur with almost
everybody who has bad equal experience about them, in the opinion that it is a true fissure
vein, of extraordinary length, and extending downwards  much further than any mining
works will ever be able to be carried on.  It would be too lengthy to enumerate the various
reasons which lead most positively to this conclusion. It is now assumed almost universally
as a fact, and tb.he number of those who consider it as a gash vein, or a system of gash veins,
is fast diminishing.
"As to the downward continuance of the ore-bearing character, every instance goes to
show that the average yield in precious metals remains about the same at every depth.
Some mines had accumulations of ore near the surface, (Ophir, Mexican, Gold  Hill;) in
others they commenced very near under the surface, (Gould and Curry, Potosi, Yellow
Jacket, Belcher;) at others, again, considerable work had to be done before bodies of ore of
any amount were struck, (Chol]ar, the southern part of Gold Hill, Uncle Sam, and others;)
and some which had no ore heretofore, appear to have good prospects to find it soon. The
/act that some rich bodies of ore, which were found near the surface, gave out at a depth of
a few hundred feet, induced the common belief that the Comstock vein was becoming poorer
in its lower parts. But the explorations of the last few months have entirely defeated this
opinion. On the contrary, the enormous amount of bullion which is being produced by the
mines at present may almost appear to prove that the vein is improving in depth. But this
conclusion is probably equally fallacious, as it must be borne in mind that many mines have
been developed at different levels and ore is being extracted from several of those. Hoisting
works and the mode of extracting the ore have also been improved, and of course help to
increase the daily produce. This average equality of the produce of the vein at different
levels is not only true for the amount of ore extracted but also for its yield. The rich body
of ore in the Ophir and Mexican mines forms the only exception to this rule, as none of equal
average percentage in silver and gold has been found again. Even the relative proportion
of gold and silver in the ore has not undergone any material change, though the bullion, on
account of the more imperfect process of reduction, contained at first proportionally more
gold than at present.
"There is no reason to doubt that the equality of average produce and yield throughout
the entire length of the vein will continue downward to any depth; besides the very obvious theoretical conclusion that vast amounts of silver could not be carried into the fissure
frem the overlying or enclosing rocks, but naturally had to rise from unknown depths,
throligh the channel of the fissure itself, to be deposited in it where the conditions for sl,bliination or precipitation were given in its open space; experience in other countries by no
means shows of a regular decrease or increase in yield as of common occurrence, though
either of them may happen. More commonly, the produce of true fissure veins in precious
metals has been found to be about constant."
The Baron wrote the above over two years ago; the explorations made since that time in
the Hale and Norcross and other mines, strongly confirm the views expressed by him.
Nearly all writers who have specially studied the question of the continuance of mineral
veins in depth have arrived at the same conclusion. We will give an extract upon this subject from an eminent French writer, M. Burat. He says:
"In all countries where isolated veins are worked, a large number of them have been
abandoned and taken up again; abandoned because accidents or barren streaks rendered the
working burdensome, and afterwards taken up again, when they have, by the aid of capital,
been made productive mines.  The same veins have been declared to be rich or exhausted
for these reasons at different times; exhausted always when the owners were discouraged,
and rich after the execution of further works had pierced the barren places.  These are the
facts of which we will relate several examples, and by which we intend to prove that each
reworking of a vein after an abandonment more or less long, bears witness of the continuity
of mineral veins in depth."
Burat and other prominent writers recite numerous instances of this kind, but we cannot
give place to them in this report.
THE SUTRO TUNNEL.
The proposed tunnel begins 31 miles below Dayton, between Corral and Webber cations.
The distance from the mouth of the tunnel to the Savage Works is a little over four miles, but
as the Comstock lode dips to the east, it will be cut in 20,178 feet.  It will pass through the
different ledges in Silver Star and other districts nearly at right angles. Allowing a grade
of one inch in 100 feet, or four and four-tenths feet per mile, it will be 1,922 feet below the
floor of the Savage Works. The topography of the country is admirably adapted for sinking
shafts, four of which are proposed to be put down. They will not only supply the tunnel
with fresh air, but will greatly expedite work, as drifts can be run each way after reaching
the grade of the tunnel.  The distance of the first shaft from the mouth of the tunnel is 4,070
feet; depth, 443 feet; second shaft from first, 5,150 feet; depth, 980 feet; third shaft from
392 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
second, 4,060 feet; depth, 1,436 feet; fourth shaft from third, 4,654 feet; depth, 1,360 feet;
from fourth shaft to Comstock lode, 2,244 feet; depth, 1,942 feet. These are convenient distances for working and ventilation.  The mouth is about one and a half mile from Carson
river, and 150 feet above high-water mark. There is a gradual descent for about one-third
of a mile, in which a fall of 100 feet is obtained, giving sufficient area for dumping and mill
sites.
The vertical section of the tunnel through rock not requiring any support is a circle of 12
feet diameter, with offsets 3. feet from the bottom, about one foot wide, which support the
superstructure of the railroad track to be used for removing ore and debris from the mine.
The space under the superstructure is for drawing the water from the lode. Where timber
supports are required to sustain the adjacent rock, the top is level, and 10 feet wide, clear of
the framing; height eight feet to the bottom of the timbers supporting the railroad, where it
is 12 feet wide in the clear. Below this there is a triangular space, three feet seven inches in
depth, forming the water way.
The estimates of the cost of construction have been very ably discussed in a lengthy report
by R. G. Carlyle, esq., covering some 200 pages of manuscript, and illustrated by numerous
well-executed diagrams.  Mr. Carlyle has resided some years in Virginia City, when he was
the engineer of the Gould and Curry Company, and appears to be thoroughly familiar with
everything connected with mining in that country. The minuteness with which he goes into
the details of the proposed work, the elaborate calculations into which he enters, and the
scrupulous manner in which he weighs his conclusions, entitle his report to careful consideration.
It is impossible for us to give more than a condensed abstract of the results he has obtained.
The basis of his calculations is the experience of himself and others in mining near Virginia
City, and the statements of Baron Richthofen in regard to the character of the material
encountered in the construction of the tunnel. The Baron says:
"The facilities of excavating the tunnel would depend mainly upon the quality of the
rock through which it will pass.  It is a remarkably fortunate incident that the route selected
by Mr. Sutro not only gives the greatest depth, is the shortest, has the best facilities for
working shafts, but promises also in this respect to be the most advantageous.  The first
6,000 or 7,000 feet will be through trachyte and trachytic breccia, which in a broad semicircular belt of prominent hills, swing from Dayton  by the Sugarloaf to Washoe valley.
Trachytic breccia may easily be worked by the pick, yet is ordinarily solid and dry enough
Lo require no timbering. An idea of its excellent qualities for tunnelling may be foirmed
from the fact that in Hungary wine cellars hundreds of feet in length are with preference
excavated in this kind of rock. The solid trachyte is an excellent blasting rock. Its superior qualities have caused its general use in Washoe for building material; it was as such
applied in the construction of the solid masonry of Gould and Curry mill.  With the use of
the drilling machine of Mount Cenis, speedy worsk will be made in this rock. The next
2,500 feet will, to all probability, exhibit a great variety of rock, some of which will be rather
hard. The following 10,000 feet to the cutting of the vein will most likely consist of the
same material as is traversed by the numerous tunnels which lead at present to the Comstock
vein.  This rock (trachytic greenstone) would offer some obstacles if it were in an undecomposed state.  But from the general nature of its decomposition, which evidently was performed from below by ascending steams and vapors during a time of volcanic action, we
believe we are justified in the conclusion that it will be found for the entire length of 10,000
feet of the same rotten nature as in the shallow tunnels at present in existence, and it may
have to be timbered the whole distance."
Mr. Carlyle speaks as follows in regard to his experience with the two principal kinds of
rock to be encountered:
"While I was in the employ of the Gould and Curry as their chief engineer, we used solid
trachyte for building purposes, taken from a quarry on the side of the Sugarloaf mountain.
I had, therefore, considerable opportunity of learning the particular characteristics of the
stone.  It is not porous, but is very close in its nature, has very few seams, no grains or
special tendency to fracture in any particular direction. It is rather soft, and, in consequence,
is easily drilled to any desired shape. The rock drills well and blasts freely, as it does not
seem to have much cohesion on account of its many component parts. The rock does not air slack; on the contrary, it grows harder by exposure."
This rock is extensively used for building purposes; all the stone buildings in the town of
Dayton are constructed of it.
His experience in working greenstone porphyry he gives as follows:
"This class of rock is traversed by several tunnels to the Comstock lode, all of which were
easily worked, and they had to be supported by timber.  The Gould and Curry lower tunnel
is the only exception to this, as it passed through 1,400 feet of undecomposed rock, which
was not difficult to work on account of its favorable stratification; powder was used but to
a small extent, and this for the purpose only of shaking the mass. The remaining 800 feet
to the lode had to be timbered, as the rock would not support itself. The whole length of
this tunnel, 2,200 feet, was run fiom one working point in 486 working days, or 16 months;
the work, however, was distributed over a period of two years, as it did not progress steadily.
The average daily progress was nearly five feet."
393 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Mr. Carlyle estimates that 10,535 lineal feet of tunnel will be through solid rock, and
9,643 through decomposed rock requiring timbering,
Shaft No. I is 71 feet by 131 feet, and shafts Nos. 2, 3, and 4 are 7A feet by 14 feet, outside
of planking. They are timbered and planked from top to bottom, and divided into twocompartments-one for pumping out the water, and the other for raising the excavated material.
Preliminary tunnels are driven from the bottom of these shafts in both directions till they
meet.  These tunnels are in solid rock, five feet in width and seven feet high, the top being
a semicircle. In rock requiring timbering they are of a box-shape, four feet wide on top, five
feet on bottom, and six feet four inches inside of the timbering, with a channel below for
drainage.
TIMIi  REQUIRED TO FINIShI TUNNEL.-" The time required to sink the dlifferent shafts
on the Sutro tunnel, and make connections of the drifts from the same, I estimate as follows, on the basis that four feet can be sunk per day on the shafts, and five feet made on
the drifts:
"Connection from drift No. 1 in 462 working days.
"Connection from drift No. 2 in 693 working days.
"Connection from drift No. 3 in 708 working days.
"Connection from drift No. 4 in 815 working days.
"Since all these shafts would be progressing at the same time, the connections from shafts
Nos. 1, 2, and 3 will be made before those of No. 4, and the whole time, therefore, required
to finish a preliminary tunnel to the Comstock lode would be 815 days.
"The enlargement of this preliminary tunnel will progress from the mouth from time to
time as the connections are made, and will be completed up to a point midway between shafts
three and four by the time the last connection is finished.  From that point 4,618 feet would
still remain to be enlarged, which would occupy 116 days.  The total time, therefore,
required to complete the Sutro tunnel to the Comstock lode would be 931 days, or two years,
six months, and 21 days."
The committee would remark in regard to the removal of the rock for 4,618 feet, that estimating the sectional area at nine yards, the amount is only 13,854 cubic yards, on which, as
the cut can be worked all along the top and at the two ends, sufficient number of men can
be employed to remove it in the time indicated.
Mlr. Carlyle then cites numerous instances of shafts sunk by different companies, and tun.
nels driven to the Comstock lode, which prove that his estimate of four feet per day in sinking
shafts, and five feet in driving tunnels, whenever prosecuted with energy, is confirmed by
experience making due allow ance for their size and other circumstances, which in some cases
have retarded work.
Your committee are of the opinion that, with proper energy, a sufficiency of capital, and
provided no extraordinary obstacles are encountered, the tunnel might be fihished in the time
stated, but it is so well known that delays are met with in works of this kind, from causes
impossible to anticipate, that it is probable that an additional time of least one year may be
occupied.  It is safb to say that, making all due allowance for contingencies, the tunnel can
be completed in from three and a half to four years.
SECTION  XX.
EASTERN NEVADA.
The eastern Nevada mining region, as the term is used, is understood to include
that part of Nevada constituting the counties of Lander, Nye, and Lincoln; being
considerably more than half the State; or embracing an area of three and a half
degrees of longitude and seven of latitude, if we include the portion of territory
taken from Arizona and added to this State by an act of the 39th Congress;
making an aggregate of about 60,000 square miles, or an area equal to the entire
State of New Yorkl, with several of the lesser New England States added. This
great region, at the beginning of the present decade, was almost entirely unknown
to the world, as it was unoccupied and unexplored, save one or two routes travelled
by the emigirant from the valley of the Mississippi to the Pacific coast.  It had
been crossed along the line of the Humboldt river, and upon the more direct
route, part of which is now the road taken by the great overland mail.   Fremont
and other explorers had also crossed by different routes, but they had regarded
it as a sterile waste, and without looking for minerals or what might give value
to the country, sought only for routes or passes by whichl they could most expe
394 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ditiously leave it.  So little was learned from these explorations that until
within a few years past the country had been tarlked upon the maps as an unex  plored  region, generally destitute of vegetation and water, and sparsely occupied
by a homeless, wanderling, and degraded race of Indians.  The desolation and
sterility, not only of this particular region, but of all the country lying between
the Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada, had become so generally aclknowl  edg,ed, that the wish had been expressed that these ranges of mountains iuiglht
come together, and this great region be obliterated from the surface of the earth.
The general appearance of the country throughout the " great basin" indicates
that a partial elimination has taken place, as, topographically it presents the
appearance of having once been a vast plain, which being pressed by the two
great mountain ranges bordering on the east and west, broke or wrinkled the
surface into parallel ridges and valleys vwhlose axial lines quite regularly extend
north and south. These corrugations are a prominent characteristic of the country
south of the Humboldt river, and north of the 36th parallel of latitude.  A pecu liar feature of this seotion is, that it has no outlet to the sea, but its streams,
which, though generally small, are quite numnerous, flow from  the imountains to
the valleys, sometimes for a considerable distance in the valleys, and then are
lost in the sand.   The mountains, whilch rise precipitously, are firom a few
hundred to 5,000 feet above the subjacent plain, and as the general elevation
of the plains is about 5,000 feet above the sea, the most lofty peaks attain an
altitude above tide-water of 10,000 feet.  These hills and mountains are usually
covered with scanty patches of pine, cedar, and imahogany trees, furnishing excel lent fuel, but generally valueless for building material, althoug,h the  are local ities where there are groves of pine, from lwhich a fair quality of lumber is manufactured.   These hills and valleys, if forbidding in their general aspect, and
apparently barren, produce a most excellent and nutricious species of bunch grass,
and constitute a very superior grazing country; while in the many canons of the
mountains, and in all the large valleys, are tracts of land of an exceedingly productive character.  The lands susceptible of profitable tillage amount in the
ggrecgate to a considerable area, and are capable of furnishing most of the pro(Iducts of the farm grown in temperate climates.  The      grasses, grain, and vegetables are of good quality.  Agriculture and manufactures can be conducted on
a limited scale, and will be great assistants to the chief resource of the countryinining.  The mineral-bearing veins of eastern Nevada  were first made known
in 1862, at the time when attention was called to the subject by the developminents made upon the a Comstock ledge," and from vwhich near $75,000,000 of
silver have been taken. The history of this discovery says:
Early in the month of May, 1862, William H. Talcott, an attach6 of the stage station at
Jacobs's Springs, a post on the transcontinental stage route, while hauling wood from the
hillside, now within the limits of the city of Austin, discovererl a vein of metal-bearing quartz,
and carried a small quantity with him to the station. The rock proving to contain silver, the
ledge was located as a mining claim, and named the Pony, as the discoverer had formerly
been a rider of the pony express.  On the 10th day of May, 1862, a mining district was
formed, including an area 75 miles in length east and west, and 20 miles north and south,
and named the Reese river mining district.  A code of laws was adopted after the custom
of miners, and William M. Talcott, the discoverer, elected recorder, and the claims already
discovered were recorded.
The extent of the district east and west is nominally 75 miles, but really it
only extends from the western base of the mountain to the summit, about three
miles.
This was the inauguration of the Reese river mining region.   Its name is
derived from  a small stream called Reese river, flowing tfrom south to north
through the valley wvhich borders the western base of the mountains. The extreme
length of Reese river is about 150 miles, when it empties into the Htumboldt,
but the water usually sinks and is lost before reaching the latter stream.  The
valley averages about five miles in width, and contains some good  agricuLltural
395 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
land.  The mountain range in which the silver was found received the name of
"ToiyabDee," an Indian word, meaning a range of hills.  This range is of about
the same length as the river, and is from 5 to 15 miles broad through its base,
and rises above the subjacent valley from 1,000 to 5,000 feet.  It is geologically
composed of primitive rocks, of wvhichl granite or gneiss and slate are the principal, with quartzite, limestone, serpentine, porphyry, and others as occasional
varieties.  In all are found veins of quartz-beariing gold, silver, copper, lead,
antimnony, and other metals. In its general character, appearance, and formation it resembles the numerous other ridges running parallel to it through the
country, and from 10 to 30 miles distant from each other, separated by valleys
generally containing a proportion of tolerable soil, yet unoccupied and irreclaimed.
The discovery of silver being made known, the news spread rapidly and the
people flocked to the locality.  Situated on the line of the overland stage and
telegraph, it was convenient to reach.  The site for a large town was surveyed,
and Austin was built; now incorporated as a city, with its mayor and board of
aldermen, city officers, police, a city hall, a daily newspaper, saloons and stores,
a national bank, private banks and assay offices, costly churches, public and private schools, public halls and lecture rooms, comfortable private dwellings, gasworkls for lighting the city, water-works and pipes supplying the houses, sewered
streets, stages running in all directions, and the telegraph connecting it with all
parts of the world-in fact, possessing the usual features of a city. Referring again
to the history of Austin in the directory of the city, the writer says:  " Centrally
in the State of Nevada is the young and happy city of Austin. Should its
locality be sought for on the map of America, it will be found where is usually
marked the vacancy of the'unexplored regionsa,' in latitude 30~ 29' 30//, and
in longitude west from Washington 40~ 4', or 117~  5' west from Greenwich,
Eingland, being almost precisely in the geogfraphical centre of Nevada."
This centre is conveniently reached from  the east or west, and without hardship or danger.  The great trans-continental highway runs through it with a
daily stage, mail, and express.  Two other stages, running between Austin and
the Pacific, carry passengers and frei,ght at very low rates.  By daily stage the
journey from San Francisco to Austin is performed in four days, at the cost of
$50.  By the other stages the time is greater by one or iiiore days;  the cost is
from $15 to 830.  The road is good, and  freight wagons bearing 10,000 to 15,000
pounds weight are taken over it.  The distance to Saon Francisco is 473 miles,
of which more than half is travelled by steamboat and railroad.  From the east
the traveller leaves the MIissouri river by the cars of the Union Pacific railroad
or its branches. After the present year (1867) the cars will quickly and easily
bear him 600 miles westward over the great plains, and thence by stage 900
miles through Bridger Pass by Salt Lake to Austin, requiring about 10 days of
travel. Great bodies of immigrants cross annually with their own conveyances,
subsisting their animals upon the native grasses, or, as may be done at the present
time, purchasing forage which is produced at the settlements along the road.
This mode of travel greatly lessens the expense, but requires from 40 to 60 days
for the journey.
The laws and customs of Nevada, which are recognized by the government of the
United States, permit miners upon the discovery of metal-bearing lodes in an unoccupied locality to organize a mining district, designate its bounds, pass a code of
laws regulating the location and tenure of mining property, and choose a recorder
of locations. These districts are usually from 10 to 20 miles square, though governed by the physical features of the country and the contiguity of other districts.
REESE RIVER DISTRICT-IIow CLAIMS ARE AcQUI}iED.-Reese River district, Lander county, was the first organized, and has given its name to the
surrounding country. Its mineral belt comprises an area on the western slope
of the Toiyabee mountains, about two miles in width and seven in length.
Tthe dimensions were formerly greater, but the area mentioned comprises what
396 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
is now considered as the district.  Upon organization a code of laws was adopted
regulating the size and manner of location of miuing claims.   The law as first
passed accorded to the locators of a vein the ground and all the mineral it contained for a width of 200 feet onl each side of the vein located.  In a few months
large additions were made to the population, and the law was amended so as to
restrict ownership to the lode or vein actually discovered and located, with the
privilege of occupying the surface necessary for working the mine.  The mining
laws of other districts in eastern Nevada do not differ materially from those of
Reese river.  The laws of Congress acknowledge the validity of these rules
and permit miners to go upon the public lands and take possession of the mines,
promising no interference. These laws explain themselves. The ground is
public and open to all the world.  Any mail can go upon it, and by finding a
vein of gold, or silver, or any other ore can make it his own, and is assured and
protected inll his title. In no other country is such a privilege given. A country
stored with wealth invites the people of all the earth to come and take possession
and become independent land-owners and miners.
Within the limits of the district over 6,000 locations have been made, but this
does not indicate the numiber of distinct silver-bearing veins klnownl to exist.
There are many hundreds of knownl value.  These veins are in the granite rock,
and are from six inches to three feet in thickness.  They generally lie parallel
to each other, with a strike northwest and southeast and a dip to the northeast.
A movement of the rock has at somne places been made, and these ledg,es are
broken or have " faults," and the angle of their dip is not so great.
3IODE OF WOnKRING.-The veiins are usually explored by means of an inclined
shaft commencing where the ore appears at the surface, and following down with
the dip of the ledge. WVhen, after thus sinking a distance sufficient to render
certain the existence and( character of the vein, it is thlought desirable to open it
as a mine, and to work it conveniently, a perpendicular shaft is sunk at a point
some distance from the outcrop, as the ground permits, calculating to pierce the
vein at a depth of 100 feet or more beneath the surface.  These shafts are of
different dimensions, the best being about 5 by 15 feet.  The cost of sinking
such a shaft and securely timbering it is about $60 per foot of depth.
DEscrIPTION OF OPr:ES.-A belt of silver-bearing veins runs fiom 3Iarshall
callon, in  the southern part of the district. northerly to the Arrmador district, a
distance of about six miles.  This belt is about half a mile in wvidth.  Inl it are
a great number of parallel veins similar in character and generally rich.  The
different localities are designated as follows, commencing at the south: Miguel
cailon, MIarshall's caioin, Union hill, Central hill, Lander hill, Emitrant caionl,
Telegraph canion, Yankee Blade, and New York ravine, the northern line of the
district separating it from Amadclor.  Each of these localities is locally known
for its particular mines in the more advanced stages of development.  Those of
the district most systematically opened are the Great Eastern, Timoke, Oregonl,
North Star, Florida, lagnolia, Savage, Diana, Trov, Butel North Star, Providenicia, Ialeseed, and some others on Lander lhill, in the city of Austin, and
within an area of a few lhundred yards square.  These are veins, the gantgue
being quartz, of 10 inches to two feet in width, of lii,lily concentrated ore, easily
and cheaply miined.  On Central hill are the North RIiver, lHubbard, Naiad
Queen, Penobscot, and others, vlwhich are well developed and lhave produced a
considerable amount of bullion.  On Union hill are the Wlhilatch Union,
Camargo, Silver Chamber, and Tuscarora, from which bullion has been taken.
At Yankee Blade and in the vicinity are the Confidence,'laggie, Ontario, YJnkee Blade, Whitlatch Yankee Blade, Miami, Chase, MIetacom, MIidas, Green
Emigraint, Vineyard, Vedder, and Sclavonia, most developed and of the best
promise, while many others are located, partially developed, and regarded as
valuable. A catalogue of the locations made in the district, or an opinion
regarding them, would be useless; many have been abandoned after some slight
397 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
developments.  The general character of the ore throughout the distri(ct is the
same in the same relative positions. At the surface, and to the depth of 50 to
70 feet, where water is found, the vein matter is loose and friable, has a dirty or
earth-stained appearance, and the silver is found in the form of a chloride ore,
presenting a dark or straw-colored appearance.   W'hen the water is reached the
vein matter shows the white, clear quaitz, and the ore, then usually an antimonial sulphuret, is quite black, and, contrasted with the white quartz, presents a
beautiful appearance.  Its value is readily ascertained by one experienced in
observing it.  The ore taken from below, where the water has long existed in
the earth, often contains beautiful crystals of silver.  From these mines are
obtained specimens which adorn the cabinets of the mrnineralogists, the lovers of
the beautiful and unique, and the curiosity hlunter.
The limits of this report do not permit a full description of the varieties of
ores, nor the discussion of the formations of the veins. It will suffice to notice
the manner of their development, and to show their value.  In the district, as
has been said, are more than 6,000 locations of mines of 500 to 2,000 feet each.
Probably 1,000 of these have been so far developed as to prove that they possess a value; but of this number only a few are at present mined. A descrip..
tion of a few of the most noted on Lander hill will give an insight into the
character of all and an idea of the extent of operations to be undertaken in the
future.
THaE NORTI STAR, belonging to the Manhattan Company, was located in
1S62.  In its first stages of development it was opened by an incline, which
exposed chloride of silver ore, and was mined with some profit. At a greater
depth the ore was a sulphuret.  Subsequently a perpendicular shaft was sunk,
piercing the vein at the depth of 200 feet, and with powerful steam hoisting
machinery the mine is still worked with profit.  The vein is encased in granite,
is generally about 14 inches in width, and is mined without the aid of powder.
In February last, of some hundreds of tons mined and reduced at the mill of the
company, the average product was $240 per ton of 2,000 pounds.  The workings of the quarter ending June 30 showv 507 tons, and a product of $149  40
per ton.  The ore found in this mine, as in all the others in the district when
below the line of permanent water, is commonly denominated a sulphuret,
although it comprises several varieties of ore containing sulphur.
THE OREGON is a parallel vein within a few hundred feet of the North Star,
belongs to the same company, is worked. by the aid of the same machinery, and
in all respects resembles it.
THE GnPEAT EASrTEPx is opened by a perpendicular shaft, and is advantageously' worked.  In one month, to the labor of 30 men it produced 137 tons of
ore, whichl returned of bullion an average of $346 77 per ton, or an aggregate
of $47,507 50.  The vein is from 10 to 30 inchies in thickness, averaging perliaps 18 inches. The gangue is a clear white quartz, and the ore, which constituites a large percentage of the vein, is an antimonial sulphuret, or, as locally
termed, a ruby silver, firom its dark red or ruby color. Tile mine was first opened
by an incline followivng the inclination of the ledge, which dipped at an angle
of about 30~ from a horizontal, to the depth of 250 feet, developing much good
ore, althlougll the vein was very narrow.  For the better opening of the mine a
perpendicular shaft was sunk at a distance of 400 feet northeast of the croppings,
which pierced the ledge at a depth of 300 feet.  At this depth it was found of
greater size and value than in the incline.  It is unfortunate that at the date of
this report the workinlgs should be in barren rock.  A depth of 350 feet has
been reached, and extensive explorations have been made without finding ore of
the quality which heretofore made its workings so profitable.   The mine is
worked through the vertical shaft before spoken of, which is divided into compartments to create a current of air, that passes down one compartment and up
another, affording excellent ventilation. At the greatest depth (350 feet) the
398 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
temperature is 60~ Fahrenheit.*  The altitude of thie surface is about 6,000 feet
above the sea   The mine is easily drained, dischiarging 20,000 gallons daily.
The water is raised in a bucket by a steam engine of 50-horse power, whichi also
dloes the work of hoisting the ore and waste rock from the mine, whichl amounts
to C) tons per diem.  The cost of transporting the ore to the mill and milling
is as agreed upon. If the entire amount of bullion produced or the "1 clean-up"
is returned the charge is $65 per ton; but if the miller agrees to return 80 per
centurm of thle assay value of the ore, the charge is $45 per ton.
THE FLorIDA vein presents many characteristics of the Great Eastern, is in
size about the same, and furnishes the same quality of ore.  It is owned by the
New York an([ Austin Silver Mining Company, and is mined under the superintendence of Mr. Edwin A. Sherman, a skilful mining engineer.  The claim is
800 feet in length, and is situated near the centre of the belt passing through
Lander hill.  Its strike follows the general direction of veins through the hill,
being northwest and southeast, its dip being 29~ from a horizontal plane.  Its
development under the present management commenced August 18, 1866. It is
opened by an inclined shaft following the vein, and has now reached a depth of
350 feet.  From this incline three levels are running; the first at a depth of 150
feet, whlich has extended to the northwest 65 feet, and above which for a width
of 30 feet the ore is mined out.  Through this mining the average width of the
vein is 10 inches.  The second level is 50 feet below the first, and between the
two all the ore has been mined.  This level extends to the southeast a distance
of 230 feet, and the ore has been taken out for a width of 30 feet above the
level along 100 feet of it.  The average width of the vein througih this working
was eight inches.  A third level is run at a depth of 300 feet, which has reaclled
a length of about 30 feet on each side of the incline.  Along this level the vein
has a thickness of 16 inches.  The amount of levels run in the past year aggregate 760 lineal feet, making 32,000 cubic feet of rock removed from the avenues alone in the development of the mine, and about 18,000 more have been
removed in the excavations necessary in taking out the ore, making  an aggregate of 50,000 cubic feet of country rock actually removed friom the mine, or a
small fraction over 4,000 tons. The number of tons of ore taken from the mine
in this time is 317, 28 of which have not been worked.   From tile ore worked,
288 tons and 1,679 pounds, there has been produced $74,823 82, or an average
of $259 per ton of 2,000 pounds.  The actual cost of working this mine to produce the above sum has been $65,740 21, leaving a net profit of $9,083  61.
Thle expenses include officers, rent, taxes, &c., &C. To the profits should be
added the value of the levels run to be used in the further operations of mining,
whichi, at a reasonable estimate, should be $15,000; also a property above ground
on the mine worth $5,000 more.  The above statement is for the 10 months
ending June 30, 1867.  Since then machinery has been erected for hoisting, of
the value of $10,000, and about $5,000 worth of ore taken out and hlauled to
the mill ready for crushing; so that thus far it may be fairly stated that the mine
has paid the expense of its development, including the cost of machinery, &c.,
with a value of not less than $30,000 above ground, and the value of worki
performed for future benefit.
TiHE SHERMAN  SHrAFT.-On the 7th day of February last was commenced
the Sherman shaft by the superintendent of the Florida mine, in honor of whom
it is named.  This shaft it is designed to sink to the depth of 1,000 feet, and as
much deeper as it shall be found practicable to go. Its dimensions are 5 by 15
feet; it is timbered or lined with plank three inches in thickness, and by the
same character of planking is divided into three compartments.   Up to July 28
A depth of 175 feet had been reached, all of which is substantially timbered.
Water was reached at a depth of 145 feet.  The cost of sinking the shaft to the
present time has averaged $61 per foot, including all expenses.
I At 1st of August the temperature at the surface is 820.
399 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
THE BurNxs SHAFT is projected by the same engineer, is for the same companv, and is of the same plan and dimensions, and is named in honor of B. J.
Burns, local editor of the Daily Reese River Rcveille. It is situated on the
crest of Lander hill, as is the Sherman shaft; is, at its starting point, 150 feet
lower, and about one-fourth of a mile northwest of the latter.  It has reached a
depth of 80 feet, (July 28,) and has cost about the same per foot as the Sherman
shaft.
These two shafts are thie enterprises of the New York and Austin Silver AIining Company, and are designed for working the Florida, Semanthe, Rubicon,
Saratoga, and other ledges belonging to the company, and such other blind or
non-croppilng ledges as may be discovered in sinking; but more especially for
the penetration of the basin which is supposed to lie below the crust in which
the numerous and parallel fissure veins are found. To continue these shafts to
a great depth, heavy and powerful steam machinery of not less than 200-horse
power will be required on each, and deep levels must be run connecting the two
shafts.  The machinery for the Sherman shaft has already been contracted for,
and will be placed on the mine by the 1st of October of the present year. These
shafts are important and most promising enterprises, and, if carried out as designed,
will prove the wealth of Lander hill at a great depth.  It is expected they will
be completed in about three years.
THIlE 3]AGNOLIA is a location upon the same vein as the Florida, joining that
claim on the northwest, and of course in many respects it bears the same characteristics.  The vein is explored to the depth of about 250 feet, and bodies of
good ore have been developed. This mine is locally distinguished for the high
grade of ore that has been taken from it near the surface.  Its greater depths
are but little developed.
THE TiMOKE.-Lyinlg between the Great Eastern and the mines of the Manhlattan Company is the Timoke, a small mine, but one that has been profitably
w-orklied under the superintendence of W. F. Leon, for a company residing in
Boston, Massachusetts. The vein is from one to two feet in thickness, and in
general character is the same as the others of Lander hill.
PLYMOUTH SILVER MIINING COMPANY.-The Plymoutlh Silver Mining Company is organized under the laws of the State of New Yorkl.  It owns the Kaleseed, Parent, Zimmermnnan, and Jacob mines on Lander hill, lying in close proximity to each other and parallel, so that they may be well opened and worked by one
perpendicular shaft. Such a shaft is in course of construction under the superintendence of Charles C. Lane.  It is the intention to sink this shaft 400 feet,
108 of which has already been reached, (August 1.)  No very extensive mining
has been done upon these veins, only sufficient to give proof of their value
and to encourage thorough opening.  A few tons of ore from the Kaleseed lode
was lately reduced and showed a value for first-class ore of $1,763 02 per ton,
and the second class a value of $280 53 per ton. This ore was taken from a
depth of 25 feet from the surface. The veins are quite small, seldom exceedingr a foot in width, but the high grade of ore which characterizes these and other
veins of the neilghborhlood has made their working profitable.
THEn SAVAGE AND OTHER MiINEs.-The Savage, Morgan and Muncy, Diana,
Providencia, WhVitlatch, Union, Troy, Buel North Star, and many others in the
neighborhood, have been extensively mined and at times have been productive.
A description of each, where all are so much alike, would be exceedingly tedious.
It may be remarked that those mentioned, as well as others, are within an area
of a few hundred yards square, and that in the district are several miles of area
of equally good ground, judging from the slight developments made upon the
surface, and where undoubtedly as good mines could be opened as those menntoned. In the great mining enterprises of Virginia and Gold Hill in western
Nevada, where in the last six years near $70,000,000 have been taken from
the mines, there exists but one grand lode, the Comstock, which is divided through
400 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
its length into a great number of claims, or mines, many of which return largely
to their owners, while some return nothing.  This has been the most productive
vein in the world. In the Reese River district such a gigantic lode has not been
found, but there extends a belt some six miles in length and half a mile in width,
in which are innumerable small veins, such as here described, of highly concentrated ore, easily and cheaply mined.  From a few mines upon  this belt there
were produced in the last month $109,221 87.  There appears to be room for
many times the present mining operations, with the same proportion of production, yet the resulting figures are so great that one scarcely ventures to make
the calculation.  An increase based upon the full development of all the mines
of known value would amount to several millions of dollars monthly, from an
area not exceeding fifteen square miles, the utmost capacity of the district. Upon
a close examination of the ground the conviction is irresistible that there will be
a greatly increased production within a few years. A full development of the
district awaits the coming of the railroad, witlh capital, labor, and cheap subsistence.*
THI MILLS.-An enumeration of the mills in eastern Nevada, and their capacity, would give a wrong impression and seem incongruous in calculating the
production of bullion, without some explanation.  It imust be understood that it
requires more to constitute a mill than a set of stamps placed in battery, with an
engine to worlk them, and pans to amalgamate, or furnaces to roast the ore.  The
building requires to be well and substantially constructed; all its successive
parts to be systematically arranged; the power full and sufficient; and then
energetic, economical, and scientific management. MIany mills have been built
without due consideration as to what was required, and some upon experimental
plans which were not successful.  These have been failures, and now stand idle,
and should not be counted in the list.
'Mr. J. P. Kimble, in an interesting communication to the American Bureau of Mines,
of New York, says:
"The interests of the Reese river district are rapidly advancing under the improved treatment of its ores of all varieties, and more especially the utilization of those of lower grade,
which at first were generally discarded. Formerly only very rich ores would bear the cost
of milling and amalgamating, so greatly was this augmented by the incomplete extraction
of silver, as well as by their supply far below the capacity of the extensive mills, which
therefore could not steadily be kept in operation. Dry crushing and roasting preparatory to
amalgamation have effected something towards the utilization not only of the more refractory
antimoniated ores, but also those of medium grade and the richer tailings. In the mills of
Reese river the standard of yield is as high as from 80 to 85 per cent. of the absolute value
of the ores in silver, attained at a cost which has gradually fallen from $75 to from $40 to
$50 per ton.  The mills of Storey county using Comstock ores produce not more than 65
per cent. of their value, though enabled to work ores yielding as low as $15.  Thus there is
entailed upon the Comstock lode an annual loss of $7,000,000; upwards of $9,000,000 this
year, (1867.) The one thing needful above all in Nevada is the adoption of means, according to the varying circumstances and resources of different localities, to concentrate ores of
low grade, and, what is practically the same, the tailings or residue obtained in the dressing
of ores of better class. This is an object of far greater moment at present than the discovery
of mining ground in addition to what is already far in excess of available capital to develop.
The greater bulk of Reese river ores are at present valueless for want of cheap dressing and
concentration. In the deposits of that district as well as in the Comstock lode, first-class
ores in heavy bodies are of unfrequent occurrence. The average yield per ton of all Gould
& Curry ores reduced was nearly three times as rich in 1863 ($80 07) as in 1866, ($28,)
and in 1.860 ($156 62) was nearly twice, as rich as in 1863.  That of other leading mines on
the Comstock lode does not at present exceed $40 per ton, while in a majority of cases it falls
below $30. The books of the assessor for Lander county show 46 mines, mainly in the
Reese river district, to have produced more or less bullion during the quarter ending December 31, 1866.  The largest production of ore was by the Savage Consolidated mine, being
451 tons of an average yield of $103 25. The Great Eastern gave 287 tons, averagingo $217 94.
Of these 44 mines, two, producing lightly, yielded about $400 per ton of ore: three betweean.
$300 and $400; five between $200 and $300; 18 between $100 and $200  18 beic.w tl00.
26
401 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The mills of all classes nlow standing, the power, stamps, and districts, are as
follows:
follows:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name of mll.
No. of
stamps
20
10
5
10
5
20
15
10
5
8
10
16
5
10
20
4
10
10
20
20
10
10
*10
5
5
5
5
10
5
13
311
Manhattan...................................... —--------------------------------------- -----—......... -..... --
Boston................... —------------------------------------------------------
Silver Hill........................................ —----------------------------------------—... —------
California..................................... —----------------------------------------—...... —-------.
Long Island........................................... ------------ -
Keystone............................................. ----------—.
Midas.... —------------------------ ---------------------- --------
Metacom......................................................Ware.........................................................
Butte.........................................................- -
Empire and Silver State.......................................
Parrott............................................    ---—........- - -
Phelps................................................... —..... — - - - - -----
Pioneer............................................ —...........S. —--
Knickerbocker................................................     -
Rigby...... —-—....................................... --------------—......-.- -----
Pioneer -----------—......................................................
Martin's.................................................-..... ------
Stirling......................................................
Murphy......................................................
La Plata -—...........................................Nrh      e. —.
Buel's.............................................P -.......d 
Gould's.......................................................
Rutland...................................................... — -------—. —Social........................................................
Ilope.........................................................
Pioneer............................................ — -.......Valley............................................... ---------—..
Crescent......................................................
Cortez.............................................-...........
Total...................................................
* Light.
Other mills have been constructed and removed or dismantled, which have
been mentioned in other reports but do not appear in this. The above are either
in operation or in condition to be put in operation, although the arrangements of
some are such that they are run at too great expense to be profitable, or cannot
compete with others in doing custom worlk. The majority are standing still.
Mills are in course of construction as follows: One of 20 stamps at Smoky Valley district; one of 10 at Hot Creek; one of 40 and one of 20 at Philadelphia;
one of 20 at Pahranagat; one of 5 at. Banker Hill; one of 20 at Newark; one
of 20 at Egan, (Gold canon;) and others are in contemplation.
THE KEYSTONE MILL, at Austin, may be taken as a sample of its class, from
its arrangement, construction, and cost. It was built in 1865, by Mir. A. L. Page,
its chief owner and manager, with several additional buildings, as residence of
superintendent, stables, blacksmith shop and store-house, all of brick, at a total
cost of $91,800.  The mill is divided into four rooms or divisions: 1st, boiler
and engine room; 2d, battery room; 3d, furnace room; and 4th, amalgamating
room. The first three occupy the front, and the last is in the rear of the battery
room. Their dimensions are as follows: engine room, 45 feet deep by 25 front;
battery room, 45 by 35; furnace room, 50 by 140; and the amalgamating room,
45 by 35; making a total frontage of 200 feet with a depth of 90 feet. The
engine is of 60 horse-power. There are 20 stamps of 750 pounds each, drop
eight inches and 78 times each minute. There are eight reverberatory furnaces
with hearths 11 by 13 feet; 14 pans or tubs, five feet in diameter; six settlers,
six feet in diameter; with retorts, smelting furnaces, &c.  The total amount of
freight hauled from California for this mill, as machinery, lumber, and material
for building, was 140 tons, at a cost for freight of nine cents per pound from
San Francisco. (The price is now six cents.) The cost of the machinery in
,San -Francisco was $18,000, and the total cost, as stated, $91,800.  It crushes
'I
402
District.
Power.
Reese River.......
....do..............
.. -.do..............
....do..............
.. -.do..............
....do..............
.-..do..............
....do --------------
.-..do..............
....do..............
.-..do..............
Big Creek.........
..-.do..............
Union.............
.-..do... —:........
San Antonio.......
-—.do..............
Silver Peak........
Bunker Hill.......
Twin River........
Noi-th Twin River.
Philadelphia.......
Hot Creek.........
Reveille...........
Gold Cafion........
. —.do..............
Pahranagat........
.... do --------------
-...do..............
Cortez........
....................
Steam
— do........
..do........
-. do --------
— do........
-. do........
.-do........
— do........
.-do --------
.-do........
..do........
-.do........
Water
Steam
.-do --------
..do........
-.do........
— do........
Water
Steam
..do........
-.do........
-.do........
..do.......
— do........
..do........
..do........
— do.-...
-.do........
— do........
............ 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
dea, roasts and amalgamates, producing bars of bullion at a cost to the mill of
$25 per ton.  For custom work it charges $45 per ton and agrees to returin 80
per cent. of the assayed value of the ore. Twenty tons of ore can be reduced in
each 24 hours. Four cords of wood are used per day in making steam for the
engine and for heating the pulp in the pans, and eight cords for the roasting
furnaces. Wood usually costs $7 per cord. Salt, of which a considerable quantity is used in chloridizing the ore, is furnished from the large fields in different
parts of the State, at from $30 to $40 per ton. About 200 pounds of quicksilver
is used at each charge of a pan, but varying with the amount of silver in the
ore. The quicksilver costs 60 to 75 cents per pounmd; about one per cent. of it
is lost.  The wages paid are, for amalgamator, $10 per day; first engineer, $8;
second engineer, $6; fireman, $6; blacksmith, $7; carpenter, $6; pan attendants, roasters, and battery feeders, $4 each.
The expenses attending the production are: first, mining the ore, exceedingly
variable; second, hauling to the mill; third, the State tax of 1 per cent. upon
ore after deducting $40 per ton; fourth, cost of milling, $45 per ton; fifth, internal
revenue tax on bullion of I of one per cent.; melting and assaying one per cent.,
and transportation to San Francisco three and a half per cent., making a total
tax of six and a half per cent., besides the cost of mining, hauling, and milling.
To these are to be added the income tax, the many stamps used on receipts, certificates, checks, &c., incident to the constant handling and exchange of valuable
property, the customs and internal revenue tax levied on machinery, raw and
manufactured material, of which the miner is a destructive consumer. Thus it
will be observed how disproportionate are the taxes imposed upon the miner, compared to other occupations; the tax being both upon what he produces and wvhat
he consumes, while he is without the protection given to others. A tax on iron
may be added by the miner to the price of the iron, but a tax on silver is never
returned, and the silver miner pays the two taxes. All taxes are paid in currency,
but estimates are also made in currency when taxes are so paid. The business
throughout the State, with the exception of the district of Pahranagat, is carried
on in coin, estimated at par, and all expressions of money used in this report
mean in coin, unless currency is expressly mentioned.
OFFICIAL RETUPNs.-A law of the State of Nevada levying a tax upon the
products of mines compels the county assessor of each county to collect from
the mills and mines quarterly statements of the amount of ore mined and reduced,
and the average production per ton for the quarter of bullion obtained. This
statement is given under oath, and the amounts produced are estimated in coin. The
assay value of the ore is from 20 to 40 per cent. higher than the amounts given
in these reports, these being only the amounts obtained from the working, a
portion always being lost.  The reports are for Lander county, but large quantities of ore are brought to Austin from districts in Nye county, and are included
in the returns.  These, in the returns for the quarter ending September  "o, 1866,
are marked thus: Philadelphia,* Danville,t and Northumberland.t T he.returns
for one year furnished, taken from the assessor's report, as published, in the Daily
Reese River Reveille. 
403 
404       RESOURCES OF STATES AND TEITRITORIES
Quarter ending September 30, 1866.
Name of mine.
Average
per ton.
$176 s2
85 71
217 56
83 82
132 57
128 64
276 97
36.53
212 62
195 36
86 46
48 47
71 60
362 04
132 90
294 58
259 93
187 45
115 46
107 75
180 40
201 75
116 1.8
90 77
167 92
178 43
161 64
40 18
87 19
39 04
66 07
161  0
166 30
156 3
74 06
Great Eastern................................................................
Fortuna.........:...........................................................
North River.................................................................
Troy........................................................................ —- 
Diamond.....................................................................
Blind Ledge................................................................... 
Semanthe....................................................................
Othello......................................................................
Idora.........    --------------------------------------------------------------                      
Tlgbr~................................................................
Highbridge *.........................................1..................................
Eastern Oregon..............................................................
Foster........................................................................ 
La Plata....................................................................
Chase and Zent..............................................................
Canada......................................................................
El Dorado*..................................................................
Magnolia....................................................................
Washington..................................................................
Vanderbiltt.......................................-...........................                       
Morgan & Muncey...........................................................
Diana....................................................................... —--------------------------- 
Richey & Hussey'......................................................6                           0
Detroit- ----------------------------------------------------------— 4,80        161
Detroit....................................................................
Camargo.................. —------—.. —---------------------------------------------—.. —------
Timoke......................................... —-----------------------------------------—................
Green & Odes............................................................6
Dover.......................................................................
Isabella......................................................................
Harding & Dickman.........................................................
Providential.................................................................
Cortez Giant................................................................
Transylvania*...............................................................
Folsom......................................................................
Savage Consolidated, No. 1...................................................
Savage Consolidated, No. 2..............................                                                6......................
Quarter ending December 31, 1866.
Name of mine.                                    Tons.  Pounds.   Average
per ton.
Amsterdam.................................................................
Buel North Star.............................................................
Camargo....................................................................
Chase.......................................................................
Diana.......................................................................
Enterprise (White Pine district)..............................................
East Oregon................................................................
Empire State............. —--—.... —-----------—..............................................
Ensign......................................................................
Fortuneteller..................................................................
Florida........................ —.............................................. 
Fenian Star........ —----------------—.........................................................
Fortuna —------------------------------------.....................................................................    
Farrel.......................................................................
Great Eastern...............................................................
Idora........ —-------------------------................................................................ 
J. R. Murphy................................................................
Joseph Cole.................................................................
Jacob Bradley................................................................                    8
Keystone....................................................................
Kihock......................................................................
Zaidee......................................................................
Lodi........................................................................
Livermore.................................................. —--—.................
Mlount Tenabo Company (Cortez)............................................
Morgan & Muncey..................................... —-—...................... —-----------
Magnolia.................................................................... 
Metacom.................................................................... —-------------- 
Manhattan Company...........................................................
May & Davis................................................................
North River.................................................................
Owen & Perkins.............................................................  
Providential.................................................................
Pinney, Rev..................................................................
Tons.
Pounds.
659
..........
536
1, 000
402
1,968
774
1,135
1,237
..........
..........
1,212
882
1,000
1,500
568
1,171
89
1, 670
631
503
612
1, Boo
2.)3
600
450
503
1,233
1,000
..........
330
1, 019
..........
..........
412
23
39
2
1
2
2
5
16
17
1
26
50
4
6
2
4
4
2
17
17
7
4
39
28
1
2
19
1
79
227
19
5
160
230
$168 75
336 57
116 57
405 10
91 IS
111 53
137 65
99 22
66 25
177 28
' 5 60
54 24
30 33
7 1 12
217 94
220 42
251 18
27 85
I.-16 so
194 66
197 27
100 61
32 54
157 79
..........
25 69
238 23
100 99
83 90
136 80
56 03
46 16
54 91
51 73
1
4
12
4
143
1
4
7
1
4
13
7
1
3
287
22
1
1
1
2
1
1
7
3
......
4
6
26
69
2
13
3
64
6
2DO
1, 9110
973
1,438
1, 909
..........
779
619
667
416
1, 900
1, 359
1, 520
1, 453
1, 69,,
100
1,350
..........
350
..........
728
1, 019
500
..........
626
1, 671
88
430
1,924
1, 700
844
600 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Quarter en2ding December 31, 1866-Continued. 
Name of mine.                                 Tons. Pounds.   Average
per ton.
Patten ------------------------------------------------------— a —--— 2 a               824     $20nn 43
Remington.................................................................. 6        1,500       49 63
Savage Consolidated......................................................... 451.......... 103 25
Sfver Queen................................................................   14    1,913     38 28
Surprise..................................................................... 1 ----------      171 66
Semanthe................................................................... 2          150      332 52
Timoke..................................................................... 79 1,138                 148 41
Taxlor & Passmore, (Cortez)................................................. 5         982       160 43
Tannehill, (Eureka).............................................. —-........... 3    1,338       106 35
Victoria.................................................................... 4 1,176 91 20
Washington................................................................. 12          67       479 52
WVhitlatch................................................................... 18      546       105 97
Zimmerman................................................................-. 5        1, 278       71 75
The above table embraces 47 mines, which have yielded more or less bullion during the
quarter, and with few exceptions the ore reduced is of a good grade, sufficiently so to admit
its being worked here remuneratively. It will be observed that a number of mines, which were
included in the previous quarters of the year, do not appear in the present list, as well as
that several mines appear for the first time. According to the assessor's returns there are in
Lander county, and mainly in the Reese River district, about 75 mines which have produced
bullion during the past year. As we have remarked, the ore worked is generally of a high
grade, as the average yield per ton will show. A considerable number of the mines embraced
in the quarterly lists were subjected only to testing operations, and the general result must
be deemed encouraging. In the case of the Savage mine, the average yield of the ore is less
than in several quarters preceding, but is still high, being $103 25 per ton. The yield of
the Washington, Chase, Buel North Star, Great Eastern, Semanthe, Magnolia, Florida,
Timoke, Idora, Metacom, Taylor, and Passmore, &c., is excellent, and as most of them are
pretty well developed, they may be fairly classed henceforth among the producing and paying
mines of the Reese River district.
Quarter ending March 31, 1867.
Names.                                  Tons.  Pounds.  Average
per ton.
Black Ledge.................................................................
Buel North Star, 1st class....................................................
Buel North Star, 2d class....................................................
Cortez, no name given......, I7. 3..................................
Dolerhido —------ -----------------------------------------------— 3,75       299
Dolerhide...................................................................
Diana.................... —----------------------------------------------------------
Florida ---------------------------------------------------------         ---  -- ---   -- 
Farrell C         o...................................................................
Fenian Star.............................................. —-------------------------------------------------------------—...........
Fuller.......................................................................
Great Eastern...............................................................
Glasser.. —--------------------------------------------------------- -----------
Glasser........................................................................
KelyadEnign —--------------------------------------------------—. —----.......125
Ldora.....................................................................
Kelly and Ensign............................................................
Leggert...........................................................
Lady Franklin............................................................                 1   4
Livermore....................................................................
Magnolia....................................................................
Mountain View..............................................................  
Miller & Co.. —--------------------------------------------------------------
North Star (Manhattan Company)............................................                     
Morgan & Muncey............................................... —------------------------------------------------—.....
Miller...........................................................-............
Mentauk....................................................................
Mfartine.....................................................................
Niagara.....................................................................
O'Dair......................................................................
Peaslee......................................................... ----—............ —--------------------------- 
Patriot......................................................................
Richmond...................................... —---------------------------------------------------------. 
Red Bluff....................................................................
Stranger....................................................................
8emanthe.....................................................................
Swaney.....................................................................
Story.........................................................................
i
I
I
4 0 -r,
$210 32
182 56
51 52
238 69
239 90
94 30
351 96
204 67
36 44
349 34
345 93
200 75
192 58
129 18
50 62
134 48
267 54
371 82
150 78
234 45
141 37
103 36
76 36
144 00
88 90
60 08
284 71
96 66
64 08
53 73
55 ot
48 00
132 88
520 05
204 98
5
31
16
47
3
195
101
12
3
4
137
2
1
3
5
1
4
13
1
1
384
28
1
1
1
3
4
1
1
5
1
3
7
1
3 1
569
422
161
1, 678
1, 735
717
1, 394
981
..........
69
700
...........
81
1, 121
..........
738
1, 536
..........
1,836
360
782
634
1, 295
900
148
1,753
4 7
657
650
1, 633
254
1,895
1, 700 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Quarter ending March 31, 1867-Continued.
Average
per ton.
$62 77
88 46
276 59
66 00
193 33
312 37
250 04
76 08
Savage Consolidated..........................................................
Silver Lead..................................................................             
Timoke......................................................................
Vineyard....................................................................
Vandyne....................................................................
Washington.................................................................       
Yankee Blade, no name given................................................
W. C. Blake................................................................. 
On comparing this table with that of the preceding quarter a marked improvement will be
observed in the average yield of the ore produced by several of the leading mines, as well
as in their increased production. For instance, the Florida produced during the last quarter
101 tons of ore, which gave an average yield of $351 96 per ton, against 13 tons yielding an
average of $255 60 the previous quarter; the Diana, 195 tons which averaged  $94 30,
against 143 tons which averaged $91 18; the Great Eastern, 137 tons which averaged
$345 93, against 287 tons which averaged $217 94; the Magnolia, 13 tons which averaged
$371 82, against 6 tons which averaged $338 23; the North Star of the Manhattan Company;
384 tons which averaged $141 37, against 69 tons which averaged $83 90; the Timoke, 100
tons which averaged $276 59, against 79 tons which averaged $148 41; and the Savage, 290
tons which averaged $62 77, against 451 tons which averaged $103 25. The falling off in
the quantity and quality of the ore from the Savage is remarkable, but we believe the explanation is that only a small proportion of the ore reduced was extracted from the mine during
the last quarter, but that the great bulk of it was taken from their dump pile. On the other
hand, the improvement in the production of ore from the North Star of the Manhattan Company, and its increased average yield of bullion, is more remarkable. Perhaps the most
striking increase, both as regards the product of ore and its yield of silver, is presented by
the Florida, the exhibit for the two quarters being-December 3], 1866, 13 tons, averaging
$255 60; March 31, 1867, 101 tons, averaging 8351 96. A number of the mines embraced
in the present returns are strangers in previous lists; indeed, there is reason to believe that
several of them are not the names of mines, but of the persons who delivered ore to the mills
for reduction.  Two lots are returned from "Yankee Blade," not from the mines bearing that
title-both of which belong to companies and are lying idle-but from that part of the Reese
River district.  One large lot of 47 tons of high grade ore is returned from "Cortez;" we
presume it was brought from the Cortez district, but firom what particular mine-whether
from the St. Louis, Taylor and Passmore, or Nonesuch-is not mentioned in the quarterly
statement of the assessor. This loose and inaccurate method of making the return is in
direct violation of the statute, and defeats one of its principal objects.  Every mill, or
arrastra, or reduction works of any character, is required by the law to keep an accurate list
of the name of every mine from which ore was delivered, and to furnish a sworn statement
of the same to the assessor. Of course, in a district having the numberless locations of
Reese river, a person bringing ore to mill may easily impose a fictitious name on the superintendent; but the name of the mine should be required in every instance, and no such
unmeaning entries as "Yankee Blade," "Cortez," &c., should be allowed to appear in the
statement.
Quarter ending June 30, 1867.
Name of mine.
Average
per ton.
$56 19
104 09
163 63
324 45
77 5
114 1
314 8
49 47
103 60
535 41
101 38
741 67
206 10
266 77
Amigo......................................................................
Black Ledge................................................................
Buel North Star.............................................................  
Bonner Ledge...............................................................
Carter and Drake............................................................
Cuba.......................................................................
Chase.......................................................................
Craycroft and Brown........................................................
Diana.......................................................................
Elkhorn..................................................................... 
Empire State................................................................
Fuller.......................................................................
Florida, (New York and Austin Company)....................................
Farrell and Hixon..........................................................
I
I
i
.1
406
i Tons.
I
Names.
Pounds.
290
3
100
5
1
4
1
1
........
1,492
1,042
1,392
.........
1, 561
427
1, 628
Tons
Pound&
2
20
127
2
3
2
3
2
37
1
6
13
173
5
320
9'3 6
331
882
1,295
1, 095
359
222
936
1, 145
740
1,300
385
825 
WEST OF'THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Quarter ending June 30, 1867-Continued.
samwe of mine.
Average
per toll,
$70 9t
232 72
222 36
155 48
201 84
73 80
50 23
!120 1,16
5O88
250 70
149 40
l2] 1 39
11:3 40
253 89
143 74
214 44
63 61
123 90
252 53
253 79
165 26
94 14
313 86
73 73
77 24
90  00
87 06
241 49
2C8 2l
220 57
447 69
137 07
306 78
187 18
80 61
Great Eastern...............................................................  
General Cochrane............................................................ 
General Siegel...............................................................   4 
Guadelupe.................................................................
Livermore...................................................................
La Plata.................................................................... 
Liberty.....................................................................
Magnolia....................................................................
Moses Scramlin..............................................................
Montauk....................................................................
North Star, (Manhattan Company)...........................................
North River.................................................................
Oleander....................................................................
Oregon, (Dollarhide)........................................................
Patton and Monroe..........................................................
Perkins.....................................................................
Quintero....................................................................
Rough and Ready'...........................................................
St. Louis, (Cortez district)....................................................
Storey......................................................................
State of New York...........................................................
Semanthe, (New York and Austin Company)................................. 
Silver Cord................................................................1
St. Louis....................................................................
Silver Parlor................................................................
Social and Steptoe, (Egan)....................................................
Troy, (N.Y. S. M. Company)................................................
Timoke.....................................................................
Virginia.............................................................
Vineyaid..................................................................
Washington.................................................................
Wall and Isabella............................................................
W'hitlatch Union.............................................................
Whitlatch No. 2.............................................................
Young America, (Mount Hope)..............................................
The whole number of tons of ore reduced during the quarter was 1,438, which produced
the sum of $232,335 57.  The average yield of 1,438 tons was $161 56 per ton-a result
that maintains the character of Lander hill, from which it was chiefly obtained, for yielding
a high grade of ore. On comparing the present table with that of the previous quarter,
notable fluctuations and uniformity will be observed. For instance, the North Star mine of
the Manhattan Company produced during the last quarter 508 tons of ore, which averaged
$149 40 per ton, against 384 tons, averaging $141 37 per ton, in the former quarter; the
Florida produced 173 tons, which averaged $206 10 per ton, against 101 tons, averaging
$351 96, of the former quarter; the Buel North Star produced 127 tons, which averaged
$163 63 per ton, against 31 tons of first-class ore, averaging $182 56, and 16 tons of secondclass ore, averaging $51 52 per ton, of the former quarter; the Timoke produced 97 tons,
which averaged $241 49 per ton, against 100 tons, averaging $276 59 per ton, of the former
quarter; the Fuller produced 14 tons, which averaged $741 67 per ton, against 4 tons,
averaging $349 34 per ton, of the former quarter; and the Diana produced 37 tons, which
averaged $103 60 per ton, against 195 tons, averaging $94 30 per ton, of the formner quarter.
The most marked fluctuation is that of the Great Eastern, which produced during the last
quarter only 34 tons, which averaged $70 91 per ton, against 137 tons, with the remarkable
average of $345 93, for the quarter ending 31st of March.  Considerable exploration has
been carried on in the Great Eastern during the last three months, the result of which has
not been made public. Several mines, which produced bullion in the former quarter, are
not included in the above table;  and others again, which were not mentioned then, appear
ill the present return. The most noticeable of the latter is the Gilligan mine of the Social
and Steptoe Company, in Egan cataon, which appears in the present table with the good
product of 150 tons, averaing $90 per ton, which is scarcely 60 per cent. of the silver contained in its peculiar ore. The returns of the last quarter are generally encouraging.
Following the organization of Reese River district, were in the same year discovered and organized those of Simpson's Park, adjoining it on the south, and
further south that of Big Creek; north was Miount Hope and Grass Valley;
southeast were Smoky Valley and Santa Fe, and northwest was Ravenswood.
These nearly surrounded Austin, and were from five to fifteen miles distant.
All but Ravenswood were in the Toiyabee mountains; and the fact that large
veins of silver-bearinag quartz were found outside of this district gave an impetus
i
i
I
i
i
I
I
i
i
I
407
Tons.
Pounds.
1,235
2-20
1,412
11 130'
173
,'200
1, 5S2
394
955
1,490
1,557
11553
354
120
926
963
90
100
1, 250
170
1, 630
530
1, 000
195
1,290
..........
,198
1, 460
930
124
1, 695
1, 560
500
1, 458
158
33
1.
2
4
6
2
3
53
L
. 1
507
19
2
1
1
3
1
2
21
1
7
9
1
2
4
150
38
96
2
9
3
14
i
9
1 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
to prospecting, and the mountains in their entire lengtlh were explored and districts formed throughout before the termination of the year 1863.
AMTADOR DISTRICT.-Immediateiy north, in Lander county, was formed the
district of Amador, where the veins and croppings created a great excitement,
and a populous and busy villa,(ge was built in a few weeks' tinme.  This appeared
the most promising of the districts during the fall of 1863 but many of the
ledges not proving, from the depth to which they were explored, as rich as their
croppings promised, the district is not so favorably regarded as formerly.
The Arnaclor Ledge has been explored by an incline to the depth of 200 feet
and upwards.  It dips to the northeast, at an angle of about 15 degrees.  During
this exploration much good ore was taklen out, and its owners express confidence
that whlen the reduction of ores becomes simplified and cheapened the mine can
be worked at a profit.  There are manv veins like the Armador, which await the
same events for their development.
The Chase Miie.-In the southern part of the district is the Chase mine,
vwhichli has the appearance of being rich. It is but slightly developed, yet shows
quantities of ore of an almnost pure sulphuret of silver.  Operations have been
suspended on it for several months, but it has lately passed into the hands of an
eastern company, and worlk will be prosecuted on it hereafter.
Other Xi)ies.-In the vicinity of the Chase are veins, some of which give
assurance of value.  The want of capital, and the lack of knowledge of mining
enginieering, have been obstacles in the way of development of many mines in
this district supposed to be rich.
.IOUNT HOPE, CUMBEPrLA.ND, COLUMBUS,  [IOUNT VERNON, INDIAN, AND
WALL STREET DI)STRICTS.-AS before said, the year 1863 was distinguished
for explorations, but prospecting was then chiefly confined to the Toiyabee range,
and to those rainges east and west, next parallel.  In the Toiyabee to the north
of Austin and Amador, and in Lander county, were organized the districts of
MIount HIlope, Cumberland, Columbus, MIount Vernon, Indian, and Wall Street,
extending as far as 35 miles north, being continuous and incluiding both sides of
the mountain.  The mines of these districts are almost entirely undeveloped, their
croppings alone being known.  F'rom these croppings some rock has been taken
from which encouraging results have been obtained, but this vast area, probably
well stored with silver, is neglected and comparatively unknown, awaiting the
coming of the capitalist and a denser population. It offers favorable conditions
for working mines, as it includes one of the highest peaks of the Toiyabee mountains-Mount Hope —which attains an altitude of about 10,000 feet above the
sea, in the deep cations of which run a number of streams capable of furnishing
water-power for driving machinery.   Its sides are covered with groves of pine,
and where its streams deboiche into the plains at its base are tracts of good agricultural lands.  In the valleys which skirt its foot are some farms; but its mineral wealth lies entirely neglected.  One district has been noticed by an experienced mining engineer, Mr. J. H. Boalt, who, after as close an examination of
the ledg,es as their slight development would allow, reported that they were true
fissure veins, of size from 4 to 15 feet in width, and of unmistakable value.
Several of the veins were cut transversely, and the ore taken for trial; and it was
proved that they contained silver in paying quantities; the assays showing a
value of $100 and upwards to the ton.  This is the only reliable examination
made of the ledges of the district.  Supeficial as it is, it presents some proof of
the value of a neglected district, and an indication that the great extent of country
which this mountain embraces bears in its bosom the same precious veins which
labor has proved to exist in other parts of the Toiyabee range.
COPRTEZ DISTRICT.-The Cortez district, Lander county, comprises the northern terminus of the range east of the Toiyabee, and includes the lofty peak of
Mount Tenabo. It is 65 miles north, by 15~ east of Austin. It was organized
in 18$63, and operations were instituted on a number of small veins in the northern
408 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
part of the district. In 1864 a mill was constructed which attempted the reduction of the ores; but from the incompleteness of the mill, and the inexperience
of the managers, the workings were not successful, and as a consequence disappointment ensued, and the district was long neglected. Subsequently, discoveries
were made of mineral existing in a mammoth vein or broad stratum of quartzite
which coursed through Mount Tenabo, and these bodies of mineral having proved
valuable, attention is again attracted to the district.  The following description
of this mountain and the stratum or vein which bears the mineral, is from the
Reveille, of January 4, 1867:
This vein is embedded in the bosom of Mount Tenabo, a peak 11,500 feet above the level of
the sea, and upwards of 5,000 feet above the surrounding valleys. Its base, up its side to
the vein, is covered with a scrubby pine; while its summit, and 1,500 feet below is overgrown with grass and shrubs. The scarred and rugged mountain looks eternal. Some 3,000
feet above its base a vein of silver-bearing quartz cuts its face obliquely, burying itself in
the mountain at one end, and penetrating into the valley at the other, after stretching out in
palpable view to the length of 18,650 feet.  Its width is 400 feet.  This vein, or perhaps more
properly stratum, of the mountain formation bears beds of ore, the extent of which is only
conjecture. The workings at various mills have proved encouraging. The vein is encased
in crystalline limestone. Twenty locations have been made, with the following names and
dimensions: Commencing at its greatest point of altitude is the Chieftain, Genesee county,
1,400 feet; Murphy Company, 800 feet; Gill Company, 800 feet; Taylor and Passmore,
800feet; DoWittCompany,450feet; St. LouisCompany,2,000feet; MIeacham and Brothers,
400 feet; Niagara, 400 feet; Savage Company, 400 feet; Nebraska Company, 1,200 feet;
Cortez Giant, Mount Tenabo Company, 4,000 feet; Elmore Company, 200 feet; Russell
Company, 600 feet; Continental Company, 1,000 feet; Argentine Company, 1,000 feet;
Empire Company, 800 feet; Conn and Brothers, 400 feet; Traverse Company, 400 feet; and
the Anna Burr Company, 2,000 feet. The latter claim is somewhat broken, and at its termination the vein penetrates the earth and is lost altogether. The vein disappears also at the
upper boundary of the Chieftain. It has been opened at several points along its course, in
every case disclosing mineral. The Gill, Taylor and Passmore, and St. Louis locations, near
the upper end of the vein, have been worked, the two latter considerably: the Cortez Giant,
which lies near the centre of the vein, is the most fully developed, and has yielded a considerable amount of bullion this season. Some work has also been done on the Continental,
situated towards the lower end of the vein, with about the same results as in the other cases
specified. Of this vein there is little exact knowledge, but that it stands out upon the mountain face, a large, palpable fact.  It will probably be developed.  And when that day arrives
we believe the Nevada Giant will be regarded as among the remarkable veins of the world.
The Continental.-There  are but few claims upon  this vein developed to
any great extent.  Upon  the Continental, explorations  have been conducted
under the superintendency of D. T. Elmore, which have shown a lode about 300
feet in width, containing three strata of ore of from five to eight feet in thickness.  These have been mined to some extent, and the ore reduced at the mills
at Austin, with a result of about $150 per tonl. This is owned by a Maryland
company, which, being assured of the value of the property, has thought best to
await the coming of the railroad, that operations may be carried on cheaply, and
the greatest profit secured. The trans-continentalrailroad will pass within a few
miles of these mines. When completed to this point it will cheapen material of
consumption by the lessening of freight, and the time of its completion is so near
that none can doubt the propriety of waiting for it.
The Cortez Giant.-The  Mount Tenabo Mining Company, a San  Fran cisco organization, was formerly called the Cortez Company, and its operations
have been previously noticed. It possesses a claim called the Cortez Giant, of
4,000 feet in length, upon the Nevada Giant ledge, and has prosecuted mining
upon it to some extent. It has lately been under the charge of IH. J. Hall, but
is at present superintended by H. H. Day.   A main shaft has been sunk, which
has now a depth of 214 feet, partly planked, and divided into two compartments.
From the shaft several levels have been run; the second from a depth of 121
feet, which has explored the vein for a length of 217 feet, finding a stratum of
ore of eight feet in thickness, worth from $65 to $100 per ton. The Shaft passed
through the ore following the dip of the ledge at a depth of 171 feet.   From the
greatest depth a third level has been started, which it is expected will find ore
409 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
as good as that developed above. Steam hoisting works are expected to be com pleted within two months, when work will be prosecuted to greater advantage
than at present. A mill of 15 stamps belongs to the company, and is usually
employed in working the ores of this mine.  In this property the vein assumes
its greatest proportions. Its croppings tower many hundred feet in the air, in
wild and rugged grandeur. Viewed from a distance, as it skirts the brow of the
mountain, this curious line of croppings presents the appearance of a huge balus trade to some colossal architectural structure, with the round and treeless summit
of louint Tenabo, 11,000 feet above the sea, rising gently and gracefully, as
the crowning dome above.
Thle St. Louis. —North of the Cortez Giant is the St. Louis, owned chiefly
by A. L. Page and Simeon Wenban.  In the claim is a body of silver ore
from which selected lots have been transported to Austin, producing from $200
to $300 per ton. Work is now progressing, and an incline in the body of ore,
some 50 or 60 feet in depth, gives promise that the mine will prove remunerative.
Ta.ylor and Passmore, Gill, &c.-The Taylor and Passmore, Gill, and a few
other locations have been slightly developed, and good ore obtained. Upon
no others than those mentioned has sufficient work been done to demonstrate any
value in the property.
In the northern part of the district are some small veins encased in granite,
which in time may prove valuable. Among these are the Berlin, Wenban, Veatch,
and  a few others, upon which workl has been done, and ore of a favorable character obtained. There is no mining doing upon them at present. There is some
grazing and agricultural land in the neighborhood.
The district is pleasantly situated. No grander scenery is furnished by the
wild mountains of the interior, nor of the Pacific coast. From the high peak
may be seen nearly all Nevada, with its ranges of mountains, its isolated hills,
broad valleys, and desert plains.  The Indians called it " Tenabo," which we
translate to "look out;" and it is really a lookout mountain.  Looking westward
from the summit in a clear day, the white peaks of the Sierra Nevada are seen
stretching along the eastern boundary of California, and many a hill, bearing
silver, gold, and copper, lie between. Northward, but 25 miles distant, drawn
athwart the vision, is the long and winding line of the Humboldt river and its
valley of meadow or sandy plain.  Eastward successions of hills and valleys
meet the eye. In the other direction the dim atmosphere of Smoky Valley
limits the sight, but glimpses of the summiit of MIount IHope, Bunker Hill, and
other peaks of the Toiyabee range which pierce the clouds, trace the line for 150
miles to the south. The district is attractive both for its scenery and its resources.
NEWARK DISTRICT.-Newark district, Lander county, was organized in October, 1866. It lies on the eastern slope of the Diamond range of mountains, about
85 miles east of Austin. Its geological formation is of slate and limestone, the
latter carrying a great abundance of fossil shells. Deep chasms are cut in the
mountain side which exhibit the character of the rocks. One of these chasms
or canons is called the Minnehaha.  With its towering rocks, sparkling stream,
and luxuriant verdure, it offers to the eye a scene of rare beauty.  Another is the
Chihuahua caton, where the rocks seem burst in twain by some great convulsion,
and stand in perpendicular walls, towering to the height of a thousand feet. This
deep fissure exposes veins of silver-bearing quartz, varying from 2 to 20 feet
in width. The ore exposed is an antimonial sulphuret, and is supposed to be
valuable. A number of the veins have already been tested by worklings at
the mills in Austin and good returns obtained. A mill, the property of the Celitenary company, is now in course of construction in the district, which it is hoped
will soon add its product of bullion to the silver current of eastern Nevada.
The ledges of the Centenary company best known are the Lincoln and the Chihuahua. Upon the Chihuahua tunnels have been run which exposed the ledge
in several places, favorably developing the property. The district is as yet but
410 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
little known.  Like many others in its neighborhood, it invites capital and labor.
Now a wide and an almost unoccupied wilderness, it offers many advantages to
the miner and the agriculturist. These occupations, being the basis of wealth,
will attract in their train other branches of trade and industry. The mountain is
partially covered with pine and mahogany, furnishing lumber and fuel. At the
base, and between it and the White Pine range to the east, is a broad valley
where farms can be secured. The small streams which run from the mountains, on either side,.will supply water for irrigation and mining; the neighboring
hills will furnish a market for agricultural products.  Within the valley are
salt springs, and acres of land are covered with this useful article, a demand for
which is created in the reduction of silver ores. A visitor to this district about
the time of its organization writes: "The future of our State is encouraging.
The good time may be delayed, but it will come. Where there is a foundation
for prosperity, there need be no apprehensions for the future. The foundation
lies broad and deep in Nevada; the rest is the work of time and man."
WHITE PINE DISTRICT.-The District of White Pine was organized in the
autumn of 1865, and received its name from the species of wood growing upon
the mountain. That portion of the range bearing the name of White Pine is
about two degrees in length, is lofty, and generally covered with pine. It has
not been much explored for mines, except in the district now mentioned. Here
a number of veins have been located which ire represented to be valuable. The
district is about 90 miles east of Austin, and is in Lander county. A company
called the Monte Christo commenced in July last the development of a property,
but the progress made, or the results obtained, have not been ascertained.
DIAMOND DISTRIcT.-Diamond district, also in Lander county, lies upon the
western slope of Diamond mountains, and is 80 miles east, by  a few degrees
north, of Austin.  It has been organized about three years, and some work has
been done in exploring and demonstrating the value of the ledges, of which a
great number are located. Ore has been taken to Austin for reduction, which
returning $150 and upwards to the ton, gave proof of value of the veins.  They
are yet the property of the discoverers, who for want of means were unable to
erect the machinery necessary for their development, and, consequently, have in
the Atlantic States and in Europe sought the aid of capital.
EUREKA D)ISTEICT.-The Eureka district, Lander county, was organized in
1864, and lies 60 miles almost directly east of Austin. The geological formation is limestone, with veins or bodies of metal-bearing quartz.   The chief
characteristic of the ore is an argentiferous galena, which might be reduced by
smelting.  Several tons sent to the mills in Austin yielded from  $150 to $450
per ton. These results are encouraging. As some of the veins are owned by
men of wealth in New York, it is expected that measures will be taken for their
development. The district is in the midst of a good agricultural and grazing
country, and offers inducements to those wishing a free and independent home.
EGAN On GOLD CANON DISTRICT.-Gold Canion district, Lander county, better
known as Egan Caion, is one of the farthest east of Nevada, being 165 miles from
Austin.  It was organized in 1863, and native gold showing plainly in the quartz
of some of the veins first discovered, gave it the name of Gold Caton.  It lies
upon the great trans-continental highway where passes daily the overland mail
stage, and is connected with the world by two lines of telegraph. A small mill
erected in the year 1864, by Mr. John O'Dougherty, met with success. It is
again in operation, reducing ore which returns about $150 to the ton. A mill of
increased capacity is in process of construction which it is expected will add to
the product of bullion. It is favorably located for accessibility, and the abundance of wood and water give it some advantage.
KINSLEY DISTRIcT. —The Kinsley district, Lander county, is distinguished
for its massive lodes of copper-bearing ore. It is in the Antelope range ofe moun
411 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
tains near the eastern border of the State, 45 miles northeast of Egan and 200
miles from Austin.  The lodes are large, and ore is represented as being upon
the surface which shows by assay from 35 to 50 per cent. of copper, and from
$60 to $100 per ton in silver.  The district is but little known;  its distance from
the centre of population and a market render the copper mines valueless for the
present. The Pacific railroad now in course of construction is expected to pass
thlrough this neighborhood, when the ores may be transported to market.  The
Kinsley may then become a valuable miling district.
YIrEEKA DISTRICT.-Yreka district, Lander county, is about 75 miles northeast
of Austin.  Reports of silver-bearing veins have been made; but it is almost
entirely undleveloped, and its value is unknown.  It is surrounded by a good
agricultural and grazing country.
BATTLE MIOUNTAIN DISTPrIcT.-Battle Moulntain is a copper-bearing hill,
situated about 70 miles north of Austin and is probably in Humboldt country.
In 1S66 it was formed into a mining district bearing that name.  It is an igneous
formation, and through the eruptive rocks are veins of quartz associated with red
oxide of copper. The ore is brilliantly red and very beautiful. The district
borders upon the valley of the Humboldt river, which will soon be traversed by
the great Pacific railroad, when its ores will find a market.
The district derives its name from the range of hills or mountains containing
the cupriferous veins.  In these hills a battle was fought in the summer of 1S57
between some Indians aind a government expedition under the superintendence
of John Kirk, engaged in the survey of a road bearing the name of the Fort
Kearney wagon road, Pacific division.  It is a low range of hills of about  12
miles in length by five in breadth, fronting on Reese River valley on the east,
and terminating in the valley of the Humboldt on the north.  At the southern
end is Copper canion, where the Troy and other copper veins are found; and at
the.northeriin end is Long cainon, where the Trojan, President, 3fayflower, Blue
Bell, Capitol, Henrietta, Fanny, Morning Star, and others lie.
There are but few companies formed for operating in Battle Mountain district.
T'he principal are the Emerson and the Austin companies.   These are unincorporated.
The Emnerson Con?)any.-The Emerson Company is composed of General
W. S. Rosecrans, G. W. Emerson, William Plumhof, and others.  The company
owns the AMorning Star, Henrietta, Surprise, Fanny, President, Trojan and Capitol ledges, and extensions on some others.  Upon those named  the location
upon each is from 1,400 to 1,600 feet, and the veins are from 10 to 30 feet in
width. All are developed to the extent of a cut of from 5 to 10 feet in depth
crossing the vein from side to side. By this means the width of each vein has
been ascertained, and the character of the ore shown. The gangue is quartz and
spar intermixed with nodules and numerous veins of red oxide of copper. These
veins are of various thicknesses, from a narrow filament to several inches through,
and run irregularly through the mass of the vein.  They contain native copper;
also considerable silver. The mass of the rock will require crushing and concentrating for profitable mining and exportation.   This set of mines is at the
northern end of Battle mountain, in the neighborhood of Long canon. The
surveyed route of the Pacific railroad passes about two and a half miles north
from the locations, and as this great road is expected to be completed to this point
before the close of another year it enhances the prospective value of the property
The Austin Coni)any.-The Austin Company owns the Troy, Mayflower,
Blue Bell, and other veins in the district, some of which are at Copper canion
and others at Long canon. The developments on the Troy consist of an excavation some 12 feet in width and about 15 feet in depth, showing the size and
character of the vein. It is estimated that one-fourth of the vein is composed of
red oxide of copper having 40 per cent. of metal.
412 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.'
Upon other claims some workl has been done, the general aim being merely
to hold possession of the property, awaiting the construction of the railroad.
RAVEXSWOOD DISTPICT.-Ravenswood, Lander county, situated but 15 miles
northwest from Austin, was one of the earliest districts organized in the RIeese
River country, having been formed in the first year of the discovery of silver here.
It is in the same range as Battle mountain, though the latter is almost separated
by a low depression, yet it is the northern terminus of the Shoshone mountains.
The veins of Ravenswood, which were located for silver, being found rich only
in copper, disappointed the locators, and as a consequence the district has been
abandoned.  It contains veins which assay as high as 40 to 50 per cent. of copper,
and contains silver and gold.  The district is well situated for economical working, bordering on the valley of the Reese river, and is tolerably well supplied
with timber.  Like many others it awaits the coming of the railroad, cheap transportation and subsistence.
BIG CPEEK  DISTRICT.-The  Big Creek district, Lander county, was the
second organized in the Toiyabee mountains, and it seemed likelvy at one time to
eclipse everything else. A village was built, with post, express and telegraph
offices connecting with Austin, with schools, couits, stores and mills, and its
prosperity and stability seemed beyond a doubt. Veins were found appearing
full of metal, but upon further trial their value consisted in copper, which was
not profitable to workl, and interest in the district died away.  Now no attention
is paid to the mines. It is situated on the western slope of the Toiyabee mountains, twelve miles south of Austin.  The creek is a small mountain stream,
affording sites for water or steam-power mills.   It flows through a deep canon,
along which are some good farms and gardens.  If the district has not proved
remunerative to the miner, it has furnished pleasant homes for the husbandman.
WASHINGTON DISTRICT.-South of Austin 28 miles, in Nye county, and on
the western slope of the Toiyabee, is Washington district, organized in 1863, then
and the subsequent year the scene of busy operations.   The mineral is an argen tiferous galena, abundant in quantity.  None who have examined the mines with
attention can hesitate to decide that they possess value.  The veins are from 4
to 16 feet in width, and regular in their formation.  Attempts have been made
to reduce the ores, but owing to want of skill on the part of the operators they
have not been successful.  A great number of veins were located, a pretty village
was built, and hopes of prosperity were entertained, but the district following the
usual course has become almost deserted.  Its mineral resources, however, may
yet be advantageously developed.
I]APYSVILLE DISTrICT.-South of Washington about 15 miles, in Nye county,
is 3farysville district, organized in the same year and possessing many similar
characteristics.  Numerous claims were here located, and great expectations were
once entertained.  It is now entirely deserted except by a few farmers who cul tivate the soil of the valleys, irrigating it by the streams which run down from
the mountain.  The district is well watered and timbered, and offers advantages
to the settler.
THE TOYABEE 0IOUNTAINTS.-O-n the eastern slope of the Toiyabee, and
south of Austin, were organized during the summer of 1863 a number of districts,
covering that side of the mountain almost continuously for a distance of 75 miles.
Throughout its southern extent the mountain rises friom the valley of Reese river
on the west and Smoky valley on the east, and attains an altitude of 2,000 to
5,000 feet above them. From valley to valley through the base of the mountain
the distance is from 7 to 10 miles.  From its high peaks and through its deeply
chasmed sides run many streams of water affording good sites for mills.
SMOKY VALLEY bISTRICT.-Of the numerous districts organized on the eastern
slope of the mountain that of Smoky Valley was among the first. It is in Lander
county, 12 miles south of Austin, and includes what were once the busy little
hamlets of Geneva and Clinton. Through it run in deep canons Birch and
413 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Willow creeks and several smaller rivulets, all of which are lost in the valley.
There have been many locations of mines made in the district, but they have
been generally neglected until the present year.  Latterly labor has been prosecuted upon the Smoky Valley ledge, which has developed, at the depth of 200
feet, a lode or series of veins 50 feet in thickness, of which about 20 feet contain
pay streaks of ore.  Average specimens assay $60 to $150 per ton.  The upper
part of the lode has proved quite barren, but the results obtained from below
give encouragement to the miners.  In this district the lodes are generally large,
and exhibit themselves in some instances for miles in length upon the surface.
They are situated conveniently for mining, and the district possesses advantages of wood, water, and arable land for carrying on cheaply extensive operations.
SANTA FE DISTRIcT.-South of Smoky Valley district, in the same county,
is that of Santa Fe, 1S miles from Austin. It is composed of high pealis, precipitous ridges, and deep, rocky canions.  The bare rocks of the ridges and canons
expose to view the white ledges of quartz in great numbers. A feature in the
mineralogy of the district is the presence of gold in considerable quantities in
some of the veins. Notwithstanding the undoubted value of the veins, however,
in both gold and silver, no successful mining has yet been carried on.
BUNKER IILL AND SUMMIT DISTRICTS. —Bunker Hill and Summit districts,
Lander county, occupy both sides of Big Smoky creek, and are 20 miles south
of Austin. Ore paying from fifty to some hundreds of dollars per ton has been
mined; but the veins have been found broken and irregular, and but little success
has attended mining operations. This is generally attributed to improper management, and lack of scientific knowledge of the business of mining and the
reduction of ores.  The stream is one of the largest flowing out of this monntain range, and affords water-power sufficient for a number of extensive mills.
Some failures have retarded progress in what appears a superior district. This
cannot long continue, for where nature has done so much by offering valuable
minerals, building material, and inexpensive power, a pleasant climate and a rich
soil, man will sooner or later take advantage of it and reap the reward.
BLUE SPRINGS DISTRICT.-Blue Springs district, in Nye county, 30 miles
south of Austin, is so named from a number of deep springs or ponds which lie
in the valley at the foot of the mountains. It contains veins of quartz of large
size, reputed to be rich in silver, but developments upon them are so slight that
their value is not really known.
SMOKY VALLEY SALT FIELD.-Near Blue Springs, in the great Smoky valley,
is an extensive field of 2,000 acres of salt lands, from which is obtained most
of the salt used in Eastern Nevada both for domestic purposes and the reduction
of ores. Upon this salt field, as upon some others with which the State abounds,
the salt rises as an efliorescence, half an inch or more in thickness, upon the
surface of the gr'ound, from which it is gathered.  A slight rain drives the salt
beneath the surface, but under the influence of the sun it soon reappears. Hundreds of tons are obtained from this field annually, and the supply coming from
deep springs seems to be inexhaustible. It is furnished for the use of the mills
at from $30 to $50 per ton. When it is known that salt in large quantities is
essential to the reduction of silver ores, the beneficence of a Divine Providence
in furnishing it in such vast deposits and at convenient localities throughout the
country can be appreciated.
NORTH TWIN RIvEER DISTRICT.-For-ty miles south of Austin, in Nye county,
is the North Twin River district. Although this region was examined and many
c'aims located early in the settlement of the country, it was not considered of
importance until recently, when work upon some of the veins has proved them
to be of large size and great value. Deep canons, with running streams, open
to the plain, offering access to the mines and sites for reduction mills.
The La Plata Mining Company, owning mines in this district, is organized
414 
WEST QOF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
under the laws of Pennsylvania. Its chief stockholders are residents of Reading.
This company owns the Twin Ophirs, the William Bigler, and other veins situated in Park canion. Some of the veins are large, and have shown bodies of
good pay ore.  Work upon one of the Twin Ophirs has developed a chimney or
mass of ore of a very singular character, being chiefly iron and resembling steel,
but containing from $70 to $150 per ton in silver. A mill is in course of construction, which, in a few months, will probably add something to the stream of
bullion already beginning to flow from the districts bordering the Smoky valley.
It is mainlv built of stone, with furnaces and chimney stack of brick.  These
materials are conveniently obtained in the neighiborhood. It will contain 10
stamps of about 700 pounds each, crushing the rock dry and in a condition for
roasting.  The property of the company is managed by G. B. Montgomery.
Thle Buckeye Mining Conpany is a New York company, and, under the superintendence of Mir. Stephen Kidd, is developing the Buckeye mine, situated in
Summit canon. The vein was discovered and located in 1865. The claim
consists of 1,400 feet of the lode running north from the cation. The vein is
encased in limestone, and, although it sometimes narrows down to a mere clay
seam in the rock, it appears to be a true fissure vein. Its general width is five
feet, occasionally reaching to seven. It has been developed by an incline following the dip of the ledge, which is westerly 65~, to the depth of 100 feet, and
by different levels several hundred feet north and south. From these excavations a quantity of ore has been taken which has yielded, at the Austin mills,
$106 per ton. The company has located, under the laws of Nevada, 800 acres
of woodland, mill-sites, &c. Neither lands nor mines are entered under any law
of Congress, nor are any lands or mines throughout this region. The lands are
-nsuiweyed, and there is no land office in eastern Nevada.   The laws of the
United States give permission to occupy the mines subject to the local rules of
miners. Survmey and purchase appears to them a useless expense, serviceable
only to the surveyors and land officers.
In Summit caion are other claims, as the Scottish Chief, which is an extension
of the Buckeye south of the canion. This has been but slightly developed,
having a shaft 40 feet in depth; its real worth is therefore known only from the
greater explorations on the Buckeye. A short distance to the southwest is the
Canada vein. This appears on the surface to be about nine feet in width, but
the explorations upon it are not sufficient, it being encased in limestone, to
determine its extent and character.  From the surface several tons of ore have
been taken, which give promise of worth.
TwIN RIVER. I)IsTnICT.-The Twin River district, Nye countv, is 50 miles
south of Austin, on the eastern slope of the Toiyabee range, and is at present
regarded as one of the most important districts south of Austin. It receives its
name from two pretty streams on the southern border, which, flowing through
deep and rugged canons, enter the valley near each other, and continuing parallel
for some miles sink in the plain. The characteristics of the district are its rug gedness, high and precipitous mountains, deep cations, and its geological forma tion being granite and slate, while the districts north of it are of limestone. The
principal mines are situated in Ophir canion. These were discovered in 1863 by
S. Boulerond and a party of Frenchmen, who located several veins, but did not
publish to the world their discovery nor do much towards developing their prop erty.  The year following the cation was entered by George H. Willard and
others, ledges located, a district formed, and laws made. From that date the
district has been somewhat noted. In entering the canion from Smoky valley,
one feels almost forbidden to advance, so towering and precipitous are the rocks
on either side, which appear to close the narrow pass; but winding along at the
base of the cliffs is now a well-constructed road. Following this a mile or more
the narrow gorge of granite is passed and a canon of more gently sloping sides, a
slate formation, is reached. The granite is generally barren of soil, but upon
415 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the sumnits of the ridges a few low and dwarfed piinon trees are found, which are
cut for fuel and with great labor brought to the brink of the precipice and
tumbled into the canion below, whence it is hauled to its place of consumption.
Fuel is difficult to obtain, and costs about $10 per cord.  At the present date a
mill is in operation, and a village called Toiyabee, of 300 inhabitants, has been
built.
Thle OI)hir.-The first vein noticed in passing up the cation is the Ophir.
This was discovered and claimed by S. Boulerond and Company in 1863, and
is still owned by the same parties.  It is a large vein, showing chiefly  white
quartz, but deposits of good ore have been found in it. The claim consists of
2,400 feet along the ledge.  A shaft has been sunk to the depth of 60 feet, from
which a small quantity of ore was obtained, worth at the rate of $500 per ton.
The developments upon the mine are very slight.
Thle Orphee, Central Favorite, and numerous other claims have been slightly
developed, but have not yet been productive.
The 3Iurphiy is the onlv developed and productive mine in this neighborhood,
and its success has given celebrity to the district. It was located by G. H.
Willard, John Murphy, Jo. Patty, and others, in 1864, and is 1,000 feet in length.
Its course is north and south, dipping to the east at an angle of 46~, and the
lode is about 20 feet in thickness. It has been developed by an incline 130 feet
in depth, from which levels have been run and ore extracted, worth about $130
per ton.  It appears from the working that the ore is not continuous throughout
the vein, but exists in chimneys of one to seven feet in thickness, and from 100
to 150 feet broad, with nearly a corresponding interval of barren rock. These
chimneys are inclined, having a dip to the north of about 30~. Although much
valuable ore has been extracted, a map of the mine, showing its whole size and
the excavations made, indicate that but a small portion is touched. There are
41 men employed in the mine, working eight hours each, at $4 per day, and
keeping up the labor without intermission.  The miners are usually natives of
Cornwall, England. The hoisting of water and ore is done by steam power.
The 3lttrpl7y  lill, belonging to the Twin  River Mining Company, is a
substantial structure of stone, having 20 stamps and corresponding machinery,
driven by an engine of 95 horse-power.   The ore is brought from the mine, a
few hundred feet distant, in cars. The first process is to pass it through a
Blake's rock breaker, which will in a few hours break sufficient rock into fragments of less than a cubic inch in size to supply the stamps for 24 hours. This
effects a saving of $2 per ton in the cost of crushing the ore. From the breaker
the ore is placed upon a large pan or dryer, which is heated by the gases passing
from the roasting furnaces to the smoke-stack, and is thoroughly dried.  It is
then ready for the stamps. Of these there are 20, weighing 850 pounds each,
and they crush 16 tons per day fine enough to pass through a No. 60 screen, or
a screen with 3,600 holes to the square inch. Falling from the screens into a
tight bin, it is removed into cars standing on a track passing over the tops of the
roasting furnaces, and is thus transported to the furnaces, of which there are
eight, capable of roasting 16 tons in 24 hours.  Seven to nine hundred pounds
of ore mixed with a certain quantity of salt, according to the composition of
the ore, varying from eight to fifteen per cent., constitutes a charge, and this is
roasted from five to seven hours, being constantly stirred. It is then taken to
the amalgamating room, in which are six pans taking one ton of the roasted
pulp, now mixed with water, at a charge. Here the silver, which in the furnaces
was changed from its native condition to a chloride, is again changed to metallic
silver, and is amalgamated with quicksilver.  The pulp is agitated and ground
by revolving iron mullers for about six hours, when it is drawn off into settlers,
of which there are six, where more water is added, and, after several hours'
agitation, the quicksilver bearing the silver is drawn off, the pulp allowed to run
to waste, and the silver taken out.  Tkis, after being strained and pressed in
416 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
leather bags, exhausting the quicksilver as far as possible, is placed in a close
retort, and the remaining quicksilver expelled by heat.  The crude bullion
remaining is then taken to the smelting room, whvlere it is melted and run into
ingots, ready for the assayer and for commerce. The establishment is very complete, and presents an imposing appearance. The officers of the company having
charge and carrying on the works, are R. B. Canfield, general agent; II. AI.
Grant, bookkeeper; II. Richards, mining superintendent; Charles V. Baesler,
assayer; and Alonzo Monroe, engineer.  In working the mill at full capacity,
41 men are required.  Besides those in the mine and mill are blacksmiths, ore
assorters, and wood choppers, making 100 men employed. In one month 417
tons of ore were milled, producing $36,865. The assay of the ore was over
$100 per ton.  At the present date the mill is working to its full capacity, and
better results than formerly are obtained.
The.IcDonald isine.-The MIurphy and McDonald are locations upon the
same lode, the first extending from the cafion northwardly and the latter south
of it.  It is anticipated that they are of equal value, although the McDonald is
undeveloped.  Preparations are makling, under the superintendence of John II,
Boalt, for a New York company to commence explorations and developing the
mine.
These mines constitute the basis of support to a busy and prosperous little
village, called Toiyabee City, of about 300 inhabitants. This place is connected
with Austin by a tri-weekly stage, carrying the United States mail once a week.
The distance is 55 miles, and the time of passage about nine hours.  From the
valley to the town is about two and a half miles along the canon, and through
this distance a road has been constructed at a cost of about $6,000. The work
has been very heavy, and under the circumstances a good road is constructed,
although its grade at some places is as great as 10~. The road continues
through this calion over the summit of the Toiyabee mountain, and forms a convenient avenue for summer travel, but the passage is generally imnpeded by snow
during the wvinter.*
* The books of the county assessor, according to the Silver Bend Reporter, give the following returns of bullion and yield per ton of the mines of Nye county for the quarter ending
September 30, made under oath.  The amounts are for coin:
Name.                            Tons.    Gross.   Amount
per ton.
Twin River Company..................................................$107,544 0   $143 43
Murphy Mine............................................. —-----------
Belmont Company...............-.........................    73       8856 88 39 33
Transylvania, I.....................................................-...  8
Belmont Compan y.............................................  21    837 06    39 86
T         ransylvania, 2                oorf-..............................................  
Following are the returns of small lots of ore from this county, worked at mills in the
Following are the returns of small lots of ore from this county, worked at mills in th,e
vicinity of Austin, and forwarded by the assessor of Lander county. We merely give the
number of pounds of ore worked and the gross product:
Pounds.   Gross yield.
Indian Jim, Hot Creek district................................... 1,915   $90 s
Old Dominion.......do...................................  3,630           206 24
Gazelle.................................................. 11,314     753 30
Desert Queen, Reveille district.................................... 3,08:3  474 86
Wild Rose..........  do.....................................- 2,277       149 69
North America......do.........................................  1,172      68 75
Manhattan..........do. —---- --—................. 2,639               292 0l1
Lord Byron.........do......................................... 2,254  106 85.
Button..............do....................................... 600          8 84
Regan............do.....................................2..,792           30 68
Lexington ----     do......................................... 2,764       235 00
Peta, Union district.............................................. ], 971  68 46'
Holman, Union district.......................................... 2,031    295 34
The books of the county assessor show the following annual product of two of the leading
mines of Nye county: From October 1 to December 31, 1866, the Buel mill (now the Belz
27
417 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
SOUTHii TWIN RIV,ER,  HOT SPRINGS, EL DORADO, AND PEAVINE DISTRICTS._
The districts of South Twin River, Hot Springs, El Dorado, and Peavine, all
in Nye county, continue in the order in which they are named to near where the
mountain, which we have traced for 150 miles, falls away into the plain.  Although
but slightly explored, the opinion is expressed that the mines in the southern
part of the Toiyabee range will equal those of other parts, and that this extensive country offers an inviting field to the explorer and the capitalist.
SMOKY VALLEY.-The great Smoky valley, traversed by Fremont in 1845,
who mapped Big Smoky creek and Twin rivers, is worthy of special mention.
In the centre of it are found remarkiable springs of boiling water, throwing a
large and constant stream, in which meat and vegetables are readily cooked,
and tea and coffee quickly prepared for use.  The basin of the spring is from 20
to 30 feet in diameter, and the fountain of boiling water rises in the centre, a
constant column ascending by its subterranean force several feet above the surface. There are several smaller springs in the neighborhood, one of which
furnishes cold water.  The soil about them is fertile, and the climate pleasant
and healthy.
The fields of salt in the northern part of the valley have already been mentioned. Throughout it are found good agricultural lands. The climate is more
agreeable than generally prevails in Nevada, without extremes of heat or cold.
Snow seldom falls and frosts are never severe, although there are localities where
frosts have occurred as early as September, sufficient to blight certain species of
vegetation.  The valley continues, although slight elevations divide it into different basins, into the desert upon the southern borders of the State. In it are
other vast fields of salt, and beds of sulphur, alum, and soda, and bordering
upon it are the mountains of San Antonio and Silver Peak. These are isolated
and singular in their formation, and appear as if thrown into position by some
violent convulsion of nature. The mining districts of this region are among
the most important of the State.
SAN ANTONIO DISTPICT, comprising the mountain of that name, is situated
about 20 miles southeast of the southern terminus of the Toiyabee mountains,
and about 90 miles from Austin. Several companies are engaged in mining
here with some success, and ore is extracted which returns from reduction an
average of $200 per ton.
The Liberty mine, owned by George Seitz, has been continuously worked
during the present year. It is, so far, the most extensively worked mine in the
mont Company's) reduced 904 tons of ore, producing bullion of the value of $52,712 24,
being an average per ton of $58 31; the three months following-January, February, and
March, 1867-554 tons and a fraction were reduced, yielding $33,041 39, or $59 64 per ton;
the next quarter, 125 tons, 1,339 pounds, producing $6,903 02, $54 93 per ton; and 676 tols,
1,010 pounds, which produced $26,439 77, or $39 08 per ton.  The amounts added to the
production of the quarter ending on the 30th of September, of 736 tons, yielding $28,856 88$39 33 per ton, and 21 tons, yielding $837 06-$39 86 per ton, swells the total product of
this mine for the past year to $148,790 36 in coin.  The aggregate number of tons of ore
worked is a fraction over 3,917-averaging very nearly $50 per ton. It was reduced in a
10-stamp mill, at best but an inferior one, by the wet crushing process, by which it is not
claimed that more than about 65 per cent. of the silver is saved. In connection with the fact
that the mine from which the ore was obtained is practically inexhaustible, and can be made
to furnish almost any amount of ore, the above figures will furnish a basis upon which to
estimate its great value. During the same period, the Murphy mine, of the Twin River
Company, situated in Ophir canon, as is shown by the books of the assessor, has yielded as
follows: first quarter-626A tons, averaging $132 49 per ton, $83,007 96; second quarter1,1614 tons, averaging $84 18 per ton, $97,775 08; third quarter-804+ tons, averaging
$92 94 perton, $74,863 17; fourth quarter-800 tons, averaging $134 43 per ton, $107,544,
,makinog a total of $363,190 21 in coin in a twelvemonth.  The aggregate quantity of ore
worked is 3,393+ tons, and the average yield per ton a fraction over $107. We are informed
that the Murphy mine is now in a condition to supply ore for another mill of equal capacity
as the one in use, a number of levels having already been run which disclose hundreds of
feet in length along the vein, and for a depth of near 200 feet a compact mass of solid ore
-6ome 10 or 12 feet thick.
418 
WEST'OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
district, and bids fair to be remunerative.  A depth of 200 feet has been reached
and no water obtained. The mountain is dry, barren, and broken. A few miles
to the northwest are the Indian springs, where two small quartz mills have been
constructed.  As more vigorous work is now prosecuted upon the mines of this
district than formerly; they will probably soon take the rank in public esteem
to which their value entitles them.
SILVER PEAK, RED MOUNTAIN, PALMETTO, LIDA, AND EDMONTON DISTPrICTS.-The districts of Silver Peak, Red Mountain, Palmetto, Lida, and
Edmonton comprise the southwestern part of the territory which has been prospected by people who have made Austin their base of operations.
Silver Peak and Red Mountain are contiguous, lying about 150 miles south
by west from Austin. Silver Peak is a small, precipitous mountain, through
which, lying at a low angle, cuts the Vanderbilt vein, cropping on all sides.
The value of this vein has been very highly estimated.  Other good veins exist
in the district.
In the valley skirting the eastern base of the mountain is an extensive salt
field, covering an area of 30 square miles, and capable of furnishing an unlimited
supply of salt.
The Red Mountain district, a few miles east of Silver Peak, is distinguished
for its production of gold.
Great Salt Basin Company.-The mines of these two districts are chiefly
owned by a single company, the Great Salt Basin G. & S. M. Comnpany, organized by S. B. Martin and John W. Harker.   They have already a mill of 10
stamps, which has produced considerable bullion. The company is about to
erect two other mills of greatly increased capacity. Mining is to be carried on
systematically. The superintendent is Mr. J. E. Clayton, a competent mining
engineer, and the nominal capital $3,000,000. The company owns many mines
in these districts, the principal of which are the Vanderbilt, Pocatillo, and Sisson.
The bullion obtained at the mill from the Vanderbilt ore is worth $2 per ounce,
while that of Red Mountain is chiefly gold.
The developments in Palmetto district have proved several of the veins to be
large and valuable. Gold-bearing quartz is also found, which indicates an abundance of that metal. The district derives its name from a species of date tree,
which was mistaken by the discoverers for the palmetto.
COLUMBUS, VOLCANO, CLARENDON, PARADISE, PILOT, MAMMOTIF, UNION,
AND  NORTII UNION  DISTRICTS.-These districts are generally classed as
belonging to eastern Nevada or Reese river, although they are in the western
half of the State. Each has peculiarities, which to describe in detail would be
beyond the limits of this report.
Clarendon district contains silver-bearing veins, the character of the ore
being the same as that of Silver Bend, southeast of Austin.  It has a pleasant
village of about 80 inhabitants, with families, a school, and church society,
indications of the respectability and good order of the community.
Volcano district is peculiar in its formation, and is supposed to possess quicksilver and coal mines, as well as gold, copper, and silver, but is most familiarly
known from its fossils, which are rare and beautiful.
Paradise district receives its name from its pleasant location, and its abundant
wood, water, and vegetation.
These are situated from 90 to 150 miles southwest of Austin.
illammoth district is situated 65 miles southwest of Austin, and its condition is promising. The Mount Vernon Company are prosecuting an extensive
system of works, which will develop the mines and prove the value of the district. The Hamilton Gold and Silver Mining Company have several excellent
mines in this district, but they are not yet developed to any considerable extent.
Union district lies on the western slope of the Shoshone mountains, the first
range west of Reese river, and is about 55 miles southwesterly from Austin.
419 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
It contains ledges of undoubted value and facilities for the reduction of ore, such
as an abundance of wood and water.  The district was early brought into notice,
yet its progress has been slow and its production of bullion slight. It is interesting from the beauty and abundance of geodes, valuable to the jeweller and
lapidary, found in it. Chalcedory, agate, jasper, and other precious stones also
abound.
2Vorth Union district is almost entirely undeveloped, but is favorably regarded
by those who are acquainted with its mines and resources.
NEW PASS DISTRICT lies almost directly west of Austin, 25 miles distant. It
has been organized two years and is yet undeveloped.  Mineralogists and engineers
have given it a partial examination and have pronounced favorable opinions
respecting its resources. The predominant metal is gold. The veins are numerous and well situated for mining.
We may now turn to that portion of Nevada southeast from Austin. This
until withinl the past year was to the general public a terra incognita, and believed
to be, as it was represented upon the maps, an inhospitable desert, treeless and
verdureless, and barely subsisting the few miserable Indians who wandered over
its barren plains.  But the prospector at last ventured upon its exploration, and
the results have been unexpectedly important.  A country of vast extent has
been unveiled to the world; the rocks seamed with veins of silver, and the valleys
abounding in valuable grasses. Not repelling the explorer, it invited him on,
until at last the chorography of the country has been made known.  The western slope of the imountain bordering Smoky valley on the east had been slightly
explored, and the districts of Jefferson, Manhattan and Santa Clara formed.
Under the general belief prevailing that silver-bearing ledges found elsewhere
than in the Toiyabee were exceptional, little attention was paid to the discoveries
reported to have been made in these districts until subsequent to the discovery
of the ledges of Silver Bend.  Since then more attention has been paid to them,
and they are now found to be of sonime importance. Little, however, has been
done towards the development of any mine in them.
SILVER BEND.-A section of country southeast of Austin bears the general
name of Silver Bend.  It was first entered by prospectors at an early day in the
settlement of eastern Nevada, but no discoveries of minieral were made until
October, 1865, when ledges cropping out in massive proportions and showing silver-bearing ore were found. But little work was done, or attention paid to these,
until May, 1866, when Dr. W7illiam Geller, now general agent of the Combination S. M. Company of New York, was attracted by the statement, and paid
the locality a visit. Hie was at once convinced of its worth, and purchased the
interest of the locators of the Highlibridge ledge, being 3,000 feet in length, for
the sum of $24,000 in currency.  Soon afterwards work was commenced under
the superintendence of L. B. Mloore, who is now carrying on the company's
operations. Mr. D. E. Buel and others subsequently visited the district, and
reports of its wealth were published in the Reese River Reveille, with descriptions of the mines and surrounding country.  Flrom that time it began to attract
attention from all parts of the State.  People gathered in the vicinity; the terra
incognita of the southeast was explored and many districts organized.  The town
of'Belmont was built, wvhich is now a flourishing village and the shire town of
Nyc county.  The following particulars of the mines have been obtained chiefly
from Mr. J. E. MIoloney of Belmont.  He says of the
PHILADELPHIA I)ISTRICT.-This district, ern-oneously called "Silver Bend,"
is situated about 85 miles south by east from Austin, on the eastern slope of the
Smoky range of mountains, in the county of Nye.  The principal mines, as yet
developed, are situated down towards the eastern base of the mountain, near
3M[onitor valley.  It was organized in 1865 with laws similar to those of Reese River
,district. The facilities for building are good, the preferred material being stone,
but brick of a fine quality is made in the neighborhood. Fire-wood exists in such
420 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
abuLndance that mills are furnished with fuel at the rate of $4 50 per cord.  Tim  ber suitable for purposes of building exists in the surrounding hills, and several
saw-mills find profitable employment and a good market for their products.  The
better quality of lumber, however, is brought from the Sierra Nevada, near 250
miles distant.  A more convenient source of supply would be the White Pine
range of mountains, lying about 75 miles to the east. There a species of fir tree
grows from which an excellent quality of lumber could be obtained. Elsewhere
throughout the State, with slight exceptions, the forests are of pinion, cedar or junlli  per, mountain mahogany and cottonwood,l with a few other varieties, all of a
dwarfish character, and although excellent for fuel, make very poor lmnber.  It,
however, answers many purposes, and in the district and neighborhood are five
saw-mills engag,ed in its manutfacture.  Water is found in quantities sufficient
to supply the demand, through the medium of natural springs, some of which
furnish considerable streams of water.  Already water has been obtained in mines
and wells, and there can be no doubt that deep mining will supply an abulnd  ance of the element for a large population and an unlimited amount of steam
machinery.
The geological formation is of slate, with a stratification running north and
south and dipping to the east at a high angle, and the veins follow the stratifi  cation.  A large number of veins have been discovered and located, the principal
of wlhich are the Transylvania, Highlibridge, E1 Dorado, and Achilles.
In the district is the village of Belmont, the shire town of Nye county.  It is
situated in or about the centre of the mineral belt, on a flat through which flows
a stream of water. At this point a spur of mountains branches off from the
Smoky range and trends to the southeast, dividing the valley into two parts
that on the north called Mlonitor, and( that on the southl called Ralston valley.
In this spur, and east of the town, are the principal mines of the district.  The
site opens out southward into Ralston valley, presenting a fine view of the
country south, and the range of mountains in which are the districts of Manhat tan, Argentoro and others. Though this place is scarcely a year old, it presents
the appearance of a well-established centre of trade, having substantial stone
and brick fire-proof buildings, and many good frame ones. A weekly mail route
is established from Austin to this place, and is extended on to Pahranagat.
Between Belmont and Austin the mail is carried in a four-horse stage, which
runs tri-weekly, and carries Wells, Fargo & Company's express every trip.  The
express, therefore, does the chief letter-carrying, its superior convenience entirely
eclipsing the wveeklly mail.  A weekly newspaper, the " Silver Bend Reporter,"
is published, and is evidence of the enlightened state of society peopling this
distant frontier. Banks, assay offices, schools, &c., are established, with other
institutions and business that go to make up a flourishing town.
Thee Com))binationi Gold and( Silver Jliniing  Comnyany, already spoken of, is a
New York organization, owning mines and other property in different parts of
eastern Nevada.  In Philadelphia district it has a claim of 3,000 feet upon
the Transylvania ledge, which is so developed as to leave no doubt of its
worth. This is the most northerly portion of the vein yet developed. An
incline has been sunk on the ledge to a depth of 170 feet, where it shows a width
of 22 feet inside of casings, with a large body of ore.  It is estimated that the
vein will average by the wvet process of working, $150 per ton.  This seems a
very hi,gh estimate and needs the corroboration of thorough trial.  The vein is
pierced by two tunnels at a depth of 120 feet, and separated by a distance of 700
feet, firom the termini of whlich levels have been run north and south, in all about
$00 feet, thus to some extent proving the ledge and preparing it for mining.
The company have in course of construction a mill of 40-stamp capacity. It
is rapidly approaching completion, and will soon be in operation.  For the better
working of the mine a perpendicular shaft is sunk, which will pierce the ledge
at a depth of 600 feet. The sinking is now in progress.
421 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Belrniot Silver  1Iizinig Copaney is composed of 3Messrs. J. A. McDonald,
J. W. Gasliwiler and S. M. Buck.  The mining property lies south of the Combinationl Company's and joins it, being on the same ledge.  It was formerly
known as Buel's Hlighbliridge, having been owned and developed by 3Ir. D. E.
Budel. This gentleman, when attention was first drawn to the district, purchased
the location, 300 feet, for the sum of $9,000. This was in June, 1866, and he
immnediately commenced the erection of a 10-stamp mill, putting it into operation
on the 1st of September following.  The mill was prepared only for wet crushing, or working ores without roasting, and was expected to save only 60 per cent.
of the silver contained in the ore.  It was very incomplete, having for somne
months only the machinery standing, without roof or enclosing building; yet in
about seven months it turned out upwards of $100,000 in bullion. The ores
worked were chiefly from or near the surface. Since it has gone into the possession of its present owners, extensive developments have been undertaken under
the direction of S. 3M. Buck, civil and mining engineer. The results are said to
be satisfactory. At the present time the company is constructing a 20-stamp
mill which they hope to have in operation before the close of the year. The
same parties are also owners of a claim of 400 feet, known as the Wood & Budel
mine, on the Transylvania No. 1, a parallel vein to the Transylvania No. 2, or
Highbridge, and 100 feet from it. There is some difference of opinion respecting these veins —whether they are really two distinct veins, or one a breakl from
the other. Their parallel course and great similarity of gangue and ore impress
many with the belief that explorations will prove them to be but one lode. Upon
the claim last mentioned some work has been done, and a depth of 75 feet
attained on it, where it is found to be from six to ten feet in width. The ore
taken out has been reduced at the mill, and is said to have produced from $70
to $100 per ton. A less return is given in the report published by the assessor.
The 2IcAleer Comp)any is a company formed in Frederick City, Maryland,
and has been previously mentioned as the Continental, owning property in the
Cortez district. Its mining property was the location of Moore and Martin, and
comprises 153 feet on the great Transylvania vein, next south of the Wood and
Budel location. Since it has been the property of the McAleer Company it has
been under the management of D. T. Elmnore, who has prosecuted work on the
mine to the depth of 140 feet, at which depth the vein is from 6 to 10 feet in
width, nearly the entire body being ore estimated to be worth from $60 to $130
per ton. Developments are still going on in preparation for a mill of 20 stamp
capacity, now in course of construction, and which it is expected will be in operation this year. The mine, though less in length of vein than the others, is none
the less valuable in proportion, and like the others is well situated for working.
Thie Silver Bend Company owns the next location south on the vein, and is
locally known as the Childs and Canfield.  The claim extends 2,000 feet along
the vein, and the developments show it to be similar in size and quality of ore
to the others previously mentioned.  An incline shaft has been sunkl to the depth
of 115 feet, and a level run 150 feet along the vein, proving it permanent and
valuable throughout.  At a point 800 feet south of the incline mentioned another
was sunk to the depth of 105 feet, and levels run north and south, firom lwhich
100 tons of ore worked at the Belmont mill (wet process) yielded $91 per ton.
These mines are all on one ledge, and produce good ores.
Most writers stop when the mines of the Transylvania are described, not
thinking that others are worthy of note, but an examination reveals the fact that
others of a promising character exist.
The El:Dorado lies about 1,000 feet west of the Transylvania, and parallel
to it.  This vein was discovered in the early settlement of the place.  It is now
owned by Leon, Mullen, Singleterry, and Brown. Ant incline shaft has been
sunk upon it to a depth of 70 feet, developing a vein 8 to 10 feet in width, from
which pay ore is obtained.
422 
WEST OF THE ROCKY M6UNTAINS.
The Independence and Arizona lie north of the E1 Dorado, and are supposed
to be on the same vein.  They are not much developed, but being on the E1
Dorado vein are esteemed valuable.
North of Belmont one mile is the Silver Champion, which has produced some
good ore.  It has lately been purchased by T. F. White for an eastern company,
and work will probably be commenced upon it soon.
Adjoining this is the Silver Queen, upon which developments are progressing.
Northeast of Belmont is the Silver Cord, Magnolia, and other veins, and
southeast, near the Silver Bend Company's mine, is the Achilles. These have
been worked to some extent and give evidence of value.
West of Belmont is what is termed the "Spanish Belt," where numerous
ledges are found.  There are other veins and claims than those mentioned which
may prove of value, and many which doubtless deserve the name of "1wild-cat."
OFFICIAL RETUP,xS.-The official returns of Nye county have been published
for the quarter ending June 30, 1867.  The following list contains the names of
the mines, the amount worked, and the average rate per ton:
Name of mine.
Average per
ton.
$92 94
66 20
39 08
54 93
208 00
56 23
408 00
101 73
102 32
611 37
262 89
367 76
Murphy, (Twin river)....................................................
Transylvania, (Silver Bend Company)....................................6                                 
Transylvania No. 1, (Belmont Company)..................................
Transylvania No. 3, (Belmont Company)..................................305
Liberty, (San Antonio)...................................................
Teutonia, (Milk Springs).................................................
Westfield, (Reveille).....................................................
J. Ritter, (Reveille)......................................................
Adriatic, (Reveille).......................................................
Cornucopia, (Reveille)...................................................
Wild Irishman, (Union)..................................................
Canada, (North Twin river)............................................a...
During the quarter a considerable amount of ore from Nye county was reduced
at the mills of Austin, and not mentioned in the above returns. The mills
working were the Mlurphy, at Twin river, 20 stamps; the Belmont, at Belmnont,
10 stamps; the Rigby, at San Antonio, four stamps; and the Rutland, at Reveille, five stamps. The last reduced very little ore.
NORTHlUMBERLAND DISTRICT.-Sixty miles southeast of Austin is the district of Northumberland, which from recent developments shows evidences of
value, and is attracting some attention. It lies on the eastern slope of the Smoky
range, and on both sides of the pass through which goes the road leading from
Austin to Belmont. The district was organized in June, 1866, and a number
of ledges located, few of which were tested.  Those now most developed are
the Northumberland and Lady Cummings. From these 20 or more tons of ore
have been taken and reduced at the mills of Austin, and from $70 to $150 per
ton have been obtained. Ore of this quality is reported to be abundant.
DANVILLE DISTRICT lies on the eastern slope of the Monitor range, being
the next east of the Smoky range.  Between the two lies Monitor valley, similar
in its appearance and general characteristics to the Smoky valley and others
in the eastern part of the State. The district lies directly east of Northumberland, and S0 miles distant from Austin.  It was organized in the summer of
1866, and many ledges located.  Of these the Vanderbilt and Silveropolis have
furnished ores which, assaying largely, have given some notoriety to the district.
From first-class ores of the Vanderbilt assays have been obtained ranging from
$800 to $1,700 per ton, and from the Silveropolis as high as $300 and $400 per
ton. The assayer remarks that the ores are unusually free from base metals.*
It must be observed that these assays afford no reliable indication of the value of a vein.
Generally, the ores are selected. There is ore in every district and almost every mine from
which high assays can be obtained;,but $1,000 or $10,000 ore may exist in a worthless
mine.-J. R. B.
I
423
ons.
Lbs.
1, 000
632
1,110
1, 330
.........
46
1,679
1,320
940
1, 620
296
1,748
805
100
676
125
100
I
......
......
.... i.
2
...... 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The veins at the outcrop are from 20 inches to 12 feet in widclth. The developmenlts are slight, and none appear to be in progress at the present time.  The
district is represented to be well supplied with wood and water.
HErIcULEs' GATE DISTRICT is situated east of and about 150 miles distant
from Austin, in the Egan range of mountains.  It receives its name from a deep
chasm cutting the mountain in two, and through which MIajor Simpson passed
with his exploring expedition in 1859.  Silver-bearing veins of good character
are reported as existing, but the mineral resources of the district are little known.
Bordering on the great Steptoe valley, with numerous streams furnishing power
for mills and manufacturing and water for irrigation, it presents features of attraction and value aside from its mines.  Copper ore is found in small irregular veins
running through the lime-rock or marble in some portions of the district.
HOT CrEEK.-The district of Hot Creek is situated about 100 miles southeast from Austin, in Nye county. It was organized in February, 1S66, and is of
the usual dimensions, 20 miles square. It receives its name from a great natural
cu,riositv, being a stream of hot water of several hundred inches in measurement,
and running tor several miles in a deep chasm through the mountains. The
stream rises from the ground in a large boiling spring at the western base of the
Hot Creek range of mountains, and runs eastward through a narrow pass and
sinks in a tul6 marsh in the valley east of the mountain. For several hundred
yards the water retains a high degree of heat, but being supplied by numerous
cold springs its temperature is reduced. The water is pure, and is used for culinary purposes. The heat furnished by nature is highly appreciated by those
dwelling on its banks.  There is in the valleys flanking the mountains a considerable amount of agricultural land, and experiments in cultivation have been
made with some success.  The chasm, which in places is but a few rods wide,
offers facilities for a road through the mountain.  A town has been laid out in
lhe district, and is occupied by about 100 people.  The geological formation is
of limestone. slate, and porphyry, all containing silver-bearinlg quartz.  The
limestone appears chiefly on the surface. The mountain rises about 1,500 feet
above the level of the valleys, and being very precipitous, offers good opportunities for opening mines by tunnelling.  The mining claims of chief notoriety
located in the district are the Indian Jim, 1,500 feet; iferrimac, 1,500 fcet; Old
Dominion, 1,400 feet; Gazelle, 1,200 feet; and the Old Joe, Keystone, Hot
Creek, and Silver Glance.
Old( Dominion Com2njany.-Upon the Indian Jim and MIelTimac some developments have been made. These and the Old Dominion are the property of
the Old Dominion Company, formed under the laws of Pennsylvania.   The
company is prosecuting work on their mines, and constructing a mill of 20 stamp
capacity.  Upon the Merrimae a shaft has been sunk to a depth of 40 feet, and
from this a drift is run which, on the 1st of August, had penetrated the vein a
distance of six feet, showing a body of ore estimated to be wvorthl from $100 to
$300 per ton.  From cuts through the vein at tIhe surface, it is found to be 40
feet in thickness.* It runsnorth and south,crossing the Hot Creek canion; that part
north of the canon being the Indian Jim location, and that south the Merrimac.
The shaft proves that tihe limestone, covering the surface has only a depth of 30
feet, and is underlaid by slate and porphyry.
The Consolidation Cor)?)any is a New  York organization, and owns  veins
throughout various parts of eastern Nevada, but the scenes of its principal operations are in Hot Creek district.  Here it owns a number of veins of some promise, though they have not been remunerative. The company has built a 10-stamp
mill, called the Manchester. Each stamp is but 250 pounds weight. The mill
has not been run successfully and is now idle. The chief mine of the company
'It should be understood that veins of this width do not contain pay ore all the way through.
Generally, the ore runs in streaks or is found in pockets. The thickness of a vein, therefore,
cannot of itself be regarded as infallable evidence of valuie.-J. R. B.
424
I 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
is the Keystone.  Upon the vein a shaft was sunk 33 feet in depth, when, after
passing a bod4y of pay ore, the wvalls came together and the ledge was lost. But
sligiht excavations have been imade to recover it, and aill work of the company
lhas ceased for the present.  There are several other veins in the district belonging to the same company, upon which work has been done, but while the prospects were encouraging, there were no profitable results.
The district has advantages of wood, which can be procured at $5 per cord;
fine water, a pleasant climate, and is surrounded by good agricultural land.
These, with the silver-bearing veins, will probably, at no distant day, bring it
into notice.
REVEILLE DISTRICT.-During the summer of 1866 explorations through the
southeastern part of the State were carried on extensively, and many discoveries of
importance were made.  This region of country had previously been regarded as an
inhospitable desert, and was entered with great caution.  The impression of its sterility was found to be erroneous, and it is inow ascertained that north of the 38th parallel, that part of Nevada. at least, contains but little country that can with propriety
be called a desert.  In August, 1866, a party composed of AI. D. Fairchild, A.
3lonroe, and W. O. Arnold, discovered an extraordinary outcrop of silver-bearing, veins upon the eastern slope of a range next east of the Hot Creek mountains, and about 135 miles southeast of Austin. They immediately proceeded
to organize a mining district to which they gave the name of Reveille, in complimnent to the Reveille newspaper, Austin. They adopted the mining law
of the State, and under it claims were recorded and held. The most promising
claims located are the Crescent, August, lMediterranean, Atlantic,  National,
Antartic, Fisherman, and Adriatic.  iMany others are located.  The last two
named are situated on the western slope of the mountain, while the others are
on the eastern side.  The rock formation is chiefly limestone, and the metalbearing quartz appears in veins or vast beds in the  crust  and extending
above the surface. These appear of various widths from 20 to upwards of 10(J
feet.  The excavations upon them have not determined their depth, nor whether
they are true fissure veins or detached beds.  Being in limestone, and appearing
in such masses at the surface, has given rise to questions as to their true character. From the August, Crescent, Fisherman, Adriatic, and others, some ore has
been taken and reduced at the mills at Austin, producing $150 and upwards to
the ton. The outcropping masses of this district are distinguished for the amount
of silver they contain.  There is but little water in the neighborhood of the mines,
but to the west, from seven to ten miles, upon the opposite side of the valley
separating the Reveille from the Hot Creek range, are streams affording water
for reduction mills should deep mining fail to obtain water for the purpose close
at hand. Upon one of these streams the Rutland mill of five stamps has been
erected, but as it was prepared only for wet crushing, or from want of efficient
management and metallurgical skill, it has not been successful.
EMPIRE DISTRIcT.-Joining Hot Creek district on the south, and about
eight miles distant from that singular stream, is Empire district. This was organized in 1866, shortly after that of Hot Creek. It is represented as containing
valuable ledges. Ore from them reduced at Austin has yielded as high as $400
per ton. Specimens of great richness are often exhibited, showing chloride,
sulphuret, and native silver.  The true character and real worth of the district
has not been demonstrated.
MILK SPRINGS I)ISTRICT is in the Hot Creek range of mountains, and south
of Empire. It receives its name firom the peculiar appearance of the water
arising from a large spring, which, although to the taste pure, 1s of a milky
color. Numerous veins have been located, and some good ore has been obtained.
But little work has been done in the district, and its true character cannot be
stated. Some of the veins are regarded as of value by persons qualified to judge.
MeOREY DISTRIcT. —The mineral veins of Morey district were noticed in 1865, by
I
425 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
T. J. Barnes, who penetrated the southeastern country.  This gentleman made
extensive explorations, and with others organized several districts. Accounts of
these were reported at the time in the Reese River Reveille, but they led to no
general occupation of the country, nor to the development of any mines.  The year
following Morey district was reorganized, and labor upon some of the veins is now
progressing with fair prospects. It is situated about 100 miles east and a little
south of Austin, on a spur of mountain ruLnning, east from the Hot Creek range.
It is as yet but little known.
PAIIANAGAT DISTICT lies in the southeastern part of Nevada, near the 38th
parallel of latitude, and about 1159 west from Greenwich. Its distance from
Austin is estimated at 180 miles. The mines were first discovered in March,
1865, by T. C. W. Sayles, John H. Ely, David Sanderson, Samuel S. Strut,
William MIcClusky, and Ira Hatch, Indian interpreter.  These parties were from
Utah, and were guided to the locality by anl Indian. A district was formed
and many ledges located.*  The name given it was the name borne by the
Indians living in an extensive valley lying at the foot of the mountain bearing
the mineral; the word "pah" meaning water, and "ranagat" any vegetable, as
melon, squash, or pumpkin, growing on vines.  It is indicative of the agricultural value of the section. The mountain bearing the mineral was named Mount
Irish, in honor of Mr. Irish, the United States Indian agent for the Territory of
Utah. The place where the discoverers encamped, being at a spring of water
in the valley, was called by the Indians Hiko, meaning white man, and the
village now at that place, and county seat of LT incoln county, bears that name.
The chief physical features of the district are, Mount Irish, a lofty peak attaining
Messrs. Adelberg and Raymond, metallurgists and mining engineers. of New York, in
a report on the character of certain silver ores from the Pahranagat district, say: The silver
ores from Pahranagat district, the value of which, as determined by 22 assays made for
P. Prentice, esq., of New York, will be found in our certificates, present, with but one excep tion, a single typical class of argentiferous rock, viz: polybasite, of great richness. This
mineral contains a somewhat variable proportion of silver, although it has a distinct habitus
and chemical character. It is a sulphuret of arsenic (or antimony) and silver, with the formula 9 Ag S + As S3; but a portion of the silver may be represented by copper, and the
arsenic by antimony, so that the general formula may be given thus: 9 (Cu S. Ag S) + (S
C S3 As S3.)  The percentage of silver, according to careful analyses made in Europe, varies
from 64 to 72 per cent., and even more.
Pahranagat district, aside from its well-known veins of argentiferous galena, one of which
is represented in the specimens submitted to us, seems to carry in its silver lodes principally
polybasite. This mineral must be looked upon, therefore, as the characteristic ore of the
district, and the principal basis of that silver production, which is rapidly springing up in
that rich locality. This mineralogical feature distinguishes Pahranagat from other centres
of silver production, such as the Washoe and Reese River districts; and will determine for
it a peculiar metallurgical process for the treatment of its ores. We cannot undertake, without a more extended examination, to describe in detail such a process; and content ourselves
on this occasion with the following brief opinion:
1. In the case of ores of such quality as the samples marked ITampden, Saturn, Mars,
Williams, Moscow, Comanche, Vesuvius, Leonidas, London, Pittsburg, Cliff, Hamburg,
Judson, Steuben, Inca, and Mazeppa, we do not see any objection to the use of the wellknown process of chloritic roasting and subsequent amalgamation, as carried on in and around
Austin; although it is obvious, that only a careful roasting of long duration will convert
these ores into a form of chlorides for amalgamation.
2. On the other hand, such exceedingly rich ores as those marked Braganza, Exenica,
Gibraltar, and Manchester, would best be beneficiated by the smelting process, the choice of
which is indicated by their very character, and the use of which is especially feasible in Pahranagat, inasmuch as the galena veins of that district furnish the very material upon which
that process is founded. Another most favorable circumstance is the existence of coal beds
in the neighborhood. Although these coal beds, like others of the western coast, belong, no
doubt, to the tertiary formation, they will still be of great value to the mimning industry of the
country, especially as they occur within four miles of the lode.
3. In conclusion we desire to say, that most of the specimens submitted to us are obviously
from near the surface; and, judging from the analogy between the mineralogical characterisics of the poorer and the richer ores, we regard it as most probable that future developments in depth will prove all these lodes to carry rich polybasite, which could unquestionably
be more thoroughly and easily treated by smelting than by amalgamation.
1 See Appendix, page 666.
426 
1
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
an elevation of 11,000 feet above the sea, with other hills and peaks constituting
a range of mountains; the Pahranagat valley, of some  30 miles in length and
about 12 in width, a portion of which is agricultural land; and its large and
singular springs.  The mountain, as described by Mir. RP. IH. Stretch, State mineralogist of Nevada, "is a mass of white porphyritic rock, the flanks consisting
of a blackish limestone (abounding in fragments of crinoids and corals) overlying
slates and capped with a heavy body of quartzite.  On Silver hill and Sanderson
mountain, the outcroppings of the lodes are in limestone. On the western slope
of the range, crystalline eruptive rocks are abundant."* The trend of the mnountain range is north and south, and the strike of the veins is generally northeast
and southwest, with a slight dip to the southeast, or stand nearly vertical. There
have been upwards of 1,000 locations made, the principal of which are the Illinois, List, Crescent, Bay State, New Hampshire, Eclipse, Utah, Ulric Dahlgren,
and Victoria. Many others are worthy of mention, but their developments are
slight, and the catalogue would be useless.
The valley of Pahranagat lies at an elevation estimated at from 6,000 to 7,000
feet above the sea, but, for so great an altitude the climate is comparatively warm
and pleasant.  This is accounted for by its being in a measure open to the valley
of the Colorado and the warm region of the south.  Very slight snow-storms are
experienced in winter, and frosts are not severe. Springs and streams afford
water for irrigating a large area, which, with the good soil and nmild climate, will
enable it to furnish such products of the farm, garden, and field as a mining
population may require. The springs, of which there are three, Hiiko, Logan,
and Ash, are natural curiosities, from the amounts of water dchey pour forth,
being from 1,000 to 2,000 inches, and the peculiarity of their hihli temperature, 
which is from 65~ to 75~ Fahrenheit.   In the neighborhood of each of these are
farming settlements, and at Hiko and  Logan are small villages.  The total
numnber of inhabitants in the district is now about 300. There are several families
residing in the valley, but no schools are yet estalfiished.  This section having
been first occupied by people froin Utahl and the east, where United States legaltender notes is the currency, this currency is adopted here, and in that differs
friom other portions of the State.  Early in the present year a mill of five-stamp
capacity was erected by W. H. Raymond, and put in operation;  but either from
inexperience or bad management it proved a failure, and is not operating now.
Another mirll of five stamps, to work the ores of the List lode, has been con structed and is more successful, although very incomplete.   A  10-stamp mill is
The Mining and Scientific Press, of San Francisco, California, of December, 1865, makes
the following allusion to the Pahranagat mines:
We have had placed upon our table some very fine specimens of silver ore from an entirely
new mining district, lately discovered about 100 miles easterly of Mono lake, and at least 75
miles distant from any already existing district.  It has been named the Pahranagat Lake
district, the Indian name of the lake and valley near which the mines are located. The
discovery was made in March last, by Messrs. J. Ely, W. McClosky, S. S. Shutt, and three
others.  The location, as ascertained by running out a line from a known point, is in lati tude 37~ 34' north, and 115~ 29' west, which places it in the southeast corner of the State of
Nevada.
The ore from this newly discovered region is mainly silver-bearing, and judging from
samples of the croppings before us, the mines must prove rich in depth.
Assays have been made by Mr. G. Kuistel from five different samples of ore, taken from as
many different lodes, three of which present marked peculiarities, and duplicates of all of
which are before us. We append the assays, with a description of each sample:
No. 1. Principally carbonate of lead and antimony, yielded at the rate of $867 10, in silver,
to the ton of ore.
No. 2. Carbonate of lead, copper, and antimony, $282 25 in silver.
No. 3. Carbonate of lead and copper, with argentiferous gray copper ore and copper silver
glance, $1,036 75 in silver.
No. 4. A specimen presenting same characteristics as No. 3 yielded at the rate of $263')0
to the ton.
No. 5. Another specimen similar to No. 3 yielded at the rate of $337 30 to the ton.  The
two last each presented traces of gold.
427 
RESOURCES OF STATES. AND TERRITORIES
now in course of construction upon the plan of the best mills at Austin. Its
architect and builder is Benjamin Evans, whose experience gives hopes of suc cess.   Several attempts have been made to smelt the ores, some of which bear
considerable quantities of galena, but so far they have proved failures. It is proba ble these failures are the consequence of want of knowledge of the composition and
inexperience inll the reduction of the ores.  They have retarded the development of
lhe district, and depleted the pockets of the miners.
A  remnarkable mountain of salt exists about 70 miles south of the mines.*  It
is reported to be about five miles in length and 600 feet in height.   The body
of salt is of unknown depth. It is chemically pure and crystalline, and does
not deliquesce on exposure to the atmosphere. Like rock, it requires blasting
form the mine, whence it is taklen in large blocks as transparent as glass.   This
would afiford an abundant supply to the world could it be cheaply mined  and
transported, but it now stands in the wilderness, an object for the admiration of
the curious, and the inspection of the scientific.   The salt to be used in bene ciating the ores, or for domestic purposes, is more easily obtained from the
fields in White Pine valley, where it is gathered ready for the table or the mill.
This salt field is about 60 miles north of the mines on M1ount Irish, and from
it salt can be delivered at the mills at Pahranagat at a cost of $40 in coin per
ton.   The district receives its machinery  and  most of its supplies from  San
Francisco.    The different routes from  that city are by sea around Cape  St.
Lucas and up the Gulf of California, thence in small steamers up the Colorado
river about 600 miles to Callville,t thence by land about  175 miles; or by
sea to San Pedro, thence  by land via Los Angeles  475 miles; or by  Sacramento, the Central Pacific  railroad, and Austin.   The total distance  bv the
latter route is 65p miles, and freight is taken through at the rate of $200 in coin
per ton.   The preference is now given to the land route via the railroad.
TThe Illinois -3ine.-TlThe  Illinois lode is situated high up on the eastern
* Dr. 0. HI. Conger, assayer and metallurgist, says in a report on the resources of this district:
"Timber is very abundant in the mountains of this region, particularly in those in which the
mines are situated. The water-power is also almost unlimited along the valley streams.
Coupled with these great natural advantages, which are indispensable, are immense deposits
of salt and the silicate of alumina, and the latter is in the immediate vicinity of the mines.
The outcroppings of it over a very large extent of country, which are apparent, prove it absolutely inexhaustible. Its capability of withstanding any degree of heat, to the state of incandescence, is most remarkable. It possesses the property also of hardening by heating, so
that in a very short period it becomes almost adamantine. Another very desirable property;
as a furnace material, is in its scarcely perceptible expansion and contraction under the most
intense degree of heat or cold. Its constituents appear to be, from a hasty test made, silica,
alumina, magnesia, and asbestus, the two first minerals greatly predominating, and some
strata indicating silica and alumina only. In appearance it resembles chalk, and is as easily
carved into any desirable shape.  The strata vary in thickness from four inches to six feet.
"These varying thicknesses enable blocks of it to be obtained of any desired size, so that
the floors or hearths of reverbaratory and cupelling furnaces, as also pieces entire for the
arches can be obtained whole. This will greatly lessen the expense in the construction of
the furnaces in this district, which are required for the proper working of the ores, and also
they can be much more strongly and perfectly built than with the usual fire brick. Already
it is being carried to different parts of the country for refractory purposes. Mountains of
limpid salt boldly project through the floor of the valley, and in many places from 100 to 200
feet in height and thickness, so that blocks of a ton in weight or more are easily obtained.
One remarkable feature about it is, that it is perfectly pure, containing not a trace of anything but the two elements chlorine and sodium. I believe there is but one other place on
the globe where it exists in such a state of purity in workable quantities, and that is Cracow,
Poland. This is but another evidence of the state of purity in which the force of nature has
left her mineral deposits in this interesting portion of the continent. Native silver is common
in many of the lodes of this district on the outcropping ore.
"Copper ore, of the sub-oxide and gray varielies, 80 per cent. metal, and also iron ore of
equal richness, are abundant."
t Callville has been reached with great difficulty by one small steamer; but the navigation of the Colorado to that point can scarcely be considered practicable for commercial purposes, in its present condition.-J. R. B.
428 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
slope of the mountain, and is cut through by a deep cation, giving an opportunity to examine the vein, and to open it by tunnels at a great depth.  It crops
out boldly, showing an apparent width of from 15 to 20 feet.  The vein has been
opened at several places, and found to be valuable.  The Illinois, Indiana, Webster, and other veins of good repute, are the property of W. H. Raymond & Co.,
of New York.
Thie Inzdian)a, on Peters's mountain, has been tapped by a tunnel of 125 feet,
at a depth of 120 feet below the croppings, showing a pay streak of 6 feet in a
vein of 10 feet between the walls.
Tle Webster, on Raymond mountain, has been struck by a vertical shaft 100
feet below the croppings, with a pay streak of about 10 feet.
The Alameda Coi)Jany.-This is a New York organization, and owns the List
and other mines.  The List is a location of 400 feet in length upon a vein vlwhich
extends through several similar locations.  In the claim of the Alameda Company it is most developed, and shows a width of from 5 to 10 feet, bearing two
strata of ore, respectively 6 and 18 inches in width.  Several tons of this ore
have been taken to Austin for reduction, and produced at the rate of $100 per
ton, and a number of tons workled at the Crescent mill, near the vein, yielded
$80 per ton.  The developments consist in an incline 23 feet, and a shaft 50
feet in depth, from the bottom of which a tunnel has been run, but it has not as
yet penetrated the vein.  Wm. Fleming is the superintendent.  The wages paid
for first-class miners in this district are $6 per day in currency.  SIr. Islin, Captain I)ahlgren, and others, are about to commence operations on mines of which
they are owners or agents. The district bids fair, with its mineral-bearing ledges
and agricultural resources, to become one of importance.  It is connected with
Austin by a weekly mail, and the road between the two places is naturally good,
and has been well improved, so it is easily, safely, and pleasantly passed by
heavy freight wagons and travellers. It lies on a practicable route for a railroad
from the Central Pacific, at several points on the Humboldt river, to the Colorado at the head of navigation, or to the crossing of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad, should such a road be constructed.
COLOPADO DISTRIcT.-A recent act of Congress annexed a portion of Arizona
to Nevada, and in the section transferred is Colbrado district, or the mining region
of El Dorado ca-ion. This is oni the banks of the Colorado river, and as yet
has had but little intercourse with the original Nevada.   It may not be regarded
as within the limits of this report to give a description of this district, but as a
step-chlild of Nevada, it is proper to recognize its existence. It was organized
in 18S61, and a large number of claims located bearing gold, silver, and copper.
Northern Mines.-In July of the present year, a party composed of Messrs.
3{cCan, Beard, Heath, and others left Austin on an exploring tour to the ranges
of mountains north of the Humboldt river. There had been rumors of discoveries
of gold-bearing veins and placers in those ranges, and also in the Goose Creek
mountains, dividing the waters of the Humboldt and Owyhee from Salt Lakle.
This part of the country was infested with hostile Indians, and it was regarded as
dangerous to penetrate it.  For that reason it had remained unexplored, yet its
very dangers were inviting to the venturesome prospector, whose imagination
gave the wild country wealth in proportion to the hardships and dangers attending its occupation. This party of explorers, consisting of eight men, passed the
HIumiboldt river, and going north on about the 117th meridian, crossed a range
of mountains, made up chiefly of detached hills or buttes running easterly and
westerly, and when upon the northern slope, about 60 miles from the river,
discovered gold in placers and in situ.
TUScAnOnA I)IsTnICT.-Upon making the discoveries of gold, the prospectors
organized a mining district, to which they gave the name of Tuscarora. A small
stream running through it northwardly was named McCan. Along this stream for
about three miles gold in small quantities was found to exist. It appears very much
429 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
diffused through the soil from the surface to the depth reached, which did not exceed
five feet. Several ledges, or what are supposed to be ledges, were found, showing
gold.  The party returning to Austin with specimens reported their discoveries,
and as is usual upon such occasions an excitement was created, and 100 or more
men, well armed for defence against the Indians, and prepared for prospecting,
immediately proceeded to the new mining region. A large area of country has
already been explored, and mines found in various localities.  At the present
time the real value of the discoveries is unknown, as but little labor has been
expended upon either the gold-bearing veins or in washing the soil. The creek
does not furnish water in sufficient quantities for extensive and rapid washing,
and therefore unless very rich deposits are found, it is not probable any large
fortunes will be realized. It is estimated, however, from the prospects obtained
that from $10 to $20 per diem may be made per man, for a score or more of
men.  Should the specimens of gold-bearing quartz found be any criterion of
the value of the veins at great depths, they are rich indeed. The geography of
the region is but little known, and it cannot be stated at present whether the
waters drain to the Owyhee sink in a basin of their own, or flow to some branch
of the Humboldt. A short period will determine all such doubts. The country
is described as well adapted for grazing, producing an abundance of grass of a
very nutritious character. There are many valleys of large size capable of cultivation, and which, when the treacherous savage is exterminated or subdued,
and the miners fill the hills, will furnish pleasant homes to settlers.
About 40 miles east of Tuscarora, and onil the southern slope of the range,
ledges bearing both silver and gold have been discovered. These discoveries
were lately made. No district has yet been formed. The locality is about 50
miles north of Gravelly Ford, on the Humboldt river. T. J. Tennant and party,
the discoverers, brought specimnens of the ore to Austin, where they were assayed,
and showed value.  The rock is granite, the veins of quartz running north and
south.  This is represented as a good farming and grazing country, with grass
covering the hills like a meadow. Game, as deer, antelope, hare, and several
varieties of grouse, the chief of which is the sage hen, abounds in great plenty.
This new region, which has so long been closed against the pioneer, promises
to become an important and wealthy portion of the State.
The following classification of the minerals which characterize the veins of
Eastern Nevada is prepared by Charles A. Stetefeldt, esq., assayer and metallurgist, of Austin.
CATALOGUE OF MINERALS.
REESE RIVER DISTPICT.-'Eastern part of Lander Hill and Central Hill.
Pyrargyrie, proustite, polybasite, and stephanite predominant; tetrahedrite seldom;
few sulphurets of base metals.
Ce,tralpar' of Lander Hill and Union Hill.-Tetrahedrite predominant; pyrites
of iron and copper, galena and blende; few polybasite and stephanite.
TIVesfern part of Lander Hill and Union Hill.-Argentiferous galena, pyrites
.MINERALS OF REESE RIVER DISTRICT, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO
DANA'S SYSTEM. BY EUGENE N. RIOTTE, M.E.
I. NATIVE ELEMENTS:
Native gold, native silver, native copper.
II. SULPHURETS ARSENURETS, ETC:
I. Binary compounds.
1. Stibnite, antimonglance.
2. Silverglanze; erubescite, variegated copper ore; galena, blende, copper glance, stromeierite, pyrites, lucopgrites, molyadenite.
II. Double binary compounds.
Chalcopyrite, pyrargyrite, proustite, fetrahedrite, polybasite, stephanite, fireblende.
430 
l
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of iron and copper, blende predominant; few tetrahledrite.  In most veins abcrve
water level, horn silver predominant.
TWIN RIVER DISTRICT.-Op7hir Cation.-Species of tetrahedrite conltaining
gold and silver predominant; native silver; blende, pyrites of iron and copper.
Su?mmwit Cafion.-Argentiferous galenla predominant; native silver, silver glance;
blende, pyrites of iron.
NORTH TWIN RIvER DISTRICT.-Park Caion. —Mixture of pyrites of iron,
pyrites of copper, blende, argentiferous galena, spathic iron, native silver, pyrargirite, and quartz.
REVEILLE DISTRICT. -Argentiferous sulphuret of copper predominant; silvel
glance, sulphuret of antimony. Croppings contain much horn silver.
PHILADELPHIA AND COLUMBUS DISTRICTS.-Stetefeldtite (new mineral) predominant; galena; pyrites of copper. Croppings contain much horn silver.
EURErA DISTr~ICT.-Argentiferous galena predominant; stetefeldtite.
EMPIRE DISTRICT.-Stetefeldtite predominant.
UNION DISTRICT.-Stromeyelite predominant; native gold and silver; silver
glance; horn silver.
WASHINGTON DISTRICT.-Argentiferous galena predominant; native silver;
pyrite of iron and copper, blende.
SUMMIT AND BIG CREEK DISTRICT.-Argentiferous galena predominant;
pyrites of iron and copper, blende, sulphuret of antimony.
SMOKY VALLEY DISTRICT.-Argentiferous sulphuret of copper, argentiferous
galena, blende, pyrites of iron and copper.
BUNKER HILL DISTRICT. —Native gold and silver, argentiferous sulphuret
of copper, pyrites of iron and copper, galena.
SANTA FE DISTRICTr.-Native gold; pyrites of iron, copper glance.
Lone.I3ountain.-Native gold; pyrites of iron and copper.
NEW PASS DISTRICT.-Native gold; argentiferous galena, pyrites of copper
and copper glance.
BULLION PRODUCT.-The actual amount of silver bullion shipped from Austin
to Virginia and San Francisco for the 12 months ending August 1, 1867, is
$1,455,273 60, the greater portion being in the last five months of the present
year. This is ascertained from the way-bills of the express and stage companies.
SECTION XXI.
THE OVERLAND TELEGRAPH.
The subject of trans-continental telegraphic communication has attracted general attention during the past few years, and almost every intelligent person has
acquired some knowledge respecting it. I am induced to believe, however, that
much may still be learned from the practical experiences of operators along the
route. The magnitude of the enterprise, the benefits resulting from it both to
III. FLOURIDS, CHLORIDS, BROMIDS, TODIDS:
I. Binary compounds.
Common salt, kerargyrite, bromyrite, todyrite.(?)
IV. OxYGEN COMPOUNDS:
I. Oxyde binary compounds.
Red copper, magnetic iron ore, hematite, housnanite, pyrolusite, isilomelan, wad, quarz,
opal.
II. Salts double binary compounds:
l'yroxene; rhodonite, silicate of manganese; hornblende, muscovite, feldspar, oligoclas
and orthoclas, tourmalie, chrysocolla; huibnerite, tungstate of manganese; barytes, gypsum,
cyanosite, copperas, glauber salts, apatete, nitre, calcite, carbonate of manganese, chalybite,
spathic iron ore, cerusite, trona, malachite, asurite, titanite, tungstate of lead.
431 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the commercial world and the mining community, and the difficulties encountere(a
in carrying it into effect are not yet fully appreciated.
The first practical movement toward the construction of the overland telegraph
was made by California.* The Placerville and Humboldt Telegraph Company
was organized in 1858, and the first pole of the line from Placerville across the
Sierra Nevada mountains was erected on the 4thli of July of that year. During
the autumn of the same year the line had reached Genoa-then in Utah Territory, now in the State of Nevada-and by the spring of 1859 it had reached
Carson, from which point a branch was extended to Virginia City soon after the
discoverv of the silver mines.
This much of the line was constructed entirely by private enterprise.  Neither
State nor general government afforded any assistance, though repeated application was made to both. Disagreements between 3MIessrs. Broderick and Gwin,
senators of the United States from California, prevented the passage through
Congress of a bill introduced by the former in May, 1858, for the construction
of a trans-continental line between the Atlantic and Pacific States.
In April, 1859, the legislature passed an act pledging the State to give $6,000
a year to the telegraph line that should make the first connection with an eastern
line, and $4,000 a year to the next.
Two companies were encouraged to enter the list-one via Salt Lake city and
the other via Los Angeles and the Butterfield stage route through Arizona and
Texas.
The dissensions ahlready referred to in Congress retarded the adoption of any of
the measures proposed on the Atlantic side, until the 16th of June, 1860, when an
act was passed directing the Secretary of the Treasury to advertise for sealed
proposals to be received for 60 days after the passage of said act for the use by
the government of a line or lines of telegraph to be constructed within two yvears
from July 31, 1860, from some point on the west line of Missouri, by any route the
contractor might select, to San Francisco, for a period of 10 years, and to award
the contract to the lowest bidder, provided he did not require more than $40,000
a year.
Permission was granted to the successful bidder to use for ten years such public
lands of the United States as might be necessary for the right of way and for
thle purpose of establishing stations for repairs, not exceeding at any one station
one quarter-section, and not to exceed one in 15 miles on the whole average of
the distance. No pre-emption right to the land was granted. The contract was
not to be made until the line was in actual operation.
Certain reservations were also made establishing for the government a priority
of use of the line, free from charge until at the ordinary charges for private messages the sum of $40,000 was reached, after which the excess was to be certified
to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Four bids were made in accordance with the proposals advertised by the Secretary of the Treasury, ranging from $40,000 to $25,000, three of which were
subsequently withdrawn. The highest bid was that made by Mr. Hiram Sibley,
which was accepted.
The parties represented by Mr. Sibley met at Rochester, New York, and concluded upon a series of propositions, which they submitted to the Pacific companies through the agency of 3Mr. J. It. Wade and MIajor Bee.
The consolidation was effected in 3Iarch, 1861, between all the companies on
the Pacific coast, by the purchase by the California State Telegraph Company
of all the lines belonging to other companies.
The California State Telegraph Company was the oldest telegraph company
on the Pacific coast, with a capital of $1,250,000, of which Mr. Horace W. Carpentier, of California, was president, and Mr. J. MZora Moss vice-president.
IFrom data published a few years since in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin.
432 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The Overland Telegraph Company was then incorporated promptly by the
owners of the California State Telegraph Company, also with a capital of
$1,250,000, and under the same board of officers.
On the 1st of January, 1862, the California State Telegraph and the Ove:  land Telegraph Company consolidated under the name of the California State
Telegraph Company, with a capital of $2,500,000.
Thus all the lines in California and the overland line to Salt Lake City came
into the possession and under the direction of this company.
The eastern end from Salt Lake City to Omaha belonged to the Pacific Tele graph Company.
Mr. Edward Creighton, a gentleman of great energy and experience, was the
constructor of the line from Omaha to Salt Lake City.  He performed the duties
of his position with perfect success under obstacles of a most formidable char acter.
The California division of the line was reconstructed from Placerville to Fort
Churchill, and thence continued to Salt Lake City under the general supervision
of Mr. Carpentier, who personally visited all parts of the route and gave the
enterprise his earnest attention.
Mr. James Gamble, superintendent of the State Telegraph  Company, a gen tleman thoroughly familiar with the details of the telegraph system, who  had
the advantage of experience in the construction of every line built in California
by the State Telegraph Company, had the special supervision of the whole work,
and much is due to his experience, energy, and skill.
Mr. James Street superintended that part of the work between Ruby valley
and Salt Lake City, one of the most difficult sections on the route.
Mr. J. M. Hubbard superintended the construction of the section from Carson
to Ruby valley.
On the 27th of Ma3, 1861, MIr. Gamble, as general superintendent of the line,
started a train of 30 wagons from Sacramento, loaded with wire, insulators, pro visions, &c., with three or four hundred head of oxen, horses, and mules;  and,
although it was considered late in the season, there was no stoppage on account
of storms or bad roads. The snows had begun to melt in the Sierra Nevadas;
the mountain streams were swollen into fearful torrents; the roads were cut up
into ruts and mudholes, many of which were almost impassable; and forage was
exceedingly scarce and dear.  Some of the wagons were upset, many of the animals foundered in the mud, but the train went on regardless of every obstacle.
On the 24th of June the first pole was set on the line from Fort Churchill to
Salt Lake, and onl the 24th day of October the connection with the city of the
saints was completed.
History presents no record of such a stupendous work accomplished in so short
a time.  Five hundred and seventy miles of telegraph line, built through a dreary
desert where wood and water were the exceptions, within the brief space of four
months!  Surely if the Americans are boastful in their speech, their acts are
remarkable.  Alen who build telegraphs across continents, regardless of seasons,
deserts, or savage races, have a right to speak well of themselves.
The number of poles to the mile is from 25 to 30, depending upon the character of the country; the average length is about 22 feet; and the kinds of timber chiefly used redwood, pine, cedar, and tamarack.  It is customary to sink
the poles from three to four feet in the ground, according to the nature of the
soil. In soft or marshy ground they require to be braced. Ordinarily they last
about two or three years, much depending on the climate and durability of the
wood.  The best woods used on the California section are said to be the redwood
and cedar.
Nearly one-third of the poles had to be hauled from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Austin and beyond, extending to a distance of more than 300 miles, at
a cost of four to six cents a pound for freight. But this was thie least of the
28
433 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
difficulties encountered.  Water is exceedingly scarce in these sage deserts, and
it often happened that both men and animals suffered fearfully from thirst.  It
was a constant battle almost every step of the way against the most formidable
natural obstacles-alkali deserts, scarcity of water, lack of timber for poles and
feed for the animals, rugged mountains and difficult passes. In some places the
sand was so soft and shifting as to afford scarcely a foothold for the poles; in others
the ground was so hard and rocky that foundations had to be drilled out or built
around them with stones.  During the progress of the work despatches continued
to be regularly transmitted from California to the outer end of the line, where
they were copied and forwarded by pony express to the approaching end of
the eastern division, and vice versa, so that scarcely a day was lost in the use
of the telegraph on either side.
Constant communication was also kept up between the operators at the various
stations along the line and the office of the company at San Francisco, who were
daily advised of the progress of the work.
Poles of sufficient size and strength were very difficult to obtain on other portions of the route.
The cost of transportation was the most expensive item.  In the vicinity of
Salt lake this difficulty was in part obviated by the adroit management of Mr.
Street, who had special charge of that section. It was very generally supposed
that Brigham Young, the president of the Mormons, was hostile to the building
of the line through the Mormon settlements.   Mr. Street was well aware that
without his co-operation the difficulties incident to the undertaking would, at
least, be greatly augmented.  He adopted the policy, therefore, of conciliating
the great leader of the latter-day saints-whether by pleasant words or by more
substantial tokens of esteem is still a mooted question.  His interviews with
Brigham on the subject were highly amicable, and I have heard them graphically described. Among other things, it is reported that Brigham expressed surprise at being regarded as an enemy of this important and beneficial enterprise.
z4 Why should we be opposed to a telegraph line?" said he;  "we have nothing
to fear from it, and everything to gain. It is to our interest, as well as yours, to
have the means of communicating with the outer world.  Our religion cannot
suffer from it, and it will certainly be advantageous to our industrial interests."
Whether this be true or not, it is certain he gave his hearty co-operation to
the enterprise, ordered out men and teams, and cordially assisted in the construction of the line from Salt Lake City to Deep creek, a distance of 174 miles.
The first through message transmitted over the line, from Salt lake to San
Francisco, is interesting in the above connection
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY,
October 24-7 p. m.
To Hon. H. W. CARPENTIER, President of the Overland Telegraph:
DEArT SIR: I am very much obliged to you for your kindness, manifested through Mr.
Street, in giving me the privilege of first message to California. May success ever attend
the enterprise. The success of Mr. Street in completing his end of the line, under many
unfavorable circumstances, in so short a time, is beyond our most sanguine anticipations.
Join your wire with the Russian empire and we will converse with Europe.
Your friend,
BRIGHAM YOUNG.
This was in answer to a despatch from Mr. Carpentier, as follows:
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA,
October 24, 1861.
To Hon. BRIGHAM YOUNG, Great Salt Lake Gity:
That which was so long a hope is now a reality. The trans-continental telegraph is now
completed. May4it prove a bond of perpetual union and friendship between the people of
Utah and the people of California.
434
H. W. CARPENTIER. 
WVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
This was the first through message from San Francisco to Salt Lake City.
The first through message from the Atlantic States contained the following
melancholy announcement:
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY,
October 24-7 p. m.
To H. W. CARPENTIER:
Colonel Baker was killed in the battle of the 21st, while in the act of cheering on his comnmand. Intense excitement and mourning in Philadelphia over his death.
STREET.
The line was started from St. Joseph, west, under the supervision of Mr.
Creighton, in the summer of 1860.  It was built as far as Fort Kearney, via
Omaha, that fall, following the north fork of the Platte river. The contract,
however, was not made until March, 1861. During the summer and fall the
work was vigorously pushed forward by Mr. Creighton and his subordinates.  It
reached Salt Lake City on the 19th of October, 1861, just five days prior to the
completion of the California branch.
Thus, in the language of Mr. Carpentier, "that which was so long a hope
became a reality;" thus were the people of the Atlantic united to their friends
and fellow-countrymen of the Pacific by an electric bond that annihilated time
and space.
Congratulations followed from every State of the Union and from every civi lized nation of the world.  It was the great achievement of the 19th century.
Within a few days after the completion of the line, the secessionists in Mis souri tore it down in several places, and for a while messages were sent east via
Hannibal, MIissouri, connecting with Quincy, Illinois. Subsequently a change
was made by which a connnection was formed between Omaha and Chicago,
through Iowa.
From San Francisco to Chicago the distance is about 2,700 miles by the route
taken; to New York little short of 4,000 miles.
This is the longest circuit on the American continent, perhaps in the world.
For practical purposes it is necessary to repeat at Salt Lake City, Omaha, and
Chicago.
Messages either way are rewritten and repeated at Salt Lake City, where an
accurate account is kept between the Atlantic and California offices.
Direct communication between San Francisco and New York has frequently
taken place, but this can only be done under very favorable circumstances, when
there is little or no electrical disturbance. New York and San Francisco held
direct communication with each other for the first time on Thursday, November
6, 1862. On that memorable day the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were united in
the iron bond of matrimony, from which it is to be hoped they will never be
divorced.
The distance is so great, however, and the line subject to so many electrical
disturbances that no battery can be made sufficiently powerful to overcome all
the obstacles in the way of direct communication. For practical purposes messages have to be repeated at the stations designated for that purpose.
The battery force required for the working of the overland telegraph is small
compared with that required in the Atlantic States. This isin part owing to the
ratification of the atmosphere, and the prevailing absence of moisture and atmos
pheric electricity; also, in part, to the absence of trees, which in timbered countries are apt to come in contact with the line and affect the insulation.
At Salt Lake City 50 cups of main battery are used for two wires, one extending
east to the repeating station at Fort Laramie, 500 miles, and the other west to
Carson, 600 miles.
Experienced operators inform me that it requires double that amount of battery to work the same length of line on any other part of the American continent.
For every space of 30 to 50 miles between Omaha and San Francisco there
i
i
435
I
i
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
is an office or repair station, where men are kept for the purpose of protecting
and repairing the line. These men are provided with wires, implements, provisions7 &c., and hold themselves in readiness to start out at a moment's notice
to any point within their range. The expedition with which poles are reset and
brealks in the wire repaired is almost incredible. An ordinary brealk seldom detains
despatches more than a few hours.
So skilled do some of the operators become in the art of telegraphing that
they are enabled to read by the mere sense of touch or sight applied to the wire or
the instrument. tlr. Shaffner relates instances in which operators have read messages by applying to their tongue a small wire attached to the main line. Still
more remarkable is the fact that a person near by can discover what is passing
by watching the vibrations or electric throbs on the tongue of another.  The
communication is imperfect, however, and would scarcely be reliable beyond the
simplest monosyllables.
Breaks in the line are sometimes very difficult to find. An example is given
by Mr. Shaffner where there was a break between two stations.  The line was
carefully examined all the way through. Apparently it was perfect, yet there
was no communication. By testing from each station it was discovered that the
brealk was within a space of a few hundred yards. The wire was then carefully
examined, when it was found that a silk cord had been substituted by some
designing person so closely resembling the wire that to the eye it presented no
perceptible difference.
As an illustration of the wonderful delicacy of the ear acquired by the operators, I must not omit to mention one or two facts connected with the workiing
of the instruments.
In large offices where many instruments are at work, an  ordinary visitor almost
imagines himself in some extensive clock establishment. There is a perfect
medley of ticks, as unintelligible to him as would be a bag of shot rained down
over the floor.  Yet an operator who has left his seat to say a word to a friend
in some other part of the room suddenly starts back, saying "I am called."
Among a thousand ticks his particular tick has struck upon the tympanum of
his ear.  One cannot but think of the final call which, sooner or later, will  be
sent down from heaven to each one of us among millions of busy souls, and yet
be intelligible as this earthly call is to the operator in a telegraph office.
It should also be mentioned, as a characteristic illustration, that operators have
an individuality of style or manner as distinctly marked as the differences in
chirography. For example, a message is being received at the office in San
Francisco fiom the office in Carson.  The superintendent standing by, asks " Who
is that at the instrument at Carson?"  The operator replies,'Jones is at it now.
Thompson was at it a few minutes ago." Presently hlie adds, " Smith has it now."
How does he know all this?  Neither Jones, nor Smith, nor Thompson has men tioned his name or said a word on his own account, and yet the fact of eachli
change is perfectly clear to the operator at San Francisco. Hle knows the style of
each man.  One makes long dashes and quick dots; another runs a race between
dots and dashes; the third is sharp, clear, and methodical. Each has his indi vidual characteristics, which have become as familiar as the tones or modulations
of his voice to the ear, or his handwriting or face to the eye. The language of
sounds is even considered less liable to error in many offices than that of written
signs, and has been of late very generally adopted.
East of the Rocky mountains, the poles are often burnt for miles by prairie
fires. The Indians on their hunting expeditions are in the habit of firing the
dry grass for the purpose of driving their game. Once started, the flames sweep
over the country for hundreds of miles. Emigrant parties camping by the road side leave their fires burning with little regard to consequences, and many a mile
of line has been destroyed through the thoughtlessness of travellers, who, after
lighting their pipes, throw the burning match into a bunch of dry grass, if possible,
436 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
since it presents a peculiar attraction. The passion for destruction is inherent in
man; and it may be laid down as an axiom, applicable to all races of the earth,
that where there is a chance of doing mischief free from the restraining influ ences of law, by the burning of a prairie or a forest, human nature is not proof
against the temptation.  The Indians differ from the whites only in this, that
being an ignorant race, they usually have some object to gain in thus destroying
the vegetation.
During the summer months, the region of country bordering on the Platte
river is subject to terrific thunder-storms, which sweep over the plains with irre sistible force.  The earth becomes saturated with heavy rains, and the poles
being loosened in their foundations, are blown down for miles. Scarcely a day
passes, in the early part of summer, without a severe storm on some part of the
line between the Rocky mountains and the borders of Missouri.   The instru ments are " burned" by lightning, or the poles swept to the earth, and the insu lation destroyed or obstructed.  It is extremely difficult to workl through the
entire length of the line during the prevalence of these storms-many times
impracticable for several days.  This source of annoyance cannot be overcome
by any means known under the present system of telegraphling.
In the dry deserts of the Great Basin, both east and west of Salt  Lake, the
wvire has been known to work for miles without interruption, while partially
imbedded in the sand.  The heat of the sun absorbs all moisture from the sand
and renders it a non-conductor.
We thus find a very peculiar combination of obstacles-especially on the eastern
division. In the month of Juine, for example, the wveather at Salt Lake may be clear
and warm, whlile the Waschita mountains, lying to the cast, are covered with snow.
It may be raining heavily at Fort Bridger, snowing at South Pass, clear at Fort
Laramie, storming and raining along the Platte, and so on to Chicago.  But it
is worthy of note that when the lightning is so terrific at one station as to
cause the operators to leave their instniruments in alarm, the operators on either
side are frequently able to continue their communications, the electric current
passing entirely through the storm without any material interruption.   Salt
Lake communicated with stations far east of the Rocky mountains, when  at
South Pass the operators were effectually cut off.
In the vicinity of South Pass the operators are sometimes "'snowed in" for
months at a time. All communication with the outer world, save by telegraph,
is completely cut off. A more isolated life than these poor fellows lead can
scarcely be conceived.  Around them as far as the eye can reach the mountains
and plains are covered with snow. All traces of humnanl life are obliterated.
The stationi-houses are covered up, high over the roofs, and it is only by cutting
a way out and keeeping it clear that the occupants save themselves from being
buried alive.
One of these stations is situated within a short distance of a point to which
travellers in future ages will probably malke pilgrimages, as the Mahomretans
now do to Mecca. It is the heart of the North American continent, from which
flow the great arteries of commerce. Within a distance of 200 yards lie the
sources of the Missouri ad the Colorado.  Here is the true line of division
between the Atlantic and the Pacific slopes.  On the one side an insignificant
spring bursts from the earth.  Gathering contributions from every caiion and
ravine as it flows, it forms in time the Sweetwater river, which, after a long
and turbulent career, empties into the Platte, the great river of the plains. From
the Platte the Missouri takes up the current and rolls it onward till it swells
into the majestic torrent of the Mississippi. The Gulf of Mexico receives the
tribute. Up north, into the Arctic regions flows the Gulf Stream, which in turn
pays tribute to the shores of Norway and Iceland. Who knows but the Indian
deity of the Rocky mountains holds converse with the old Scandinavian god
Thor, sending him letters of bunch-grass and drift-wood, while in return ho
I
437 
RESOUTRCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
receives from the winds, or through the flood-gates of heavenii ashes from the
Jokuls of Iceland?  The idea is not altogether without foundation, but cannot
in our present state of knowledge be turned to any useful telegraphic purpose.
On the other side, 200 yards distant, rise the Pacific springs, which form the
source of the Green river. From Green river swells the great Colorado, the Red
river of the desert; which, after a long and thirsty career through burning sands
and cheerless wastes, cutting in twvain the grim mountains of the Black canon,
receives in its bosom the Gila, or Swiftwvaters of Arizona.   Freighted with the
redl and golden sands of a great interior wilderness, where the Apache  and the
Navajo and kindred tribes of wild men still roam, it sweeps onward till lost in
the seething waters of the Gulf of California.
What a magnificent point of observation for the prophetic eye of a poet.
Looking to the east or to the west the new world, with its various races of inhabitants, its scenery, its commerce, its future, lies before him.  Starting at this little
group of springs, hlie could write a thousand volumes and leave " ample room and
verge enough" for a thousand more, on the great future of this vast continent,
where M no pent up Utica contracts our powers."
But the operators are generally practical men. In seasons of great severity
they sometimes run short of food, and then they have a hard time. It becomes
a simple question of life or death; starvation staring them in the face, and nothing around them but cheerless wastes of snow. To such perfection, however,
have the company reached their system of operations at the present day, that
instances of prolonged suffering rarely occur.  The stations are supplied with
abundant provisions for the winter, and with all the apparatus necessary for
repairing the line.  It is only in cases of Indian depredations or somne casualtv
against which no human ingenuity can provide, that the employcs can suffer for
the means of subsistence. As a rule they are comfortably lodged in stockades
or block-houses, well armed with rifles and revolvers, provided with horses for
travelling to and fro along the line; and a wagon at each repair station to carry
poles, wire, and implements, so that thl)ey are not so badly off as might be supposed. Isolation from the society of their fellow-beings is the most unpleasant
feature in their calling; but even that has its advantages. They have abundant
time for study and reflection, and can save a good part of their wages.
On the approach to the summit of the Sierra Nevada, it becomes necessary
to increase the number of stations in consequence of the frequent interruptions to
which the line is subject from falling timber, snow-storms and other causes.
During the winter and spring months the storms are often so violent as to break
down the poles for miles; and when the snows melt, floods and freshets are a
prolific source of trouble.  Even the dry season gives battle in the shape of
extensive fires which sometimes rage through the forest, for weeks at a time,
consuming all before them.  In addition to these natural obstacles, which are
formidable enough in themselves, the cupidity of man is too often cast in the
balance against legitimate enterprise.  Many apparent accidents to the line have
been ingeniously contrived by speculators in Washlioe stocks, for the purpose of
gaining some dishonest advantage. Fortunately the sagacity and energy of
the Teleg raph Company have nearly precluded the possibility of cutting off
communication for a sufficient length of time to afford facilities of this kind. It
is their interest as well as their duty to preserve uninterrupted communication
for the benefit of the public at large. With this view, stations are established
at intervals of 8 or 10 miles all across the Sierras. One or two men are placed
at each of these stations, with horses ready to go out at any time on either side
In winter, during severe snow-storms, these horses are saddled ready for use, so
that the employes whose duty it is to repair the line can proceed to the break
without delay. When the difficulty is too great to be immediately remedied by
connection of the wires, the despatches are carried to the first station beyond, and
there repeated for transmission to their point of destination. It sometimes hap
438 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
pens, during seasons of extraordinary severity, that the line is broken down 20 or
30 times in a single day and at as many different points.  This is a busy time
for the operators.  They must be constantly on the alert, availing themselves of
every possible resource that ingenuity can devise.  It is not merely a miechani
cal office, as many suppose.  Not only must the oper'ator be skilled in the ordinary details of his profession, but hlie must have t4e head to devise, and the hand
to execute in the various unforeseen difficulties which aIre constantly occurring.
Hie must be able to act as well as direct-to repair by extraordinary where ordinarv means are not at hand. WVith such men feats are performed almost every day
during the winter of which the public have but little conception.  A citizen of
San Francisco telegraphs to his correspondent in Virginia City.  In six hours,
let us say, he receives a response.'"How is this,"' he exclaims, " allowing full
time each way for transmission, delivery, and probable delay, I should have had
this answer at least four hours ago?" He is dissatisfied with the tardiness of
electricity, or the operators, or both. Hie does not know, and probably would
not believe it if told, that his message passed through ten or a dozen breakls on the
line; that it was carrined over several gaps on horseback, through raging floods,
or blinding snow-storms; that dangers were encountered and hardships experienced in its transmission from which most men would shrink, unless they found
their compensation in something beyond a monthly salary.
The falling of trees across the line is a source of great inconvenience in densely
wooded countries.  Although the wire is not always broken, the insulation is apt
to be destroyed or affected, and thus communication cut off or rendered imperfect.  Where the poles are far apart and the wires slack, several trees may lie
across the line within a distance of eight or ten miles and still not break the wire.
In these cases it becomes as tense as a piano string and gives forth a musical
answer to the slightest vibration. The repairer usually exercises his discretion
in adopting one of the two alternatives left, either to cut the wire or the tree.
1r. Shaffner mentions the case of an employc-an Irishman, it is presumed —who stood over the wire while he cut a tree that lay across it. Relieved of the
pressure that bore it down, the wire suddenly righted itself, tossing the man
about 10 feet in the air. Hiis astonishment may be imagined, but scarcely
described.
The construction of the overland telegraph, under difficulties so numerous
and so formidable, was one of the great triumphs of the present age.  When
we consider the vast extent of desert country traversed, the scarcity of material,
the vicissitudes of the climate, and the hostile character of the Indian tribes
inhabiting the wild regions through whichi it was necessary to pass, the consummation of this enterprise is an event of which the American people may be
ijustly proud.  No achievement of ancient or modern times surpasses it in the
magnitude of the interests involved both to commerce and to civilization.  It
was the first grand practicable demonstration of the feasibility of a system by
which the remotest parts of the earth may be brought into direct and instantaneous communication, and thus the bonds of sympathy and interest strengthened
between the various races of mankind.
In anticipation of the difficulties likely to arise between the Company and
the public without an explicit understanding of the relations existing between
them, Mr. Carpentier, while acting as president, devoted special attention to the
formation of a code of laws and regulations by which they should be mutually
governed and the interests of each protected. Among the laws devised by him
and passed by the legislature of Californlia, the most importalnt, and that which
most intimately concerns the public, is the act of April 18, 1862. This act
introduces a new feature in the business of telegraphing, a feature not only
novel in its conception and application, but of incalculable importance to the
civilized world-the legalization of messages transmitted by telegraph in their
relation to instruments and acts of law.
I
439 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Appropriate provision is made to secure the public against dishonesty alnd
fraud on the part of the operators and other employes.  Penalties are imposed
for divulging the contents of messages, changing the sense or meaning, knowingly sending false or forged messages, appropriating information to private
uses, wilfully neglecting to send messages, or postponing or sending themn out
of order.  Also, against fraud by any person whatsoever who may open seals of
messages addressed to any other person, read despatches by means of any machine
or contrivance, bribe telegraph operators to divulge the contents of messages,
damage the line, or otherwise attempt to cut off communication.   But the great
feature of the law  that contracts by telegraph are deemed to be contracts in
writing, and the signatures thereto are valid in law.  Notice by telegraph is
actual notice. Power of attorney or other instrument in writing, duly acknowledged and certified so as to be entitled to record, may, together with certificate
of acknowledgment, be sent by telegraph, and the telegraphic copy or duplicate
has l)ri)a facie the same effect in all respects as the original.   Checks, due bills,
promissory notes, bills of exchange, and all orders and agreements for payment
or dclelivery of money or other thing of value may be made or drawn by telegraph, wvithl full force and effect as if written. Persons indicted on oath for, or
accused of, any public offence, may be arrested and imprisoned upon warrant
issued by any competent officer, properly indorsed and directed to such officer
as may be legally authorized to make the arrest. Writs or orders in civil suits
or proceedings may also be transmitted in the same wav. All these provisions
iare carefully guarded so as to avoid any infringement upon individual rights,
while they tend materially to promote the public convenience and welfare.
A novel feature in this law is that the marriage ceremony may be performed
without regard to distance.
Upon the passage of this important act by the California legislature, MIr. Carpentier proceeded to secure the passage of similar acts in the neighboring States
iicd Territories.  On the 17th of October, 1862, the legislature of Oregon passed
an act embracing substantially the provisions of the law of California; this was
followed by a similar act of the territorial assembly of Utah, passed January 16,
1863. As the State of California, always in the lead, was the first to make a
practicable movement towards the construction of the Pacific railroad, the overland mail route, and the overland telegraph, so it has been the first to introduce
this imporant feature in the laws governing the telegraph system. None of the
Atlantic States, I believe, have yet adopted it, but they will doubtless come to
it in time.
A very general misapprehension prevails in the Atlantic States in reference
to the frequent errors and interruptions which have attended the working of the
overland telegraph since it went into operation. The inconvenience to which
the public have been subjected has been patiently borne, until patience has almost
ceased to be a virtue. The facts of the case are that east of Salt lale, within
the past four years, Indian disturbances have been a prolific source of trouble.
The stations have been attacked, the line broken down, the operators murdered,
and all communication cut off, day after day, week after week, yet California is
compelled to bear a share of the blame.  Without attempting to cast any censure upon the eastern division, which doubtless has done all in its power to prevent these interruptions, it has been the good fortune of the California divison,
w-ith the exception of a single outbreak at Ruby valley in 1864, to have had no
difficulty with the Indians.
A marked difference exists between the character of the Indian tribes east
and west of Salt lake. The Arrapahoes, Navajos, Apaches, and Sioux are
powerful, mischievous, and warlike;  the Shoshones, Bannocks,  Pi-Utes, and
other western tribes are poor and less able to cope with the whites. I refer to
the fact as showing a prolific cause of failure on the eastern side to which the
western division is not subject.
440 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
In reference to the operations of the division between Salt Lakle City and
San Francisco, there is not, I believe, a line of equal length in any part of the
world upon vwhich so few errors or interruptions have occurred. The system of
checks adopted is so rigid that it is scarcely possible for an error to pass throughb
the office at San Francisco.  When there is doubt in regard to a word the oper
ator causes it to be repeated fronm the Salt Lake office; if still the same and
evidently an error, he causes it to be repeated back from the office in the Atlantic States where it originated.  In the vast number of messages transmitted
between Salt lake and San Francisco nearly every error that occurred has been
traced back to the other side.
The greatest trouble hitherto in the working of the California division has
been experienced in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  This is now almost entirel.
obviated. The company have constructed four separate and distinct lines from
Sacramento to Carson: one by the Dutch Flat route and three via Placerville,
each of which is in full operation.  It is scarcely possible for any combination
of circumstances to result in the interruption of communication upon all these
lines at the same time.
A new and substantial line has been built between San Francisco and Omaha,
following the travelled stage route, making the second line across the continent.
This was commenced as an opposition line by the United States Telegraph
Company, but after completion between San Francisco and Salt lake, w-as purchased and finished from Salt lake to Omahla by the Western Union Telegraph
Comrpany.
The Western Union Telegraph Company, having purchased a controlling
interest in the California Overland Telegraph Company lines, in June last took
a lease of the lines of that company, and all are now worked under the name
of the former company as their Pacific division.  The lines of this division constitute all the wires west of Salt lake, from  Los Angeles to a point in British
Columbia 750 miles north of New Westminster, on Frazer river.  This extends
to near the boundary line of our Russian possessions.
A new line has been constructed by the Western Union Company from Salt
Lake to Helena, in Montana, via Virginia City, Aonltana, between 500 and 600
miles in length.
Brigham Young has built a line sonice 400 miles in length, connecting the
northern and southern settlements of the Mlormons in Utah.
Telegraphic Connicctions-Table of distances.
M arysville to Oriville................. -
Oriville to Chico ---------------------
Chico to Tehama..-. —------—. —---
Tehama to(Red Bluffs -....... —------
Red Bluffs to Shasta.................
Shasta to Trinity Centre..-... —------
Trinity Centre to Callahans...........
Callahans to Rough and Ready.-. —. —
Rough and Ready to Fort Jones. —----
Fort Jones to Yreka..-... —----------
Yreka to Mountain House....... —.
Mountain House to Jacksonville
Jacksonville to Grave Creek..-..... —
Grave Creek to Cationville...-.... —Cat-ionville to Roseburg...............
Roseburg to Oakland, O.-. —---------
Oakland to Eugene City... —---------
Eugene City to Corvallis....-  -------
Corvallis to Albany.      -........Albany to Salem...............
Miles.
San Francisco to San Mateo..........  20
San Mateo to Redwood.............. —------------- 8
Redwood to Santa Clara........t Th........21
Santa Clara to San Jos6.............. 3
San Jos6 to Centreville............. 16
Centreville to San Leandro.                                       ----------- 18
San Leandro to Oakland.                            C-r.....C. a — 8
Oakland to Martinez... —------------- 24
Martinez  to  Benicia...................  4
Benicia to Suisun -----------------.................  22
Suisun to Sacramento ---- -—...     45
Sacramento to Nicolaus............. 26
Nicolaus to Marysville............. 16
Marysville to Timbuctoo.- --------— 17
Timbuctoo to Grass Valley. —-------- 19
Grass Valley to Nevada -----------—.  4
Nevada to North San Juan.. —-------- 18
North San Juan to Camptonville —----        E 8
Camptonville to Forest City......... 26
Forest City to Downieville-......-.. 8
I
I
I
I
I
i
I
i
I
441
ileg.
2 13
26
26
1 2
40
45
25
1 1
1 1
1 8
40
2
34
34
27
1 8
58
40
1 0
24 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
T'able of distances-Continued.
Miles.
38
13
7
40
30
52
22
60
35
]7
35
37
28
25
22
17
8
5
6
12
'22
12
13
12
12
16
5
131
14
~ 12
17
14
13
3
12
40
50
24
7
7
14
56
45
5
21
24
1'2
12
20
32
4
19
11
4
Nevada to Dutch Flat................ 1.6
Dutch Flat to Donnor Lake........... —-------- 40
Donnor Lake to Steamboat Springs....   46
Steamboat to Virginia................ 12
Petaluma to Santa Rosa.............. 17
Santa Rosa to Healdsburg............ 15
Benicia to Vallejo.................... 7
Vallejo to Napa...................... 16
Napa to Calistoga.................... 26
Sacramento to Auburn............... 36
Auburn to Coloma................... 14
Coloma to Placerville....-..-....  9
Coloma to Georgetown............... 9
Georgetown to Todd's Valley......... 8
Todd's Valley to Forest Hill..........   3
Forest Hill to Yankee Jim's........... 3
Yankee Jim's to Iowa Hill..... —---------- 10
Iowa Hill to Dutch Flat.. -.. -----—... --— 10
San Andreas to Copperopolis..........   15
Folsom to Latrobe......... —---------------- 14
Latrobe to Drytown.................. 14
Drytown to Sutter's Creek............ —---------- 5
Suttter's Creek to Jackson............. 3
Jackson to Mokolumnine Hill..........   5
Mokolumne Hill to San Andreas.......  9
San Andreas to Murphy's....- ---------- 16
Murphy's to Columbia................ 12
Columbia to Sonora.............  7
San Jose6 to Gilroy....... —--------------—. 30
Gilroy to San Juan, S..... —------------—. 12
San Juan, S., to Kingston............ 130
Kingston to Visalia................   25
Visalia to Fort Tejon.....-...... 125
Fort Tejon to Los Angeles.. —--------- 110
Yay.k's Station to Glenbrook.......... —--------
Glenbrook to Carson.................
Carson to Ophir.....................
Ophir to Washoe.....................
*  Washoe to Virginia..................
San Juan, south, to Watsonville.-.Watsonville to Santa Cruz............
Santa Cruz to Monterey..............
OVERLAND.
Carson to Dayton....................
Dayton to Fort Churchill.............
Fort Churchill to West Gate... —------—.
West Gate to Austin.................
Austin to Grubb's Wells..............
Grubb's Wells to Ruby Valley....
Ruby Valley to Egan................
Egan to Deep Creek.................
Deep Creek to Fish Springs.......
Fish Springs to Fort Crittenden.....
Fort Crittenden to Salt Lake.. —--------
Sa         n Francisco to Fort Point..........
Fort Point to San Rafael.......-...
San Rafael to Petaluma..............
or Petaluma to Sonoma.................
Sonoma to Napa.....................
Napa to Suisun..........
Sacamento to Newcastle.............
Newcastle to Auburn.................
Auburn to Colfax....................
Colfax to Grass Valley...............
Grass Valley to Nevada.............
Swinomish to Fidalgo island..........  15
Fidalgo island to San Juan island..... 12
San Juan island to Victoria, V. I......  20
I
I
442
13
22
69
69
51
62
42
74
52
99
42 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ARIZONA.
SECTION I.
GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY.
To be understood and appreciated, Arizona must be taken as a whole.   Those
who know it only as " the Gadsden purchase," those who have no knowledge of
more than the Colorado river district, or who are only familiar with the central
and northern regions, cannot form a correct idea of its resources and capabilities.
The general lines of the Territory are thus defined in the organic act approved
February 24, 1863:
All that part of the present Territory of New Mexico situate west of a line running due
south from the point where the southwest corner of the Territory of Colorado joins the
northern boundary of the Territory of New Mexico to the southern boundary line of said
Territory of New Mexico.
In other words, all of New 31exico, as formerly existing, between the 109th
degree of longitude and the California line, embracing 120,912 square miles, or
77,383,680 acres, a district three times as large as the State of Newv York.
Thie mountain ranges are a prolongation of those whichl, southward in Sonora,
Chihuahua, and Durango, have yielded large quantities of the precious ore, and
which, northward in Nevada, are attracting the attention of the world with their
wealth.  The general direction of the mountains and quartz veins is northwest
and southeast, and there are numerous parallel ranges which form long valleys
in the same direction.
The Territory is divided into many mining districts, but as these are liable to
oe changed at any time, the mineral regions will be defined under three grand
natural divisions, viz: "Southern Arizona," "The Colorado River," and " Central Arizona," referring within these districts to the various streams upo)n which,
or near to which, the placers or lodes are located, as affording the most definite
description for permanent reference that can be given.
SECTION II.
SOUTHERN ARIZONA.
This part of Arizona, known as the Gadsden purchase, was the earliest
occupied by the Americans, and is still the best known. Until the beginning
of the war it was the favorite overland mail route to the Pacific, and it is still
considered the easiest stage route across the continent. Its mountains are nearly
all mineral-bearing, and silver lodes near to the Sonora line have been to some
extent worked.
The principal towns of southern Arizona are Tucson, on the line of the overland mail route, and Tubac, 52 miles south. Both have long been in existence,
and are situated upon the Santa Cruz river, which, rising in Sonora, runs nearly
directly north until it reaches the Gila river, near the Maricopa wvells. The disances from Tubac, which may be considered in the heart of the mnineral region
)f southern Arizona, are, by the usually travelled roads, as follows: San Fran.
cisco, 174 miles; San Diego, 510 miles; Fort Yuma, 330 miles; El Paso,
389 miles; St. Louis, 1,770 miles.  Towns in Sonora, Mexico-Santa Cruz,
54 miles; Iagdalena, 51 miles; Altar, 95 miles; IHermossillo, capital of Sonora,
229 miles; Guaymas, port of entry of Sonora, 329 miles; Libertad, on the Gulf
of California, 180 miles.
443 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The ores of silver found in southern Arizona are argentiferous galena, native
silver, auriferous sulphuret of silver, black sulphuret of silver, sulphate of silver,
sulphate of ironi combined.   The gangue is usually quartz or feldspar.  The
ores of copper are usually the sulphurets, principally gray.
Nearly all the silver and copper lodes show traces of gold, and placers lhave
beenr found at many points, but have not proved sufficiently extensive to attract
much attention.
While, owing to Indian disturbances and the consequent high prices, and other
serious impediments to mining operations, most of the lodes in southern Arizona
are now temporarily abandoned, no one familiar with them doubts that some of
them are valuable, and must eventually be worked with profit.
THE COLOnADO 3MixNE.-This mine, otherwise known  as the TIleintzelman,
(in honor of General IlHeintzelman, United States army, who was amongi the first
of the American owners,) is situated on the south side of the Cerro Colorado
mountain, about 22 miles west of Tubac by way of Sopori, and eight miles
north of Arivaca.  The lode runs nearly north and south, and may average 22
inches in thickness.  It is about 2,000 feet in length, and is distinct and separate
firom the porphyry rock on both sides.  Mr. Sam. F. Butterworth, whho, on behalf
of the owners ill New York, examined the mine in the winter of 1863-'64,
reported as follows:
The principal ore in the depth is silver-copper glance-containing an average of six per
cent. of silver; this is accompanied by argentiferous gray copper ore, which averages two
per cent. of silver. These minerals are very unequally distributed through the quartz; their
presence in greater or less quantity determines the value of the ore; at the present level they
constitute about seven per cent. of the ore fit for reduction, making its value about $120 per
ton; at a higher level the ore contained fully 30 per cent. of these minerals.
Guido Kiustel, who reported upon the property at the same time, says:
The main shaft, 6 feet by 12, well timbered, and furnished with substantial ladders, is placed
on the east side of the lode, which pitching east, changes the inclination in the deph, so that the
shaft, which was calculated to strike the lode at 160 feet below the surface, may not reach it
before 400 or 500 feet depth.  The distance from the shaft to the vein, below the present work,
is less than 30 feet.
There are other shafts, and some tunnelling and drifting, and the depth of actual
working is about 120 feet. Mr. Kuistel further says:
The characteristic feature of this mine is the rich ore which shows everywhere. The principal ore in the depth is silver-copper glance, containing from 2 to 10 per cent. of silver,
accompanied by argentiferous gray-copper ore, with from one to three per cent. of silver. On
the more or less abundant appearance of these two minerals in the quartz, the richness of the
ore chiefly depends. The distribution in the quartz is very unequal, sometimes in small particles, and sometimes more massive. This last, representing the first class, when selected
was formerly obtained; about 30 per cent. of the whole mass of ore is fit for reduction; but
at the present level only five to eight per cent., so that over the average of the ore cannot be
estimated much over $100 per ton.  This estimation refers to the vicinity of the main shaft
for about 200 feet in length. North and south of this part, the quartz prevails, making the
ore poorer.
Near the Cerro Colorado mine and upon the same property, are other promising
lodes.  MIr. Kfistel refers to one of them:
In Arivaca, a few hundred yards east from the lead mine, a quartz lode, "Mina Blanca,"
is found, (discovered long ago,) in which rich silver ore occurs.  This vein was opened only
about nine feet dleep, and never further prospected. Mr. Higgings is informed of this mine.
It is very probable that mnore good veins will be discovered yet in the neighborhood of the
Colorado mnine, such as do not crop out. Till now not much attention has been paid to this
kind of prospecting. The best mines in Santa Rita are those lately discovered, of which
no outcropping was to be seen. This was also the case with the Heintzelman lode.
Regarding wood, water, and the process for working the ores, he says:
For about 20 miles round Cerro Colorado there is very little wood, but sufficient to supply
a limited steam engine for hoisting the ore. Water is also scarce. The shaft at 100 feet
depth gave as much water as was required for about 100 men and animals.
444 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 
If the same quality of ore be found deeper in the Colorado mine, and this doubtless will be
the case, the amalgamation in pans by way of roasting cannot be recommended on account
of the copper which would enter the amalgam to from 600 to 800 per cent. The smelting of
the first-class ore cannot be introduced for want of lead ores.  The richest qre was melted
iorn erly with from 200 to 300 per cent. of lead ore.  It was procured from the lead mine in
Arin aca. This mine, however, did not yield as much ore as required. Somne lead ore was
obtained from the Patagonia mine, under conditions that 85 per cent. of the silver contained
in the lead ore had to be returned to the Patagonia mine free of cost.
In regard to the scarcity of wood or fuel generally, whatever location may be selected, it
appears that for the Colorado ores and circumstances, two methods of reduction should be
adopted: First, amalgamation in barrels; and second, amalgamation by patio.
The followilng is a report made to the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company
regarding the Cerro Colorado mine in 1861, by Colonel Talcott:
Sep)ort s7howivpg the quantity and value of silver ore yielded by the Heintzel,))azn
7ti2C, hov disposed of, and w'vhere that on hand  is situated  on the 1st of July,
1860.
Pounds.
3, 880
44, 037
1,400
18,991
586, 700
655, 008
129, 500
443, 700
573, 200
1, 228, Q08
Sold and taken by purchasers to Sonora.................................. — 
Sent by the company to San Francisco.................................-......
Sett by the company to Cincinnati............................ —-----------------------------------—.......
Smelted by the company................ —--------------------------------------------—.
Reduced by amalgamation at the Arivaca works of the company... —----------
Total sold and reduced........... —------------------------------------------..
Remaining at Cerro Colorado............................................
On hand at Arivaca.....................................................
Total ore on hand..................................................
Total product of the mine...........................................
The 655, 008 pounds sold and reduced yielded the company.................
Allow for ore on hand $90 per ton........................................
...... r -.a...........-.......-.............,02
General HIleintzelman stated in a letter from the mine, dated 1858, that all the
ore smelted to that date yielded $920 per ton.  Herman Ehreniberg, civil alnd
mining engineer, wrote from Tubac in 1859 that 75 tons smelted or reduced in
various ways yielded $41,180 in silver, or anl average of $549 per ton.
The Arivaca ranch, upon which the Cerro Colorado mine is situated, comprises 17,000 acres, and was famous in the days of the Jesuit missions.  It is
thus described in the report of the engineer vlwho first surveyed it:
The Arivaca has much beautiful meadow land, fine pasture on the low surrounding hills
for thousands of cattle; live oak grows in the gulches. mesquite on the hills, and on the
lower ends of the streams it is thickly lined for five or six miles with groves of cottonwood,
ash, walnut, and other useful woods for farming and mining purposes, in sufficient quantities
to answer all demands.
On and near the ranlch a number of silver lodes hlave been taken uip.  Upon
the Euriquetta some expensive machinery was erected several years since, but
like that upon the Ileintzelman mine it is now idle.  The lodes are probably
too small to be profitably worked until mining can be conducted at less expense.
S AN-TA RITA MIINES.-These mines are located in the Santa Riita mountains,
some 10 miles east of Tubac, and 50 miles south of Tucson.  Mir. Wrightson,
agent of the company owning most of them, tlius referred to their characteristics
in a report made in 1859
The ores of the Santa Rita mines are suited to both smelting and amalgamation. The smelting
ores are those in which there is a large admixture of lead or very rich sulphuret of silver and
copper. The amalgamation ores are those where the salts of silver and copper predominate.
I
445
$45,010 28
25,794 00
70,804 28
Value of ore raised. 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The Crystal and the Ercarnacion mines yield smelting ores.  The Bustillo, the Cazador, the
Ojero. and the Fuller mines yield ores which by assortment can be treated by both processes.
The Salero yields amalgamation ore.
Raphael Plumpelly, mining engineer, made an elaborate report in 1861, fromn
which the following extracts are taken:
The veins of the southern spur of the Santa Rita occur in a feldspathic porphyry, characterized by the absence of quartz, and presence of hornblende. They are not isolated occurrences, but, as is usual with true fissure veins, appear in groups. Indeed, the entire range
of hills, firom the point of the Salero mountain to the Santa Rita peak, is an extensive network of lodes. They differ but little in the character of their outcrops, usually more or less
porous quartz, blackened with oxide of manganese, or reddened with that of iron. Frequently
green, blue, and yellow colorings betray the decomposition products of our argentiferous
fahl ores. There is no reason for doubting that the great mass of these are silver leads, while
at the same time there is the weighty argument of analogy in favor of such a supposition.
The different leads present a remarkable uniformity of character.  Having nearly all the
same general direction, they also possess the same combination of minerals.  Many of them
have been prospected by small shafts, but there are hundreds apparently equally good that
remain intact.
GILA OR OJERA VFIN. —Direction north 69~ east, south 710 west; inclination 810. More
work has been accomplished on this than on any other belonging to the company. The old
Ojero and the Gila shafts, two frontons at the latter, and a small prospecting shaft, have been
opened on it. In the beginning of 1860 good ore was discovered in the outcrop, and on excavating, a rich deposit of galena and fahl ore was found.
THE SALERO has a different direction from any known vein of the district. Its course being
about north 35~ east, its continuation northeast must intersect that of the Gila. It is well
defined, and presents every indication of a good vein. It possesses a shaft 69 feet deep,
admirably equipped, and timbered in a very substantial manner.
TIlE CRYSTAL has a direction of north 85~ east, and is one of the best defined leads that
have been opened upon. A shaft 34 feet deep and 94 feet of fronton have been accomplished.
The ore is abundant, and being almost massive sulphuret of lead, will be of great value ir
smelting.  It is associated with copper pyrites and zinc blende.  Although the last nameue
mineral is an unwished for ingredient, occasioning much trouble in the furnaces, still this
difficulty can be to a great extent overcome by a careful separation.
The low yield of silver in the crystal undoubtedly arises from the absence of argentiferous
fahl ores, but I do not doubt that these will make their appearance, and with them an increase
in the amount of silver. Should the ore continue as abundant as it is at present, or should
there be an increase in the lead ores of other mines, it is probable that the reduction worlis
would yield an excess of lead and litharge over the amount needed for their own use.
THE BUENAVENTURA is one of the most interesting leads belonging to the company.  A
remarkable characteristic of this lead is the great facility with which the silver in its minerals
can be extracted. Of this the following experiments will give an idea. A trial was made
in the patio, and from what I can learn, from about 400 pounds of average ore, 20 ounces of
silver were obtained.  From another made on good ore, (10 pounds,) 1.5 ounce was the
result, being at the rate of 336 ounces to the ton.
The ores of the Santa Rita mines fall into two classes, lead ores and fahl ores, considering
them mineralogically; or into three, when classified according to the metallurgical process
best suited to them in this country. 
1. Smelting ores; galena and such fahl ores as are too rich in silver to be subjected to
other processes.
2. Refractory amalgamation ores, containing a certain percentage of lead, and requiring
to be roasted before reduction, whether this be accomplished in the patio, the barrel, or the
salt process.
.. Ores containing rich fahl ore, native silver, sulphuret of silver, and other simple or complex salts of this metal, with little or no lead, needing no roasting for the patio, and no magistral, or but very little.
Under the first two heads come the products of all the mines excepting those of the Buenaventura and Mascasa, which fall almost entirely into the last division.
Nearly all of the ores will require a mechanical preparation before they can be submitted
to the different processes. The more massive lead and fahl ores, with a small percentage of
quartz, need simply a separation by hand. The amalgamation ores require crushing and
grinding, and the majority of the smelting ores demand both crushing and washing to free
them from useless gangue.
The old ranch of Tomacacori, two and a half miles south of Tubae, is claimed
by the company owning most of the Santa Rita mines. It was the seat of a
Jesuit mission, and the ruins of a splendid church edifice are still to be seen upon
it.  Water for working the mines is found at this ranch on the Santa tCruz, and
at one or two points on the Sonoita.
446 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
SopoRI.-The ralich of Sopori, a noted property, lies south of the mission of
San Xavier del Bac, nine miles south of Tucson, where is a costly church edifice
erected nearly a hundred years since, and remarkable for its architectural svmmetry and beauty. The Sopori ranch, through which the Santa Cruz river runs,
has been thus described:
Besides the bottom lands on the estate, which are partially wooded, a large portion is covered with a dense forest, chiefly mesquit or locust, (Algarobia grandulosa.,) while along the
margin of the river are found cottonwood, sycamore, ash, and walnut trees; but the mesquit
is the timber par excellence, on account of the many uses to which it may be applied.
In the mountains, on the extreme eastern portion of the estate, is pine timber. Between
the timber lands and the mountains are large tracts of grazing lands, unsurpassed in the Territory for their excellence. The arable portions, before referred to, though limited, are adapted
to the cultivation of wheat, corn, barley, and other cereals; and to the fruits and vegetables
of the southern States. On the grazing lands innumerable herds of horned cattle, horses,
mules, and sheep were formerly raised, when the great haciendas and missions were in a
flourishing state.
THE  Sopori  SILVER  MIINE, upon  the  ranchl  named,  has been  somewhat
developed by a New England company.   In 1859, Frederick Bruncko6w, geologist and mining engineer, made the annexed reply to a letter of inquiry:
In answer to your inquiries about the mine and ranch of Sopori, in the Territory of Arizona,
I have to say, that I am familiar with said mine and ranch, from a three years' residence
in the vicinity as chief engineer of the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company, at Cerro
Colorado.
I have made several assays of the ore from the Sopori mine and found them to yield from
10 to 15 mares per cargo. The ore can be treated successfully by amalgamation, with the
barrel process.  The mine is well located, being near wood, water, and grass, the three
necessary elements to its successful development.
There is a small quantity of agricultural  land in the vicinity, and an immense range of
excellent pasturage. On the Santa Cruz river, near by, great forests of mesquit timber pre —
vail. The roads are the best natural roads in the world.
There may be other mines in the vicinity of Sopori.  I have examined some outcrops in the
vicinity, which proved to be argentiferous galena. Gold has been washed in t' is vicinity
during the rainy season, and is to be found in the Tenajas mountains.
Pine timber for building purposes can be obtained from the Santa Rita mountains, on the
east of the Santa Cruz valley.
Sopori is one of the best locations in Arizona for mining, trading, farming, and stock
raising.
Alowr.Y 3IINEs.-TliThis wvell-known mining property has perhaps been more
continuously and successfully worked than any upon the Sonora border. Some
$200,000 is said to have been expended in the purchase of the property, the erection of reduction works, houses for laborers, and everything  necessary for an
extensive and permanent establishment, including steaml engine and mill.   The
district is finely timbered and watered, and proverbially healthful.   Twenty-five
tons of the ore were sent to Europe in 1862.   The result, (says Mr.'lowry,) was an 
offer of X50 sterling per ton for the ore as it ran, properly cleaned. Some bars
of lead and silver fronom the reduction works sold in England at $200 per ton,
and many have been reduced at the mines, in an English cupel furnace, to supply silver for the payment of current expenses.*
F. Biertu, metallurgist and mining engineer, wrote a report upon these mines
in February, 1861, fromnt which the following extracts are taken:
Instead of finding, as I expected, barren mountains. as at Washboe and Mono, I gazed on
beautiful lndscapes and a country covered with trees of different kinds, with fertile lands
perfectly watered.  True it is that the neaIest neighbors, the Apaches, are far from being
even equal to the Patagonians; but this, it seemed to me, could not be a reason for giving
to such a beautiful spot, which in spring must be covered with flowers, so savage a name.
*         *          X *                        *         *    *
The property, containing about 500 acres of land, is situated 10 miles from parallel 32~ 20'
* All the reports made upon this mine are, in my opinion, to some extent exaggerated. I
visited it in 1864, and found that the average of ores ranged at $35 to $40 per ton. The
lode averages about four feet in thickness. The mine has never paid expenses, but might be
made profitable under judicious and economical management.-J. R. B.
I
447 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
north latitude, which forms the limit between Arizona and Mexico, 20 miles firom Fort
Buchanan, 14 from the town of Santa Cruz, in Sonora, and at an elevation of 6,160 feet from
the level of the sea; and a good road, 280 miles in length, and which, with a little repair,
might be made excellent, places it in direct communication with Guaymas. By this route
freight firom San Francisco to the mine does not go beyond five cents per pound.   The mine
is situated on the last hills forming the eastern slope of the Sierra de Santa Cruz, and is bounded
on the northeast by extensive plains covered by the mesquit and oak trees, which reach the
line of Sonora, whose elevated mountains rise in the horizon. Between these plains and the
mine is to be seen the Sierra Espuela, called also Wachuka mountains.
The road leading to the mine fiom Fort Buchanan crosses a range of hills and mountains
completely covered with oak, pine, sycamore, poplar, willow, and hazlenut. The land and
the hills around the mine are covered with green oak, cedar, pine, and manzanitas.  The
whole country abounds with rabbits, quails, and wild turkeys. It is not a rare occurrence
to meet droves of deer and antelope, numbering from 25 to 30.
*         X                     *      *            *         X         *
The principal lode of the Patagonia mine is composed principally of argentiferous galena,
and runs south 85~ east.  Its thickness, which increases as it dips in the earth-now 83 feet
in depth-is of about three feet, Three small veins, excessively rich, cross each other in the
main vein, ail running in different directions. The size of these small veins varies from 10
to 19 inches. Other veins, whose outcroppings are visible on the top of the hill, and which
run in a parallel direction at a great distance, will, according to all probabilities, be met with
as the working of the mine proceeds.  The galena of the principal vein contains a small
quantity of copper and arsenic. It seemed to me that I detected appearances of zinc, but I
had no means to ascertain the fact.  An assay of the different ores has given results varying
from $80 to $70X in silver per ton, and up to 62 per cent. of lead. Their reduction is of the
utmost facility.
Guido Kiistel sent the following condensed report upon the 3lowry mine from
San Francisco to New Yorkl by telegraph, in April, 1864:
The lode, which is over 14 feet wide, runs east and west, between limestone and granitelike porphyry. It consists of sulphurets and carbonates of lead in manganese, often pure,
containing iron, frequently in large chambers. Its great advantage is the presence of iron,
manganese, lime, and lead, so that the necessary fluxes are in the ore in abundance.  The
greatest depth worked is 180 feet. There are four galleries.
The present style of furnaces and system of purification are more like waste than rational
working.  NIevertheless, these furnaces paid all expenses, with 120 men employed.
The present expense of working six tons per day is $15 per ton. There are many thousand tons of rock out in front of the main shaft, half of which is fit for melting after very
simple concentration.
Wood is abundant. Live oak costs $1 75 a cord.
With furnaces four feet square and ten feet high, and with proper treatment, more silver at
less expense could be extracted. The best ore produces $350, the poorest $50 per ton. But,
even reckoning mining and reduction at $20 per ton, facts and calculations show that the
net profits of one day's work of 20 tons will be $1,280.
A statement from M1r. Mowry, later in 1864, says the lode has
Much increased in width and richness at the great depth of over 200 feet. The vein often
spreads out into chambers of pure ore of great size, no gangue appearing between the side
walls.  Two peons have taken out 10 tons of rich ore in one day's work.
OLIVE B)IINE. —Half a mile west of the 3lowry mines is the Olive lode of
argentiferous galena.  Three shafts of 30 feet each have been sunk in it, and
the lode shows a width of 14 inches.  The ore workled to this time has given
tifrom $50 to $100 per ton.
SAN ANTONIO MIINE.-Thlis mine is distant about six miles southwest of the
lIowvry mines. It was discovered in 1862, and has been worked to some extent.
Its ores are described as carbonates and sulphides of lead, the latter occa,ring
in segregations.
The veins in which these ores are found is composed of decomposed garnet, followed
along some portions of its line of strike by limestone, bounded by a country formation of
feldspathic and granetic porphyry. This vein varies on the surface from a few feet to 12 or
14 feet in width.
The Empire, the Eagle, the French, and the La Esperanza silver lodes, in
the same vicinity, have been sufficiently opened to demonstrate the existence of
argentiferous galena in quantities and of a grade that may eventually pay.
448 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
THuP, GUALOTA lode, four miles west of the Mlowry mines, is a lode varying
from one to six feet in width on the surface.  At the bottom of a shaft of 60
feet there is a vein of metal three feet wide.   The ore is chiefly sulphurets of
silver, and there are traces of gold.
THE FrPESxAL lodes are about 60 miles west of Tubac, in the Baboquivori
range.  The country is very rough and broken.  At places wood, water, and
grass may be had, though generally scarce.  The ores are sulplhurets of silver,
and argentiferous galena, black and brownish ores.  The chief lode, called the
Prieta or Ajax, has bold croppings, and is at places 10 feet in width.   The
lode has been traced for six miles.  Twenty tons of the surface ore, reduced by
the Patio process, gave $30 to the ton the poorest, and 845 the best.   The
size of this vein, (although it is not so rich as others already discovered,) wvith
some facilities for workling, will probably make it valuable.  Three other veins
have  been worled in the Fresnal district, (so called from  an old town  now
abandonied,) viz: the Colorado, and two not definitely named.  Ore from the
Colorado yielded $75 to the ton.
T.HE CABABI MIXES are in a district some 75 miles nortlhwest of Tubac, in
the Cababi mountaims.  The veins are not large, but are moderately  rich.
The ores are of silver in sulphurets, (amalgamating,) and have thus far been
reduced by the Patio process only.  The Picacho mine, sometimes called the
Padreas mine, has a vein about three feet inll width.  It has been wvorlked for
many years, and the average yield of the ores has been about $80. It is estimated that the present owner has extracted $50,000.  Mexican labor only has
becen used.  The Tajo, the Providencia, the Tiger, the Cobriza, the Cokespa,
and the Bahlia mines, in the immediate vicinity of the Picacho, are well spoken
of.  Some 50 tons of the Cobriza ore, (selected,) sent to Europe via Guaymas,
and reduced by the best process, brought $550 per ton in silver and copper.
Eight tons of selected ore from the Picachlo, sent at the same time, yielded
$1,200 to the ton.  Mr. Pumpelly says of the Cababi lodes:
The veins which.I observed occur in a quartziferous porphyry and in an amygdaloid rock.
This latter has a brown compact base, containing numerous acicular crystals of triclinic
feldspar, and calcareous spar in impregnations and small threads. Cavities, some filled with
quartz and others with delessite, are frequent.
A great number of veins of quartz and barytes occur in these two formations, the latter
seeming to prefer the amygdaloid rock.  One vein of barytes, containing a "bonanza" of
sulphuret of silver, was found and workied by the Mlexicans, and several specimens of heavy
spar associated with silver glance from various localities were shown me.
The Fresnal and Cababi mines are in the country of the Papago Indians, a
branch of the Pimas, who have always been friendly to the whites.  Hence
operations upon the mines have not necessarily been interrupted. 3Mexican andl
Indian labor may be had at from $15 to $30 per month, and provisions maybe
brought from Sonora at low rates, flour seldom costing over four cents per pound.
While water is scarce, there is sufficient for mining, and in the shafts of the
Picacho lode there is now so much that pumps are needed.
At Quijota, west of Cababi, are gold placers (dry washings) long worked by
the Papagoes, and now worked by them and at times by Mexicanls, with considerable profit.  Large pieces of fine gold have been extracted, and the gold generally is coarse.
SIEr.PITI 3INXEs.-These mines are in the Sienrriti mountains, about 30 miles
northwest of Tubac.  They are of argentiferous galena.  Work has been done
upon the Benton, Belcher, and other lodes. There is an old gold placer at the
west end of the mountains, long worked by Mexicans.  In the vicinity is an
abundance of water and oak timber, and some gold placers worked before the
discovery of gold in California.
Aao MfIXES.-These copper mines, sometimes called the Arizona mines, are
situated northwest of the Cababi mines about 60 miles, and 40 miles south of
the Gila river.  The ores are principally of red oxide, malachite of copper, anuI
29
.1
.449
I 
RPESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
gray sulphurets. A number of veins have been opened, and the mines were
steadily worked for three years. The ore was carried to Fort Yuma and thence
shipped to San Francisco, to Swansea, and to Boston.  A  shipment of 30 tons
of the red oxide ore sent to Swansea sold for $360 per ton, and is said to have
been the richest copper ore of the class ever received there.  Work was suspended upon these, mines chiefly because of the lack of water on the desert road
to Fort Yuma.
SAXTA  OSA 3IINES.-About 50 miles west of Tucson, near the road from
Cababi to Maricopa Wells, are some copper lodes, with indications similar to
those of the Ajo mines.
APACHE PAss.-South of this well-known pass, on the overland mail route
to New MIexico, a number of lodes have been located by soldiers and others,
but little work has been done.
MINES NEAR, Tucsox.-In the vicinity of Tucson lodes are not so numerous
as about Tubac and the Sonora line, but a number have been taken up.
LEE'S MIINE, 12 miles due west from the town, shows a vein two and a half feet
wide, of silver sulphurets and galena.  Some of the ore worked ili an arrastra
has given a return of $150 per ton, and considerable work has been done upon
the mine. Five hundred pounds of ore lately smelted yielded 90 ounces of
silver.
LA PAR  IAE, near Lee's mine,, is of a similar character and  has a shaft of
about 100 feet.  About 25 tons of the ore have been smelted.
SPANGLER MINE, some six or eight miles southwest of Tucson, is a copper
lode upon which some workl has been done.
VICTORIA LODE is about 16 miles southwest from Tucson. Ten tons of the
ore (copper) were lately taken out, and a part of the same has been shipped to
San Francisco via Guaymas for a working test.  The vein is some  10 feet in
widthl.  Four tests of the ore in small quantities have returned a yield of 45,
711, 721, and 7443 per cent.
SAN PEDRO LODES.-Thle district of the San Pedro river is chiefly noted for
its fine agricultural lands, but several promising lodes have been found in it. It
lies east from Tucson some 25 miles. 3Mr. Pumpelly describes the ores as tetrahedlite and massive copper glance, containing copper pyrites, with quartz and
barytes for gangue from the San Pedro vein, and galena with iron pyrites from
the St. Paul vein. The San Pedro river furnishes an abundance of water for
all purposes.
At the Caiion d'Oro, on one of the roads from Tucson to the San Pedro, are
gold placers which are occasionally worked, and seldom without affording fair
wages.  There are evidences of work done upon them in years past.
MAARIcOPA LODE.-This lode, sometimes called Gray's mine, situated about
70 miles north of Tucson and four miles south of the Gila river, is considered
one of the best copper deposits in southern Arizona. MIr. Gray thus described
the vein in a general report, made in 1860:
The formation of the district is primitive, chiefly granite and sienite, with metamorphic
.and sedimentary rocks, and injected dikes of trap and quartz.
The lode was traced and measured 1,600 feet, having a width of from 8 to 12 feet plainly
marked by its walls and out-cropping ore. The veinstone is quartz, with seams of argentiferous copper ore, at the surface a few inches wide, but which at six feet down appear nearly
solid, covering the greater part of the lode.
The copper glance and gray ore predominate, though at top the carbonates and silicates
were intermixed. A branch vein shows itself near the place of greatest development. Here
it traverses an elongated hill, intersecting it lengthwise, and protruding above the surface
from one end of the hill to the other, a distance of 700 feet. The hill is 60 to 125 feet higher
than the valleys and ravines surrounding it, and slopes for half a mile in the direction of the
lode to the.west, when the ground descends northward towards the Gila at a rate of 250 feet
to the mile.
The course of the lode is very regular, north 84A~ east, or 5.~ north of true east, and 5]~
south of true west. The dip is to the north, and about 75~ fiom the horizon, very nearly
vertical as far. as could be observed
450 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
'I he elevation of the Maricopa mine, determined by me with a fine cistern barometer, is
3,378 feet above the level of the sea, and 1,497 feet higher than our camp established on the
Gila river six miles off, selected as a good site for smelting works.
W. Ra. Ilopkins, civil engineer, in connection with  the same report, speaks as
follows:
*"'  *    o    We have traced the copper lode by distinct pieces of heavy ore for 1,600
feet, about east and west; also, three other veins. The lode appears to be from 8 to 12 feet
wide on the surface.
Ihe shaft we have commenced is on the mnain lode, and on a hill that rises from 60 to 100
feet above the surrounding gulleys.  It is now seven feet square and six feet deep.  The ore
fs increasing in richness, and the veins widening. The vein containing the copper glance,
specimens of which you will receive, is now 20 inches wvide, and occupies the south side of
the lode. Next to this comes gray and green ores and the red oxide of copper. The lode is
now occupied with the ore, so that nearly all that is thrown out goes into the pile to be
smelted.
The dip of the lode is now slightly to the north, and we suppose that it will run into another
lode 25 feet north of it, and form a wider bed of ore than we now find.
We would express to you our confidence in the extreme richness of the mine, both from our
own observation and the opinion of experienced miners throughout this section of country.
We find the water-power on the river abundant.  Mesquit is in sufficient quantities to
furnish charcoal, which is of the best quality.
Frederick Brunckow, assayer and mining engineer, made a report in Jamniary,
1860, upon some selected specimens from this mine, firom which  this extract is
takeni~
The specimens consisted of the outcrop ore of a powerful vein, and bear the unmistakable
igEns of a true vein.    *    *      As commonly by all outcrop ore, so here carbonates
and silicates make their appearance, while the main body of the vein, to some extent below
the surface probably, will consist in general of gray sulphuret of copper and other ores which
already in large quantities appear upon the surface.    *       I divided the ores into
d;fferent classes, and assayed them accordingly.
1. Fahl ore, (Tennantit,) mixed with carbonate, contained to the ton 50 per cent. copper
and 104 ounces silver.
2. Gray sulphuret containing to the ton 60 per cent. copper and 93 ounces of silver.
3. Silicate of copper containing 20 to 25 per cent. copper, and 20 to 25 ounces of silver to
the ton.
4. Carbonate of copper containing 25 to 50 per cent. copper and only a trace of silver; as
carbonates and silicates are secondary formation, a large yield of silver could not be expected.
The ore of this vein would be the cheapest and quickest way to reduce in a blast furnace,
and run into copper ingots, which could be shipped, and afterwards be stripped of their silver.
Iron crushers for breaking the ore, as well as the necessary blast, could be driven by waterpower, of which there is at the Rio Gilo any abundance.
GENEP,AL  gEMARKS  OX SOUTHrEPX ArIZONA.-The  foreg,oing  reference to
the principal mining localities in southern Arizona will show that the country is
pre-eminently mineral bearing. In most places there is a tolerable supply of
mesquit timber, but water is scarce. The grazing is generally excellent. A
great need of southern Arizona is a port upon the Gulf of California, and it has
long been the ardent hope of the people that either Guaymas or Libertad would
be secured.  While the roads are for the most part good, the distance from  Fort
Yuma, the nearest American port at present, is so great as to involve large
expense in the transportation of machinery and such supplies as are not produced in the country.
Enough has been done to show that some of the lodes, if not remarkably
rich, are sufficiently so to pay well when they can be worked at a reasonable outlay, and as the Apaches are overcome, and the agricultural lands are safely cultivated, mining operations will probably be renewed.
It is a well-authenticated fact that until the uprising of the Apaches, (about
1780,) many of the silver mines of that part of northern  Sonora,  now constituting southern Arizona, were workled with remunlmerative results.
Should a railroad from the Rio Grande, or from  the Gulf of California, be
extended over any one of the easy routes to southern Arizona, the country vwould
be made an attractive mineral region, and would soon be well populated. The
principal streams are the Santa Cruz, the Sonoita, the San Pedro, and the Gila.
451
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
SECTION III.
COLORADO RIVER.
Tile valley of this great river, " the Mississippi of the Pacific," may justly be
considered one of the natural divisions of Arizona.  Ascending the river from its
mouth it is a distance of 150 miles to Fort Yuma, where the mineral district may
be said to begin.  Opposite to the fort, on the Arizona side, is the town of Arizona City. The Gila road to Tucson, and across the Territory to New AIexico,
begins at this place, and the supplies for the military of southern Arizona are
forwarded from here, coming from San Francisco via the Gulf of California.
Up the Gila, some 20 miles from the Colorado, gold placers were discovered
in 185S, and caused some excitement.  A traveller passing at that time says he
saw $20 washed out of eight shovelsfull of dirt, and this in the rudest manner
by an unpracticed hand.  The diggings are in the sand-hills half a mile or more
from the river, too far to carry water by hand, and as by dry washing but $1 or
$2 a day can be made, they are now for the most part abandoned. Occasionally
a strike is made by Indians or Mexicans, and $20 to $30 secured in a day.  Old
residents of the Colorado and Gila mining districts give it as their opinion that
with water conducted to the placers they would pay well.  A company organized
in 1866 for this purpose sent some machinery to Gila City, but subsequently gave
up the enterprise.
The first mining district of note on the Colorado is some 40 miles above Arizona City by the river, and known as the Eureka district.  The ores are chiefly
argentiferous galena, containing from 20 to 30 per cent. of silver. There is also
a show of gold.  The lodes are in the mountain ranges, and situated at from 1
to 20 miles east from the river banks. They may be reached by trails. Generally
travel is difficult in that region, owing to the rugged nature of the country.  But
few of the lodes taklen up in the first excitement (1862) have been developed.
Of those upon which work has been performed the Buena Vista promises well.
The width of the lode in the main shaft (which is 60 feet deep) is about five feet.
Some of the ore submitted to a working test gave a yield of $60 in silver to the
ton.  The Bronze, the Margarita, and the Vernon lodes yield ore of the same
class and value. The country rock is granite and slate; the silver veins are in
pink and white quartz. Copper indications are numerous, and it is supposed that
deposits of that ore exist here as well as further up the river.
SILVER DISTRICT, on the Colorado, north of the Eureka, has some welldefined veins capped with what the miners call "dry bone," containing considerable zinc. The district has been but little prospected. AMost of the lodes located
are from three to four miles from the river.  Upon one a shaft was sunk to the
depth of 25 feet before reaching metal, when a good quality of silver and lead
ore was discovered.
CASTLE DOME, 50 miles above Arizona City, is a wNell-known mining district,
so called from an isolated mountain bearing a close resemblance to a dome.  The
lodes are in a range of mountains from 15 to 30 miles back of the river but, as
in the Eureka district, they are not very easy of access, and water is exceedingly
scarce. A number of lodes have been claimed, and several companies organized in San Francisco for their development.  Those opened are firom a foot to
five feet in width, and well defined.
Professor Blake states that the ores of Castle Dome are argentiferous galena,
in a vein-stone of fluor spar, and that they contain 30 to 40 ounces of silver to
the ton.
Ir. Sage, one of the principal owners in this district, furnishes an estimate of
what he believes the true value of the ores to be in San Francisco, and what the
expense will be provided the mines can be made to produce regularly a large
quantity of ore:
4'32 
WEST OF TIHE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
$50 00
12 50
75 00
137 5C
Giving for value of ton of ore in silver and lead................................
Deduct freight to San Francisco...................................... —-------------------------------- $15 00
Deduct carting to the river ----------------------------------—..................................... — 10 00
Deduct mining and sacking......................................... 10 00
35 00
Leaving a profit per ton of.................................................. 102 50
Mr
the to
The v
He all
Cartin
Freigl
45 00
Leaving a profit per ton of.............................. —-------------------------------------- 45 00
The bottoms and ravines furnish cottonwood, mesquit, and ironwood, but not
in sufficient quantities to supply fuel for reduction works upon a large scale, and
hence, as most of the Colorado river ores are such as require a smelting process,
it will probably be found most profitable to ship them to San Francisco. Lately
a price has been offered in that city for lead ores from the Eureka and Castle
Dome districts which is sufficient to warrant their shipment even at the present
rates of transportation.
In the WrxEAVEPr DISTRICT, next above  the Castle Dome  district, the silver
lodes are much of the same character. Those of copper are quite promising.
Of these the Colorado has a fair reputation. It is thus described by Mr. Hermanl
Ehrenberg, a good authority:
This mine is located on the east bank of the Colorado river, in the Territory of Arizona,
nine miles south of La Paz, and about eight miles east from the river. The outcroppings
are very heavy, and may be traced for a mile by bands or isolated outbreakls of quartz matter stained with carbonates, intermixed with copper-glance. The Colorado appears more like
a mighty interstratified deposit of gneiss and metamorphic slates in which it occurs, forced
to the surface by an eruptive mass of rock that breaks forth west of the croppings.  Future
developments may prove this appearance to be deceptive, and that at a greater depth the vein
will have a greater dip, becoming more vertical, and, in place of following the stratification,
break through them like a true fissure vein. It is immaterial, however, to which class of
mineral deposits the Colorado belongs. If aninterstratified deposit, or nearly horizontal vein,
its great extent and width on the surface and the rich ores it contains speak extremely favorable for its becoming a lasting and extremely valuable mineral deposit. Many a great copper
deposit, like those of Talhua and Mansfield, which have been worked for centuries, with
immense success, are of a similar description, differing, perhaps, in the formation which
encloses them being younger and less disturbed by eruptive forces. The ore already taken
out may be divided into three qualities-the first should yield from 40 to 70 per cent. in copper, carrying with it a large quantity of silver; the next grade will give from 30 to 50 per
cent. in copper alone; the third grade contains free gold ranging from $30 to $100 per ton.
A shipment of the Colorado ore was made to Richardson & Company, Swansea.
Their return, dated January 17, 1867, gives a yield of 304 per cent. in copper,
with 68 ounces of silver to the ton. They say they are ready to pay X50 ster ling per ton for such ore.
The next district is that about the town of La Paz, and bears the same name.
It was first explored in the Colorado gold excitement of 1862, and, indeed, little
was known of the mineral resources of the Colorado valley until that year. Mr.
A. McKey, member of the territorial legislature from La Paz, has furnished the
annexed account of the discovery of the placers which caused the upbuilding of
La Paz, now a place of considerable importance, and a favorite shipping point
'.I
i
453 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
for goods fior Central Arizona; Prescott, the capital of thie Territory, being at a
distance of less than 200 miles in the interior, and Wickenburg at a distance of
but a little more than 100, over remarklably good roads:
Captain Pauline Weaver, and others, in the month of January, 1862, were trapping on
the Colorado river, and at times would stray off into the mountains for the purpose of pros pecting for gold.  They had discovered what was then named  and is still called "El Arollo
de la Tenaja," which is about two miles north firom El Campo Ferrd, and about seven
miles east firom La Paz. In this gulch they had discovered gold in small quantities, and
had taken two or three dollars' worth out, which Captain Weaver kept in a goose-quill.
Soon after this discovery Weaver visited Fort Yuma and exhibited what gold he had
This evidence of the existence of a commodity so much sought for in this country convinced
others that gold might be found in quantities by hunting for it.  Don Jos6 M. Redondo
having heard of the discovery, at once set out to visit the newly found "El Dorado" in com pany with several others.  He arrived a few days afterward at the camp of Captain Weaver,
who pointed out to him and his party the particular gulch from which he had taken the gold.
After a short examination of this place the party set out in different directions to discover, if
possible, something which would pay to work, and the extent of the placers.  Within less
than a mile from Weaver's camp, south, Redondo took a pan of dirt to prospect, and when
hlie had dry-washed it, to the astonishment of himself and the party with him, he found that
lie had one "chispa" which weighed two ounces and one dollar, besides other small pieces.
Others of his party found good prospects, but none of the company had come for anything
more than to ascertain the truth or falsity of the reported glad tidings, and therefore were
not prepared to remain and work for want of the necessary provisions and tools, but were
compelled to return to La Laguna, a settlement some twenty miles above Fort Yuma, on
the Arizona side of the Colorado. After their arrival at La Laguna, and report of what
they had discovered, a party of 40 persons prepared to visit the new mines.  After their
arrival in the placers, about the middle of February, 1862, discoveries were made almost
daily, until it was known that every gulch and ravine for twenty miles east and south was
rich with gold. Ferr.m Camp, Campo en Medio, American Camp, Los Chollos, La Plomosa,
and many other smaller places, all had their rich diggings, but the discovery made by Juan
Ferr,i, of the Ferri gulch, was, without doubt, the most valuable of any.  Very soon the
knowledge of these discoveries spread to Sonora and California, and people began to pour in
firom all points, and continued to come until they probably numbered fifteen hundred. This
population was maintained to a greater or less extent until the spring of 1864, when the
apparent exhaustion of the placers and the extreme high prices for provisions caused large
numbers to leave.  The discovery of the Weaver and Walker's diggings, in the year 1863,
drew away many of the miners from these placers.
Of the yield of these placers, anything like an approximation to the average daily amount
of what was taken out per man would only be guess-work.  Hundreds of dollars per day to
the man was common, and now and again a thousand or more per day.  Don Juan Ferr,
took one nugget from his claim which weighed 47 ounces and six dollars. Another party found
a "chispa" weighing 27 ounces, and another one of 26 ounces.  Many others found pieces
of from one or two ounces up to 20, and yet it is contended that the greater proportion of the
larger nuggets were never shown for fear of some evil spirits, who infested the mines at the
time. It is the opinion of those most conversant with the first workiilng of these placers that
much the greater proportion of the gold taken out was in nuggets weighing from one dollar
up to the size of the' chispas" above named.  I have often heard it said of those days that
"not even a Papago Indian would work for less than $10 per day."
As has been seen from the above, the gold was large, and generally clear of foreign substances.  The largest piece (above mentioned) did not contain an apparent atom of quartz
or any other base matter. The gold from the different camps varied a trifle in its worth at
the mint in San Francisco, and brought from $17 50 to $19 50 per ounce. But all that
was sold or taken here went for from $16 to $17 per ounce.  Since the year 1864 until
the present, there have been at various times many men at work in these placers, numbering in the winter months hundreds, but in the summer months not exceeding 75 or 100;
and all seem to do sufficiently well not to be willing to work for the wages of the country,
which are and have been for some time friom $30 to $65 Der month and found. No inconsiderable amount of gold comes in from these placers now weekly, and only a few days ago I
saw, myself, a nugget which weighed $40, clear and pure from any foreign substance.
Some parties have lately come into these diggings with what is called concentrators or dry
washers, which they have been working for a few weeks, and in conversation with Mr.
Finkler (an owner of one of these machines) he told me that he could make $20 per day where
he was at work, and pay three dollars per day for his hands, and that he only required four
to work the machine. Should these machines prove a success these placers will soon be
peopled again with industrious, prosperous miners. Of the total amount of gold taken from
these mines, I am as much at a loss to say what it has been as'I was to name the average
daily wages of the first years, and as I might greatly differ from those who were among the
first in these mines, I do not feel justified in setting up an opinion as against them; I shall,
therefore, give the substance of the several opinions wvhich I have obtained from those who
454 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
were the pioneers of these placers.  I have failed to find any one of them whose opinion is
that less than $1,000,000 were taken from these diggings within the first year, and in all
probabili;y as much was taken out within the following years.
As milght be supposed, the richness of these placers suggested the existence of
valuable quartz lodes in the vicinity, and prospecting began in 1863. The
result was the location of a number of gold, silver and copper vei ns within an
area of 30 miles about La Paz.   Of these several have been opened, and the
ores well tested.
CONSTAXNTrIA 3IINE.-A gold mine 12 miles east of La Paz has a shaft of
75 feet, and some 20 tons of the ore worked by arrastras yielded $30 to $50 per
ton.  The vein is five feet wide in a granite formation and regular.  The Las
Posas is a similar vein.
CONQUEST IIxINE.-This is a gold mine, otherwise known as the Ravena mine.
It is situated east of La Paz, some six miles, and has been well prospected. A
number of shafts and tunnels have been opened, and the vein is found to be well
defined and promising.  The width is from 3 to 20 feet.  Some silver is found
in the ore which is free from sulphurets.  Gangs of men are now employed, as
they have been for several years, in preparing this mine for working upon a large
scale, and its owner, Mlr. Raveena, is confident that hlie has a valuable property.
Ile has already, it is said, been ofiered $100,000.
Crnuc  IixNE.-This lode is also of gold-bearing quartz, with a mixture of
galena in the ore.  A shaft 50 feet deep has been sunk.
PICACHO MIxE.-At a point some 30 miles cast fiom La Paz, on the road to
AVickenburg, a mnumber of silver-bearing lodes were opened in 1863 and 1864.
nluchl work was done upon the Picacho, and about 300 tons of ore were extracted
froni the shafts and tunnels, which amounted to some 600 feet in extent.  For
some cause or other the ore was not workled.  The ore is of argentiferous galena,
and the vein shows a width of about three feet five inches.
PEACIr BLOOM  II\E.-A shaft of 80 feet has been sunk upon the lode which
adjoins the Picacho, and is of a similar class.
Thle HIIUGHES, the AMERICAN PIONXEER, the ScoTTYv, and the SALAZAN silver
lodes in the same vicinity are generally of the same class, but for various reasons
have not yet been much workled.  Good pay ore in carbonates and chlorides has
been taken from the latter, but no permanent vein yet found.
The APAcHE CHIEF copper lode, near the foregoing, is one of the most remarka'
ble in Arizona, and at one time attracted considerable attention in San Francisco.
The ore is found in deposits rather than in a re,gular vein, but the location is
too far friom navigation to make mining profitable at present.  The country
about La Paz is barren of wood saving mesquit and ironwood in the gulches
and ravines, and water is not abundant, although it might possibly be had at
any point between La Paz and Wickenburg by sinking artesian wells.  A  company hlolding, a charter for a toll road to Wickenburg and Prescott have proposed
to sink several such, but have as yet taken no action.
Ascending the Colorado towards Williams Fork, the mountains, nearly all
lshow signs of metal-bearing.  Perhaps the most striking and extensive group of
copper veins yet discovered is in the Harcuvar chain of mountains, at a distance
of 35 miles east of the river, and 55 miles northeast of La Paz, and a little north
of the La Paz and Wickenburg road, before referred to.
Herman Ehlirenberg,, who was among the first to examine the lodes upon the
Col-rado, as hlie was those in southern Arizona, and wih:o was noted for his
cautious language, made a lengthy report upon the IHarcuvar district, of which
the annexed is a synopsis:
The group embraces 18 lodes, making anl aggregate of 51,200 lineal feet.
Shafts have been sunk which demonstrate that they are not only large but permanent veins. The rocks of the country are granite gneiss, fractured at right
angles to the plain or arrangement of stratification.   The fissures are nearly per-.
455 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
pendicular, and vary in width firom 5 to 15 feet. The vein mass consists of
calcareous spar, tinctured green by the mixture of talc in small quantities  It is
distinctly separated from the connecting rock by a narrow selvage of a ferTuginous
substance, colored by hydrated oxide of iron.  The sheets of ore are compact
and continuous, the mass of the gangue being found near one of the walls, both
of the true walls of the different cuts having been reached in only a few instances.
The several cuts show the same general bold iron-stained croppings, the same
broad fissures, the same surface ores, similar dip, and nearly parallel bearing or
strike.
On the CUNNINGIrAM lode the shaft has been sunk to the depth of 107 feet.
The metallic part of this vein varies in width from four to six feet, the width
gradually increasing with the depth.  The ore in sinking assumes an undecomposed and characteristic appearance, i. g. sulphurets and pyrites.  The vein has
a dip of nearly 80~ north-northeast, bearing or striking northwest, and is singularly regular, being traceable a long distance on the surface.
The Q uA-siiA-QuA-mArr, another of the leads embraced in the group, has been
sunk upon to the depth of 48 feet; it is a much larger vein than the Cunninghlam and has yielded some good ore.  All the other leads have been opened by
small shafts or cuts, and nearly all show the same bold croppings, similar dip
and strike, and the same general character of ores. It is unquestionably one
of the most promising groups of copper mines in Arizona.  Assorted ores taken
from these leads have been shipped to Swansea, and worked 37~ per cent.
Assays made range from 30 to 70 per cent.  These highl-grade ores can be easily
mined.
WILLIAMS ForP.-Some 70 miles north of La Paz, Williams Fork, or, as it
was originally named, " Bill Williams Fork," after a well known trapper aind
explorer, enters the Colorado from the east.  It is the first tributary worthlly of
note north of the Gila. and has its rise in the mountain ranges between Wickenbur- and Prescott; the streams known as Kirkland creek and Date creek
being its head-waters.
The Williams Fork district is now the best known copper region in Arizona.
The country for a number of miles on each side of the creek abounds in scattered
croppings and masses or bunches of copper ore.  It is contended by some that
there are several clearly defined copper lodes. A recent writer thus refers to
their characteristics:
The containing rock is of trapean character, and geologically speaking, comparatively
recent, probably belonging to the early tertiary or eocene era.  These copper veins are, from
the present state of knowledge and observat'on, supposed to be composed entirely of fissure
veins, or infiltrated deposits from the general impregnation of the containing rock, their
materials laving made their way by plutonic forces through the trapean rocks, and the'r
accompanying formations.  The theory of the formation of this district is against a synclinal
plutonic base, unlike the California middle copper belt, because the whole of the containing
rock is the same. Its geognostic position, however, is, as far as authoritative geology is
concerned, sufficiently true of a real vein formation. But one of the best evidences of the
value of the copper deposits of that district is that they are massive, solid, and regular, so
far as developed, whilst in the deposits the least infiltration is impregnated with carbonates.
The outside gossan is usually of specular or magnetic iron, which is invariably found adjacent
on the surface. Such is the character of the richest copper mines the world over.
The Planet Company was organized in California in 1864; the company owns
five claims as follows: Planet, 2,700 feet; Ashley, 2,100 feet; Wash, 2,100 feet;
Sentinel, 2,100 feet; and Mountain Chief, 1,800 feet.  To this time no work has
been done upon the Sentinel and Mountain Chief more than that required by the
laws of the district, in order to hold them. The Ashley claim has been so far
developed as to show evidences of a ledge of copper ore about 600 feet in length.
Several cuts have been made developing indications of an average thickness in
the ledge of about 10 feet.  The character of the ore is malachite, assay 30 per
cent. copper.  Only about 25 tons have been mined from this claim.  The Wash
456 
WEST OF THiE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
claim is the wash separating the Ashley and Planet claims.   The Planet claim
has been worlked since thie spring of 1865, and about 800 tons of ore have been
taken out.  The ore is of gray and red oxide, average assay 40 per cent.  It
has been sold in San Francisco at an average of $100 per ton.
Thlle mines are located 12 miles firom the Colorado, and within a quarter of a
mile of Williams Forkl.  The cost of transporting ore to San Francisco was at
first $60 per ton.  It is now $28 per ton, and will probably soon be but $18 or
$20.  If the company could erect a warehouse at the mouth of tihe Colorado,
and store the ore there until a cargo for a large vessel accumulated, it could be
shipped from the mines to Boston or Swansea, at a total cost of not more than
$25 per ton.  Then 30 per cent. ore, of which there is a quantity in both tihe
Ashley and Planet claims, could be profitably worked. Several other companies
are engaged ill working copper lodes at Williams Fork.  Sir. Thompson, a
practical and enterprising miner, superintendent of tlhe Great Central Company,
has erected furnaces for smnelting the ore taken from the Eliza mine, and although
lie has had many obstacles to contend wvithl, his experiment  has not proved
altogetlher unsuccessful.  The Eliza is but 1,000 feet distant from the Planet
It is thought )by some to be upon the same vein, but this has not yet been demonstrated.  According, to a late report the company have two small furnaces running, turning out copper from 91 to 96 per cent. fine, which is being shipped to
San Francisco.  A large lot of this copper has been sold for 15 cents per pound,
$300 per ton.  The cost of delivering such copper is but a little over $100 per
toln.
The ores of this mine are oxides and carbonates, very little or no iron or sulphur
being present; hence the company is able to turn out at one smelting a very
good article of copper.  Some of this copper has been used by the brass foundries
of San Francisco, who have pronounced it M very fair article for many commercial purposes, just as it comes from thie furnace.  Within less than two months
they will have a larger furnace in operation, which they think will be able to
turn outt from three to five tons of copper per day.
The company own two parallel ledges of 3,000 feet each.  Only one ledge
has as yet beenii developed to any considerable extent. Upon this an incline has
been sunk to tihe depth of 100 feet, at which point there are some indications of
silplhurets coming in.  At the depth of about 50 feet drifts have been run each
way from the shaft about 100 feet, all the way inll good ore; vein varying from five
to seven feet thilck.  The shaft is also connected with the surface by a tunnel,
thlirougli whichl the ore will be talken out. The outcrop of the vein has been
stripped quite a distance, developing good ore all the way.  The superintendent
estimates that lie has 5,000 tonls of ore opened to sight, which will average
a vield of 25 per cent.  He has lately taken out some ore yielding 74 per cent.
,IIIErAL HILL, a locality near the Planet mine, has several of these so-called
lodes, supposed to be valuable.  The Springfield Company are now taking ore
from the Orion; a furnace has been erected by 1Ir. Knowles.  At Empire Flat,
10 miles southl of Williams Fork, and three miles from the steamboat landing on
the Colorado, the Challenge mine has been worked for more than a year, and
about 500 tons of fair shipping mineral secured.  The Kangaroo, the Bridal,
and other copper veins promise well, and ore lately worked by an alrTastra from
a gold lode in this vicinity gave a return of $85 to the ton.
From Williams Forkl to Fort iIolave, by the Colorado, is a distance of about
70 miles.  Just about the fort, vwhich was established long prior to the organization of the Territory, there are no lodes, but in the mountain ranges east, and
north and east of Hardyville, a town nine miles higher up the river, are some
districts already noted for their gold and silver mines.
TilE SAX  }'FAcxIsco DISTisICT is situated some 12 miles from Hardyville,
in a northeasterly direction. A stream called Silver creek runs through the dis
I
457
i
I
I
i
i
I
I 
RESOURCES OP STATES AND TERRITORIES
trict from north to souti.  The features of the dlistrict, wvhich is some 20 miles
long and 10 miles wice, are thus given )y a recent writer:
The bold outcrop of quartz lodes stretching from east to west may be seen for a long dis tance. Conspicuous among these ledges is the Moss lode on the north, the Skinner and Pai sons on the south. The aspect of these ledges is singularly wild and rugged, deviating
seldom more than 4~ or 5~ from the east and west magnetic equators. There is another set
of lodes much less numerous than the first, whose general direction is northwest and south east, or more exactly north 200 west. These lodes, if prolonged, must obviously intersect
some of the east and west lodes. They differ not only in their course and direction, but in
their mineralogical construction.  The first class, the east and west, are quartz lodes, charac terized by the presence of feldspar and flourspar as the associate minerals. The second set of
lodes may be called calcareous, being composed to a great extent of magnesian carbonate of
lime, or dolomite. In some instances these have quartz linings and polished walls. The
Virginia, Olive Oatman, and Buffalo are conspicuous examples of the calcareous lodes.  A
third class of lodes is observed in the San Francisco district, whose direction is northeast
and southwest. This class is very small, not including more than three or four, named
the Pride of Mexico, Trimuverate, Wright, and Morning Star. In general the lodes in the San
Francisco district are remarkably vertical, rarely deviating more than 30~ from the perpen dicular, and their outcroppings are commonly very strong and well marked, forming in case
of the upper lodes conspicuous features in the topography of the country.
The rocks of this district are exclusively porphyritic or volcanic. The porphyry consists
for the most part of the feldspathic variety. The crystals of feldspar are implanted in a
violet-colored mass, yielding, like nmost of the porphyries at Virginia City, at Esmeralda,
Bodie, and in the Mojave desert, to atmospheric influences, crumbling into incoherent masses,
or breaking away into acute and fantastic clifts. The gigantic quartz lodes, known as the
Moss and the Skinner, contain imbedded in their mass, especially at their surface, fragments
of scoriaceous lavas, and present in general a burned and roasted appearance.   On the
Organ cation of the MIojave there are extinct cones of volcanoes, whose streams of lava may
be traced for eight or ten miles, standing with vertical basaltic walls 100 or 200 feet above
the plain, capped with scoria, whose surface still speaks of the sluggish nature of the once
molten mass.
The attention of the mineralogical observer is arrested by the similarity of the lodes in this
region as compared with those of other districts, by the general absence of metallic sulphurets, and the carious or porous character so common in the outeroppings of quartz in
most auriferous regions, and not unlike those seen in some portions of Nevada. This character of outeroppings of the quartz lodes in the San Francisco district is common to anlost
outcroppings in the porphyritic or plutonic rocks of other mining districts in Arizona, as in
the districts of E1 Dorado cation and the Wauba Yuma.
Of the contents of the lodes the same wnvriter has the following:
The Moss, Skinner, and in general the larger lodes of the district, are characterized by the
presence of an abundance of white feldspar, forming sometimes the mass of the vein; the
quartz existing then as a subordinate vein in the feldsparie and porphyritic gangue. The
mineral most characteristic of the east and west lodes in the San Francisco district, next to
the quartz and feldspar, which form the great mass of the lodes, is flourspar, a mineral frequently seen elsewhere in the world as an associate in silver-bearing lodes-as, for example,
in Frieburg in Saxony-but which is of rare occurrence in this country in a similar association.
This mineral is found abundantly in the Skinner lode, the Dayton, the Knickerbocker,
and the Quackenbush, and has been observed in the Moss and several others.  It is associated in them with free gold, horn silver sometimes in dodecahedra crystals and iron gossary.
The outcroppings of the Moss lode form a most conspicuous feature in the landscape, seen
standing up in bold crests from a long distance. This lode stretches in a continuous line for
more than a mile, and is claimed for double that distance. It is distant north of Silver creek
about two miles; its course is about west 5~ north, nearly at right angles from the liver,
from which it is distant about five miles. On the surface the outcrop shows a width of
about 50 feet, rising to the height of from 50 to 100 feet above the arroya, sinking at intervals
to the surface; its height above the Colorado river is about 1.500 feet. It has a southerly
dip of 14~ to 20' away from the vertical.  The vein material is composed of whitish compact
feldspar and quartz porphyry, intersected by veins of dense red, often marbled quartz, rich
in free gold.  Included in this vast mass are numerous sets of feldspar, hornstone, and
quartz veins, also masses of gray porphyry, tufaceous and vesicular lava.
The hanging wall of the Moss lode is an ash-gray, feldspathiic porphyry, often intersected
by thread-veins of quartz and hornstone, barren of metallic sulphurets, showing at the sur
face no clay wall, or flucecan, separating it from the vein. The absence of this character of
permanent and well-defined lodes at the surface of the Moss'ledge is in analogy with the
character of many veins in Nevada, which, however,  at a moderate depth acquire this
feature, as the Allen shaft shows to be the fact for the south or hanging wall of the Moss
458 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
lode.  The entire outcrop of this lode has a burnt-up, dried and hardened aspect, but is
proven to be quite superficial by very moderate explorations.
The bullion obtained fiom this vein contains silver enough to give it a pale, yellow color;
the gold appears in beautiful polished scales, the flat surface often embossed with crystalline
lines.  The precious metal is sometimes imbedded in a compact red jaspery quartz, presenting,
when cut and polished, beautiful graphic goldstone.  This rich gold-bearingmass of ferruginous quartz form the outcrop of this gigantic vein only at isolated points. These physical
features bear great resemblance to that portion of the Comstock vein, which is still seen at
Gold Hill, south of Virginia City, where similar rich deposits of low-grade gold were formed
in the quartz outcrop, giving name to the town which has since sprung into such wonderful
activity as the result ot the development of the mines which have opened upon this remarkable silver vein. Assays of samples of the Moss vein show a value varying from $170 to
several thousand dollars per ton of 2,000 pounds.  Of the other lodes in this district, the
Skinner, on the south side of Silver creek, is one of the most conspicuous, and, like the
Moss, show bold outline of outcrop.  This lode shows  drusy quartz, both compact  and
cellular, and ferruginous with numerous cavities, out of which flourspar has been decomposed.  Small traces of sulphide are seen at the surface, which is stained by black oxide of
maganese, making portions of the outcrop quite black.  This vein varies from 50 to 150 feet
in thickness. Its walls are ash-colored, feldspathic porphyry, in places beautifully polished
on the line of dip 70~ north.  The vein appears to be without a lining of clay, but like that
which is so commonly seen in the outcrops of Ne  ada, that it is no proof of the absence of
this important characteristic of a true vein at a moderate depth, assays of ores from this
vein prove the presence of silver to the respective values of $25, $74, and $83 to the ton of
2,000 pounds.  The Parsons, Hurst, and Leland are other  gigantic lodes, south of the
Skinner. The smaller lodes of this district seem to promise quicker returns for a less expenditure of money, such as the Caledonia and Dayton, a few hundred feet south of the Moss
lode, and the Quackenbush and Knickerbocker, some distance south of the Skinner and
Parsons.  These veins are from three to ten feet in thickness, well defined, and showing at
the surIatce all the characters of true metalliferous veins.  Samples from  these outcrops
yielded in a mnill from $40 to $250 per ton.
31Ir. A. E. Davis, of Hardyville, has furnished some notes descriptive of the
31oss, Parsons, and several other lodes in the San FraLncisco district, whichl are
given with a slighlt condensation
Thle s21oss Lode was among thie first discovered in this district, and is perhaps
the best known.   The vein is well defined for a distance of two miles.  The
rock is dark colored and ironl stained, the country rock is porphyry, the hanging
w-all smooth and hard.  Some remarkable specimens of gold ore have been
talken from this lode.  In blasting, in sonme instances, pieces have been torn out
yellow wsith gold, and the face of the lode has shown streaks of the precious
metal.  It is not surprising that the owners have held their claims as high as
$300 per foot.  The gold is of a bright color, and usually found in layers as
thin as paper, Awlichl makes it more showy than abundant; the lode, however,
promises well.  There are several shafts, and recently a tunnel 300 feet in length
has pierced the vein at a depth of 150 feet, where the vein is wide, and considerable gold was found, but fine and scattered.  The tunnel enters the vein at
righlt angles, and after reaching it follows it west for 300 feet, where a shaft
descends-from the surface.  All the rock taken out bears gold, and the vein,
from a width of five feet at the surface, increases at the greatest depth reached.
A 10-stamnp mill was erected at Hardyville a few months since, and about 250
tons of the ore have been worked, but the result is not announced.   The cost
of mining is $5 per ton; of hauling to the mill the same.
7he1 lc arsons Lodec.-This lode runs east and west, and can be traced by neat
wall of croppings for a distance of two and a half miles.  The vein rock is
chiefly a gray quartz, accompanied by flourspar.  The country rock is blue and
birds-eye porphyry.  The lode is from 5 to 12 feet in width.  There are several
claims upon it, those best known being the Southern Cross and Queen of the
Pacific.  Upon the latter a tunnel of 210 feet in length, along the lode, has
been cut.
Crossing, or rather running into, the Parsons lode at nearly right angles is a
lode known as the 3lichigan.  The vein is about three feet thickl, and a few tons
'i
i
459 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of the surface ore worked in an arrastra gave a yield of $70 to tihe ton in gold;
the tailings since worlkecd yielded $80 to the ton in silver.
What is now  known as the Southern Cross, or Hardy mine, is a locationi of
1,800 feet on the Parsons lode and of ],600 feet on the Michigan lode.'lThe Parsons is probably the mother lode of the vicinity.  Beginning at the eastern
terminus of the Hardy location, at a large wash, the lode takes its course west
over an eminence, say 400 feet lhig-ler than at the starting point, and this in a
distance of about 1,000 feet. The lode is favorably situated for tunnelling, and
several tunnels are already well advanced.  A shaft between the two principal
tunnels is now down some 80 feet, followving the vein; it will need to be 200
feet deep in order to reach the depth of the tunnels.  Tihe shaft is five and a
half feet wide, but it does not occupy the whole vein.  One hundred tons of the
ore taken during the past summer from  this shaft and from  other cuts, and
worked in the IMoss mill, gave a return of $18 to the tdn, while the assays of tlhe
pulp from the battery gave about $35 to tile ton.  This experiment is not considered, owing to a want of proper facilities in the mill, an accurate test of
what the ore will produce under proper working.  The owner of the claim, MIr.
Ihardy, is pushing the tunnels and shafts forward, and is confident that hle has a
good mine. He has already expended $40,000 in opening it, and will soon
erect a mill at Iardyville.
The ielaetad Lode, in this district, runs east and west, and is about five feet in
width.  The rock bears gold and silver, the former predominating.   The gold
is fine and evenly diffused through, the rock.  A tunnel 150 feet in length strikes
the lode at the depth of 50 feet, wilere the quartz is as good as at the surface.
The Jilitchell Lodle runs east and west, with a slight dip to the north; has good
-walls, and the vein is from three to six feet in width, of quartz and flourspar.
A vein of quartz of a bluish color, varying in width from one to two and a half
feet, runs the whole traceable length of the lode, and prospects well in gold.
For my own satisfaction (says MAr. Davis) I tookl from this vein  10 pounds of
quartz, a fair sample, and pulverized it in a hand mortar, when, wvashling it in a
pan, it yielded at the rate of $150 per ton in gold.   But little wvorlk has been
performed upon the lode, owving to a want of means and to Indian troubles.
TIHE SAcrAMEXTO IDI)STrICT.-Next to the San Francisco, the Sacramento
is the best known of tihe districts adjacent to Fort Miohiave and Ilardyville.  It
is some 30 miles northeast of the latter plan, and abounds in veins, several
ocf which have been opened.   This district is tolerably well watered, having
three or four small running streams and a number of springs. The water is,
with the exception of two or three springs, of an excellent character. Pine and
cedar timber are abundant, and the whole district is rich in nutritious grasses, and
aal)le lands are near at band.   The mines are chiefly of argentiferous galena,
and show well in gold and silver.  There are also somne copper veins showing
free gold. A correspondent has fiurnishled the following list
,pItt,,ie Lodce.-This lode shows a vein seven feet wide, with walls of slate
and granite.  A shaft has been sunk to thle depth of 150 feet.  The ore shows
both gold and silver.
Silver Hill Loclc, argentiferous galena; a shaft 100 feet deep; vein four feet
wide.
Aleran's Locle, gold and silver; shaft 65 feet deep; vein three feet wide.
32o7thave Chief Loce, gold and silver; shaft 45 feet; vein six feet wide.
Antietai Lodcle, copper; shaft 40 feet; vein three feet wide, two feet of which
is ore yielding from 40 to 80 per cent. There are also rich traces of gold and
silver.
:Blue Bell Locde, gold and silver; shaft 24 feet; vein two feet wide.
Darbj?y Lode, gold and silver shaft 26 feet; vein two feet wide.
Daniel TVebster Locle, gold and silver; two shafts 20 feet each: vein three feet,
wide.
460 
WNVEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Atlanta Lodle, argentiferous galena i shaft 22 feet; vein three feet wide.
Un)iioi Lodle, argentiferous galena; shaft 13 feet; vein eight feet wide, show inlg a mass of mineral.
THE WAUBA YUrA  I)ISTRICT is uponl the road to Prescott, and some 50
miles from the Colorado.
Here (says a writer describing the district) seems to be an entiue change in the geological
formation; the porphyritic and volcanic rocks giving a place to metamorphic schists, gneiss,
and granitic rocks abounding with numerous veins of quartz, and is accompanied by a cor responding change in the character and direction of the mineral veins. Near the western
margin of the Wauba Yuma district occurs a considerable vein of auriferous quartz, accom panied by ores of copper and sulphurets of iron. It is located in a high granitic mountain;
it is called the "Pride of the Pines," and appears to be about 10 feet in width, possessing
promising characteristics common to the auriferous lodes of the Sierra Nevada, and has the
same northwest and southeast direction.  Enormous dikes or roofs of quartz. and of course
quartz ore, feldspathic granite, cut through the reddish gneissoid granite which forms the basement rock over a large partof the Wauba Yuma district.  Upon these gigantic quartz ledges
no exploration has been made, nor is there evidence of much metallic value in them.
There is some timber in this district, chiefly pine, oak, and walnut, and it is
well supplied with water and grass.
The  bridle of the Pi)ies lode has a shaft 36 feet in depth, and shows  a vein
three feet wide, in which there is considerable free gold and some traces of silver.
The Be)i Fra(tikli)i lode has a shaft 22 feet deep, and  shows a vein four feet
wide, with gold and silver.
The El Boiito, 3IcAineny, Florence, OIcClellan, MIounitaizn Lily, Rzubicon,
and TVillia J- 1[. Lent lodtes in this district are well  spoken of, and a company
hlas been formed in New York to develop them.
LE1 Dorado ca7on2, upon the west balnk of the Colorado, some 40 miles north
of Hardyville, is the centre of a silver district, in which a number of lodes hate
been located and several of them worked.   Two mills were erected several years
since.
The Tchatticup lodle is seven feet wide, well defined, and yields good ore.  Four
hundred tons crushed averaged $70 to the ton.
The Qiieeu City, Iindia;i Qttee)i, and other lodes have a good reputation.
This part of Arizona has, by a vote of Congress, been set off to the State
of Nevada, but its inhabitants protest against the change, and the legislature of
Arizona has unanimously memorialized Congress to reconsider its vote.
GEXNErAL REMArKS ON THE COLORADO RLIVEr  COUNTrY.-Althloughll not
well known until long after southern Arizona had been explored, and not yet
fully prospected, the valley of the great Colorado is entitled to some consideration as a miining region.  The temperature is muchl like that of southlerln Arizona,
and the region is about as well wooded and watered.   Thie timber is chiefly
mesquite and iron wood, and found ill the ravines and gulches.  There is, also,
considerable cottonwood along the Colorado and its tributaries, and for mining
use and fuel the drift-wood annually swept down the Colorado furnishes an
acceptable supply.
The agricultural lands of the Colorado region are less extensive than those of
southern Arizona, but where they are found they are mellow and fertile.   The
Yuma, 3Iohave, and Chimnabueva Indians, friendly tribes, cultivate them with
success, anid gardens laid out near La Paz, Arizona City, Ilohave, and Hardyville by the white settlers have produced abundantly. The broad plains lying
between La Paz and Weaver and Wickenburg, only need water to be made productive, and this it is thought can be supplied by artesian wells.
There are various opinions regarding the navigation of the Colorado.   Small
steamers have for some years delivered freight at La Paz and tIardyville,,and
many persons consider the latter place the practical head of navig'ation, but of
late several trips have been made to Callville, and it is asserted that the river is
navigable to that point.  The difficulties and delays are serious obstacles, but it
is thought they may be overcome.   CalIville is some 600 miles from the mouth
I
461 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of the Colorado, and the roads to Salt Lake City, a distance of about 400 miles,
are easy and safe.   It is believed that the river may be improved so as to render
navigation to Callville practicable in a commercial point of  view,  especi lly
whenl boats such as are used upon the upper AIissouri, and upon  the  Tennessee
and Cumberland rivers, are introduced.  In the event of success, trade will be
made  one of large profit, not only securing the transportation of great quantities of silver and copper ores, but of supplies for all of Arizona north of the
Gila, for Utah, and for parts of Montana.   The  merchants of San Francisco,
conceding the importance of the river as a channel of trade, have lately held
several meetings to encourage navigation, and to call general attention to the
practicability of the same.
At a meeting of the merchants of San Francisco held September 27, 1867,
G. W. Gilmore, esq., submitted the following report of observations upon the
Colorado river, chiefly made during the trip of the steamer Esmeralda, Captain
RPogers, in November, 1866:
PORT ISABEL TO FORT YUIMA.-For the whole of this distance the river runs through an
open country, presenting on either side wide stretches of bottom lands, covered with vegetation and abundantly supplied with timber, mostly cottonwood, willow and mesquite. The
Indians who live along the river cultivate the land to some extent, producing good crops of
Indian corn, squashes, melons, beans. tomatoes, and other vegetables. Occasionally a little
barley and wheat are planted, which always appear to yield well.
About 60 miles above Port Isabel, tule lands commence, extending along the river on either
side for a distance of 20 or 25 miles, and back from the river to a great width-on the west
shore said to be in places 20 or 30 miles in width.  These tule lands are dry enough for cul.
tivation, and hold out promise of great fertility. Above the tules the land is again higher,
like that below, covered with vegetation and trees, and more or less cultivated by the Indians
up to Fort Yuma.
For the whole of these 175 miles the river has a very crooked and winding course, averaging in width probably half. a mile; and this average width, it may be here remarked, it
retains for the entire distance up to Callville, varied from time to time by bars and bends,
or by its passage through mountain canlons and rocky obstructions.
The tide ebbs and flows for 30 or 35 miles above Port Isabel in ordinary stages of the river,
and for this distance on the flood tide salt water is found.
At the rise of water the river will perhaps, on the average between Fort Yuma and the
mouth, be five to six feet above low water level-the rise lessening towards Port Isabel.
The channel, sometimes on one shore, sometimes on the other, has a width varying from
one-eighth to one-third of a mile, and a depth of from four and a half to eight feet.  The
only obstructions of note in the entire distance to Fort Yuma are two sand-bars, which at
times have not over two feet of water upon them, and are frequently, in low stages of water,
consequently troublesome.  It often happens that these bars are washed away and changed
suddenly by the current. In one instance, during a single night, a bar with but two feet of
water upon it disappeared, and 10 feet of water were found next day in its place.
FORT YUMA TO LA PAZ.-The river continues very crooked, having about the same average width and depth of channel.  There are perhaps three bars which may be called bad il
low water, though these are frequently cut away by the current so as to have plenty of water
upon them.
At high stages of water great changes take place in the   channel.  The banks are of lightcolored adobe soil; they were in some places during last season's unusually high water cut
away for a mile directly into the land, changing the course of the river to that extent, but
leaving a new channel quite equal to the old. This cutting occurs at bends of the river in
the bottom lands, which, as below Fort Yuma, are covered with vegetation and timber; the
trees of the varieties already named are suitable for fuel, and are of very rapid growth. It
is found that upon new lands formed by the cuttings of the river cottonwood, willow, and
mesquite trees will be produced in three years large enough to cut for fuel.
Fertile bottom lands extend with little interruption along the banks of the river from Fort
Yuma to the Barriers-the first rapids onthe river, situated about half-way to La Paz. Here
a range of broken mountains approaches the river on either side, and its channel passes
between high rocks, which contract it and give it a current more rapid and difficult to make
head against than any other rapid on the river excepting the Roaring rapids. At the Barriers there are two channels. The one used at low water is about 100 feet wide at that stage,
the current flowing through smooth, deep, and very rapid. The rapids are short, probably
500 yards, more or less. The other channel, used when the river is up, is wider and easier.
After passing the Barriers, the mesa, an elevated gravelly plateau, generally barren, nearly
up to the river in many places, breaking the bottom lands, and forming the banks for spaces
sometimes of half a mile, at others of two or three miles along its course. Occasionally the mesa
will form one shore of the river for a mile or two, while on the other will be a fine open hot
462 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
tom. This mesa, where it strikes the river, is usually 20 to 30 feet above the water, It is
never overflowed, and during the mosquito season the Indians live upon it to avoid those
insects, which are exceedingly troublesome upon the lower lands.  All the way from Fort
Yuma to La Paz the mesa can be seen from the river in the distance, bordering the bottom
lands, though at times it seems to be 15 or 20 miles distant. The bottom lands prevail
throughout the distance of 175 miles, probably covering two-thirds of the way.  They are
similar to those below Fort Yuma, as before mentioned, and are to sonime extent inhabited
and cultivated bv the Indians, whose villages are occasionally seen along the river shore.
Trees are quite abundant for most of the distance, and plenty of fuel to be had. Fuel cut
by the Indians is not very good, as they usually take only dead trees or driftwood, instead
of cutting live trees and piling the wood to dry. Driftwood upon the lower river is mostly
of the lighter woods that grow there; while upon the upper waters it is of wood having good
substance for fuel.
Above the Barriers is the well-known rancho of William Rhodes, extending 16 miles along
the east bank of the river. The land is cultivated to a small extent, and sustains large numbers of cattle which thrive remarkably well.
LA PAZ TO MOIIAVE CANON.-The character of the river is a little changed in these 100
miles.  It has a width of from one-eighth to one-third of a mile, and a depth ranging from
four and a half to eight feet, with occasional bars having, say, 30 inches of water upon
them. It is much less crooked than below. There is generally a good wide channel with
a pretty rapid current, and occasionally a short bend which, at high water, will cause a
powerfitl eddy, a little dangerous for a steamboat of insufficient power. There is, however,
no broken water, and no dangerous rocks are to be found.
The valley described in the last section extends, with little change of character, up to
Mohave cation. About 30 miles above La Paz the Chimahueva mountains approach to
within a couple of miles of the shores of the river, with a fine open country lying about
their base. In these mountains are copper mines which promise to become very productive
whenever work upon them, now suspended, shall be resumed. After passing Williams Fork,
situated about 80 miles above La Paz, there is a distance of 1IS or 20 miles to Mohave cation,
through which the river passes, cutting its way for eight or nine miles through a high range
of mountains; flowing partly between immense precipices of rock, rising nearly perpendicular from its sides, and partly between masses of broken rocks and mountains. The chan.
nel, however, is of good width and depth, free from dangerous rocks, and with deep water
close up to the rocky shores, against which a steamboat's guards will touch while the hull is
in clear water, free from projecting points of rock.  This feature is constantly to be observed
upon the Colorado in places where it passes between shores of rock, and is a most favorable
circumstance for steamboat navigation.
MOIJAVE CANON TO HARDYVILLE.-Above the canion the valley again presents itself,
differing little in character until reaching Fort Mohave, about 30 miles above. For this distance the bottom lands prevail, bordered in the distance by the mesa, which occasionally
comes up and skirts the river for short distances and then again recedes, leaving long, wide
stretches of low lands covered with vegetation, and producing the same timhber as that found
lower down the river.  Upon the east side of the river a few Mohave Indians are scattered;
on the west, a small number of the Chimahueva tribe. There is a great deal of fine farming
land lying between the cation and the fort, some of which is already occupied by Americans.
Here was located the Philadelphia rancho, occupying several miles along the east side of the
river.  Of this rancho a large part has been washed away and lost by the cutting out of the
river during the past two seasons.
After passing Fort Mohave the shores change. Low mesas, producing a little vegetation,
form the banks upon both sides of the river, except when occasionally broken by small bottolms of good land, some of them occupied by a few Indians. Scarcely any timber is seen
upon the river from the fort up to Cottonwood island.  What little formerly grew upon this
part of the river has been mostly cut off.
For the 60 miles from Mohave cation to Hardyville there is nothing serious to impede
navigation.  The river is much straighter than in the lower parts, and has no sharp bends
and no bad bars. In some places a strong current is encountered, but there is nothing to
stop a steamboat. The average width of the river continues about half a mile. The channel in width and depth is about the same as that described in the lower part of the river.
HARDYVILLE TO COTTONWOOD ISLAND.-The shores continue of low mesas on each
side. There is very little timber to be seen. Here and there is a small opening of arable
land, breaking the line of the mesa. A few Indians of the Mohave and Chimahueva tribes
are found upon the banks. The country generally presents a poor and barren aspect, but
in a few places upon the small bottoms farms might be cultivated. A trifling amount of
firewood can yet be had upon this portion of the river.
For this distance the river may be said to be quite straight. Its bends are long and easy,
and it offers every facility for navigation. The few bars found have sufficient water upon
them even at low stages. Some places are to be passed where there is a quick current, but
there is no obstruction to navigation until the head of Cottonwood island is reached. At
this place there is a sand-bar upon which the depth of water frequently changes, and which
is said might sometimes in low water prove troublesome.  When the Esmeralda crossed it
I
463 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
there were five feet of water upon it, and that at a low stage of the river.  The river con tinues about half a mile in average width, and the channel about the same in depth and
width as in the lower river-ranging say from four and one-half to eight feet deep in most
planes.
Cottonwood island, about 10 miles long by an average of about three miles wide, is a fine,
level island, fertile and covered with grass, and having considerable timber. Claims are
said to have been located upon the land, but it is yet unoccupied. On the main land on
both sides of the river opposite Cottonwood island are fine bottom lands, with good grass.
A large quantity of driftwood of superior kind for fuel, composed mainly of pitch-pine and
cedar, every year lodges at the head and along the sides of the island-sufficient, perhaps,
alone, if taken care of, to furnish the fuel for years to steamboats passing on the Callville
route. An immense quantity of this wood was upon the island, estimated at several thou sand cords. The entire head of the island seemed to be formed of trunks of trees and sand
washed in between them. The driftwood consists of trees, much broken up, of various
sizes, not usually exceeding 14 inches in diameter.
COTTONWOOD ISLAND TO CALLVILLE.-In these 60 miles are found the following points
of interest:
Round island, four miles above Cottonwood island.
E1 Dorado callon, five or six miles above Round island........................   10 miles.
The cave, five miles from E1 Dorado ca-non................................ 15
Roaring rapids, two or three miles above the cave........................... 18 
[Explorers' rock is six miles above Roaring rapids.]
Black canion, 20 miles above Roaring rapids................................... 38
Callville, 20 or 22 miles above Black catnon................................  60   "
From Cottonwood island to Round island, (four miles,) there is nothing serious to impede
navigation.  The channel is good, though occasionally some "strong water" is met with.
At the point where E1 Dorado cation empties into the Colorado, (five miles above Round
island,) mountains and high broken lands commence, and continue to border the river until
the Black cation is passed, a distance of probably 28 or 30 miles.
Fromn Round island to E1 Dorado cafion, (five or six miles,) the channel continues good,
and without obstruction, except occasional " swift places" of no great moment.
After passing E1 Dorado ca-non, and until Roaring rapids are reached, (a distance of about
eight miles,) the channel continues good, with smooth water, but a quicker current.  Nc
impediment is found here that could be at all serious in any stage of the water until arrival
at the famous Roaring rapids.
These rapids are caused by bars, composed of rock, gravel, and boulders, which make out
obliquely from each side of the river toward the centre. The current striking these bars is
deflected with a strong swell or roll from each bank towards the middle of the channel.  These
swells cause the water to break where they meet, and the water has then a straight rapid
shoot down the contracted channel in the middle of the river. With the lead no bottom could
be found in the rapids. The water appeared very deep, probably as much as 30 feet. The
rapid water may be altogether 500 yards in extent, but of this the great obstruction is found
in only 200 to 300 feet; there the straight rapid shoot above described is located. In these
200 to 300 feet the descent of the water is plainly perceptible to the eye. By the use of a
water-level it was found to fall in the neighborhood of four feet in the distance named. There
is a rock here standing about five feet out of water, which is probably covered when the river
is high, but is easily avoided, and in fact it would be difficult to run upon it, as the swell and
the course of the current would set a boat away from it.
To pass the 200 to 300 feet of rapid broken water described, the Esmeralda placed a ringbolt in the rocks above, (the only ring-bolt used on the trip,) and ran a line 800 feet in length
to it. This line was taken to the steam capstan on the single purchase, and the steamboat
was run up the 800 feet to the ring-bolt in seven minutes easily, and without apparent strain.
For perhaps three-fourths of the 800 feet the steamboat slowly backed her wheel to keep her
head right.
After running the Esmeralda up, the line was taken to the loaded barge, which was hauled
up in about 30 minutes, using the three-fold purchase upon the capstan. At this time the
river was at a low stage, probably nearly as low as it usually gets.
From Roaring rapids to Black cation, (about 20 miles,) there are a number of rapids. Of
these only three are of any consequence, and in them the water scarcely breaks at all.  At
the rapids the shores were always rocky, but there was ample width in the channel to clear all
rocks, which were generally above water. Explorers' rock, situated in this portion of the
river, is near mid-channel, and is seldom or never seen above water. Its position, however,
is well known, and there is little danger from it, as there is about 100 feet of clear channelway on either side of it, arid the river runs with a still slow current.
Black canlon, from its entrance to its termination, is from 8 to 10 miles in length. In the
caflon the river has an average width of perhaps 200 feet. It is here a still deep stream,
flowing smoothly, but not very rapidly, between bold rocks, which, for a large part of the
way, rise in precipitous walls to an immense height above the water.  The channel is free
from rocks from shore to shore. and has no sudden or short turns.  The.Esmeralda towed
464 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ihe barge through the canion, not running a line more than once or twice. and that only to
save fuel.
Leaving Black canion, the country again becomes open, with occasional bottom lands and
grass on either side, up to Vegas Wash, six or eight miles distant.   The river resumes its
average width of about half a mile; it runs with smooth water, but a strong current, to male
head against which the Esmeralda constantly run lines. The lines were, however, only used
to economize fuel. which must have been freely used to propel the boat against the quick
current. Only the single capstan was used. No bars or rapids were found between Blac,
cation and Vegas Wash. The channel was in width and depth about equal to that of the
lower river. A small tribe of Indians live along the banks of the river.
From Vegas Wash to Callville, (12 to 15 miles,) the Colorado has a smooth slack current,
and plenty of water. The country along the river is mostly mesa and sand, but with considerable land that seemed fit for cultivation. A few Indians are living upon this section.
There is scarcely any timber growing from Black cation to Callville, (what was seen was willow and mesquite,) but a little drift-wood lodges along the banks for the whole distance.
Besides what the Esmeralda used, she left about enough of this drift-wood for one more
tiip up.
Nothing was seen of the Colorado above Callville. Information obtained showed that a steamboat might possibly be taken up, with difficulty, to a point 30 miles higher, but that there,
owing to the crooks in the river, she would be but eight miles distant in a straight line by land
from Callville. Mr. Smith, the Mormon agent, stated that three men, at different times, and
each ignorant of the other's proceedings, had been sent by B3righam Young from Salt Lake,
to examine the river and adjacent country; and that each had separately reported that Callville must be the head of navigation.
THE CAVE.-Two or three miles below Roaring rapids, and in sight of them, the river at
a bend strikes the face of a steep rocky mountain.   The action of the water has here scooped
or hollowed out a very remarkable cave, about 70 feet in width at its entrance, extending
directly into the rock for about 200 feet, and having a height of perhaps 50 or 60 feet.  The
current setting into and out of this cave carries in and deposits sufficient drift-wood to keep
it full to extreme high-water mark. When the Esmeralda stopped here for wood itwas found
piled in to the height of 20 feet above the then stage of water, filling the cave to about that
height for nearly the whole extent. It is supposed that if the cave were cleared out every
year, it would be filled afresh by the season's drift.  If this be so, it will be readily understood how valuable the cave may become to a steamboat line to Callville. There are high
grounds near by upon swhich the wood, when taken out, could be safely piled.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE RIVER, &c.-The average current of the Colorado at
ordinary low stages, where no contraction or special obstruction exists, may  be about three
and a half miles per hour.  At hagh water it is of course more rapid.  Against such a current
the Esmeralda, when under way, towing a loaded barge, would make about 40 miles per day
from point to point, running only during daylight. When regular navigation is established
boats will undoubtedly run day and night, except that when reaching any difficult place at
night it may be necessary to wait for daylight, to pass. At least this wvill be the case for the
greater part of the passage to Callville, say from Port Isabel to Ei Dorado cation, distance
about 350 miles. Whenever steamboats get to running frequently and regularly, the constant stirring of the sand upon the bars will, it is believed, keep them washing away, so that
a good depth of water may always be found upon them.  A steamboat for the Callville trade
should have an 18-inch cylinder, draw not over 20 inches, and be not over 140 feet in length,
with a large stern wheel.  A boat like this would go from Point Isabel to Callville, with a
barge in tow carrying 200 tons of goods, ia 14 days, running only by daylight, at almost any
stage of the river.  When boats of this description are placed upon the river, the trips will be
made with the same regularity and certainty as on the rivers of California. Up to this time
there has never been a suitable boat on the Colorado. All are deficient in power and size,
and some draw too much water. The Indians living along the whole length of the river are
friendly and peaceable.
Rough estimate of distances.
Port Isabel to Fort Yuma. —--------------------------------------------- 175 miles.
Fort Yuma to La Paz, 175 miles.................................. —--------------------------------—.... 350
La Paz to Williams Fork, 80 miles................................-.. —..... ---------------------------------- 430
Williams Forkl to Moohave cation, 18 miles................................. -------------------------------- 450
Mohave cation to Hardyville, 60 miles.................................... 510
Hardyville to Cottonwood island, 30 miles................... —---------------------------—. 540
Cottonwood island to Callville, 60 miles................................... --------------------------------- 600 "
OTHER STATEMENTS.-At the same public meeting, R. G. Sneath, esq., of San Francisco,
said he believed that freight could be put down at Callville for four cents per pound, and
h.bat a chance was now offered to supply 125,000 to 130,000 people with the necessaries of
life, and they ought to take advantage of it. In answer to question put by the chairman, he
;aid that he believed that it would take from 30 to 60 days to run a cargo through to Call7ille.  It would have to be transhipped at the mouth of the river, and it might be well to,
/tansfer it again to a powerful boat below the rapids.
30
465 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Captain Rogers said, as far as his knowledge went. there was no particular trouble in navi
gating the river. There was a scarcity of wood for 50 miles below Callville, but the Mormons told him that there was a mountain at the back of that place where there wvas plenty
of wood, which could be obtained at reasonable rates, say about $7 per cord. Wood could be
procured the whole length of the river for from $3 to $4 per cord, and by cutting it themselves, for us.  He thought that when proper arrangements were perfected the trip could be
made inside of 15 days.  The expense of running a steamer was less there than here; it did
not cost nearly so much on the Colorado as on the Sacramento river. Labor and wood were
cheaper there. They pay $50 per month to men on the Sacramento, and on the Colorado
only $25; they pay $6 per cord for wood on the former river, and only $3 onil the latter.
Captain Rogers, in answer to questions, said that the currents were stronger and not so
regular, on the Colorado, than on the Sacramento, but there was deeper water on the former.
There were no sand-bars to speak of above Fort Mohave, and the river was not practically
more difficult to navigate than the waters of the upper Missouri. He had no doubt in the
world that it would prove the best paying institution on the coast; it would certainly pay
better than the Sacramento river.*
SECTION IV.
CENTRAL ARIZONA.
It was not until 1862 and 1863 that an attempt was made thoroughly to
explore Central Arizona.   Whipple and Beale had crossed by  the 35th parallel;
Aubry and Leroux had seen something of the Salt and Verde rivers, the chief
northern tributaries of the Gila; but no one had attempted more than a hurried
passage through the country, although  all believed it to be rich in the precious
ores.   Late in 1862, or early in 1863, Powel or Pauline  Weaver, a noted  mountain man, who had crossed Arizona by the Gila as early as 1832, was attracted
by the placers at La Paz to look  for others  in the  interior of  the country, and
started with a party of men for exploration. He found what have since been
known as the Weaver diggings, near Antelope Hill and the town of Weaver,
some sixty miles south of the present town of Prescott. About the same time
Joseph Walker, another well-known and veteran pioneer, arrived at Pima Villages with a party of gold hunters, and determined to go north to see what the
unexplored country, from which the Indians had often brought fabulous reports,
really contained il the way of precious metals. This party discovered and
ascended the Hassyampa, one of the main streams of Central Arizona, which
has its rise about tenl miles southeast of the town of Prescott, and runs nearly
south until it sinks in the desert some  twelve miles below  the  town of  Wickenburg. Part of the Walker party went to the Weaver diggings, where on the
top of Antelope Hill, in a most remarkable  position, Mr. Snelling  discovered a
Although the description given of the Colorado river in the above report is substantially correct so far as
relates to its general features, the difficulties of its navigation are considerably underrated. It should be
borne in mind that these representations are made by parties interested in getting up a.scheme to secure the
Ijtah trade.  So far from the depth of water being greater on the Colorado than on the Sacramento, my own
experience from Fort Mojave to Fort Yuma, and all the testimony I have been enabled to gather on the subject, furnish direct proof to the contrary. The depth at the ordinary low stage on the Colorado is not more
than two and a half feet on the bars. In January, 1865, the Cocopahli, under command of Captain Robinson,
one of the most experienced pilots on the river, was nearly two months making the trip from Fort Yuma to
Fort ]Mojave, and the draught of this boat was not over 24 inches.  She was compelled to transfer all her freight
to barges after passing La Paz. On the return trip from Fort Mojave to Fort Yuma, without any freight
whatever, she took nine days to make a distance of less than 300 miles down stream. The great difficulty
arises from the constant shifting of the channels, caused by the caving of banks, deposits of sand in new
places, and consequent changes in the direction of the current.  It is a peculiarity of the river that any
improvement made in the way of dams, wings, or weirs must, from its very nature, be of temporary benefit.
The natural laws which govern this stream are constantly in operation. New caves in the alluvial banks
throw the current out of the existing channels; and even where this cannot occur, there are always new
deposits of sand made at their lower extremity, thus creating new obstacles. The Roaring Rapids form an
almost insuperable barrier to navigation beyond that point, but it would be less difficult to make a permanent
improvement there, where the banks are rocky, than in the long stretches of the river below, where the banks
are coluposed of sand. It certainly requires something more than the unsupported statement of an interested
party, however reliable, to justify the assertion that the Colorado is superior to the Sacramento as a navigable
stream, or that it can ever compete with the latter river in the extent or value of its trade. There is neither
,he populationi nor the natural facilities to justify such a conclusion. Small steamers may possibly be constructed to navigate the Colorado to greater advantage than those now in use, but I am clearly of opinion that
,to extensivevtrade wiU euer be carried on with Salt Lake City by the way of Callville.-J. R. B.
466 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
large quantity of gold, much of it in pieces of unusual size.  One nugget weigh.
ing a half pound was taken out.  Much of the mineral was dug out with com
mon jack-knives, and one man is said to have taken out $4,000 in a single day.
It is the common impression that if water could be had at the top of the moun
tain much of the soil would pay very richly.  A large amount of work has been
done, and a great deal of money taken out along the creek at the foot of the
mountain, where the mining town of Weaver is located.
The Walker party gradually ascended to Hassyampa, finding gold at nearly
every point, and in the winter of 1863 and 1864 taking possession of the Lynx
or Walker Creek diggings, (ten miles east of Prescott,) from which it is estimated that little, if any, less than a half million of dollars have been taken.
They also gathered much gold on Big Bug creek, four miles east of Lynx creek.
As the placers were pretty well worked the miners began to look for quartz
veins, and found no lack of them. All along the Hassyampa, upon the Agua
Frio, a parallel stream of considerable size, upon Lynx creek, Big Bug, Turkey
creek, and indeed upon nearly all the streams of Central Arizona lodes of gold,
silver, and copper were found. In the excitement a great many were named
and recorded which have no value.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRESCOTT REGION OF COUNTRY.*-There are three
elevated ranges of mountains preserving an approximate parallelism and trending in general north and south.  Between them are wide mieridianal depressions,
occupied by grass plains.
The eastern range is called the a'onto Plateau, and is composed of horizontal
strata of lime and sandstone, resting upon the surface of a broken granite system. The surface or summnit of the chain is quite evenly level, a plateau of fifteen miles wide and over a hundred long covered with pines. West of this and
separated from it by the Tonto or Prescott plains, lies the Sierra Prieta; a continuous elevated ridge of about 60 nmiles in length.
Westward again is the Skull mountain chain, a less important formation.
These will be described separately.
The broad valleys between the two first ranges open northward and connect
with the great Val de China, which lies beyond, bounded on the northeast by
escarped mural edge of the great Plateau or Colorado Mesa, and on the west by
the mass of the Aztec mountains. This extended valley or plain system is all
connected, and the entire drainage empties around the northern end of the Tonto
mountains into the west branch of the Rio Verde.
The valley lying west of the Sierra Prieta drains the Williams fork.
THE TONTO PLATEAU.-This singular table range is unlike most chains in
Arizona. It is, in fact, a part of the grand Mesa; its summit being on the exact
level of the plateau, and only separated from it on the east by the deeply crowded
canion of the Rio Verde.  This stream has cut down a valley of about 3,000 feet
deep, and thus isolated the Tonto range, leaving it as an outlying strip of
plateau, having the aspect from the country on either side of a true range. The
excavation of vast valleys on its western side have left a high escarpment of its
strata on that flank.
Along its base, where the erosim has cut deepest, granite cones of the underlying system are laid bare; curiously varying the general aspect.
The exact limit of this table in its southern extension is not yet known, but
like the Sierra Prieta it must finally sink under the low plains of the Rio Salado
and Gila.
Its summit is about 8,000 feet high, rising at the northern end to nearly 9,000
above sea level.  Forests of pinus Fremontiana and pinus 1)onderosa  grow in
considerable extent over its more elevated portions, and a most luxuriant growth
* Report of Clarence King, esq., of the State geological survey of California, to Colonel
R. S. Williamson on the geological features of Northern Arizona.
467
i
I
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of bunch and gramma grasses is everywhere found. Water is rare except in the
two rainy seasons.
THE SIERRA PRIETA.-By referring to the map, tile geographical position
and extent of this important claim will be easily seen. I shall confine myself
to a few notes on its structure, and the distribution of waters and timber.
From our elevated position upon one of its culminating peaks, we could look
down the line of the range and overlook a large portion of the wide-spread foothill system. In this description I shall use all the notes afterwards made from
other points of view, both from the valley of Kirkland creek and the summits of
the Aztec chain.
GRANITE MOUINTAIN, THE NORTHERN TERMINIJUS OF SIERRA PPRIETA.-AII
immense pile of granite rears out of the plains and low foot-hills which stretch
eastward and south from the Aztec mountains. To the eastward it presents a verv
rugged front, deep scored by ravines and ribbed by cragged, precipitous spurs. It
is an elongated mass, ending northward in barren rock cones of 700 or 800 feet in
height, and on the south extending into the summit ridge of the chain. Within
a radius of four or five miles of the base the whole distance is occupied by low
ridge-like masses of granite, which are covered with immense detached boulders
poised one upon another in strange positions. Among these are many egg-shaped
masses weighing 80 to 100 tons, balanced on the small end.
GENERAL STRUCTURE OF THE RANGE.-The granitic ridge terminating in
the peak just mentioned extends southward for about 65 miles, maintaining an
average elevation of nearly 8,000 feet, rising in three conspicuous places to about
9,000 feet each. These are Granite mountain, the northern terminus, Mount
Union, about the middle of the range, and Bradshliaw's mountain, its southern end.
Its average extention latterally is 25 miles. The topography is comparatively
simple, consisting of the central ridge, which is usually straight, and from which,
at right angles on either side, project long rocky spurs descending at easy grades
to the plains on both sides.
Tabular masses of nearly horizontal, sedimentary rocks rest unconformably on
the spurs in the Big Bug district, south of Prescott, varying the rolling character
of the surface.  These isolated fragments of mesas are, without doubt, relics of
the same beds which form the Tonto and Colorado plateau, and which have been
accidentally left in the great period of erosim, wvhen the main mass of overlying
rock was worn away and carried off from the granitic flanks of the Sierra.
Accompanying the granite is a system of highly inclined (and even vertical)
rocks, which strike with the range, skirting its eastern base, and forming the
material of the lower foot-hills. Southward of Prescott this series of rocks widen,
and finally occupy more than half of the eastern slope.
They are of great importance geologically, as being the chief auriferous rock
of the region, and enclosing, parallel with their stratification, the main quartz
lodes of the Prescott and Big Bug districts.  Metamorphic slates, mica sheets
and quartzites are the principal rockls, but there is interbedded a fine seam of
micaceous oxyd of iron, a hematite of apparently great pulitv.  This zone seems
to be about 15 feet thick, and I have traced its indications for about 17 miles.
West of Mint valley it is conspicuous in a sharp purple outcrop, which may be
followed north and south for several miles, dipping about 85~ to the east.
The detrital matter, sand, gravel and clay, which has been brought down from
the slopes of the chain and deposited by former torrents in valleys among the
lowest foot-hills, and even out upon the plains, has, in crossing the auriferous
zone, become mixed with its peculiar rocks, and contains the gold resulting from
their disintegration and decomposition. These gravel deposits and stream sands,
although never (so far as known) so rich as the placer washings of California,
are yet sufficiently charged with the precious dust to pay for washing, especially
where water enough for extended operations is present. It is curious to observe
468 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
along the placer grounds of this region numerous obscure traces of the former
inhabitants.
Circular mounds of stones occupy many of the little knolls and heights along
the streams, and everywhere they exist numberless fragments of earthenware
and glazed pottery are thickly strewn over the surface. That these ruins are of
considerable age is proved by large cedar trees whose roots penetrate and embrace
the confused rock piles, and which, by examination of the rings of growth, are
found to be, in some cases, not less than 200 years old. It is firmly believed
by many placer miners that the gold ground has formerly been washed over.
This idea is based on the disturbed position of the boulders and gravel in the
earth, and a frequent absence of that regular bedded structure which materials
deposited by water generally have, and which the digging over and washing by
miners must obliterate. It will not be long before this must be established or
disproven, for it is impossible to suppose that no implements would be lost (and
embedded in the gravel) by these ancient miners. It will be an interesting piece
of history if the proof is finally found, that the former inhabitants, whose origin
and life and disappearance is so wrapped in mystery, were, like the present settlers,
in quest of gold. Of the metalic contents of the Sierra Prieta little is yet known.
Gold is known to exist in considerable amount, how richly and how widely distributed time only can tell; rich surface specimens and the exaggerated ideas
of prospectors are, of course, no more than an indication, not even amounting to
a probability.  That the rocks are remarkably rich in large quartz veins is true,
but their characteristics are utterly unknown, and the rich surface distribution
may not be continuous in depth.
Iron I have before mentioned as existing in a bed of hematite, but unfortunately the want of coal forbids the extraction of this most precious metal.  It is
quite possible, however, that the plateau strata lying east of the Rio Verde, and
which are yet wholly unexplored, may be found to yield coal.  Silver is present
in certain galena veins in workable percentage.  I examined, chemically, at General MIason's laboratory, one specimen which contained over $400 to the ton.  The
copper indications are frequent, but as yet no deposit has been sufficiently prospected to throw light on its occurrence. The soil of the mountain valleys along
the chain is often rich in elements of fertility, but from the great elevation and
great nocturnal radiation in the clear summer months, it is found that few crops
can bear the rigorous climate, frosts occurring in every month of the year.
TYBrER OF' Ti:lE SIERRA PrIETA.-Everywhere above 5,000 feet the range is
heavily wooded with coniferous trees, chiefly the I)inus 1)o(lcrosa, which ranges
from the elevation mentioned quite to the summit. It has about the same habit of
growth as on the flanks of the Sierra Nevada, but averages considerably less in
height; its average is hardly over 150 feet. The timber of this species is decidedly
better than in California, where, from the long-continued dry season, or some
other powerful climatic cause, the wood is so brittle that a tree in falling will
often break in five or six sections.
All along the more elevated parts of the range are scattered groves of a fir,
(abies D)ouglassii,) and the pifion, (pinuts edulis,) also a slender balsam fir, (probably picca grandis.)  The timber of all these is very good for all the ordinary
architectural purposes.
A poplar, (p). fre))aloides,) a tree having a very white bark and ragged, wide
branching habit, is found on the upper waters of all the streams, even about
springs at the summit. Its timber is too soft for most uses.
Another of the poplar family (I cottonwood) skirts the stream banks and beds
in their levels, and continues downward into the extreme foot-hills to the sinking
grounds.
Near the lower limits of the yellow pine timber are live oaks of two species,
generally too small to be of value, and a large wide-spreading juniper, (j. pachyptilvea.) These last are dotted over the foot-hills in open groves, and together
469
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
with a walnut, which generally keeps the immediate vicinity of streams, stray
quite out into the plains.  For 50 miles in length, by from 16 to 20 broad, the
range is well timbered with the above species, and is decidedly the most favored
region in this respect within a great distance. Very many years of settlement
and enterprise would be required to make a serious inroad on this valuable woodland, and unless the mines should prove extraordinarily rich it will always supply
a large demand.
WA'TER  SYSTEM OF SIERRA PRIETA.-Climatic causes, which everywhere
govern the distribution of waters, are somewhat peculiar in their action in this
region. We have not yet sufficient knowledge of the atmospheric changes to
thoroughly understand the deportment of streams.
In general, during the winter months, there is an immense precipitation of
vapor over the whole plateau, which is deposited in the form of snow in heavy
banks upon all the mountain chains and more elevated rolls of mesa. This
period is not one of continuous cold, but is frequently broken by a few days, or
even weeks, of mild weather, when the power of the sun rapidly melts great
quantities of snow, and all the brooks of the Sierra Prieta are brimfull. The
clear nights during winter produce an intense cold, the thermometer, even at Prescott, several times indicating as low as 11~, Fahrenheit; the melting of snow is
suspended and much of the surface water frozen up, so that in the morning the
stream is very low, while by 3 o'clock p. m. of the same day it is a torrent.
The period of winter is followed by a warm spring, when the air, instead of
showing a difference of only 3~ or 5~ between wet and dry bulbs, indicates 28~
and 30~ of difference.
The mountain snows are rapidly melted, and by MIay are nearly disappeared;
then the streams gradually fall, the volume of water becomes less and less.
Finally they shrink back into the mountains, having an intermittent flow, chiefly
hidden underneath the rivers of sand which fill their beds. Constant and rapid
evaporation, caused by the thirsty condition of the heated air, renders the remain.
ing waters alkaline.  This season of droughts and shrunken streams gives way in
July and August to a second wet season, one of copious summer showers. The
conditions and geographical extent of this rain-fall are not known.
Vast masses of cloud are almost daily condensed over the crest line of the
Sierra Prieta, and toward the middle of the afternoon drift eastward. Similar
storms gather along the Aztec mountains and around the isolated volcanic cones
of the upper mesa. This discharge of rain is represented to be very rapid and
great, and as accompanied by a brilliant display of lightning.
The course of these storms seems to be, according to general testimony, from
the Sierra Prieta eastward, and from San Francisco mountains southward and
eastward, over the Mlegollon mesa. This phenomenon, of almost daily occurrence
during July, August, and early September, at the very season when over the
greater part of Arizona plants are dying of thirst, has a powerfiil influence on
vegetation, redeeming the land within its range from the condition of a desert.
The influence of this season on the streams is not so great as would be expected,
from which I am inclined to think that the discharge is chiefly over plains, where
its irrigating effect is seen in a fine crop of grass.
Water for steam purposes in the mining region is plenty, if used economically,
throughout the whole Sierra Prieta, but all placer works, except single rockers,
must be suspended during about half the year.
GRASS PLAINS N,EAR PRESCOTT.-The streams which rise among the volcanic
group on the Colorado mesa join those from the Aztec range, and have excavated
out of the mesa formations broad valleys, whose general elevation is from 5,000
feet to 5,600 feet above the sea. Of these the largest is known as the Val de
China. Williamson's valley, lying north of the Sierra Prieta, is also connected
as an arm to the Val de China, and in the same drainage system are the connected plains between the Tonto and Prieta ranges. Taken together they form
470 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
an area of not less than 500,000 acres; add to this about 300,000 acres of thinly
wooded foot-hills surrounding tihe plains, and, like them, well supplied with grass,
and we have a region of grass land of nearly a million acres.
In the coldest winters snow, although on rare occasions quite covering this
area, never lies more than a few days.
At present, owing to the Apaches, stock-raising is not possible, but if the mines
should half come up to the wealthy yield wlhiclh is confidently predicted by the
mine speculators, both civil and military, this vast stock range will be a ntmost
valuable accessory to the mining settlements.
The grasses are all of the kinds known as bunci grasses, never forming turf.
How these would last if eaten down yearly and cropped closely, it is impossible
to say.
Water is not abundant over these plains, but the immense amount of drainage
which flowvs beneath their surface and unite to form the west fork of the Verde,
could doubtless be reached by wells not far below the surface.
We remained aloft on the Granite mountain two days, February 21 and 22,
studyiang, carefully all the topographical features within the range of view.  The
night was comifortless, with a wind that cut through our limited supply of
blankets, but the mild temperature we found on regaining our camp in the
valley soon thawed us out.  On the morning of the 24th we started for Skull
valley.  Our road curved around the northern base of Granite mountain, through
a succession of low spurs and intermediate valleys, the former covered with scrub
oaks and chapparal plants, and the latter with a scattered carpeting of dry grass
and the dead stems of herbaceous plants. Continuing on the curve till our
direction was southward, we entered the upper end of a long belt of level grass
land lying under the western flank of the Sierra Prieta, and called Skull valley
front the number of crania the Apaches have thrown there.
The following day (the 25th) was devoted to a fruitless search after a lost
member of our party.  The 26th (Sunday) was likewise spent in trailing the
mnissing man, and by nightfall we determined that he must have gon'e to Skull
Valley settlement.  Four of us rodle down there at midnight and found that
Brinley was safe and had started back to look for our camp.
A little after sunrise next morning we met the wanderer and took him back
to camp.   Ionlday MIr. Gardner and I, with one soldier, climbed a bold granite
cone north of our camp, from the summit of which we had a fine topographical
view.
Near us, and bordering the Skull mountains, lay a rolling belt of foot-hills,
chapparal-covered and roughened by outcrops of granite.
SKULL VALLEY.-This level valley is approximately 20 miles long, with
bottom land of varying width, from one-fourth to a mile, and winds between the
foot-hills of the Sierra Prieta on the one side and a range of granite and sedi mentary rocks on the other. It is intersected about midway by a cross ridge of
granite, which has acted as a retaining wall to the accumulating detritus washing
down from the mountain sides above it, damming it back and elevating the
northern portion of the valley about 150 feet higher than the other. The mate rial of the northern section is mostly of disintegrated granite, and the vegetation
of a poor character, except two species of live oak, which flourish finely and
seem always to like a granitic soil. South of the granite ridge there is a decided
improvement in the soil, ow ing to the presence of metamorphic (mal pais) rocks
lying west of the bottom.
Here are the farmingil settlements, founded on a deep black mould of great fer tility; with a climate never very cold nor ever intensely hot, they mnay hope to
accomplish considerable agricultural development. The waters ok this valley
flow southward through a gap in the metamorphic hills, and empty into Kirk land creek, a tributary of the Santa Maria.
In the granite hills which project from the western range into the head of
471
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Skull valley, is a living spring that contains sufficient water for a large camp,
even in dry seasons; good bunch grass under the live oaks and scattered among
thie chapparal on all the hills, and a plenty of fire-wood, make this an attractive
camp.
The chain of granitic hills lying west of Skull valley are at their southern end
depressed, and finally buried beneath sedimentary beds. These are physically
of little importance, except as being the divide or water shed between Kirkland
creek and the Santa MIaria.  From the granite cone spoken of above we obtained
our first near view of the great and interesting basin.of the Santa Maria.
It seemed to us at first like a confused labyrinth of rock ridges piled up one
above the other without system or order, but a firther study from several other
points, overlooking it more completely, and several tramps into its depths, gave
us a good knowledge of its structure. Before describing this singular place, I
will anticipate our work a little, and give the results we arrived at in the road
reconnoissance up to the Skull valley settlements.
A road from Prescott, either to the settlement at Wickenburg, to La Paz, or
to the mouth of Bill Williams Fork, must either follow the present road to Mlint
valley and around the northern base of Granite mountain, and down to Skull
valley, making a long horseshoe curve, and returniing in a distance of 38 miles
to within 16 of the starting point, or cross the high range directly. We explored
two passes over the mountains, one directly west of Prescott, which, from the
great accumulation of winter snow, would be quite impassable d-uring five months,
and another -called the Indian pass, which ofiers great facility for the construction of a road.  The Apaches rarely fail to decide wisely on all matters of trail;
a well-beaten path through the pass attests their sagacity.  This depression
can hardly be over 1,000 feet above Prescott, and fiom its open, exposed nature
it can hardly have more snow than the valley at Fort Whipple.  Approached
from the Prescott side, thie pass is reached by a gentle ascent through rolling
wooded country, and without anv of the difficulties of ordinary mountain roads.
A good covering of soil and generally even surface leaves little to be done beside
occasionally digging out stumps or picking away a, few stones.  The descent
into Skull valley, although not so gentle as on the eastern slope, still presents
no obstacles, either of grade or rocky surface, which cannot be overcome by a
small expendiure. A road through here would be always passable, and would
reach the Skull valley settlements in about 17 miles, saving 18 or 19 miles, and
reaching the valley in one day less than by the present road.
Having reached Skull valley, a road from Prescott to Bill Williams Fork must
either follow the present line to Date creek, or else cross the Skull mountains
b)elowv Tonto spring and keep the high mesas of the Santa Maria.  This latter
is the shortest way, and we explored it to determine its practicability.
February 28 we crossed the divide about a quarter of a mile from camp No.
4, and descended gradually among rolling chapparal-covered hills, following the
dry tributary of the Santa Maria.  After marching about four miles we found
ourselves on the brink of a deep impassable can,ion, withl rugged vertical walls of
black cellular rocks.  In tlhe bottom were chaotic piles of angular debris, forbidding a passage down the caiion, even had we found a place to descend.  To
go around the head of the cation would only lead into a maze of deeper ones.
Our only way was to kleep the high mesa and work westward parallel to the
canon, crossing the lateral gorges which were made by its tributary streams.
Into one of these we were forced to descend to a depth of fully 1,000 feet, and
at an angle so great as to forbid the approach of a wagon road, except by zigzag
to and fro at great expense. Having regained the opposite summit of the mesa,
we continued southwest, following an old Indian trail skirting the borders of
the canon. The surface of this plateau is thickly strewn with llocks and fragments of all sizes of a dark brown cellular rock, half buried in the earth; their
sharp edges cut our mules' hoofs, and rendered footing exceedingly insecure
472 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
The soil formed by the decomposition of  this mal pais rock forms, when
thoroughly soaked in the wvet season, a remarkably tenacious miry clay, which
alone, even if there were no difficult canions, would at times make a road quite
impassable.
The mules struggled on over this rough table-land, and about the middle of
the afternoon brought us to a singular depression, where we found water and
camped.
A granite cone rose out of the inal Dais, and all around its base the strata have
been worln away, leaving a round basin, in the middle of which is the cone of
1,500 or 1,800 feet height.  Here is permanent water in tanks, and a good camp
ground; grass, in great quantities and of: excellent kinds, abounds all over the
neighboring hills and mesas, and wood enough for all camp purposes may be
collected from the shrubby cedars. Mr. Gardner climbed the cone on the following
day, while I explored the cations and tables for a road line.
From this camp we made a number of pedestrian excursions, getting at last a
complete knowledge of the surrounding topography. - The difficulties which lie
in the way of a road are all of them of a nature that can be overcome, but only
with a very great expenditure. Compared with the very small gain in distance
over the Date Creek road, it is much more than compensated by the accidental
character of the ground.
In moving our camp we descended into a canion which winds through a labyrinth of confused piles of granite, the trail doubling and twining to avoid impassable crags, and finally emerging on the edge of a mesa, from which a steep
declivity of about a thousand feet leads to the rolling country bordering the
valley of Kirkland creek.
Thomipson's valley is a circular expansion of the main Kirkland valley, and
is of topographical interest, as its present water system is divided by a low, fiat
spur, a half draining down one side of a high granitic ridge and half down the
other, uniting about four miles below, and flowing as one stream into the Santa
M3aria.
We followed the dry canion of the northern branch, keeping the narrow, sandy
bed as it wound back and forth between the interlocking spurs which jutted from
high granitic ridges on either side.  Tatll, monumental plants of the Cerius
Giga)iticits stood erect among the debris an(i rock 1-uins; their shafts of flutted
green, leafless, and trimmed with thlorns, heighten the savage aspect of the defile.
The pass opens, after four miles of winding, into an open valley lying along
the Santa Miaria.  This level area of about 2,000 acres of sandy soil is bordered
on the west by granitic mountains, throiugh which the river in its westward
course has cut a deep gateway.  Upon the east is a high boundary wall, form(e
of the escarped edge of the mesa. Here we camped for about 10 days.
After exploring in all directions as far as we could on foot, Mr. Gardner, MIr.
Bfinley, and myself, with three soldiers, made a little trip northwestward, climbing
two high steps of the mesa system, and reaching, after two hard days' tramp, a
culmninating point of the Aztec range.  This we climbed and spent two days on
its summit.
Our first day was half in clouds, half in sunshine.  Bitter snow-stormns, which
almost hourly swept over, accompanied by thunder, completely shut out all view.
These alternate periods of cloud shadows and sudden bursts of dazzling sunlight were of wonderful picturesqueness, but they rendered our work very -unsatisfactory.  The second day, however, was of that peculiar clearness which so
often succeeds a storm in mountain countries.  The  immediately surrounding
region, fronm the Mojave road, at Fort Rock springs, down to Da te creelk
excluding the remarkable basin of the Santa Maria, was in plain sight and in
position to be easilv studied out.  The great plateau is not brdken oil here in
one high bluff, as in the Val de China and Yampai valley, but descends in long
slopes and broken steps, which are everywhere cut by remarkably broken, abrupt
473
I
4 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
cations.  The Santa Maria basin was itself excavated by aquaceous action from
one of these steps, and then in a subsequent period of much greater erosive
action was deeply gashed down  by narrow, converging canons, with tabular
ri(dges, mere tongues of land, left between them, so that the former surface of the
basin is now  2,000 and 3,000 feet above the present stream beds, and only
remains in the form of mesa peninsulas. Amnong these, here and there rise bold
granite peaks, of generally angular outline and rugged surface, suggesting the
architecture of mighty pyramids from the solid strata which have long overwhelmed and hidden them. A more difficult region to travel over cannot be
imagined nor one which presents less inducement for settlements.
Tihe mesa plains are indeed well clothed with grass, but they are hard to
reach and far from any tillable land; besides, the dry climate and scarcity of
water must always keep them in their present desolate condition.
The great streams have long ago shrunken away. The torrents which excavated
these remarkable canons are generally now a mere river of sand, only flowing
during the rapid melting of snows on the neighboring hills, or rarely in summer,
when a dense storm-cloud bursts over the gulf walls and pours down its deluge.
There is evidence that even now these occasional floods sometimes occur.
With their exception the streams are mere brooklets, saturated with bitter alkaline salts, and for the greater part of their course trickling and filtering along
the bed rock under a covering of hot sand.
The water-loving cottonwoods, by deeply rooting themselves on the margin
of these river beds, where they can drink up the subterranean moisture, manage
to live, their fresh, vivid green contrasting strongly with the red-brown rocks
and dusky olive vegetation of artemesia and larre.
From our station we could trace each cafion, and here and there a widening
of the walls would open to view the lower depths, where a line of rich green
willows and cottonwoods fringed the sandy stream bed.
Northwvard and northwest the long level table lines are broken by Cygnus
and Gemini, two lofty snow-clad mountains, the former an irregular pile, capped
by a rough-hewn dome, the latter a symmetrical cone of black volcanic material.
Between them and encircling their bases is a slope of mesa, furrowed by canions,
which deepen as they continue westward till they break through among the
mesa steps and granitic hills of the aquareous range, uniting under its western
base to form the main caion of Bill Williams Fork.
This canon drains the whole of a long meridianal valley, excavated out of horizontal strata of rock between the two parallel ranges, thie Hualapais and Aquarius.
The whole view is one of desolation, relieved, it is true, here and there by
vegetation-cedars on the higher mesas, grasses and chapparal plants dotted
over the rough hill slopes-yet the solid rock foundation constantly outcrops in
sombre red and black masses, shattered into collosal fragments and cut down
by a labyrintll of canions. It produces a picture of savage nature, quite in
keeping with the fiendlike Apaches who make their dens in its fastnesses.
Beyond, to the southwest, lies stretched a low desert plain, sloping in almost
imperceptible graduation toward the two rivers Colorado and Gila. Detached
mountain groups rise here and there, scored down by deep dry gorges.  Everyvwhere a great volume of sand and gravel descends from their mouths, giving
evidence of a former torrent.
The vegetation is sparse, and only of desert-loving shrubs, whose ill-favored
leaves, together with the cactus thorns, seem typical of the whole region.
Lyx CKEEK.-Writing from Prescott in 1866, IMr. Ehrenberg used  the following language:
We may safely say there is a continuous range of gold.bearing rock from near Wickenberg to IO miles north of Prescott, and from the Lower Hassyampa to the Agua Frio, which
474 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
would embrace an area of at least 1,000 square miles. The containing rock is nearly the
same in this entire section. It does not follow that other sections east and southeast are not
metalliferous, nor does it augur for the non-existence of other metals here; on the contrary,
lead and copper ores abound, and silver has been found to some extent; but gold predominates, at least as far as known at present.
The first lode upon which machinery was erected was the Accidental, upon
Lynx creek, a gold vein yielding some showy and beautifiul specimens of free
gold-specimens which attracted great attention in San Francisco.   The ore
crushed by the small mill and prior and subsequently by arrastras averaged about
$100 per ton. The vein is smnall, varying from 12 to 20 inches in width.
Near the head of Lynx creek, which has been worked for placers throughout
its length, say 12 miles, is a hill crowded with quartz lodes. This is known as
Eureka Hill, and Mlr. Ehrenberg, writing (in 1866) of the lodes in it says:
I find them to be of the same decomposed character as those on the hill below the Big Bug
mine, only showing sulphurets in abundance, which those in Big Bug do not as yet. I cannot come to any conclusion as to their real character. More and judicious work is required
to do this. There are a great many veins here of this character-more, indeed, than I like
to see; still, if this class of veins and ores will pay," by all I can see and what I can hear I
can only come to the conclusion that these mountains contain an extent of productive quartz
not equalled in any part of the United States.
THE EUrEKA LODE is the most prominent in the hill. It is a large vein, and
near the surface showed free gold, which, wvorked in arrastras, yielded $60  per
ton, but at the bottom of a shaft of 80 feet in depth sulphurets predominate, and
it is the belief that the same will be found in most if not all of the Lynx creek
lodes.
THE DEAD WOOD, THE TITIE, THE MO[UNT VERNON, THE POINTER, THE
BOSTON, THE PINE MOUNTAIN, and other lodes, the ore from which has been
workled in alTastras, has returned from $20 to $80 per ton. Sixty tons of the
Dead Wood ore, worked by arrastras, yielded $27 50 per ton in gold.
At the head of Lynx creek the Senator lode is a large silver vein, which has
worked $60 to the ton in that metal.
THE MOJUNTAINEER, BRANDON, LYOXN, Box ELDERn, MONITOR, and other
veins showv gold, and have been developed to a sufficient extent to indicate value.
The quartz on the surface is decomposed, and the gold often visible.  At a depth,
as a rule, the ore abounds in sulphurets. Arrastras have been erected, and are now
testing the ore from some of these veins.  The headwaters of the HIassyampa
are near those of Lynx creek, and the quartz lode upon the HIassyampa are generally held in good esteem.
THE CHrASE LODE is a gold vein prospecting well, and believed to be valuable.
THE BENEDICT SiLVER LODE has a shaft upon it nearly a hundred feet deep.
Good silver has been taken from the MIcDougal.
STERLING MINE.-This mine, five miles nearly south from Prescott, and near
to the Hassyampa, is somewhat noted. Two five-stamp mills have been erected
upon it. The ore is of gold sulphurets, and presents the appearance of bronze.
It was found impossible to workl it profitably by any ordinary process, and the
mills have been idle much of the time. Lately a San Francisco gentleman tried
a process upon the ore which promises to be a success, and it is believed the mine
will prove valuable.  The vein is as yet irregular and uncertain; but comparatively little shafting or tunnelling has been done.
THE MONTGOMERY, OFTEX, AND GUADALOUPE MINES, further down the hassyampa, have been worked to some extent, and yielded some free gold. They are
difficult of access at present, but roads might be made to thenm without great expense.
THE LEIHY COPPER VEINS, between Prescott and Skliull valley, show that
Central Arizona, no less than Southern Arizona and the Colorado river country,
is rich in copper, but it is not likely that attention will be given to working this
ore at present. There are some fifty veins in close proximity in the property
I
475 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
named, and in other parts of Central Arizona numerous copper lodes have been
located.  The ores are oxides and sulphurets.
BIG BUG.-East from Lynx creek some four miles, and from Prescott some 15
miles, is the Big Bug creek, and a well-known mining district bearing that name.
Every hill in this rough region is mineral bearing.  The placers worked upon
the creek for many miles paid well, and continue to pay good wages.
Mr. Ehrenberg spent some days, in the spring and summer of 1866, in an
examination of this district, and thus described it in a letter written in May to the
Alta Californian, of San Francisco:
The veins, in part of the district at least, are large, distinct, and well defined; in the other
parts this is not the case, and I have not yet come to any conclusion as to what they are, as
no work whatever has been done on them, and the containing rock is so decomposed and
stained with oxide of iron in certain parallel zones and masses that it is even doubtfulwhether
they are veins at all; they have some regularity, nevertheless; and, should this iron stain
be caused by the decomposition of pyrites (or suiphates) of iron, then there is hope of numerous extensive and lasting veins, as most all the croppings show gold. It is, however, possible that this rusty stain is caused by the decomnposiiion of the hornblende in the sicnite, (or
diorite,) which is the rock in which all these veins occur. In this case, not much is to be
hoped from this second series of veins. I expect, however, that a few of these also will prove
good and permanent.
First, the Galena lode, belonging to the first series. It is a fissure, and fine-looking, large
vein, prospecting and opening well.  Eight men are at work here in two shafts, from whgih
about 70 tons of ore have been taken up to date, (shafts about 15 feet deep only.) The
Galena is situated on the mountains about two miles north of the mill.
Second, the Big Bug, situated about one-half a mile from the mill, also on the mountains,
and on the boundary separating the two classes of veins. Some beautiful ores of a singular
character are taken from this mine, which make me almost believe that much of this iron
stain is occasioned by the decomposition of the hornblende rock, and not by iron pyritesat least not always.  The shaft is some fifty feet deep, but has considerable water in it, which
prevented my examining it below at present.  They are extracting ore from two small levels
some three feet down. The lower wall is very firm, but the upper consists of a crumbling,
heterogenous mass of the same material and segregated masses of crystallized hornblende.
The fissure in which the ore occurs varies in width from two to four feet, and the ores lie in
the same in nests of various sizes, showing by their relative position, however, the probability
that at one time they have formed a continuous sheet.
The condition of the hanging wall, and the whole combination or character of the gangue
or vein mass make me think very favorably of this vein. The vein mass consists, first, of
the ores referred to, segregated masses of recrystallized hornblende, decomposed country rock,
with large and small tifragments, at times, of the latter, and quartz enveloped and blended with
the former in a very peculiar mixture. It is my opinion that considerable friction has been
excited at some time on the walls, by which the upper has been shattered and broken, and
that in course of time the whole mass has been reconsolidated, and the intervals refilled by
recrystallization of hornblende, iron pyrites, &c. Even the ore is of this character, gold
generally occurring in the vicinity of brown crystals of iron in the admixture of hornblende
and felspar, and in a deposit of carbonate and even sulphate of copper in small quantities.
The vein can be traced for a mile in a straight line, showing principally those flush walls of
hornblende, with ore in some places. As the shaft was sunk in a ravine it is questionable
whether the whole vein has been so much shattered, or whether this was confined to the ravines
solely.
Third, the Eougenia, not worked now, and water in the drift, which was commenced toc
low or too near the creek. This is a vein, consisting of iron pyrites occurring in a gangue
of calcareous spar, (or talc,) with some quartz. Near the surface the iron is oxydized, and
the gold can be extracted in the common way. The iron pyrites will require concentration
and roasting. I can say nothing of this vein now, further than that it seemed to be of enormous size, and that it is, or can be, worked with great facility, being only one-half mile from
the mill, and on nearly the same level. Only the surface ores will be available now, of which
there are a great abundance. If these will pay but $15 per ton the mill can be kept running.
At this writing about 1,000 tons of the Galena ore are in sight.   Five hundred
tons have been worked by the quartz mill erected for the purpose, and although
the machinery is incomplete the yield has averaged $25 to the ton in free gold.
Thllere are several shafts and tunnels on the lode. The cost of shafting has been
froni $8 to $40 per foot.   Ordinary  wages  $75 per  month  and board.   Wood
costs delivered $5 per ton.   The  Big Bug mine is of a similar character; 60
tons averaged $30 per ton. The ore from both these mines contains from 10
to 20 per cent. of sulphurets. The Eugenia is at places 10 feet in width.
476 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Several tons worked in arrastras gave $25 per ton; some as high as $40.  At
such a return as this the Eugenia, from its location near the mine and its size.
mrust, if continuously rich, pay well.
The TICONDEROGA, the CIAPPARPEL. and( the DIVIDEXD MJINES, in the Big
]3ug district, have a fair reputation.  Thirty tons of the Chapparel ore worked
at the Big Bug mill gave $22 per ton in free gold. Sixty tons firom the Dividend gave $20 per ton.  A mill has been erected upon the Ticonderoga, a lode
reputed to be valuabie, but little work has yet been done.
TURKEY CREEK, 30 miles southeast from Prescott, is more noted for its silver
than for its gold mines.  A mill has been erected to work the ore of the Bully
Bueno lode, but owing to financial embarrassment it has not yet been put ir;
operation.  Shafts and tunnels shlow the lode to good ad(vantage.  The ore is
of a curious character, that upen the surface being gold in hornblende.  The
Yalioo mine in this vicinity promises well.  The Goodwini is a silver lode, showing some choice ore.  Specimens taken to California in 1865 were highly praised.
A ton or two worked yielded $300.  The Gross gold lode in this district has
yielded some specimens of free gold of rare beauty.  The Capital silver lode
resembles the Goodwin, and the RIichmnond is of the same class.
THE BRPADSHAW DISTRICT is upon the upper Aqua Frio, at what is known
as Black Cafion, a distance of from 50 to 60 miles southeast from Prescott.
Here the MIexicans for several seasons worked the placers withl considerable success, and in 1864 numerous quartz claims  were taken up.  Some of the ore
reduced in airastras gave a return of $100 to the ton. The Great Eastern, the
White Swan, the Uno, Forks, and other lodes present good surface indications.
A company has been formed in Philadelphia for working them.  The Nepal and
Ballenciana lodes have been worked by alrtastras, and some showy specimens
have been extracted.
Near Given mountain, at the south side of the Bradshaw mountain, (from
vlwhich the foregoing district is iamed,) some silver lodes have been located, l)ut
not yet worked.  Trhe ]Iammoth has an average width of /5 feet, and has been
traced for two and one-half miles.
PIXE FLAT, at the west end of the Bradshaw mountain, has several gold
lodes.  The Clinton and Mlinnehaha have been opened to the depth of perhaps
30 feet, and the district is accounted promising.
WALNUT GROVE, one of the best farming districts in central Arizona, is upon
the Hassyampa, 30 miles south of Prescott, and 15 miles west of the mining
districts just referred to.  In its vicinity are some good lodes.  The most noted
are the Big Rebel, a lode of considerable size, and the Josephine, ore from
which, worked by arrastras, has paid $200 to the ton.
At the Placeritas, between Walnut grove and People's ranch, about the time
of the Weaver gold excitement, some gold was extracted, and the diggings are
still worked by Mlexicans.
VULTUPRE MINE.-A German, named Henrv Wickenburg, withli several companions, while prospecting upon the HIassyampa late in 1S863, discovered a
butte or small isolated mountain of quartz, at a point some 60 miles north of the
Gila, and near the Hassyampa. After examining it closely they found traces
of gold but attached no great value to the ore, and all but Mr. WAViclkenlberg were
reluctant to go to even the slight trouble of posting notices claiming the lode,
if such it could be called. It was, however, taken up, and is now the best
kniown and most profitable mining property in central Arizona, if not inll the entire
Territory.  Upon the discovery claim is a chimney 500 feet long and 400 feet
wide, which rises 100 feet above the surface of the surrounding country.  So far
as tested nearly all the rock of this chimney contains gold.'The vein proper
is 39 feet wide, and continues the same at the depth of 100 feet from the surface,
or say 200 feet from the top of the chimney, the depth to which shafts have been
sunk.  The vein runs northwest and southeast.  The hanging wall is of per
I
I
477 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
phyry rock; the foot wall of talcose slate. The vein has a pitch of 45~ to the
northwest. The main lode is all of quartz, and there are various strata on each
side, varying from one to six feet in width.
A 20-stamp mill has been erected upon the liassyampa, \vithin a mile of the
town of Wicklenburg, where the ore was first worked in arrastras by Mlr. Wickenburg and others.  This is for working the ore from the discovery claim of the
Vulture, which is now the property of a New York company.  Mr. Cusenbary,
the superintendent, has kindly fiurnished the following report of the amount of
ore worked by this mill to September 1, 1867:
From November 1, 1866, to September 1, 1S67, the mill crushed 4,834 tons,
which produced $145,633, an average of about $30 per ton.
The gold has thus far been found free, and occasionally some showy specimens
are obtained. The absence of water near the lode now renders it necessary to
work the ore at Wickenburg, a distance of 14 miles.  Thus the cost of transportation alone is $10 per ton. Wood is not abundant in any part of central
Arizona south of Prescott.  At Wickenburg it costs delivered about $8 per
cord.
THE VULTUPrE is, however, considered rich enough to pay with these drawbacks, and arrangements are now making for the working of other claims, and
it is thought that all will pay, although some have heretofore considered the
chimney or discovery claim the only desirable part of the lode. Two thousand
feet are claimed upon the Vulture vein, and several other lodes of a similar
character, although much smaller in size, have been taken up in the vicinity.
GENERAL REMAIRKS ON CENTRAL ARIzONA.-Central Arizona is an elevated
country. The town of Prescott, the present capital of the Territory, is at an
altitude of some 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. At this height the winter temperature is of course severe, but at other seasons the climate is perhaps
thle most agreeable in Arizona. Above Weaver the country is well wooded and
watered. The valleys are for the most part small and disconnected, but the soil
is rich, and at most points, although there are early frosts, fine crops are produced.
It is estimated that 2,000 tons of corn will be produced this season within a
circle of 50 miles of Prescott.  Vegetables of nearly every kind grow luxuriantly.  At a reasonable outlay good roads may be made through the most formidable mountain ranges, and the country offers many facilities for mining.   The
want of success to this time is not to be attributed to any deficiency in the mines,
but to the Indian troubles and the refractory character of the ores of most of
the lodes thus far opened. The mills erected having been intended only for the
working of free gold have not been suited to sulphurets and rebellious ores.
When proper machinery is provided the lodes of central Arizona, or a number
of them, will probably repay development. It is estimated that ordinary ores
may now be worked at a cost not exceeding $7 per ton.  Only American labor
is to be had, which is more costly than most of that employed in southern Arizona
and upon the Colorado, but at the same time more effective.
REMAErKS ON TiHE TEERITOPY.-IrIn southern Arizona and upon the Colorado,
excepting at the highest points, work is usually suspended in the summer months.
In central Arizona this is not necessary, as the sun is seldom oppressiv'e. The
thermometer has been known to stand at 110~ on the Colorado, when it rose
to but 65~ in and about Prescott.  The nights in the mountains throughout the
Territory are cool at all seasons.  Snow falls in central Arizona, but excepting
in the higher mountains it usually remains but a few hours. Of the four winters
since the vwhlites occupied the country, but one has been severe.
Arizona is far richer in agricultural lands than is generally supposed.   To
those who have traversed the desert regions only, it would be an absurdity
478 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
to talk of fine farms and gardens, but with those who have seen the products of
the fertile valleys, no argument is necessary to prove their value. Indeed, it
may be boldly asserted that no one of the mineral-bearing Territories of the
])acific is richer in mineral lands than Arizona, while its climate is acknowledged
by all who have tested it to be unsurpassed upon the western continent. The
pastoral resources of the Territory deserve mention. Grasses of every nutritious
variety abound, and cattle and sheep may, whenever the hostile Indians are overcome, be raised with comparatively no outlay. Southern Arizona is especially
rich in grazing lands, and were its mines to prove worthless, which is hardly
possible, it must eventually become important as a pastoral country, and support
a large population, furnishing cattle not for the Territory, but for California and
New MIexico.
Below Prescott and upon the Colorado adobe is used for building, and is perhaps better suited to the climate than any other material. At Prescott and in
the surrounding mining districts timber is used, and lately brick of an excellent
character have been made in Prescott.
The pine of central Arizona grows to a medium size, and much of it is resinous.
The oak and black walnut do not obtain a great size. Pine lumber cut by a
steam mill in Prescott is furnished at $30, $60, and $100 per 1,000, according
to the quality. The mesquite and cottonwood of southern Arizona and the Colorado
furnish good rafters for the adobe structures, and the mesquite is famed as a
superb firewood. About Tucson and Tubac, and many of the mining districts,
it is abundant.
The Territory offers two natural and inviting routes for continental railroads.
That by the 32d parallel, over which the Butterfield or southern overland stage
sewrvice was so satisfactorily performed prior to the rebellion, is too well known
to require comment. That by the 35th parallel, explored by Beal and Whipple,
is scarcely less practicable, and is for much of the distance well supplied with
timber and coal, and through a promising agricultural and mining region. Both
these routes possess advantages over those farther north, and it is the judgment
of those who have passed over them with care and observation that they must
both soon be traversed by the iron horse.
Upon the adoption of the code of the Territory, (1864,) a chapter was incorporated providing for "the registry and government of mines and mineral deposits,"
and it at first met general favor, both in and out of the Territory, but practice
proved it to be cumbersome and annoying, and in 1866 it was repealed, and a
simple act passed, leaving the regulation of the size of the claims, the amount
of work to be performed, and all details connected with the taking up and holding of claims, to the district organizations. But few, however, of the districts
enforce rules, and it is not likely that much attention will be given the matter
until the congressional mining law is enforced here.  The land officers who are
to see to its execution have, it is reported, been appointed, and will soon open
their offices.  The congressional act, so far as understood, is much liked, and
considered liberal even by the large class who have always opposed any legislation by Congress regarding the mineral lands.
A simple segregation act, of which the following is a copy, was adopted by the
last legislature:
AN ACT to provide for the segregation of mining claims.
Be it enacted by the legislative assembly of the Territory of Arizona, That whenever any one
or more joint owners or tenants in common of gold, silver, copper, or mineral-bearing ledges
or claims may desire to work or develop such ledge or claim, and any other owner or owners
thereof shall fail or refuse to join in said work, after due notice of at least 30 days, given by
publication in one newspaper, printed in the county in which said ledges or claims are
located, and if none be printed in said county, then in any newspaper printed in the Territory,
said notice to have publication in four successive weeks of said paper, said other owner or
owners may, upon application to the district court of the district wherein the ledge or claim
479 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
is situated, cause the interests cf said parties so refusing to be set off or segregated as hereinafter set forth.
SEC. 2. The owner or owners of any mineral-bearing ledge or claim, after the expiration
of said 30 days' notice having been given, may, if the party or parties notified fail or refilse
to join in the working or developing said ledge or claim, apply to the district court of the
district wherein the ledge or claim may be situated, for a partition or segregation of the inte
rest or interests of the party or parties so failing or refusing to join.
SEc. 3. The party or parties so applying shall set forth the fact that the said parties have
been duly notified in accordance with section one of this act, and that said party or parties have
failed or refused to join in said work, all of which shall be sustained by the oath or affirmation
of one or more of the parties applying; and upon such application being made the clerk of
said court shall post a notice at the office of the county recorder, and in two other conspicuous
places within the district, stating the application, and notifying the parties interested, that
unless they appear within 60 days, and show good cause why the prayer of the petitioner
should not be granted, that the same will be granted if good cause can be shown.
SEC. 4. At the expiration of said 60 days, if the party or parties notified do not appear and
show good cause why the prayer of the petitioner should not be granted, the court shall
appoint two commissioners to go upon the ground and segregate the claims of the parties so
refusing to join; and in case they do not agree, they to choose a third party; and said commissioners shall make a report in writing to said court, who shall issue a decree in conformnity with said report, which shall be final, except appeal be taken to the Supreme Court
within 30 days after issuance thereof.
SEc. 5. The provisions of this act shall not apply to the county of Yavapai.
SEc. 6. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby
repealed.
SEc. 7. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
The present report indicates the discovery and location of lodes in all parts
of the Territory rather than their development.  The reader may wonder why
lodes offering such rich surface indications, and so generally promising, have not
been extensively worked.  In explanation, the comparative inaccessibility of the
Territory, being off the grand overland lines of travel, and without seaports,
must be first offered. Next the fiendish Apache, the most difficult Indian upon
the continent to overcome, and next the limited extent of the placer diggings,
or the lack of water for their working.  It will be remembered that it was the
:.acers that brought the large population to California, Idaho, and M3ontana.
I-ad those countries been without such inducements, their growth would probably
have been as slow as that of Arizona.
After some years residence here the writer is more than ever confirmed in
the belief that while there is much to contend with in Arizona, there is much to
contend for, and that despite all the drawbacks and discouragements the Tel-ritory will yet command a large and prosperous population, and abundantly repay
the government for the outlay required to reserve it from the savage.
Besides the minerals already referred to, there are indications of the existence
of many others in different parts of the Territory. Iron in carbonates and oxides
is abundant. Traces of nickel have been found near the Big Bug creek. Platinum (metallic) is shown in the placers of the Black canon or Bradshaw district,
on the Agua Frio. Traces of tin exist at several points. The geologist of Lieutenant Parks's United States exploring expedition reports the discovery of large
beds of gypsum upon the San Pedro.  A lode of cinnabar was located several
years since 10 miles southeast of La Paz, and named the Eugenia; copper, silver,
and quicksilver are found together in a rare combination, but the lode is not large.
PRich cinnabar float has been found upon the Mlohave and Prescott road, about 50
miles from the Colorado.  Lime of a superior quality exists in large quantities
near Prescott and Tucson, and is found at other points.  It is now extensively
used in building.  Lime coral exists in the Adelphi mine, Mineral hill, Williams
Fork. It is found in immediate connection with the richest carbonates and oxides
of copper.  The Salt mountains near Callville, and a few miles east of the Colorado, are among the most remarkable formations in Arizona. The deposits of
pure, transparent, and beautifully crystallized salt are very extensive, and no salt
is superior for table or general use. In the vicinity traces of coal have been dis
480 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
covered, and parties engaged in exploration are quite confident that large quantities will be found. There is a report of the discovery of coal upon the San
Pedro.
The  folly of intrusting mining operations to inexperienced  and  imprudenlt men has been well illustrated in Arizona.  In the southern country and
upon the Colorado hundreds of thousands of dollars have been thrown away in
foolish and extravagant expenditures. In one instance, after the outlay of
$1,000,000, the company abandoned work without enough having been done to
ascertain whether there was or was not a true vein.  In miany cases the whole
capital of the owners has been frittered away in unnecessary buildings, improper
machinery, and large remuneration to unworthy agents, men who, next to the
Apaclie, have by tilheir recklessness obstructed the progress of the country, and
prejudiced capitalists against further investment in it.
rlThlus far it may be truthfully asserted that there have been more failures in
superintendents than in mines in Arizona; indeed it is a common remark that
no lode properly opened and economically and systematically worked has failed
to pay. This is true in the main.
In southern Arizona, and upon the Colorado river bottoms, irrigation is necessary.  In central Arizona the seasons are defined, and at many points good crops
have been raised without irrigation,the rains fuirnishing sufficienlt mnoisture.  These
occur mainly in the months of July and August, but there are frequent showers
in April and May, as well as in the winter months.
The friendly Indians, Pimas, Aaricopas, and Papagoes, below the Gila, raise
large quantities of excellent wheat, and the whites engaged in farming upon the
Gila, the Santa Cruz, the San Pedro, and the Sonoita, raise corn, barley and
wheat.  Some six flouring mills are now in operation in the Territory.
31
481 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
UTAH TERRITORY.
SECTION I.
GENERAL FEATURES.
The boundaries of this Territory have been changed a number of times until
its form approaches a rectangle.  Its length from north to south is about 345
miles, and its breadth about 320 miles, with an area of about 110,000 square miles.
Its population is variously estimated at from 80,000 to 100,000, and is rapidly
increasing.
The Wasatch range of mountains divides the Territory diagonally northeast
and soutlhwest into two parts, the northwestern being much larger than that lying
to the southward.  The Wasatch range is high and rugged.  Its lofty summits,
covered with perpetual snow, probably have an altitude of 11,000 or 12,000 feet
above the level of the sea.  In a broad and elevated range surrounded by
countries rich in gold and silver we should expect to find those metals. But so
far as is known no range of mountains on the western coast has been found rich
in precious metals that has a trend to the northeast and southwest, and it may
be considered problematical whether anv mines of those metals will be found of
great richness in the Wasatch mountains.  On the western side of the Territory
are a number of small ranges, on the Goshoat and a number of others, that contain mines of gold and silver.
The largest river is the Colorado, one of the longest in the United States.
Of its capabilities for navigation comparatively little is known, though so far as
explored the reports are unfavorable. Its principal branches are the Green,
Grand, San Juan, and Virgin rivers.  These drain the southeastern portion of
the Territory.  On the north, Goose and Holmes's creeks run into Snake river,
but all the interior streams empty into lakles that have no outlet to the sea.
Bear river and the Jordan empty into Salt lake, besides many large creeks and
numerous smaller ones.
Salt lake is about 120 miles long, north and south, and 40 miles wide, and
contains several islands of considerable size, some of which are partially covered
with timber. A steamer is now being built for the purpose of shipping the timber from these islands, for the use of Salt Lake City.
The lake is subject to sudden storms, and boat navigation is sometimes dangerous. Until the present time, no serious effort has been made to test its capabilities for navigation, but there is no doubt that the trade on this lake will, at some
future period, be of considerable magnitude.  The water is extremely salt.  An
analvsis shows that it contains over 22 per cent. of solid matter, an indication
that it has had no outlet to the sea for a great length of time, and that compared
witli other regions the fall of rain in this part of the country is less, and the
evaporation greater, than elsewhere. The ocean represents the average saline
impregnation of the world produced by rainfall and evaporation.   By comparison
with this standard solution we can judge which is in greatest excess, rainfall or
evaporation.  On the hills whlichl surround Salt lake are markls of an ancient
beach about 300 feet above its present level. From the depth to which these
shlore-marlks have worn into the rocky sides of the hills, and the large amounts
of debris brought down by streams and deposited at that elevation, it is evident that
this level of the lalae must have remained for a long period.  It is probable
the lake once had an outlet to the ocean; and from the fresh-water tertiary fossils found at Bear river, and at other points, it is almost certain that it then contained fresh water.  Then, also, it doubtless contained many varieties of fish, but
as the water grew salt, they gradually perished; and, so far as has been observed,
it has no animal life in it at present.
482 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The cause of the extreme aridity of this country lies in the fact that it is sur roundedl by high mountains.  The Sierra Nevada on the wvest, the Wasatch range
on the south and east, and the RPocky mountains on the north, completely encircle
it. The wind coming from any quarter has its moisture absorbed in passing over
the mountains.*  The absence of vegetation, the effect of this extreme aridity,
also aggravates the droughts.  The cultivation of these valleys by covering
them with crops and trees, may cause some change in the amount of rain-fall, and[
it is not unlikely that in the course of years the water in Salt lake will be per manently higher than it is now. As the small rain-fall at present is due to the
environment of mountains, the inference is that in former times they did not exist,
and that this lake is older than the mountains; this conclusion appears to be war ranted by our present knowledge of the facts.
The course of the wind in past ages was mainly from  the west, as it is now.
This is shown by the deeper shore-marks found on the eastern side of the lakea fact general in Utah and Nevada and the southeastern portion of California.
Utah lake, the source of the Jordan, is almost the shape of a right-angled
triangle, about 30 miles long and 20 wide.  The water is fresh.
There are several other lakes as Little Salt lalae, Sevier lake, and Goshoat.
The first settlement in this Territory was in 1846, at Salt Lake City, by a band
of Mormons.  Owing to the fertility of the soil and other natural advantag,es,
the growth of this community has been very rapid for a population devoted to
agriculture.  The discovery of gold in California and the large emigration which
it induced, passing through this place, greatly stimulated trade and made a market for the surplus produce of the inhabitants. The advent of the United States
troops under Colonel Johnson, and the discovery of silver in Nevada, and of gold
in Idaho and Montana, producod similar results.
These markets are now nearly or quite closed, and trade in the Territory is more
depressed than since 1850. This may cause the people to turn their attention
to mining, a pursuit hitherto neglected owing to the greater profits derived from
agriculture.  The favorable notice taken of the recent discoveries of mines on
the east side of Green river is evidence in point.  The most potent cause of the
increase of the population is the encouragement extended to emigration from
foreign countries. Nearly nine-tenths of the adult population are of foreign
birth. Salt Lake City has a population of about 19,000 inhabitants. It is a
beautifully lail-out town.  The streets are wide, with streams of clear water
running on each side.  Thie camriage-ways are separated from the sidewalks by
rows of trees, which present a refreshling appearance in summer to the wvay-worn
traveller who has crossed the deserts.  The private houses, built chiefly of wood,
are perishable, but the public edifices are constructed of stone and wood, and are
durable and highly creditable to the skill and enterprise of the inhabitants. The
tabernacle, the principal place of worship, is capable of seating 10,000 people.
The width of the streets, the umbrageous rows of trees, the great number of
Lorin Blodget, in his Report on the Climatology of the United States, says: "The
Basin region as a whole can hardly be said to be one of periodical rains north of the 35th
parallel, however deficient the quantity is, and however abortive-as it may be said-the
rains are, as regards vegetation and practical climatology.  The rain of summer, from the
middle of June forward, is practically valueless in cultivation for the vicinity of Great Salt
Lake, and the flourishing  settlements there are sustained by irrigation.  Cultivation would
clearly require this aid everywhere, and as the winters are not available in bringing crops
lorward as in California, irrigation may not be dispensed with as it may be there.  It is unimportant to many of the best crops of California, wheat among them, that there is no rain
whatever in summer,a since they are so far advanced in the mild winter that the summer is
only requisite to ripen them. But in no part of the Basin is this adaptation practicable, so
far as known. The extent of summer required is similar to that of like latitudes in the
Atlantic States, and the deficiency of rain therefore is destructive, if irrigation is impracticable."
a Except on the seacoast north of Mendocino City; from which point occasional summer rains prevail,
increasing in frequency towards the north.-J. R. B.
I
483
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
orchards and gardens in the heart of the city, and the incombustible nature of
the houses, give a country appearance to the city, and render fires almost unknown.
The small size of the farms is favorable to high cultivation.  As a consequence,
the greater part of Salt Lake valley is under better cultivation than any region
west of the Rocky mountains, except, perhiaps, around the bay of San Francisco.
The system of irrigation is excellent and extensive. Farmers in the eastern
States might learn much here that would'be valuable to them. From a report of the
Deseret Agricultural Society of January 11, 1866, it appears that'there have
been constructed 277 main  canals, in length amounting to 1,043 miles, 102 rods,
at a mean width of 5 feet 6 inches, and a mean depth of 2 feet 2 inches, which
water 153,949 acres of land, at a cost of $1,766,939, and that there is in course
of construction canals at an estimated cost of $900,000."
Ogden is a flourishing town on the east side of the lake, and ranks next to
Salt Lake City in population and importance.
SECTION II.
MINES AND MINING.
Iin the spur of the Wasatch, on the east side of Salt lake, gold has been found
in very minute quantities.  Some of the quartz assayed about $2 per ton.  The
mountains at this point trend west of north and east of south. The country rock
is granite, and quartz is abundant.
The thermal springs in this vicinity show the presence of sulphate of iron,
and possibly mines of value may be found in this spur of the mountain.
hIIE,nrSVILLE.-The western part of the territory, adjoining Nevada, so far as
known, is the richest in metals. At Minersville are mines of lead and copper, which
contain some gold and silver.  One of the mines has been workled to a depth of 90
feet. At this point the copper predominated, and the workiing of the mine for lead
was suspended.  The lead was smeltedto supply the territory.  While lead prevailed working of the mine was remunerative. No effort was made to recover
tfie silver, although in many countries this would have been profitable. By opening the mine at other points, no doubt lead ore of the same quality as that workied
could be obtained. The percentage of silver contained in the lead and copper
ores of this district is sufficient to justify the conclusion that the worlking of these
mines will be a source of profit at some future day.
RUSE VALLEY.-This district abounds in veins containing  arg,entiferous
galena and copper.  In 1865 there was considerable excitement about these
mines.  Companies were organized by officers of the army at Salt Lake City,
and some developments were made.   Smelting works were erected at the mines,
but the smelting failed to extract the metal in a satisfactory manner, and the
expenses incident to enterprises of this kind, in a new country, rendered operations very costly.  Silver occurs in galena in the same irregular manner as in
quartz Many suppose that if a vein of galena assays well in one part it will
do the same in all; an erroneous rdea, as miners frequently find to their cost.
When transportation is cheaper, fuel more abundant, and labor cheaper, these
mines will doubtless be valuable.  At present no profit is likely to be derived
from working them.
COAL.-The eastern part of the territory contains large seams of coal. As it
has been found as far south as Pahranagat and at San Pete, it is not improbable
it abounds in many parts of the Green River valley.   That said to be from San
'Pete is a firm bituminous coal, considered by many superior to any found west
of the Rocky mountains, but its quality must be thoroughly proved in large
484 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
amounts before it can be pronounced equal to the bituminous coal of Pennsylvania.
The coal from Pahranagat is found about 300 miles southwest from Salt Lake
City; that from San Pete 120 miles south. About 80 miles east from the city
coal is found very abundantly. These discoveries tend to justify the conclusion
that coal exists in large quantities in the Territory. As soon as a marketis opened,
the denmand can be supplied from these coal fields. Owing, to the scarcity of fiuel
in the mining regions of the eastern part of Nevada and the western part of
Utah, where most of the silver, copper, and lead ores must be smelted, coal will
in time be in great demand.
A4ithliacite.- The most interesting discovery in this connecticn is anthracite
coal.  Scientific  men have long been seeking in vain to find anthracite west of the
Rocky mountains. It has recently been found onl Green river. An old iron-worker
from the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania says the deposit is identically the
same.  The coal is heavy, and will not burn with a flame.   When  used in a
blacksmith's ftorge it gives an intense heat.  This article has been tried and
found to answer all the purposes required of it.
PACIFIC RAILrOAD.-The advantages to be derived from the construction
of the Pacific railroad will be beyond computation. Branch railroads will follow, and these coal fields will eventually be opened up. The number of coal
seams visible along the canions in eastern Utah is remarkable.  Many of them
are of large size; some are said to be 15 feet thick. Occasionally they cain be
traced four or five miles. They are so numerous and easily found that the inhliabitants do not locate them. It would be difficult to imagine such an abundance
of valuable coal deposits in Nevada or California as to preclude location.  Utah
appears to be nearly in its normal condition. The recent elevations and depressions are slight; consequently in mining for coal it is probable few faults will
be found.  The great number of veins near the surface will furnish that article
for years to come without deep mining or the use of expensive machinery for hoisting or pumping. If the coal fields on Green river should prove as extensive and
of as good quality as there is reason to expect, it will be a great advantage to
the miners on the Colorado and at Pahranagat, as well as useful in the navigation of the Colorado river.  A thorough exploration of the coal fields of Utah,
Dakota, Colorado, and Montana is much needed.  It would probably establish
the fact that western coal fields, though inferior in quality, rival in extent the
vast deposits east of the Mississippi river.
InoN.-Iron ore is abundant in Utah.  Attempts have been made to smelt it,
but so far without success.  There is nothing refractory in this ore to render
smelting difficult with skill and the proper appliances. The demand for iron
will always be large in Ufah, and the cost of freight from any other point of
production renders it an important resource for development. With a large
agricultural population, labor will be cheap. In every point of view Utah
appears to have better facilities for the production of iron than any of the adjoining, States or Territories.  The profit on agricultural pursuits will become less
every year, for many years to come.  All the adjacent mining States and Territories will soon raise their own stock and grain. With the exception of New
Mexico and Arizona they are now doing it to a great extent, so that there will
be only a home market for the produce of Utah. This will have a tendency to
turn the attention of the inhabitants to mining and manufactures. In the latter
branch of industry they are already actively engaged.
SALT. —Salt can be produced in unlimited quantities, both for home consumption and export. When the railroad is completed it will probably pay to transport this article to the markets of the Atlantic. In the State of Nevada salt is
so cheap and abundant that it will niot pay to send it west from Ufah.
SODA exists in vast beds in many parts of the Territory. When labor and
freight are cheaper this will probably be an article of export.
f
I
485 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
COTTONWOOD CANON is about 27 miles southeast from Salt Lake City, in the
Wasatch mountains.  It contains several silver mines.  A Mrr. IHirst is running
two furnaces there at present.  They are not on an extensive scale, but the results
are satisfactory.  Hirst thinks his ore will yield $200 to the ton.  He has a
German to manage his works, who is reputed to be skilful.  The veins occur
in limestone, and ore exists at the surface in abundance.   This is a valuable
leadcl-mining district.  The ore is remnarkably free from antimony.
GENERnAL CONCLUSIONS.-The Territory of Utah will undoubtedly become
in time an important and prosperous State.  It possesses a great variety of
resources.  Whatever mnay be the opinions entertained as to the peculiar institutions existing there at present, none can deny that its population is industrious
and enterprising. A people who have redeemed the deserts by a vast system
of irrigation, built up cities, inaugurated an excellent school systemn, established
manufactures of nearly all the articles necessary for the use of man, opened up
roads in every direction, and supplied the miners of the adjacent Territories for
several years with their products, cannot fail to achieve a condition of high
prosperity in the future.  Contact with their neighbors, who entertain views
antagonistic to their social institutions, will remedy the evils under vwhichl they
now labor.  As they become more intelligent the impolicy of isolating themselves from the moral sympathies of the world will become apparent, and their
patience, industry, and self-reliance will be turned to good account,
486 
WEST OF THiE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
MAONTANA.
SECTION 1.
AREA AND POPULATION-MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS-GEOLOGICAL FEA  TURES-VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS AND AGRICULTURAL LANDS —TIM  BER CLIMATE, AND NAVIGABLE WATERS.
Mlontana, the most recently organized of the Territories of the United States,
is second only to California in the production of gold.  Embracing within its
limits the range of the Rocky MLountains and the heads of -two of the greatest
rivers that wind their long, and devious courses through the lower countries to the
Pacific and Atlantic oceans, this Territory may justly claim the appellation of
the "Golden Summit."  Extending from the 45th to the 49th parallel of north
latitude, and from the 27th to the 39th meridian west from Washington, it contains an area, according to the report of the Commissioner of the Geiteral Land
Office, of 143,776 square miles, (92,016,640 acres,) bounded by meridians and
parallels of latitude, except a portion of the southwestern corner, where for the
distance of nearly 400 miles the boundary follows the crest of the Bitter Root
mountains. The population is about 32,000.*
3IOU.NTAIxS.-In this Territory the most striking geographical feature is tlhe
great range of the Rocky mountains, extending 350 miles from its southern to
its northern boundary, and in width over 200 miles.  This range, with its spurs,
occupies fully half the Territory. The main chain of mountains is split up into
a number of different ranges, as the Bitter Root, which is the highest and the
Langley, in his Pacific Coast Directory, a publication generally accurate, estimates the
population as follows:
Table exhibiting the principal cities and towns of Montana Territory, the county in which each
is located. the estimated population in September, 1866, and the distance from Virginia Cityt
the territorial capital.
No. of miles from
Virginia City.
701 W.
400 N. W.
200 N. W.
80 N.W.
180 N. W.
100 W.
125 N.
60 E.
155 N. E.
100 N. E.
90 N.
2 N.W.
30 E.
8 S.
..................
165 N. E.
150 W.
................
Bannack City.......................................
Benton City............................... —.........
Blackfoot City..................................
Deer Lodge City.................................-      —.
Reynolds City.......................................
Silver Bow..................................... —       - --
Ilelena.....................................-   -—.....
Bozeman............................................
Dennison...........................................
Gallatin City........................................
Prickly Pear........................................r              9N.
Nevada City.....................................,
Stirling City..........................................
Summit City........................................
Virginia city........................................
Diamond City.......................................
3Iissoula Mills.......................................
Total.........................................
The surveyor general of the Territory, in his report of 1867, makes the following estimate:
"I may be safe in estimating the entire population at 40,000, and it is confidently believed
that it will reach 60,000 in 1868 should there be no Indian troubles along the overland
routes.,     *    i  The class of citizens who are coming into the Territory are generally
those who intend making it their homes.   Hence many families are coming and settling up
the different valleys. The farming population is fast increasing, and a great number of
miners find it profitable to devote their time to agriculture."
The reports of the county assessors for 1.865 and 1866 do not warrant the belief that the
increase has been so rapid. My opinion is the population at this time does not exceed
32,000.-J. R. B.
I
.1
I
487
Estimated pop   ulation.
80C
1, 5OG
2,000
1,500
2,000
1,250
8,000
200
1,500
500
250
0- 000
500
1, 000
4,000
1-1000
500
29,500
Town.
County.
Beaver Head..
Choteau.......
Deer Lodge - - -
.... do.........
.... do.........
.... do.........
Edgarton......
Gallatin.......
.... do.........
.... do.........
Jefferson......
Madison.......
.... do.........
do.........
do.........
,Nfeagher.......
Missoula.......
................ 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
most westerly, and the Rocky, Wind River, Big Horn, and Belt ranges.  All
of these have a trend northwest and southeast, Iand all contain  mines of gold
and  silver.   Their height  has  not been  determined, but it is probably from
10,000 to 14,000 feet, the highest peak being covered with  perpetual snow.
This great extent of mountain ranges causes the condensation of a large amount
of moisture from the atmosphere, which falls principally in the form of snow.
Gradually melting during the wvarm season, it thoroughly saturates  the earth,
inducing a fine growth of grass and timber throughout the mountain regions.*
The Territory is divided by these ranges into a number of basins, and their
spurs subdivide each basin into a number of valleys, which contain  nearly all
the towns and  settlements, and  the greater part of its agricultural as well as
nearly all its mineral resources.   The mountains  are greatly abraded  by the
agencies of rains, frosts, and glacial action, leaving thlem smooth and mrnuchl less
rocky and precipitous than the Cascade range in Oregon, or the Sierra Nevada
in California.   The Bitter Root is the most rugged and continuous in its height.
The other ranges are fill of low passes, with none of those lofty peakls that are
found father south in Colorado.
All the mountains appear to be old and weather-worn, and almost at the very
summits of the highest ranges beds of gravel containing placer gold have been
formed from the disintegration of the neighboring peaks. Thus placer mines
are found on the mountain top, differing in this respect from the Sierra Nevadas,
where placer gold is almost invariably found in the foot-hills.   In the northern
part of the Territory the mountain regions have been prospected only sufficiently
to prove the existence of gold.   The hostility of tllhe Indians  has prevented  a
thorough exploration, or any permanent working of the mineral deposits.t
* The following from Lewis and Clarke's Narrative describes the country westward from
the main ridge of the Bitter RIoot mountains.  It is applicable to a large area of Montana:
"The country along the Rocky mountains for several hundred miles in length, and about
50 wide, is a high level plain, in all its parts extremely fertile, and in many places covered
with a growth of tall, long-leaved pine. This plain is chiefly interrupted near the streams
of water, where the hills are steep and lofty, but the soil is good, being unincumbered by
much stone, and possesses more timber than the level country. Under shelter of these hills
the bottom lands skirt the margin of the rivers, and though narrow and confined, are still
fertile and rarely inundated. Nearly the whole of this wide-spread tract is covered with a
profusion of grass and plants which are at this time as high as the knees. Amiong these are
t variety of esculent roots, acquired without much difficulty, and yielding not only a nutritious but a very agreeable food.  The air is pure and dry, the climate quite as mild if not
milder than the same parallel of latitude in the Atlantic States, and mnust be equally healthy,
for all the disorders which we have witnessed may fairly be imputed more to the nature of
the diet than to any intemperance of climate."
i Professor G. C. Swallow, formerly State geologist of Missouri, says, in a late letter to
Governor Smith:
"Veins of gold, silver, copper, and lead have been found in great numbers in nearly all the
explored mountainous portions of the Territory; and placer gold is as widely distributed.
Many of the gulches have proved vastly rich, and some of them very extensive. So far as
ciscovered, these veins come to the surface on the foot-hills, and on the sides of the valleys and
cauons and some of them cut the mountains to their very tops. A large portion of the lodes
are true veins, cutting through granite, syenite porphyry, trap, gneiss, mica slate, hornblende
elate, talcose slate, argillaceous slate, sandstone, and limestone. These lodes vary in thickness from a mere line to 50 and 60 feet  The gangue or vein rock, called quartz by the miner,
is very variable in character. In the gold-bearing lodes it is usually whitish quartz, moreor
less ferruginous, often nearly all iron. In some veins it resembles a stratified quartzite; in
a few it is syenitic, pyrites, hornblende, calc spar, arsenic, antimony, copper. Tellurium
and micaceous iron are found in these veins. In the silver lodes the iron, so abundant in
the gold veins, is often replaced by the oxide of manganese. This mineral is sometimes so
abundant as to constitute a large portion of the gangue.
" The ganrgue, in many of the copper veins, is made up of quartz, heavy spar, caic spar
brown spar, and oxides of iron. Many thousand lodes of gold, silver, and copper have been
already discovered and recorded, and many of them more or less developed. It is true here,
as well as in all other mining districts, that a large part of the lodes discovered cannot be
profitably worked by the methods usually adopted in new mining regions; but many of those
which cannot now be worked with profitable results will become valuable when experience
has proved the best methods, and when labor and materials can be had at ordinary prices."
488 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The geologv of AIontana is alnost entirely unknown.   The Rockly mountains
are chiefly composed of granite, gneiss, and synite, and may be pretty certainly
assigned to the Arzoic.   Captain John   Iiullan gives  the followingr general
description of the mountain ranges and their geological formation:
Looking back upon our route, we saw we had followed Bitter Root river to its head,
which we found from its mouth to be 95 miles long, flowing through a wide and beautiful
valley, whose soil is fertile and productive, well timbered with the pine and cottonwood, but
whose chief characteristic and capability is that of grazing large herds of cattle, and affording excellent mill sites along the numerous streams flowing from the mountains. The country
thence is watered by tributaries to the Missouri and its fork, to the range of mountains separating these waters from those of the Snake river, or the south branch of Lewis' fork of the
Columbia, and is also fertile, but its characteristic feature is the great scarcity of timber for
any purpose, the willow and wild sage being used for fuel along the whole route.  The geological formation of this section belongs to the tertiary period. The capability of this broad
area, however, for grazing is excellent.               *    The whole country is formed of
a series of beds of mountainous ranges or ridges, with their intervening valleys, all of which
are well defined and markled, the decomposition and washings of the rocks of the mountains
giving character to the soil of the valleys, which may be termed, as a general thing, fertile.
The geological formations along the Jefferson fork and its principal tributaries are limestone
and conglomerate rock. From the range called the Snake river divide, the whole character
of the country is completely changed. Here the geological formation is basaltic and volcanic
principally. None of the numerous streams and rivulets flowing from the mountains along
the route we travelled emptied into the Snake river, but either sunk into the ground or formed
small lakes in the broad valley of Snake river. The ground in most places is formed principally of sand, and where large beds of basalt are not found, the ground is of a dry, absorbing nature, through which the water sinks, at times bursting out again. It was somewhat singular that, for 60 miles above Fort Hall, along the main stream of Snake river, we did not
cross but one tributary, and that coming in from the south, while none came in from the north;
all of the streams, as before mentioned, either forming lakes or sinking into the ground.
This section is also noted for the great scarcity of timber, and the, immense plains of wild
sage, which is so abundant that it merits the name of the sage desert of the mountain. It
extends for many miles in length and breadth, forming an immense ocean of prairie, whose
sameness is only broken by the "Three Buttes" of the valley, which rise like islands in the
sea in this broad and barren area. (Report on the construction of a military road from Fort
Walla-Walla to Fort Benton.)
VEGETABLE PPODUCTS.-In the fertile soil of the valleys wheat, barlev, and
oats grow well, and good crops are produced.   Rye and buckwheat  would also
flourish, but Indian corn would probably fail.* Potatoes grow in the greatest
There are, however, a very large number of large and rich lodes which will yield large profits
even at the present prices of labor and materials. Some of the lodes of both gold and silver
will rank among the largest and richest in the annals of mining. In regard to the want of
success in some of the mining operations in the Territory, it may be said that such partial
failures are incident to all mining regions, particularly in the early operations of new regions.
Montana is particularly exposed to delays of success from its remoteness from machine shops,
where the machinery used may be altered and repaired to suit the exigencies constantly arising.
But all these hindrances to immediate and full success in quartz mining operations will soon
be removed.  They are obvious to all acquainted with the business, and are such as will naturally pass away. Better mills are being put up, better lodes are bought in larger quantities,
better management is secured, and the owners of quartz property are offering better facilities
to those who wish to work their mines; capital is seeking this source of wealth, and good
financiers are operating in Montana mining property. The placer mines are not yielding so much
as at some former periods. Many new localities have been discovered, and large sums have
been expended in conducting water to favored localities, and there is every reason to believe
that the placers will, the coming year, yield many more millions to the hardy toilers who
have labored so faithfully and successfully in securing this "golden harvest."  The quartz
mining operations are now in a better condition to secure success than ever before, and the
men who have discovered and partially developed the silver, gold, and copper lodes, have been
long inured to disappointments and hardships, and will not yield to any ordinary obstacles;
and we may safely believe that 10,000 of such earnest, skilful, hardy men will achieve magnificent results in such a field as the mines of Montana present.
'Professor Swallow says:' The results already obtained from herding and the cultivation of our own rich valleys are such as to remove every reasonable doubt of the entire
success of agricultural pursuits in the Territory. It certainly is one of the finest stock countries on the continent. All the more important domestic animals and fowls do remarkably well. Horses and mules and neat cattle are more hardy and kept in better condition
on the native glasses, hay and grain. As a general rule they winter well in the valleys and
f
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
489
i
I
i
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
perfection, and their flavor if not superior is equal to that of any in America.
The residents of iMontana believe that their potatoes are superior in dryness and
mealiness to any in the world, Ireland and California not excepted.  Beets, peas,
onions, cabbages, cucumbers, radishes, parsnips and turnips grow finely, while in
the warmest valleys melons and tomatoes come to maturity.  Bitter-root, a small
plant flowering in Juine-the root three inches long, one-fourth inch in dianileter, and very often forked-grows in many of the l'ocky mountain valleys, and
is very abundant in Bitter RPoot valley.  It is a favorite article of food for the
Flathead Indians, who dig it in May, and dry it so that it will keep for years.
Very nutritious, but extremely bitter.
Camus, as an article of food for the Indians, is probably the most important
of the wild plants.  It is abundant in all the northern parts of the Pacific coast.
It is a bulbous root, about anl inch and a half in diameter, and grows in low,
swampy lands, having a sweet gummy taste, and is very nutritious.  Besides
using it largely when fresh, the Indians boil it and afterwards dry it, so as to
preserve it for years.  If cultivated it might become a valuable culinary vegetable.
Qullali is another singular article of food used by the Indians.  It is the root
of a plant about the size of a man's finger, of a deep yellow color, growing in
the moist land along the banks of the streams. When raw it is poisonous, but
lwhen cooked in a kiln, a process occupying several days, it turns to a black color
and resembles tobacco in taste and smell, and is equally offensive to people not
accustomed to it.*
on the surrounding foot-hills withont hay or grain.  The valleys furnish a large area of natural meadows, whose products are equal in quantity and quality to those of the cultivated
meadows of the middle States.  Beet, fattened on the native pastures, is certainly not inferior to the best produced in the country. The small grains, wheat, rye, barley and oats,
produce as large an average yield as in the most favored grain-producing States. Of the
native fruits, we have choke cherries, service berries, currants, gooseberries, blueberries,
raspberries, and strawberries can be cultivated as successfully as in the New England States.
"All the more important root crops, such as potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, beets, carrots,
parsnips, radishes, and onions, and the most valuable garden vegetables, are cultivated with
great success.  Timber is abundant on the mountain slopes and in some of the valleys.  Five
species of pine, two of fir, one of spruce, and two of cedar, grow on the mountains, and in
the mountain valleys and( cations; balsam, poplars, aspens, alders, and willows, on the streams
and in the moist valleys.
"The pines, firs, spruces, and cedars furnish an abundance.of good timber for building,
mining, and farming purposes.  The purest waters flow everywhere in cool springs, mountain streams, meadow brooks, and clear rapid rivers. Hot and mineral springs also occur in
various parts of the Territory.   Beautifuil lakes and magnificent falls and cascades are
numerous in the mountains."
I Professor A. K. Eaton, inll a recent report to Governor Green Clay Smith, says of the
agricultural resources and climate of Montana:
"In a Territory so far removed fiom the great grain-producing States, the most vital question bearing upon our future welfare is that as to our ability to become self-sustaining in all
things pertaining to the necessaries of life. If our success thus far is not a sufficient guarantee of our ability to raise all the cereals, root crops, &c, requisite to support a large
number of inhabitants, a consideration of the geological and topographical formation of the
country and its climatic characteristics would of itself demonstrate that the soil cannot
fail to furnishl all that is essential to the subsistence of an unlimited population.
"Our valleys are very broad, ranging from five to fifteen miles in width, and made up of
rich bottom lands and level or gently undulating plateaus. The mountain ranges on either
side generally differ in their geological character. On one side, granite and its allied primitive rocks, by the disintegration of which valleys have been supplied with the alumina and
alkaline silicates so necessary to an inexhaustible soil; on the other, ranges of secondary
limestone, sandstone, &c., that have furnished the additional constituents of a soil of
unequalled richness. The want of rain to irrigate the lands is the only apparent difficulty,
and nature has provided for this in the conformation of the country.  Lying, as these
plateaus do, nearly level, the miountain streams, which are frequent and never-failing, are
readily turned from their courses and made to wind along the base of the foot-hills, upon the
outer limits of the table lands, and thence distributed over almost every foot of arable land.
This mode of irrigation has its decided advantages over that of the natural rain storms of
regions nearer the coast, from the fact that it is wholly under the control of the farmer. In
490 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
cot
iti
is i
of
thi
for
ca
ti
111]
ye'
hi~
va
Ga
ye
tar
inc
acz
a~
sar
der
der
poi
the
the
tio
bei
of
tha
shc
outl
spl
eve
h
wi]
evf
thc
lat
of
ab
ab
fro
ISI
cal
wlV
C~l
ui~
bf
ho
lin
in
ev
th
"A comparison of the altitude of the South pass, with the country on its ever side, with
"A comparison of the altitude of the South pass, with the country on its every side, with
-1
491 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
NAVIGABLE WATErS. Although Montana is abundantly supplied with rivers
caTrrying large bodies of water, the great altitude of the Territory induces such
rapid currents as to prove serious obstacles to navigation.  On the western slope
the rivers are unnavigable for anything except rafts, small boats, and canoes,
their courses being continually interrupted by shoals, rapids, and falls. On the
eastern slope, the Missouri has a light-draught steamboat navigation of over 300
miles to Fort Benton, and steamboats have ascended nearly to the Great Falls,
situated about 50 miles above. Fort Benton is the depot of supplies for the
whole Territory, and even to this point navigation is very uncertain. In dry
seasons the water is scant on the shoals, and, as the banks are unsettled, tho
boats have to be supplied with fuel by cutting wood.   In many lilaces wood is
very scarce, and has to be carried on the backs of men for a mile or more.
Vexatious delays are the result.  Every year the wood is getting scarcer and
more difficult to procure. The hostility of the Indians also renders navigation
perilous at this time.
Coal is found some distance below Fort Benton. When mining for this article
is carried on extensively it will probably supply the steamers with a sufficiency
of fuel. It is a brown or lignite, probably in the cretaceous formation, and is
found in veins of large size, traceable in the banks of the streams for long
distances.*
Mullan's pass, further to the north, may be useful in this connection. The South pass has
an altitude of 7,489 feet above the level of the sea. The Wind River chain, to its north,
rises till it attains, at Fremont's peak, an elevation of 13,570 feet, while to the north the
mountains inciease in altitude till they attain, at Long's peak, an elevation of 15,000 feet;
while the plains to the east have an elevation of 6,000 feet, and the mountains to the west,
forming the east rim of the great basin, have an elevation of 8,234 feet, and the country
between it and the South pass an elevation of 6,234 feet above the level of the sea. The
highest point on the road in the Summit line at Mullan's pass has an elevation of 6,000 feet,
which is lower by 1,489 feet than the South pass.
X            X            *            X            X             X             *           X
"The high range of the Wind River chain stands as a curvilinear wall to deflect and direct
the currents of the atmosphere as they sweep across the continent. (By-the-by, whence
arises the name of the Wind River chain?)  All their slopes are well located to reflect back
the direct rays of the heat of the sun to the valleys that lay at their bases.  These valleys,
already warm by virtue of the hot springs existing among them, receive this accumulative
heat, which, driven by the new currents of cold air from the plains, rises and moves onward
in the form of a river towards the valleys of the Rocky mountains, where it joins the milder
current from the Pacific and diffuses over the whole region a mild, healthy, invigorating,
and useful climate." (Mullan's Report, pp. 53, 54.)
Thermometrical data furnished by J. L. Corbett, civil engineer, Virginia City, Montana.
1865.-Mean reading during the mouth of December................. 5~.22 above zero.
1866.-Mean reading during the month of January................... 27~
1866.-Mean reading during the month of February...................     220
Mean during the three months, 18~ above zero.
1866.-Mean during December..................................... 31~ "
1867.-Mean during January......................... —---------------------------—..... 230.73 "
1867.-Mean during February......................................'26~ 0"
The mean during March, 1867, is unknown, as only the coldest days were registered, which
were as follows: March 11, at 7.30 a. m., 0o; at 8.20 a. m., 5~; at 1 p. m., 1~; at 6 p. m.,
12~; at 10 p. m*, 18~, or below zero. March 12, at 7 a. m., 180; at 10 a. m., 120; at 5p. m.,
6~; at 6 p. m., 160~; at 9.15 p. ni., 22~.  March 13, at 7 a. m., 240; at 1 p. m., 100, or above
zero; at 10 p. m., 30, or above zero.  Weather moderate afterwards.
Twenty-four degrees below zero is the greatest cold experienced during the past three
winters (at this place. Mean during the winter months for the past two winters, 220 above
zero. Mean of barometer reading, 2,440 inches; altitude, 5,481 feet; boiling point, 202~
Fahrenheit; latitude, 450 27' 35"; longitude, about 111~ 17'.
The surveyor general of Montana, in his report for 1867, says:
"Bituminous coal has been found on the Big Hole river, about 60 miles from Bannack
City; in Jackass gulch, on the east side of the Madison; and at Summit district, near Virginia City, the veins being from three to four feet in width. Coal also exists at the head of
the Yellowstone river. Brown coal, or lignite, is found in great quantities on the banks of
the Missouri and Yellowstone, valuable as common fuel, but of no great value for manufacturing purposes. It has also been found on the headwaters of the Teton and Marias."
492 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The Yellowstone has not been sufficiently explored to determine its capabilities for navig,ation; but those best qualified to judge think that, with suitable
boats, it may be navigable far higher than boats have yet reached.  Indian hostilities and want of population have prevented a more thorough exploration.
The rates of freight charged on the steamers firom St. Louis to Fort Benton are
so highl that if a boat makes one trip it sometimes pays all expenses and returns
the capital invested in the boat itself. Competition will probably reduce these
charges, unless their trade should be closed altogether by the Indians.
The portion of Montana on the western slope forms a basin about 250 miles
long and 75 miles wide.*  It is drained by the Missoula, Hellgate, Blackfoot,
and Flat Head rivers, which uniting, form Clark's Fork of the Columbia river.
The extreme northern part is drained by Tobacco river, which empties into Lake
Bratlihami, in Idaho Territory.  Flat Head is the only lake of any considerable
size in Montana.  It is a beautiful sheet of clear water about 35 miles long and 15
broad, surrounded by a fine farming and grazing country.  This basin contains
the best timber, and probably as good grazing and farmnning lands as are in the
Territory.  The valley of the Miadison and Gallatin only are equal to it in the
latter respect.  The warmi moist winds from the Pacific induce a more vigorous
development of vegetable life than in other parts of the Territory, where the high
wall of the Rocky mountains prevents these winds from exercising their influence.
In this mild and temperate climate the missionaries established missions for the
religious advancement of the Indians. The sites of several of their missions still
remain, and are admirably situated in the midst of a fertile country.
From Flat Head lake south, towards the mission of Pen d'Oreille, along the
foot of the Rocky mountains, the country is wvell supplied with timber, water
and grass, and is an excellent agricultural district.  South of the mission is the
Jocko valley, containing the Pen d'Oreille Indian reservation.  This is a small
rich agricultural valley, which, if properly cultivated, would be very productive.
Hell Gate valley is southeast from the reservation.  It is about 25 miles long,
and six or seven broad, possessing excellent agricultural resources.  Still south
is the Bitter Root valley, about 60 miles long and eight wide.  In this is Owen's
trading post, called Fort Owen, around which is a flourishing settlement.
The Hell Gate and Bitter Root at their junction form the Missoula, which
retains that name until it forms a junction with the Flat Head forming Clark's
Fork of the Columbia.  Hell Gate and Bitter Root valleys contain a number of
settlers, and in time will contain a large agricultural population.  At this point
the Bitter Root mountains present an almost impassable barrier, with but few
passes, and can only be traversed in the warmest part of the year; at other
seasons they are completely blockaded by the snow.
,The surveyor general says: "The soil of the valleys and table lands is of good quality,
and it is believed that fully one-third of the Territory is susceptible of profitable cultivation. The nmore important valleys requiring immediate survey are the Bitter Root, Deer
Lodge, Hell Gate, Ronde, Big Hole, Beaver Head, Stinking Water, Jefferson, Madison,
Gallatin, Boulder, Prickly Pear, (including the town of Helena,) and the Missouri from the
Three Forks to Ca-ion Ferry, east of Helena.'!-he arable lands in these valleys amount,
by careful estimate, to 9,000 square miles, and contracts for their surveys will be let as soon
as possible. A ready home market is found for the product of the ranches and dairies, and
the supply of the different kinds of grain raised is no doubt sufficient for the wants of the
population until another crop is produced. The yield of potatoes has been so great during
the past season that it is believed that fully 1,000,000 bushels could be exported, and still
have enough for home consumption.  The wheat raised in Gallatin valley is closely estimated
at 8,000 acres, and the other small grains, such as oats, barley, rye, &c., are placed at 6,000
acres.  The yield will be at least 30 bushels to the acre, giving us, as a low estimate of all
the grain crop in that valley for this year, at 420,000 bushels. The list of the territorial
auditor shows 165,140 acres of land under cultivation in the Territory, and the total valuation
of the property assessed is $5,703,118. The flouring mills are particularly mentioned. The
grazing lands are among the finest in the world, their nutricious grasses serving to keep
cattle and stock in good condition during the entire winter. The number of cattle grazing
on these lands is estimated at 40 000."
o
493 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Big Blackfoot comes into HIell Gate river in the canion of that name, and for
15 miles runs through another cation.  Above, it passes through a large and
beautiful valley similar to that of Hell Gate. On the head of this river are some
good placer mines.  Some say the caiion received this name of "Hell Gate"
from the gloomy character of its scenery; others, that it was so named from the
fact that the Indians, when on the war path, intent on deeds of blood and rapine,
alwavs issued out from it. Either cause would be sufficient.
FLINXT CnEE:K.-Forty- miles above the mouth of the Big Blackfoot, from the
soath, comes in Flint creek throulgh a fine large valley with plenty of grass,
wvater and timber. RPecently near the head of this stream rich silver mines have
been found, and a town of 400 or 500 inhabitants has sprang up in a few weeks.
On one of the branches of Flint some good placer mines have been discovered
which paid well this summer.   Twenty miles above this creekl the Little Blackfoot comes in from the northeast.  For some distance above its mouth is a good
grazing country, not suitable for agricultural purposes, but well timbered. The
ravines and gulches at the head of this stream contain some good placer mines,
and several mining towns have sprung up, such as Blacklfoot City and Carpentier's Bar. Quartz veins containing gold have been found in this vicinity,
but they have not been sufficiently worked to prove their value.
DEERi LODGE VALLEY.-To the southward lies the Deer Lodge valley, one of
the most picturesque and beautiful, as wvell as one of the richest mineral and agricultural districts in Montana. It is about 35 miles long and 10 broad, surrounded
by low rolling hills, whiich afford excellent pasturage. This favored region, called
by the Indians Ttsookeencame, or, translated, "the Deer's Lodge," takes its name
from a singular mound in the upper end of the valley composed of silicious and
ferruginous depositions, formed by a thermal spring.
This mound is a truncated cone 30 feet inll height, 100 feet in diameter at the
base Iand 30 feet at the summit.  Brightly colored with white and reddish-brown
spots, it forms a notable landmark.   In the winter, when the steam rises like
smoke firom a spring at the top, it bears a striking resemblance to a large Indian
lodge. This spring is three feet in diameter and of a considerable depth. The
water, vwhichl does not overflow at present, is nearly at the boiling point, while
at the base of the mound several springs exist the temperature of which varies
from near boiling point to icy coldness.  A marsh elevated a few feet above the
surrounding plains is fonmed by the springs at the base of the mound. Very few
such formations, caused by thermal springs, are found in the Pacific Territories.
Hence it must be different from the ordinary methods of deposition.  From the
fact that the spring in the centre of the cone does not overflow, it is evident that
in former times it must have been more active than at present, and that the forces
that once gave it activity are failing; also, that unless there is a recurrence of
its ancient eruptive power the mound will never rise any higher.  Probably it is
lower than formerly.  Ordinary thermal springs throw quite a volume of water,
which, gradually cooling, continues to deposit its sediment for a considerable
distance, depositions not being materially greater at the mouth of the springs
thanL 100 or 200 yards distant.
Quite a large number of farms are under enclosure in this valley. Stock
raising also employs some of the inhabitants. Until recently there was but little
mining in this vicinity.  Last spring and summer some very good placer mines
were discovered in the hills on the east side of the valley.  On Silver Bar, a
stream falling into the head of the valley, placer and quartz mines containing
gold, silver and copper, especially the latter metal, have been worked for over
two years, resulting in the mining towns of Silver Bar and Butte City.
Towv- OF COTTONWOOD.-Cottonwood, the county-seat of Deer Lodge county,
is situated on the north side of Cottonwood creek, near its junction with Deer
Lodge creek. It has a good location for a town. The streets are wide and well
laid out.  The advantage of wide streets in mining towns is so evident, in view
494 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of the dangers from fire, that it is singular so few newv towns are laid out in this
manner.  The houses are usually built of wood.  Fire engines are the accompaniment of a more advanced progress.  When a fire once gets fully under way
in these mining towns it seldom stops until it meets an open space.
Cottonwood is a pleasant little town, with that dreamny appearance of repose
indicative of an agricultural district. Tinber is scarce in the valley, but is
abundant in the adjacent hills and mountains. Pine and fir constitute the solo
supply.
The scenery here is wonderfully picturesque.  Spurs and broken chains of
mountains, the lofty summits regularly dclispersed, rise above and beyond one
another, giving an idea of interminable distance.  The rarity of the atmosphere
consequent on the altitude causes the rays of light to be less strongly refracted
than when the atmosphere is denser, giving a strange and unnatural reflection
to every object.  The light is peculiar in many respects.  While it does not
apparently impair vision, it seems to blend in all colors a portion of black.  Thus,
as tlhe eve follows one mountain peak after another, the color becomes darker
and darker, till the most distant are almost entirely black. The color of the
snow, varied by increasing ditance, goes through the same changes, and at last
appears of a dark gray.  There are none of those wondrous changes of tints and
hladows ilich are so charming in the lower latitudes as Mount Hood, whose
snows from a hundred different points of observation never appear twice of the
same color.  Here every tint is sombre and rigid, and notwithstanding the beauty
of the scenery the mind is chilled with a feeling of awe.  This is hleightened by
the appearance of the low hills, which are covered with grass, and have the aspect
of fields once cultivated, but now permitted to return to a state of nature.
In the upper part of the valley, near the hot springs, the snow seldom lies on
the ground, and there is an abundance of good pasturage the year round. 
A curious and interesting fact connected with this locality is worthy of note.
From the head of this valley into Big Hole, or the valley of Divide creek, a
branch of Big Hole, is the lowest pass through the Rocky mountains.  In fact,
it is simply a continuation of one valley into another. At Butte City water is
brought from the head of Boulder creek, which is a tributary of the Missouri,
through a low pass into Silver Bar, a branch of Deer Lodge creek, thus taking
the water from the Atlantic and giving it to the Pacific.
The streamins and small lakes which abound in the hills around this vallev are
well supplied with trout.  All the streams on the Pacific slope contain trout; but
except in the Yellowstone and its tributaries they are very scarce on the Atlantic
slope.
A short distance below Deer Lodge, a small creek empties into Hell Gate
river from the west, called Gold creek.  It is remarkable as the first place where
gold was discovered in Iontana.  The discovery was made on the banks of a
stream whose waters finally flow into the Pacific ocean.
During the present year the mines on the western slope have been much more
productive than formerly, while on the eastern slope the production this year
will be less than that of last year.
495 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
SECTION II.
MINES AND SYSTEMS OF MINING.
Gold wvas discovered in Montana by a French half-breed, named Francois Finlay,
about the year 1852, on Gold creek, a branch of the Hell Gate river.  Hie was
merely prospecting, and did not find the gold in sufficient quantities to induce
him to workl the mines.*
* Mr. Albert D. Richardson quotes from a book published in Cincinnati 50 years ago, as
follows:
"These mountains are supposed to contain minerals, precious stones, and gold and silver
ore.  It is but late that they have taken the name Rocky mountains; by all old travellers
they are called the Shining mountains, from an infinite number of crystal stones of an
amazing size with which they are covered, and which, when the sun shines full upon them,
sparkle so as to be seen at a great distance. The same early travellers gave it as their opinion
that in future these mountains would be found to contain more riches than those of Indostan
and Malabar, or the golden coast of Guinea, or the mines of Peru."
Mr. Richardson remarks:
"These surmises excited little notice, for the early travellers believed every mountain an
El Dorado, and every stream a Pactolus. The first statement which appeared worthy of
serious attention was made by Colonel William Gilpin of the United States army. This
gentleman, a zealous student of the natural sciences, crossed the continent with a party of
Oregon explorers, and Again with his command during the Mexican war.
"In 1849, in an address at Independence, Missouri, as the result of all his observations,
he asserted the abundant existence of gold, silver, and precious stones throughout the Rocky
mountains."  (Beyond the Mississippi, pp. 135-6.)
Professor A. K. Eaton, in his report to Governor Green Clay Smith, gives the following
general summary of the mineral resources of Montana:
"Of the common minerals of value in the arts and manufactures, there seems to be every
indication of abundance, although little has been done towards the development of them;
fire clay, gypsum and coal are indicated strongly in the tertiary deposits that underlie
the table-lands of the valleys and elsewhere; but they lie mostly undisturbed and undiscovered, except where some wandering prospector has accidentally come upon their outcrop. The pursuit of the precious metals has made the people oblivious to all minor considerations; but if we consider, for a moment, the immense advantage that would accrue
to the Territory by the opening of reliable coal beds, it would be an incentive to the greatest
effort; fuel for our furnaces and manufactures, to say nothing of our ordinary needs, wil
soon become scarce and dear. I believe that a small appropriation of money for the purpose
would insure the discovery and development of coal deposits in a very short time.
"Discoveries of new minerals and ores are occurring frequently in the Territory.  Cinnabar, which is of the first importance in a gold and silver-producing region, has been found,
though not in place. Specimens of water-worn fragments of this mineral, found in the gulch
workings of an almost unoccupied district of the Territory, were recently brought to me,
which proved to be of the first quality. This is especially gratifying, since deposits of ores
resembling cinnabar have been frequently found, and much useless labor expended in their
development. I have also recently, and for the first time, examined true tin ore found within
our territorial limits. This also was from gulch working.
"Lead ores occur in profusion, both as galenas and as carbonate of lead, in nearly all
districts of the Territory. These will not be worked at present, except when accompanied
by silver. All the galenas are so accompanied, and generally in paying quantities of the
latter metal.
"Copper lodes are abundant, showing at the surface ores ranging from 15 to 60 per cent.
of metallic copper. These when located near the Missouri river may be immediately made
profitable. Copper ores in the eastern market probably command to-day about $5 for every
per cent. of copper contained; 15 per cent. ore would be worth $75 per ton, and 60 per cent.
ore $300. Thus, long before we shall be extensively engaged in smelting these ores, our
copper lodes may prove largely remunerative.
"The silver lodes of the Territory which at present attract much attention, are, in part,
silver-bearing galenas. These range by practicable working from $20 to $300 per ton. The
present cost of labor and fuel precludes the working of the poorer of these ores, but eventually all will be worked profitably. The cost of smelting this class of ores cannot at present
be put lower than $35 per ton, and in some localities would exceed this estimate; still
there is an abundance of argentiferous galena that can be worked with great profit at the
present prices of material and labor. Another class of silver lodes is found in the country
which carry no lead or other base metal to interfere with the successful working of the ores
by amalgamation. It is from this class of ores probably that the first remunerative results
will be obtained, owing to the simplicity of the machinery required.  Mills are now being
496 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
In 1856 other prospectors found gold at the same mines, but did not work
them.   In the fall of 1860 the Brothers Stuart & Co. prospected  near the same
place, and in 1861 and 1862 commenced working in earnest with sluices.  This
was the first regular placer mining in the Territory.  In 1861 they wrote to some
erected for working ores of this character. The great abundance of veins of this nature of
the most promising appearance justifies the expectation that a short time will show large
returns of bullion from this source.
"The placer mines of the Territory which have thus far been successfully worked, are
those only which from their favorable location with reference to water, &c., could be easily
worked without the previous expenditure of capital by single workmen or by small parties.
Gulches already worked out by this wasteful method will be reworked perhaps as remune ratively as at first, by the aid of capital. Ditches for the further supply of water, bed-rock
flumes, and hydraulic apparatus are essential to the successful working of the majority of our
gulch deposits, and when capital flows in that direction, many thousand acres can be worked
most profitably, which, to-day, individual effort cannot touch successfully.
"That which has proven one of the most serious obstacles to successful mining in the
Territory has been the profusion of gold-bearing veins, showing temptingly at the surface.
Nature is never so lavish as she in this case appears, and in the light of general mining
experience, we have no right to expect more than a small percentage of true, strong and
uniformly rich veins from this great surface display. Thus it is that several failures may
precede one great success in the development of mines. There can be no doubt in the mind
of any one, making the country a careful study, of the boundless wealth that is hidden in its
bosom. Indefatigable energy and untiring perseverance will alone reveal its full magnitude.
"A large number of mills for the working of gold ores have been erected in the Territory,
and few of them with more than partial success.  The reason is obvious, and in their partial
failure, mining history only reflects itself. Some of them are of that untried character of
which it may be said that whilst they show in construction some new features and some
good ones, unfortunately the new things are not good, and the good points are not new.
Novel inventions, even if capable of success elsewhere, are inevitably destined to failure in a
new country.  The principal difficulty, however, has been the imperfect management of these
different enterprises, arising sometimes from the incapacity of agents, but more frequently
from the impossibility of anticipating in a country new and undeveloped the exact require.
mients of the case. One great error has been made by almost all. It has arisen from the
over-sanguine belief that quartz could be mined in quantity without preliminary expense in
development. The mills are erected, the money and patience of the proprietors exhausted,
and with untold wealth the machinery is left to rust and rot for want of ore. To-day nearly
every mill in the Territoly could be worked most profitably by the expenditure of a few
thousand dollars in the thorough opening of the mines belonging to them. Excuse me, sir,
for referring to the embarrassments under which we are laboring.  I is only by looking our
errors in the face that we can find the way to success. It is the fourth year of my residence
in the Territory, and I can assure you that my confidence in its great minerai wealth is
stronger than ever, and notwithstanding the discouragements that we have been compelled
to meet, we may say with pride that no new Territory has made such rapid advances in so
short a time as this. The working of many thousands of tons of gold ore in different parts
of the Territory, varying from $15 to $75 per ton by active working, is a sufficient indication
of the probable average of our gold-bearing rock.  The lowest of these limits pays a profit
even at the present price of labor in a mill of any considerable capacity. The expense of
the importation of machinery has diminished to almost half since the first mills were erected
here.  The Union Pacific railroad is every day bringing us near to the sources from which
we draw machinery and capital.  Foundries and machine shops are springing up in our
midst, and we are in all directions fast becoming self-sustaining. With agricultural resources
unexcelled, with a climate most inviting, with mineral wealth inexhaustible, we may, with
reason, feel assured that Montana will take the highest rank among the gold and silverproducing States."
The surveyor general in his report for 1867, says:
"When provisions and labor become cheaper, many gulches will be worked which are at
present untouched. Large amounts of money have been expended this season in the construction of ditches, and in preparations for gulch mining next year.  The result of these
preparations will be that, during 1868, fully 50 per cent. more gold will be taken out than
there has been this season.  The production of gold for this season has been estimated at
$20,000,000, and still not a tenth part of the Territory has yet been prospected.
"Iron has been found on Jackass creek.
"Copper abounds principally in the vicinity of the Muscleshell river.  The width of the
veins is from three to four feet. Placer copper has been found on Beaver creek, near Jefferson City, which shows some splendid specimens.
"The leads of Montana are generally better defined than in any other mining country in
the world, and the singular freaks sometimes taken by them in other regions are less fiequent
here."
32
497 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of their friends in Colorado in reference to theliir prospects and hopes, and induced
quite a number of adventurers to come to Montana in the spring of 1862.
The mines on Gold creek not promising as rich as was expected, the Stuarts
and others began to prospect the country extensively, and that summer found
some mines on a gulch at the head of the Big Hole, which, however, were not
very productive. Early in the same summer the mines at Bannock on Grasshopper
creek were discovered. These were so rich and extensive that the other mines
were abandoned, and by the fall of 1862 nearly all the miners in the Territory,
numbering about 1,000, had congregated at this place.
BAxNNocK PLACEnS. —The Placer mines of Bannock are found on the banks
and in the bed of Grasshopper creek, and extend from the town down the creek
for a distance of seven or eight miles. They paid well at first; as the creek
had an abundance of water, they could be worked by miners with great facility.
The banks appear to be nearly exhausted now; but the bed of the creek, if
flumed and worked in a proper manner, would still yield largely. A few miles
south from Bannock, near Horn Prairie, are extensive flats and gulches, which
prospect fairly.  When supplied with water, which will be brought in this fall,
they wvill give employment to a large number of miners.
There are 200 or 300 miners in this vicinity, working at various points in the
creek and its banks, probably making something over wages, viz: $5 a day in
gold.
In working, in the bed of the creek there does not seem to be any concert of
action, so as to enable one individual or company to take advantage of the
workls of another.  Each operation is carried on by itself.  After one company
has put a dam in the creek, and turned the water into a flume, the next company
below can take the water at the end of the flume much more easily than the first
obtained it.  AlWhen one claim is drained so as to be workable, the next below
will be drier and more easily worked than if nothing had been done above.
BANNOcK QUAnTZ. —The first quartz veins worked in the Territory were in
Bannock.
Grasshopper creek heads at the foot of a large smooth mountain, called Bald
mountain, which abounds in veins containing gold, silver, and copper. The creek
then runs eastwardly through a basin, when its branches, concentrating, pass out
through a limestone canon. At the head of this cation are quartz veins containing
free gold,  These veins are the source from which the placer mines on-the creek
were supplied. No gold is found above the veins. The croppings being prominent and conspicuous, were soon discovered and quartz claims located.
In the winter of 1862-'63, two men, named Allen and Arnold, put up the first
quartz mill. It was entirely of home mamnufacture; the irons were obtained
from old wagons and fashioned in a blacksmith's shop; all the lumber  used,
except pinie, fir, and cottonwood, came from the same source.  The mill had six
stamps of 400 pounds each, and was driven by water.   The men who built it
ran it.  In a financial point of view it was a success.  The ores were from the
discovery claim of the I)aklota, and No. 6 of the same lode.
A number of mines in this vicinity were sold to parties in the eastern States,
who have expended considerable sums of money and erected several large and
costly mills.
Inr the fall of 1864 the first steam stamp mills commenced working at Bannock. They were only moderately successfill in extracting the gold. The men
who had charge were practically unacquainted with the business, and generally,
as soon as they had learned to manage with more skill, they were superseded by
others without experience and the same process repeated.
One furnace was erected which only ran a short time.  It is now being rebuilt.
The probability is it will only continue in operation as long as the ores are susecptible of reduction more cheaply by smelting than by roasting and amalgamating.
498 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The mines of Bannock gave produced a large amount of ore. With proper
management they would continue to pay well.  A captain ignorant of his busi
ness, with a crew of landsmen, can manage a ship as well as a superintendent
unacquainted with mining can manage a mnine or mill with men unaccustomed to
either.
Sulphuret ores have been reached in some of the mines, which the mills will
not be able to reduce without additional and proper machinery.
THEr, DArOTA.-The Dakota was the first lode discovered and has been worked
most extensively, probably more than all other veins in the district. It is a
large, irregular vein, distinctly traced on the surface for over a mile in length,
and opened at six different points to a depth of 100 feet, and in one place to the
depth of 320 feet. There is no doubt of its depth and permanency. It varies
in thickness from three to eight feet; dips to the northeast; strike, northwest
and southeast; the general dip and strike of the veins in this locality. It car ries the oxidized ores to a great depth, containing free gold, easy of extraction.
The Dakota was located under the old law, which only allowed 100 feet to
a claim. Nearly every claim was held separately, which materially interfered
with the proper opening and working of the mines. One tunnel has been driven
in 800 feet in a thorough and workmanlike manner. Some of theo shafts are
well constructed, but much of the work is poorly done and on a bad systenm,
rendered necessary in part by the small size of the claims. Each company
should own at least 1,000 feet, which would justify opening in a proper manner.
The country rock enclosing the lodes is limestone, of a late geological epoch,
and rests unconformably upon syenites. No veins have been found in the syenites, and probably if they pass from the limestone into the syenites they will be
found to be impoverished.
Ar,,GENTA.-Argenta mining district lies north from Bannock on the north
bank of the Rattlesnake creek. This district, although not large, contains a
great number of veins. In no part of Montana yet explored have as many
veins been found in so small a compass.  On  the creek a few small spots have
been worked for placer gold.
The quartz veins are in limestone and greatly resemble those at Bannock,
only they contain more lead and iron.
The hill on the north side of the creek and opposite the town is a perfet network of veins, which are very irregular, and many of them when followed down
are found broken and the continuation lost.
A shaft sunk on this hill is almost sure to strike a blind ledge or a portion of
some ledge that crops to the surface in some other location.
The proper way to work these mines is by vertical shafts. A large amount
of ground should be owned by one company. The great number of claim-holders
in a small space, with the irregular and uncertain nature of the veins, will cause
many conflicts of opinion, if nothing more, should an attempt be made to work
them separately under each location.  The whole hill appears to be full of bunches
or pockets of ore, irregularly dispersed. To extract them will require a complicated system of mining operations.
Further west the veins are larger, better defined, and not so numerous.  Some
of them contain much richer ore.
The LEGAL TENDER has been opened to a greater extent than any other in
this district.  It is irregular in size and rather small, but the ore is rich and contains a large amount of lead, which renders it excellent for smelting.
The STAPLETON is a' good vein and will yield a considerable amount of ore.
It contains but little lead. The ore is well calculated for amalgamation.
The TUScAxronA is situated in a small hill or knoll. At the surface it displays a vast amount of carbonate and oxide of lead. The ore is not very rich
in silver, but as a lead mine it may prove valuable.
The smelting works erected by the St. Louis and Montana Company, for a
499
I
i
11
I 
RESOURCES Ok' STATES AND TERRITORIES
pioneer enterprise, are well constructed, and in a metallurgical point of view
their present operations are eminently successful. Whether the financial view
is as flattering is unknown.  The company wisely conduct their own business.
In this country where all articles are so dear, and skilled labor scarcelv to be
had, the cost oi smnelting is very great.  Unless the ore is very rich no profit
will accrue.
The ore from a few mines in this district must be smnelted, as it contains a
large amount of lead, but probably nine-tenths of the ore can be reduced more
profitably by amalgamation.  Muchl of it would pay well if worked judiciously.
The limestone appears to be of the same age as that at Bannoclk, but here it
rests unconformably on granite.  Here the granite contains no rich veins, and
when they pass from the limestone into it they are much smaller and generally
barren.
Argenta, a small mining town, is situated on the south bankl of Rattlesna.ke
creek.  It is pleasantly located on a small tongue of the Beaver Head valley,
surrounded by hills except where it opens out. Eastward it gives a splendid
view of the Beaver Head valley, and of the Virginia mountains in the distance.
The mines are silver-bearing quartz veins, situated on the north side of the
creek, and are not much worked at present.  The only smelting works now in
operation in the Territory are-located at this place. On Horse prairie there are
some good placers, but they are not available at present, owing to a scarcity of
water.  This will soon be remedied by a ditch from the creek, now in course of
construction. On Rattlesnake creek, above Argenta, are very distinct marks
of glacial action.  The polish on the rocks is very fine, and the strike marked
with great distinctness, showing a movement to the southeast.
Red Rock creek comes in from the south, and is probably the ultimate head of
the Missouri river. From this creek to Dry creek, in the Snake River valley,
there is an easy pass fromn the Atlantic to the Pacific slope.
SUrMMIT DISTRIcT.-The quartz veins in this distirict were the undoubted
source of the gold in Alder gulch. Several of them were discovered and located
soon after the location of the placer mines in the gulch below.
The first mill here, like the first at Bannock, was of Montana manufacture.
A wagon supplied the iron; the choice lumber and the natural products of the
district, with the labor of the builders, furnished all else. It was a financial
success, but as the ore was carefully selected the yield was higher than has been
obtained since. The mill was propelled by water; its capacity was three and
one-half tons per week.
Since then many veins have been sold in thi eastern States and a number of
tSteam stamp mills erected, a few of which have been moderately successful.
They only employ battery amalgamation, and pass the pulp over copper plates,
which will not save as much gold as when iron pans or arrastras are used.
One mill has a great collection of costly mechanical curiosities, many novel
and some obsolete. After a year's experience the operators still indulge in the
anticipation of gratifying results.  The method employed in these mills will not
extract the gold from sulphuret ore. The mines contain a large amount of oxidized ore, which will eventually be exhausted, and the sulphuret ores will alone
emain.  Sutlphurets constitute the main reliance for the future; and the working
cf any mill that cannot extract the gold from them will not be permanently profitable.
The mills in operation in this district crush about a ton to the stamp in 24
hours. The cost of working in two mills was $6 50 to $7 per ton, respectively,
while in another it was estimated at $3 25 per ton; these were stamp mills.  In
another, the cost was $25 per ton. The cost of the stamp mills was from $20,000
to $30,000 each, according to their capacity, which varied from 15 to 24 tons per
day. The cost of one mill was $120,000, with a capacity of about 12 tons per
day.
500 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Wood varies from $5 to $6 50 per cord; wages are from $6 to $9 per day.
About 20 mines have been located and opened to some extent in the Summit
district. Among the most celebrated are the Kearsarge, Oro, Cash, and Lucas.
The Kearsarge vein is about two feet thick on an average, though in places it
is six and a half feet.  Strike, northeast and southwest; dip 45~ to the northwest; opened to a depth of 120 feet; sulphuret ore at the bottom of the shaft
pays in a mill $18 per ton.
Lucas vein, average thickness three feet; strike north and south; shaft 140
feet; ore sulphuret; yields $16 per ton.
Oro Cash vein, average thickness four feet; selected ore pays $80 per ton;
opened 100 feet deep; ore sulphuret.  The first lot of a few tons from this mine
worked $216 to the ton.
There are many veins in this locality that will pay well when judiciously opened
and worked.
HOT SPRINGS DISTRICT.-A large amount of money has been expended in
opening mines and building mills in this district. The mills cost from $30,000
to $200,000, as estimated by men who have had good opportunities of obtaining
correct information. The estimates may be too high, but it is certain the expenditures have been extravagant, compared with the capacity of the mills.
There are three mills in the district, two of which are running, the other nearly
completed. The largest has 40 stamps, 20 of which are running. Its capacity
is 20 tons per day. The capacity of the others is less.
The mill companies in many instances do not wish their results made public,
as it might affect the price of their stock.  In some cases, owingto the short time
during which they have been running, no accurate estimates of the yield can be
made.  Within a year or two greater experience in working will result in something like a general average of profit to each mill.
In the Cape mill ore was worked from 18 different veins, in amounts averaging from 3 to 50 tons. The average yield from all the veins was $20 per
ton.  It is claimed that the Posey mine pays $100 per ton, and has been opened
to a depth of 200 feet. The vein is very irregular.
The George Atkins is opened 50 feet deep; thickness of vein one to three
feet; strike northeast and southwest; dip 45~ to the northwest; works from $40
to $50 per ton. The country rock is granite.
Bevin's gulch, Granite creek and Williams's creek empty into Alder gulch
from the southwest, and have some gold and silver-bearing quartz veins. They
prospect well. Being now worked, their value will soon be known.
There are many gulches near Virginia, as the Norwegian, which is on the
east side of the range and empties into the MVIadison, like Meadow creek and Flat
Springs creek; the California, Brandon, Ram's Horn gulches and Mill creek;
all contain veins that prospect well in gold at the surface, and many of them in
silver and copper.  When opened no doubt some of them will become valuable
mining localities.
HELENA. —The Helena mines were discovered in September, 1864, at Dry
gulch. Soon after, gold was found in Last Chance gulch, and as the latter
gulch contained water and prospected richer, it became the centre of mining
operations.  After Alder gulch, this is the richest that has been workled in this
Territory, and is yielding largely this season.
The depth of these diggings ranges generally from 10 to 20 feet. In some
claims it is over 40 feet from the surface to the bed-rock. Work has been almost
exclusively confined to the bed of the gulch. On the western side of the Prickly
Pear valley, at and below the mouth of Dry creek, and on both sides of Last
Chance gulch, there are hundreds of acres of shallow placers that will pay when
water is introduced.
Owing to a scarcity of water, Dry gulch has not been very extensively worked.
A supply has just been brought in by means of ditches from Ten-mile creeks
501 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
and the prospect is now more encouraging. Last Chance gulch is formed by
the jiunction of Grizzly and Oro Fino gulches, about half a mile above the town
of Helena.  Grizzly comes in from the south and Oro Fino from the north. Both
have been worked extensively and profitably.
The country rock near Helena is limestone and metamorphic slate; further up
in the mountains granite prevails. A large number of gold-bearing quartz veins
are found in it, from whichl it is evident the gulches below received their gold.
Nelson's gulch, lwhiclh heads in these granite mountains and runs into Tenmile creek, has been nearly as rich as Oro Fino or Grizzly gulches.  South from
these heads are a number of gulches running into Prickly Pear, which have paid
well.  The greatest obstacle that the miners encounter is the want of fall in the
beds of the gulches.  They are too fiat; but the same method of fluming with
steam machinery for removing the tailings from the flume, recommended for Alder
gulch, will be equally as efficacious here.
The mines around Helena are supplied with water by a number of ditches,
the actual cost of none exceeding $100,000. Small ditches usually are profitable; large ones seldom pay the cost of construction.
THE PAPK: mining district is about five miles firom Helena, at the head of
Grizzly, Oro Fino, and Nelson's gulches.  It is situated in a range of low rollilg hills, at the foot of a high range of mountains.  These hills are elevated to
a considerable height above Helena, and are covered with pines and fir. Water
is abundant and roads are of easv construction.
The mineral rang,e is in granite, and about three-fourths of a mile wide and
five or six miles long. The general strike of the veins is east-southeast and
west-northwest, with a dip to the northward.  The average thickness of the prinsipal veins is three to four feet.  On the northeast this district is bounded by a
range of limestone; the greater number of veins is found in the granite near its
junction with the limestone.
The greatest depth yet attained is 250  feet, following the dip of the vein.  At
that depth the ores are still oxidized.  Sulphuret ores will soon be reached.  In
some of the veins sulphurets are found near the surface.  This is not usual.
A number of mills have been erected in this district.  Generally they have
been successful in saving the gold.  They are nearly all supplied with battery
amalgamators, copper plates and arrastras.
THE WHITLATCH UNION VEIN has been more fully opened than any other in
Montana. Its strike is east-southeast and west-northwest; dip 40~ to the northward; thickness of vein from a seam to 15 feet; average 4 feet; opened to the
depth of 250 feet, and in a number of points inclines have been sunk to depths
from 100 to 200 feet. It has been traced for a long distance on the surface, and
several different companies are at work on it.
The ore is worked with the greatest facility.  Its average yield has been about
$40 to the ton.  One lot of 1,000 tons yielded $60,000, or $60 per ton.  The
gross yield, so far, has been $250,000, as near as is known by the working of
the different mills.
On Ten-mile creek some veins have been located in limestone, which contain gold, silver, copper, lead, &c., but they have not been sufficiently developed
to prove their depth or promise.
It is a general rule in Montana that where placer mines are found gold-bearing quartz veins will be found in the same vicinity.
On some of the bars of the Missouri river preparations are being made for
mining.
At El Dorado bar a ditch is nearly completed to bring the water from New
York gulch. When this is done the bar can be worked by hydraulics, and will
probably pay. Recently it was supposed that diamonds' had been found on the
bar, but on examination the supposed diamonds proved to be sapphires. Some
of them were fine, though small.
502 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
On the east side of the Missouri are a number of gulches that have paid well
Clark, Oregon, and Cave have been profitably worked this season.
MONTANA BAP.-This bar is just below the mouth of Montana gulch, and
near 300 yards above Diamond City.  It is about one-fourth of a mile long
and 300 yards wide.  It is estimated that th,e best claims, of 200 feet in length,
extending across this bar, paid as much as $180,000 to the claim.   The earth
was shallow and the bed-rock slate.  Between the 9th of May and the 15thl of
August the whole bar was worked out. The gold was rather coarse and rougb,
showing that it had been washed but a short distanee.  The ground was slate,
of the same character as the bed-rock.
Tre position of this bar is considered anomalous by the millers; nearly all
say that it is a " slide,> a term generally used in mining, like "' electricity" in
physics, to explain by words what is not conceivable in thought.  No doubt the
bar was formed by the action of water, in precisely the same manner as other
bars are formed in small mountain streams.  As it is lower than several other
bars in this stream it must be of more recent formation.  Along the sides of the
gulch the ascent is very abrupt, the mountains on the east side being from 1,000
to 2,000 feet above the bed of the stream.  On each side of the bar is a bed of
ground from 200 to 250 feet above this bottom level, and a slide, to find its way
to the cenrtre of the gulch, must have passed over one or the other of these
bars-an impossibility.
The gravel in the other bars is granite, with heavy boulders, evidently from
the granite mountains oni the east, while the gravel in Montana bar is slate.
Very little quartz is found in this gravel, showinig that the veins whence the gold
came were soft and friable.
DIAMOND BAR.-Diamnond bar contains the same gravel and the same quality
of gold, and is really a continuation of Montana bar; above and below on this
gulch nothing like it is found.  The combined length of the two bars is not
more than three-fourthls of a mile.
At the head of Montana bar are a number of soft decomposed quartz veins,
lwhichl probably supplied it with gold.  If the veins were thoroughly explored,
they would be very likely to prove rich in gold. Montana bar was entirely
exhausted last year. Diamond bar is being very efficiently worked by hydraulics this year, and by the end of this season will probably be exhausted.
GOLD HILL, on the west side, will be supplied with water by a costly ditch
and siphon, some time during the autumn.  This will be more enduring than the
bars in the bottom of the gulch. The bed and hill digigings to the southwest
will be profitable mines for years. Some gold-bearing quartz veins have been
found in the hills on the west side, but they have not been opened to prove their
value, to any great extent.
NEW YORK GULCH has been worked for gold-bearing quartz.  It has three
mills, one of which is running. This district is somewhat out of repute at present;
it is said the veins do not pay as well when followed down as at the surface.
But this is probably the effects of overestimating the yield at the surface; and
a, greater depth is attained, finding the ore more refractory, it will not yield its
gold to the simple working of the mills.
HIGHLAND DISTRICT, about 60 miles south firom Helena, is remarkable as producing a very fine gold. It contains both placer and quartz mines, but is not
as much worked as formerly. It is the most elevated mining district in Montana,
and probably in the United States.
The Montana Post of August 31, 1867, says: "In Highland district the larger
proportion of the lodes are gold-bearing, but specimens from some oi these lately
503 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
discovered and subjected to the action of fire show rich in silver. The following are the names of leads in Highland district:
mg ar   h   ae   flasi   lgin   itit
Names of leads.
Width of
crevice.
55
51
6
3
3
30
4
7
15
6
7
6
4
47
6
33
6
6
7
8
5
6
7
6
3
8
5
5
12
Ballarat..............................................................
Forrest Queen........................................................
A. P. Nevsins.......................................................... 
Gold Excel..........................................................
Only Chance.......................................... —------------------------------------------------—.
Park.................................................................
Talcoe...............................................................
Bijou.................................................................
East Wheel Rose......................................................
Orio Pietra............................................................ 
Wilbur...............................................................
Voleny...............................................................
Gallus Widow........................................................
Belfast................................................................ 
South America........................................................
Reward............................................................... 
Roanoke.............................................................. 
Corydon.............................................................. 
Hyland..............................................................
Coleman..............................................................
Camp................................................................
I. N. Meyers..........................................................
Bendigo..............................................................
Red Mountain........................................................
Waterbury........................................................... 
Iren Rod.............................................................
Highland Summit.....................................................
Golconda.............................................................
General Warren......................................................
During the last summer the mining current has set to the north, along the
Big Blackfoot. A number of gulches have been extensively worked, and have
produced largely, as Washlington, Jefferson, Lincoln, California, and McClellan
gulches.
In the heads of these gulches gold-bearing quartz has been found. The
placers only have been worked, and they have paid well.  The hostility of the
Indians this year has prevented explorations further north. It is probable that
when explored, gold will be found on both slopes of the Rocky mountains north
to the British possessions.
The mines on the Little Blackfoot have paid well this season, particularly at
Carpentier's bar, and on Ophir gulch, near Blackfoot City.  Many other gulches
in this vicinity have also been productive, and the yield of Deer Lodge county
will be greater this year than ever before.
At Silver bar and Butte City the mines have done well. Placers only have
been worlked; but in every gulch where good placer mines are found, gold-bearing quartz veins are found also, many of which contain silver, copper, antimony,
arsenic, and manganese, and are rich but very refractory.
At Butte City some copper mines have been discovered, and a furnace erected
for smelting. Owing to a defect in the blast it was not successful. The' ore,
which is quite abundant, is composed of oxides and carbonates in a concentrated
form. It contains gold and silver, and with a well regulated furnace there
would be no difficulty in smelting it.
These veins are found crossing a belt about one mile wide and four or five
long, and show evidence of being deep and permanent.
Along the eastern side of Deer Lodge valley, north from Butte City, are a
nLunber of-gulches which have been prospected lately, and promise to pay well.
504
Depth of
shaft.
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
32
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
120
121
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
45
15
43
16
50
20
17
1.3
24
Crevice found.
44
12
10
16
is
Crevice found.
10
Crevice found.
...... do
------ do
23
10
10
11
Crevice found.
...... do
10
11
Crevice found. 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
COMSTOcK.-At Butte City resides Henry Comstock, famous as the discoverer
of the Comstock lode,* of Nevada, the discovery of which inaugurated the era of
silver mining in the United States.  Although a man of the strictest temperance,
using no stimulant stronger than tea or coffee, and not even tobacco, years and
the hardships and excitement incident to a frontier life are telling painfully on
his faculties. In a conversation with him he referred to his past career-especially his connection with the lode that hears his name.  His intellect appears to
wandier, although his hand still retains its cunning.  He is a skilful prospector,
l)ut his fading recollections carry cloudy images to his darkened understanding.
He imagines he owns the whole Comstockl lode, and the cities of Gold Hill and
Virginia; but as hlie has no immediate use for them, he allows others to live in
his houses;i the people are poor, and it would be hard to turn them out, especially
in the winter. This feeling of benevolence in the old man is genuine, and one
that he habitually practices. Ile has a small claim that pays little more than
wages.  If a poor miner comes along without means, lie gives him an opportunity to work in the claim until the suffering stranger has the means to go on his
journey.
Recently an emigrant came along who was sick and could work but little.
Comstock and hlie worked together in the claim; the old man doing the most
laborious part until the emigrant concluded to leave.  Comstock then divided
what was taken out, and seeing it was too small for a man to travel on, said:
" Now, we will divide my half again; you will need it."
He says that at times he thinks if the government of the United States knew
how lie is situated, it would not let him suffer.
FLINT CPEEK.-On Flint creek several silver-bearinug veins have been found
recently, which show large amounts of rich ore at the surface. They have not
been opened so as to prove their depth or continuity. The country rock is limestone.
HOT SPrINGS.-At the head of Hot Springs creek, a mine called the Atlantic
Cable has recently been found containing anr oxide of iron, rich in gold.  It is
said to be a slide.  The ore is wonderfully rich and easily worked.
'Ti'E JEF'FERSON BASIN.-This basin is drainedl by the Jefferson Fork of the
3lissouri river and its tributaries, to wit: the Big Hole, Beaver Head, and the
Stinking Water.  It is about 150 miles long, and 100 wide.   In this basin the
first extensive minling operations were conducted, and the first town of any
importance was built.  It still contains a nunmber of important mining localities.
The Big Hole is so called from a smnall round valley near its head, surrounded
by a range of high mountains.  Here the snow falls to a great depth in winter.
As it melts in the spring and summer, it swells the Big Hole to a large and
rapid stream, from 50 to 75 yards wide in the lowest stages, and much wider in
the highest.  The bars and bottoms along this stream are subject to overflow,
and are generally rocky and barren.  Big Hole basin affords good pasturage in
the summer, but it is too cold for agricultural purposes.
In 1805 Lewis and Clark attempted to ascend this river, but found the current
so rapid, and the number of islands and other obstructions so great, that they
turned back and ascended the Beaver Head river.
Gold has been found in small quantities in some of the tributaries of this river,
but not in sufficient abundance to pay for washing.  Coal is said to have been
found in the basin, but the deposits have not been explored sufficiently to determine their value.
* The first discovery of silver was made in Gold cation. near Silver City, by E. A. and IH.
B. Grosch, in 1857. The first quartz claim was located in the Ingrim district, in February,
1858, by James Finney.  In June, 1859, Peter O'Reilly and Patrick McLaughlin made the
first discovery of rich silver deposits on what is now the ground of the Ophir Company.
Comstock is not justly entitled to the credit generally awarded him for this discovery. (See
preliminary report on Mineral Resources of the West, printed by Congress, January 8, 1867,
pp. 27 and 85.)
505
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Game. such as buffalo, moose, elk, deer, beaver, and mountain sheep, are
abundant.
The Beaver Head is longer and drains a larger area than the Big Hole. and
may fairly claim to be the head of the Missouri.
BANNOCK CITY.- Bannock City is built on the north side of Grasshopper
creek, on a small flat or bar of just sufficient size to hold the town, and very near
the entrance of Grasshopper canon.  It is an irregular wooden town with one
principal street running parallel to the creek, containing but a few hundred
inhabitants at present. In 1862-'63 it was a good mining camp, and business
was brisk. Its main dependence for the future is the gold-bearing quartz lodes
in the canon below.
Bannockl was the first mining town built in Montana, and the first district in
which gold mines were worked extensively and profitably.
The winter of 1862-'63 was remarkably mrild, so that supplies could be hauled
from Salt lake during the coldest months.   Had that season been as severe as
the winters have since been, the whole population might have perished from
starvation. Coal is reported to have been found in the valley of Grasshopper
creekl, about four miles above Bannock, but its value has not been ascertained.
STIN'KING WATEP..-The next stream which contributes to form the Jefferson is
the Stinking Water.  Its Indian name is Passamarine, one of the most musical
in thie Indian language.  It is not improved by its rendition into English.  On
this stream and its branches many rich mines are found.
In the ranges of mountains between the Stinking Water and the Madison
forkl of the Missouri, sent down into the former, are a large number of creeks and
gulches, nearly all of which have proved to be rich in gold, and some of them
in silver.  The principal are Wixansen, Ram's Horn, Bevins, Harris, California,
and Alder gulches, and Mill creek.
ALDEP. GULcII.-Alder gulch rises in a spur of the Rocky mountains, and
runs north. It is from 15 to 17 miles in length, and empties into the Stinking
Water, a branch of the Jefferson fork of the Missouri river.  It has many side
gulches or tributaries, but none of them except Spring and Bowers gulches, which
are near its head, have any gold, or at least not sufficient to pay. The hills on
each side are rounded off and covered with soil, presenting the soft outline of an
agricultural country. The denuding effects of time have doubtless been of long
continuance.
A careful examination of the gulch will convince any one that the gold in it
came from near the head, at its junction with Bald mountain. The gold at that
point is coarse and rough, with portions of quartz adhering to it; further down
the stream it becomes finer and brighter, showing unmistakable evidence of
having been worn by the action of water. Near the mouth it is excessively
fine, and cannot be collected in a satisfactory manner except by the use of quicksilver.
The gravel is very coarse and heavy high up the gulch, containing many
boulders of a large size; further down it becomes worn away to small particles,
and at the mouth only sand and very fine gravel are found.  The country rock
at or near the headcl is gneiss, and the same rock holds for a considerable distance; below it is replaced by micaceous slate. Near the head the rocks rise on
each side in a very precipitous manner, forcing the gulch into a narrow cut or
fissure, but below, at the distance of three or four miles, it widens out. The
paying portions correspond in width to the bed of the stream, and are richest
where the bed is narrowest.
This gulch is a vast natural quartz mill and mine.  Frost and atmospheric
action loosen the quartz containing the gold, and throw it down, when the attrition caused by the current of water pulverizes and washes away the gangue,
leaving the gold behind. This action, though very slow, extending back through
countless ages, produces stupendous results.
506 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The number of quartz veins found at the head of Alder gulch, known to contain gold in sufficient amounts to add materiallyto its products, is not more than
20, of which the average width is about two feet, and the average assay value
about $10 per ton, estimating all the vein stuff between the walls.
Alder gulch has produced more gold than all the others, and probably more
within the last three years than ever wag taken in the same time from any gulch
of the same extent.  It is the opinion of those best qualified to judge that within
three years from the commencement of mining operations on this gulch
$30,000,0000 were taken from it. This estimate may be exaggerated, but the
amount taken out was certainly beyond precedent in Montana.
The mines were discovered in the spring of 1863, and in 18 months a population of 10,000 had gathered together on the banks of the stream, building up
four considerable cities, to wit:  Nevada, Central, Virginia, and Summit City.
Virginia was built first, and, occupying a central position, always maintained
its supremacy.  It is pleasantly located on the east bank of Alder gulch, and
contains a number of fine stone buildings, consisting of banks, stores, markets,
dwvellings, &C.  It supports two newspapers, and is one of the chief mining and
commercial centres in MIontana.  helena is its onlv rival.  Although  the first
excitement incident to the discovery of a new and rich mining district has passed
away, and the mines most easily worked have already been worked over once,
still the annual production is large.  By proper workling, as will be explained
hereafter, the future production may be made equal to the past.
It is the opinion of the best judges, as already stated, that $30,000,000 have
been taken out of this gulch by the miners.*  This cannot be considered more
I Such a product from one gulch is beyond all precedent, and must appear a great exaggeration. But if well-authenticated facts are examined the amount appears more reasonable. For a considerable time the population was 10,000 or upwards; probably 3,500 workmen in the mines.  Ten dollars per day for 220 days in the year would give $26,950,000 for
three years and a half.  Wages were from $10 to $14 per day.  Nearly all of the mines were
worked by hired labor and the mines almost universally paid a profit above wages. The
whole number of claims was between 1,000 and 1,100; at 1,000 each claim must give a
gross yield of $30,000.
Montana is the most difficult mining region in the United States in which to estimate the
yield of the mines. Occupation has a great effect in the formation of opinions on this subject. Bankers and expressmen always underestimate; merchants and successful miners
generally overestimate; unsuccessful miners underestimate, while ranchmen and farmers
have no opinions based upon any reliable data on the subject. After the gold is taken from
the mines it passes through a number of different channels, some of which enable us to estimate the amount produced with tolerable accuracy, whilst in other cases no accurate conclusion can be formed.  A portion is sent by express to the mint for coinage.  Remittances
by merchants are generally known to comprise the amount that miners expend for current
expenses; also, what they send to their families or friends in other places. A small quantity is used for a circulating medium; this also comes from the miners as current expenses.
A considerable amount is buried in the earth by the miners, but no accurate estimate can be
formed on this point. Of the amounts carried out of the Territory a portion is taken by the
miners themselves; of this no account appears.  If a miner goes to California hs takes his
dust with him, and it is carried to the credit of California or Oregon or Nevada, as the case
may be. Some is carried to foreign countries, as the British possessions, which join Montana
on the north; lastly, a portion is kept in the form of specimens or for jewellers' uses. Thus
we see it is difficult to arrive at more than an approximation.
An account of the amount of the goods brought to the Territory furnishes a criterion for
some statisticians, who, assuming that the goods were all paid for, add the amount to what
gold is supposed to be in the country and what was sent out for other purposes, and make
the sum total the gross production of the Territory. This is a very loose way of getting at
results. Others take the cost of board per week, say $4 to $8 when wages are from $5 to $9
per day, and state it thus: as 6 to 42, so is the amount expended for provisions to the gross
yield of the mines. Manifestly incorrect, as many are non-producers. Probably the best
criterion is the price of labor.  A mine owner will not long employ men unless he derives a
profit, and miners will not work for the same amount that they are sure of making by themselves, for they think they may "strike it rich" on their own account.  Alder gulch is an
exception, for here is a limited number of claims, and those who have no claim cannot make
wages by prospecting.
507 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
than one-fourth of the amount that has come from the veins at the head of the
gulch.  Probably one-tenth would be nearer the amount, especially when we
consider the extremely divisible nature of that metal and the facility with which
minute particles are transported by water, a large portion of them being so small
that it is impossible to collect them by any gold-saving process yet devised.
Rating the amount already extracted at one-fourth, this would give $120,000,000
as the actual mineral value of the gulch. At $10 per ton this would require
12,000,000 tons of quartz to be reduced, provided all the gold in the rock is
extracted. At 13 feet to the ton a result of 156,000,000 cubic feet of quartz
must be reduced to produce that amount of gold; equal to the product of 20
veins two feet thick, each a mile long and nearly 1,000 feet deep.*
The general appearance of the country warrants the belief that the denudation is fully equal to 2,000 feet. Bald mountain, which stands at the head of
the gulch, rises to the height of between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the quartz
veins at the head of mining operations.  A great length of time must have
elapsed since this denuding operation commenced, and it is still in action and
will continue until either man forestalls nature in extracting the gold firom the
veins, or some great upheaval changes the face of the country and causes the
formation of a new set of watercourses.
The country rock contains a large amount of mica.  After a gentle shower
the whole face of the earth is colored a fine bronze.
The first mining district found on the gulch was Fairweather, called after one
of the discoverers.  Above this were Highland, Pine Grove, and Summit, and
below, Nevada and Junction, their locations extending from Fairweather district
in the order in which they are named. Each had a code of laws almost identical with that of Fairweather. These laws have been subject to trifling changes,
and generally have been very satisfactory in their operations.
In the lower districts claims only come to the centre of the gulch, thus giving
double the number that were held above; the same on the banks. Not far from
1,000 claims are located in this manner, and it is remarkable that nearly every
claim paid for working when wages were from $10 to $14 per day in gold. From
many of the best claims $150,000, and from some as much as $200,000, have
been taken out.
The usual method of working was to sink a shaft 14 or 15 feet to the bed
rock and extract the rich gravel, which was from one to three feet thick, by
drifting. In this way a considerable amount of ground was left as pillars to
support the ground above.  The bed rock cannot be worked with the care necessary to extract all the gold. When gold is very abundant the miners become
careless and do not work closely. This gulch was worked to a great extent by
hired men, who are not as careful as the owners of the mine.  Inl some of the
deepest claims water retarded the workling or prevented it entirely.  Owing to
these causes it is probable only about half the gold has been taken out that can
be obtained by careful and thorough working. The object of each miner was
to get as much gold as possible in the shortest time and depart for his home,
expending only sufficient to defray current expenses.
The water in the gulch nearly sufficed the wants of the early miners. Up to
this time only two small and inexpensive ditches have been constructed. It is
proposed to bring water from the Jefferson or the Stinking Water rivers. From
the Jefferson a large amount could be brought in at the head of the gulch, but the
cost would be great. From the Stinking Water the cost would be less, but the
water could not reach the head of the gulch by two or three miles and the supply would be insufficient.
Near the upper part of the gulch small flumes are in course of consrruction.
* This, however, is a very unreliable mode of calculation.-J. R. B
508 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
They are disconnected and too short to be efficient. To work in the most'economical and thorough manner requires a large flume from the mouth of the gulch
up to the head, with a large amount of water.
The greatest obstacle to placer mining in Montana is the want of fall or
descent, and this is particularly the case in Alder gulch. To overcome this difficulty and keep the works in running order it will be necessary to have the flume
double at certain points, with a reservoir in each, so that when one reservoir is
filled with sand and gravel, the water can be turned into the other flume while the
first reservoir is emptied. This can be done by a steam paddy or other machinery. By having places for the sand to settle and be removed at two or three
points along the flume, it can be kept in running order.
By such a flume system and the use of hydraulics the gulch can be thoroughly
worked, and its future production made at least equal to its past. This method
of mining requires capital.  The miners generally are employed by an individual or company and the profits divided amongst few. The last working usually
occupies about twice the length of time occupied by the first.
SUXMIT CITY.-Summit City is substantially built of logs, but in building
this town the streets appear to have been forgotten at first and put in afterwards.
In case of fire the whole town would burn with as much facility as a single
house.  It seems strange, after so many mining towns havebeen utterly destroyed
by fire, that in laying out a new one, where the ground costs nothing, the streets
should not be left sufficiently wide to form a barrier to the progress of fire, as
well as a means of communication. WVith a sufficient width, a fire could be confined to one square.
The rich and extensive quartz veins in this vicinity will probably render Sumnmit City permanently prosperous.
NEVADDA.-After Virginia, Nevada was the largest town on Alder gulch. At
present it shows signs of decay.  In the winter the people of the inhabited parts
of the town make use of the uninhabited houses for firewood. If a bed-rock
flume is put in the gulch, Nevada will probably regain in some degree its former
life and activity.
JU'CTION CITY and CENTRAL CITY were also at one time lively little towns.
Now they are more remarkable for quietness than for the commotion of business.
3lost of the other gulches in this vicinity have small collections of houses,
hardly sufficient to justify the name of towns.
The range of mountains called Virginia is not as high as the mountains around
the head of Big Hole; still they are sufficiently high to retain snow the greater
part of the year. This range abounds in springs and streams of running water,
and forests of pine and fir in the ravines and canons.
VALLEY OF THE STIKING WATEP.-The valley of the Stinking Water is
15 or 20 miles long and 5 or 6 broad, with some good farining and grazing land,
but generally it is not very fertile.  At the confluence of the Big HIole and the
Beaver Headl is a large valley very similar to the valley of the Stinking Water.
By a proper system of irrigation both of these valleys could be rendered available for agricultural purposes. Want of timber is one of the most serious inconveniences.
Among the old mountaineers this fork of the Mlissouri was known as the Beaver
Head, and took its name from a point of rocks on its north bank, about 15 miles
above the mouth of the Big Htole, called by the Indians Beaver's Head, which
it closely resembles when viewed from a point near the mouth of the Stinking
Water.
GALLATIr  VALLEY.-The section of country drained by the Madison, Gallatin, and the Missouri down to its junction with the Dearborn river, is about 175
miles long and 80 miles wide.  In this district of country lies the valley of Three
Forks and Gallatin, about 40 miles long and 12 wide. which may be considered
509 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the garden of Montana.  The season is from four to six weeks earlier than in
the valley of the Big Hole, and the climate is as good as that of Utah, while in
fertility the soil is unsurpassed.  Here farming is on a large scale, and in the
course of a year or two the valley will supply the Territory with wheat and
barley, as it now does with potatoes and vegetables.
OTI[ER. VALLEYS AND PLAcEnS.-North and south, Boulder and Wallace
creeks empty into the Missouri from the west, and have some good but not very
rich placer mines; also some quartz veins, containing gold, silver, lead, and copper; but they are not attracting muich attention at present.
Further down comes in thie Prickly Pear.  On this stream and its branches are
some excellent mines.  The towns of Montana, Jefferson and Beaver cities are
situated on this stream. Placer and quartz mines exist here, but are doing but
little at present.
The most productive gulch in this part of Montana is Last Chance, which is
formed by the junction of Oro Fin, Grizzly, and Dry gulches, and empties into
the Prickly Pear not far above its mouth. These gulches have been veryricll;
also Nelsonii's gulch, which empties into Ten-mile creek. On this creek are
numerous quartz veins, containing gold, silver, copper, &c., not now much worked.
IIELENA.-Helena, the largest town in the Territory, is situated on both sides
of Last Chance gulch, principally on the south side, and extends over an elevated
bar to Dry gulch, a distance of three-quarters of a mile.  It is well and regularly laid out for a mining town, containing a number of fire-proof stone buildin,gs. Many of the wooden buildings have fire-proof safes attached to them, or
an outside cellar with fire-proof walls and door, and are covered with heavy dirt
roofs.  Their construction is not costly, and in combustible mining towns they
do good service in preserving valuable goods from fire.
Helena contains an active population of miners, merchants, physicians, lawyers, bankers, and that miscellaneous crowd always found in the best class of
milling towns.  Residents claim that its population numbers from 7,000 to 8,000;
this is probably an exaggeration. As a commnercial centre it has stage lines
connecting it with Virginia, Diamond City, New York Bar, Fort Benton, and
Blackfoot City.  Nearly all supplies for the south pass through it on their wav
friom Fort Benton.
The most productive gold-bearing quartz veins in Montana, as well as silver
and copper mines, (the latter unworked,) are in this vicinity.  The placers are
extensive, and well supplied with water by a system of large and costly ditches.
On the heads of Grizzly and Oro Fino gulches the mountains are covered with
pines and fir, and along the Prickly Pear cottonwood is abundant.
The valley of the Prickly Pear and Ten-mile creek contains a considerable
amount of good farming land and a number of farms under cultivation, and the
saTrouiding hills afford good pasturage.  This valley is nearly circular in form
and 15 miles in diameter.
Helena is located on the western side, close under the foot of the mountains.
A more picturesque or beautiful situation for a town can scarcely be imagined.
A broad vista stretches away to the east, beyond the Missouri river.
BAr  MIINCNG.-Fromn the mouth of the Stinking Water down to the Great
Falls all the bars on the MIissouri river contain gold. These bars will probably
be among thie most lasting placers in the Territory.  Up to the present time
they have remained unworked, except El Dorado bar, upon which operations
have already been commenced, and it is reported with favorable results. Along
the Missouri there is some good falring and grazing land, and generally the
hills in the vicinity contain timber.
Confederate, New York, and a number of other gold-producing gulches come
in from the east, just above the mouth of Prickly Pear.
CONFEDERATE GrrLC. —Of these, Confederate is the richest; after Alder and
510 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Last Chance it is probably the richest in MAontana. It has produced largely since
1865, though its product has not been so great this year as formerly.  Diamond
City sprung up on this gulch, but has been nearly abandoned by the wvashlings
from the hydraulics in the rear of the town.
The mountains around the head of Confederate gulch are high, and contain
pine and fir timber; also numerous streams. Some very expensive ditches are
in course of construction for supplying the mines with water.
Estimiated yield of ilfontana.
1862.................................................................
1863................... —------------------—......... --------------------------------—...........
1864................. —------------—..... —-----------------------------------—.....
1865..................................................................
1 866........ —--—........................................................ —----
1867.................................................................
$500,000
8, 000, 000
13, 000, 000
. 14,500, 000
. 16,500,000
12,000,000
64,500,000
511 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ID A HO.
SECTION I.
AREA AND POPULATION-MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, LAKES, WATERFALLS,
AN, BOILING SPRINGS-VEGETATION-GEOLOGICAL FEATURES-TOWNS
AND MINING CAMPS.
AItEA AND POPULATION.-II form, this Territory is almost a right-angled
triangle. Its base, about 350 miles long on the south, rests on Nevada and
Utah, with a perpendicular of about 420 miles, separating it from Oregon and
Washington Territory on the west.  Its northern point touches the British possessions, and its hypothenuse on the northeast divides it from the Territories of
Iontana and Dakota.   Its area is about 90,000 square miles,* but inasmuch as
its northeastern boundary, on the crests of the Bitter Root and Rocky mountains,
has never been meandered, this estimate is only an approximation. Its populationl is about 20,000 at this time. As estimated by the territorial assessor it was
somewhat larger in 1866, viz:
Table showing the principal cities and towns of Idaho Territory, the county in
which each is located, the estim)nated population September, 1866, and the distance
of each jroin Boise City, the territorial capital.
A
350 N.
350 N.
450 E.
348 E.
450 E.
72 S.
70 S.
70 S.
450 N.
450 N.
Name of town.
I
co
'q
so 
IV
Ada......... Boise City........
Alturas..... Rocky Bar........
Boise...... Centerville.......
Do..... Idaho City  and
Buena Vista Bar.
Do..... Pioneer City.......
Do..... Placerville.........
Idaho...... Florence...........
Do..... Miller's Camp......
Do..... State Creek........
Do..... Warren's Diggings.
Nez Peree.. Clearwater Station.
Elk City..........
Lewiston..........
Bear Lake.........
Malade City..... —
Soda Springs.....
Boonville..........
Ruby City.........
Silver City........
Oro Fino..........
Pierce City........
.............................
AIOUNTAINS.-The principal mountains are the Rocky, Bitter Root, and Bear
mountains on the east.  The upheaval of these ranges has tilted the whole Territory to the west at a greater angle than that of any other State or Territory of the
Pacific slope.  In the south, the Owyhee is the principal range, though properly
it is an isolated spur rather than a range.  This region of country contains one
of the principal mining districts in the Territory. The Bear and Rocky mountains are different branches of the same range, and have the same general character.  The name "Rocky-mountains " is a misnomer.   Instead of being rough
al d rocky, they appear to be old, with their highest peaks abraded, worn down,
covered with soil, supporting timber and grass, full of low passes, suitable for
wagon or railroads, and embracing many fine agricultural valleys. The Bitter
Root is a broad, lofty range, continuous and unbroken, with a few elevated
passes, which are closed in winter. It abounds in rugged spurs, deep gorges,
and tremendous canlons, where the Salnon river runs in a continuous torrent.
* The Commissioner of the General Land Office estimates the area at 90,932; number of
acres, 369,529,600.
.I
i
I
i
512
e. -
;z.
" 1.
'd -;
.2
2, 050
,, 75
oo
5, 860
1, 700
1, 000
600
150
75
1, 100
290'
;z.
, -1
It
.0.
p
450
cl,-)o
300
425
751
400
1, ooo1
3,175
350
300
21, 725
Counties.
Name of town.
Counties.
Nez Perc6..
Do ——.
Oneida. -. -.
Do
Do -.. -.
Owyhee....
Do.. -..
Do.....
Shoshone. - -
I Do.....
I Total ----
..........
100 N. E.
45 N.
36 N. E.
53 N. E.
40 N.
250 N.
230 N.
260 N.
2:iO N.
330 N. 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The Boise range is a spur or lateral offshoot of the Bitter Root. They are well
covered with pine and fir, with good pasturage in the foot-hills and farming lands
in the small valleys.  The height of this range is 8,000 or 10,000 feet, with
some peaks that attain an altitude of near 12,000 feet.
RIIvEr,s.-The Snake river and its branches drain the whole Territory, except
a portion of about 120 miles long and 45 wide in the extreme northern part,
which is drained by Clarkl's fork of the Columbia and its branches, and an irregularly-sliaped portion in the southeastern corner, whichl is drained by Green and
Bear rivers.  Bear river falls into Salt lake, and Green river empties into the
Colorado.  This portion of the Territory has some farming and a large amount
of good grazing lianids, and is very scantily supplied with wood.  No mines have
been discov ered in it.  The Mormon settlements on Bear river extend for a short
distance into Ilaho along the stage route, but otherwise this portion of the Territory is uninhabited.'Thle principal branches of the Snake river in Idaho are
the Clearwater, Salmion, Payette, Boise, and many small rivers and creeks,
which uniting form a large river, withli many falls and rapids and a current of
great swiftness,  lwhiclh, when higli, carries away bridges and boats and renders
crossing it dangerous.   It is navigable to Lewiston.   A steamer has been
recently built near Fort Boise, but is not running at present, the swiftness of the
current rendering navigation always difficult and sometimes dangerous.  Among
the falls on this river, one of the miost noted is the American, about 25 miles
below Fort Hall, which has a perpendicular descent of 60 or 70 feet, but is not
remarklable for the grandeur of the sulTounding scenery:.'
SHOSHONE FALLS.-The Shoslhone falls are situated about seven miles from
Desert station, on the stage road from Salt Lakle Citv to Boise City.   The river
for many miles, both above and below, passes through a volcanic valley.  It
has cut a perpendicular caion through the layers of lava to the depth of about
1,000 feet.  The canlon is generally about half a mile wide.  At the point where
the falls are located it is nearly a mile wide.  Viewed from below it appears circular, like a vast amphlitheatre, with the falls in the centre. The different layers
of lava resemble seats in tiers ranged one above another to a height of 700 feet
above the head of the falls. In the narrowest part the water is 200 or 300 yards
wide.  About 400 yards above the main falls are five islands, at nearly equal
intervals across the river, dividing the stream into six parts.  As the water passes
between the islands it is precipitated 25 or 30 feet. The falls differ essentially
firom each other in form, affording great variety. Below the islands the water
unites and passes in an unbroken sheet over the great fall; the descent is about
200 feet. The semicircle at the head of the falls is apparently perfect, and the
leap as clear as that of Niagara. Enormous clouds of mist and spray arise, variegated with rainbows.  At the foot are rushing showers of spray, from  under
which the water, beaten into foam, dashes furiously away.  Occasionally can be
seen through the flying mists the immense sheet of water standing out in bold
relief from the rocks, showing that with proper appliances it is practicable to go
behind, as at Niagara. A few hundred yards further down the water swings
slowly around'in a huge whirlpool and then disappears in the black cantion below.
The delicate prismatic colors of the rainbow and the graceful evanescent forms
of the mist contrast strangely with the iron-black surface, hard outlines, and
awful forms of the overhanging basalt.  The sound of the rushing waters resembles that of an orchestra, the small falls giving the high notes anld the great falls
the bass, producing a combination not possible to obtain firom a single undivided
current.  At Rocik Creek station, 20 miles distant, it can be heard distinctlynot continuously, but at inteiwals, like the surf.  When the notes strike in unison
they can be heard at a greater distance. In the winter this mist rises like the
smoke from a volcano.  A few diminutive pines grow among the rocky declivities of the caton.  The plain produces only sage brush.   The hostility of tha
33
513 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Indians renders a visit to this interesting region somewhat hazardous, unless with
a party of six or eight men, well armed and on the alert.
SALMOXN FALLS.-The S,)almon falls, about 45 miles below the Shoshone, are
solme 20 feet in height, and are remarlable as formning an impassable barrier to
the p)rogress of tihe salmnon.  Itere is a famous Indian fishery.
VALLEY OF TIlEr SNArE.-The valley of tfie Snake is a hugle crescent-shaped
basin, about 500 miles long and 250 at its greatest breadth.   The whole interior
is a bIed of volcanic rocks, in which the rivers lhave cut deep canons.  The surrounding foot-hlills are generally covered with bunch grass, affording excellent
pasturage.  Along  the streams are many valleys, containing tracts of land well
adapted to agcriculture.  Frequently these vallevs extend through the basin to
the Sinake river, as the Boise, which is well cultivated, and contains many farms
in a state of improvement that would (do credit to older countries.   But the greater
portion of the basin is a desert waste of sand, producing nothing but sage brush
and a very limited amount of bunch grass, even in the most favored localities.
The Indian name for the river is "Pohogwa[," or " Sage Brush river" the most
appropriate that could be imagined.
SAGE BnUsIl. —This shrub in general appearance resembles the cultivated
sage, having the same forn and color, flower, leaf, and branch; its aroma being
similar but stronger and not so agreeable.  Its average height is about three
feet; sometimes it attains the height of five feet, with a diameter of four or five
inches.  The sage is strictly the shrub of the desert.   From  the eastern foothills of the Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean, and from  3Iexico to the
British possessions, it occupies nearly all lands too poor and dry to support any
other vegetation.  It burns even when green, with a qick bright flame, and in
many extensive districts is the sole fuel of emigrants, miners and prospectors.
In the Slate Range district, in the sout hern part of California, it was  used successfully as futel in generating steam for a quartz-mnill.  The cost of gathei ngt
and using it is about the same as that of wood in a moderately wooded district.
Where Indian labor is available it is much cheaper. A smaller variety called
the white sage is valuable for grazing in the wsinter.  Cattle thrive on it but it
imparts a peculiar though not a disagreeable flavor to beef.
Boise BASIN.-In some parts of te Boise basin the sand is loose, and the sd i oeate wind
drifting it overthe plains obliterates all traces of vegetation. Whirlwinds often
raise it to great height, and when one of these dust storms passes a train of men
and animals, the air is darkened, and breathing is rendered difficult until the
storm is over. In the northeastern part of the basin, on the south side of Clark's
Fork, are three lone l mountains called the Three Tetons; they rise ragged and
sharp in their outlines, and form a notable landmark for travsellers. North of Fort
iall are three similar peaks called the Three Buttes, visible for a great distance.
The highest, called Cedar Butte, is near where Lewis's Fork empties into the
Snake. It is scantily covered with scrub cedars, and, like the others, is undoubtedly of vocanic origin.  When thi e whole country is densely populated the Snake
river awill be turned out of its bed, and used to irrigate this basin. Ia that way
it can be rendered productive. If this river and its tributaries should thus be
directed, navigation would sustain but little loss, while a riculture would be
greatly benefited.  All the streams emptying into the Snake some distance
below the Shoshone falls sink before they reach the river, andi passing under the
strata of l,van come out on the sides         o       f the Snake caion.  Several of them shoot
out at such a height as to form beautiful cascades; some at perpendicular leaps,
others in a succession of small falls; some combine falls and rapids, and assume
tl benfis ll te igint he most beautiful forms of falling water imaginable. The white spray and
fbam strikingly contrast with the black precipitous walls down which the rushing
torrent plunges into the river below.   In one case a river ran over the surface
until it had worn into the rock a caion about a half mile long. A beautiful basin
.514 
WEST OF THIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
or small lake still remains where the water formerly passed over.  In process
of time it formed an underground channel, and now comes out at the foot of the
rock where the falls once existed.  It is perfectly clear, and although the depth
is great, the trout with which it is crowded can be distinctly seen at the bottom.
Along the stream on each side of the canion is a narrow belt of fine grass and
willows, entirely hidden from view, until the spectator stands on its banks. The
contrast between the beautiful verdure here and the awful desolation of the
surrounding plain is very striking.  All over the vast volcanic wastes of the
plain are upheaved masses of lava, with clefts or fissuares in them, caused by the
cooling of the liquid rock. These elevations are generally of an oval shape,
with a cleft in the centre extending longitudinally from the summit to the base.
Others have two lines of fractures nearly at right angles.  They sometimes form
ridges exceedingly tortuous in their course, occasionally twisted into a circle.
Their usual height is from 6 to 12 feet.  These masses of rock appear almost
to defy the elements. In many places the corrugations formed on the surface,
when the lava was cooling, appear as distinctly as if they were formed vesterday.
Along the edges of the deposit the lava in some places overlies granite, in others
slate and limestone. The action of the elements has worn these strata away,
leaving the lava apparently undecomposed, and elevated above the rocks that
once held it in bounds. A great difference is found in the power of different
rocks to resit the action of the elements. Thus, slate when soft and splinty is
less capable of resistance than limestone, and this rock is less enduring than the
coarsest forms of granite. The hard compact granite resists much longer than
the softer varieties; but all much less than the basaltic lava in this valley. The
same is observed in almost all canons where there has been a lava flow, as in
Port Noeaf and in Moor's creek. These facts afford material for a time ratio.
If the resisting power of basalt is represented by 100, and hard granite 90, soft
granite 75, limestone 50, soft slate 40, gravel 5, and ordinary soil 1, or if we adopt
any other ratio of a similar kind found to be in accordance with observation,
we have a basis by which a calculation can be made with approximate accuracy.
Around the base of the Boise mountains there are indications of upheaval to
a certain extent since the bed of lava was formed. The strata are all tilted from
the mountains, both on the eastern and western sides, but it is most noticeable on
the eastern side. At the base of the Owyhee mountains the proofs of upheaval
are clear. Since the lava was formed, many beds of regular columnar basalt
are displaced, and the columns stand at different angles, showing unmistakably
the effects of more recent convulsion.  On Clover creek, a small tributary of
Snake river, about 40 miles below the mouth of the Malade, are three volcanic
bridges within a third of a mile of each other. The stage road passes over them
in the wet seasons. One of these natural bridges is over a dry ravine, whiqh
runs into the creek. There is an island at the. point where the stream is bridged.
The first bridge is front the shore to the island, the next from the island to the
other side, and the third over the dry ravine. Their height varies from three to
seven feet; the arches span from 10 to 50 feet, with lengths from 100 to 200 feet.
It is probable the craters or source whence this vast bed of lava flowed must be
near the upper end of the valley, as it has a regular descent to the westward.
But this is not certain, for the inclination may be the effect of the upheaval of
the RPocky mountains, which may still be going onl. It is highly probable these
mountains had nearly their present altitude before this vast eruption of lava took
place; after that their upward movement may have continued, which would account
for the singularity of its declination to the west. About 10 miles west from the
bridges over the MAalade on the stage route from Salt lake to Boise City, there
is a circular depression in the plain about three-fourths of a mile in diameter.
In the winter this is filled with water, forming a shallow lake. The lava around
this depression is remarkably well preserved, and all the wrinkles or corrugations caused by the moving and cooling of the surface are as distinct as though
515
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
they were very recently formed. By observing these foldings the direction in
which the lava flowed can be determined.  It is apparent in this case that the
flow was in every direction from thie depression, proving that this was one of the
craters which once poured its fiery flood over the plain. When thie supply from
below was exhausted the mouth of the crater sank back, leaving the depression
now nearlv filled with alluvial deposits.  A close examination of the plain would
undoubtedly lead to the discovery of many similar openings, and by a careful observationl of the relative elevations on thie eastern and western sides of these craters,
it could be demonstrated whether the level of the country has been affected by
upheavals since the lava bed was formed.  At the crater examined, the lava on the
eastern side appeared to have run up hill, while on the west the declination
seemed unchiang,ed.  The Snake river has cut a vast canion through this plain,
varying in depth from 100 to 1,000 feet.  The different strata of the rock can
be distinctly observed in this canion.  The length of time required by the river
to wear away such an enormous fissure must have been great, although the
descent of the water is rapid.  The Shoshone Falls probably cut out the canion
belowv it to the Salmon Falls, a distance of over 40 miles. No observations
have been made to determine the rate at which the rockli is worn away; but from
its indestructible nature it must be slow.  The Boise basin divides the mining
portions of the Territory into two parts; one south and one north.  The southern
or Owyhee mines are in the Owyhee mountains, and do not cover near the extent
of the northern portion, which embraces the Boise, Lemhli, Salmon river  and
Oro Fino mines.
TOWNS.-Boise City is situated on the east side of the Boise river, at the head
of the fertile valley of the same name.  It has a beautiful location, is well laid
out, and contains many fine buildings.  Nearly all the passengers and supplies
for Boise Basin have to pass through it; hence it is a great staging centre.
Situated between the Owyhee and Boise mines, it will long be the commercial
centre of the southern part of the Territory.  The climate is milder than in the
mines, and resembles that of Utah.  Boise Basin is about 30 miles northeast
from Boise City. Its length is from 15 to 18 miles, and breadth from 6 to 8.
It contains a number of towns and many mining districts, and is the most poplulous part of the Territory. The present population is estimated to be about
10,000. Idaho City, the largest town, was recently burnt; but has been partially
rebuilt.  It contains probably 4,000 inhabitants.  Central City, Placerville, and
Pioneer are well-built mining towns, containing about 1,000 inhabitants each.
Salmon river has been the scene of two wild mining excitements.  One in 1862,
at Florence, on Meadow creek, where 8,000 or 9,000 miners collected-to leave
in as short time as they assembled. The town contains at present about 200
persons;  The other excitement was at Lemhi this summer, where 7,000 to 8,000
miners collected-to scatter as suddenly, except some 800 or 900 who had claims,
or who could not get away. The valley of the Clearwater is a large and fertile
agricultural valley, the home of the Nez Perces Indians. Lewistown, Oro
Fino, and Elk City were once flourishing places; but now contain only a small
population.  Lewiston, from its situation at the confluenice of the Clearwater
and Snake rivers, the head of navigation, must in time become a place of importance.  Walmren's Diggings have a considerable mining population.
The portion of the Territory drained by Clark's Fork of the Columbia has a
milder climate than is found farther south, and corresponds to the Yocko and
Bitter Root valleys in Montana.
There are three lakes of considerable size in Idaho, the Cceur d'Aline, about
24 miles long, and 2 or 3 wide, very irregular in form; the Pen d'Oreille, a crescent-shaped lake, about 30 miles long, and 5 broad; and the Boatman about the
same length, and 6 miles wide. The Pen d'Oreille and' Clark's Fork are practicable for steamers for 80 miles.
The discovery of the Owyhee mines led to the building of Boonville, Ruby,
516 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
and Silver cities. Boonville was built first, and depended on placer mines; it is
now nearly deserted.  Ruby City was both a placer and vein mining town; at
present it is supported by a few placer and quartz mills, neither increasing nor
diminishing perceptibly in population.  Silver City is the largest town in Owyhee.
It is a picturesque village, neatly packed away among the mountains, in Jordan's
canion, with mines, quartz mills, hotels, stores, dwellings, school-houses, which
serve for churches on Sundays, and an active mining population, and will long
be a mining town of importance.
SECTION  II.
MINES.-DISTRICTS AND SYSTEMS OF MINING.
The mines of Idaho occur in isolated groups separated by long tracts apparently barren  in the precious metals.   They  may  be divided into four districts. On the north Oro Fino and Elk City; then east and west, the Salmllon
river, the Boise basini, and Rocky bar, and in the south the Owyhee mines.   Gold
was discovered in this Territory on the banks of the Pen d'Oreille river, in 1852,
by a French Canadian, but not in paying quantities. In 1860, a company of
prospectors discovered the Oro Fino mines, and during that winter 25 men
remained there.   The mines at Elk City were soon after discovered.   In the
spring of 1861 1,500 or 2,000 men came  to work them.   Oro  Fino creek  has
paid in spots for a distance of 20 miles; Rhodes creek and Canlal gulch also
proved to be good localities, and although no remarkably rich placers were found
in 1861-'62 the mines paid very fairly.   Since then the discovery of Boise basin,
Owylhee, and Mtontana lhave drawn  the miners from  this district.  Except at
Wassen's diggings, very little is done in this part of the  country at present.
When wages become cheaper, miners may rework these mines to advanltage.*
*Governor D. W. Ballard, in his annual message to the territorial legislature of 18t6-'67,
says:
"For the first two years after the settlement of our Territory, Idaho was looked upon only
as a theatre for speculation and as a place for a temporary residence, where, by enduring the
necessary toil and privations, rapid fortunes might be acquired. The Territory was first
peopled by those whose object was the acquirement of a speedy fortune, and this being done
to return either to the Pacific or Atlantic States; but this feeling is rapidlysubsiding, and the
abundant success attending both mining and agricultural pursuits during the past year is fast
renmoving the prejudices that have formerly existed against Idaho as a location for permanent
residence.
"The most reliable information on the subject establishes the fact that the yield of precious
metals, in the aggregate, for the past year exceeds that of any preceding year. This, in connection with the fact that operations in gold and silver quartz, our principal source of mineral wealth, are as yet only in embryo, is a source of gratification to every one concerned in
the future prosperity of the Territory. The ledges already opened and worked uniformly
present indications of increasing richness; in not a single instance have there been indications of depreciation in the deposits of mineral wealth.  Only a small proportion of the gold
and silver bearing quartz ledges already discovered and known to be rich, some of them
almost fabulously so, are as yet being worked. From observations made during the past
summer by intelligent and scientific gentlemen, the conclusion is drawn that these ledges,
which have yielded so abundantly during the present year, will next year produce still greater
profits, while many more will be successfully opened, and their yield be found equally abundant.
"Agricultural pursuits, for two years almost totally neglected, have been prosecuted during
the past year with the most gratifying results. Many hundreds of acres in the Boise valley
and other localities have been brought under cultivation, and it is cheering to learn that the
yield per acre, of both cereals and vegetables, will compare favorably with the yield of any
other locality on the Pacific coast. The day is not far distant when but little, if any, of the
productions raised on the Pacific coast will be brought over the Blue mountains for the support of the people of Idaho Territory. Arrangements for more extended operations in both
mining and agricultural pursuits are already in progress for the ensuing year. The amount
of land cultivated this year will doubtless be more than doubled next, and it is safe to estimate that equal success will attend the mining interests of the country. In connection with
517 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
SALMON RIVER.-In the fall of 1861 some prospectors discovered the mines
at Florence, at the head of Meadow creek, a small northern tributary of Salmon
river. The situation was remarkable. The deposits of gold were in a rmarsh
on the top of a mountain, in the centre of a basin called Meadow creek.  This
singular depression is nearly circular, about 12 miles in diameter, and surrounded
by high mountains, except anl opening to the south.  The mountain on which the
mines are situated is granite, nearly circular at its base, rising from 500 to 1,000
feet, and about four miles across. From its top a number of flat, marshy ravines
ramify in every direction. They are from 20 to 150 yards wide, and filled with
peat and muck to depths of 2. to 20 feet.  Under this was a stratum of rough
unwashed gravel, which had evidently never been much moved.   This contained
the gold and was very rich, the best parts yielding a dollar to a panful of gravel.
Very little black sand was visible.  A careful search failed to result in the discovery of any quartz or other vein at the head of the richest ravines. About
1,000 claims were located on this mountain, and paid largely for a short time.
Suddenly, however, they gave out, and no more gold was found.   On Mleadow
creek the placers were more enduring. On some of the bars of Salmon river fair
wages were made by the miners, at the lowest stages of water for several years,
but, unless some discoveries should be made hereafter, mining will probably never
pay permanently in this part of the Territory.
A variety of pine grows in this region from six to eight inches in diameter at
the ground, with a height of 60 to 70 feet. So dense is the growth that it is difficult for a horse to pass between the trees, which are nearly of the same height, and
present the appearance of a field of grain.  They are remarlkably straight and
excellent for building houses or timbering mines.   The winter of 1861 was very
severe in Florence.  For several months all supplies were brought from the
Mountain House, a distance of 11 miles, oni the backs of men who travelled on
snowshoes.
LEuM]I.-Last fall some mines were found on branches of Salmon river, not far
from Fort Lembi.  Exaggerated reports of their richness caused quite an excitemenlt.  The probability is the reports were circulated for the purpose of selling
claims. It is said one claim offered for sale prospected well in the snow above the
earth. Accounts are conflicting as to the valueof these discoveries, but all agree that
there are some half-dozen claims on each of four or five gulches which will pay
well.  Some assert that these are all; others maintain that Lemhi abounds in
extensive placers which will yield $5 per day to the hand, though it is generally
conceded that they will not justify working at present, except in a few of the
gulches.
BoISE BASIN is a very rich placer district, well timbered with forests of pine,
and well supplied with water.  Mlining is in a prosperous condition here; the
flumes are substantially built, and the hydraulics of the most approved constructionll. These mines were discovered in August, 1862, by a party from WallaWalla, under the direction of a man named Grimes, on a branch of Moore's creek,
the agricultural interests of the Territory, it is not uninteresting to know that an enterprising
farmer of Boise valley, during the past summer, cultivated sorghum with the most successful results.
"While the two principal pursuits of our Territory, mining and agriculture, have thus been
prosecuted with efficient energy and success, all other industrial pursuits consequent upon
them have been correspondingly remunerative, and it is believed that there are more settled
families, more competent business men, more active and worthy working men, such as constitute the bone and sinew of every country, now in our midst who look upon Idaho as their
future home than there ever have been at any previous period.
"The idea of extravagant speculation is giving way to patient toil and well-regulated economy, and, judging the future by the past, this healthier sentiment on the part of the people
will gradually increase until Idaho will abound in all the fixtures and elements of a wellestablished and properly organized community.  As the resources of the country are more
and more developed, other branches of industry, hitherto dormant, will doubtless be thrown
open for the active and energetic labor of the country. All things considered, the future of
Idaho may now be looked upon with more confidence than at any former period of her history."
518 
* WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
not far from Centreville.* In a few days after the discovery Grimes was killed
by the Indians; his party retreated to Walla-Walla, where they procured re-enforcements, and, returning, built a fort about four miles above Centreville.   There
they remained through the winter.  Soon gold was discovered on Granite creelk,
Ell creelk, and MIoore's creekl, the outlet to the water of the basin.   The mines
proving extensive and the gold evenly distributed, a great number of claims were
speedily located, and they paid well.  For the first year or two the miners did a
good business.  Timber and water being abundant, they were enabled to workl
their claims to the greatest advantage.  The country rock is granite, and the
gravel containing the gold has but little quartz, sand or boulders in it. Geiierally the quartz veins in the basin are soft; Awhen detached and washed down
a short distance in the stream, the quartz is finely pulverized and the gold liberated.  In mills these ores are crushed with great facility.  A large portion of
the soil is stained red by oxide of iron; and contains a small amount of gold.
The beds of the creeks and gulches have yielded well, and have, in some instances,
been worlked over as many as four times.  MIany of the streams have ancient
beds of gravel, doubtless rich, below the present beds.   On  the sides and tops
of the adjacent hills are masses of clay and gravel that yield handsomely.   In
some instances, as at Placerville, the miners come to a bed of clay, which has
* The following particulars relative to the discovery of the Boise and other rich mines in
Idaho Territory are derived from an article in the Idaho Times:
"But little was known of the existing wealth of southern Idaho until midsummer of 1862.
Even Tim. Goodell, the old pioneer trapper of Snake river and its tributaries, who has, perhaps, travelled every trail in what is now known as Boise, Alturas, and Owyhee counties, was
entirely ignorant of the existence of our mineral wealth until 1862, when the first prospecting
party of six found their way up the caions of Moore's and Grimes's creelks. When prospecting
at a point about six miles above the place now known as Pioneer City, they were attacked by
Indians, and one of their number (Grimnes) instantly killed.  After hastily burying his remains
they left the country, and reached Walla-Walla in the month of August. No time was lost in
forming a company of 52 men to return with them and more thoroughly prospect the country.
Many of those early pioneers are still with us; among them we might mention the names of
J. M Moore, John Christie, George J. Gilbert, Mr. Fogus, James Roache, Green and Benjamin White, R C. Combs, F. Giberson, William Arts, J. B. Pierce, and J. F. Guiseburry.
The party arrived at the forks of Grimes's creek, on the site now known as Pioneer City,
about the 10th of October, and as soon as a substantial fort and corral for their horses could
be built, a portion of the company returned to the Columbia river for winter's supplies, and
the remainder built cabins and prospected during their absence unmolested by Indians.
Another company arrived on this creek about the 15th of November, and located mines near
the site of Centreville. Messrs. Muford, Standifer, Callaway, and Thatcher were with this
party. The latter two gentlemen still reside in that place. A great deal of fault was found
with the action of the first party in the number and size of the claims located, hence the origination of the name of Hog'em for that camp. One very bright morning about the last of
October several of the Hog'em boys took a stroll over the divide between Grimes's and Elk
creeks, and found good prospects on the bar on which Idaho City now stands.  Returning
to their camps in great haste, and not wishing to divulge the secret, they reported having
beat a hasty retreat from some huge bears. On the next day they returned, with several others
of their party who appreciated the bear story, and insisted on the naming of the gulch at
the upper end of Main street Bear run, by which name it is still known. The mines on Granite
creek were discovered about the 1st of December by the Centreville party, who also located
the site of Placerville, which contained about six cabins partly completed on the 14th day of
that month.
"In the month of June, 1863, several miners found their way unto the north fork of Boise
river, now known as Rocky Bar, in Alturas county.  The first ledges discovered in this camp
were the Ada Elmore, Idaho, and New York, which class among the best ledges in that camp.
"Owyhee was discovered in the following fall.  But little could be said to the public respecting this camp, as its history is spread wide and far, and its exports of bullion amount to hundreds
of thousands of dollars monthly. The mining camps of Yuba and Banner districts contain a
great number of good ledges. Capital to develop the mines and mills to crush the ore is all that
is required to class them among the first of our numerous mining camps.
"The mines of southern Idaho were more speedily populated and developed than perhaps
any other mining country ever discovered on the Pacific coast.  One year from the time the
first party arrived. 5,500 votes were polled within the limits of Idaho.  Since that time it
has increased and decreased as is usually the case, on account of the fluctuation of our population."
519 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORILS
been mistalken for the bed(-rock.  On sinkingi  a shaft through it a rich stratum
of,gravelis found.  Ditches from a mile to seven miles in length have been construtcted in the basin; their capacity varying from 300 to 3,000 inches, costing
fiom $10,000 to $30,000.  Like the small ditches in California, they have paid
the cost of their construction and a profit to their owners.  Large ditches generally Centail a loss to their projectors.  Where a large amount of water is brought
into a ininign  district, the mines, unless very extensive, are soon exhausted.
Sixty to SO cents an inchli are the rates charged here forthe use of water for 24 hours.
In some of the hydraulic claims work is continued day and night, as few or no
companies have reservoirs.  Where lumber is so abundant the creeks and gulches
ought generally to pay to flume.  Want of fall is probably the reason why many
of tlhem have not been flumed.  By the use of similar machinery to that recommenlded for Alder gulch, in Montana, Iluming could be rendered profitable in
some cases where it is not now used.  Except in the construction of flumes,
placer operations in Boise Basin are conducted with considerable skill.  Quartz
mining has been conducted with different degrees of skill, and withl varied success.
One company called the Elk Horn is composed of four miners, who all workl in
the mill and mines, giving constant personal supervision to both, and although
their ore is not richer than that of other mines, and their mill nowise superior to
the ordinary mills of the country, their enterprise has been uniformly successful.
The Elk Horn is a small vein a foot to eighteen inches in thickness; the mill
in the same ratio, having only five stamps. This correspondence of the mill to
the actual resources of the mines is doubtless a prominent cause of success.   The
best yield which has been obtained by the company from large amounts of ore
is $40 per ton, which, wvithl their economical management, affords a good profit.
On Granite creek are a number of veins with quartz so soft that two-thirds of
the vein stuff can be washed in a common rocker without any previous crushing.
The Pioneer mine, on this creel, is  a large vein of soft quartz, containing sulpl,mrets.  An extensive mill is nearly completed to work them.  If it should
pi ove capable of extracting the gold it will be a very important success, as all
g)ld-b)earingveins in tile Territory will ultimately produce this ore. The Juniata,
about eight miles northeast from Idaho City, has been opened to the depth of
229 feet.  This is probably the deepest opening in the basin.
About 25 miles northeast from Idaho Citv is a district which contains many veins
said to be rich in silver. Specimens from there are very prolific in horn and
ruby silver, with occasional particles of native silver. There are also specimens
containing polybasite and argentiferous galena.  All the ores contain gold.
These veins are represented as being large, and the ores well diffused through
them. They are situated in a dense forest, and are accessible only by a pack train.
When wagon roads are built and the mines proved, it will probably be a valuable mining district.
RocKiy BAa. —Rocky Bar, on the Boise river, about 60 miles from Idaho City,
is a small, compact district, with many veins in a limited compass. It has been
the scene of several enterprises on the part of capitalists from the eastern States,
who purchased mines in this locality.  The purchasers assert that when opened
the mines did not prove good; the parties who sold them maintain that if the
affairs of the companies had been well managed the mines would have been
successful.  Neither of these opinions can be verified by practical examples at
present, although many mills have been built and large sums of money expended.
ATLANNTA AND YUBA DISTRICT.-No district in the Territory is more favored
in respect to the supply of wood and water than the Middle Boise, or as it is
now known, the Atlanta and Yuba, situated in Alturas county, 16 miles northeast of Rocky Bar, the comity seat, on the Middle Boise river, at the junction of
the Tuba.  This district embraces the country lying in the forks of the two
streams and adjacent. These streams afford magnificent water power for the
propulsion of machinery. The new town of Atlanta is here situated on a gentle
520 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
slope in the valley near the Middle Boise river.  Along the base of a lofty mouintain called Mount Forsyth, burst forth innumerable hot and boiling springrs,
throwing out large volumes of water, which, ficlling into the river, prevent it from
freezing or closing with ice during the most rigorous winter.  In this district is
the Atlanta Ledge, already traced for miles in length, and from 15 to 25 feet in
width.  Selected oies from this lode assay as high as $11,000 per ton in silver.
In some places it is equally rich in gold.  The Greenback Mining Company's
mill, located at Atlanta, is run by water power, and is now working rock from
this lode, although imperfectly, from want of proper appliances and skill.  The
result, however, is very satisfactory. In the immediate vicinity, and running
parallel with the Atlanta, are other lodes which are thought by some to be quite
equal, both in extent and richness; such, for instance as the John Bascom and
Jessie Benton, the LuLsa, the Optimus, the Lenora and Silver Moon, the Tahoma
and Greenback on the Atlanta or northwest side of the mountain.  On the south
or Yuba side are the North Star and Hard Times, continuations of the Atlanta,
and the Sophia Tracy.  For working the three last named there is an excellent
20-stamp mill, with modern improvements, now being put up on the ground by
J. H. O'Neal and associates. Here also are the Minerva, Olive Branch andl
Confidence lodes, all of which give promise of value. In some of them gold
predominates, in others silver.  There are other claims which may, when further
developed, prove valuable; but as little work has yet been done uo.)n them no
reliable opinion of them can be given.  Mr. Graham, in co-operation with an Enlish company, has a 20-stamp mill on the way up from San Francisco, intended
to operate in this district.  The field for working in quartz, and for exploration
and development is extensive.  The valley through which runs the Middle Boise
river is four miles in length and three in width, and surrounded on nearly all
sides by lofty, rough and craggy mountains, some of which are covered with
perpetual snow. With the exception of this little valley, and another of lesser
size on the Ynba side of Quartz mountain, the whole face of the surrounding
country is rough and mountainous, so that the building of roads is a serious undertakling, and the want of them a great drawback to the development of the district. It is only within the past year that a wagonl road has been opened. Heretofore, all freight had to be transported upon pack animals. From this cause,
less has been done in this camp, and it has attracted less attention than any
other of equal value in the Territory. But now that it has become partially
accessible, and demonstrated its richness by the working of its ores, it must soon
become an important district.  The lower hills in the vicinity and surrounding
country afford fine grazing for cattle, horses and sheep until the snows of winter,
which generally commence in December and last till April. About 20 miles
southeast runs the South Boise river, bordering on which are large bodies of
bottom and table lands, level and rich, well suited for purposes of agriculture.
Oats, wheat and barlev in sufficient abundance for the consumption of a considerable population can be produced in this region. It is now covered with a
luxuriant growth of grass, from which thousands of tons of hay may be cut. The
depredations of Indians in neighboring districts, the mismanagement, the want
of skill and proper knowledge of the business, and the incompetency of agents
and superintendents, with the misapplication of capital, have done much to retard
the development of the Atlanta mines.  The regions north and west offer inducements for exploration.*
'The climate is notrigorous even to the 60th parallel of north latitude.  Lorin Blodget says:
"To the region bordering on the northern Pacific the finest maritime positions belong thi oughout its entire extent, and no part of the west of Europe exceeds it in the advantages of
equable climate, fertile soil, and commercial accessibility of the coast. The western slope
of the Rocky Mountain system may be included as a part of this maritime region, embracing
an immense area from the 45th to the 60th parallel, and five degrees of longitude in width.
The cultivable surface of this district cannot be much less than 300,000 square miles."
(Climatology of the United States, p. 532.)
521 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
OWYEEIE.-Gold was discovered in 1863 by a party under the leadership of a
man named Jordan.   They first found it about six miles below Ruby City.  As
the mines were rich, and wood and water abundant, a large number of miners
soon collected, and built Boonville, Ruby and Silver cities.   The placers paid
well for about two years; after that they were almnost entirely superseded  by
vein mnining.  Mlost of the mines produce both silver and gold, though these
metals vary greatly in their relative proportion in different mines.   In the Oro
Fino gold predominates; in the Poormnan, silver.   The placer gold is so alloyed
with silver as to be worth but $10 per ounce.   West and northwest from Silver
City is a vein of polhbyry, which forms a mountain about a mile and a half long,
half a mile wide, and 1,000 feet high, which is said to assay $3 per ton.  All
the gulchles that head in this mountain have been rich in gold; in some, hornsilver has been found. In Owyhee are two systems of veins. One has a strike
nearly north and south, with a dip almost vertical.  To this system belong the
Poorman and Whiskey veins, with silver predominating.  They  are probably
older than the veins of the other system, but it has not been conclusively proved.
The gold-bearing system of veins has a strike northwest and southeast, and a
dip to the northeast.  To this belongs the Oro Fino, and many others in which
gold predominates.
OneO FINO.- The Oro Fino is one of the most productive mines in Idaho.
The vein is large and well defined, and the gold generally diffused through the
vein-stone. It was discovered in followillng up a placer deposit to the vein, on
each side of the ridges in which it is situated.   The first work done upon it as a
quartz mine was by MIoore and Fogus, who tookl a large amount of ore from near
the surface, whichll paid handsomely.   Becoming involved in other enterprises,
they failed, under a heavy indebtedness to their workmen.  By an arrTangement
with other creditors the worlkmien took the mine, agreeing to pay a certain proportion of the proceeds.   Moore &  Fotus left it in bad condition for working,
anid the men wl ho undertook to work it had but limited means.   By perseverance,
however, they paid off the debt; then opened the mine deeper than it had been
openeed before, and found a great increase in its richness.  The company is known
as the "Oro Fino and  iorning Star."  A  recent crushing of 80 tons yielded
$160 to the ton; and it is probably now paying the owners a good profit.  At
a ineeting  of the stockholders held on the 1 7thl of September last, an elaborate
report of the mine was presented, from which the following is extracted
Work was commenced in the mine April 28th; since which time two shafts have been
sunk of 92 and 67 feet respectively; 1,134 tons of ore have been taken out, and up to the
15th instant 2,050 tons had been crushed, which yielded $54,193. The total amount of
expenditures in working the mine, including repairs, inoidental expenses, &c., amounted to
$45,508, besides other liabilities amounting to $12,476, from which. must be deducted about
$8,000, value of supplies onl hand necessary for supplying the mill, such as fuel, quicksilver, oils, acids, &c., including 7,000 pounds of shoes and dies.'lJhe company by-laws were
revised and amended; one amendment allows the trustees to expend, forthebenefit of the
company, any sum under but not exceeding $100,000, instead of $15,000 as heretofore.
Altogether, the affairs of the company are in a very healthy state.'Ihey are now ready to
slope out and work a new level of 70 feet, and consequently they will take out much larger
quantities of ore than before.  A clean-up from 70 tons of ore last Saturday yielded $10,327,
and to-morrow they will probably clean up nearly as much, which, added to the amount
above reported, will maklie an aggregate yield of above $75,000 since the 28th day of April,
leaving about $25,000 in the treasury, with everything in good condition for future working.
It is singular that so few mines are owned and worked by companies of
operative miners, especially when we see how successful such companies usually
are. Nearly all placer mines are worked by such companies, but when a miner
works a quartz vein he considers himself relieved from manual labor. The popular belief that "a mnill is required to workl  a mine" has had much to do in preventing, companies of miners from workling quartz mines.  In all extensive mining
districts where mills are numerous, miners can sell their ore for all it is worth.
Mlen who make milling their business can manage it better than those who
522 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
are both miners and mill-men.   We  see the beginning of this system in California, where the concentrated sulphurets are sold.
PoonrMAN.-As this mine is, in its location, adverse titles, le(gal difficulties
and local characteristics, peculiar, it will be described somewhat at length.  The
Poorinman, or Hays & Ray mine, was discovered in the summer of 1865, at or
near what is now called the Discovery shaft, about 900 or 1,000 feet south from
the rich chimney. The ore at this point was good, though not rich, and tile vein
somewhat small.  While the discoverers were developing their viens, a prospector named Peck found some very rich float-rock about 1,000 feet south of
their shaft, and out of sight from its entrance.  By  a small amount of digging
he reached the vein, which he carefully covered over wvith earth.   Gathering up
and secreting every rich piece of float he could find, he went where the discoverers of the Hays & Ray were at work, and after " talking round," asked them
where their claim w as located, and howv far it extended in each direction.  They
showed him their boundaries, and walked directly over the spot where Peck had
buried the vein, and suchi a distance beyond that he was convinced their claim
embraced the rich ground.   Peck continued to prospect in that vicinity, and
cautiously commenced negotiations for the purchase of the mine.  Not being satisfied with their figures, and there being few or no prospectors in the neighborhood, he left for a few days, thinking his absence would cause the owners to
come down in their price.  Before he returned, another company of prospectors
found the same spot discovered by Peck, called it the Poorman, and took out silver
ore of great richness.  Hays & Ray claimed the ground, but as their vein was
not uncovered or traced to the new opening, the Poorman company refused to
leave, and as the Hays & Ray party had no money to pay for provisions or tools
while they were tracing the vein, they gave Peckl a share in it for tracing it from
their opening into the Poorinan.  The Poorman party, seeing that they would
become involved in litigation, associated their company with some capitalistscoiinected with the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, and about  the same time
'or shortly before erected a fort at their mine, called "Fort Baker," built of logs,
with portholes and other means of defence usual in such cases.  The Hays  &
Ray party had their work so nearly completed that they could commence suit,
but could not give the necessary bonds. Acting by the advice of Peck, they
gave a portion of their interest to the New Yorkl and Owyhee Company, the latter guaranteeiing to carry the suit to a decision.  Before trial a compromise was
effected, the New Yorlk and Owyhee party getting the larger share.  The Poormnan, at the start, had the great advantage of possession of the paying part of
the mine.  The strike of the vein is nearly due north and south; the dlip at the
surface wvas to the west, but at the depth of about 150 feet it changed to the east,
which is probably the permanent dip.  The Silver Cord which is supposed to be
on the same vein, at a depth of near 1,000 feet below the Poorman, has also the
same dip.  A change takes place in the character of the ore, as is usual when
the dip changes.  A  large amount of unnecessary work has been done on this
mine; one shaft sunk near the office would have been all that was necessary;
but when claims are in litigation much useless work must be done to prove identity of vein.  The vein-staff is soft; a great portion being a silicious clay that
will dissolve in water.  Ordinarily a mill will crush two tons to the stamp in 24
hours. It shows considerable flee gold. The sulphuret ores are decomposed.
except where found in large masses.  At the depth of near 250 feet the greater
part of the silver is il the form of a chloride. About 100 feet from the surface
a body of ore showing partially the planes and angles of a crystal of ruby silver
was found, which weighed over 500 pounds.  Upon being fractured it showed
through the mass a uniform crystalline stratum. There is probably no second
example of a similar mass of crystalline light-red ruby silver ore being taken
from any mine. A piece of this boulder was seut to the Paris Exposition this year
and received a premium of a gold medal. Chloride of silver, or horn-silver, is
523 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
found in pure masses, with crystals of remarkable size and beauty.  It is said sheets
of this ore were found more than a foot square and the sixteenth of an inch in
thickness, some weighing many pounds.   Black  sulphurets of silver, or silver
glance, is common in the mine; also palybasite. The above enumerates the ores
of the mine, but it contains also small amounts of the various silver-bearing
minerals usually found in rich silver mines. These are generally more interesting to the mineralogist than useful to the metallurgist, by reason of their small
quantities.
It is impossible to estimate with accuracy the amount of bullion obtained
from the earliest worliings of the mine.   For a period of three months, fron
July 23, 1866, to October 23, we have a full account of its operations. The
previous worlk on the mines, pending the litigation, had exposed large bodies of
ore, but the working parties were enjoined from removing them.   The following
statement from the official report of 3Itr. W. D. Walbridge, the special agent of
the company, gives a clear idea of the operations of the company and the results
obtained:
Our first arrangement of working the ore produced was with the New York  and Ore Fino
mill and our own mill, at the agreed price of $40 per toll for each mill. Subsequently we
found that we were producing from our north shaft considerable ore of a poorer quality,
which we did not require at the two mills above named, as they were fully employed upon
the richer silver ore. We therefore made an arrangement with the Jackson mill to work
what we might require of that third-class ore for $30 per ton. Subsequently to this, having
more second-class ore than the first-named two mills could work, and to secure the use of a
hoisting engine to work our north shaft, we made an arrangement with the Ainsworth Mill
Company to use their engine, by agreeing to give their mill all our surplus ore to work upon
the same terms as was paid the others. We were enabled to produce ore enough to supply
all the mills named, and, by the several arrangements made, were enabled to produce a
much larger amount of bullion than we could have otherwise done, the great majority of
our ores being too rich for any of the mills to work properly, and keep nearly up to their
respective stamping capacity.
We continued to work the mine until October 23, being a period of three months from the
time it was opened. During this time we mined about 15 tons of first-class selected ore,
which we determined to box up and ship to New York, with the view of its being reduced
by the smelting process to increase its yield, we calculating that the cost of transporting the
ore would not be any more, if as much, as it was costing us to realize upon our bullion produced in Owyhee. The result has proved that we have lost nothing on the transportation,
and have clearly gained, by getting a much larger product in Newark by the smelting process than we could have got in our mills; the cost of smelting at Newark, by Messrs. Balbach, Dieffenbach & Company, being $100 per ton ingold; and, as near as we can estimate,
the product in bullion will be about $4,000 per ton in gold; this is upon the ground and dried
ore. Aside from that, and from which the foregoing 15 tons of rich ore was selected, we
mined 2,382: tons second and third-class ore, which was crushed and worked at the four
mills namedProducing, in refined bullion............................................  $546,691 59
Deduct total cost of mining, hauling, milling, melting, assaying, and refining,
with revenue tax, as per statement marked A, annexed hereto. —---------- 156, 440 39
Making net proceeds.............................................. 390,251 20
To which will be added avails of rich ore now being reduced at Newark.
This amount has been appropriated as follows:
Reimbursed our company for expenditure on Hays and Ray ledge........... $30,000 00
Reimbursed our company for cost of interest in Hays and Ray ledge..........  31,000 00
Paid our company from second proceeds of mine............................ 100, 000 00
Paid P. F. Bradford, per agreement........................................ 130,000 00
Total payments on account of compromise........................... 291,000 00
Leaving for distribution, pro rata, $99,251 20.
The late date at which the settlement with Mr. Bradford was effected, with the seeming
necessity of working the mine sharply and vigorously to secure as large a result as possible
before the time agreed upon to close the mine, November 1, placed us at much disadvantage
as regards costs of working and expenses, so that the expenses last fall should not be considered as any criterion for the future.
At the company's mill we crushed 880 tons of Poorman ore in a period of 78 week days,
.524 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
averaging about i11  tons for each working day.  This was all we could amalgamate in our
pans, due partly to a want of quicksilver, and partly to the very long time required to work
such very rich silver ore. The want of quicksilver can be easily and cheaply remedied
another year; but even then our pans can hardly more than amalgamate in 24 hours what 10
of our stamps can crush in 12 to 14 hours, which is barely more than one-fourth our stamping capacity. Therefore the mill needs more amalgamating pans, by which much more rock
can be worked, and more of the stamping force kept employed. We received for crushing
the 880 tons of ore, as per statement A, $35,200, which somewhat more than paid the cost;
but if we had had ten more pans we could have worked nearly or quite three times the
quantity at very little more aggregate expense. In other words, while it cost us nearly $35
per ton to crush, in the given time, 880 tons of ore, with sufficient amalgamating capacity
and quicksilver, our mill could work 2,200 to 2,400 tons of ore, at a cost of $18 to $i0O per
ton, and perhaps less. I would, therefore, recommend you to provide the mill another
season with plenty of quicksilver, and about 10 more approved pans, with  the necessary
separators, to properly and cheaply work the Poorman ore.  Quicksilver is always wanted,
because it is always wasting by use. The pans, with necessary machinery put up, will cost
about $20, 000 in gold.
Foreseeing, in July last, the necessity and importance of saving the tailings from almost
any gold and silver ore, and especially from the Poorman ore, I ordered a substantial stone
wall built around our tailing yard, sufficient to hold securely against flood about 1,500 tons.
The cost was about $4,000, and it now contains the tailings fronm the 880 tons of ore worked
in our mill, which assay about $50 per ton. The tailings produced at the Ainsworth and
Oro Fino mills belonging to us are safely cared for, and assay about the same. Those from
the Jackson mill were lost, being of but little value.
Believing additional settlers in our mill would enable us to save more sulphurets, and
catch some quicksilver and amalgam, and, as our amalgamating floor was very small, I
determined to build on the north side of the mill a one-story addition, to give us more floor
room, room for three settlers and one Knox pan for cleaning amalgam, a store-room for
chemicals, and a small room for assaying. This cost about $6,000, answers every purpose
it was built for very well, and, I believe, will pay its cost in saving, besides being a very
great convenience.
As I looked upon the question of fuel as one which would in the future enter largely into
the cost of working ores, I aimed to buy all I could during the fall, at low prices, and left
orders with Mr. Peck to contract for cutting upon our land, and land near the mill, at low
rates. We had, therefore, on hand, at and near the mill, on January 31, 1,118 cords of
wood, which bad cost $7,360 62. About 600 cords of this is piled up near the mill, convenient for use; the balance is at different points within one mile; all of it is so scattered
as to be in little danger from fire. To be forehanded in our supply will, I believe, enable us
to avail ourselves of opportunities to get all we may need cheaply for some years.
Not knowing that working Poorman ore would require so large an amount of quicksilver
as atas proved to be the case, we found ourselves with a very short supply, though for ordinary use we had sufficient. I was therefore compelled to send to Portland, Oregon, and San
Franc'-sco for over 100 flasks to come up by stages, at a cost of $1 15 per pound delivered at
our mill. I also purchased wherever I could in town, some of which cost us $1 40 per
pound; but with all I could get we had barely enough for effective use on the ore vwe
worked. The need of a full supply was partly the cause of the small quantity of rock
manipulated in our own mill. We now have on hand 137A flasks of quicksilver, say 10,986
pounds, valued at 80 cents per pound, or $8,788 80.  I would recommend the purchase this
spring of as much more, to go out by slow freight, which will cost from 72 to 75 cents,
delivered at our mill.
We had but one retort, which unfortunately gave way within two weeks after we commenced working Poorman ore, so we had to rent and use those of our neighbors, requiring
us to carry our amalgam a distance averaging nearly one mile, and our bullion the same,
and to keep a double force to retort the amalgam, working night and day, being the only
way we could keep our small supply of quicksilver at all in hand.  I at once ordered two
new retorts from San Francisco, but they were so large and unwieldy that they had to come
by slow freight via Portland, Oregon, and did not reach us until too late to be of service. I
calculate the loss to the company from the breaking of that retort, and having to replace it,
at fully $4,000. The cost of new ones delivered at our mill would not exceed $350 each; I
would therefore recommend that you provide against the recurrence of such a loss.
*           *           *           *            *          -*          X            *
Prior to the adjustment of the Poorman controversy, I secured 1,000 feet by location, and
266 feet by purchase, of a newly-discovered ledge lying upon Florida mountain, opposite
our mill, at a cost of $2,103 50.  The 1,000 feet is so much undivided in a claim of  1,400,
the balance is undivided in the adjoining claim.
In addition to the property enumerated in statement marked B is the company's mill property, which consists of one 20-stamp mill, with 10 Wheeler's patent pans; five separators;
three settlers; one Knox pan; one office; one boarding-house; one barn; one blacksmith
shop; one retort house; one temporary carpenter's shop, all very good for the several purposes used, the office affording sleeping room for two, and an addition to the barn affording
525' 
RESOURCES OP STATES AND TERRITORIES
storage room for iron and tools. The boarding-house having heretofore been the only accommodation of that kind, as well for officers and millmen, and such guests as we found it to
the company's interest to lodge, (which, for several reasons, is in my opinion inconvenient,)
I would recommend the building of a moderate house cf sufficient capacity to accommodate
a few persons, independent of the general boarding-house.
#     *           #    ~     ~     ~ *    X            *                       *
The Poorman mine forms at present the chief value of the company's investment. The
New York and Owyhee Company now owns 1,142i feet undivided in 1,600 of this mine.
Summary of accounts fro)n msline books, February 
EXPENDITURES.
Construction account-cost of mill...........................    
Legal expenses................ —--------------------------------------—.
Mining cost......... —------------------------------------------.
Expense account...........................................
Labor account........................... —---------------------------------------—..
Interest account..................... —--------------------------------------—..
- $147,621 63
. 44,575 06
39,045 31
22,116 00
7, 324 41
6, 347 10
-      $267, 029 51
Woodlands and ledges.
Noonday ledge........................ —---------------------------------------—..
Eureka ledge................ —------------------------------------------
Stamper ledge........ —---------------------------------------—..
Woodland and mill site................. —--------------------------------—.
5, 897 61
2, 974.59
2,103 50
1,625 00
12,600 70
2,441 75
16, 308 21
7,360 62
26,110 58
133,942 28
5,704 69
139,646 97
Due the company.
Cash in agent's hands. - -----------------------------------..
Bills and debts receivable...................................-.
9,814 12
455,201 88
RECEIPTS.
Drafts on treasurer..................................................... $278,760 85
Poorman mine.........................................................  166,888 33
Due by the company.
Bills and debts payable.............................................. 9,552 70
455,201 88
Trial balance of the books of the New York and Owyhee Gold and Silver Mining
Company, March, 1867.
EXPENDITURES.
Real estate-cost of mine......................................... $1,050,000 00
Mining account........................:. $78, 760 85
Exchange account............ —----------------------------------- 127,223 61
Expense account....................................... 26, 063 45
Interest account........................................ 20,832 62
Insurance on mill...- -------------------------------------- 1,425 00
454,305 53
Hays and Ray ledge account......................................... 87,362 56
Dua the company.
Cash in treasurer's hands.................................. 7,236 61
Debts receivable...........................................20,053 33
27,289 94
1,618,958 03
_-...
526
2,318 0
7,496 0 
WEST OP' THlE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
RECEIPTS.
Capital stock, amount paid in.............. —----------------------------------- $1, 2
Stock account, proceeds of sale of 2,500 shares.................... —----------------------—.... 1
Bullion account, realized in gold —...........................$33, 942 28
Premium on ditto ----------------------—..........................- 64,703 19
W. D. Walbridge, agent, realized in gold from ore in part... 4,992 62   15
Premium in gold from ore in part. - - 1,888 10
I~~~~~1881
6,880 72
Due by the company.
Bonds................................................... 50, 000 00
Debts payable............................................. 13,781 84
Outstanding draft......................................... 150 00
63,931 84
1,618:958 03
A.-Result of Poorman mine from July 19 to November 1, 1866.
Tons   Crude bul-  Refinedbul-  Value of Average
Name of mill.      crushed.      lion  1 bof       bul      lion Remarks.
crushed.     lion.         lion.       bullion.    prtn
per ton.
Ounces.      Ounces.
Jackson Mill.........     369~     7, 860 20    7, 323 29  $~5, 200 48       $68 25  Mostly 3d class gold rock.
Ainsworth Mill....... —-----   36~2   34,592 53   33,178 52    62,220 81    171 88  871 t'ns 3d cl's, 274+ t'ns2d.
N. Y. & Oro Fino Mill.    771i  129, 542 51  116, 753 91  203, 586 71          264 05  40 a 50 3d cl's, bal. 2d cl's.
N.Y. & Owyhee Mill.         880   156, 394 25  147, 960 17  255, 683 59       301 91  All 2d class rock.
Total value..................................    546, 691 59
[Whole amount of rock produced and sent to mills.
New York and Oro Fino Gold and Silver Mining Company-accounted for........  7501
New York and Oro Fino Gold and Silver Mining Company-not accounted for.,...-   20+
Ainsworth Milling Company, as above......................................362+
Jackson Mill Company, as above.....................................  369+
N'ew York and Owyhee Gold and Silver Mining Company, as above.............. 880
Total tons............................................................ 2, 382+
Cost of hauling 1,133A tons to Sinker creek, at $8........................... $9, 068 00
Cost of hauling 1,249i tons to Jordan creek, at $6 50........................  8, 120 12
Total cost of hauling................................................ 17,188 12
Cost of milling 362+ tons at Ainsworth mill................................  $13,170 47
Cost of milling 7501 tons at New York and Oro Fino mill................... 30, 030 00
Cost of milling 3691 tons at Jackson mill...................................  11,082 07
Cost of milling 880 tons at New York and Owyhee Gold and Silver Milling Co.  35,200 00
Cost of milling 20+ tons at New York and Oro Fino mill (balance)............ 820 00
Total cost of milling............................................... 90,302 54
Total expenses at mine for labor, supplies, lumber, timber, &c., less profit on
money, $3,286 99................................................ — $38,707 74
Cost of refining and assaying bullion......................................  7,250 01
Internal revenue tax, in gold............................................. 2, 991 78
Net proceeds of 2,382+ tons of rock crushed...............................$ 390,251 20
Value of bullion per ounce, refined-Jackson mill..........................$.. 3 44.11
Value of bullion per ounce, refined-Ainsworth mill.......................... 1 87.53
Value of bullion per ounce, refined-New York and Oro Fino mill..............  74.38
Value of bullion per ounce, refined-New York and Owyhee mill.............. 1 72.81
Average yield ot all rock crushed.....................                 229 41
Net yield of all rock crushed per ton........................................ 163 34
All charges for mining, milling, &c., per ton...........................   66 07
527 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The net yield of the ores from this mine is wonderful, and is due mainly te
their richness. A large amount is left in the tailings. The managers are perfectly aware of this, for at the company's mill, by a well arranged systemni of
reservoirs, all the tailings are saved, so that when the water leaves the last reser.
voir it is clear and can be used over again.  This mill is well constructed and
conveniently arranged.  The ore is criushed( wet and is amalgamated in panlls.
This collects the free gold, the silver from the chloride of silver, and a portion
from the silver glance; but the gold from the sulphurets, and nearly all the silver
in combination with sulphur, remain in the tailings.  It would probably be
unwise to remove the present mill, but in case of building a new one it would
be advisable to have it as near the mine as practicable. Last year the cost
of hauling from the mine to the mill was $6 50 per ton, a very heavy and
unnecessary expense.  The Poorman vein shows but few marlks of movement on
its walls, as might be inferred from its nearly vertical position.  It is probable
that no faults of great extent will be met in working it. The vein in the widest
parts is three feet or more, but its average thickness, from the shaft of Hays and
IRay, (as shown in the lower tunnel,) for a distance of 1,100 feet north, is not
over a foot.  Near the southern end of this tunnel is evidence of another chimney, not so rich, however, as that in the Poorman shaft. Doubtless many more
may be found. These, however, are the only chimneys yet developed. The
great richness of this vein has caused its examination by many speculative men
who never saw a mine before, and who considered  that each vein exhibited
something miraculous. But nature operates by unchanging laws, and if these
gentlemen had examined other mines they would have found the same forces
producing the same effects, and have saved themselves the trouble of inventing
useless and ridiculous theories.
FLINT DISTRICT.-Flint district is situated about nine miles south from Silver
City. It has a number of very promising silver-bearing veins, all containing
nearly the same varieties of ore.  Polybasite, antimonial silver, and xanthacone
are thie principal varieties. All these require roasting before they can be reduced
by amalgamation.  A mill with two small furnaces has been recently erected.
Tlhe yield of the ore has been very satisfactory. The RIising Star has been well
developed.  It is a regular vein about 10 feet thick, and containsa large amount
of antimonial silver and some gold.  This is a very busy mining camp, thickly
peopled with miners and all at work.  The Iowa and Idaho mill, with a capacity of 15 tons per day, is nearly completed. This mill is intended to work by
roasting and amalgamation. In theory the plan is correct. The mechanical
arrangements, either as they are or with some modifications, will probably be
successful. The altitude of Flint district is 1,000 or 1,500 feet less than that of
Silver City, and the climate is milder.  Owyhee, being the most southern mining
reg,ion in Idaho  will receive more directly the benefits arising from the construction of the Central Pacific railroad, which, it is claimed, will be only 90
miles in a direct line from Silver City. Placer and vein tinstone have been found
near Silver City.  The placer tin was in small quantities.  Only three veilis
containing this metal have been found.  Whether the mines when opened will
prove valuable is uncertain, but their appearance encourages a trial.
CLIMATE.-Thle climate of Idaho is greatly diversified by the altitude. In
the mines, which are generally high up in the mountains, the temperature is of
course much colder than in the valleys. The following memoranda by M. M.
Chipman, of Idaho, were kindly furnished by the observer. Full thermometrical tables by the same observer were destroyed by fire:
Copy of weather memoranda.
IDAIIO CITY, July, 1867.
On the morning of the 12th December, 1865, the mercury of Fahrenheit's thermometer
stood at 50 below zero.  December 19th, at half past 1 o'clock a. m., at 180 below zero;
528 
WEST OF TIIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
but the temperature grew milder immediately afterwards, and the mercury stood at 6~ below
zero at 7 o'clock a. m.
February 14, 1867.-The mercury stood at 5~ below zero at 7 o'clock a. m., and at 2~
below at 10 p. m.
February 15, 1867.-5~ below zero at 7 o'clock a. m.
February 16, 1867.-3~ below zero at 7 o'clock a. m.
The foregoing memorandum shows the coldest periods of the winters of 1865-'66 at this
place.  During the month of January I do not think the mercury fell below zero.  The
greatest depth of snow during that winter occurred about the 1st of January, at which time
it was three feet deep around this city, but much deeper on the surrounding heights.
April 20, 1867.-I have had a fire in my room this spring throughout every day to this
date, with the exception of one which was so warm as to render it unnecessary.
The winter of 1866-'67 was milder than any experienced since the settlement of this
(Boise) basin until March, which was a colder month than either of the three preceding, and
colder than any preceding March known by the present population.
March 12, 1867.-The mercury stood at 130 below zero at 7 o'clock a.m.
March 13, 1867.-170 below zero at 7 o'clock a. m.
The days mentioned were by several degrees the coldest during the winter, although there
were a few other days at about the same time during which, in the latter part of the night and
the early part of the morning, the mercury ranged at from 1~ to 60 below zero. During the
three winter months proper the mercury rarely fell as low as zero.  M. M.  CHIIPMAN.
QUARTZ M3ILLS.-The  following table of quartz  mills and water ditches in
Idaho, omitting names of owners on account of the frequent changes of ownership, is firom Langley's Pacific Coast Directorv.  The increase in number during
the past year (1867) has been comparatively small.  Notices of the new mills,
constructed or in progress, and of the ditches, are given in the descriptions of
the districts:
Table of quartz mills, with their location, name, cost, date of erection, number of stamps,  &c.
0.    0 m
) a    c) _
z  -     0,
Name of mill.
PI
Alturas county.
Idaho...........................
Waddingham G. & S. M, Co.. —--—.
Waddingham G. & S. M. Co. —-—.
Pittsburg & Idaho G. & S. M. Co..   
Harris & Benson                                   -----------------
New York & Idaho G. M. Co....
Victor Gold & Silver Mining Co. -
Defrees.........................
Bledsoe.........................
Boise county.
Raymonds......................
Sutmmit Flat....................
Elkhorn.........................
Bibb, Jackson & Humason.....
Combs & Co.....................
Middleton-......................
Collins & Holliday...............
Cobden Mining Co...............
Gates........................ —-----------------------—.
Van Wyck............ —----------—. —----—.
Langdon's.......................
Owyhee county.
Lincoln.........................
Cosmos.........................
Martin & Co..................... —--------
Atinear..........................
MIorning Star....................
sNew York & Oreo Gino...........
New York & Owyhee................
Shoenbar........................
Vass & Morse....................
Ainsworth.......................,renzeback.....................
Webfoot........................
34
529
I
i
i
i
I
.5i
1..
0.
0
Cost.
010
, I
Location.
Bear Creek............
...... do...............
Clifden................
Elk Creek -------------
Red Warrior Creek ----
...... do...............
...... do...............
Volcano...............
Yuba District..........
1865
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
12
10
40
10
10
10
20
10
10
Steam -
-- do...
. - do - - -
........
........
Stea,,n.
.- do. -.
........
........
G.& S.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
..........
..........
..........
----------
..........
..........
..........
......
------
......
3
......
......
......
......
......
----------
..........
Centerville............
Divide................
Elk Creek -------------
Grimes's Creek........
Idaho City.............
------ do...............
lee House Gulch
Moore's Creek.........
------ do ---------------
........................
........................
10
8
5
8
10
10
12
25
......
5
......
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
.Do.
Do.
Do.
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
- - - - - - - - - -
I..........
..........
......
......
......
......
......
......
------
---— I
......
------
------
......
......
......
......
......
......
------
......
------
......
I.....
........
--- ----
Water -
- - do.. -
Steam.
- - do - - -
.. do ---
.. do - - -
— do. —
.. do ---
........
I
Golden Creek..........
Jordan Creek..........
...... do...............
...... do ---------------
...... do...............
...... do ---------------
...... do...............
...... do...............
...... do...............
Sinker Creek ----------
...... do...............
........................
20
10
20
5
8
10
20
10
4
10
1.0
5 i
Steam.. do - -.
.. do -.-. do ---
-- d....
- - do -..
- - do ---
.. do - - 
.. do ---
........
--------
........
D'o"
Do.;
Do..
Do.D-3..
1)o.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
..........
..........
.......
40, 000
75, 000
- - - - - - - - - -
120, 000
100,000
10, 000
......
......
......
------
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
------
......
......
......
......
------
------
......
..........
..........
---------- 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Water ditches, witi the location, source of water, length,  c., of each.
Name of ditch.                              Source of water.    Miles in
length.
Boise county.
Alderson............................................................... Alderson Creek........ 3
Bannack............................................................... Bannack Bar..........  i
Big Ditch...................................................................................... 6
Buena Vista............................................................ Buena Vista Bar....... 3
Centerville.............................................................................................
Christa......................................................................................... 8
Deer Creek Ditch Company's........................................... Deer Creek....................
Goldstrup & Company's.....................................,................................... 9
Grimes Creek.......................................................... Grimes' Creek......... 13
More &Wilson's........................................................ More's Creek.......... 7
Pine Creek............................................................... Pine Creek............ 5
Placerville...............................................................-................................
Upper Creek...........................................................................................
Wright's....................................................................................... 9
PROSPECTING FOP MINEs.-All miners are prospectors to a certain extent, but
in all mining commniunities on the Pacific slope there is a class whose sole business is to prospect for new mines. By long experience these men acquire a
degree of skill that appears like instinct.  As far as they can see amountain they
can determine with great accuracy the probabilities of its containing metals of
value. If the hills are smooth and the points are rounded off, placer gold may
be found, but not where the hills are bare rock with sharp angular projections
If there is granite, slate, porphyry, or limestone, metalliferous veins may be found,
but if the rocks are volcanic it is useless to look for anything valuable where it
prevails exclusively. The color of the earth is also an important consideration;
over a metalliferous vein there is usually a strip of the earth, about the widtlh
of the vein, different in color from the surrounding earth.
The outfit for either quartz or placer prospecting is the same, except a difference in tools. Sometimes a single man goes, but usually from 2 to 12 men go
in a company; the latter number only in a hostile Indian country.
Each man has a saddlehorse, and every two or three men a packhorse for the
purpose of carrying their provisions, cooking utensils, mining tools, and blankets.
In very stormy weather a tent is sometimes added to the outfit.
Cooking utensils consist of a camp kettle, coffee pot, frying pan, tin cups, and
knives.  The food is bacon, beans, self-rising flour, sugar, and coffee.  These,
with a Colt's revolver, Henry rifle, or a double-barrelled shot-gun, constitute the
armament.
A properly organized party will subsist for months at a time, and traverse a
country hundreds of miles in extent without fresh supplies.
For placer prospecting the tools are a pick, pan, shovel, and axe.  For quartz
or vein prospecting, a palepick, (a pick at one end and a hammer at the other,)
shovel, horn spoon, iron mortar, magnet and eyeglass, a few vials of acids,
ammonia and solution of salt, and some mattrasses and test tubes. When the
prospector can use the blowpipe he always carries it, with a few reagents.  The
use of the pick and shovel is too well known to require description.  The mortar is used to reduce the rock or ore to a fine powder, which is worked in the
horn spoon to test it for gold.  Very minute particles of gold can be detected in
this manner, especially where a magnifying glass is used.  The eyeglass is also
useful to examine pieces of rlock.
If the rock is suspected to contain silver, it is heated in a fire to as high a
degree as the means in a wild country will admit, and if very rich the silver
melts and forms globules, which adhere to the rock when cold.  This test is
not very certain, as lead and antimony behave in the same manner and are generally associated with silver, so that the presence of one is a strong indication
,of the others. Another method is to pulverize a portion of the rock, boil it in
530 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
a mattrass with nitric acid, and allow it to settle.  To a portion of the clear
liquor in a test tube an equal portion of a strong solution of common salt is
added.  If the rock contains silver not in the form of a chloride, a white precipitate is thrown down, which an exposure to the light for a few hours changes to a
purple, and in process of time turns black.  Other metals, as lead, antimony,
and zinc, form a white precipitate, but it does not change its color by exposure
to light.  If the rock contains copper, a portion of the solution with twice the
amount of ammonia added turns a deep blue. By these means the presence of
gold, silver, copper, and lead can be determined, which, with tin and quicksilver, constitute the list of valuable metals on the Pacific slope.   The blowpipe,
with a delicate pair of scales and the requisite reagent, will determine any known
mineral, so that with some little experience any compound of the valuable metals
can be easily identified.
After a party in search of placer mines arrives in a district reported to be rich
and where the appearances are favorable, they select a camping ground near some
spring or stream of water where their horses can get grass, and proceed to explore
the country.  Smooth, well-rounded hills and beds of gravel, either near a stream
or on the side or top of a hill, are good indications; also quartz veins and houlders.  The dirt from the top of the earth is tried by vwashing in a pan.  If it
prospects well the discovery is made, but if it shows nothing, or too small an
amount to pay, a pit is sunk down until a change is observed in the color or
consistency of the gravel, or until the bed rock is reached. On the bars of
streams the sanandand gravel near the surface are finer and lighter than further down,
the gold corresponding; the greatest deposit being on and in the bed rock near
its surface.  In hill diggings sometimes for the depth of 70 feet the gold is found
about equally distributed the whole distance. If gold is found in sulllicient
quantities a district is organized and a town springs up. But if after the sinking of pits no satisfactory prospect is found, the party move on.
Prospectors often move too soon. When gold is found even in small amounts,
the pits ought to be sunk to the bed rock before it is abandoned. Frequently
a body of hard clay or cement is taken for the bed rock, not only in prospecting
but in wvorking, as at Carpentier's bar in Montana.  Some skill is required to
select the best place to sink a pit. In most gulches a skilful prospector can
select points in which if no gold is found it is almost certain that there is none
in it. The best points are where a ridge of rock extends across the channel of
the stream and wihere the gravel is shallow.  If a place can be found where the
gravel and soil are not more than two feet deep and the bed rock is rough, and
on a thorough prospect entirely across the channel no gold is discovered, it is
exceedingly probable that none exists in that gulch, or at least near that portion
of it.  In prospecting for bar claims the most favorable points are where the
stream now makes a bend where it formerly ran across.  What are called'l hill
diggings" are beds of gravel deposited by ancient streams when the general
level of the country was higher than at present.  They are often found under
solidified streams of lava, as under Table mountain in California.
Perseverance is a cardinal virtue in a prospector.  Miany mines are said to be
discovered by accident, as in Alder creek, where the prospectors sank a pit, but
the prospects appearing too small the party concluded to abandon it except one,
who said hlie would try "' one panful of dirt more." The result was the discovery of the richest mines in Montana.  At Florence, in Idaho, a man left in,
camp while the rest of the party were away prospecting, saw some gravel on
the root of a tree in a swamp.  Trying a panful he discovered what is known
as the Salmon River mines.
Skill and experience are absolutely essential in this branch of mining. Any
mountain not volcanic is liable to contain valuable metalliferous veins. They
are found in rough and high mountain cliffs, but apparently not as abundantly
as in those with smooth outlines. Quartz prospectors follow the foot of a moun
531
I
i
I
iI
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
I
I
I
i
I
i
i
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ta-m  range and examine the sand and gravel in the beds of streams.   These
beds are generally dry in summer, which renders examination comparatively
easy.  If the gravel consists of granite, or slate withi quartz pebbles, they follow up the stream, breaking open every piece of quartz to see if it contains anything valuable.  As they ascend the quartz is more abundant and the pieces
become larger until reaching a certain point, where no more is found in the bed
of the stream.  This shows that the vein is not above but in the sides of the
stream, which are now carefully examined.
The vein generally crops to the surface and is easily found. But when it is
covered with soil, trenches are run through it down to the bed rock, at right
angles to thie supposed course of the vein.  This is not done unless the quartz
fragments, called "float quartz," are rich in some valuable metal.
Often, though many veins are found inll one locality, each sending down large
quantities of float'quartz, perhaps only one of them has rich float.  Here judgrment is required to distinguish between the different varieties of float quartz and
veins with quartz almost exactly alike. The skill of some prospectors is wonderful in determining the existence and locality of small veins covered deep
under the soil, whose float quartz is nearly identical with that from a larger vein
close above it.
In California nearly all the gold-bearing veins are quartz, and the prospectors
hardly ever prospect for anything else; but gold is found in paying quantities in
slate, as at the liarpenlding mines, near Fulsom, aind the Oro mine, in Bear valley.  In Colorado it is found in feldspar, as at the Gregory, Bates, and Bobtail
.'d in Idalho in porphyry, as in the mountains west from Silver City.
GENERAL REMARIK,s ON PROVING AND WOrnKING MINES.-Vein mining for
the precious metals will be the principal source from which they will be obtained
in the future.  The product of placer mines will grow less and finally cease,
but the product from vein mining will increase for an indefinite period. If the
miners on the Pacific slope could have the benefit of each other's experience,
how many millions it would save annually!  This not being possible without
the aid of a national school of mines, as recommended elsewhere in this report,
a few suggestions derived from experience concerning the opening and working
of mines may not be inappropriate in view of the undeveloped wealth of Idaho
and Montana.  Rules of extensive application must be very general in their
character, and as the conditions under whiich each mine is worked necessarily
vary, no general rule will exactly apply to every particular case. General rules
guard against loss in mining, while particular rules increase the profits.*   The
first quartz mining in California was by Mexicans in 1849-'50. They introduced the arrastra, and by carefully assorting the ores containing fine gold from
the surface, obtained by this slow method very satisfactory results. The Americans, seeing these results, put up large miills capable of crushing vast quantities, expecting to get profits in the ratio of the amount crushed.  Not being
properly assorted, much of the rock which they crushed was nearly barren, and
their machinery, though very costly, failed to extract the gold which the ore
contained. Nearly all these enterprises resulted in a loss to the projectors, and
for a number of years quartz mining was in great disfavor in California. A few
miners continued to worlk and experiment until they were successful, and quartz
mining gradually increased in productiveness until it has become one of the
most important interests in the State.
I An acquaintance with the general results collected and classified by geology must be our
first guide in the investigation of mines. This enables the observer to judge whether any
particular district should, from the nature and arrangement of its rocks, be susceptible of
including within its bosom beds of workable ores.  It indicates, also, to a certain degree,
what substances may probably be met within a given series of rocks, and what locality these
substances will preferably affect. For want of a knowledge of these facts many persons
have gone bhlindly into researches equally absurd and ruinous. (Ure's Dictionary.)
532 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The same changes were observed in the silver-bearing veins in Nevada.  First,
. season of discovery and excitement, followed by wild speculation and extravagant expenditure; next a time of disappointment and distrust, and this by a
general season of prosperity and profit to all well-conducted enterprises.  The
same changes are taking place in Colorado, 3lontana, and Idaho, with scarcely
any variations, except such as are induced bv local causes. It is desirable to
know the causes that act injuriously in one locality, so that they can be avoided
in another.  The conditions under which mines are worked are nearly similar
on the whole Pacific slope, and a mode of workiing that is very defective in one
locality must be objectionable in all others which it closely resembles, and a
mode of working that experience has proved to be best in a given district, wvith
slight modifications, will be adapted to other districts containing similar conditions. These principles underlie all business transactions, and cannot be violated
with impunity. One of the fundamental errors in mining is to niake a false estimate of the value of the mine, the amount and richness of the ores, and the cost
of extracting them.  The richest mining districts contain many veins that will
not pay to work. and great care is required to know whether a vein will pay for
working or not.  Locality is very important: if a vein be situated in a large
mining community where labor and materials are cheap and abundant, the cost
of working will be greatly less than in new and unsettled districts, where the
pioneers must take all supplies with them, or where freights are high or wood
and water very scarce as in a sterile region.  In old and extensive mining districts
the cost of opening a mine, extracting the ore and reducing it, can be quite accurately determined, and its value known by such extensive workings as admit of
no serious mistake, especially when it is known what varieties of ore can be profitably reduced by the methods of reduction practised in the district.  In new
districts, unless fieights are very low, mines of gold and silver only will pay to
worlk, and they must be so rich and large that there is no question of the quantity
and quality of their ores. If a vein produces rich ore, the next point to ascertain is
its size, and what quantity of ore it will yield. First, thickness; if a vein is not
four inches or more in thlickliness its value is very doubtful, unless remarklably
rich. VeryN rarely a vein is discovered like the Oro, in Bear valley, Mariposa
county, California, which was not more than two inches thicl, but paid wonderfully for a short time, and then gave out.  No  confidence can be placed in the
extent of such small veins, for the extent of a vein is usually in the ratio of its
thickness.  In working a vein the iniiier must miake an opening three feet wide
to allow room for working, and this space must be excavated whether it contains
ore or not. Veins are nearly always softer than their walls, and can be excavated for much less cost than the same amount of wall rock.  In the three-feet
vein nothing but ore is taken out, but in a four-inch vein only one-ninrth is ore,
and in the most favorable circumstances the ore from the small veins costs nine
times as much for mining as the larger, and owing to the hardness of the wall
rock, it may be 20 times more. A two-feet vein sometimes requires heavy timbering, but may be worked nearly as cheap as a three-feet one, fobr the worthless
rock that must be broken can be used to secure the mine instead of timber. This
is done in larger veins, as all contain barren portions which are used to support
the mine, and nothing requires more skill in mining than to leave the barren portion, and excavate that whichll will pay.  The shafts and drifts in a small vein must
be the same as in a large one, and the pumps and hoisting machine nearly or quite
as costly.  It is a general rule that the larger the vein, other things being equal,
the less the cost per ton Ifor extracting the ore.  For instance, Quail Hill, No. 1
mine, in Calaveras county, California. Here the workmen offered, after the mine
was opened, to deliver the ore at the mouth of the vein for 50 cents per ton.
This vein is from 70 to 80 feet thick, and well opened.  The thickness of a vein
cannot be known until it has been opened to a considerable depth, and traced
on the surface for the length of the claim, or as far as it can be followed.
533 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Tracing oni the surface is more cheaply done than sinking, and more likely to
intersect any "chimneys" of ore that may exist in the veins.  Extent at tlle
surface is commonly in ratio of depth. Where veins come to an end they usually
split into a lnumber of small seams, which disappear as they are followed, but
when only one scam is found the vein generally continues.  It is important to
know the character of the vein, whether it is regular or irregular in size and
richness, whether it is full of "horns" or afflicted with "faults."  Generally the
greater portion of the ore is found in what are called "chimneys" or "chutes,"
as in the Comstock, vwhich is rich for some hundreds of feet in length, and then
for as great or greater distance is barren. Chimneys seldom descend at right
angles to the strike of the vein, but dip lengthwise in it, and sometimes leave
one claim and extend into another.  In estimating the amounmt of vein stuff in a
vein, it is safe to allow 14 cubic feet to the ton, as it is found in the vein; this
is more than the formula in the books allows, but it workls well in practice.  Thus,
if a vein is traced for 1,000 feet, and shows an average thickness of one foot,
1,000 feet deep will give 70,000 tons of vein stuff.  Few veins of this size pay
to follow so deep, and one-half of this amount of vein-stuff or 35,000 tons is all
that can be relied on.  These calculations in veins that are opened are of great
value in estimating the available ore on hand, but in unopened mines they only
give a vague idea of what might be in them under the most favorable circumstances. In former times, 2,000 feet was about the working depth of the best
mines; but in the future, owing to improved methods of working, the same class
of mines will be worked to a greater depth. Some veins get thicker as they
are followed down; others get thinner and finally disappear.  Generally they
are more liable to decrease than to increase in value.  Tile improvements of the
present time in mining machinery render the working of a mine much more rapid
than formerly, and as much ore can be taken from a mine in 20 years as in 300
when the ore was carried on the backs of men up rude ladders out of the mine.
By this rapid method mines can be workled at much less cost than when the
work is done very slowly; thus a mine that contains 400,000 tonls of ore, at 100
tons per day, will be exhausted in about 15 years, but at 8 or 10 tons per day it
will require 150 years, and the cost of keeping the water out and repairing the
timbering in the shafts and drifts would give a good profit on any moderate sized
mining enterprise. Neither could the ancient miners extract such vast masses of
ore as are taken out of the Comstock, without leaving a large portion in the form
of pillars to support the walls. Probably no mine was ever workied under the
same difficulties as rapidly and efficiently as the Comstock.   The great loss has
been in the treatment of the ores. If a vein is in a favorable locality for worliimg, has ore of sufficient richness to pay when worked in quantity, has the proper
thickness, and is traced onil the surface the requisite distance, is opened in depth
so as to show a body of ore, and has the same strike, dip, and general appearance of other good veins in that immediate vicinity, and is ill range of a good
mine, there canll be little doubt of its value.
PnRODUCT OF IDAHO.-One of the difficulties attending the collection of reliable statistics on subjects connected with the value and yield of mines, is the
proneness of interested parties to furnish exaggerated data for speculative purposes. W~ith the most earnest desire to do justice to individuals and companies
whose labor and capital are invested in mining enterprises, it is extremely difficult to avoid doing injustice to the public.  No government agent can determine
with certainty how far the figures furnished by the superintendents and subordinate officers are to be relied upon; and it is impossible to verify statements
involving detailed operations and results which have taken place beyond the
limits of personal knowledge. Thus, the report of the New York and Owvhee
Company for Starch, 1867, shows a very favorable condition of things at the
Poorman. A letter from New York, dated in October and published in a late
number of the Oregonian, says: "New York and Owyhee Companies' stock,
534 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
which, soon a;fterthe purchase from Bradford last spring of the conflicting inter —
ests in the Pooiman mine, was currently rated at 80 to 90 cents on the dollar,
has for the past three weeks been going down.  It was sold last week at 25
cents, and to-day we have heard it offered at 10 cents.  How long can this company afford to pay $35,000 per anlnum in salaries to a few officers and employe's
at thlis rate?  Or are some few of the large stockholders and klnowing ones trying ts
freezing-out process?  These are samples of the general condition of Idaho matters in this city.  Etx te)o disce o,sces."  The correspondent of the Oreg(onian
refers to a similar state of things in reference to the Yuba and Atlanta district.
It is quite possible there is either prejudice or personal interest inll this ~tatement.
Various causes already referred to have retarded the development of the Yuba
and Atlanta mines; and no greater credit should be attached to the assertions
of an anonymous letter-writer than to the reports of parties known to be interested.  The richness of the Poorman mine has been well established; whether
it has been or now is remunerative or judiciously managed, the stockholders must
determine for themselves.  These conflicting statements are referred to for the
purpose of showing how difficult it is to avoid error.  Probably the best criterion of the yield of the Idaho mines in the aggregate is to be found in the statements furnished by tile agent of Wells, Fargo & Co. at Portland, and the office
at San Francisco. From this source it appears that the shipments to San Francisco of gold and silver bullion received from Idaho, and inclusive of the receipts
from the John Day, Powder river, and Washington Territory placers bordering
on the Columbia, were as follows during the past four years, viz:
1564.         1865.          1866.         1867.
Sbipments............ —--------------------------...... 
Add 10 per cent., the amount estimated to be shipped by
o)ther parties, and 10 per cent., the probable amount
tarried by private hands.....................                        1.......... 
7, 467, 600    6, 976, 810'  6, 529, 600   5, 810, 442
1, 493, 520    1, 395, 360    1, 305, 920  1, 162, 088
5, 974, 080   5, 581, 440    5, 223, 680  4, 648, 354
500, 000    1, 000, 000   2, 800, 000    1, 352, 000
Deduct for Oregon and Washington, one-fifth.........
Add for amounts probably taken out of Idaho by express
through Nevada and by private hands................
Total..........................................
It is not pretended that these statements and estimates are entirely reliable,
but they are certainly worthy of greater credence than unsupported individual
assertions.  The allowances made for shipments by way of the Ilill Beachy
route through Nevada are deemed amply sufficient, taking into view that very
little treasure was shipped out of Idaho, except by the way of Portland, until
the past year, owing to Indian depredations.  Miany believe that the miners carry
out of the Territory more of the precious metals than is taken by the express
companies.   If this be the case what becomes of the treasure?  The same belief
is entertained in reference to the product of Montana.  Where does the alleged
$40,000,000 produced by Idaho and Montana go to?  The report of the Director
of the 3Mint shows that tile total deposits of gold and silver of domestic production from all sources during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867, were as follows: gold, $30,805,748 54; silver, $1,056,680 39; total, $31,862,429 93. The
amount of bullion exported from San Francisco to foreign ports during the year
ending December 31, 1S67, was $18,320,818 71; to New York, $23,355,903 45;
foreign and domestic, $41,676,722 16; add estimated home shipments by United
States assistant treasurer, $6,000,000; total, $47,676,722 16.  The total amount
of bullion upon which the internal revenue tax was collected, as stated by the
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, during the calendar year ending December
31, 1867, was $58,175,047.
535
1864.
1865.
1866.
1867.
$4,842,036
968, 41,,6
$6,223,000
1, 244, 600
$5, 8.14, 000
1, 162, 800
$3,443,COO
1,086 600
6, 474, CSO 6, 581, 440
8, 023, 680
6, COO, 354
J* 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
If we allow the product of Idahlo and Monltana to be, as claimed by many,
$20,000,000 each, what becomes of the $25,000,000 of gold produced by California and the $20,000,000 of gold and silver produced by Nevada, for nearly
all of which we have the direct returns of the express companies?
I am inclined to the opinion that the product of Idaho for 1867 is but little
if at all over the amount stated in the table above given; but to guard against
injustice a small percentage is added, making the total product $6,500,000. The
yield of Montana for 1867 is estimated to be $12,000,000, and it is confidently
believed this is not below the actual amount produced. If we once open the
way to conjecture by accepting the statement that the miners carry away more
treasure in their pockets than the express companies carry in their boxes, by
what means are we to arrive at the amount, or at what point is the limit to be
fixed? In the absence of proof to the contrary it is reasonable to suppose that
the danger of robbery is too great to justify the practice among miners, as a
general rule, of incurring such extraordinary risks to evade the payment of ordinary express charges which secure their earnings firom the chances of loss.  Small
amounts doubtless are carried out in the pockets of individual miners; but none
of the leading companies working on any considerable scale are apt to incur such
risks. It is more than probable that the amount supposed to swell the aggregate production in this way is greatly exaggerated. On the other hand it is the
interest of the express agents to magnify the dangers of robbery, and encourage
the belief that prudential considerations are in their favor, and all legitimate
business is carried through their hands.  Between the efforts of the company to
monopolize the carrying business, and the indisposition of the miners to incur
expense when it can be avoided, it is difficult to arrive at an equitable concllision.  The estimates, therefore, may be far from  the truth, but we must rely
upon the only available data in preference to mere conjecture. When it comes
to a test of the proportion derived from each mine, the statistician is utterly
without data, except such as he can obtain from the officers of the company.
536 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
SECTION I.
GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR.
Until the recent valuable and important acquisition of Russian America, Washing,ton Territory was the extreme northwestern division of the United States.
The Columbia river, to its intersection by the 46th parallel north, and that parallel continued eastward to its intersection of the Snakle river, mark the southern
boundary and separate it from the State of Oregon.  The Snake river to its
confluence with the Clearwater, (IKooskooskie,) and a line due north from the
mouth of the latter river to the 49th parallel, bound it on the east and separate it from Idaho.  The north and northwest boundaries are defined by the
Treaty of Limits between the United States and Great Britain, (June 15, 1846,)
and are " westward along the said 49th parallel of north latitude to the middle
of the channel * which separates the continent from Vancouver Island, and thence
southerly through the middle of the said channel and of Fuca's straits to the
Pacific ocean." On its west is the Pacific. Its area closely approximates to
70,000 square miles.
The special natural features of the Territory, common to it as a whole, are the
Cascade range of mountains, and the great river of the West, the Columbia,
which, first traversing its whole breadth and setting off nearly a third of its area,
forms a southern boundary and drains the remaining two-thirds of the Territory.
THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS.-The continuous range of mountains known as
the Sierra Nevada in California, bears the name of Cascade range through
Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.   The name originates from the
numerous beautiful cascades which pour from every crevice, at every height, and
sometimes even from the top of the steep bluff sides of the gorge in these mountains through which the mighty Columbia forces its way to pour its volume of
water into the Pacific ocean.  WVith the exception of the lofty snow-peaks,
Ranier, St. Helen's, Baker, and Adams, but few points in this Territory attain
an elevation above the snow-line, about 5,000 feet.  Estimates have been made
of the altitude of several of these peaks, but they have either diminished in
height or else were over measured. The humiliation of the lofty Mlount Hood
by barometric measurement to two-thirds of its former accredited proud altitude,
discourages the assertion of claim for the majestic Ranier, and estimated altitudes are omitted.
The range as it passes through this Territory bears slightly nlorthwvest and
southeast. Several rivers passing through or taking their rise in these mountains afford eligible passes for the construction of roads.  Among these may be
named the Skagit River pass, Cady's pass, or that following the Skywamish, the
northern confluent of the Snohomish river; the Snoqualmie pass, or that following the river of that name; Cedar River, or Yakima pass, long improperly called
Snloqualmie pass; the Nachess pass, the Nisqually, and the Cowlitz passes.  The
exploration of several of these passes is now in progress, (fall, 1867,) under the
* Two channels, the Canal de Haro and Rosario straits, between which are the islands of
San Juan and the Archipelago de Haro, separate the continent from Vancouver island. The
former is the boldest and most direct, and secures what the treaty evidently intended: instead
of running the 49th parallel west to the ocean, which would have given the south end of
Vancouver island to the United States, the latter yielded the whole island to Great Britain,
with the free navigation of the straits and channel. The sovereignty of Sarl Juan and the
islands of the Archipelago are in dispute; the boundary and area of Washington Territory
are in doubt. San Juan island is garrisoned by troops of both nations, their police jurisdiction extending midway between the two camps. The laws of the Territory for the time being
are suspended in the islands west of Rosario straits.
i
537
i
I
I
I
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
auspices of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.   The work has been
intrusted to the efficient management of General James Tilton, civil engineer,
formerly surveyor general of the Territory, and a report of the results will be
submlitted to Congress at itscoming session, (winter, 1867-8.)  Asaccurateinstrumental measurement is the only satisfactory demonstration of the eligibility of
these passes as lines of communication, it is useless to anticipate alithenticreports
l)y approximate estimates.  It is proper, however, to add that in 1854 a congressional appropriation of $20,000 was expended on a road from Wallula to
Fort Steilacoom via the Nachess pass, and that quite an emigration came over it
that fall, with wagons.  The Indian war commencing the fall of the subsequent
year, the road was but little used.  Much fallen timber is now an obstruction to
its travel, and the freshets of some of the mountain streams have seriously damaged the river crossings and the portions of road on the banks of such rivers.
Quite an appropriation would be required to make this a feasible road. The altitude of the Snoqulalmie pass is 3,130 feet.  The ascent upon the western slope
is gradual to within three miles of the summit, when the rise is sudden and abrupt,
it being nearly 900 feet in the last three miles.  It is pronounced( an admirable
pass for a wagon road, but for railroad puirposes tunnelling would be necessary.
The citizens of King county, with commendable enterprise, have opened a wagon
road tfrom Seattle to the Yakima valley. A small appropriation by Congress,
judiciously expended, would make this road a great and practicable thoroughfare
connecting Puget sound with the upper Columbia basin, Idaho and Montana
Territories.  Parties who have explored Cady's pass and the Cowlitz pass* pronounce them  entirely free from any great difficulty, and requiring but little
expense and labor, comparatively, to secure good mountain roads.   In all of these
passes the approaches are reported as of gradual ascent, and the altitudes of the
summints much lower than the surrounding hills.
THE COLUMBIA rIVEii, which forms so large a portion of the south boundary
of the Territory, and then traverses its whole breadth from south to north, forms
a, main artery for travel and transportation from the coast to the great interior,
and in the present undeveloped state of roads via the Cascade mountains, affords
the channel of communication between the inhabitants separated by that mountain chain. It rises in the Rlocky mountains, in latitude 50~ 20' north, flows
northerly as high as 52~ 10', receiving Canoe river, which has its source just
under the 53d degree. The Columbia then deflects sharply to the southward,
expanding in 51~ north into a chain of small lakes, receiving the waters of the
Kootenai in 490 30'. Just under the 49th parallel the Pen d'Oreille, the great
north fork, (Clarklie's,) pours its waters into it; then flowing southward, the Spokane
river empties into it, and it turns almost due west, the Okinakane flowing into it
from the north.  Still bending slilghtly south of west, several tributaries from
the Cascade mountains, the principal of which are the IMlethow, Chelan, Enteathwa,
and AVWenaclee, contribute their waters, when it turns southeastwardly, receives
the Yakinia, and then joins with its great southern (Lewis) fork, now called
Snake river.  Flowing then almost due south a short distance to the mouth of
the WAalla-Walla river, it turns abruptly to the west, and with a generally wvestCerly course flows into Pacific ocean, its volume still increasing from several rivers
fri-om the south, and some on the Washington side.  The southernmost tributarv
of its most important confluent, the Snake river, has its rise as low as latitude
Since the preparation of the above, the party engaged in the exploration of the Cowlitz,
or Nisqually pass, have returned. This pass lies between and connects the headwaters of
the Nlisqually and Nachess rivers, which flow in opposite directions from the immediate
south hase of Mount Ranier.  The altitude of the summit will slightly exceed 3,000 feet.
By a line of levels run by said party this pass can be surmounted by a grade of 65 feet per
ile, ascending from the west, and a descending grade of 45 feet bn the eastern slope.  From
the character of the country, the western ascent can be so distributed that in 56 miles of road
a grade not to exceed 50 feet per mile can be secured. The direct line to the summit, after
leaving the headwaters of the Cowlitz river, is but 16 or 18 miles.
538 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
41~ north.  The easternmost sources of the two main forks are in close proximity
to the headwaters of the Missouri, as far east as longitude 111~ west of Greenwicli.  Its mouth is in 124~ west longitude.  Thus it will be seen that this vast
river and its tributaries water and permeate a region embracing 12 degrees of
latitude by 13 degrees of longitude. Its great importance must be conceded,
when the statement is made that a land portage of only 450 miles is required to
connect the navigable waters of the Missouri and Columbia rivers.
NAVIGABILITY OF THlE COLUMJBIA.-From the miouth of the river to the lower
Cascades, 160 miles, no obstructions occur to navigation. Sea steamers of heavv
draught constantly go to Vancouver, 115 miles fromnt the mouth.  By a portage at
the Cascades (the railroad is six miles in length) navigation is open to the Dalles,
(205 miles from ocean.)  Several miles of portage are here required to avoid
rapids and falls,* when good navigation is again secured to Priest's rapids, (385
miles from ocean.) Three miles of portage avoids the difficulties at Priest's
rapids, whenl a stretch of good navigable water is secured to Buckland's rapids,
(451 nuiles firom ocean.)  At the mouth of 3lethow another interruption occurs,
after whiclh the navigation is practicable to Kettle falls, a distance from the
mouth of 725 miles.  At high stages of water, say betweein MIay 10 and July
15, steamboats can ascend from the portage above the Dalles to Kettle falls.
The big bend in the Columbia, however, extends the distance so greatly, that
White Bluffs, or a point even east of that, must be practically re,garded as the
hlead of navigation.  A road from such point nearly due north vould again strike
the river near the 49th parallel, and the river again could be nlavigated for a
distance of over 150 miles, into the very he'ar of the richest mininig regions of
British Columbia.  Again, connecting by road the mouth of the Walla-Walla
river with the mouth of the Powder river, (a tributary of the Snake,) a reach of
over 100 miles in Snake liver is navigable for steamers.
NATURAL DI)IVISIONS OF WASHI-NGTOX TEnPPITOilY.-The Cascade mountains, varying but little from a north and southl course, traverse the Territory at
ian       average distance from the Pacific coast of little over two degrees of longitutde, separating the Puget Sound basin and the region watered by the lower
Columbia and its northern tributaries from the basin of the (Col mbia river. The
portion east of the Cascades is not very unequally divided by the Columbia river.
Three natural divisions are thus constituted.  Western Washington finds its
synonym in the Puget sound country. Central Washington has attained the
name of the Yakima Valley.  Eastern Washington is variously termed the Upper
Country, sometimes the Walla-Walla Valley, and Spokane Plains  frequently
"Colville" is made to embrace a large section of country.t
WF,STEEr,N WASHlINGTON includes the Puget Sound basin, the valley of the
Chlehalis, the basin of Shoalwater bay, and the country drained by the lower
Columbia and its northern tributaries, the principal of which is the Cowlitz.
Ridges, spurs of the Cascade and Coast ranges of mountains, clearly demarcate
these several sub-divisions, and a diversity of soil, products, anid geological conformnationi ascribe distinctive features to each.
And first of the great inland sea, Puget sound, which, though properly the
smallest subdivision of these waters, has become the general cognomen of that
vast ramification of waters to which have been given, by illustrious navigators,
the names of Strait of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty inlet, Hood's canal,,and Puget
sound, together with the almost innumerable bays, harbors, and inlets, each
enjoying a separate name, and many of which would afford commodious and
adequate harbor for the combined navies of the world. Admiral Charles Wilkes
* The Oregon Steam Navigation Company have in successful operation a railroad from
Dalles to Celilo, 15 miles in length, avoiding the rapids and falls, though a much less portage,
if broken, was requisite.
t See Navigable Rivers of Oregon.
I
539 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORTIES
(then lieutenant United States navy,) in 1841, in the valuable narrative of the
United States Exploring Expedition, of which he was commander, after a minute
description of these waters, thus sums up:
Nothing can exceed the beauty of these waters and their safety.  Not a shoal exists within
the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty inlet, or HIood's canal, that can in any way interrupt
their navigation by a 74-gun ship.  I venture nothing in saying there is no country in the
world that possesses waters equal to these. They cover an area of ahout2,000 square miles.
The shores of all these inlets and bays are remarkably bold; so much so that in many places
a ship's side would strike the shore before the keel would touch the ground. The country
by which these waters are surrounded is remarkably salubrious. and offers every advantage
for the accommodation of a vast commercial and military marine, with convenience for docks,
and a great many sites for towns and cities; at all times well supplied with water, and
capable of being provided with everything by the surrounding country, which is well adapted
for agriculture.
The Straits of Juan de Fuca are 95 miles in length, and have an average width of 11
miles. At the entrance (eight miles in width) no danger exists, and it may be safely navigated throughout. No part of the world affords finer inland sounds, or a greater number of
harbors, than are found within the Straits of Juan de Fuca, capable of receiving the largest
class of vessels, and without a danger in them which is nest visible. From the rise and fall
of the tides (18 feet) every facility is offered for the erection of works for a great maritime
nation. The country also affords as many sites for water-power as any other.
To furnish a better idea of these waters, and their extent, we append a tabular
statement of the shore line, prepared by James S. Lawson, esq., the efficient
assistant of the United States Coast Survey, now employed in making a survey
thereof:
Shore-line of thIe Straits of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty inlet, Puget sound, flood's
canal, 4c.,;c., IVasvington Territory.
III. ADMIRALTY INLET.
(Commencing at line Pt. Partridge, Pt. Wil            son to Puget sound.)
M3iles.
Pt. Defiance to Possession sound ----  67.5
Possession sound to Pt. Partridge. — 34.5
Blake island... —-------------------- 4  0
Gig Harbor to Foulweather Bluff ---- 102.0
Bainbridge  island..................  31.0
Port Ludlow to Pt. Wilson. —-------- 48.0
Vashon island..................... 47.0
334.0
Miles.
Prom Cape W      iatterv to Pt.  Partridge,
Pt. Wilson....................       161
East side of Whidby's island.. —---- -- 79.0
West side of Whidby's island, Pt. Par  tridge to Deception Pass. - -—. —-- 14.0
McDonough's island...............   41.0
Main shore, Pt. Gardner to 49th parallel 128.5
]'idalgo island................ —----------------—.. 56.0
Allan's and Barrow's islands. —------' 5
Gueme's island -----------------— 16.. 5
Cypress, Sinclair, Vendovia & Jack's
islands.-.-.................. —-- 26. 0
Lummi and Eliza islands --—.-. --- 25. 0
LIopez island... —------------------- 34.5
Decatur island.......     11.0
James' island...................... — 4.5
Blakely island................... —-----------------—. 9.5
Frost island....................... 1.5
San Juan island... —-- -------------- 40.0
Shaw's island................ —----------------—. 13.0
Obstruction island.,.......       2.7
Orcas island.... —------------------- 57.0
Jones' island.... ——. ------------------ 3.8
Henry island......... —------------------- 5.8
Speeden island.................... 5.7
John's island............. 4.0
Stuart's island...... —-----------------—. 6.0
Waldron island..... —------------------ 8.5
Various small islands............... 26.                                     0
627.0
IV. PUGET SOUND.
(CommencingatlinejoiningPt. Defiance and
Gig Harbor-embracing all south.)
Main shore, east side, Pt. Defiance to
Olympia........... —.-.-.     49.0
Main shore, west side, Gig Harbor to
Olympia........................ 168. 0
Day's island...................... 1.3
Hope island ---------—..........-.  1.3
..-.....-. —-----------  10.5
Herron island.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. —--- 3. 0
Stretch..-.... —- --------—. —-—. 4.0
Anderson. -.......... —----------- 15.5
McNeil........................... 10. 4
Kitson   —...-...-.... —   3.0
Fox island...................... ". l.
Allshouse island......... 5. 5
280.0
V. HOOD'S CANAL..................  192. 0
I
.540
1. SFRAITS OF JUAN DE FUCA.
11. ROSARIO STRAITS, CANAL DE HARO,
GULF OF GEORGIA, ETC. 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
RECAPITULATION.
I. Straits of Juan de Fuca................................................. 161. 0
II. Rosario straits, Canal de HIaro, Gulf of Georgia, &c.......................   627.0
III. Admiralty inlet -- -----------------------------------------—.................. 334.0
IV. Puget sound...............................................-280. 0
V. Hood's canal.......................................................... 192.0
Total shore line-. —-..... —   --- -. — -.-.-........ —---- -.-...-. 1,594.0
BAYS AND I-AnBons. —Neah bay is just inside of Cape Flattery, a harbor
affording partial shelter for vessels. The anchorage is good, but there is no protection from northwest winds.  It is a mere indentation of the coast, and was
called by the early fur traders Poverty Cove.  It is now universally called by
its original Indian name. About 25 miles east of Cape Flattery is Callam bay,
where a California company is now engaged in taking out coal. Port Angeles,
farther east, was the site for a while of the custom-house of this district; an admirable harbor after a vessel got into it, and difficult to leave without wind, tide,
and other favorable circumstances.  It lies immediately opposite to Victoria, and
not very distant from the entrance of the strait-two circumstances supposed to
control the location of custom-houses, regardless entirely of the interests of shippiig.  A small town grew up there, but it has not improved much since the customn-house was retransferred to its former location at Port Townsend.
Port Discovery, Port Townsend, Port Ludlow, Port Madison, Port Gamble,
Port Blakely, Dwarnish or Elliott's bay, Bellingham bay, and many others,
each worthliy of distinct notice, having become the sites of flourishing towns, extelnsive milling or mining operations, and as such, so many centres of population,
Jliust be referred to hereafter in the recital of the material resources of the Territory, and the chronicle of the progress of settlement —a progress enhanced in
many instances by natural advantages.
The Straits of Juan de Fuca terminate at Point Wilson and Point Partridge.
Admiralty inlet lies between the strait and Puget sound, and is separated from
the latter by the narrows, a mile in width and about four and a half miles long,
on both sides of which are hi,gh perpendicular bluffs, the northeast terminus of
which is called Point Defiance, which has been reserved for fortifications.  In
the narrows the tide runs with great velocity, and a reference to the map exhibiting this nanrow channel or dalles3 through which this vast body of water flows
and reflows twice every 24 hours, will readily account for that fact.
RIVErnS EMPTYING INTO PUGET  SOUND.-Adopting the vernacular of the
country, and ascribing the name Puget sound to this Mediterranean of the north
Pacific, we will commence on the east shore, at the northern boundary, and follow
round.
The Lummi river rises in the Cascade range, northeast of Mount Baker, and
flowing in a southwest direction receives the Nookl-sack from the southeast, and
empties into Bellinglham bay.  It is a large, deep and rapid river.  Muchl excellent agricultiral-and grazing lands border both of these streams, and settlements
to a very limited extent have been commenced.   On these streams the color can
be obtained anywhere, but at the head waters of the Nook-sack coarse gold has
been found, some specimens being nearly as large as a pea.   The dense undergrowthl in the river bottoms, but more probably the disgust following the Frazer
river excitement, has created that apathy among the citizens of Whatcom which
has heretofore prevented a thorough prospect firom being made.
The small river or creek, Whatcom, gives name to the town througth which it
passes.  It affords excellent water power, and at its mouth is located the sawv-mill
of MIr. Henry Reeder, now a member of the legislative assembly from that county.
Next south is the Swinamish, rising in the Cascades and emptying into Bcllingham bay. The Swinamish is more properly a pass connecting two parts of the
channel. Next south is the Skagit river, rising in the Cascade range, north of
541 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the 49th parallel, and emptying into Port Susan by several mouths.   For some
six miles its navigation is obstructed by large drifts of logs? the collection of
years, above which it can be navigated some 50 miles. The valley of the Skagit
has already become noted for its extensive and rich agricultural lands. A few
settlers have already taken claims.   The timber consists of cedar, spruce, fir,
&c., upon the uplands, and alder, maple, and cottonwood in the bottoms. WTith
ittle expense the drifts at its mouth could be removed, and a fine valley extend.ng some 60 miles into the interior, affording excellent farms for many, would
be opened to settlement.
The Stit-a-quamish also empties into Port Susan. The timber which skirts
is banks is very valuable.  Traces indicate the presence of extensive coal beds
about 20 miles from its mouth.  No attempt, however, has yet been made
to develop them. The mouth of this river is obstructed with timber drifts,
which removed, navigation for scows, rafts, or boats of light draught could be
secured for 25 miles. One or two inconsiderable streams flow southeast into the
sound, when we come to the Snohomish, which empties abreast the south end
of Wlhidby's island. About 18 mile: from its mouth it divides into two confluent
streams, the north being called the Sky-wamishi, and the south fork the Snoqualmnie.  At the mouth of the Snohomish  are extensive cranberry marshes.
Like most of the rivers emptying into the sound, tide flats stretch for considerable
distance across the mouth of the stream, permeated by numerous channels. At
high water there is no difficulty of'entrance, but when the tide is out the channel
must be strictly followed.  After entering the river the banks become  higher.
During the annual freshet its hilghest banks are subject to overflow.  The average width of this stream is about 90 yards, with tolerable deep water.   On this
river and both of its confluents there is a large quantity of first-rate agricultural
land.  An intelligent visitor writes:
There are in some places large tracts of land, with scarcely a stick of timber standing.
possessing a soil as rich as any farmer could desire, while the rich bottom lands, covered
with a light growth of vine maple and alder, appear to say, "come and till me, and you
shall be well rewarded." In fact, I have no hesitation in saying that the country watered
by the Snohomish and Snoqualmie will at no distant day be thickly settled by those who
will reap a rich reward for their labor.
The Snohomish and Snoqualmnie are navigable for steamers of light draught
at all stages of water to within a few milts of the falls on the latter river.  The
falls of Snoqualmie are about 35 miles from the confluence of that river with
the Snohomish. At the lowest stage of water the width of the falls will hardly
exceed 10 yards, but when the river is full it amplifies to about 75 yards.   By
recent measurement of General Tilton, chief engineer Pacific division Northern
Pacific railroad, the perpendicular descent is 270 feet. Beyond the falls are
several rich prairies of considerable extent.  Following  the headwaters of this
interesting river, we approach the Snoqualmnie pass.  Following the north confluent of the Snohomish, (the Skywamiish,) we find Cady's pass, pronounced by
several explorers equal in all respects to its neighbor, the Snoqualmie pass.
The next river of note is the D)wamish, entering the bay of that name,
(sometimes called Elliott's bay,) on which the flouirishin, town of Seattle is
located. The Dwamisli has two principal confluents, White and Green rivers,
both of which have historic importance from being the headquarters of the hostile bands of Indians in the war of 1855-'56. The flourishing settlement upon
the former was for a time wiped out after the horrible massacre of October 28,
1S55, in which 11 unoffending white settlers, men, women, and children were
surprised at early dawn, murdered, and their bodies shockingly mutilated. The
savages carried off such property as was valuable, and then wantonly burned
tile remainder, together with the dwellings.  Some of the bodies were burned
and others were thrown into the wells.
Lake Dwamish, or Lake Washington, lies back of the town of Seattle.  Its
542 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
outlet, about four and a half miles long, called Black river, empties into the
Dwamish river.  Black river, about half a mile from the lake, receives the
waters cf Cedar river, which takes its rise in the Cascade mountains, a short
distance south of the headwaters of the Snequalmie.  The Cedar River pass, now
called the Yakima pass, was long confounded with the Snoqualmie pass, (fron
which it.is between five and seven miles distant,) from the fact that it was traversed by Snoqualmie Indians.  Following the north tributaries of the WVhite
river to their source; a short distance brings us to the headwaters of the Nachess, a tributary of the Yakima.   The vallevs of these two streams are the
depression to which the name of Nachess pass has been given, over which the
military road was constructed by Lieutenant Richard Arnold, United States
army, from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Steilacoom.  An extensive and rich agricultural region is found in the valleys of all these rivers, and is fast filling with
settlers.  Inland navigation to the extent of 30 miles is afforded by the Dwwamishli and White rivers, the tide extending up the former some 14 miles. On the
Black river a vein of coal was opened and workled by the late Dr. Bigelow, and
a cargo shipped to San Francisco as early as 1854.
The Puyallup river rises north of M-ount Ranier, runs northeasterly,  and
empties into Commencement bay.  It is a fine stream, and by the removal of
two or three drifts would be rendered navigable for vessels of light draught to the
mouth of the Stuck, which empties into it.  At its mouth (Commencement bay)
there is an excellent harbor, where shipping can load with hay, produce, or lumber.  The valleys of the Puyallup and Stuck afford a large quantity of good
agricultural land. The soil in the river bottoms is generally very good, much
of it first rate. There is considerable prairie in the vicinity, but mostly occupied
by settlers. The bottoms are thinly timbered with maple, ash, balm, willow,
&c., and easily cleared. These lands yield heavy crops of wheat, barley, oats,
and even corn has succeeded well. Vegetables attain an enormous size. The
highlands are generally rolling and well adapted to cultivation. The several
tributaries of the Puyallup supply a considerable amount of excellent waterpower.  Although this valley is covered by the claim of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, that circumstance has not deterred American settlers from
occupying and improving it.
The Nisqually river rises south of AMount Ranier, and at its mouth is the site
of Fort Nisqually, a post of the Hudson Bay Company.   That company, under
the treaty-recognized alias of Puget Sound Agricultural Company, claim along
the shores of Puget sound from Nisqually river to Puyallup river, back to the
Cascade mountains, amounting to 261 square miles, or 167,040 acres. The
prairies in the vicinity are called the Nisqually plains, supposed by many to be
valuable for pasturage. The best portions have been taken as claims by American settlers, who have no very high opinion of a corporation without a charter,
or a claim to land based upon neither occupancy, purchase, nor possession, except
in the few spots dotted here and there formerly occupied by their herdsmen or
farmers, where but little improvement or cultivation has been attempted. In
fact, but a trifling portion was ever used, even as a range for cattle, horses, and
sheep. It is well worthy of remark that just before the treaty of June 15, 1846,
Oregon then being jointly occupied, under the treaty of 1827, by American settlers and the numerous establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company, the officers of the latter consented to co-operate with the former in the support of the
provisional government of Oregon, provided the company could be secured in
their occupancy of lands at their several posts.  To effect this, a section called
the "partnership section" was incorporated into the land law and made a part
of the compact or constitution. This compact was ratified by the residents of
Oregon (British and American) July 5, 1845.  Under its provisions the company
recorded their claim at Nisqually as containing 17 sections, or 10,880 acres.
And yet under the treaty, ratified within a few months of the time at which they
543 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
themselves designated the extent of that tract, they now assert a claim to having
occupied 167,040 acres.
Next is the Des Chutes river, which empties into Budd's inlet, the extreme
head of Puget sound, about two miles from Olympia, the capital of the Terri tory.  Its mouth, named Tumwater, is  not only notable for its extensive and
valuable water-power, but also from the fact that here Colonel M. T. Simmons,
the pioneer American settler north of the Columbia river, located his claim in the
fall of 18S45.
Several small streams empty into the west side of the sound, but the first
river to be mentioned is the Skokl-nish, which empties into the elbow of Hiood's
canal, 28 miles northwest of Olympia.   This river is formed by two confluents
called the North and Southl forks, taking their rise in the Coast range of mnoun tains and coming together about 10 miles from the mouth of the main river.
Upon removing the customary obstruction of collected driftwood, the main stream
is navigable its entire length. The Skokomish valley varies from one to three
miles in width, with a soil equal to the best bottom land in the western States.
The growth in the bottoms consists of alder and vine maple.  Union City has been
started near the mouth, and several claims have been taken. A great quantity
of very desirable land is still vacant. Information derived from surveying par ties justifies the statement that the land upon the forks is similar to that upon
the river. The average yield to the acre in this valley is as follows: Potatoes,
600 bushels; wheat, 40 bushels; peas, 60 bushels; timothy hay, five tons; oats,
70 bushels.
Into Hood's canal, at different points, from 5 to 30 miles below the mouth of
the Skokomishl, several streams empty, the valleys of which are marked by the
same general features as that of the Skokonish.  The good lands are not, however, iii suchl extensive bodies as to invite large settlement.
Along the southern shore of the strait of Fuca several streams empty, which
take their rise in the Coast range of mountains.  The principal of these are the
Dungeness and Elwha, the valleys of both of which are fine agricultural lands.
The former is fully settled, and several farms have been taken upon the latter.
RIIVERS AND BAYS ON THE PACIFIC COAST.-Passing down the coast from
Cape Flattery, at the distance of 28 miles is the mouth of the Quillehute river.
It varies in width from 50 to 200 yards, and in depth from 8 to 12 feet. Rapids
occur at the distance of three or four miles from its mouth, but canoes ascend for
many miles.  Four or five miles back from the river is the Cammas prairie, five
miles long and about three-fourths of a mile wide.  The country is well adapted
to grazing and cultivation, and there is but one sharp hill to interfere with opening a good road from the valley of this river to the straits of Fuca. At the
mouth of this river the Pacific  Mail Steamship Company's steamer Southerner
(the old Isthmus) was wrecked December 24, 1854.  During the present summuer D. F. Brownfield and several others, cutting out a trail from the river to
the straits, whlile following one of the small tributary streams of the Quilleliute, discovered a ledge of rock indicating the presence of silver. Specimens
of the rock, in an imperfect assay made by Dr. Albert Eggers, of Olympia,
showed gold and iron, the former amounting to $9 per ton. In other specimens,
tested by Dr. O'Brien, of Port Townsend, traces of silver were apparent.   rl:.
Brownfield, who went through from the straits to the mouth of the river, describes
the region west of the Olympic range as generally level, extremely fertile, and
interspersed with prairies containing from 500 to 2,500 acres. The bottom lands
of the Quillelhute are not only extensive but well adapted to agriculture.
Quenuilt river, a small stream which heads in a lake at the foot of the Coast
range, empties into the ocean about four miles north of Point Grenville. In its
vicinity are the Indians whose tribal name is ascribed to it, noted in the early
history of this coast for hostility to the whites. Such names as Destruction
Island and Ponta de lIartires, designating localities in this vicinity, are the tes
544 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
timonials of their perfidious cruelty, the evidence of their original character.
This river gives name to a variety of salmon, as yet not found in any other
locality.  They are short, thick, and very fat, and are the most delicious variety
of the numerous family of salmonidac which abound in all the waters of this
Territory.
There are several other small streams rising in the Coast range, and generally
flowing southwest, empty into this portion of the coast.  But nothing is reliably
known of this section of the country after leaving the coast.
GRAY'S HIIARBOR AND THE VALLEY WATERED BY THE CHEHALIS AND ITS
TRIBUTARIEs.-Gray's harbor, discovered by Captain Robert Gray, of Boston,
in the ship Columbia, Mlay 7, 1792, and by him named Bulfinch harbor, is a triiangular-shaped bay with base toward the ocean, and the apex receiving the Chehalis river. Its south point of entrance is called Chehalis Point; Point Brown,
the north cape, received that name from Lieutenant Whidby, of the Vancouver
expedition. A bank extends across the entrance, with a passage about threefourths of a mile wide, carrying from 5 to 11 fathoms of water. Outside the
bank is another narrow bar, with some three fathoms of water.  From this point
the depth increases toward the east, the deepest water being between the points
of entrance. The bay is surrounded by mud flats, bare at low water. The mouth
of thie Chehalis nearly due east of the entrance is distant about 12 miles from
Point Brown.  The greatest width of the bay north and south is 15 miles, and
its area is about 150 square miles. Competent judges have pronounced this harbor equal in every respect to Boston harbor. The Um-tulup, Hokium, and other
small streams empty directly into the bay. The main river, however, is the
Chehalis, which rises in the Cascade mountains, not far north of the Columbia
river, and south of the sources of several of the tributaries of the latter, flows
northerly a considerable distance, when it takes almost a due westerly course,
receiving a branch from the Boisfort hills, and finds its way into Gray's harbor.
Its principal tributaries are the Satsop, Wynoochee, Westican, John's, Black,
Skookum-chuck, and Newaukum. This valley is the richest and most extensive
body of agricultural land west of the Cascade mountains. Indeed, Chehalis andi
Lewis counties, and the porition of Thurston drained by these streams, may be
pronounced the garden spot of Washington Territory. The valley varies in
breadth from 15 to 50 miles.  From the mouth of the Satsop through to Hood's
canal, closed in by the Black Hills and the Coast range, there is a beautiful open
valley some 14 or 15 miles wide.  In fact, the whole country from the Chehalis
to the head of the sound and the head of Hlood's canal is well adapted to farming purposes. Prairie land to the extent of 50,000 acres suited for grazing lies
in the vicinity of Gray's harbor, and the rich bottoms skirting all these streams,
covered with an undergrowth of alder, maple, &c., so easily cleared, would furnish first-class farms for a vast number of settlers.
The travel from Olympia to Chehalis Point has heretofore been by a road to
the "block-house" on the Chehalis river, 60 miles east of the point, and thence
down the river in canoes, the total distance being about 90 miles. From the
mouth of the Satsop, (40 miles from Chehalis Point,) a road of 30 miles in length
has just been opened, securing direct communication with Olympia, at the head
of the sound.  The Chehalis is navigable at all tides, for vessels of light draught
or small river steamers, as far as the mouth of the Wynooche, and at high tide
to the mouth of the Satsop, where there is a tidal rise and fall of IS inches.  At
the lowest water, for two and three months in the year, shoal places might obstruct
navigation; but for eight months no difficulty need prevent ascending as far as
Claquato, where the territorial road between Olympia and Monticello crosses
the Chehalis river. The Messrs. Gofi; of Claquato, have just put on this river a
good light-draught stern-wheel boat, and they express the assurance that they can
make trips most of the year to Boisfort prairie, some miles above Claquato. All
the streams abound with salmon, trout, and many varieties of edible fish. Elk.
35
I
54,5
I
i
I
I
I
i
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
and other game, large and small, are plentiful.  Coal has been discovered on
the north side of the river, and also upon several of the tributary streams.
SHOALWATER BAY AAND THE WILLOPAH VALLEY. —From Chehalis Point,
the site of the embryo Chehalis City, a splendid beach at every stage of the tide
affords the best of roads to Toke Point, the northern cape of the entrance to
Shoalwater bay; distance about 16 miles. Along this road a continuous tide
prairie appears, constituted almost entirely of sand, yet yielding the most excellent grass. Shoalwater bay, which is one of the best harbors between San
Francisco and the Straits of Fuca, is in the southwest portion of the Territory,
separated from the Columbia river by a narrow strip of land.   Toke Point lies
about 28 miles north of Cape Disappointment. It is about five miles from Toke
Point to the southern cape, (Leadbetter's Point.)  Two channels with middle
sands Jying between afford good entrances, the north one being a good beating
channel.  The bay is full of shoals and flats, and at low tide about half its area
is bare  good but narrow channels run throughout its extent, worn by the several
streams which empty into it. These flats are covered with oysters, which constitute the chief article of export. Codfish, halibut, and sturgeon are abundant.
Several varieties of salmon are also found, and in spring large shoals of small
herring enter the bay. The annual shipments of oysters to San Francisco is
about 35,000 baskets; about 5,000 baskets more are sent to Portland, Oregon,
and other points on the Columbia river. 3lr. George Davidson, in his valuable
"Directory of the Pacific Coast," thus states the extent of this bay:
The arm stretching southward towards Baker's bay is 15 miles long from Leadbetter's
Point, with an average width of not less than three and a half, while the upper portion stretches
to the northeast for nine miles to the mouth of the Willopah river, reckoning from the middle
of the line joining Cape Shoalwater (Toke Point) and Leadbetter Point.
The same authority, speaking of the peninsula terminating in Leadbetter Point,
thus describes it:
The peninsula is a long, flat, marshy, and sandy plain, elevated but a few feet above the
level of the sea, and covered, like the entire surface of the country, with a dense growth of
gigantic forest trees, principally spruce, fir, and cedar, with a few specimens of maple, ash,
and black alder. The spruce frequently attains a diameter of eight feet.
Several rivers empty into this bay, among which are the Palux, Nasal, and
Willopah.  The principal one is the Willopah, in the valley of which is a numerous
arid one of the ocldest settlements in the Territory. This river enters the bay
at its northeast corner. The lower river is bordered with tide lands which are
subject to overflow; the uplands are well adapted to grazing.  It is a mile wide
at its mouth. The tides extend to the rapids, 17 miles from the mouth. A con siderabl)le number of prairies skirt the river at intervals, and the bottom is a rich
deep soil of a clayey character.  The bottoms are covered with vine maple and
alder, and extend above the rapids to a distance of about 20 miles, and are about
10 mriles in width.
THE WASHINGTON TRIBUTARIES TO THE LOWER COL-UMBIA.-The mouth
of tihe Columbia is now reached.  An extended noice of this river has already
been made, and the reference to settlements along its shores will necessarily
exhibijit further features of the country bordering upon it. The same may be said
of the streams flowing into it from thie north, a particular description of several
of -which will be omitted.  The Cowlitz river being a part of the line of travel
from Columbjia river to Puget sound, deserves particular mention. This river
having its source in the Cascade mountains, between Mounts Ranier and St.
Helens, runs west, then south, and empties into the Columbia about 50 miles
from its mouth.  It runs the whole length of Cowlitz county, and nearly the
whole breadth of Lewis, through good agricultural land, both prairie and bottom.
"The Cowlitz farms the Cowlitz prairie, and the Cowlitz landing are familiar as
household words, and date their origin long antecedent to the commencement of
Amnierican settlement.  The first name alludes to the claim of the prairie by the
-546 
WEST OF TIlE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Puget Sound Agricultural Company, and the area for which the United States
is requested to pay, under the treaty of Julyl, 1863, with Great Britain, is 3,572
acres, or nearly six square miles.  The Americans, however, have squatted on
this claim, until the occupancy of the company has been reduced to 75 acres.
On this prairie the Catholics established a missionary station, where recently a
town has been laid out in acre lots. IHere, too, was the site of the old Red river
settlement of Canadian French, introduced in 1842 under the auspices of the
Hudson's Bay Company.  The landing was the point where the portage commenced, on the old route from Fort Vancouver to the northern establishments.
To that point, about 30 miles from the mouth of the river, they navigated it with
batteaux and canoes, which were cordelled up the stream.  Along the eastern
shore were two trails, one used at low and the other at high stages of the water.
The Cowlitz river is still a link in the chain of direct communication between
the Columbia river and Puget sound. It is a large rapid stream, at high stages
of water navigable for steamers of light draught above the old landing, and for
most of the year to "Pumphrey's," about 24 miles from its mouth, where steamers
frequently run. A boat is now being built, and will be placed on the river this
fall, to run from Monticello to the old landing, connecting with the steamers to
Portland, Oregon.
In Clarke county there are several tributaries of the Columbia, the principal
of which are Cath-la-poole and Washougal.  The former, made by two forks
respectively rising north and south of Mount St. Helens, flows nearly west and
enters the Columbia about 80 miles from its mouth. It is a bold, rapid stream,
running about 30 yards in its bed. The bottom lands at the lower portion of
the river are wide, but narrow as they approach the foot hills of the Cascade
mountains. The country is well timbered, occasionally interspersed with small
prairies well adapted to grazing. The Washougal empties into the Columnbia
about 12 miles above Vancouver. A large settlement, to which it gives name,
is located in its valley.
T:E  OLYMPIC OR COAST RANGE OF MOUNTAINs. —Among the natural
features of this portion of the Territory, the Coast range of mountains must not
be omitted. They are located in the northwest peninsula, between Hood's canal
and the Pacific ocean.  Mount Olympus, with an altitude of 8,138 feet as estimated by Wilkes, is a snow-capped peak, and may be seen far out to sea.  It
gives identity to the chain, and the name Olympic is now generally applied to
this range. This sierra, for it consists of several peaks, was first seen by Perez,
in 1774, who nominated it La Sierra Santa Rosalia.  Meares saw it in 1788, and
describes it under the name which he gave it, of MIount Olympus.   Around and
from the base of this main sierra, the numerous mountains descend to hills and
spurs, and abruptly terminate on the sandy beach of the ocean in low perpendicalar bluffs.  It was long supposed that the Black Hills near Olympia were spurs
of the Coast range.  This, however, is a mistake.  Parties have gone through
and report that there is an open valley of at least 15 miles in width, separating
these two ranges.
CLIMATE OF WESTERN WASHINGTOx.-The climate of western Washington
is essentially different from that of the portion east of the Cascade mountains.
Thd fact that there is comparatively no winter in so high a latitude may be a
matter of surprise. Properly speaking, however, there are but two seasons, the
dry and the rainy.  The grades of temperature and the accompaniments which
in other countries of the same latitude ascribe the features and title to the four
seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, are here in great measure obliterated,
or at least so dimly marked that the seasons imperceptibly run into each other,
and lose their distinctive line of division. It is not unusual for the three winter
months to be mild, without snow or ice, the grass growing meanwhile. In February, the weather may occur mild and genial as May, to be succeeded in Maarch
or April with our coldest weather. In July and August, days in some portions
547 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
of which the maximum temperature will reach 90~ or 100~, are sometimes followed by cold nights, occasionally accompanied by heavy frost. The rainy
season proper begins late in October or early in November, and may be said to
continue till the ensuing April.   It frequently happens after the first rains
that weeks of weather similar to Indian summer occur, and it is seldom that one
or other of the months of January, February, or March does not prove continuously mild and clear. The summers of this Territory are unsurpassed in the
world.  While many days are exceedingly warm, the nights are always cool and
refreshing, as if specially intended for wholesome sleeping. In the winter months,
six in number, rains prevail. No disappointment should be felt if falling weather
occurred some part of each 24 hours, and yet many bright sunshiny days relieve
the long-continued rainy season of Washington Territory. Of the 16 winters
passed in this Territory, the writer has known but three so severe as to render it
essential to house and feed stock. The Indians do not pretend to such acts of
providence, and they lose but little of their small wealth from exposure or cold.
Rose bushes generally have proved an evergreen, and during the winter of
1860-'61, the hermosa continued to bloom in the garden of the writer till the
25th of January. Such weather is by no means axiomatic, and an improvident
farmer may lose his stock if means of shelter and food be not attainable. Those
who have followed stock-raising most successfully provide from two to three
months' feed as a general rule. While it may not be essential, surely "it is a
good thing to have on hand." An average of from 7 to 10 days of freezing
weather may be looked for with moderate certainty, when ice may be formed
sufficiently thick to bear a mnan's weight.  Under most favoring circumstances,
a small pond entirely protected from the wind, or the action of the sun, may be
frozen tight enough to permit a day or two of skating to a limited number of persons. Parties fond of sleighing consider themselves especially favored if they
are afforded a season of from three days to a week's duration.
From a series of meteorological observations taken at Fort Steilacoom, the following will demonstrate the above statements. The reason for adopting this
year is simply because it will be found that the mean temperature of the three
winter monthls comports with the register furnished at the Smithsonian Institute,
and used by the Hon. Charles Sumner in his recent exhaustive speech in favor
of the purchase of Russian America. In the register used by him, the mean of
the wintermonths for a series of years amounted to 39~ 381. In the year adopted
the mean temperature is 30~ 70'.
Mean temperature at Fort Steilacoom, TVashington Territory, (latitude 47~ 07')
for the six mnonth7s regarded as the rainy season, or winter, together with the
amount of rain and snow, and the number of frosts in each mionth.
Mean temperature.
d
o        o
45. 25  55. 5
40.02  46.0,
38. 74 44. 3(
~.
PI e
Hoar frost, three times.  Frost, once.
Hoar frost, twice.  One strong frost.
1+ inch snow,  23d, morning.    Hoar  frost, three;
frost, one; hard frost, four times.
21 inches snow.  Ice, 1i inch, (4th.)  Snow  latter
part of 10th; 2+ inches sunrise 11th, and at intervals
that day. Snow showers on 12th. Six days without
frost.
1st, i inch snow.  Showers of snow on 10th. 1 inch
on 11th. Snow on 14th. Hard frost, four times.
Hoar frost, twice.
Light showers of snow on 10th. Showers of hail and
snow on 29th. Two hoar frosts and one hard frost
in month.
8
6
2
8
0
7
3
2
548
ain.
Remarks.
4
m
62.3
50.4
51
d
;L
m
51' 1
43'7
44. 4
1853.
October ------
November - - - -
December....
1854.
January......
0 Inche
53.32 6.9
44. 63 18.4
44. 94 4.4
t
24.64 29.96 37.80 30.03 31.3
S. 6
February..-. 34.17, 39.82 48.17 36.42 43
7.5
35. 59 43.58 54.22 40.09 46. 0
2.89
March........ 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Mean temp9erature at Fort Steilcoom, by months, for four years.
Mean of four years: January, 38~. 1; February, 40~. 7; March, 410. 8; April, 480. 6; May, 560. 6; June, 610. 1;
July, 640. 9; August, 640. 0; September, 56. 9; October, 52. 6; November, 460.2: December, 380. 3; for
year, 50~. 8; three winter months, 391. 0.
On page 159 of Davidson's "Directory of the Pacific Coast" wvill be found a
series of meteorological observations on the Puget sound, for the years 1855-6-7,
of the summer months.  Those of 1857 present the following results:
11 6~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
d
50.7
51.6
o   0 
o.
G-~
,z 
F.)
Remarks.
(Appended below said register.)
.p1
1857.
May (3 weeks.) 
June...........
July...........
August..:......
September.....
Greatest range of temperature
during the above period, 63~.
Greatest range of barometer
from May 12 to October
13, 0~ 79 inch.
73. 8  51.1  88.0  28.0  47.1
65.5  49.8  76.4  23.3  45. 2
A dry season, and marked by
a ",week of remarkably hot
weather at the close of May
and the begining of June.
60.1  48.9  68.7  16.3  43.4
Mr. Davidson then remarks: "The cerealia generally grows well, but the
climate is too cold for maize. During the winter a great amount of rain fallsas much as 60 inches; and heavy weather prevails principally from  the southward. It is never cold enough to form thick, clear, solid ice."
In the winter of 1866-7, the United States Coast  Survey  brig R.  II.
Fauntleroy was ordered to remain here during the winter with the idea of testing
whether winter work was practicable, and to be on the station at the earliest
opening of the season. To test the propriety of such order, a meteorological
register was kept to show the number of days when work could not be done.
Mir. J. S. Lawson, in charge of thie workl, has kindly furnished an abstract.
It shows that not much may be effected by keeping a full crew on duty, but it
proves still more the mildness of a Puget sound winter, and how exempt this
-limate is from fogs.
Abstract of meteorological register United States surveying brig B. IS. Fauntleroy,
November, 1866, to April, 1867, inclusive.
(Most of these observations were taken at Olympia.)
Stormy days.
Mouth.~~~~ _Ci_earV Amut_
Ran   Fgo
Inches.
9,892
8,260
7, 506
5,197
0,880
2,371
4ovember...........................................................
)ecember...........................................................
*anuary.............................................................
'ebtuary...........................................................
larch...............................................................
\.pril................................................................
* Snow on four days.
I
I
I
.549
Ei
m
F4
I
I
m
Iz
71. 7
78. 2
74. 9
A 
It
.;I
,. 0
M.5
It
I -
0
. t
8 
14
I.I
-1
0
t.
p
Iz
9
1.
.E -
d
1.;4
9
li
Ei
x
9
li
a
.9
ri
to
r,
0
P4
18.1
13. 1
9.3
Time.
101. 5
90.1
89.2
46. 9
29.2
26. 5
0
38. 5
43. 0
46. 9
44i. 0
36. 9
33.1
Inches,
0. 52 1
62
: 44
1,71ches
0. 79
1. 19
0. 01
9. 7' 37. 8
S. 5 30.8
.46 0. 08
. 73 0. 70
October (2 w'ks.)
7. 8 25.1
. 65 0. 74
2
3
7
2
22
22
25
25
18
24
8
8
3
3
2
2
1
0 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
That admirable document, the speechl of Senator Sumner, on Russian America,
explains the phenomenon, why Washington Territory is gifted with a climate
so much milder in winter than places of much lower latitude in Europe or the
Atlantic States. His remarks were applied to Sitka, in latitude 57~ 03'. With
how much more force may thlev be applied to western  WVashington, with the
Cascade mountains as a natural wall eflectually barring out the cold bleak winds
from  the  frozen northeast, and confining  the more genial warm currents of air
and ocean which the distinguished senator so beautifully describes in the following
extract:
All this is now explained by certain known forces in nature Of these the most important
is a thermal current in the Pacific, corresponding to the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic.  The
latter having its origin in the heated waters of the Gulf of Mexico, flows as a river through
the ocean northward, encircling England, bathing Norway, and warming all within its
influence. A similar stream in the Pacific, sometimes called the Japanese current, having
its origin under the equator near the Philippines and the Malaccas, amid no common heats,
after washing the ancient empire of Japan, sweeps northward until forming two branches:
one moves onward to Behring's straits, and the other bends eastward along the Aleutian
islands, and then southward along the coast of Sitka, Oregon, and California. Geographers
have described this "heater," which in the lower latitude is as high as 81~ of Fahrenheit,
and even far to the north it is as high as 50~. A chart now before me in Findlay's Pacific
Ocean Directory portrays its course, as it warms so many islands and such an extent of
coast. An officer of the United States navy, Lieutenant Bent, in a paper before the Geographical Society of New York, while exhibiting the influence of this current in mitigating
the climate of the northwest coast, mentions that vessels on the Asiatic side, becoming
unwieldy with accumulations of ice on the hull and rigging, run over to the higher latitude
on the American side and "thaw out."  Buit the tepid waters which melt the ice on a
vessel must change the atmosphere wherever they flow.
I hope you will not regard the illustration as too familiar, if I remind you that in the
economy of a household pipes of hot water are sometimes employed in tempering the atmosphere by heat carried from below to rooms above. In the economy of nature these thermal
currents are only pipes of hot water, modifying the climate of continents by carrying heat
from the warm cisterns of the south into the most distant places of the north. So also there
are sometimes pipes of hot air, having a similar purpose, and these, too, are found in this
region. Every ocean wind, from every quarter, as it traverses the stream of heat, takes up
the warmth and carries it to the coast, so that the oceanic current is re-enforced by an aerial
current of constant influence.
But these forces are aided essentially by the configuration of the northwest coast, with a
lofty and impenetrable barricade of mountains, by which its islands and harbors are protected from the cold of the north. Occupying the Aleutain islands, traversing the peninsula
of Alaska, and running along the margin of the ocean to the latitude of 54~ 40', this mountain ridge is a climatic division, or, according to a German geographer, a "climatic shed,"
such as perhaps exists nowhere else in the world. Here are Alps, some of them volcanic,
with Mount St. Elias higher than Mount Blanc, standing on guard against the Arctic Circle.
So it seems even without the aid of science. Here is a dike between the icy waters of
Behring sea and the milder southern ocean. Here is a partition between the treeless northern
coast and the wooded coast of the Kenanians and Koloschians. Here is a fence which separates the animal kingdom of this region, leaving on one side the walrus and ice fox from the
Frozen ocean, and on the other side the humming bird from the tropics. I simply repeat
the statements of geography.  And now"you will not fail to observe how by this configura-'
tion the thermal currents of ocean and air are left to exercise all their climatic power. (Vide,
p. 29.)
George Davidson, who has already been referred to, and whose works have
been consulted in preparing the foregoing memoir, thus briefly but comprehensively gives his view of the coast division of Washing,ton Territory:
Washington Territory has a climate excelled only by that of California. We know not
where to point to such a ramification of inland navigation, save in the British possessions to
the northward. For depth of water, boldness of approaches, freedom from hidden dangers,
and the immeasurable sea of gigantic timber coming down to the very shores, these waters
are unsurpassed, unapproachable.
II. CENTPrAL WASHINGTON.-The second natural division of Washington
Territory lies between the Cascade mountains and the Columbia river, both of
which have already been noticed. The following extract from the geographical
memoir embodied in the "narrative and final report of explorations for a route
550 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
for a Pacific railroad, near the 47th and 49th parallels of north latitude from St.
Paul to Puget sound," by the late Governor Stevens, ch7arun et venerabile nomenn,
wvill give the best idea of the remaining geographic features of this interesting
region:
Coming now to the country lying between the main Columbia and the Cascade mountains,
it may be necessary to describe with some particularity the various streams and their several
tributaries flowing into the main Columbia.  A glance at the map shows that the general
course of these streams is very much to the south, and between them are generally to be
found high mountain spurs which run to the Columbia itself, overhanging it many hundred
feet. The most considerable rivers are the Yakima, with its Pisko, its Atahnam, its Nachess,
its Wenass, and other tributaries.
The Pisquouse or Wenachee river, Lake Chelan and the Chelan river, the Mcthow river
and the Okinakane river may be described as follows: The Yakima rises in the vicinity of
the passes of the Cascade range, latitude 47~ 15', from several large and beautiful lakes, and
taking a general course to the southeast, runs for 160 miles to its confluence with the Columbia, in latitude 48' 05'. For 25 miles down the stream its valley is only from half a mile to a
mile wide; it then widens out in Ketelas plain, which is 10 or 15 miles wide, the river there
being 90 feet wide, and about three in depth, but very rapid. Below this plain the river
curves gradually to the south, until it receives the waters of the Pisko; then turns again
eastward to its mouth.  Between the Ketelas and Atahnam, for 30 miles the hills again
encroach on the valley, but below that it again widens out to 6 or 10 miles, witch numerous
branchings amnong the hills. On the west side, opposite Ketelas plain, three streams, the
Pteh-num, Emptenum, and Wenass, rise among the hills separating the main Yakima from
its principal branch, the Nachess. These streams are from 15 to 20 miles long, and run through
small and fertile valleys. The Nachess rises in the vicinity of the Nachess Pass, and running nearly parallel to the Yakima at a distance of from 15 to'20 miles, joins it after flowing
about 50 miles. It has a valley from half a mile to four mniles in width. The Atahnam rises
about 30 miles south of it, and runs in a more easterly course, emptying about 10 miles below;
its valley is smaller than that of the Nachess, but fertile.  The Pisko rises among the hills
east of Mount Adams, and in size and character resembles the Atahnamin. Only two small
branches join the Yakima from the north and east, one running through the middle of Ketelas
plain from the hills northward, the other runing almost directly contrary to the upper
Yakima from the hills east of its southerly bend.  The Pisquouse and Enteathwa, which
enter the Columbia near latitude 47~ 30', are at their mouths rapid streams, with high falls as
they descend from the hills at the foot of the Cascade range into the deep valley of the Colutr
bia. They are supposed to head in the mountains about 30 miles northwest of it. The
Chelan rises in a lake, which is reported by the Indians to run for 30 miles back among the
mountains, and approaches to within two miles of the Columbia, into which its outlet falls,
by a series of cascades, 350 feet in this short distance, in about latitude 470 45'.
The 3Iethowv rises by several sources in the mountains northwest of Fort 0kinagan, and, running southeasterly, empties near latitude 48~. On its upper part
there is a fine wide valley; but this narrows to a mile for 10 miles above its
mouth. The Okinakane, rising in a long series of lakes north of the 49th parallel, runs nearlv south for seventy miles within the Territory, joining the
Columbia only eight miles above the MIethow.  It expands into several small
marshy lakes in its course, and is generally slow and deep, but in one place,
about 33 miles above its mouth, there is a fall of five feet. Its valley is fine
and the hills around well grassed, wooded, and arable. It receives a branch
from the northwest, near the falls, which runs through a rough, hilly country,
and has some high falls near its mouth.
The Ne-hoi-at-pu-quu is a stream which enters the Columbia opposite Fort
Colville. It has a winding course of about 70 miles, and has numerous beautiful prairies in its valley, though the hills around, partially wooded, are also to a
great extent arable. None of these rivers west of the Columbia are navigable,
encept, perhaps, the Yakima for a part of its course at high water. Lake Chelan is doubtless navigable for many miles, but is cut off from the Columbia by
the fall of its outlet.  Between these rivers are spurs thrown out from the main
chain of the Cascades, and extending towards, and in some cases reaching, the
banks of the Columbia. Those between the Klikitat and Pisklo tributary of
the Yakima and between the main Yakima and the Wenachee or Pisquouse
rivers are considerable mountains; thus, on the trail pursued by Lieutenant
McClellan, the rise from the Klikitat valley to the divide is 2,364 feet, and the
551 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
descent to the Pisko 2,114 feet, the elevation of the divide being 3,633 feet
above the sea. The rise from the main Yakima to the divide separating it from
the Wcnachee is 4,04S feet, and the descent to the latter stream 4,264 feet; the
summit level is 5,750 feet.  Here the spur comes upon the river, making the
trail difficult.  The country north of the great western bend of the Columbia,
from the mouth of the Spokane to the mouth of the Okinakane, is much more
gentle and less elevated. Great injustice has been done this country by a want
of patience and consideration on the part of the gentlemen who have gone over
it rapidly in the summer, and who have been over it but once. It is impossible
to speak understandingly of a country unless one has had experience and opportuniities of observation in countries somewhat similar.  Now the most intelligent
voyagers and best practical farmers in that country agree in opinion that there
is a large quantity of arable land throughout this country, and very superior
grazing. This is the opinion of intelligent Indian chiefs, who have themselves
made some progress in raising crops, and who are already great stock raisers.
South of the Yakima is a low divide separating its waters from the waters
flowing into the main Columbia, in that portion of the river where, after leaving
Fort Walla-Walla, it proceeds westward.  This divide has a general parallel
course to the Columbia, is nearly east and west some 30 miles from the main
river, and between it and the Columbia is a large body of arable land, nearly
every acre of it adapted to cereals. This country has not come under the observation of a scientific party with instruments in hand, but has been much travelled over by intelligent officers of the Indian service and by the practical agriculturists of the country. Little streams flowing from the southern side of this
divide, which is well wooded all through, pass down to the main Columbia,
watering the country and furnishing the means of supplying the farm and animals
with water.
On the several tributaries of the Yakimna, particularly towards its upper waters,
the land is rich, and adapted to most of the crops; and so in the valley of the
Yalkimna itself.  This valley has  been denominated by some a desert and sage
plain; sage does occur in spots and small quantities, but much of the country is cultivable and productive. It may be observed that in regard to the whole
of this central portion of the Territory it will be necessary to exercise care as to
seed time, and farmers will have a disadvantage over those west of the Cascades
in their seed time being very much shorter; but with ordinary care as to the putting in seed no danger need be apprehended from droughts. This portion of
the country is wooded about half way up from the divide of the Cascade mountains to the Columbia itself, but you pass up the main Yakima 70 miles before
you reach the building pine, although cottonwood is found on its banks sufficient
for camping purposes; but when you reach the Pisquouse or Wenachee you
come to a wooded region which extends to the main Columbia. The forest
growth of the upper waters of the Clearwater, and of the main Columbia from
above the mouth of the Wenachee, furnishes inexhaustible supplies, which, after
being rafted down the streams-that is, the Snake and Columbia rivers-will
furnish settlements in the vicinity of those rivers with firewood and lumber at
moderate rates. So great are the facilities for rafting that it almost amounts to
a continuous forest along the streams. The Blue mountains, which border the
Walla-Walla valley on the south, have a general course westward, south of the
main Columbia, until they unite with the Cascade mountains, from which flow
many streams to the Columbia, to the Umatilla, Willow creek, Butter creek
John Day's river, and the Des Chutes river.
When this interior becomes settled there will be a chain of agricultural settlements all the way from Walla-Walla to the Dalles, south of the Columbia, along
the streams just mentioned and north of the Coluinbia, on the beautiful table
land which has been described to border it from the Walla-Walla westward.
The Dalles is a narrow place in the Columbia river where the channel has been
552 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
worn out of the rocks, below which, about 10 miles, is the mouth of the Klikitat river, whose general valley furnishes the route of communication with the
main Yakima and the several intermediate streams, the trails pursuing a generally northerly direction.  In this Klikitat valley is much good farming land.
It is also worthy of observation that gold was found to exist, in the explorations
of 1853, throughout the whole region between the Cascades and the main Columbia, to the north of the boundary, and paying localities have since been found
at several points, particularly on the southern tributary of the Wenllachee. The
gold quartz also is found on the Nachess river.  The gold-bearing crossing the
Columbia and stretching along Clark's fork and the Kutanie river unquestionably extends to the Rocky mountains.
CLIMATE OF CENTRAL WASHIXGTON.-The meteorological data at points of
known altitude within this region precludes a satisfactory notice of the climate.
In the absence of registered observations facts may be stated from which inferences may be drawn.
A. W. Tinkham, a distinguished civil engineer connected with the Northern
Pacific railroad survey, left Fort Walla-Walla (now Wallula) January 7, 1854,
followed the Columbia river to the mouth of the Yakima, and ascended that
river to its sources in the Cascade mounitains.  To Kle-alum-lake (with an altitude of 3,000 feet, which he reached January. 17) he found no difficulty in travelling with horses.  At this point the snow was about two feet deep; "30 miles
lower down on the river the snow was very light, not over three or four inches
deep; the grass was good and exposed, and the Indian horses were in good condition.  Extending still further down and reaching Walla-Walla, the horses are
ranging in thousands throughout the borders of the valley, with abundant grass,
and rarely with any trouble from the snow."  From this camp to the 20th of
January the snow nowhere exceeded two and a half feet in depth.   From lake
Kitchelus to the summit (Yakima pass) the snow attained the depth of six feet.
Mr. Tinkhain remarks:
Descending, the snow rapidly decreases on both sides of the mountain, on the eastern
side, about 35 miles from the summit, amounting to but from one and a half to two feet in
depth, and on the western side falling away until, in the short distance of 14 miles, it is
only eight inches deep.
It is proper to add that the winter of 1853-'4, when the reconnoissance was
iade, was an unusually severe winter.
Colonel TholT, of Yakima county, and one of the earliest settlers in this
valley, having lost considerable stock in the very severe winter of 1861-'2, at
the next harvest stacked a large quantity of hay.  With no accessible market
for the article, the stacks still stand. The grass keeping green all winter in his
locality, (on the Yakima, about a mile above the mouth of the Atahnarn,) his
large herd of cattle having had no occasion to be fed, the six or seven great
hay stacks stand there undiminished in their original volume; they serve as a
reminder of that unusually cold winter. They equally attest the miild temperature of the valleys of Central Washington, and while one cannot fail to commend the prudence of the stock raiser, yet, for the sake of his labor and that so
much good hay should not be wasted, would almost wish that real winter would
come oftener.  Sylvester Mowry, then a lieutenant in the United States aimvy,
who had charge of the meteorological observations of the western division of the
Northern Pacific railroad, 1853, gives a series of means of observations at each
camp between Fort Vancouver and Fort Colville, in the months from July to
October, inclusive, to appreciate which the altitudes of the camps should be
included. There was no rain in July, three days on which rain fell in August,
seven days on which rain fell in September; in October, five days on which rain'
fell, and snow on the night of 23d and morning of 24thl. Hie notices the great
disproportion between the temperature at sunrise and mid-day, and says:
I have no recollection of a single day on which a fire was uncomfortable during the pre
i
I
553
I
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
ceding and succeeding sunrise. The heat was not generally oppressive, except in the sun,
throughout the march.
Governor Stevens, who so thoroughlylv investigated all these subjects, in solving
the great desideratuma of these times, interoceanic railway communications, thus
arrives at the character of the climate in this vicinity, which is quoted with the
more satisfaction from the fact that his deductions are substantiated by residents
of the Yakima valley.  He thus argues:
WValla-WValla, latitude 46~ 03i, longitude 1180 25'; altitude, 1,396 feet; 1A year-spring,
r)5].9; summer, 73~.]; autumn, 53~.6; winter, 34~.1; year, 530.2. Dalles, latitude 45v 36',
longitude J20~ 55'; altitude, 300 feet; 3i years-spring, 53~; summer 700.4; autumn, 52~.2;
winter, 35O.6; year, 520.8.  Lapwai, Clearwater valley, latitude 46~ 27', longitude 117~,
altitude, 1,000 feet. 2+ years observations for temperature give-spring, 51~; summer, 70~.3;
autumn, 51~.2; winter, 36~.9; year, 520.4.  Of these, the mean may represent the climate
of the great plains and of the valleys connected with it up to latitude 49~, which are about
of the same or a lower elevation, giving us, for spring, 51~.9; summer, 71~.2; autumn,
53~; winter, 35~.6; year, 52~.7.
With respect to moisture, no record exists for Lapwai; Walla-Walla and the Dalles, however, are drier in climate, as shown by the records. Fort Walla-Walla, 14 years observations-spring, 6.40; summer, 2.85; auiitumn, 4.54; winter, 7.10; year, 20.89 inches. Dalles, 31
years-spring, 2.63; summer, 042; autumn, 4.16; winter, 7.11; year,  14.32 inches.
Mean-spring, 4.51; summer, 1.63; autumn, 4.35; winter, 7.11; year, 17.60 inches.
All the crops of the middle States, including corn, can be cultivated successfully in the Yakima valley. This statement is based upon reliable information
from settlers who have resided there and farmed for several years past.
III. EASTEPx WxASHINGTON.-The Columbia river, which bounds this seetion of the Territory on the west, has already been a matter of extended notice.
To present the idea of the vastness of regions drained by it and its tributaries,
it was essential to allude to its two main confluents, the Snake (Lewis's Fork)
and the Pen d'Oreille, (Clarke's Fork,) as also the area of country through
which they flowed.   These two rivers have their respective sources far to the
south and east of the Territory of Washington, but they cross the whole width
of the region under consideration, and in it are their rnouths, several of their
tributaries, and the largest proportion of their navigable channels.
If the Spokane and Walla-Walla rivers, with their respective branches and
confluents, be excepted, the remaining rivers of eastern Washington generally
flow into one or other of the two great forks of the Columbia.   This section
may therefore be considered as the aggregation of the Walla-Walla valley; the
basin of the Lower Snake river; the Great Plain east of the Columbia, circumscribed by the big bend of that river and divided by the Grand Coulee; the
Spokane river, valley and plains; and the valley of the Pen d'Oreille, under
the general term of "Colville."
The Walla-Walla river and its several tributaries, the Touchet, 3/ill creek,
Dry creek, and several small streams which permeate the valley like the
branches of a fan, take their source in the Blue mountains, flow westerly, and
converge in the main stream, which enters the Columbia just above the northern
boundary of Oregon.  At the mouth of the river was located the Hudson's Bay
Company's fort, Nez Perce, or Walla-Walla.   It was built in 1820 by an officer
of the Northwest Company, and consisted of a stockade, 200 feet square, 18
feet high, with a broad walk on top, with two bastions at the northeast and
southwest angles.  The timber used in its construction was drift-wood from the
upper Columbia. In the immediate vicinity of the fort are plains of drifting
sand, extending back of the river several miles, the only vegetation being wild
sage.  This fort was a stopping place and depot for the brigade, as the trading
parties of the company were termed. In later years it was the supply post and
entrepot of Forts Hall and Boise and the trapping parties of the interior. Supplies from Fort Vancouver intended for these establishments were forwarded by
land from this point, while such as were designed for the upper Columbia were
transported via the river. This fort was burned in 1842, and rebuilt with
554 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
adobes.  In November, 1855, shortly after the outbreak of Indian hostilities, it
was taken by the Indians and plundered, since which time it has never been
occupied by the company. In its vicinity Colonel Kelley, of the Oregon volunteers, had a two days' battle with the Indians who had robbed the fort, gaining
a decisive victory over them.  In this action the notorious Pu-pu-mox-mox, head
chief of the hostiles, was slain.
The town of Wallula now occupies the site of this old, abandoned fort. Being
the eastern terminus of the regular established trips of the steamboats of the
Oregon Steam Navigation Company, an extensive forwarding business is done
here. It may also be considered the port of the city of Walla-Walla, distant
some 30 miles east, as also a great distributing point for the rich mining regions
of Idaho and Montana.
WVhitman's missionary station (Wauilatpu) was located on the banks of the
Walla-Walla7 about seven miles west of the site of the present city of WallaWalla.  It was established by Dr. Marcus Whitman in the fall of 1836, under
the auspices of the American Board of Foreign M3issions, and broken up November, 1847, by the atrocious murder of its pious and devoted founder, his lovely
wife, and nine other American inmates, by a band of perfidous Cayuse Indians.
There is a striking peculiarity about the innumerable streams whicli flow into
the Walla-Walla river.  They spread themselves in almost every direction, not
only in channels, but over and on top the surface, constituting a most admirable
system of self-distributing natural irrigants.  To this feature this rich agricultural valley owes very much for its remarlkable fertility and producing power.
The main streams are skirted by alder, cottonwood, and willow, the only
approach to timber in the valley. Distant a few miles, however, the Blue mountains are covered with heavy timber, adequate for all purposes, though it is rendered expensive by the cost of transportation.
Mill creek is worthy of notice, not only because upon its banks is located the
city of Walla-Walla, the largest town in the Territory, but also firom the remarkable fact that it divides itself into many distinct channels or creeks, spreading
out laterally and watering quite an extensive surface, then gradually converging
and concentrating into one channel, through which their waters are emptied into
the Walla-Walla river. We know of no other such system of irrigation as this
provided by bounteous nature for this beautiful region.  The valleys of all these
rivers and their numerous branches afford abundance of excellent farming lands,
yielding heavy crops.  The table-lands and surrounding hills are possessed of
soil of like character. In consequence of the absence of water, or difficulty of
irrigation, which was deemed a sine qua non to their successful cultivation, until
very recently no attempts were made to convert these lands into farms; but as
settlement increases, they are being occupied and very successfully cultivated.
For grazing, these tables and side hills cannot be excelled. They are covered
with a luxuriant growth of native bunch-grass of most nutritious quality.
During the rains of spring it seems to attain its growth, and through the dry
season which follows it stands to be cured into the best of hay, preserving its
strength and esculent properties all winter.  Stock abandon the green grass of
the bottom  lands to feed upon it, and on it they keep lfat all winter.  Another
noticeable feature in this region is the great number of cold springs bursting out
upon the surface, some of which are, sufficiently large for water-powers. On the
hottest days they retain their coolness, and are many degrees colder than the
water in the neighboring streams, to which they are found in close proximity.
But the term Walla-Walla valley, in common parlance, is by no means
restricted to the valley of the river of that name. Governor Stevens, in his
valuable Geographic Memoir, thus alludes to its boundaries:
The Snake river forms a great re-entering from the Clearwater to its junction with the
Columbia, which re-entering, being bounded on the south by the Blue mountains, has been
555 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
named the Walla-Walla valley, although that term properly applies to the immediate system
of valleys whose streams connect with the Walla-Walla river itself.
It may be proper to add that the settlers on the Tukannon, Al-pah-wah, and
Pa-ta-ha, which are all tributaries of Snake river, would deem themselves outlawed if denied their residence in Walla-Wal]a valley.   In language appreciated in this Territory, this valley, in its most restricted meaning, would find its
synonym in Walla-Walla county.
The Snake river, having forned the east boundary of the Territory from the
46th parallel to the mouth of the Clearwater, crosses the entire width of eastern
Washington and empties into the Columbia about nine miles north of the mouth
of the Walla-Walla. Some 200 miles of its length courses in and around this
section. Its main northern tributarywithin Washington Territory is the Pelouse,
which is formed by two main branches, one rising nearly north in the plain of
the Columbia, the other in the Bitter Root mountains. The latter, after running
west 130 miles, joins the north fork about 12 miles from the mouth of Pelouse.
The Falls of the Pelouse, about nine miles from its mouth, are well worthy of
remark. The following description is from the pen of J. M. Stanley, esq., artist
of the Northern Pacific Railroad Exploring Expedition, (1853:)
The Pelouse river flows over three steppes, each of which is estimated to have an ascent
of 1,000 feet. The falls descend from the middle of the lower of these steppes. There is no
timber along the course of this stream, and but few willows or other bushes; yet the soil is
fertile, and the grass nutritious and abundant even in winter. The fall of water, which is
about 30 feet wide, cannot be seen from any distant point; for, flowing through a fissure in
the basaltic rock, portions of which tower above in jagged pinnacles, it suddenly descends
some 125 feet into a narrow basin, and thence flows rapidly away through a deep cation.
The distance from the falls to Snake river is about nine miles. The valley widens considerably for about half a mile from the mouth of the Pelouse. The home of the Pelouse Indians
is near this junction, where they devote much of their time to salmon fishing. The salmon
ascend to the falls; but these Indians have a legend which tells of the wickedness of the
Indians higher up the country, and how the Great Spirit, in his displeasure, placed the falls
as a barrier to the further ascent of the salmon.
Of the great plain lying east of the Columbia, Governor Stevens thus speaks:
That portion of the great plain lying east of the main Columbia, and which may be regarded
as bounded on the north by the Spokane, and on the east by the foot-hills of the Bitter Root
mountains, is, for the most part, well watered and well grassed. The eastern half of this
portion is exceedingly well adapted to agricultural purposes. The various streams-the
Pelouse, the Kamas Prairie creek of the Cceur d'Alene, the Spokane, and Cceur d'Alene
rivers-are well timbered with pine, and numerous rivulets and springs are found through
that portion of the country, facilitating the progress of settlements, and rendering the whole
at once available for agriculturists.
The Grand Coulee, which is the peculiar specialty of this region, commences
on the east side of the Columbia, immediately north of the chain of hills which
skirt the river in its bend from White Bluffs westward; after running in the
same general direction as these hills eastward some 30 miles, it turns sharply to
the north, and continues in that direction till it opens again upon the Columbia,
some 60 miles below the mouth of the Spokane. The information as to this
south arm and mouth of the Grand Coulee is derived from A. J. Treadway, esq.,
who surveyed several townships in its vicinity during the past summer, (1867,)
under contract with the surveyor general of this Territory. lie thus describes it:
The south or southwest end of the Grand Coulee is on the east side of the Columbia, in
township 16 N., R. 23 E., at about centre,of the range and south side of the township. It
extends through ranges 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 east, and,then turns nearly to the north. Near the
southern boundary of the township is a range of high hills from 1,000 to 1,500 feet high,
running nearly east and west, parallel with the township line. In the (Coulee are numerous
broken or detached ledges of rocks from 10 to 75 or 100 feet high, and from 100 feet to one or
two miles in length, running generally in the same direction with the Coulee.  Scattered
through the valley are numerous mounds of broken rocks seldom more than 10 or 20 feet in
height.
Lieutenant Richard Arnold, United States army, of Stevens's Exploration,
(1853,) describes the north end as starting from the Columbia 60 miles below
'556 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
the mouth of the Spokane, and moving in a general direction south-southwest.
lie says:
The Grand Coulee is about 10 miles wide where it opens on the river at its northern end,
which is 100 feet above the water, and gradually widens towards the south; its walls, 800
feet high, are formed of solid basaltic rock, but diminished in height southward as the bottom
rose toward the summit of the plain, until in 20 miles distance they ended. Numerous lateral ravines and cations were seen, running in various directions, some of them containing
lakes without outlet, and streams 10 feet wide and two deep.
The portion west of the Grand Coulee bounded by the Columbia is of basaltic
formation, sparsely grassed and scantily supplied with water. A large proportion of country east and south of the Grand Coulee is well adapted to grazing
and tillage.
The Spokane river empties into the Columbia just below the 48th parallel,
and near the point where the Columbia, deflecting sharply from its southerly
course, forms the north limb of the big bend of that river to the westward. A
few miles within the eastern boundaiy of the Territory it receives its main confluent, the Cceur d'Alene, the outlet of Cceur d'Alene lake, which is located in
that narrow strip of Idaho Territory situate between eastern Washington and
Montana. It is to be hoped that the effort now being made to re-annex this strip
to Washington will meet with success. It is a useless appendage to Idaho, and
if county organization became necessary, the isolation from the body of the Territory and the capital would prove a source of inconvenience to the residents.
The reannexation would divest Idaho of incongruous shape, avoid parallels of
latitude and imaginary lines as boundaries, substituting therefor mountain chains,
and it would render intact a region of country with community of natural feature
and resources, and if inhabited at all, its population would depend upon similarity of pursuit.
The Coeur d'Alene river has several tributaries, the principal of which are the
St. Joseph's and South Fork. The valleys of the Spokane and Cceur d'Alene
are well adapted to settlement, abundantly supplied with timber and water, and
affording a large proportion of arable land.  This region may be regarded as
bounded on the north by Clarke's fork, or the Pen d'Oreille river, which, after
leaving Penl d'Oreille lake, (east of this Territory,) runs northwest  and enters
the Columbia under the 49th parallel. From the Spokane river to the northern
boundary the country is heavily wooded, interspersed with valleys, many of
which are now occupied by settlers. The extensive prairie, or plain of the
Spokane, must not be overlooked; through it passes the wagon road from WallaWValla to Pen d'Oreille lake.  This vicinity is memorable for the short but brilliant and decisive campaign of the late distinguished General George Wright,
(then colonel 9th United States infantry,) in the summer and fall of 1858, against
a hostile combination of the Spokane, Pen d'Oreille, Pelouse, and Coeur d'Alene
tribes of Indians, a large number of whom, on the 16th May previous, had surprised and defeated Colonel Steptoe, of the same regiment, on Snake river.
Colonel Wright was sent by General N. S. Clarke to chastise them.   On the
1st September he thoroughly whipped them at " Four Lakes," (latitude 47~ 32',
longitude 117~ 39',) without the loss on his part of a single man.   On the 6th
he repeated the lesson at "Spokane plains," (latitude 47~ 40', longitude 117~ 19',)
in a fight continuing over seven hours, in which the Indians were driven some 14
miles, two of their chiofs killed, and' numbers of lesser note. The prompt and
efficient conduct of Colonel Wright forced the Indians to sue for peace.   lie
marched as far as the Cceur d'Alene mission, curtailing their ability for further
depredation, and established quiet in that region, which till this time remains.
Ile also gloriously wiped out the humiliation of Steptoe's disaster.
West of the Spokane prairie a range of hills divides the waters of the Spokane
and lower Pen d'Oreille. Between these hills and the Columbia are the Colville and Chemakane valleys, separated by a low divide. In the latter was
557 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
located the missionary station of Rev. Messrs. Eels and Walker, established in
1838, under the auspices of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and successfully conducted till the winter of 1847, when, after the "Whitman massacre,"
it was abandoned. This valley affords a large quantity of excellent agricultural
land, and is capable of supporting a considerable settlement.
The Colville valley derives its name from the Hudson's Bay Company fort
of that name, situated near the bank of the Columbia, in latitude 48~ 37'. This
p    o    s    t was established in 182 5, and  during the period when the company were in
active    operation was second only in importance to Fort Vancouver.   It was
erected upon a terrace about a mile back from the river, and about two miles
from Kettle falls, a vicinity formerly noted for the abundance of salmon. The
esta       blishment consisted of a   dwellinz-house three or four warehouses, a blacksmith shop, and several one-story log houses.   In primitive days these were
enclosed wvithin a stockade some 70 yards square, with bastions at two of the
angles.  Nine miles from the fort was the Cattle Ranch; a grist-mill situate on
the Stauntehus river, (now Mill creek,) three miles from the fort, where quite an
extensive farm was cultivated. This mill supplied the adjacent country and the
northern posts with flour, made from the wheat raised in this vicinity by its few
settlers, mostly in the company's service, and Indians living within a circuit of
70 miles, who had been instructed in agriculture by the Protestant missionaries,
also supplied considerable. This fact alone speaks largely as to the capacity of
Colville valley as a wheat-producing region.  The batteaux used by the company in the navigation of the Columbia were built at this fort.  It was in fact
a recruiting station and rendezvous for the company's brigades; the point where
the results of trade were consolidated to be transmitted across the Rocky mountains to headquarters in the Hudson's Bay territory, from whence shipments were
made to England.
In the immediate vicinity of the fort the soil is sandy, but a short distance
back it produces abundant crops.  We have no recent meteorological data sufficientlv full to make an exhibit of climate; but the assertion is fully warranted
that the winters are many degrees milder than in the same latitudes east of the
Rocky mountains.  Captain Mullan, United States army, who  has been thoroughly acquainted with this whole region since 1853, compares the climate of
this region with that of St. Joseph's, Missouri, in latitude 41~.  The summer is
apt to be hot and dry; but little rain falls except in spring and fall. Corn succeeds well, though later in maturing than in the middle States. Wheat, barley,
oats, patatoes, melons, &c., yield abundantly.
Colville valley proper is about 50 miles long and three wide, and large quantities of very rich land are unoccupied and open to settlement. lHonl. J. E.
Wyche, a judge of the supreme court, Washington Territory, but recently
returned firom holding court at Pincklney City, thus refers to it:
On the rich lands now unoccupied in the valley and on Mud lake and along on different
points on the Columbia river there are now the finest opportunities for settlement and happy
and prosperous homes of any part of this upper coast.  From 100 to 300 families may find
as rich land as the sun shines on, with no timber to be cleared, and with splendid timber just
at hand, and the finest streams, and needing only the touch of the husbandman's hand to
yield abundant harvests.
Pinckney City, oftener called Colville, has recently been established, and
already has a population of over 200. Near it are the United States military
post (Fort Colville) and the Indian reservation.
This vicinity has attracted much attention as a gold mining region since 1854;
indeed the name of "Colville" has attached to the whole mining region of the
upper Columbia and its tributaries, south of the 49th parallel. Gold is found
on all the streams and bars from the Spokane river to the northern boundary,
and up the Pen d'Oreille to the Catholic Mission.  TIhe richer fields of British
Columbia have attracted thither white miners, but a large number of Chinamen
558 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
have found successful employment on these various bars for the past several
years.
On the 18th November, 1865, the steamer Forty-nine was launched at the old
Hawkins barracks, the former winter quarters of the Northwest Boundary Commission. She is 114 feet long, 20 feet 4 inches wide, and 5 feet deep, with two
engines, 12w-inch bore, 4 feet strokie-80-horse power.   She was built by Captain Lemuel White, the pioneer steam navigator of the upper Columbia. She
runs from Little Dalles, just south of the 49th parallel, to La Porte or Death
rapids, distance, by course of river, 270 miles, and within 15 miles of Big Benld,
British Columbia.
Little Dalles is an embryo town established on the Columbia, some 30 miles
from Pincklney City, with which it is connected by anl excellent wagon road.
The collector of customs, district of Puget Sound, has located at this point a
United States deputy collector. A large quantity of merchandise passes through
this place, as is proven by the following exhibit, very kindly furnished by MIajor
J. J. H. Van Bokkelin, who acted in the capacity of deputy collector from March
1, 1866, to December 1, 1866, inclusive:
Value of goods imported by Hudson's Bay Company on which duties were paid at Port Angelos.
Amount of invoices....-..... —-.... —------------------------------------—. $4,632 00
Duties paid on same................... —------------------------------------------ 2,928 21
Statement of goods in transitufrom Vancourer's island and British Columbia via Little Dalles.
47 saddle horses, 183 pack animals, merchandise; value.... —------------------ $34,175
From Kootenais, British Columbia, to Vancouver's island and British Columbia:
68 saddle horses, 225 pack animals, 42 packages furs; value................- 18,560
To Fort Shephard, British Columbia, from Vancouver's island and British Colum  bia: 34 saddle horses, 167 pack animals: value of merchandise. —----------- 42,781
From Fort Shephard to British Columbia and Vancouver's island: 38 saddle horses,
195 pack animals, 35 packages of furs; value.............................. —---------------- -------- 18, 500
Statement of merchandise shippedfrom Little Dalles to British Columbia.
From Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Colville: 18 riding horses, 167 pack horses,
28 packages of furs; value.................................. —-----------------------------------—....... $16,700
From Oregon and Washington Territory, via Yakima valley and Soogoos lake:
2,754 head of sheep............................................. ——.... 22,032
2,265 head of beef cattle.................... —---------------------------------------—. 148,550
483 head of horses............................................... —- 33,810
43 head of mules.......... —-----------------------—........ —------------------- 4,300
1,132 head of pack animals...................................... —-------------------------------------—......... 113,200
264 head of saddle horses --------------------------------------------- 26,400
From Little Dalles to Big Bend, British Columbia, via Columbia river-canoes and boats:
Vessels cleared at custom house, 19 canoes, 35 boats, 15 trips of steamer Forty-nine; merchandise cleared at custom house, $142,487 25.
RECAPITULATION.
Valuation of merchandise imported into Colville district................. $7,560 21
Valuation of merchandise passed in transitu..... —----------------------—....... ] 14,016 00
Valuation of animals................................ —---------------------------------------—.. 83,400 00
Valuation of merchandise, &c., exported.................................. —-------------------------- 507,479 25
CLIMATE  OF EASTERN  WASHINGTON. —As the central division may  be
regarded as the west half of the great plain of the Columbia, the general remarks
upon its climate measurably apply to the eastern portion of said plain. MIeteorological data from continued observations at known points are not accessible
within the time allowed in the preparation of this memoir, and we are forced to
content ourselves with a single citation, the mean result of one and a half years'
observations:  Fort Walla-Walla, latitude 46~ 3', longitude 118  25', altitude
1,396-spring, 47~; summer, 73~.1; fall, 53~.6; winter, 34~.1;  mean for ycar,
530.2.
559 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Captain 3Tullan, late of United States army, long on duty in this section, in
his Military Road report, thus refers to the climate:
The meteorological statistics collected during a great number of years have enabled us to
trace an isochimenal line across the continent from St. Joseph's, Missouri, to the Pacific;
and the direction taken by this line is wonderftil, and worthy the most important attention
in all future legislation that looks towards the travel and settlement of this country.  This
line, which leaves St. Joseph's in latitude 40~, follows the general line of the Platte to Fort
Laramie, where, from newly introduced causes, it tends northwestwardly, between the Wind
River chain and the Black Hills, crossing the summit of the Rocky mountains in latitude
470-showing that in the interval from St. Josephl's it had gained six degrees of latitude.
Tracing it still further westward, it goes as high as 48~, and develops itself in a fan-like
shape in the plains of the Columbia.
It may certainly be said of the upper Columbia basin, considering its altitude
and higll latitude, its climate is remarkable for mildness.  On the open prairie
the snow, never deep, seldom covers the ground a week at a time; in the heavy
timber and in sheltered places it remains much longer on the surface.  It is seldom essential to house or feed stock, though occasional severe winters serve as
warnings to provide food and shelter. One or two months' feed is the extent
whichl necessity ever requires in the heaviest winters. The Indians, who own
extensive bands of horses, take no precaution, sometimes shifting their camps
for better grass, and they seldom  lose stock by occasion of severity of winter.
A noticeable concomitant of the winter of the upper Columbia is the Chenook
wind; it is a warm current, more properly a gale, occasionally, during the winter
months, blowing up through the channel of the Columbia from the southwest.
A few hours' continuance will remove every vestige of snow from the carLh over
which it sweeps.
There is no hazard in the statement that, for health and salubrity, there is
no climate in the world which surpasses that of Washington Territory in the
two portions east of the Cascade mountains.
THE COUXTTIES OF WASHINGTON TiERPITOny.-The Territory is divided
into 21 counties, viz: Chehalis, Clallam, Clarke, Cowlitz, Island, Jefferson,
King, Kitsap, Klikitat, Lewis, Mlason, Pacific, Pierce, Slkamania, Snohomish,
Stevens, Thurston, Wahkiakum, Walla-Walla, Whatcomn, and Yakima.
CniElnALIS.-Population, 300; assessed value of property, $100,199 94;
area, 1,600 square miles. The geographical position of this county is best
defined by referring to its special feature, Gray's harbor, and the valley of the
river which confers its name. It lies upon the Pacific, and its north boundary
is about midway between Capes Disappointment and Flattery. It was organized by act of the Washlington Territory legislature, April 14, 1854. County
seat, 31ontesano; post offices or towns, Cedarville, Chehalis City, Cosmopolis,
Elmoa, and Satsop.  It contains a large quantity of rich bottom lands and prairies, and is one of the best agricultural sections of the Territory.
~oadIs. —Till recently the travel between these settlements, all located upon
Gray's harbor or the Chehlalis river, was by water.  The road from Olympia,
on Puget sound, terminated at Cedarville, where canoes were taken for the
remaining journey to Gray's harbor, although there were trails along the banks
of the river, and one crossing to the Willopah settlement in Pacific county.  A
road has just been completed from Satsop to Olympia, very materially shortening the distance between the lower Chehalis settlements and the sound. A
beach road from Chehalis City to the northern cape of Shoalwater bhy connected these settlements with Pacific county and Astoria, Oregon.
CLALLAM.-Population, 305; assessed value of property, $97,396 31; area,
1,720 square miles; number of acres of land on which taxes are paid, 9,300.
This county was established by act of Washington Territory legislature, April
26, 1S854. Its full northern length is washed by the Straits of Fuca, and its
western boundary, about 40 miles in length, borders on the Pacific ocean.
County seat, New Dungeness; post offices and towns, Port Angelos and Nee-ah
'560 
WEST OF THIE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Bay.  Skirting the straits from the east boundary to near Port Angelos there
is a wide belt of excellent land, which is very generally occupied by settlers.
The liver bottoms are very rich, and the opening of the roads from the straits
to the Quilleliuyte river has developed the existence of a rich section of land
heretofore unknown. Miost of the travel from place to place is by the straits.
A road has been opened from the eastern settlements to Port Angelos, and short
roads connect the former settlements with Port Discovery and Port Townsend.
CLAPnKE.-Population, 2,089; assessed value of property, $611,657; area,
1,400 square miles; number of acres of land on which taxes are paid, 94,731.
Acres planted in wheat, 932; in oats, 1,805; in rye, 52; in barley, 78; in peas,
120; in potatoes, 215.   Lumber mills, 12; flouring mills, 3; schools, 26;
churches, 9; stores, 31.  One steam vessel.  Horses, 1,039; mules, 87; cattle,
3,980; sheep, 4,463; hlogs, 1,469.
This is the oldest county in the Territory. The provisional government of
Oregon, June 27, 1844, established the district of Vancouver, embracing all of
the then Oregon Territory north of the Columbia river. By act under same
government, December 22, 1845, the word " county" was substituted for "distlict."  Under the Oregon territorial government the name of "Clarke" was
adopted in place of "Vancouver." County seat, city of Vancouver, one of the
most thriving settlements in the Territory. Here was established the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky mountains. The
early Catholic missionaries, in 1838, first commenced their labors at this point.
Early after the treaty of 1846 United States troops arrived in the Territory,
since which time it has been occupied as a military post, long the headquarters
of a military division or department.
Towns azcd Post Offices.-Lake River, Lincoln, Pekin, Union Ridge, and
5lashougal.  The county borders the Columbia river, and is about equidistant
from the Pacific ocean and the summit of the Cascade mountains. The settlerinents are connected by roads, but the main territorial road from Fort Vancouver
to Fort Steilacoom, passing along the Columbia river to the Cowlitz, at certain
seasons is inundated; from this fact and the facility of travelling on the Column
bia this road has only a nominal existence.
COWLITZ.-Population, 480; assessed value of property, $186,079; area, 466
square miles; number of acres onI which tax is paid, 20,918.
This county lies immediately west of Clarke, with about 20 miles of shore
line on the Columbia river, with 25 miles of length of the Cowlitz river traversing it north and south.  Its southeast corner is about 35 miles east of the
mouth of the Columbia river.  Besides the valley of the Cowlitz several tributaries of that river afford a large quantity of rich bottom land. Nearly one-third
of the county is included in thliese valleys.  A short distance back of the rivers
large tracts of unoccupied lands afford great inducement for settlement. No
portion of the county is further removed from either the Cowlitz or Columbia
than 15 miles, hence access to market is insured.  The whole county is good
soil. Fifty bushels of wheat to the acre is not an unusual yield in these bottom
lands. This comuity was set off from Lewis county by the legislature of this
Territory, April 21, 1854. Monticello is the county seat. This is the point of
departure for travel from the Columbia river to Puget sound.  Castle Rock and
Oak Point are the remaining post offices.  At the latter point is located Abernethy's saw-mills, at which about 4,000,000 feet of lumber are annually mnanufactured.  There is also a small saw-mill on the Cowlitz river about 12 miles
above Monticello.
loads.-This county is so located that roads from the Columbia river to
Puget sound must either commence in or pass through it.  Here commelnes
or terminates the land travel between the river and the northern settlements.
The military road from Steilacoom and the territorial road from Olympia end here,
and the transit to Portland or Vancouver is completed by steamboats via the
36
i
i
i
I
i
561 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
river. The portion of road between Monticello and Vancouver is located, but
scarcely used. The old Hudson's Bay trail, which comes down the Columbia river,
may be travelled at certain seasons of the year, and was much used for driving
stock, but even they are now most generally transported in barges to Monticello,
towed by the steamers.  On the east side of Cowlitz river a road is opened connecting all the settlements.  From Monticello to Oak Point, and  from Oak
Point to Boisfort prairie in Lewis county, roads have been opened, the latter
connecting with a territorial road from Boisfort to Olympia.
ISLAND.-Population 409; assessed value of property $261,731; area 250
square miles.  The following surplus produce remained on hand May, 1867, at
time of annual assessment, which indicates tile producing character of this settlement: 1,416 tons of hay; 2,687 bushels wheat; 15,815 bushels barley;
9,382 bushels of oats; 5,925 bushels of potatoes; fruit trees, 9,868; horses,
268; cattle, 964; sheep, 1,234; hlogs, 1,156.
The county was established by the Oregon territorial legislature, January
6, 1853.  It consists of the two islands of Whidby and Camano.  The county
seat is Coupeville.  Towns and post offices-Coveland, Crescent Harbor, Oak
Harbor, and Utsalada, the latter of which places is the site of the extensive
saw-mill of Messrs. Greman and Craney, on Camano island.  While isolated
from the remainder of the Territory the settlements on Whidby's island are connected by good roads.
JEFFERSON.-Population, 650; assessed value of property, $301,584 27;
area, 1,670 square miles. Established by the Oregon territorial legislature
December 22, 1852.
This county has an extensive shore line upon the straits of Juan de Fuca and
Admiralty inlet, embracing ports Discovery, Townsend, and Ludlow. It then
extends south of Clallamn county to the Pacific ocean.   On ports Discovery and
Ludlow extensive steam saw-mills are located, giving employment to numerous
hands and constituting centres of population. Port Townsend, on the bay of
that name, is the county seat. It is the site of the custom-house of the district
of Puget sound; the marine hospital is located here, and at the head of the bay
is the military post, (Fort Townsend.)  The bay is six miles long, four wide,
and an excellent harbor. Towns and post offices-Chemnican, Port Discovery,
and Port Ludlow. Water transportation is relied upon, as most of the settlements are in the vicinity of the sound.  Roads connect Port Townsend with
Port Discovery, and with the prairie settlements back.
KING.-Population, 725; assessed value of property, $414,043; area, 1,800
square miles; acres under cultivation, 3,650. Organized by the Oregon terlitorial legislature December 22, 1852.
In this county are embraced the rich agricultural valleys of the Dwamish,
White, and Green rivers, and the extensive coal fields back of Lake Washingtonl on the Squak, Black, Dwamrnish, and Green rivers.  Seattle is the county
seat; a thriving town, in which is located the university of the Territory.  Towns
and post offices-Cedar river aitd Freeport.
Roads.-Seattle is connected with Steilacoom by a good wagon road, and during the past season a wagon road has been constructed across the Snoqualmi(
pass of the Cascade mountains into the Yakima valley.
KITSAP.-Population 610; assessed value of property, $551,266; area, 40C
square miles.
This county was organized by act of the legislative assembly of this Territory.
passed January 16, 1857, under the name of Slaughter county, in honor of th(
gallant Lieutenant W. A. Slaughter, United States army, who was killed in
the Indian war of 1855-'56. By a provision in the bill the people of the county
were authorized to vote for a name at the next general election, (1857.) At suc[
election the name Kitsap was adopted after the Indian chief whose tribe occu
2ied considerable portion of the county, one of the most prominent and abl(
562 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of the leaders of the hostile Indians. The county may be described as the
peninsula between Hood's canal and Admiralty inlet, including Bainbridge and
Blake's islands, with 50 miles of shore line upon IIood's canal and S0 upon
Admiralty inlet.  No portion of the county lies further from navigable water
than four miles.  This county is noted for its extensive lumbering mills.  Port
Madison is the county seat, on the excellent harbor of that name.  Towns and
post offices-Teekalet, Seabec, Port Orchard, and Port Blakely.
Roads.-Between Port Madison and Teekalet the portage is made by a road
nine miles in length.   Port Orchard to Seabec, a distance of four miles, is
made over a well-defined trail.  Water transportation is the prevalent method
of communication between the settlers themselves, as also with other portions of
the Territory.
KLI3ITAT.-Population, 300; assessed value of property, $125,342; area,
1,850 square miles; number of acres of land on which taxes are paid, 6,778;
established by legislative assembly of this Territory I)ecember 20, 1859;
county seat, Rockland.  The Dalles in Oregon is the post office for this whole
region, including even the county seat.  The Yakima Indian reservation and
the Simcoe agency are located in this county. The. Indian industrial school,
under management of Rev. J. II. Wilbur, at this agency, has been a decided
success.
LEWIS.-Population, 550; assessed value of property, $268,095; area, 1,580
square miles.  Established by the Oregon provisional government December
21, 1845; county seat, Claquato; towns and post offices-Boisfort, Cowlitz,
Highland, Newankum, Saunders, and Skookum Chuck.
This county is one of the best agricultural sections west of the Cascade mountains. Thoroughly watered by the Chehalis and Cowlitz rivers and several of
their tributaries, its prairies and rich bottoms offer great inducement to settlement.
Roads.-The territorial road and mail route from Olympia to Monticello runs
through the whole breadth of this county.  A  second territorial road, crossing
the Skookum Chuck and Newankum and avoiding the Chehalis river, terminates
at the old Cowlitz landing.  Boisfort is connected with Claquato by  a good
wagon road, and also by a road with MAopah, in Pacific county.
IAsoN.-Population, 219; assessed value of property, $44,480; area, 1,600
square miles. Organized under the name of Sawamish county by the Washinlgton Territory legislature, March 13, 1854.  Name changed to MIason, January
8, 1864, in honor of the memory of Mir. Charles H. Mason, deceased, first secretary of the Territory in order of time as well as by efficiency of service, and
long and ably its acting governor.  County seat, Oakland.  Towns  and post
offices-Arkada, Kamilchie, Skokomnish, Sherwood's miills, and Union city.  A
road has been opened from Oakland, near the head of Skookum bay, to Olympia,
which is used for driving stock.  WVater communication, by the sound and its
several bays, is, however, the usual method, and in the present location of settlements the most available.
PACIFIc.-Population, 375; assessed value of property, $135,568; area, 1,140.
Established by Oregon territorial legislature February 4, 1857. This is the
southwesternl county of the Territory, bordering on the ColuLmbia river and the
Pacific ocean, its great specialty the basin of  Shoalwater bay.  It is noted
for its oysters and fisheries. An extensive establishment for the manufacture of
water cement has just been completed by Mr. J. B. Knapp, on the Columbia
river, about two miles east of Chenook.  The supply of rock is inexhaustible.
Preparations are made to supply at least 150 tons per month. About $20,000
have been expended in the buildings and machinery.
The county seat of Pacific county is Oysterville. Other post offices and townsWillopah, Bruceport, Chenook, and Pacific City.
Pitcr. —-Population, 860; assessed value of property, $508,806 50; area,
2,000 square miles. Organized by act of the legislative assembly ot Oregon
563 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Territory, December 22, 1852. In this county is located the mammoth claim
of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company for lands appurtenant to Fort Nisqually, called the Nisqually claim. About a mile east of the city of Steilacoom
the United States fort of that name is located. From this point commences the
military road to Wallula (the old fort Walla-Walla) via the Nachess pass of
the Cascade mountains, opened by the people of Thurston and Pierce counties
in the summer of 1853, and an appropriation by Congress of $20,000 expended
upon it in 1854, by Lieutenant Richard Arnold, United States army. A general
idea of the line of this road will be obtained by consulting the table of distances
measured by odometer at the time of construction. The points designated generally indicate camps where the best water and the greatest amount of wood and
grazing may be obtained. The first column of figures indicate the distance
from point to point, and the second the distance from Steilacoom:
Miles.
To Puyallup river..............-......................-. —----------------------------------—.................. 22    22
First crossing of White river......................... —---------------------------------—. 9 31
Last prairie on White river................................................ 6    38
Second crossing of White river....... —--------------------------------- l11    4
Sixth crossing of White river..... —---------------------------------— 5- 5    5i
La. Tete —-------------------------------------------------- 3    59i
First crossing of Green river............................................... 1   61A
Bare Prairie... —---------------------------------------------—......  I-  63i
Last crossing Green river at western base of mountain.......................  10+  73'
First prairie on summit of mountain........................................ 3    77i
Last prairie on summit of mountain......... —----------------------------—.........    2+   79
First crossing of Nachess river..................................... —--------------------------------   5+  841
Crossing of Papattsally............ —------------------------------------—. 10    95
Mouth of Bumping........... —------------------------------------------ 4+   9q
Last crossing of Nachess river................ —------------------------------—. 1 1 11
Wenass................................ —----------------------------------------------—... 10  121
Where road leaves Wenass valley............... —-----------------------------—. 16    7i
First crossing of Yakima river...... —-------—............ 4    141:
First water after leaving Yakima river................ —--------------------------—. 18   159
Second water after leaving Yakima river.....................................  7   167
Brackish Spring................................................. —-----------------------------------------—. 16} 1831
Great Bend of the Yakima................................................. 18i 202
Near   mouth   of  Yakima...................................................  15+  217i
Terminus of route, opposite Wallula....................................... 17i 234,
The road from Fort Vancouver passes through this county, continuing to Foil
Bellingham at the extreme north of the Territory, though not travelled beyonc
Seattle.  From Steilacoom to this latter point the mails are carried tri-weekl)
on this road.  The settlements scattered through the county are connected witi
each other by good roads permeating the county, and communicating also with th(
farming settlements of Thurston and King counties.
The county seat is Steilacoom.  Post offices-Franklin, Nisqually, and Span
away; the former named being the post office of the flourishing agricultura
settlement in the valley of the Puyallup. HIere, also, is an Indian reservation
at which are concentrated most of the tribes of the head of Puget sound.
SKAMANIA.-Populatioll, 270; assessed value of property, $260,365; area
1,800 square miles; organized by act of legislative assembly, Territory of Wash
ington, March 9, 1854. This is a mountainous section, there being but littl,
available land within its great area immediately bordering on the Columbi:
river.  The width of the county embraces the summit of the Cascade range;  i]
it are the great cascades of the Columbia, the great gorge made by the vas
aggregation of the waters of the upper Columbia and its innumerable confluent
and tributaries forcing an exit through this great mountain chain. Through thi
pass, around these rapids and falls, the first railroad west of the Rocky moun
,tains was constructed to avoid these obstructions to steamboat navigation.
Another matter worthy of remembrance connected with this county was th
passage by the legislative assembly of this Territory of an act (January 14, 1865
dismembering this county and dividing its territory between Clarke and Klikita
564 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
counties.  Congress having in the organic act reserved the privilege to disprove
territorial legislation, annulled said law of the assembly of the Territory, (June
29, 1866,) and reinstated Skamania county; the only instance in territorial legislation in which Congress has intervened.
County seat is Cascades. By this is meant Lower Cascades; the Upper Cascades is the only other town. Both are the termini of the Cascade railroad; both
are points of departure for the steamboats of the Oregon Steam Navigation Cornmpany plying up or down the Columbia river.
The narrow strip of land over which the railroad passes affords but little room
for any other road.  There is, however, a military road from Fort Vancouver
(called in the act of Congress making the appropriation for its construction,
Columbia City barracks) to Fort Dalles. This road affords land communication
between the Cascades and the settlements of Clarke county, but travel by the
river almost the universal mnode of communication.
SNOHOMISir.-Population, 285; assessed value of property, $69,022 86; area,
1,500 square miles; acres under cultivation, 1,200; organized by act of Washincton Territory legislature, January 14, 1861. This county is noted for the
pine timber which skirts its numerous streams, which are resorted to by logging
camps.  These camps are transitory and made up entirely of males, and hence
the great preponderance of male population. This also accounts for the fact
that at different periods such discrepancies arise in attempted estimates of population.
The countv seat is Snohomish City; Muckelteo and Tulalip (the latter the
site of the Indian reservation) are the other post offices in this county.
STEvENS.-Population, 550; assessed value of property, $200,579; area,
28,000 square miles; acres uLnder cultivation, 2,500. This county embraces
over one-third of the area of the Territory, lying upon both sides of the Columbia
and between the Cascade mountains and the eastern boundary of the Territory.
On the 29th January, 1858, the present county of Stevens and the territory
included within the county of Yakima were erected into a county by the legislature of this Territory. No organization being effected under said act the legislature passed a similar law January 27, 1862, constituting the before described
territory into Spokane county.  On the 20th January, 1863, the territory east
of the Columbia was set off and erected into a separate county, allnd named
Stevens county in honor of the late General Isaac I. Stevens, Washington's
first and most distinguished goverlor.  January 19, 1864, Stevens and Spokane
counties were consolidated and the name of Stevens ascribed to the united territory.  To attempt a description of this large and interesting region, would be
to renew the notice of the great plain of the Columbia, the Spokane plains, the
Grand Coulee, the Colville valley, all of which have been extendedly noticed
in the preceding geographic memoir, which is referred to as largely applicable
to this county.
The county seat is Pinckley City.  There are other settlements and towns
at various points, but it alone is a post office.
Roads.-Wagon roads from Walla-Walla to Colville; from White Bluffs to
Lake Pen d'Oreille, the Mullan road; a road from the Dalles through the Yakima
valley, and on the west side of the Columbia, to Colville, and roads connecting
with the passes of the Cascade mountains traverse this region, and are muchi
travelled by miners and parties driving stock into British Columbia and to the
Pen d'Oreille and other mining regions.
THrrUsToN.-Population, 2,045; assessed value of property, $776,622 75;
area, 672 square miles; number of acres on which taxes are paid, 82,522; cattle,
2,691; sheep, 7,877; hogs, 696. Established by act of Oregon territorial government, January 12, 1852. County seat, Olympia, the seat of government of
the Territory. At Turnwater, in this county, the first American settlement north
of the Columbia was made in the fall of 1845.
565 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Post Offices and Towns.-Beaver, Chamber's Prairie, Coal Bank, Miami, Grand
Mound, and Turnwater.
-Roads.-Olympia being the head of Puget sound, water commniunication from
the northern settlements, Victoria and British Columbia, and the land travel
from the Columbia river northward, terminates at this point. Hlere, then, may
be said to start the great thoroughfare of communication between the sound and
Columbia river, terminating at Monticello, where steamboat navigation is resumed.
There are no less than three routes within this county southward to Skookum
Chuck, two thence to the Cowlitz river-one (the military road) continuing down
the Cowllitz to Monticello; an excellent wagon road connects with Steilacoom
and thence to Seattle. This county is admirably adapted for roads, and the
settlements are all accessible by well defined and good roads.
WAIIKIAKUM.-Population, 63; assessed value of property, $9,653 33; area,
225 square miles. Established by act of Washington legislature, April 25, 1854.
Cathlamette is the county seat, and post office for the whole county.  This county
borders on the Columbia river just east of Pacific county.  The greatest portion
is rough and mountainous, confining settlements to the river front. The timber
is of an excellent quality and most abundant, but agricultural tracts are few and
not extensive.
WALLA-WALLA.-Population, 3,500; assessed value of property, $1,762,816;
area, 8,000 square miles; acres of land on which taxes are paid, 21,152; acres
in corn, 2,307 i acres in wheat, 7,729; acres in oats, 4,045; acres in barley, 1,125;
acresin timothy, 568. In 1866 thlie yield wasas follows: Wheat, 500,000 bushels;
oats, 250,000 bushels; barley, 200,000 bushels; corn, 150,000 bushels; beans,
170,000 pounds. Six fiouring mills, six saw-mills, two planing mills, two distilleries, one foundry, 52 threshing, heading and reaping machines.
The act of assembly of this Territory creating this county passed April 25,
1854. It then included all the territory between the Cascade mountains and
the Rocky mountains and the 46th and 49th parallels, excepting thereout  a
fraction of Skamania and the county of Klikitat. Settlers were scattered through
this vast region, but so widely apart that no organization was at the time
attempted. The Indian war of 1855-'56 caused many to abandon the region.
At its close, Colonel Steptoe issued, to say the least, a most remarkable order,
dated August 20, 1856, that " no emigrant or other white person, except the
Hudson's Bay Company, or persons having ceded rights from the Indians, will
be permitted to settle or remain in the county."  This emanated from Major
General Wool, then commander of the Pacific military department. This decree
of expatriation and forbidding of settlement continued till the spring of 1859,
when Major Grier, United States dragoons, consented that the rich valley of the
Walla-Walla might be occupied by American settlers.  Its growth and progress
dates from that period, and it is now the most populous and wealthy county in
the Territorv.
The county seat is the city of Walla-Walla, the largest town in Washington
Territory.  Post offices-Coppei, Mullan's Bridge, Touchet, Wallula, all centres
of thriving settlements.
Toads.-Wallula (the old Fort Walla-Walla) was the point where the great
emigrant route coming into Oregon struck the Columbia river. It is now the
eastern terminus of usual steam navigation on the Columbia, though occasional
trips at favorable stages of water are continued as far as White Bluffs. In
primeval days the emigrants continued down the river in boats or on a road along
the river to the Dalles. In 1853, a road was constructed from this point, or
rather from the opposite side of the river, via Yakima valley and Nachess Pass,
to Fort Steilacoom, on Puget sound. A good wagon road, travelled daily by
coaches, connects it with Walla-Walla City, 30 miles east. During the past
year a road (Wastuckna wagon road) connects it with the forks of Mullan's road
and the wagon road from Walla-Walla to Colville, insuring direct communica
566 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
tion fiom Wallutla to Colville or Fort Benton.  This road is in length 58 miles.
The distance via Walla-Walla, from Wallula to same point, was 100 miles.
Walla-Wa]la is a centre from which roads diverge in all directions, connecting the settlements of the county with each other, and affording routes to Fort
Benton, on the Missouri, (by Mullan's military road,) to Fort Colville, Lewiston,
and Boise, to Lake Pen d'Oreille, and to the rich mining regions of Montana.
WHATCOM.-Population, 244; assessed value of property, $42,522  50; area,
4,300 square miles; organized by act of Washington legislature, March 9, 1854.
This is the northernmost of the Puget Sound counties.  Within is Bellingham
bay, the shores of which are so noted for their extensive and valuable coal mines
which are fully noticed in an article upon the coal fields of the Territory.
County seat, Whatcomn; post offices, San Juan, on the disputed island of that
name, and Swinamish.
YAEIMrA.-Population, 125; assessed value of property, $68,676 28; area,
7,000 square miles; organized under act of assembly of Washington legislature,
January 21, 1865.  It embraces the Yakima valley proper lying between the
Wenacliee river and the northern boundary of Klikitat county.  This and the
neighboring  valleys, passing under the general cognomen of the Yakima country,
are the best stock raising region in the Territory; fine soil, excellent grass, and
mild winters, with occasional very short feeding seasons, never exceeding between
one and two nionthlis.  Several extensive stock ranches are already commenced,
and lm,e banids of cattle are owned in this valley.  The county seat is on Colonel
Thorp's claim on the Yakima, near the mouth of the Atahnam, and not far from
the old1 Catholic mission.  Thirty-five miles above, at the foot-hills of the Cascade mountains, is the Kitatash valley, 40 miles in length and 15 in width, well
watered by the Yakima and its tributaries, abundantly though not heavily timnbered, and of excellent soil.  The new road opened the past season from Seattle
thlrou1gh the Snoqualmie Pass runs tlhrough this valley, joins the Nachess military road at Thorp's, and as one road they continue to Wallula.  The road from
the D)alles, OregTon, to The Wenachee, Pen d'Oreille and mines of the upper
Columbia, crosses the Yakinma river about 25 miles below Thorp's, and passes
through the whole breadth of this coulnty.
The post office for the county is the Dalles, Oregon, from which it is separated
by the Columbia river, the width of Klikitat county, the Simcoe mountains, and
the Yakima river.  A  county containing 200 inhabitants, with more inducements for immediate settlement than almost any portion of the Territory in consequence of mineral resources, rich agricultural tracts, and salubrious climate.
ought to have one post office and one post route.
SECTION II.
MINERAL RESOURCES.
On the north side of the Columbia river from the Dalles the country is broken
and hilly to the Klikitat river, which empties into the Columbia above the
Dalles.   In the Klikitat valley there is considerable farmning, and a large
amount of grazing land, with small patches of pines and fir. The Cascade
range of mountains is well supplied with forests of pine and fir, except the highest
peaks, as Mount Adams, St. Helens, and Ranier, which are covered with perpetual snow, and consequently are entirely barren.
Along the foot of the mountains from the Dailes to the Nachess, the whole
country is volcanic, with no minerals of value. On the head of the South Fork
of Yakima river a conglomerate is found, composed of pebbles and boulders of
sandstone and granite, with small masses of quartz.  When this has been disin
567 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
tegrated a trace of gold has been found.   To the north of the Nachess quartz
veins exist, but they are generally small  and barren.   Gold is rarely, though
occasionally found in them. Further north, near lake Chelan, some diggings have
been discovered, which, however, did not pay wages.
On the Columbia river, above Priest rapids, a number of the bars paid fair
wages for a short time. The gold was very fine, and had evidently been moved
a long distance by the action of the water. The eastern slope of the Cascade
range in this Territory has been pretty thoroiughly prospected for gold.   Except
in the instances before mentioned, none has been found. There is a large amount
of good grazing and farming lands, but no mining.  Ini thie northeastern portions
of the Territory, about Fort Colville, mines  have been worked,  though  not
profitably.  In the regions adjacent to the Rocky mountains, doubtless good mines
will yet be found.
COAL.-The appearance of veins and  outcroppings of coal in almost every
section of the Territory west of the Cascade mountains indicates its very general
distribution and inexhaustive supply.  It is found on the Columbia, as also upon
streams emptying directly into the Pacific; it appears at Clallain bay, just within
the Straits of Fuca; following round our inland sea, we find it in exhaustless
fields back of Seattle, then upon the Sto-ln-aua-mahl, and at Bellingham bay, in
the extreme north.  Its presence at intermediate sections within an area bounded by
the above designated points upon the Cowlitz and Skookum Clhuck, the Chehalis,
and on the Dwamish, Black, and Green rivers attests its thloroiiugh and universal diffusing; the continuity of the strata through this whole reriol.
George Gibbs, favorably known to the scientific world, and highly regarded by
his fellow-citizens of his adopted Territory, thus alludes to the universalitv of
coal indications:
The whole of this formation has been considered by geologists as tertiary, and the coal
as not belonging to the true coal.  Be this as it may, its value for economical purpose is
unquestionable. Even that on the Cowlitz and Skookum Chuck, though inferior to the product of the Dwamish and Bellingham bay mines, was abandoned only from its not being
accessible to tide-water.
A singular circumstance in connection with this subject has been noticed at the southern
end of Whidby's island.  A crevice in the earth exists there, from which smoke constantly
ascends, rising undoubtedly from the burning of a bed of coal or lignite beneath.  The clay
around its edge is said to be baked of a brickl red.  It has been burning since the settlement
ofthe country, and is popularly called a volcano.
No scientific exploration whatever has been made of this region, nor even such an examination of particular beds as to justify any opinion respecting their value. Such experiments
as have been tried indicate that for steaming purposes the quality of the coal is very good,
but to what extent the beds can be worked is not settled.  They appear on the edge of the
water, most of them not above the high tides of winter, and it would seem that they dip
slightly in shore, as well as in a direction parallel to it. Frollm the appearance of upturned
edges of sandstone between high and low-water mark, it is conjectured that the coal extends
beneath the surface of the bay, and that to the north of it it will be perhaps found in place
and in the natural position of the strata. The formation commences at the Columbia river,
where lignite or brown coal is found in thin seams, and extends continuously northward to a
great distance, the quality of thle coal improving in that direction.
BELLINGHAM BAY MINE S.-These mines are located in the extreme north of
the Territory, and have already acquired a wide-spread reputation, not only for
their extent, but also for the quality of the coal.  In the fall of 1852, Captain
William Pattle, then engaged upon a contract to furnish the Hudson's Bay Company with timber from Lopez island, crossed over to the shore of Bellingham
bay in search of suitable trees for his purpose; while walking along the beach,
hlie observed several seams of coal. Himself and two parties working with him
(MIessrs. Morrison and TIhomas) each immediately located adjoining claims of
160 acres, fronting upon the bay, under the provisions of the donation law, then
in force in this Territory.  The northernmost one was taken by Pattle; it is
next south of the claim on which the present town of Sehome is erected; the
other claims were taken in the order named.
568 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
-essrs. Pattle, Morrison & Thomas leased these claims to a San Francisco
company, who sent Captain William A. Howard (now of the United States
leavenue service on duty at Sitka) to the bay as superintendent.  A  vein was
opened on the "Morrison claiml," called the "M Ia-moosie mine," from which a cargo
of 150 tons was taken out, when the enterprise was abandoned.  George Gibbs,
esq., the geologist of the western branch of the Northliernl Pacific Railroad Exploration, thus speaks of it, March 1, 1854:
The seam which had been most worked, that known as the Ma-moosie mine, was altogether
eight feet through, but divided by three feet of clay and slate, leaving only an equal amount
of workable coal. A drift had been carried in about 175 feet, the quality improving somewhat.
About 150 tons only had been got out, which was mostly on board a vessel bound to San
Francisco.
The "Pattle claim" has upon it a vein 11 feet thick. No attempts, however,
have been made to develop it, except that Captain Pattle himself took out by
hand a small quantity of coal. The claim now belongs to Reuben L. Doyle, esq.,
of Whidby's island.  The " Thomas claim" is settled upon by Daniel W. HIarris,
who has occupied it since its abandonment by Thomas.   In it are two seams
visible from the beach. No real attempt at work has ever been done upon this
claim.
In 1860, Morrison sold his claim to Charles E. Richards, esq., (to whom as
assignee the United States government issued patent in 1866.) In 1860, Mr.
Richards associated with him several gentlemen under the name of the Union
Coal Company. They opened a vein and sunk a shaft about 100 feet. The
vein worked was but two feet in thickness, although there was another of
eight or nine feet upon the claimn.  That company took out and shipped to San
Francisco an aggregate of about 2,500 tons. This claim has lately been transferrTed to a company in New York, who propose the present fall to commence a
thorough system of operations.
The mine of the Bellingham Bay Company is the mine upon which the reputation of this whole region has heretofore depended.  It is situate between the
towns of Sehome and Whatcom, on the shore of the bay, about two miles north
and east of Pattle's discovery.  The vein had been laid bare by the blowing
down of a large tree. Claims were at once taklen by the discoverers, Messrs.
Brown and Hewitt, in the fall of 1853.  Late that fall several gentlemen of
San Francisco formed the Bellingham Bay Company, and sent Captain W. H.
Fauntleroy and Calhoun Benham, esq., to examine the mines. They purchased
the two claims for $18,000. Colonel E. C. Fitzhugh, afterwards judge of the
supreme court of this Territory, was for several years the superintendent, and up
to 1860 the shipment of coal to San Francisco averaged about 500 tons per year.
In 1860 the old Bellingham Bay Company leased these mines to Mloody and
Sinclair, granting to the lessees the privilege of taking out 1,000 tons per month.
But the yield exceeded that quantity; their exportation the first year amounted
to not less than 15,000 tons, which gradually increased each subsequent year.
In 1866 the present management commenced, with Colonel A. Hayward, the
modern Crcesus, holding the controling interest.  R. E. Myers, esq., is resident
superintendent. The delays in the fall of 1866, incident to the change of managers, caused a suspension of active mining operations. By the time matters
were satisfactorily adjusted the mine took fire, the extinguishment of which prevelnted the resumption of mining till June, 1867.  Indeed, now (September 1)
the lower gallery is not yet completely pumped out. This company own about
3,000 acres of land in compact form, and have expended in improvements not
less than $100,000. The shaft is about 500 feet deep, the slope at an angle of
450, decreasing as you descend; the first gallery 300 feet down, and the one
now being worked extends some 600 yards.  The lower gallery, which is still
being pumnped out, (though in it operations will soon be, if they are not already,
I
I
I
i
569
I
I
i
i
I
i
I
I
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
renewed,) has been worked to the distance of 600 yards.  It is in contemplation
this fall to widen the slope to admit a double track, enabling the simultaneous
descent and ascent of cars into and from the mine.  About 100 tons per day are
now being taken out, but arrangements are in progress by which the daily yield
will be increased to 400 tons. The present cost per ton to put on shipboard is
about $3.  Practical miners express the opinion that if the claim was worked
further from the beach there would be less slate, the coal would be clearer, and
the expense per ton could be materially reduced by the cleaning process being
rendered unnecessary.
Ilr. John HIewston, well known on the Pacific coast as a leading chemist,
analyzed this coal in October, 1858. The following is his report:
Specific gravity................................................. 1.309
Water (hygroscopic)............................................ 5.60 per cent.
Dry coal....................................................... 94.40
The dry coal consists ofCarbon........................................................ 74.41
Hydrogen...................................................... 4.63
Oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur.................................   17.61
Ashes (red).................................................... 3.35
100.00
Amount of coke procured............................................. 62.60 per cent.
Subjoined is a copy of the analysis of various samples of Welsh, Newcastle, and Scotch
coals, with which it will be seen the analysis of the sample from Bellingham bay compares
very favorably:
~~Co
Locality or name of coal.,
0 ~
WELCH.
Aberdare Co's Methyr............................... 1.31   88.28    4.24    4.22    3.16   85.83
Nixon's Methyr...................................... 1.31  90. 27   4.12   4.36    1.25   79.11
NEVCASTLE COALS.                                        I
Newcastle Hartley................................... 1.29   81.81   5.50    5.55   7.14   64.61
Ilealey's Hartley.................................. 1.31   80.26    5. 28    5.34    9.12   72.31
Bates' West Hartley................................. 1.25 80. 61 5.26 9.88 4.25........
WVest Hartley Main.................................. 1.25   81.85   5.29  10.35    2.51   59. 20
Buddies' West Hartley...............................    1.23   80.75    5.04   10.36   3.85........
Hastings' Hartley.................................... 1.25   82.24    5.42    9.40    2.94   55.60
SCOTCH.
Wallsend Elgin Vein.................................  1.20   76.09    5.22    7.99   10.70   58. 45
Dalkeith Coronation Vein............................ 1.31   76.94    5.20   14.75   3.10   53.05
Dalkeith Jewel Vein................................. 1.28   74.55   5. ]14   15.94    4.37   49.80
BELLINGHAM BAY................................... 1.31   74.41    4.63   17.61    3.35    62.66
570 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The test for the calorific value of this sample of coal shows it to compare very favorably
with the same coals, as will be seen by reference to the following table:
Pounds of water Pounds of water
which 1 pound   which  1 pound
Name and locality of coal.                       of coal is capa-   of coal is capa                                           ble of elevating   ble of evapor                                          from 38~ to 212~   ating from 212~
Fahrenheit.       Fahrenhe.t.
WELCH.
Aberdare Co's Methyr.............................................
NEW~CASTLE COALS.
Newcastle Hartley.................................................
Carr's Hartley....................................................
Healy's Hartley.....................................................
Steamboat Wallsend...............................................
SCOTCH.
Wellwood.........................................................
Eglinton...........................................................
BELL,INGHAM BAY................................................
STO-LU-AU A-MAH  COAL.-This  exists in worlable seams, but at present
seems inaccessible to marklet..A  specimen was sent  by Commodore  C.  W.
Skinner, United  States navy, to Professor Walter R. Johnson for analysis.
That distinguished chemist thus speaks of it:
it seems to be one of the finest American coals which I have yet seen. It has a specific
gravity of 1.315, and will weigh, in the merchantable state, from 51 to 55 pounds per cubic
foot, according to size of lumps, and will require on board a steamer about 423 feet of space
to stow one gross ton. It is of brilliant lustre, wholly free from liability to soil. It is composed ofVolatile matter............................................................... 40.36
Fixed carbon.................................................................  56.84
Earthy matter................................................................ 2.80
100.00
After the luminous flame ceases the coke burns with a bright glow, and leaves a light
brick red, or salmon-colored ash.
In coking, the coal scarcely increases in bulkl, has no tendency to agglutinate, and consequently preserves an open fire, burning freely, and does not cover itself with ashes to such a
degree as materially to obstruct the combustion. I suspect the specimen sent to have been
taken from near the outcrop of the bed.  If so, we may reasonably expect that, when pursued under greater covering, the amount of illuminating gas given out will be greater than
was shown by this specimen.  The coal seems to be nearly free from sulphur.  The ratio of
its fixed to its volatile combustible matter is 1.4 to 1, and, under a well-constructed boiler,
ought to produce from seven and a half to eight and a half pounds of steam from 2120 to
one pound of coal burned.
THE  SKOOKUM  CHIUCK COAL FIELDS. —The late Dr. R. II. Bigelow, who
was thoroughly conversant with  coal, and  afterwards opened a mine in the
vicinity of Seattle, made an examination of these veins.  He thus describes tile
geological position of the coal:
Resting upon argillaceous and sandstone shale, overlaid by new red sandstone, averaging
(sandstone and earth) 30 to 50 feet thick, interspersed with ochlire, red chalk, and a grayishbrown clay-such as is used in Europe for making fire-brick-the average thickness of the
coal strata being from four to nine feet. The coal, when ignited. retains a flame of the
greatest fervency, leaves no cinder, and is perfectly free from all foreign substances.
CLALLAM BAY i]IINE, sometimes called thle Thorndike mine, after its dliscoverer, Captain J. K. Thorndike, formerly of Port Ludlow, Washington Territory, is situated on the Straits of Fuca, about midway between Pillar bay and
571'
77.11
14.37
72.00
69. 83
68. 61
65.08
13.42
13.01
12.78
12.13
64.13
54. 96
59. 90
11. 94
10.24
11. 17 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Clallam bay, 23 miles east of Cape Flattery. Captain Thorndike thus describes
his discovery:
The height of the mountain is from 1,000 to 1,200 feet; the formation is sandstone. Six
leads of coal, ranging in thickness from one to three feet, dip 10 degrees, distance between
coal leads ranging from 12 to 100 feet.  From high-water mark, 30 feet; to low-water mark,
150 feet.  From coal leads to five fathoms' water, about 600 feet.
An officer on the United States steamer Massachusetts thus  speaks of the
character of this coal:
I find it superior to any coal I have seen on this coast, with one exception-that is its
rapidity of combustion. It leaves about five per cent. of clinker, which, with proper tools,
can easily be removed from the grates. The weight is 47 pounds per cubic foot, and deposits,
including clinker, about 30 per cent. by measure. It compares with Cumberland coal for
weight against equal bulk as 8 to 10; evaporative efficiency, 6 to 10.
An analysis of a specimen of this coal by Professors J. IH. Alexander and
Campbell Mlorfitt exhibits the following result:
Specific gravity, at 62c Fahrenheit............................................. 1. 316
Carbon, volatile and fixed................ ------------------------------------ 0.69272
Hydrogen........................... —--------------------------—.............. —-------------—................... 0. 06778
Sulphur, volatile................................. —--------------------------------------------—. 0. 03402
Oxygen, nitrogen......................... —---------------------------------------------- 0.12048
Ash.................. —------------------------—................. ------------------—...... ---------—. 0.08500
30000
This mine is now being worked under the auspices of a California company,
and but recently a cargo of 450 tons was shipped to San Francisco. The great
drawback here is the absence of any harbor or good anchorage.*
SEATTLE  MINE.-The extensive coal fields in the immediate vicinity of the
flourishing town of Seattle are now commanding great attention.  The earliest
attempted development was in 1854, upon what is known as the Bigelow mine,
on Black river, about 10 miles from Seattle in a direct line.  This mine is
accessible by light-draught steamers to within several hundred feet.  It was
recently purchased by S. B. Hinds and Company, an enterprising firm at Seattle,
vhlo have commenced active operations towards its development.  All work upon
it had been suspended for years before the death of its original owners, Dr. R.
II. Bigelow. A shaft is being sunk, which will reach the coal at the depth of
70 feet, fiom the mouth of which, by a chute, the coal can be directly laden into
scows or barges.  The vein at the croppings is 23 feet thick, mostly clean, pure
coal, mixed with dirt on the sides, but to all appearances free from slate or sulphur.  No analysis has been made, but smiths who have used it pronounce it
superior, for their purposes, to any coal obtainable on this coast, though inferior
to the Cumberland.  It burns up very clean, leaving nothing but a clear white
ash, with no clinkers.
LAKE WASHINGTON COAL FIELDS.-Thlese mines, which are now attracting
so much interest, are situated from two to three miles east of Lakle Washington,
and are distant from Seattle in a direct southeast line eight or nine miles. Coal
of the same character is also found in the Squak valley, some three or four miles
southeast of Lake Washington; in fact, through this whole region, for some miles
distant.  By some these seams are regarded as continuous.  But the country lying
between is rugged and mountainous, and it may be found that the basins are
separate, though without doubt they were originaliy the same deposit.  The
* George Davidson, esq., in his Directory of the Pacific Coast, thus describes this bay:
"The shore-line is nearly straight, bluff, and bordered by rocks, with an occasional stretch
of sandy beach. The bay is at the western termination of a high, bold, wooded ridge, running parallel to the shore, with an almost perpendicular water-face, and falling away rapidly
inshore. This easily recognized ridge is about 1,000 feet high and seven miles long. The
water along the face of this ridge is very deep, and the bottom rocky and irregular. *  *  *
Off the mine, at the distance of a cable's length, a depth of 35 fathoms is found, with a
swell upon the rocks sufficient to destroy any boat loading there."
572 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Rev. George F. Whitworth, a gentleman of scientific culture, whose judgment is
entitled to great respect, thus speaks of these mines:
The coal is found in what I take to be the tertiary formation. It is not as solid as the
Cumberland coal, nor is it of the same specific gravity; but it should be borne in mind that
all the coal as yet taken out is little better than mere outcroppings.  Some of the very first
coal taken out. upon being tested, was found of the specific gravity of 1.178, while similar
samples from the Nanaino at the time of its opening were 1.04.  The later coal, from the
deep of the seam where it is now worked, is 1.25. A similar increase may be expected as
this coal is more deeply worked. It is remarkably clean, is a jet black, and as we advance
along the seam is becoming much harder. Some of it seems to be nearly as hard as anthracite. It burns with a clear flame, does not emit the black smoke so common to other coals
on the coast, and so far as tried it is pronounced superior for purposes of steam. Its heating
power seems to be very great. It burns up thoroughly, making no clinker, and leaving a
very small proportion of ashes.
Competent engineers, employed in the navigation of these waters and in foundries connected with our large mills, speak of this coal as "kindling quickly,
burning freely and clean, emitting a strong heat, making little or no clinkers,
and leaving about 10 per cent. in ashes." One of them, an old engineer, says:
" For steaming I prefer it to any coal I have as yet tried on the Pacific coast."
Two companies have been incorporated for the purpose of wvorkinga these mines.
The first, called the " Coal Creek RPoad Company," derive their act of incorporation from the legislative assembly, with right of way to build a rail or tramroad from their mine upon Coal creek along its bank to where it empties into
Lake Washington, (distance three miles.)  The capital stock, in shares of $200
each, may be increased from $5,000 to $500,000. The mine of this companv is
on a quarter section of land, distant in a direct line from Seattle about eight miles.
The Lake Washington Coal Company, incorporated under the general incorporation law of the Territory, own three quarter sections, adjoining the claim of
the Coal Creek Company.   Capital stock $500,000, divided into shares of $100
each.
Sir. Whitwo-th's description of the mines of the latter company will give a
general idea of all these mines. tie says:
We have four seams of coal, but have only opened two of them at a point where they crop
out on the creek. and have only penetrated them on a level from 30 to 50 feet from the
entrance.  So far as we have gone there is very little lying above where we have worked,
hence no great amount of pressure, but with every seam we have a good floor, and covering
of sandstone.  They all dip at the same angle 380 toward the north, and their general direction is from east to west.  The seams we are working would be counted as the second and
fourth in the series, the latter being the furthest down the creek, but is the highest in the
strata, and consequently the latest in formation. This seam is about seven feet thick, but
has from one to two feet of slate or fire-clay, which separates quite freely from the coal in the
process of mining, leaving about five feet of pure coal.  Seam No. 2 is about 10 feet thick,
and has only one or two thin streaks of clay of about half an inch thick, which also separates from the coal in mining, giving over nine feet of pure coal to the seam. The coal in
each seam is very similar, but that in No. 2 is deemed the better. The other seams have not
been worked, but judging from the outcrop are similar both in size and quality to the other
two.  I am, however, of the opinion that when we get to work at seam No. 1, which is geologically 500 feet below the others, it will be found really superior to any of them.
The attempt has been made to exhibit the character of coal as it is found in
several localities remote firom each other. That there is good coal universally
diffused, in quantities inexhaustible and generally accessible for transportation,
cannot be doubted. Capital and energy are all that are requisite to develop
these boundless sources of wvealth.  Nature has made the Territory the " Pennsylvania" of the Pacific.  Possessed of such a resource, there can be no cause
for discouragement as to the future prominence, wealth, and importance of the
Territory of Washington.
SHIP-BUILDING.-i-Mr. Joseph Cushman, receiver of public moneys  at Olympia, has kindly furnished the following data in reference to the resources of Puget
sound:
The time is not far distant when nearly all the ship-building on the Pacific
573 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
coast will be done on the shores of Puget sound. No other place has the same
natural advantages for building either sail or steam vessels. From the Cascade
range to the Pacific, comprising about one-half of Washington Territory, the
surface is densely covered with the finest forest growth in the world; some of
the trees, straight as an arrow, are 400 feet in height, and 14 feet in diameter
near the ground. Varieties of the fir predominate, interspersed with spruce,
hemlock, tamarack, white cedar, maple, ash, white oak, and on some of the'nountain slopes -white pine.
The yellow fir (abicr )oztglasii) is a tree peculiar to the north Pacific coast
from the 42d parallel to Alaska, and is only found east of the Cascade range
north of the boundary of 49~. This is principally the timber used at the saw-mills
on the sound, and is both strong and durable; in fact, it is the strongest timber
on the coast, both in perpendicular pressure and horizontal strain.* It is durable for ship frames, decks, outside plank, and spars, and will hold fostering better and longer than the common acidulous oakl. The abundance of timber, coal,
water-power, and iron ore in the vicinity of navigable waters, together with fine
harbors, large saw-mills, temperate climate, and natural facilities for manufacturing cordage, all clearly indicate that the Puget sound country will soon occupy
a prominent position in ship-building.  British Columbia and Vancouver's island
can be the only possible rivals on this coast, and their vessels can only freight
coastwise in British ports. Their facilities for ship-building may be a good argument for annexation, but not proper to discourse here. On the waters south of
Port Townsend, what is generally called Puget sound, probably about 50 seagoing vessels have thus far been built. Some of them are fine steamers. Several
schooners are now on the stocks,to be launched this autumn.   Some 10 or 12vessels will be built the next year, including two or three barks for the San Francisco
lumber trade. Four or five hundred schooners averaging 100 tons burden each,
will be wanted for the northern cod fisheries; say 30 or 40 ships for the northern
whaling fleet, and 30 or 40 more ships for the coal and lumber trade from the
sound.  Nowhere can these vessels be built so cheaply as where the timber costs
a mere nothing, and where all other natural facilities exist. Capital only is
wanted, and that will naturally seek its own best interests; skilled labor also
will seek its own reward; so that it is hazarding little to predict that ship-building will be one of the great interests of Washington Territory.
PUGET SOUIND AND THIE NOErTHERN- FISHEErIES.-Prominent  among, the
resources of the Puget sound country is the building of fishing schooners and
using them in the northern cod fisheries.
The cod and halibut banks in the north Pacific, both on the Asiatic and American coasts, and also around the intervening islands, are known to be numerous,
and fish abundant.
The market for cured fish will increase with the supply.   Five  hundred
schooners, averaging 100 tons burden each, and employing 5,000 men, engaged
in the fishing business, with more than ordinary fisherman's luck, would not
over supply the Pacific market.   San Francisco would, of course, be the wholesale centre of trade and supply for California and other mining countries, the
Pacific islands and fleet, Hongkong and other Asiatic ports, and all ports south
to Valparaiso. Decayed codfish via the Horn will no longer be a marketable
article in San Francisco.   The Atlantic cod fleet, American, English, and French,
number some 3,000 vessels, manned with about 30,000 men; yet the price of
Experiments made by the French authorities in the imperial dock-yard at Toulon (see
Forbes's Vancouver's Island, p. 62, and appendix to same, p. 14) show that masts from
Vancouver's island are superior to the best class of Riga spars. The report of the French
engineers, which is equally applicable to the masts and spars of Puget sound, says: "The
principal quality of these woods is a flexibility and tenacity of fibre rarely met with in trees so
aged; they may be bent and twisted several times in contrary directions without breaking,"
and possess other rare qualities, such as "exceptional dimensions, strength, lightness, absence
of knots, &c."
574 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
dry and pickled fish has been gradually rising for the last 15 years, and this, too,
under the bounty act of Congress and the reciprocity treaty with Great Britain.
The main eastern cod-fishing fleet lies at anchor in the eternal fogs of the
Grand banks, in the track of nearly all vessels running between the eastern States
and Europe.  Owing to collisions and stormy seas on a rock-bound coast, and
various other causes, the eastern fishing business is far more perilous to life than
either the whaling or merchant service. It is not so on the waters of the north
Pacific. Storms there are unfrequent during the fishing season, from April to
September, and the climate is more mild and equable than on the eastern coast
10 degrees further south.
Puget sound has unrivalled advantages for prosecuting the cod and halibut
fisheries at the north.  No other locality except Vancouver's island has similar
advantages, and their fish would be subject to heavy duties in American ports.
With no rivalry from the east or elsewhere; with abundance of fish, unfrequent
storms during the fishing season, the best climate to cure fish, safe harbors, salt
by the cargo at a comparatively low price, and all the requisite provisions for an
outfit, it is scarcely possible to overrate the advantages of this region as the
centre of the great fishery of the north Pacific. The sound waters are full of
clams and small fish for bait.  Good ship timber can be had near the silores for
the mere cost of cutting.
Situated only a few davs' sail from the best fishing grounds, the sound must
become the main depot of business. Fish cannot be properly dried and cured
either in Russian America or California; the climate of the former being changeable and too damp, and the latter too hot and dry. There is a large population
of Fish Indians * both on the sound and in Russian America, or Alaska, wvho will
make good sailors and fishermen.
Finally, the market is extensive and highly remunerative. What more could
be desired for the successful prosecution of the business?  Fishermen make good
sailors; the cabin of the fishing smack is the school-hiouse of the ocean. The
full development of this important branch of industry will be a great benefit to
the sound country, to the whole coast, to the shipping interest, and to the governrnent as a great means of offence and defence during a war with any mrnaritime nation.
* What Mr. Forbes says in reference to the fisheries of Vancouver's island is generally
applicable on this coast. The business of fishing forms "an exceptional case as regards
Indian labor, for in such an occupation as this the natives will work freely and better than a
white man. Salmon, cod, halibut, sturgeon, herring, enlachon, &c., may all be caught in
great quantities and prepared for export." (Vancouver's Island, its Resources, &c., by
Charles Forbes, esq., M. D., M. R. C. S., p. 62.)
575 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
OREGON.
SECTION I.
BOUNDARIES, SUBDIVISIONS, NAVIGABLE RIVERS, AND TOWNS.
In describing the boundary lines of this State, we cannot do better than quote
from the recent report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office:
Oregon has California on the south and Washington Territory on the north, extending
from the Pacific ocean to Snake river, the latter constituting a part of its eastern boundary.
It is 350 miles long from east to west, and 275 wide from north to south, containing 95,274
square miles, or 60,975,360 acres, being about half as large as the State of California.
The Coast mountains and the Sierra Nevada, traversing California, continue northward
through Oregon; the latter, after leaving California, are named the Cascades. Near the
southern boundary the chain throws off a branch called the Blue mountains, which extends
northeastwardly through the State, passing into Washington and Idaho.
The course of the Cascades through the State is generally parallel with the shore of the
Pacific, and distant therefrom an average of 110 miles. In California the direction of the
Coast mountains and coast valleys is that of general parallelism with the sea-shore; the mountains sometimes approaching close to the shore and then receding miles from it, leaving belts
of arable land between them and the ocean. In Oregon the Coast range consists of a series
of high lands running at right angles with the shore, with valleys and rivers between the
numerous spurs having the same general direction as the highlands.
In reference to climate and agricultural capacities, Oregon may be divided into two distinct
parts, the eastern and western, lying respectively on the east and west sides of the Cascades.
Western Oregon, the portion of the State first settled, and containing the great preponderance of its present population, is 275 miles in length, with an average width of 110, being
nearly one-third of the whole State, and contains about 31,000 square miles, or nearly
20,000,000 acres, all of which is valuable for agriculture, for grazing, or for timber-growing,
excepting the crests of some of the highest mountains. It is more than four times as large
as Massachusetts, nearly three times as large as Maryland, and is greater in extent than the
United areas of Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
SSUBDIVISIOs.-Oregonl is divided into 22 counties.   The general  characteristics, boundary lines, population, &c., of each county, are thus given in IcCormick's I)irectory:
BAKER COUNTY is situated east of the Cascade mountains, embracing within its boundaries large tracts of excellent agricultural land, together with numerous valuable mining claims
which are annually being developed. County seat, Auburn.
BENTON COUNTY contains an area of about 1,556 square miles, and is bounded on the
north by Polk county, on the south by Lane, on the east by the Willamette river, and on
the west by the Pacific ocean. Number of legal voters, 950. County seat, Corvallis.
COLUMBIA COUJNTY is bounded on the north and east by the Columbia river, on the south
by Washington and Multnomah counties, and on the west by Clatsop county. According
to the late census, it contains a population of 449, viz: males, 297; females, 152. Number
of voters, 173. Acres of land under cultivation, 745. The total value of assessable property
in the county is $159,970. County seat, St. Hlelens.
CLACKAMAS COUNTY is bounded on the north by Multnomah, on the east by the Cascade
mountains, on the south by Marion and on the west by Washington and Multnomah. Population, 4,144. County seat, Oregon City.
The establishment of a woollen factory and a paper mill at Oregon City has proved beneficial to its progress. Number of legal voters in the county, 1,242. Number of males, 2,448;
females, 1,696. Acres of land under cultivation, 6,092. Value of assessable property,
$1,605,594.
CLATSOP COUNTY contains a population of 689, viz: males, 388; females, 301. Voters,
179. Acres of land under cultivation, 760. Value of assessable property, $280,000. County
seat, Astoria.
CURRY COUNTY is situated in the extreme southwestern portion of the State, and contains
a population of 389, viz: males, 224; females, 165.  Number of voters, 105.  Number of
acres of land under cultivation, 400. Value of assessable property, $100,600. Large quantities of good land, suitable for cultivation, remain unoccupied in this county. A new mining
district has recently been opened near the mouth of Rogue river, where hundreds of men can
find employment during eight months of the year. County seat, Ellensburg.
Coos COUNTY is situate in the southern portion of the State, on the coast, between Douglas
576 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
and Curry counties. The population, according to the late census, is 1,024, viz: males, 637:
females, 387. Number of voters, 313. Acres of land under cultivation, 950. Value of
assessable property in the county, $200,000. County seat, Empire City.
DOUGLAS COUNTY contains a population of about 4,000, viz: males, 2,250; females, 1,750.
Number of voters, 1,139. Number of acres of land under cultivation, 21,404. Value of
assessable property, $1,331,208. County seat, Roseburg.
GRANT COUNTY contains a population of 2,250, viz: males, 2,000; females, 250. Nunm ber of voters, 1,300.  Acres of land under cultivation, 5,000.  Value of assessable property,
$295,000. County seat, Canyon City.
JACKSON COUNTY is situate in the southern portion of the State, and contains within its
boundaries rich gold mines, which give employment to a large number of its citizens. The
population of the county is 2,955, viz: males, 1,755; females, 1,200. Number of voters,
1,253. Acres of land under cultivation, 13,901. Value of assessable property, $1,298,465.
County seat, Jacksonville.
JOSEPHINE COUNTY is situate in the southern portion of Oregon, between Jackson and
Curry counties, and contains a population of about 2,000. The assessable property in the
county is estimated at $360,000. County seat, Kerbyville.
LANE COUNTY is situate in the central portion of the State, extending from the Pacific
ocean to the Cascade range.  The population of this county is 5,527, viz: males, 3,077;
females, 2,450.  Number of legal voters, 1,318.  Acres of land under cultivation, 30,j683.
Value of assessable property, $3,000,000. County seat, Eugene City.
LINN COUNTY is situate north of Lane, and contains a population of 7,709, being an increase
of 937 since 1866.  In 1850 the population of this county was only 994.  Linn county contains an area of 877 square miles, or 561,200 acres. Number of males in the county, 4,235;
females, 3,474. Voters. 2,250. Acres of land under cultivation, 49,405. Value of assessable property, $2,500,000. During 1865 a splendid brick court-house was erected at Albany,
the county seat, at a cost of $31,000. The post offices in this county are Albany, Peoria,
Lebanon, Scio, Brownsville, Pine, and Harrisburg.
MARION COUNTY contains a population of about 9,000.  County seat, Salem.
MULTNOMAII COUNTY is situate on the banks of the Willamette river, in the northern
portion of the State, and is the wealthiest county in Oregon. It contains a population of
7,000, viz: males, 4,020; females, 2,980. Number of voters, 1,723. Males under21, 1,540.
Acres of land under cultivation, 4,051. The total value of assessable property is $4,517,291.
Since ]865 the population has increased 1,086. Portland, the county seat, is the principal
city in the State. During the past year a new court-house has been erected at a cost of
$100,000. Numerous brick buildings and dwelling-houses have also been constructed, and
the city wears an aspect of general prosperity.
POLK COUNTY contains a population of 4,993, viz: males, 2,788; females, 2,205. Number
of voters, 1,125. Acres of land under cultivation, 90,127. Value of assessable property in
the county, $1,033,179. County seat, Dallas.
TILIAMOOK COUtNTY contains a population of about 300.
UNION COUNTY is situate east of the Cascade range of mountains, and contains a population of about 2,000. Number of voters, 705. County seat, Le Grande.
UMIATILIA COUNTY contains a population of 1,805, viz: males, 1,049: females, 756.
Number of voters, 797. Acres of land under cultivation, 5,770. Value of assessable property, $887,148.
WASCO COUNTY contains a population of 1,898, viz: males, 1,092: females, 806. Nuniher of voters, 604. Value of assessable property, $1,771,420. County seat, Dalles.
WASHINGTON COUNTY contains a population of 3,491, viz: males, 1,903; females, 1,578.
Number of voters, 824, being an increase of 120 since 1865. Acres of land under cultivation, 14,224.  County seat, Hillsboro'.
YAMHILL COUNTY contains a population of 4,018, viz: males, 2,200; females, 1,818.
Number of voters, 1,082. Acres of land under cultivation, 26,343. Value of assessable
property, $1,000,000.  County seat, Lafayette.
37
577 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
C'(nsus of Oregon in 1865.
I  -I
739
413
903
132
197
114
197
939
1,402
976
328
1, 867
1, 318
2, 004
1, 723
944
64
660
791
604
704
978
Cc   C 
533
].10
617
4 8
101
46
86
681
107
492
119
], 363
1, 062
1, 460
1, 019
677
34
331
36"
328
51,3
771
o
0 so
. 0
C: 0
270
37
360
46
57
20
329
54
196
35
74'
489
791
497
397
22
99
240
109
307
323
I
599
105
701
6_
99
58
85
719
137
515
118
1, 450
1, 110
1,536
1, 087
841
36
142
350
344
613
766
C,
682
6O
507
55
71
20
28
419
101
261
44
900
645
932
453
490
18
158
205
135
350
442
,-,
744
419
898
136
218
117
225
947
1, 592
979
349
1, 885
1, 322
2, 040
1, 866
957
64
749
841
61i3
735
998
Benton-7..............................  
Baker...............................
Clackamas..........................
Columbia............................
Clatsop..............................
Curry...............................
Coos................................
Douglas..............................
Grant...............................
Jackson.............................
Josephine...........................
Linn................................
Lane................................
Marion..............................
Multnomah..........................
Polk................................
Tillamook...........................
Umatilla............................
Union...............................
Wasco..............................
Washington.........................
Yarnhill9..............................
17, 997   18, 694    6, 976  11, 416   11, 695    5, 449   10, 860
*Estimated population January, 1868, 78,000.
NAVIGABLE, RIivr,,s.*-The Columbia, Willamette, Snakle river. and Pen
cl')reille or Clark's Fork are the four principal navigable rivers, to vwhich may
be added the names of rivers navigated for short distances during the season of
high water, as folloiws: Cowlitz river, emptying into the Columbia; Yamllill,
Tualitin, and Santiam, emptying into the Willamette;  and Clearwater, emptying
into the Snake river.  All these rivers have been, and are now being, successfully navigated by steamers.
The Columbia is the principal river, and is obstructed at different points by
falls and rapids of such a character as to prevent its continued navigation. This
great river is divided into four navigable sections.  The first is from its mouth
to the Cascades, a distance of 160 miles. As far up as the mouth of the Willamette it is a broad, deep river, navigable at all seasons by the largest vessels
that cross the bar at its mouth. The obstruction to navigation at the Cascades
is of such a charactcr as to make a portage of six miles necessary.  This portage
is now made by means of a railroad stocked witli excellent locomotives and
cars. The second section of the Columbia is friom Cascades to Dalles, a distance of 50 miles, through the Cascade range of mountains.  Here is another
obstruction to navigation, known as the Great Dalles of the Columbia.   This
makes a second portage necessary, and is at present accomplished by means of
14 miles of railway, equal in character to the road at the Cascades.   The third
section of the Columbia reaches from the Dalles (or Celilo) to Priest's rapids, a
distance of 185 miles. From Priest's rapids to Fort Colville, a distance of
about 100 miles, the river is so frequently obstructed with rapids that the navigationl has never been attempted. Beyond Fort Colville, for a distance of 250
miles into British Columbia, this great river is navigable, and is now being
navigated by anl American steamer of about 100 tons capacity.
Snake river empties into the Columbia about 12 miles north of old Fort Walla
* I am indebted to Mr. J. C. Ainsworth, president of the Oregon Steam Navigation Conmpany, for the data furnished on this subject.  It was prepared by Mr. Ainsworth in answer
to questions in writing submitted by me during a visit to Portland in August, 1867.-J. R. B.
I
I
578
m
0
E
3, 353
857
3,802
4Q3
689
306
551
3, 7C6
2,193
2,955
792
7, 7C9
5, 517
8, 371
6, 386
4, 093
2 I'
1, 805
2, 334
1, 898
3,106
4, 018
'I
.,6
1
P,
,;3
525
126
719
78
143
45
97
614
202
512
127
1, 370
899
1, 612
1, 464
73'.
37
3t.16
336
369
588
778
Counties.
Total........................
*65, 090 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Walla, and is navigable as high up as Lewiston, in Idaho, a distance of 160
miles.  From this point, in ascending Snake river, you go almost due south, and
for an additional distance of 150 miles little or nothing is known of the river,
except that it passes through a chain of high mountains, and is so obstructed
with rapids and falls as to mnake navigation impossible; but from above this
chain of mountains, continuing in a southerly direction, the river is navigable a
distance of 150 miles. A fine steamer of 200 tons capacity is now on this section of tie river, and has succeeded in reaching a point within 30 miles of the
Great Salmon Falls. By the use of this boat and the navigation of Salt Lake
(which is said to be practicable) the land travel from Great Salt Lake City to
Portland in Oregon would be reduced to about 400 niles.
Pen d'Orcille river, or Clarlk's Forkl of the Columbia, is navigable from foot
of Pen d'Oreille lake to mouth of Jako, a distance of about 225 miles.  Three
fine steamers are now running from foot of the lake to Thompson's Falls, a distance of about 150 miles.  Two short portages, of less than seven miles in all,
are made to connect these boats.  One more boat, above Thompson's Falls, will
enable the traveller to reach a point within 125 miles of Fort Benton, on the
MIissouri.
The distance from the main Columbia to Pen d'Oreille lake is 160 miles,
over a good wagon road.  Thus the navigable waters of the Columbia and
Missouri rivers are only separated byN 360 miles of land travel, which can be
reduced, by adding a fourth boat on Clark's Fork, to 285 miles.
The Willamette river is navigable from its mouth to Eugene city, a distance
of about 200 miles. The only obstruction to the navigation of this river is a
forty-foot fall at Oregon City, making a portage of one mile necessary.
There are, in all some 30 river steamers navigating the waters above named,
with an average carrying capacity of about 125 tons each, and employed as follows, to wit: semi-weekly from Portland to Astoria; tri-weekly from Portland
to Mlonticello; daily from Portland to Dalles; tri-weekly from Dalles to Wallula; semi-iveelkly irom Wallula to Lewiston; once a week from Fort Colville
to La Porte, in British Columbia; daily from foot of Pen d'Oreille lake to Cabinett, on Clark's Fork; once a week from Cabinett to Thompson's Falls; daily
from Portland to Fort Vancouver; daily from Portland to Oregon City; semiweekly from Oregon City to Coiwallis; once a week from Oregon City to Eugene;
tri-weekly from Oregon City to Yamhill river.  In addition to these regular
routes there are several small steamers and propellers that run as business offers.
The amount of freight and number of passengers carried on the different
routes named is very difficult to ascertain, but from the secretary of the Oregon
Steam Navigation Company I have obtained a statement of freight and passengers transported on the Columbia river from 1861 to 1864, inclusive:
No. of passengers.
1861................ —----------------------------------—.. 10,500
1862..........................................  24, 5())
1 863..........................  22, 000
1864. —--------------------------------------—.22,000
1864............................................36,000      2,3
The freight thus shipped was all1 up freight, and intended as supplies for military posts east of the Cascades and the different mining camps of Idaho, Washington, and eastern Oregon.  As late as 1S60 the principal business on the
Columbia river was the transportation of troops and supplies for the then Indian
country east of the Cascades.
The mineral developments made at a subsequent date in that vast section of
country, extending fromnt latitude 42~ to 56~ north, and from the Cascade range
to the Bitter Root and PRocky nmountains, have been the means of inducing permanent settlements in several of the rich agricultural districts that lie in different parts of this country; the result of which is that tihe military are now supplied with grain, flour, bacon, &c., at a less cost than was formerly paid for
579
i1
i
ii
Tons of freight.
6,290
14, 550
17, 646
21, 834 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
transportation alone, and the miner is supplied at rates that encourage him to
prospect the country and thus develop its treasures.
During the last two years the down freight on the Columbia has largely
increased.  During the month of June of the present year Walla-Walla valley
alone shipped over 500 tons of flour for San Francisco and-Newv York markets,
retaining a surplus estimated at 20,000 barrels. To this must be added the
new crop now being harvested, and variously estimated at from 200,000 to
300,000 bushels.  Grande Ronde valley, situated at the foot of the Blue mountains on the east, has a large surplus-perhaps as much as Walla-Walla.   Powder river and Boise valleys are producing large supplies.  There are many other
valle7ys in this section, rich in agricultural wealth, that only await the enterprising emigrant, to offer hini a luxuriant and happy home.
The banks of the Columbia river, from its mouth as far up as the Dalles, are
thickly wooded, principally with fir, oak, cottonwood, and pine, and maple and
ash are not uncommon and can be had in limited quantities.   From Dalles to
Priest's rapids, and from the mouth of Snake river to Lewiston, the banks and
adjacent country are entirely destitute of timber. The vast and sparsely populated country through which these rivers flow, east of the Cascade range, is covered with a luxuriant''bunch grass."  Stock raisers are appropriating a portion
of this immense pasture, and are yearly accumulating fortunes by raising cattle
and sheep, for which they find a ready and profitable market inll the different
mining camps of Idaho, MIontana, Washington, eastern Oregon, and British
Columbia.
From the 1st of Alarchl to the 15th of July, of this year, there were shipped
on steamboats from Portland to Dalles 12,191 head of cattle and horses, 6,283
head of sheep, and 1,594 head of hogs. There has doubtless been an equal
number driven across the Cascade mountains during the months of July and
August, all intended for feeding, accumulating, and marketing as indicated.
The whole country may be said to be mineral.  Gold in paying quantities is
annually taken from the banks of the Columbia river as low down as Umatilla.
On Snake river the banks for miles below Lewiston are profitably worked by
Chinamen.  This extensive mineral section, elmbraced within the limits beforenamed, though adding considerable amounts annually to the treasure of the
world, has scarcely been prospected. The work done to develop the mineral
wealth amounts to little more than surface explorations.
The Pen d'Oreille river runs through a magnificent grazing, agricultural, and
timbered country, almost entirely uninhabited.
The Willamette river drains the beautiful valley of that name. This valley
is about 200 miles long and from 20 to 30 miles wide, and sustains a population
of about 60,000, with ample room and resources for a million.  It is rich in
grain-growing and grazing lands, and contains extensive deposits of iron ore.*
Coal and copper are also found, but as yet little developed.
POrTLAND.-The principal town on the Willamette river is Portland, situate
on the west bank about 12 miles from its mouth.  The location is excellent,
and the city presents an appearance of thrift and prosperity indicative of the
steady progress of the State.  Mlany of the public buildings would be creditable to the best cities of the east of equal population. The new court-house,
completed in 1866, the buildings of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company,
and other public and private edifices, are among the neatest and most substantial
specimens of architecture on the Pacific slope.
Population.-Another evidence of the prosperity of Portland, says  lr. MIcCormick in his valuable directory, may be found in the annually increasing population of the city, which has increased in a ratio almost'equal to any city in the
Union. In 1863 the population of Portland was 4,057. In 1864 it amounted
* See article on miscellaneous minerals of Pacific coast.
580 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS,
to 5,819; in 1865 it was estimated at 6,068. In 1866 it increased to 6,508,
according to a census taken especially by canvassers for this work. The following table shows the population according to the several classifications:
Males 21 years and upwards................................................... 2,017
Males under 21 years..-. —-------------------------------------------------- - 1,104
Females 21 years and upwards ----------------------------------------------—, 3130
Females under 21 years ------------------------------------------------------- 1,108
Colored, males --------------------------------------------------------------- 82
Co'ored, females -------------------------------------------------—. —------- 43
Chinese, males. —----------------------------------------------—.-. —------ 208
Chinese, females ---------------—. —----------------------------------------- 116
Flouting population, estimated from hotel registers, &c., &c.....................500
Total.................................................................... 6,508
Being an increase of 440 inhabitants during the year just closed. These
figures do not exhibit a very rapid growth, but they denote a steady progress,
which must prove not only interesting but even satisfactory to the well-wishers
of Portland.
The present population of Portland is estimated at 8,000, and a rapid increase
is expected during the ensuing year, owing to the reduced rates of passage friom
the east, and the recent gratifying progress in the development of the iron, coal,
and agricultural interests of the State.
Assessable 2)rol)rety. —1r. MlcCormick says:
The assessable property in Portland is valued at $4,200,000. Taxes levied and collected
during 1866, $400,000. Of this amount $91,000 was collected for State, county, school, and
road purposes; $150,000 was collected by the officers of the United States for federal purposes, and $159,000 (including licenses and fines) was collected bythe city of Portland.  Of
this amount $75,000 was expended for street improvements, and $84,000 for general and
special purposes. The salaries and fees of city officers during 1866 amounted to $15,000.
The expense of city surveys, $3,700. The cost of boarding city prisoners, $950. Salary
of the city attorney, $1,000. Expense of the recorder's court and city police, $6,000. The
amount expended in the improvement of the Willamette river last year exceeded $30,000.
Of this amount $20,000 was raised by loan, and $10,862 obtained by special tax. The
expense of lighting the city with gas was $3,000, and for furnishing the engine house and
city offices with water, $600. The city printing during the year just closed cost $700. From
the foregoing figures a crude idea may be gathered of the approximate expenses of the several departments of the municipal government of Portland.
Pork, 72 barrels, at $20 per barrel.......................................... $1,440
Apples, 68,860 boxes, at $1 per box..............,.......................... 68,860
Eggs, 1,763 packages, at $10 per package.................................... 17, 630
Bacon, 4,376 gunnies, at $16 per gunny....................................... 70, 016
Hides, 4,674, at $] 50 per hide............................................. 7, 011
Onions, 1,325 sacks, at $4 per sack......................................... 5,300
Sirup, 185 barrels, at $8 per barrel......................................... 1, 480
Wool, 1,671 bales, at $40 per bale.......................................... 66 840
Pitch, 292 barrels, at $6 per barrel ------------------------------------------ 1,752
Varnish, 124 packages, at $10 per package ---------------------------------- 1,240
Dried apples, 2,603 packages, at $10 per package............................ 26, 030
Flour, 29,815 barrels, at $5 per barrel --------------------------------------- 149, 075
Salmon, 2,564 packages, at $8 50 per package............................... 21,794
Staves and headings, 59,203, average --------------------------------------- 15,000
Shooks, 14,972, at 40 cenis per shook -------------------------------------— 1, 989
Value of specified merchandise, produce, &c.........................- 455, 457
Value of gold dast, bars, &c.............................................. 8,070,600
The foregoing tables, although necessarily veiy incomplete, exhibit the gratifying fact that
the export trade of Portland is greatly on the increase, the above amount being $1,120,533
in excess of 1865.
The next place of interest, ascending the Willaniette, is Oswego, eiglht miles
froom  Portland.  Here is located the first iron furnace on the Pacific coast.
581
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Four miles above this place is Oregon City, situated on the east bank, just below
the Great falls. This is a thriving little place of 1,200 inhabitants. Wooilen
and paper factories are the chief features of the place. Salem is about 65 miles
by water from Oregon City, and is the capital of the State. It contains a population estimated at 4,000. Thirty-five miles further up is Albany, a prosperous
town and known as the granary of Oregon; estimated population, 2,500. The
next place of importance is Corvallis, a flourishing little city of about 3,000
inhabitants, distant from Albany 15 miles. Eugene City, 71 miles from Corvallis, is the next place of importance, and is located at the head of navigation
on the Willamette river; population estimated at 2,000. There are many small
towns and neighborhood landings situated at different points between the places
named, all or most of which present evidences of thrift.
The principal towns on the Columbia river are, first, Astoria, about 18 miles
from the bar; population estimated at 1,000. Next is Cathlamette, 30 miles;
then Oakli Point, 12 miles; then Rainier, 15 miles; then St. Helens, 20 miles;
then Vancouver, 24 mniles; then Cascades, 45 miles. All of these places, except
Astoria and Vancouver, are small villages or landings. At Cascades is the first
portage on the Columbia. On the north side of the river, as before stated, is an
iron railroad six miles long; on the soutth side is a wooden trainway of six miles,
over which passed all the freight of the upper Columbia prior to April, 1S63, at
which time the iron road was completed.  The next town of any importance is
the Dalles, 50 miles further up.  This is a busy little place, containing a popuulation of about 2,500.  Here another iron railroad of 14 miles connects with
the upper boats at Celilo.  Eighty-five miles further up is Umatilla, the great
landing-piace for Idaho and casterni Oregon; its population is about  1,500.
Thirty-five miles further up is Wallula, or old Fort Walla-Walla.  This is the
landing for Walla-Walla and Grande Ronde valleys, and during the season of
low water is the landing for goods shipped to Montana via Pen d'Oreille lake,
and for Fort Colville and British Columbia. This place, though one of the
oldest, has Only a population of about 200. The next and only place of any
note above Wallula is Lewiston, in Idaho, distant about 160 miles This place
has a population of about 1,000, is the head of navigation on Snake river west
of the mountains, and was formerly the seat of government of Idaho Territory.
SECTION II.
AGRICULTURAL AND MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES.
Oregon is peculiarly an agricultural and fruit-growing State, though by no
means deficient in valuable mineral resources. Possessing a climate of unrivalled
salubrity, abounding in vast tracts of rich arable lands, heavily timbered throughout its mountain ranges, watered by innumerable springs and streams, and sub.
ject to none of the drawbacks arising from the chilling winds and seasons of
aridity which prevail further south, it is justly considered the most favored region
on the Pacific slope as a home for an agricultural, fruit-growing, and manufacturing population. As yet it is but thinly settled, a fact owing in part to the
injudicious system pursued under the donation act of 1852, by which larg,e tracts
of land (320 acres to single settlers, 640 to married couples) were held by persons who were unable to cultivate them; and in part to the insufficiency of communication with the markets of the world.  These drawbacks, however, will
soon be remedied by the establishment of railroads, the'increase of steam navigation, and the consequent accession of population.  Thie wonderful richness of
the valleys, thle extraordinary inducements to settlement by families, the beauty
582 
WEST OP THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of the scenery and healthfulness of the climate, must soon attract large immigration.  The writer has traversed this State from the Columbia river to the
southern boundary, and can safely assert that there is no equal extent of country on the Pacific slope abounding, in such a variety of attractions to those who
seek pleasant homes.   The Willamette, the Umpqua, Rogue River, and many
others, are regions unrivalled for farming and stock-raising.
The following extracts from a premium essay written by Mr. WV. Lair Hill for
the State Agricultural Society give a correct idea of tihe general resources tnd
productions of Oregoni.  The descriptions of thle country and facts stated are
entirely reliable:
Oregon is peculiar in climate, especially that portion lying west of the Cascade mountains, which is affected greatly by its proximity to the ocean. This portion has a climate in
many respects closely resembling that of England. Although in a high latitude, it is mildneither very hot in summer nor extremely cold in winter; is damp and somewhat disagreeable during what is termed the rainy season, corresponding with the winter of the east; but
delightful through the summer and autumn.
The climate in the eastern portion of the State has some resemblance to that of the older
northwestern States, excepting the frequent rains which fall in those States during the late
summer months.
As a whole, the State of Oregon presents so great a variety of climate that it cannot be
accurately exhibited under any general description, and which will more fully appear firom
special descriptions and tables hereafter presented. It is a matter to be regretted that the
compass of a brief essay does not permit the presentation of minute and extensive details of
observations on this, as well as many other subjects connected with this infant State, so far
as the same are obtainable; but it is much more to be regretted that no record has been kept
firom which statistical information migiht be collected, showing the industrial and commercial
capabilities of the State, except to a very limited extent.
*             X               *             X              *               *
Oregon was admitted into the Union in February, 1859, and in 1861 began to give additional promise of future prosperity by the discovery of rich and extensive gold mines on its
northeastern border and the contiguous districts of Washington Territory.
PHIYSICAL GEOGRAPhY, &c.-All the country in North America lying west of the Mississippi river has a common axis of elevation, which is the great chain of the Rocky mountains, and their southern continuation, the Cordilleras of Mexico. The Sierra Nevada range,
with its northern extension, the Cascade mountains of Oregon and Washlington Territory,
constitutes a secondary axis which materially affects the entire country of the Pacific coast,
both in soil and climate. To the volcanic forces of these two great central lines of subterranceous commotion is originally due the physical geography of Oregon.
It is generally known that the Rocky mountain range is chiefly of igneous composition.
Sonme portions of this range are of platonic character, while some bear unmistakable evidences that their upheaval was prior to the process of consolidation. Sandstone abounds in
many places in these mountains, and very considerable silurian deposits are also found.
Gold-bearing rocks occur in various localities.  Where sedimentary rocks are found they are
frequently regular in their stratification; generally, indeed, distorted finom their original
position, but nevertheless retaining perfectly their stratified character. These rocks are
usually interlaid with micaceous slate, and rest on masses of granite and gneiss.  Mica is so
abundant in some places that it may be found in extremely thin flakes in all the water of the
mountain streams.
Of the same general character is the geological structure of the Cascade range, except that
there is less of stratified rocks, and stronger indications of recent volcanic action are observed.
Basaltic and granitic rocks constitute the geological basis of the country. Slate and other
argillaceous rocks, and a sort of irreducable limestone, also characterize the western slope
of the continent. Metamorphic features become more marked the nearer we approach the
Pacific coast, unitil, arriving at the Cascade range, this characteristic is seen in its most clear
and unmistakable aspects.
Certain differences between the soil and vegetation on the cast and those on the west side
of this second volcanio axis of the country may, it is thought, be satisfactorily explained by
atmospheric or meteorological peculiarities; so that the upheaval of this ridge, notwithstanding those differences, was probably contemporaneous with that of the Rocky mountains, or at least at no earlier period. Whether this be so or not, it is certain that the Cascade lange has undergone much more recent convulsions; and, indeed, of the numerous
vents standing along the summit line. some might be properly classed, at present, as active
volcanoes.
Between the Cascade and Rocky mountain chains, the country is composed of immense
plateaux, interspersed with numerous unconnected mountain ridges, of recent volcanic origin.
Some of these are covered with immense forests, wh;.ile others are merely sterile masses of
583 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
trappean rocks, piled together in rugged heaps by the elevatory force of internal fires. By
some of these less noted elevations and by spurs projecting from the two main ranges, the
broad table lands above mentioned are divided into three distinct valleys, or rather basins;
namely:
The Utah basin, centring at Great Salt lake, but having many undulations forming
minor geographical centres to which its rivers flow and disappear in the sandy plains, or
discharge their currents into inland lakes. This basin has no outlet to the sea.
The Klamath basin, lying to the northwest of the Utah, and drained by the Klamath
river, running to the Pacific ocean, and the river Des Chutes, emptying into the Columbia.
The Columbia River basin extends over a vast area of country, including all that portion
of Oregon lying east of the Cascade mountains, and known as eastern Oregon, except the
small surface occupied by the Klamath, a part of which is in California, and an almost
equally small portion of the Utah basin, which lies principally in Utah Territory.
Eastern Oregon, besides containing several large lakes, is traversed by numerous rivers,
but none are navigable except the Columbia and the Snake or Lewis river; which two
streams, however, afford facilities for steamboat travel from the ocean, across the whole
extent of the State in its greater dimension, from west to east.
That portion of the State lying west of the Cascade mountains is divided into three principal valleys, the WVillamette, the Umpqua, and Rogue river, drained by the rivers bearing
these respective names. This country is quite different from eastern Oregon in respect to its
physical geography, geology, and climate.
Although the general character of this region is indicative of its having had formerly a
volcanic origin, still there is found here a large proportion of sedimentary recks, especially
sandstone and a sort of conglomerate of highly silicious composition, which often'contains
shells and other indications of its sedimentary formation. In the Willamette valley this
feature is chiefly observed on the western side of the river, and in the Umpqua and Rogue
River valleys it becomes more marked on approaching the sea-coast. Shales and a sort of
argillaceous limestone, irreducable by the ordinary process of heating and slaking, also
abound in many places.  The country here is of a much less mineral character than that
east of the Cascade mountains, or even than those mountains themselves. Notwithstanding
the evidences of volcanic origin common to all the western coast of America, and of which
this region presents many, the rocks here, and especially on the Coast mountains, are often
found regularly stratified, and in some instances their parallelism remains undisturbed for
considerable distances.
The geological basis of the Coast mountains is sandstone.   Scoriaceous and  trappean
masses occur in the more volcanic localities. At the intersection of these mountains by the
Umpqua river, sandstone prevails, and the strata remain uninterrupted, except at long
intervals.
Numerous bays and estuaries of different magnitudes intersect the shore along the western
border of the State, and several streams having their sources in the Coast mountains flow
into the ocean through small valleys of great fertility and beauty.
CtiMATE.-Eastern Oregon possesses a climate much resembling that of the Upper Mississippi valley, but not so cold. It is dry and open; usually somewhat bleak, owing to the
large proportion of prairie land, but seldom bitter cold, the mercury rarely falling below
zero in the extreme of winter.  Last winter, however, it was exceedingly cold in this region;
but that was a winter unexampled in severity everywhere in the Pacific States.
Spring in eastern Oregon is fine, early, and open. Summer is hot and generally dry,
with cool nights. Variations of temperature, corresponding with differences of altitude, are
observed, sometimes amounting  to several degrees  at places only a few leagues apart.
Autumn frosts begin some time in October, but it does not become wintry till very late.  Little rain or snow falls except in the mountains. Eastern Oregon is exposed to an almost continuous breeze which sometimes swells into quite a gale, but storms never occur. The wind
in summer is from the southwest.
Western Oregon has a moist, mild, and peculiarly uniform climate. Except in rare cases
the winter is not cold nor the summer hot more than two or three days in succession, and
extreme heat or cold never occurs.
It is rarely necessary to feed stock for more than a fortnight, and frequently not at all
during the whole year.
The amount of rain which falls in this part of the State during the rainy season has been
greatly exaggerated, as will be seen by reference to the annexed tables, which exhibit more
specifically the ciimatical peculiarities of the State.
Observations taken in several other States are inserted in some of the tables for the purpose
of making comparisons. The first table is compiled chiefly from the Smithsonian report;
the, rest are from various reliable sources.
584 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
TABLE I.-Showing comparative mean temperatures.
;o
ED
1)
I
I
~
ED
1.r
6
1 1-6
52. 19
67.13
53. 41
39. 27
53. 00
rD
Co
.9
5-u
0
,4
To
3-E
47.36
71.42
50.34
25. 88
48. 75
11a
.514
51.7
-1
51.34
7'2.51
53.',S
29.80
51. 76
9
I'
._
Po
o
2
Years of observation.................
Spring temperature..................
Summer temperature................
Autumn temperature................
Winter temperature...................
Whole time temperature.............
The only point in eastern Oreg,on whose temperature is exhibited in this table is the Dalles,
which, situated as it is, immediately at the base of the Cascade mountains, does not fairly
represent the temperature of the extensive valleys further east, which constitute the agricultural region of that country. The summer, in most of those valleys as well as on the table
lands, is much wvarmer than at the Dalles. The winter temperature, it will be observed, is
much higher than that of other States in the same latitude, while that of the spring is nearly
the same, and the summer not quite so high.
TABLE II.-Showing the number of rainy days during the winter, at Astoria,  Oregon, Willa                    mette valley, Oregon, and Peoria, Illinois, respectively.
Astoria, Oregon.       villam'tte    Peoria, Ill.
valley, Or.
Month.
1857-8    1858-9   1859-60    18.-6-7    1856-7    1'857-8
November................................  21           16        19          9         9         16
December................................  25           14        15        13        10           7
January..................................  17      19        19        15         4           6
February.................................  9           20        17          6        10          8
Total.................................. 72           69         70       43         33         37
This table includes all rainy days, without reference to whether it rained all day or only a
part. It also includes snowy days, very few of which are seen in Oregon in an ordinary
winter.
In 1846-'47, Hugh Burns, esq., of the Willamette valley, kept a diary from which it
appears there were four days of continuous rain in November, three in December, three in
January, and two in February, making only 12 in the four months of the rainy season.
During the same time there were 66 entirely clear days, viz: 12 in November, 17 in December, 16 in January, and 21 in February. From the first of November, 1845, to the first of
March, 1846, there were 20 rainy and 40 clear days; the rest were variable.
585
II
i
;i
6
e
.2
Time.
i
1 1-5
51.16
61.36
.53. 55
42.43
52.13
31
' 4
53. 00
70. 36
52. 21
35. 59
52. 79
42. 33
69. 95
4 2. 6,'-)
13. 06
41. 97
59. 97
71. 08
64. 36
52. 29
61. 93
47. 61
70.17
50. 01
25. 83
48. 41 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
TABLE III.-SlShowing the amount in inches, at Astoria, Oregon, and Peoria, ill., respectzvely
Astoria, Oregon.
Month.
1858    1859    1860    1857    1858
January......................................................
February..................................................... 
March........................................................
April.........................................................                        
Ma          y..........................................................
June..........................................................                        
July..........................................................
August.......................................................
September....................................................
October.......................................................
November.....................................................
December.....................................................
Total.......................................................
From this table it would appear that the amount of rain at Astoria is a little less than double that at Peoria; the one in a country where the only winter known is a rainy season, and
the other in a country distinguished for its cold and dry winters.
SOIL AND EXTENT OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS.-The two natural divisions of Oregon differ in respect to the quality of their soil as well as in climate. The plateaux of eastern
Oregon have a moderately rich soil whose chief component is silicia, and containing but a
small amount of vegetable matter. Little effort has been made to test'ts capabilities for
agricultural purpose until very recently. The experiment, so far as tiied, has proved exceedingly gratifying, and many persons maintain that these uplands are destined to be the first
grain lands in the State. But the natural adaptation of these immense tracts is to grazing,
cattle herding, and bucalic pursuits.  Rolling prairies and level ple ins of almost illimitable
extent stretch out from the foot of the Cascade mountains almost to the eastern border of the
State, and are covered with luxuriant bunch grass, (festuca,) affording an inexhaustible pasture for any amount of stock. This grows in large tufts not joined together by their fibrous
roots, as is the case with most other grasses. It grows to different heights, from six to 18
inches, according to the quality of the soil.  In nutritive properties it is not excelled by any
grass known. Attaining its full growth about the time the dry season commences, it cures
into a fine, fiavorous hay, which, owing to the absence of dew in this region in the summer,
remains excellent until the autumn rains come, when the whole country is again covered
with green grass.
Mountain streams, having their sources in the mountain chains, intersect these table lands
flowing through valleys and rondes of various dimensions and amazing fertility.  The valleys of the Des Chutes and its tributaries are all that have been extensively tested with cereals,
and they have yielded very large crops. Vegetables of nearly all varieties yield almost fabulous crops.  Indian corn does as well in eastern Oregon as in any State in the Union, anal
will soon become a staple production. Fruit promises finely. This is thought to be as good
a fruit country as that west of the Cascade mountains, so justly denominated the "fruit
garden of America."
Its hot summers admirably adapt eastern Oregon to the culture of sorghum or Chinese
sugar-cane; and sufficient trial has been made to warrant the assertion that this plant can be
produced here as successfully as in any of the northwestern States.  Judge  Laughlin, of
Wasco county, who has paid some attention to the cultivation of this plant, in a published
letter of his dated January 12, 1861, says: "I have cultivated some (sorghum) the past two
years, and find it grows remarkably well.  *    *  It will produce double as much food as
anything (else) I can raise on the same amount of land.  *    * Mr. Phelps, of this county,
has made some very nice sirup, and intends cultivating a crop for that purpose next season."
The cost of making this sirup will not exceed 50 cents per gallon. Its market value cannot be less than one dollar per gallon throughout the country, and two or three times as great
in the mines. Planted in April the sugar-cane matures well, and yields a large per cent. of
saccharine juice. A farmer, who would give his entire attention to cultivating sorghum and
manufacturing sirup in eastern Oregon, could not fail of amassing a large amount of money
in a very short space of time. The extent of these valley lands is not definitely known, as
no official survey has ever been made of the region in which they lie, excepting comparatively small bodies in the vicinity of the Des Chutes. This stream, the largest affluent of the
Columbia in Oregon east of the Cascade mountains, flows through a valley large enough to
maintain a population of many thousand persons. It has already some considerable settlements, mostly composed of stock raisers.
John Day river waters a valley much larger than that of the Des Chutes, and of equal fertility. It is unsettled, and offers great inducements to Jarmers desiring homes near the mines,
,5 8 6
Peoria, Ill.
I
1858
1859
10. 82
12. 02
21. 52
2, 85
3.17
2.10
.48
1. 42
9.18
5.46
7. 77
6.16
1860
1837
.37
5. 32
3. 84
1. 39
2.80
2.77
1. 40
5. 61
2.16
2.10
1. 62
1. 50
1858
1. 48
1. 95
3.15
6. 25
10. 64
5.95
5.85
3. 24
2.96
3.'24
4.85
.......
S. 58
4. 80
6. 83
3. 52
2. 49
1. 38
. 44
3.40
3. 91
4. 8S
8.06
12. 44
13. 30
6. 69
5. 58
5. 69
5. 04
1. 40
1. 35
. 24
2. 54
6. 96
12-44
........
60. 73 82. 95 61. 23
30. 88
49. 56 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
where market will always be ready, and produce will command high prices. It is about 30
miles east of the Des Chutes and has the same general trend, both running north into the
Columbia.
Powder river runs through the largest valley in eastern Oregon. and probably equal to
any other in the excellent quality of its soil. Emigrants from the east are fast settling up
this valley, and the prospect is that it will soon contain a large population. No settlements
were made on Powder river previous to the discovery of the gold mines on its head waters
but it is stated that a large number of the emigrants of this season have already selected their
future homes there, and expect soon to be surrounded by an industrious and thriving community, and enjoying all the amenities of civilization.
Burnt river has its course through a broken region, very fertile, but better adapted to grazing than to agriculture. This stream is southeast from Powder river, and having the same
general direction, flows northeast into Snake river.
East of Burnt river the country is exceedingly uninviting. What valleys there are are
small and frequently unproductive. The land, impregnated with alkalies, has scarcely any
vegetation growing upon it except artemesia, or sage. Grass is scarce and of poor quality,
even along the streams.  Of his entering the Burnt river country from this inhospitable
waste, in his official explorations, General Fr6mont says he now came into "a mountainous
region where the soil is good, and in which the face of the country is covered with nutritive
grasses and dense forests; land embracing many varieties of trees peculiar to the country,
and on which the timber exhibits a luxuriance of growth unknown to the eastern part of the
continent and to Europe. This mountainous region," he continues, "connects itself in the
southward and westward with the elevated country belonging to the Cascade or California
range, and forms the eastern limit of the fertile and timbered lands along the desert and
mountainous region included within the great (Utah) basin."
The Grande Rbnde, lying a few leagues north of the Powder River valley, is a beautiful
circular valley some 20 or 30 miles in diameter, watered by a stream bearing the same name.
Surrounded by high hills or spurs of the Blue mountains, its amphitheatrical form, relieving
its smooth, grassy surface, intersected by a bold stream fringed on either margin with small
trees, renders it sufficiently charming, to say nothing of the fertility of its soil, which is
unsurpassed. Settlements are being made in this valley, also, by the emigrants who have
come over the plains, but it will not all be occupied this season.
The following analysis of the soil in Powder River and Grande Ronde valleys is reported
by Fr6mont:
GRANDE RONDE.
Silica............................. 72.30
Alumina......................... —--------------------- 6. 25
Carbonate of lime................. 6.86
Carbonate of magnesia............. 4.62
Oxide of iron...................... 1. 20
Organic matter................... 4.50
Water and loss..................... 4.27
100.00
The Klamath basin, it is said, contains a large tract of good agricultural lands, but this
may be questionable, as no experiments have yet been made to test its qualities for farming
purposes.  It is a fine grazing district; even in the midst of December it has been found
covered with fresh and luxuriant grass.  The Klamath is a magnificent lake, possessing
one feature in particular, which lakes do not ordinarily have, viz: it has no water in it. It
is a fact, though not generally known, that this lake is nothing more than a broad savannah,
sometimes covered in places with a thin sheet of water for a brief period, but never entirely
inundated, and capable of being easily drained and reduced to cultivation.
Goose lake, Lake Abert, and some others of considerable size, lie in the northern part of the
Utah basin, and are said to be surrounded by large tracts of as fine agricultural land as can
be found in the State. That there is some good country around these lakes, is certainly
true; but enough is not known of this region to warrant a positive statement that they are
very extensive.
Rogue River valley, occupying the extreme southern portion of western Oregon, and
extending into California is a broken country, or series of valleys, separated by rolling
highlands, covered in some places with dense forests of fir and cedar, and in others thinly
timbered with oak, and finely set with grass.  It is a very good country for farming, aid a
superior one for stock raising. Rogue river is not navigable on account of its numerous
cascades. Like all the western portion of the State, this valley is well watered by numerous
mountain streams, which are sufficiently large to afford motive power for running any amount
of machinery. It is thinly populated, and would furnish homes for an indefinite number of
immigrants.  Jacksonville, its principal town, is a place of some importance as a mining
town.
t
I
587
POWDER RIVER.
Silica -----------------------------
Alumina --------------------------
Lime and magnesia ----------------
Oxide?of iron......................
Organic matter.....................
Phospate of lime -------------------
Water and loss....................
70.81
10.97
1. 38
2.21
- 8.16
1.38
- 5.46
100. 00 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The Umpqua valley is a beautiful country, drained by the Umpqua river, a stream of some
magnitude, and navigable 25 miles from its mouth for ocean vessels. This fertile valley
contains 1,000,000 of acres. It is principally rolling or hilly land, the face of the country
in many places forcibly reminding one of the rugged districts of Vermont, or the charming
stories he read when but a child of the mountain home of the Swiss.
Numerous tributaries of the Umpqua, some of them quite large, flow through the valley,
affording excellent water privileges. Perhaps no country is more conveniently provided with
good soil, good timber, and good water than the Umpqua valley. Its population is about
4,500, leaving ample room for 20,000 more, allowing 160 acres to each family of four persons.
Roseburg and Winchester, the most important places in this valley, are pleasant villages.
But the most important agricultural district in western Oregon, and probably in the whole
State, is the Willamette valley. It is separated from the Umpqua by the Calapooya mountains, a densely timbered belt, having an altitude of about 5,000 feet, and extending from the
Cascade to the Coast range.  This valley is drained by the Willamette river, flowing north into
the Columbia, and which is navigable to the distance of 130 miles from its mouth, direct
measure, with only a single obstruction, the falls at Oregon City.
No person can survey the Willamette valley with its alternations of rich meadow-like
prairies, undulations, and beautiful streams, without feeling that he beholds the most delightl'ul spot in America The agricultural country lying along the banks of the Willamette,
includes an area nearly equal to that of the entire State of Connecticut, with a combination
of advantages inferior to no other section of the United States. Mr. William H. Knight
describes this valley as "possessing a soil of unsurpassed fertility, a mild and genial climate,
an abundant growth of timber, large natural pastures, where stock may range unsheltered
the year round, an excellent commercial position, superior facilities for transportation, and a
rapidly increasing population." This is stating the case in rather too string a light, and
requires some qualification in two of its particulars. The population of the Willamette
valley has not increased very rapidly for some years past, owing to causes which will become
manifest when the subject of commerce is discussed. And the other modification proposed
is, that we sometimes have a "cold snap" of two or three weeks duration in the winter, and
the last winter still longer, so that stock may not "range unsheltered the year round" every
year, and should not be forced to do so any year, as the continuous rains of the winter
months are very injurious to all kinds of domestic animals. Aside from this slight inaccuracy, Mr. Knight's description is certainly a very correct one, and the impulse given to the
State by the recent discovery of extensive gold fields on the eastern border of the State, cannot
fail to make it become speedily true in respect to the increase of population.
This valley is mostly smooth prairie land, large bodies of it undulating, but not hilly,
interspersed at intervals, never greater than a few miles, often much less, with streams of
various sizes, flowing in across the valley from the mountains on either side. Ranges of
low hills, covered with oak timber, are common throughout the valley.
Some of the largest affluents of the Willamette, as the Santiam, Yamhill, and Tualatin, are
navigable to considerable distances into the interior; while there is scarcely one which does
not afford an ample volume of water to drive any desired amount of machinery for milling
and manufacturing purposes.
The Willamette, in common with all this region of the Pacific coast, belongs to the tertiary
period. Shells and ligneous petrifactions are numerous, and mammal fossils have been
found in various places, indicating a very recent formation.
The soil of western Oregon may be divided into four general classes, viz:
1st. A browni clay loam, of good quality, thinly timbered with oak, producing good grass,
and affording fine stock range. It is found chiefly along the spurs of mountains or extended
ranges of hills, never in the level prairie.
2d. A dark or black porous soil formed by the admixture of vegetable mold with the
clay loam just described.  This soil occurs only in the valleys close by or between the mountains, and is unrivalled in productive power. Both of these classes are thirsty, and suffer
whenever the summer drought is of very long duration.
3d. A grayish calcareous sandy loam of exceedingly fine quality, covered with a thick
turf of grass, and admirally adapted to the cultivation of cereals, especially wheat, oats, and
barley. This class embraces five-sixths of the entire valley, including most of the prairie,
anid much of the oak-timbered land.  It is little affected by drought, and though not naturally
porous, is pulverized with great facility, and is exceedingly mellow.
4th. A strictly alluvial soil, lying along the immediate banks of the river, and composed
of sand, vegetable matter, and various decomposed earths, washed by the current from above.
Most of this class of soil is overflowed in extraordinary freshets, which, however, never occur
in the growing season of the year, and it is unexcelled in fertility.
Many small and very rich valleys lie along the seacoast, and will doubtless yet become
valuable. Among them are the Tillamook, situated on a bay of the same name, the Celets,
the Yaquina on Yaquina bay and river, the Coquille on Coquille river. The Coquille and
Tillamook already contain settlements of some magnitude.
HARB()RS.-There are already opened four ports of entry in this'State. The most important harbor is that of the Columbia river, but it is not the only one likely ever to assume
much importance. Umpqua river, Port Orford, and the Coquille want nothing but the set
588 
4
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
tlement of the rich districts surrounding them to bring them into consideration as commercial
points, while vessels have entered several others and found good harbors. Yaquina bay,
first brought to notice only a year ago, is said to be an excellent harbor, extending 30 miles
into the coast, and easy of access from the heart of the Willamette valley.
HIIEALTH.-It would seem inviduous to discriminate in favor of any portion of the State
of Oregon in respect to its salubrity. Everything that nature could do to render a country
perfectly healthful has been done for this State. The mountain air, not less than the mountain water, has a vivifying influence; and the gentle breezes of summer, coming fresh from
the sea, are a pleasant and effectual preventive against all the violent diseases ordinarily to
be feared in dry and sultry regions.
The climate of Oregon is thought to be unfavorable to the health of persons who are predisposed to pulmonary affections. This is probably true. Notwithstanding this general
opinion, however it is found that fewer persons die here of consumption, in proportion to
the population, than in any one of the New England States. And it is certainly beyond
question, that in every other respect, there is no other State in the Union worthy to be compared with this for salubrity of climate.
Persons are frequently met with here who had been unable to perform any labor for years
before leaving the east, on account of ill health, but have become rugged and strong in this
country, and are now regularly engaged in their callings without any physical inconvenience
whatever.
MISCELLI,ANEOUS.-Some peculiarities and special adaptation of this State deserve to be
more particularly noticed, though space will not allow this to be done at length.
SHEEP.-A very intelligent writer of New England calls Oregon a "mammoth sheep pasture." From what has been exhibited of its soil, climate, and mines, it will be perceived
that, with equal-propriety and no greater allowance of hyperbole, it might be denominated,
also, a mammoth grain field and vegetable garden, and a mammoth gold placer. In a country
eminently fitted by nature for so many branches of business as Oregon, discrimination in
favor of any one particularly will seem unwarranted, not to say unjust. But certainly if
Oregon has a speciality, it is her pre-eminence as a wool-growing country Until very
recently, little attention has been paid to the matter of sheep raising, but it is now becoming
one of the staple interests of the State.  Sheep thrive better here than in any other State.
Disease among them is exceedingly rare. They increase here faster than in the east, and
the wool is of excellent quality. Only one manufactory of woollen goods is yet in ttactivo
operation.  This is located at Salem.  Another is in course of construction in Linn county.
The wool clip of the State, in 1861, amounted to 444,000 pounds.  That in 1862 (estimated
by Mr. L. E. Pratt, of the Willamette Woollen Manufacturing Company) is 344,000 pounds.
The difference of amount is owing chiefly to the losses of last winter.  The average price of
wool, in 1861, was 18 cents a pound; in 1862 it is 20 cents. In respect to the quality of
Oregon wool, Mr. Prdtt says "there is no inferior wool grown in the State." When the
eastern papers quote the price of "Oregon burr wool," they mislead dealers to the prejudice
of this State, as there are no burrs in the country; they probably refer to wool grown in Calli
fornia, and are imposed upon by dealers of that State.
The Willamette Woollen Manufacturing Company turn out annually 4,000 pairs of blankets,
10,000 yards flannels, 60,000 yards cloths and tweeds, and 4,000 pounds stocking yarn. The
cloths are worth, on an average, $1 12i per yard; the blankets, $8.
The expenses of the factory are $56,000.
LUMnIER.-Everything has been done which nature could do to make Oregon to the Pacific
what Maine is to the Atlantic coast. The best of timber, with unexampled water privileges
convenient of access for sea-going vessels, leaves nothing to be desired in this respect but
enterprising men who will engage in the business of supplying foreign markets.
FISHERIES.-All along the sea-coast oyster and salmon fisheries might be made highly
profitable. The salmon on this coast are not only more abundant, but acknowledged to be
of much better quality than those of the Atlantic. Clam and cod fisheries might also be
established along the coast.
BEES.-The introduction of bees into Oregon is of very recent date. They prosper well,
and produce a large amount of honey. Three years since a hive was worth $150; now it is
worth $2o.
FRUIT.-Reference has already been made to this, but something a little more specific is
required. For apples and pears Oregon is unrivalled. Cherries thrive passably well.
Peaches do not generally succeed well, except some very hardy varieties. Plums are in great
abundance, and fairly flavored. Quinces and apricots flourish. Grapes are good, especially
early varieties. Shrub firuits generally produce exceedingly well. All in all, Oregon is the
fruit garden of America, if not of the world.
PULSE of all kinds, like cereals, yield largely.
COMMERCE.-From the geographical position and internal resources already shown, it does
not require that much should be said of-its commerce. Certain circumstances, however,
have prevented the development of the strength of the State in this respect, the principal of
which is the law under which the land of Oregon is held. At an early period of the settlement of the country, a law was passed by Congress donating 640 acres of land to each man
having a wife-or rather 320 acres each to the man and wife-and 320 acres each to single
I
589
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
men settling in the Territory. The result of this large donation has been to render the popu..
lation of the State so sparse that all interests of the body social, all the nerves of civilization
and progress have been completely paralyzed. This effect has been visible more in connection with the commercial than with any other branch of the social economy of the State,
unless it be the educational. It is hoped, however, that these detrimental consequences of
the nation's liberality will not longer continue to operate as they have done hitherto; since
the largeness of the gift has reduced a great majority of the donees to such a condition as
compels them to divide their large tracts of land. When this is done, and not before, Oregon
will begin to exhibit that degree of prosperity for which God has given her such ample capabilities.
SCHOOLS.-Oregon, though a new country, is not without its school system, and the people
of the State manifest an interest in the subject of education which cannot fail of raising the
intelligence and refinement of the country to a high standard as soon as the population is
sufficient, Common schools are kept in almost every neighborhood, and grade schools and
academies are located in several places. Limits of space forbid more specific statements.
CHUICItEs.-Also the religious statistics of the State will evidence that the immigrant to
Oregon need not fear that he is coming to a barbarous or half-civilized land. While the population of the State is only about 60,000, it contains
Denomination.                                                        Churches.  Members.
Methodist............... —---------------------------------------------------- 33   2, 083
Baptist.. —--------------------------------------------------- 29                     1, 073
Congregationalist............... —-----------------------------------------—... 10      127
Moravian................. —------------------------------------------------—. 00        700
Reformers, (number large, but not accurately known.)
Catholic................... —---------------------------------------------------  8  10 000
THE QUESTION.-It may now be asked where and on what terms can land be obtained in
Oregon.  In the western portion of the State, that is in the Rogue river, Umpqua. and Willamette valleys, the best land is occupied.  Farms can be had, however, in these valleys for
from $5 to $10 per acre, according to location.  There is ample room, and settlement is invited.
As good agricultural land as there is in the world can be bought for $8 per acre in any of
these districts.
The land in eastern Oregon is, for the most part, vacant. Homes may be obtained by
simply occupying them under the provisions of the homestead law, which will take effect on
the 1st day of January, 1863, or by the provisions of the pre-emption law. These lands are
not yet surveyed, but no difficulty need he apprehended on this account. The immigrant
has nothing to do but to comply with the conditions under which he takes, and his title will be
secure to a home for his family which even the rapacity of pitiless creditors cannot wrest from
them, and which in return for moderate industry will enable him always to have enough and
to spare of the good things of this world.
SECTION III.
MINERAL RESOURCES.
The mineral resources of Oregon, though not so thoroughly prospected as
those of adjacent States and Territories, are both extensive and valuable, and
will no doubt at some future time form a prominent source of wealth.
Placer mining has been carried on extensively and profitably in the southern
counties since 1852, and the mines of John Day and Powder river have yielded
several millions of dollars since their discovery in 1860. The annual product
of these mines, until within the last two years, has been from $1,500,000 to
$2,000,000. Inl common with the surface deposits of elsewhere, there is a gradual
diminution as the placers become exhausted. New discoveries, however, are
being continually made.
WILLOW CREEK MIINES.-A writer in the Oregonian thus describes the mines
in the Willow creek country, a region which has attracted considerable attention
of late:
Willow creek is a branch of the Malheur, having its source near the head of John Day's
river, and, flowing near 100 miles in an easterly direction, discharges its waters into the
Malheur about 15 miles above its junction with Snake river. Although a long stream,
Willow creek, owing to the nature of the country through which it flows, much of it being
a low mountain or hill countrv, destitute of timber. receives but few tributaries. and those
590 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
few of small size.  It is but a small stream in proportion to its length, and its surroundings
are gloomy enough and differ but little from those of the Malheur, Owyhee, and other tributaries, on the south side of Snake river, between Farewell Bend and old Fort Hall.
The mines on the tributaries of Willow creek were, I believe, first discovered in 1862, at
what is known as Mormon or Humboldt basin, nearly at the same time, by one party from
Salt lake and another from the Humboldt mining region in Nevada.  This is a small but
rich camp, and only lacks plenty of water to render it one of the richest in the upper country, But water it can never have from any outside source, as the basin is higher than the
source of any of the streams around it, so that the miners in that locality will have to be
content with the scanty supply they now have for three or four months in the year.
But what are known as the Willow creek mines are situated on the south slope of the
divide, between the waters of Willow creek and Burnt river, and are now divided into
Shasta, Easton, and Willow Creek districts.
Shasta district comprises Shasta creek, Rich creek, Cottonwood creek, Quartz gulch, and
many others. Mining has been carried on to some extent on Shasta creek for several years,
but it was not until last summer that the district was prospected to any extent, or assumed
any importance as a mining camp, or became known as such outside of its immediate
vicinity.  Since then greatly exaggerated reports have gained circulation in Idaho, Oregon,
California, &c.. as to the richness and extent of the mines. In most of the creeks and
gulches in Shasta district good prospects have been obtained of rather coarse gold, mostly
on the bed rock, which is usually of slate, and generally from 10 to 25 feet below the surface.
Shasta, like most of mining districts, contains an embryo town which rejoices in the name
of El Dorado City, indifferently supplied with everything but whiskey.
Easton district was organized last summer, and is situate east of and joining Shasta district. It contains a large number of gulches, some of which were worked during last summer, paying very well.  Good prospects have been obtained in many others, and if water
were plenty it would be a lively camp next season, and continue so for two or three years.
In these districts the gold is finer than in Shasta district, and the bed rock (if rock it can be
called) is a kind of cement of clay and gravel.
Willow Creek district has recently organized, and comprises the lower part of Mormon
Basin creek and a number of gulches east of it, but gold in paying quantities has only been
found in one of them. This district is immediately east of Easton district, and the mines
are of the same character. These districts are all on the north side of Willow creek, and
are comprised in a space of about 12 miles in length and but little over one in width.
Water is very scarce in all the mines in this vicinity. During the spring the melting
snow furnishes a good many gulches with water for two or three months. After that is
gone, all the natural water in Shasta district would not amount to more than one sluice head
in Easton district, including the water in Mormon basin creek, about two, in Willow Creek
district about one. And in speaking of creeks in those districts the reader must bear in
mind that all the gulches in which water flows during summer (no matter how small the
quantity) is called a creek. Most of the gulches are dry during the fall and winter, and a
prospector frequently has to carry dirt one-half mile or more to find water to wash it.
Another great inconvenience here is the scarcity of timber, it being on the mountains and
in canons remote from the mines.  Lumber for mining and building purposes has to be
hauled from 8 to 16 miles, and fire-wood from two to five miles, the former costing about $70
per 1,000 feet, and the latter from $12 to $.14 per cord.
The climate here is similar to that of the Grande Ronde and Powder iRiver valleys, the
amount of snow falling being much less than in the mining regions of Idaho.  Yet the
winters are very cold. The past two weeks have been about as cold as any weather I ever
saw during several years' residence in the mountains. The snow is now about 10 inches
deep in the mines, and perhaps two feet deep on the divide between Willow creek and Burnt
river.
There is much good agricultural land along Willow creek, Burnt river, and other streams
in this vicinity, upon which abundant supplies could be raised for all this part of Oregon,
unless the crickets, which seem to be one of the natural productions of the country, should
claim too large a percentage of the crop.
Several different ditches have been talked of for bringing water from Willow creek and
Burnt river for mining purposes, which would supply Shasta district and subsequently districts east of that, only one of which has been prosecuted'to any extent; that being the
ditch of Carter, Packwood & Company, which is one of large extent, and will, when completed, supply a large extent of mining ground with water and give employment to many
men. But unfortunately there is little probability of its completion in time to do any good
next summer; so that many owning claims will have to wait another year before they can
work them to any extent, as the mines are of such a nature that they can only be worked
by the hydraulic or ground sluice, which requires a large amount of water.
There is a large extent of unprospected country in th-is paIt of Oregon, in much of which
it is probable gold may be found. Were the facilities better for working the mines, this
would soon be a populous portion of the State, but much of the country is destitute of timber
and water.
There is but little to induce men to come here at present, but if any do come from Oregon
591 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
and California, they had best not come before the first of May, as before that time the weather
will be stormy and unsettled, and they will find it rough camping out in a country where
even sage brush for fuel is not very plenty.
There are a few stores in the country, at Clarit's creek, Mormon Basin, and other camps,
but they are poorly farnished with mining tools, clothing, groceries, and in fact everything
but whiskey, and other beverages of like nature, which are supposed to be necessary in a
country where water is not very plenty. Our nearest post office is at Express, nearly 20
miles.  We get our mail matter from there or friom Auburn, which is upwards of 35 miles
distant. A mail route which would accommodate Clark's Creek, Mormon Basin, and the
Willow mines is very necessary, and should receive the attention of our postal authorities.
QUARTZ LODES.-Numerous gold-bearing quartz lodes have been discovered
in various parts of the State, but none of them have been developed to any
great extent. East of Eugene City, near the MIcKenzie river, (north branch
of the Willamiette,) some excellent lodes have been prospected, one of which
extends north to Santiam and south across the head branches of the middle forlk
of the Willamette, Coast  Fork, North  and  South  Umpqua, &c.   The Blue
mountains, in the vicinity of Cailon City, John Day's river, abound in quartz
which the miners think will pay, but as there are placer mines in the vicinity,
and a lack of capital to erect the necessary mills, they have not yet been woried
to any considerable extent.   A  writer in one of the Oregon papers says:
The discoveries made in Auburn district, near the western line of Baker county, are
known to be rich, but, as is usual, the discoverers are poor and unable to purchase and erect
suitable mills for reducing their rock, and, therefore, must be content with simply working
out the assessments required by law to hold them. In fact, in no less than five districts in the
county, quartz is known to exist in paying quantities, but will not be worked, perhaps, for
years to come-until labor is cheaper and the cost of machinery is correspondingly cheaper,
and the placer mines are more thoroughly worked.  The fact is that wherever placer mines
will daily exhibit to the laborer the fruits of his toil, at but little outlay, he is hard to be
persuaded to invest time and labor and capital in the business of quartz crushing.
Outside of our county, too, there are known to be rich quartz mines, occupying'about the
same practical position that ours does.  The quartz of Elk creek, Granite creek, and Canion
City, in Grant county, together with tnose of Eagle creek, in Union county, are destined to
attract attention before long.
THiE I.nox INTErEST.-By far the most important mineral resource yet discovered in Oregon is the vast deposit of iron known to exist between the Willamette  river above Portland and the Columbia, at  St. Helen.  Of  the entire
extent of this valuable deposit there is as yet but little knowledge, but it has
been traced for a distance of at least 25 miles, and is bevond doubt inexhaustil)le.
A  description of the geological formation in which this iron is found, with some
observations  on the character of the ore, cost of manufacture, &c., and of iron
ores generally on the Pacific coast, will be found in the article on miscellaneous
mineral resources.*    The  following  detailed description of the iron works  at
Oswego is from the Oregonian, a newspaper published at Portland:
It is cause for sincere rejoicing that the efforts of the enterprising company which has undertaken the development of this mlost important resource of our State are now almost sure to
be rewarded with complete success.  It would be difficult to name an interest on this coast
which nmay affect the general prosperity more directly and permanently than the successful
working of our iron mines. It is not so much that the proprietors may make money out of
them, but it is that some of the chief courses of trade and manufactures will be turned in
entirely new channels.  These works, if present prospects are hereafter realized, will be able
to supply the greater part of the demand of the whole coast for raw iron.  This alone is a
vast interest; but when we take into consideration that iron-rolling mills and manufacturing
establishments of various kinds will surely follow the success of this pioneer effort, the interest
which the whole country has in it is immense-entirely beyond the possibility of present
conception.  In view of this, we shall certainly not be censured if we devote to the various
matters connected with these works the greater part of our column to-day.
ORGANIZATION OF TIIE COMPANY.-The "Oregon Iron Company" was incorporated by
signing and filing articles in the offices of the county clerk of this county, and of the secretary of State, on the 24th day of February, 1865. The incorporators were H. D. Green, W.
S. Ladd, and John Green. The capital stock was fixed at $500,000. The stock was soon
taken, the number of stockholders being 220, including many of our most sagacious and
* Notes on the coal and other miscellaneous mineral productions of Oregon will be found
in the same article.
592 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
energetic business men. On the 13th of May following, the stockholders held their first
meeting, and organized under the provisions of the statute by electing a board of directors,
consisting of W. S. Ladd, H. C. Leonard, John Green, T. A. Davis, P. C. Schuyler, H. D.
Green, and Henry Failing.  At a subsequent meeting of the directors, W. S. Ladd was
chosen president; H. C. Leonard, vice-president, and H. D. Green, secretary. Mr. P. C.
Schuyler is at present acting secretary.
COST OF THE WORKS.-Thus far the sumn of all the assessments levied on the stock is
only 27 per cent., all of which has been paid in with the exception of $11,000, delinquent
by three of the stockholders. The expenditures for building, opening the mines, constructing machinery, and stocking with material, was, up to the 1st of August, between $124,000
and $1  25,000. Since that date there have been, of course, some further expenditures, which
can, at present, only be estimated; but the total amount is probably within $126;000.
MAGNITUDE OF THE WORKS.-The company having prospected the mine, which is about
two and half miles from the present village of Oswego, and having had the ore thoroughly
tested, began excavating for the walls of the furnace and tower, on the 21st of May, 1865. Since
then the work of building and opening the mine has been carried on without more than temporary suspensions till the present day. The works are run by water, taken from Oswego lake.
The dam across the creek, just below the foot of the lake, is 148 feet in length, and 22 feet in
height, and is a structure of great strength. The flume by which water is conveyed to the
works is 900 feet long and 3 feet square. The machinery in the blast-house is driven by
one of Leffel's double-turbine water-wheels, which also works a force pump for supplying
the tanks with water. The blast-house (where the wind is made) is 38 feet square and
20 feet high. The casting-house is 136 feet long, 58 feet wide, and is a 12-feet story. The
stack frame is 34 feet square, and 32 feet high. The top-house is 34 feet square, and 20 feet
high.  The stack and chimney together are 65 feet in height.  The bridge-house is a 12-feet
story, 129 feet long, and 25 feet wide; one end resting on the ground on the hill-side, the
other supported on heavy truss-work, and connecting with the stack.  The first coal-house
connecting with the bridge-house is a 12-feet story, 148 feet long, and 38 feet wide.  The
second coal-house, standing a little apart from the other, is a 24-feet story, 100 feet long, and
40 feet wide. The water tank is 12 feet square, and 8 feet deep. These are the buildings
which constitute the works proper; but the company has one or two other buildings in the
village, one of which is a storehouse, 50 by 37 feet, and a story and a half high. The stack
within, which is the furnace, is a massive pile of masonry, 32 feet square at the base, and 34
feet high. There is probably not a finer or stronger piece of masonry on this coast than this
stack. The capacity of the furnace is about 800 bushels. The buildings are supplied or to
be supplied everywhere with water-pipes, to be used both in the ordinary daily operations
and in case of fire. Everything about the entire works is constructed for strength and duration. In this respect the company has wisely thought that the additional cost of heavy,
strong, and finished work, above that of mere make-shift, cannot fail to be returned in the
duration of the works. The machinery in the blast-house is massive, and finely finished.
The blast of air is obtained by the use of two large air pumps, whose pistons attach to the
ends of a huge walking-beam. The air is forced through a regulator, which serves to keep
the current constant. In the regulator, as the machinery was driven yesterday, the pressure
of air was five-eighths cf a pound to the square inch. From the regulator the air is forced
through a long pipe to the top of the stack, when it goes through several large cast tubes, so
placed as to be all the time red-hot. This is for the purpose of heating the air before it strikes
the fire and mass of ore at the bottom of the furnace. From these heating tubes the air then
goes through large tubes, concealed in the masonry, to the bottom of the furnace, where it is discharged with great force into the interior of the furnace.  The effect upon the burning mass
of coal, ore, and lime is something too fierce for description. To prevent the end of the airpipe from being consumed by the intense heat, it is inserted in a massive piece of casting,
called a tuier, and which is subjected to a constant stream of cold water.
MAKING IRON.-The first casting of iron into pigs was made on Saturday, August 24. The
manner of doing it is something as follows: Of course the furnace has had fire in it for some time,
and was hot when the work began. The workmen first put in at the top 26 bushels of coal, then
800 pounds of ore, adding to this mass about 20 per cent. of limestone. This proportion is
observed till the furnace is full. The limestone and ore are broken under the hammer, before
being put in the furnace. The use of the lime is to amalgamate with itself all the dross and
impurities of the ore, released in the process of smelting. This dross is constantly drawn off
from the furnace at the hearth, and when cooled is thrown away. The company propose to
use it for grading their roads and grounds. When the reservoir at the bottom gets full, the
hearth is tapped, the molten iron runs off in a sparkling white stream, down a channel to
the pit, where it falls, first, into a gutter called the sow, and from this into smaller and shorter
gutters, where the iron is shaped into pigs. Yesterday the hearth was tapped twice, the
result being about six tons of pig iron. It is expected that when the furnace gets formed
and thoroughly heated, the company will be able to cast three times at least in 24 hours,
making between three and four tons at each casting. The ore now used yields about 55 per
cent. of iron, which would be considered anywhere in the world very rich. The coal costs
about six cents per bushel. Lime costs $l; per ton. The ore is estimated to cost about $1 75
per ton.  The company is now employing 80 men as miners, coal burners and heavers,
38
i
i
593 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
teamsters and artisans, at the works. The coal-houses nowv have in them about 80,000
bushels of coal, and it is coming in at the rate of about 2,500 bushels per day. The iron thus
far cast is pronounced by Mr. Harris, the superintendent of the wc'ks, and by other competentjudges, to be equal in quality to any made in the United States. It is very soft and very
fine in grain, and it is said, might be worked into castings for machinery as run off from the
furnace.
To conclude this article we will mention that of the first casting, Mr. J. C. Trullinger, the
proprietor of the town site, has secured two pigs, which he will have engraved with his own
initials, the date of casting and the trade stamp of the company, and then planted as street
monuments at the corners of blocks Nos. 1 and 2, at the junctions of Furnace, Ladd and
Durham streets.
Table of distances.
FROM PORTLAND TO  ALLE TY.Miles.
Meacham's or Lee's Encampment 14   64
Station........................  13   77
La Grande.-.-.... —----------- 12   85
Union...-..-...... —--------- 16 101
Pyles.........................  5 106
Kentucky House...............-  1 107i
Stark's. —........... —-.    5 112A
Austin.......... 4  1164
Mountain View House. 2  1181
Carter's..... —--—.. -----.. — 6 124~
Valley House......... —-----------—.-  I 125.
Ward's, or Slough House.    3  129
Henkler's Ranch -------—........... —----   3  132
Baldock's....... —------—..... —---- ----  6  138+
Mud Springs.-. —----—.   6 144i
Illinois Ranch. —--— +- 5 150
Straw Ranch, or H. Huffman's. 4  154
New York House............... 4   ]58
California Ranch..............- 31 161
Express Ranch.-. — --------—.   i 162
Central  -—............... —-—.  2  164
Wilsen's..................... 5  ]69
Hawkins..........-....... —-- 4 173
Scott's --................... — 5 178
Whiteside's. D.......-..........      6 184
Miller's.-....................-.    1  185
Marshall's....................-. —---- 5  190
Old's Ferry, or Snake River.-. — 1  191
Snake River Bend..............  8 199
Monroe Rouse, or Weizer's.-.-.- 8 207
Jasper & Beard's Station......- 4  211
Snake River Slough ---------—. 2 *213
Forty-Nine Ranch.-.-. —------- 10  223
Fayette River and Bluff Station. 4  227
Junction House................ 3 230
Thowpson's...................  4  234
Payette Ranch................. 8 2242
Block House..........-.... —- 5  247
Payette Junction...............   2  249
Bernal's.......................  1  260
Horse Shoe Bend....... —------ 8 268
Shafer's.......... —--------- 4 272
Herzog  & Company............  4  276
Allen's........................ 10 286
Placerville..................... 2  288
Centreville....................   5  293
Idaho City..................... 8 301
FROM UMATILLA CITY TO INDEPENDENCE.
Franklin House................ 12
Alkali Hollow................. 12   24
Forks of Birch Creek...........10  34
Beard's Saw Mill.-.-. —-----—. 12  46
D)ealy Ranch................... 18 64
Horse Ranch       -.. —-------------- 12  76
Day's Flat on Granite Creek...-.`22 98
Independence..................  6  104
FROM PORTLAND TO DALLES CITY.
Miles.
Vancouver (by steamer).      -.-. ----- 18
Lower Cascades... —------------- 45   63
Upper Cascades (by railroad). —-.-     6  69
Dalles City (by steamer).. —-- ----- 45  114
FROM DALLES CITY TO LEWISTON.
Celilo (by railroad)  -... —- —.5-. 15
Columbus (by steamer). —-—. —- 6  21
John Day's river. —-- ------—.. 10  31
Indian Rapids.-...-..... —------ 3  34
Squally Hook....... —--------------—... 3 37
Rock Creel..................... 4 41
Chapman's wood-yard...........  8  49
Big Bend........ —------------- 6 55
Willow Creek........-.-.... —-- 9 64
Castle Rock. —- -         ------- -- - —..  8  72
Canoe Encampment......      -.- 2  74
Foot of Long Island.. -----—..   4   78
Head of Long Island............ 7   85
GCrande Ronde Landing.......... 5   90
Umatilla City.................. 7  97
Head of Umatilla Rapids......... (; 103
Wind MillRock................    — 3 106
Wallula -..................... 15  121   l
Mouth of Snake river... ]..... I 1  132
First Rapids, Snake river........ 6  138
Fish Hook Rapid...............10  148
Lower End of Ca-on............ 2  150
Upper End of Canion............'2  152
Jim Fort Island................. 6 158
Pine Tree Rapids................ 7  165
Palouse Crossing............... 30  195
Fort Taylor, at Tukannon....... 5  200
Taksas Rapids................. 6 206
Pa-na-wa Creek and Indian Farm. 25  231
Almota....................... 14  245
Indian Wood Yard..............21  266
El-pa-wa Creek.. 5  271
Jackson & Buckley Ferry........ 3  274
Lewiston...................... 7  281
FROM DALLES CITY TO UMATILLA CITY.
Celilo (by railroad).............. 15
Des Chutes (by land)............ 1  16
Spanish Ihollow................ 9   25
John Day's..................- ]5   40
Willow Creek.................- 23   63
Well Spring....................14  77
Ewing's........................ 18  95
Umatilla City................... 16 11l
FROM UMATILLA TO IDAHO CITY.
Franklin House................. 12
Swift's.......................2       26 38
Willow Springs................. 12  50
I
i
.5 94 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Table of distances-Continued.
FROM INDEPENDENCE TO CANON CITY (BY
TRAIL. )
Syrup Creek —...............
Little Camas Prairie.... —---------
Franklin... —------—. —-------—.
Volcano... —-----------------
MIiles.
Little Salmon...... —------------—....-.. 20
Vincent's Gulch... —------------- 18   38
Cation City.6..                                   RO.    -S 2C2 60
FROM INDEPENDENCE TO AUBURN.
Little Camas Prairie............
Wood Creek...................
Lime Creek....................
Warm Springs.................
Cowhide Ranch.. —--------------
Toll Gate......................
Milk Ranch....................
Rocky Bar....................
Head of Powder River... —-------- 20
Bear Gulch... —---------- -------- 5  25
Auburn....... —---- ------------ --- J5  40
Walla-Walla River... -....-.... 13
Linkton's Mill................... 9
Mountain House           -     -—. —-------— 12
Phillips' ---------------------- 13
Willow Creek........ —------------—. 11 
Hendershott's... —--------------- 16
Union. —----------------------- 6
Idaho City.-.-.... — --------— 200
FROM BOISE CITY TO RED BLUFF, VIA BOON  VILLE, GIBB'S CREEK, AND SUSANVILLE,
IN HONEY LAKE.
Slough........... —--------------—. —-..... 15 32
Snake River................... 1   33
Carson's Ranch................ 15   48
Honey Lake Smith's............ 6   54
Boonville..............   8  62
Jordan's Ranch. —-- ---------- 18   80
Muskrat Lakes.................  16  96
Child's Ferry..................  17  113
Gibb's Creek, or forks of road..  8  121
Head of Gibb's Creek........... 14  135
Mountain Creek................ 16  151
Trout Creek...................17  168
Puebla Mountain............... 10  177
Hot Springs................... 6  184
Alder Creek.-.        -      --—. —-------- 8: 192
Summit Lake... —---- ---------- 12  104
Three Lakes................... 12  216
Canion Creek...................  9  225
Surprise Valley. —------ ------ 13  238
Fur Creek ------------------- 14  252
Swift Creek....................  15  267
Rapid Creek........            4  271
Susanville, in Honey Lake. —---- 6  277
Red  Bluff......- -—............ —- - 99    376
Susanville to Chico.............95  372
BOISE CITY TO STARR CITY, VIA BOONVILLE.
Payette Junction................ 249
Boise City... —-------- ---------- 30  279
Meadow Creek Ranch............ 14
North Boise Bridge and Toll House 4
Middle Boise Ranch..... —----------- 6
Brady's Ranch..................  
Rocky Bar. —.............. 13
Seventeen-mile Station..........  17
Slough........................ 15
Snake River................... 1
Carson's Ranch................15
Honey Lake Smith's............  6
Boonville...................... 8
Jordan's Ranch................  18
Muskrat Lakes.................  16
Child's Ferry...    17
Gibb's Creek........... -------------—..  8
Well Spring................... 12
Mouth of Canion................ 10
Sumrrmit Spring.......20
East Forlk of Queen's River... 8
Paradise Valley.               60
Cherokee..             1.2
Starr City...........'26
FROM BOISE CITY TO RUBY AND SILVER
CITIES.
Seventeen-mile Station.. —-......... 17
Slough.. —------------ -----— 15  32
Snake River... —------------- -— 1  33
Carson's Ranch -------------— 15  48
Honey Lake Smith's..... —--------- 6   54
Boonville..- -----------------— 8   62
Ruby City.. —----------------- 2  64
Silver City...........     ------------- 64
Boise River....... —-....     P 7
Fifteen-mile House.............. 8   15
Squaw Creek................... 15   30
I
595
31!les.
41
57
60
70
11
16
3
10
FROM BOISE CITY TO ROCKY BAR.
57
8
2
10
5
]'I
4
14
667a
77
812
831
85i
99i
FROM WALLA-WALLA TO IDAHO CITY.
22
34
47
58
74
80
280
Seventeen-mile Station.......... 17
Slouh ------------------ ------ 15
Snae River................... I
Carson's Ranch................ 15
Honey Lake Smith's............ 6
Boonville 8
Jordan's Ranch ---- ------------ 18
Muskrat Lakes.................. 16
Child's Ferry.................. 17
Gibb's Creek, or forks of road - - - 8
Head of Gibb's Creek........... 1,4
Mountain Creek................. 16
Trout Creek................... 17
Puebla Mountain............... 10
Hot Springs................... 6
Alder Creek ------ ------------- 8:
Summit Lake ------ ------------ 12
Three Lakes................... 19Caiioii Creek................... 9
Surprise Valley -------- -------- 13
Fur Creek ------------- -------- 14
Swift Creek.................... 15
Rapid 4
Susanville, in Honey Lake ------ 6
Red Bluff......:"-"  --- — I- -,!j9
Susaliville to Chico............. 95
FROM IDAHO CITY TO BOISE CITY.
'vV,,irm Springs..................
Minnehaha Ranch ---------------
Fourteen-mile House............
Sampson's, or Twelve-mile HouseBoise City ---------- ------------
2
10
2
8
12
12
14
22
34
FROM UIVIATILLA CITY TO BOISE CITY.
FROM WALLA-WALLA TO BOISE CITY.
(As measured with a roadometer) 265
FROM IDAIIO CITY TO ROCKY BAR (BY
TRAIL.)
18
24
35
48
32
33
48
54
62
80
96
113
121
133
143
163
171
231
243
269
lb'ROlkI BOISE CITY TO VOLCANO. 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Table of distances-Continued.
FROM. WALLA-WALLA TO FISHERVILLE,
KOOrANIE COUNTRY, BRITISH COLUM  BIA.
Burk's........................16
Dealy's Ranch. —------------- 12
Grande Ronde river, or forks ofroad 4
Powder river............... ------------—...20 
Grande Rond river (road to left) to
La Grande.-.-..... —- ---— 20
Touchet -----------------—................... —-... 15
Spring.. —--------                               --------------- 1
Palouse, on Snake river... —-------'20
Forks of the Palouse.-.-. —---—. 15
Cow Creek -...................12
Camp....................... 128
Cottonwood Springs -------------............. 8
Dragoon Encampment.......... 18
Pine Timber.................... 8
Rock Creek..................... 12
Lake to the right of road     13.........13
Hangman Creek..........  -10
Antoine Plant Ferry, or Crossing of
Spokane River................ 12
Dutchman's                       -----—......- 17
Slough......................... 18
Pen d'Oreille Lake.............. 9
Head of Pen d'Oreille Lake......30
Pack River..................... 9
Stampede Lake, to the left of the
road.............. 18...........18
Kootanie Ferry.................. 18
Spring.........................  10
Eighteen Mile Creek............. 8
Commission Creek, one mile to left
of road....................... 9
Round Prairie................. 10
Boundary line.................7 7
Moya River          -.................... 7
Third Crossing of Moya River.... 10
Log House....................12
Miner's Creek................18
Peavine Prairie................. 12
St. Joseph's Prairie.............. 12
Central Ferry................. 10
Fisherville...................... 7
FROM DALLES CITY TO CANON CITY, VIA
NIXON'S BRIDGE.
FROM DALLES CITY TO CANON CITY, VIA
GILLAM'S.
Gillam'         s....................... 12
McItee....................      17
Bake Oven..-..-.... —-------- 19
Cross Hollows, or forks of road — 10
Cold Canmp.-......-. —-- ---— 11
Current Creek.-.......... —---- 10
Muddy Creek.-.-....... —-. —- 4
Cherry Creek.-...........-. —- 6
Bridge Creek..................      9
Alkali Flat................... 10
Canion City.................. 82
Springs...................... 15
Kentuck's, on the first Mullan's road 9
Six-mile Camp.................. 6
Springs........................ 9
Creek..................-........- 10
Timber Camp... —-      -...................12       - 9
Rock Creek                      -..................... 12
Tusha Crossing................    20
Tukannon.....-...... —-- -- 22
Pataha....-.... —----- -----— 12
Alpowa              -       -—. —----------—. —-12
Lewiston...................... 17
FROM WALLA-WVALLA TO ROCK CREEK.
FROM. LEWISTON TO ELK CITY, FLORENCE,
AND IDAHO CITY.
By trail, via New Ferry.......-... —-- 121
Tukannon to Rock Creek........ 72
Lewiston to Elk City................
Lewiston to Florence Ci.............1
Lewiston to Idaho City..............
FROM JOHN DAY'S TO POWDER RIVER AND
LA GRANDE.
From White Bluff to Colville......... 150
Scott's......................... 9
Harrison's on Willow creek.......14
Forks of Willow creek................... 6
Forks of Butter creek. —--------- 16
Ayers.......................... 7
Birch creek.....................   20
McWillis....................... 17
From Wallula via Union to Idaho City,
abo ut............................ 300
From Dalles City to Franklin House on
the Idaho and Umatilla road....... 102
596
Miles.
105
117
]l
141
161
iles.
26
46
61
73
85
93
ill
119
331
144
154
166
183
201
210
240
249
267
12 F, 5
295
303
312
322
3.29
336
346
358
376
388
400
410
417
Nixon'sbridge.. —..
Hay Stack.....................
Cross Hollows, or forks of road
Cold Camp....................
Current Creek ---- --------- ----
Mudd y Creek ------------------
Cherry Creek ------ ------------
Bridge Creek ---- -------- ------
Alkali Flat....................
Foot of the mountain............
Mountain House...............
Camp Watson (military post). -..
Rocli Creek --------------------
Cottonwood....................
South Fork....................
Haaen's Ranch................
Vetch's Ranch................
Caflon City.....................
16
27 43
25 68
1 1 79
10 89
4 93
6 99
9 108
10 118
9 127
6 133
64 1391
6i 146
15 161
6'167
15 182
8 190
10 200
29
48
58
69
79
83
89
98
108
190
FROM NEW FERRY TO ROCK CREEK.
24
30
39
49
58
70
FROM WALLA-WALLA TO LEWISTON.
42
54
66
83
142
12,0
190
23
29
45
52
72
89 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ALASKA.
Nearly all the information we possess touching the nmineral resources of Alaska
is comprised in the correspondence accompanying the President's message, February 17, 1868, (Ex. Doc. No. 177, 40th Congress, 2d session,) and in the speechi
of the Hon. Charles Sumner on the cession of Russian America to the United
States (published in the same document, pp. 124-189.) These valuable and interesting papers contain tihe researches of thie most reliable authorities, and dlemonbtrate beyond question that the newvly-acquired territory abounds in the precious
metals and useful minerals, though it must be admitted that our knowledge of
the country and its resources is, as yet, chiiefly confined to the sea-coast and tihe
shiores of tile Aleutian islands. Of the vast continental interior we know comparatively nothing; in the language of Mr. Sumner, " perhaps no region of equal
extent on the globe, unless we except the interior of Africa, or possibly Greenland, is as little known.   Here," says Mr. Sumner, " I do not speak for myself
alone; a learned German, whom I have already quoted, after saying that explorations have been limited to the coast, testifies that' the interior, not only of the
continent, but even of the island of Sitka, is to-day unexplored, and is in every
respect terra incognita;' thie same has been repeated of theislands also."  Without data beyond what has already become familiar to the public, it would be useless, therefore, to encumber this report withi any speculations or conjectures
respecting the mineral resources of a comparatively unexplored region.  It is
sufficient to say that Alaska is known to abound in gold, silver, copper, iron,
and coal, and that it possesses many other valuable resources, chief among which
are its fisheries and forests.
In this enlightened age it seems singular that an acquisition of such inestimable importance, in its political and commercial aspect, to the fiuture of our
country-especially to that portion of it lying on the Pacific slope-should meet
with opposition on the part of any intelligent American.   If the Territory of
Alaska possessed no other element of value than its vast forests of pine, spruce,
fir, hiemlockl, and other trees useful for lumber and ship-building, it would be
worth more than ten times the sum stipulated to be paid for it under the treaty.
A  moment's consideration will show how important a question the supply of
timber must become to the States and Territories of the Pacific within a comparatively short time.  The States of California, Nevada, and Oregon, and the
Territories of Arizona, Utah, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, have a united
area of 903,019 square miles, with an estimated population of 780,000, or less
than one inhabitant to the square mile.  The area of timbered land within this
vast range of country is almost confined to a narrow strip along the coast north
of San Francisco, and to a belt extending along the crests and slopes of the
Sierra Nevada and Cascades, varying in width, and at scattered intervals, from
15 to 40 or 50 miles.  Reference to the maps will show that this timbered area
is less than a twentieth part of the entire surface of the country, and is diminishing perceptibly year after year. The consumption of lumber in California and
Neva(la, to say nothing of the expoits, is withlout parallel in the history of new
countries. Immense quantities of lumber, timber, and firewood are used in the
building and supply of towns; in mills, mines, flumes, and fences, and for all the
requirements of a miscellaneous and progressive population.   It is not to be
supposed that, with increased facilities for immigration, the vast tracts of mineral
and agricultural land, now sustaining less than one inhabitant to the square mile,
will long remain so sparsely settled.  Within the next 10 years the population
of our Pacific States and Territories will, in all probability, exceed 2,000,000.
New towns will spring up at frequent intervals throughout this immense domain.
Our scanty timber lands, already suffering from fires and from reckless waste on
i
597 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the part of settlers, will be forced to pay tribute to the increasing population.
Estimating the consumption fiom the rate at which the forests of California have
disappeared since 1849, it would not take many years, with a largely enhanced
population, to denude all the available timber districts, increase the price of lumber so as to retard the development of many lucrative branches of industry, and
probably destroy the export trade in that article, which is now becoming so
important an element in the growth of our intercourse with China.
The completion of the Central Pacific railroad will inaugurate a new era for
the States and Territories west of the Rocky mountains.  With population new
sources of wealth will be opened, and railroads will be established north and
south, with branches penetrating the mountain passes and valleys in every direction, to supply the wants of many growing and prosperous commnunities.
If MIr. Secretary Seward had accomplished nlothing more in the course of his
official career than the acquisition of Alaska, he would for that act alone be
entitled not only to the thanks of every citizen of the Pacific coast, already
awarded him, but to the gratitude of millions yet unborn, by whom the boundless domain of the west is destined to be peopled.
For the convenience of those who may desire to consult the principal authorities onl the resources of Russian America, I have caused to be prepared a chronological summary, or bibliography in brief, of the publications on that region,
from A. 1). 1600 to 1867. The author, Dr. Alexander S. Taylor, of Santa Barbara, California, is a gentleman of great learning and research, whose labors for
the preservation of all the known records of discovery and adventure onil the
Pacific coast cannot be too highly commended.
Bibliograpthy of Alask7a.
1600.-Hakluyt Rich'd. Voyages, discoveries, navigations, &c., of the English nation.
In two volumes, small folios; London, 1599-1600.  Also another volume by the same author
of voyages not included in the first work, and not published until 1811, at London, in one
volume, quarto; contains the earliest notices of the far northern voyages on the Pacific and
Atlantic.
16b0. -Original Documents on the Voyages and Services of Frida Andres e Urdanetta,
pilot of Legaspis Manila expedition in 1565, collected by Martin Fernandez de Navarette,
president of the Royal Spanish Academy of History; in one volume, 8vo, in the set of five
volumes; Madrid, about 1816.  It was Urdanetta who  first discovered the currents and
winds above 400, with which he sailed his ships from Manila till he made the north shores
of California, and thence down the coasts to Mexico.
1625. —The Pilgrims of Samuel Purchase, in threevolumes, quarto; London, 1625. Contains the voyage of Juan de Fuca, the Greek pilot, in 1592, for original documents pertaining to which, obtained from the island of Cephalonia, see the author's notes on de Fuca in
Hutchings's California Magazine for 1859, also Greenhow's History.
1640.-Histoire du Noreau Mlonde, by Jean de Laet. Folio; Leyden, 1640.
1682.-The Geography of the Vorld, by Jean Bleu.  Folio; Amsterdam, 1662.
1699.-De Originibus Americanis, by George Horne.  Folio; Antwerp, 1699.
1712.-Historical Researches respecting the New WVorld, by Henric Scherer, professor in the
University of Ingoldstadt, Bavaria. In German, about 1712.
1715.-Recueil du Voyages au Nord, in nine volumes, 12mo; Amsterdam, 1715.
1704-1750.-Voyage Collections:  Churchill's Collection of Voyages, 6 vols., folio, 17041712; Harris's Collection of Voyages, 2 vols., folio, 1715-1720; Hawkesworth's Collection
of Voyages, 5 vols., folio, 1735-1740; Osborne's Collection of Voyages, 2 vols., folio, 17461750; account of De Pontes apocryphal voyage through the Northwest Passage in 1640 in
the London Monthly Miscellany of 1708; Voyages of Praincisco Coreal, 1666-1697, from
the Spanish, in 2 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1722.
1722.-Potheries Historie Amerique Septentrionelle, in 4 vols., 12mo; Paris, 1722.
1729.-Origin de los Indios de el Nuevo Mundo y Indies Occidentales, by Friar Gregorio
Garcia; folio, Madrid, 1729.
1753.-Nouvedles Cartes de L'Amiral Fonzte et Autres;:avigateurs Espagnoles, Anglais,
ic., dans le mer Septentrional, by G. de Lisle; quarto; Paris, 1753.
1757.-History of California, by the Jesuit Father Miguel Vanegas, 3 vols., 12mo; Madrid, 1757, and published shortly after in French, English, and German.  Contains notations
598 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS,
-p to 1752 on the far northwest coast and connections with China, with valuable maps of the
!orth coasts, &c.
1757.-Researches on the Voyages of the Chinese and Japanese to the American Coasts, by
4. De Guignes; vide Journal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres; Paris, 1757.
1757.-Letres Edifinntes et Curieuses, &c., &ic., of the Jesuit missionaries in all parts of
be world, from ]600 to 1760, published in French, with translations in English, Spanish,
.erman, Italian, &c., in some 30 vols., 12mo.  Some of the volumes contain exceedingly
nteresting accounts of the first travels in the far northern parallels of Asia and America,
-tand discoveries of the proximities of the old and the new continents to the north of California
-and of China.  Jesuit writers lay claim to the first mention of this connection to the world
of letters and science, and one of the volumes of the Letres Edifiantes contains the celebrated
n,arration of Father Greelon, who was transferred to China before 1660, and travelled extensively as a missionary among the Manchoo and Mongolian populations of that empire.  In
one of his journeys in Chinese Tartary he fell in with an Indian woman of the Huron tribes,
whom he had known when serving in the far west of Canada, and who confessed her sins to
him as a priest of the Catholic church at this immense distance from her native country.
rhis woman informed Greelon that she had been taken prisoner in an Indian fight, and had
afterwards been transferred as a slave from tribe to tribe, until she had crossed in boats over
a piece of water, which was salt, and again sold from one person to another until conveyed
to the plains of Tartary. This fact is said by some to have first stimulated the attention of
the Russian authorities, which resulted in the discovery of Behring Straits and Alaska.
It was the redoubtable old sailor, Peter the Great, and after him his wife, the Empress
Catherine, who set afloat the great discovery voyages of Vitus Behring and Alexander
Tschirikoff in 1728-'29 and to 1741, which sailed from Kamschatka, and discovered  the
straits which separated Asia from America, and fully confirmed the speculations of the old
Jesuit missionaries of Canada, California, and China. (See the curious map of the Pacific
in the Spanish edition of Venega's California. See also on this curious subject of Asiatic
and American ethnographic connections the celebrated work  "Melanges Asiatiques" of A.
Remusat, and the notes of Kurz in the Nouvelle Journal Asiatique on Chinese history.)
1774.-Discoveries of the Russians on the Northwest Coasts of America, &c., by Von Muller; quarto, London, 1774.  Contains the earliest RussiLn voyages to Pacific America.
1774.-Account of the Northern Archipelago to the east of Kamtschatha, &c. &ic., by J.
Von Staehlin. 1 vol., 8vo, London, 1774.
1778.-American Atlas, or description of the whole continent of America, in grand folio,
by Thos. Jeffreys; London, 1778.
1780.-Discoveries of the Russians in the North Pacific, by Rev. Dr. Wm. Cox; quarto,
London, 1780. Contains the accounts of Behring's voyage of 1741, and other valuable
histories.
1780.-Journal and Proceedings of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, from 1780 to
present time; many volumes.
1781.-Historical and Geographical Miscellanies, by Hon. Daenis Barrington, 1 or 2 vols.,
Svo; London, 1781. Contains papers on extreme North Pacific coasts.
1788.-The Apocryphal Voyage of Francisco Maldonada through the Northwest Passage,
published in Madrid about 1795 by the Royal Academy of History, from MSS. discovered
in the Ambrosian library of Milan. Also, Cevallo's Voyages of Maldonada, De Fuca, and
Fonte, 1 vol., 8vo, Madrid, 1798.
1789.-Voyage of Captains Portlock and Dixon to the Northwest Coasts of America, &ic.,
ic., in the King George and Queen Charlotte, in 1788-'89; quarto, London, 1789.
178w. —Pissertation Geographico de Aovo California, &c., by J. A. Hartman; quarto,
Marburg, 1789.
1789.-Relation of a recent Spanish voyage to the northwest coasts of America, ante 1789,
by J. F. Bourgoing. 3 vols., 8vo, (French) 3d edition, Paris, 1803.
1790.-Cook's Voyages.  The three voyages of Captain James Cook  between 1766 and
1776, to the Pacific and northwest coasts. The only reliable editions, which are in several
volumes, are those published under the directions of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty of England, printed at London at separate periods before 1792.
1790.-TThe Voyages of Captain Billings to Behring Straits. I~amstchatka, &c., &c., 1785 1790, in the Russian service, by Martin Sauer; quarto, London, 1796.
1790.-Voyages made in 1788-'89 between China and Northwest America, by Captain John
Mearres, R. N.; quarto, London, 1790. Captain Dixon's reply to the same, I vol., quarto,
London, 1790.
1791.-Journal of the Voyage of the Spanish Exploring Ships Atrevida and Discubierta,
under Captain Alexander Malaspina, in 1791; preserved in MSS. in the viceroy's library in
Mexico and in the Spanish hydrography at Madrid   Malaspina's charts were published in
a quarto volume by the Spanish government about 1802, and credited to the voyage of the
599 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Sutil and Mejicana, and afterwards became the established authorities in the Spanish marines
for the north Pacific coast down to 1830.
1792.-The Viceroy's Archives of Mlexican History, collected and arranged under orders
from Viceroy Revilla Gigedo by Father Francisco Garcia Figueroa, and arranged in 32 or
more folio volumes, and now in the old viceroy's library in Mexico City. Perfect copies of
this valuable collection are stated to have bcen also sent to Madrid before 1800. It contains
invaluable material, collated by Cassasola and Bonilla, on the Spanish discovery voyages to
that portion of ancient Alta California between the latitudes 55~ and 61~, as claimed by
Spain, which afterwards became the domain of Russian America, and n.-w forms a portion
of the United States Territory of Alaska. See also contribution of Secretary Seward, in
1865, on Spanish northwest voyages, contained in the Bibliografa Californica of the author.
1793.-Voyages and Travels in Asiatic Russia and in the North Pacific, compiled by Pro fessor Pierre Simon Pallas; 4 or 5 vols., quarto, Paris, 1789-'93. There are also English edi tions of the works of Pallas, who was a celebrated German professor in Russia under the
patronage of the Empress Catharine II.  This appears to be the same work edited or com pleted by Theodor K. de Mirievoy, and which contains such valuable material on the philol ogy of Europe and Asia. Pallas also wrote extensively on the natural history of Russian
America in German. Pallas was one of the greatest naturalists of his day, and his writings
covered a multitude of subjects. His notations on the locust and grasshopper ravages in
the Crimea, noticed by the learned Russian entomologist, Motschulsky, and also by the
author of this bibliography in the Smithsonian report for 185.9, are of great value in science.
1793.-Voyages and 7ravels to the Coppermise River and the Countries west of Canada  in
1789-'93, by Alexander Mackenzie; in 8vo and quarto, London, 1801 and ]802.  The work
of Samuel Hearne, describing his voyage of 1770-1772 in some of the countries visited by
Mackenzie, and for the discovery of copper mines, was published in London in quarto in
1795.
1799.-Voyage round the World, by Captain Jean Francois G. de La Perouse; edited by
M. Millet Muriau.  Government edition in French, 4 vols., quarto, 1797, maps and illustrations; also English and German editions.
1799.-Voyage to the Northwest Coasts of Amnerica and Round the WVorld, 1790 to 1792, in
the French ship Solide, by Captain Etiene Marchand, preceded by an historical introduction
of discoveries, &c., on the northwest coasts of America, by Claret Flourell, (in French,) in
4 vols., quarto, Paris, 1799.
1801.-Voyage of Discorcvery and Exploration on the Northwest Coasts of Amnerica in 1790
to 1795, &c., c., by Captain George Vanccuver, R. N.; plates and maps; published by the
government in 5 or 6 vols., quarto, London, 1801.  Lieutenant Broughton, an officer of one
of Vancouver's vessels, also published an account of the voyage in quarto form at London,
in 1804.
1802.- Voyage of the Sutil and Mezicana, exploring vessels, under Captains Dionisio Galiano and Cayatano Valdez, of the Spanish navy, in 1792, to the northwest coasts; published
by order of the King of Spain, in 1 vol., Svo, in ]802, with map.  The Memorias sobre las
Observaciones Astlroiomicas que han servido de ftiundamientos a las Cartas de la Costa Norweste de America, written about 1810 by Admiral Espinosa, of the Spanish navy, and published by the Hydrographic office of Madrid, is spoken of by Humboldt as a work of value.
1805.-Catalogo de las lenguas Conocidas, y numeracion, division y clases de estas, segun la
diversidad de sus idiomas y dialectos, by Father Lorenzo Hervas, soc. Jesuits, in six vols.,
quarto, of nearly 400 pages each.  Published at Madrid 1800 to 1805; also in octavo.
1806.- -he "Mithradates oder Allgmeine Sprachinkunde mit dem Vatcr tals Sprachbone,"
&c., a famous authority in the philosophy of languages, was commenced by John Christopher Adelung, of Berlin, in 1806, and concluded by John Severan Vater, in 1817, in five
vols., 8vo, at Berlin.  Another work was published by Frederick Adolunrg, in 1815, at St.
Petersburg, in quarto, entitled "Catherinas der Grossen Verdienste," &c., &c. The Mithradates contains valuable matter on the Indian languages of the far north Pacific coasts.
1811.-W[Forks of Alexander Humboldt.  A critical examination of the history, navigation,
and geography of the New World and the progress of nautical astronomy in the 15th and
16th centuries; in French, 5 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1836-'39. Also, RIesearches concerning the
Institutions and Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of North America, with descriptions
and scenes in the Cordilleras, plates, maps, and plans; in 2 vols., folio, Paris, 1810; London edition, 2 vols., 8vo, 1814.  Also, Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, in 2 vols.,
folio, Paris, 1808-1811, plates, maps, and plans; London edition in 4 vols., 8vo, 1811; also
a New York edition in 2 vols., 8vo, 1811. All these works contain valuable notations on the
Alaskan countries.
1812.-Puteschestwil JY. America, by Chvostov l. Davidoff. 2 vols., 8vo, St. Petersburg,
1812.
1814. —Voyage Round the World in the Russian ships Neva and Nodedsda, in 1803-1806,
commanded by Adam John Von Kruesenstern, (afterwards admiral in the imperial navy.)
English edition, in quarto, London, 1814, with maps, plates, &c. Also, Berlin edition. The
600 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
other works published on this voyage by Kruesenstern's officers are Dr. Langsdorff's work,
in 2 vols., quarto, London, 1816, and Captain Wrey Lisiansky's, in 1 vol., quarto, London,
1914.  They were also all published in different forms in the Russian language and in
French.  Admiral Kruesenstern also wrote a work of 78 pages on the Indian languages ot
Alaska, for the St. Petersburg Academy, in 18 3. He was also the most thoroughly instructed
seaman in the world on the hydrography of the Pacific, and compiled those charts of the
great ocean which are the models of all others, all of which, with his nautical notes and
mlemoirs accompanying these, have made him celebrated among the savans of America and
Europe. Before his death, about 1850, he had filled many posts of the highest honor in the
imperial service, and was a man of the most estimable personal character.
1817.-Collection of Voyages in the Sooth Seas and the North Pacific, from 1527 to 1800.
By Admiral James Burney, R. N. In 6 vols., quarto, London, 1814-1817; with plates,
charts, &c.  This valuable workl contains very little on voyages after 1770.
1817.-lThe American Coast Pilot, &'c.  By Edmund Blunt, of New York.  The editions
of this well-known work subsequent to 1850 contain valuable notices of the hydrography
of Russian America and the northwest coasts.  The same may be said of "The American
Navigator," by N. A. Bowditch; but th editions of both works prior to 1850 are very
meagre on the coasts mentioned.
1818-34.- Voyage to California and the North Pacific Coasts, in the French trading ship
Bordelais.  By Captain Camile Rocquefeul.  2 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1823.  Voyage Round the
Wlorld in the French trading ship Heros, in 1826-1829.  By Captain Duhaut Cilley.  In 2
vols., 8vo, Paris, 1834. Both these works relate to California and the coasts further north,
and contain much interesting matter on the fur trade of the epoch ante 1830.
1823.- Voyage of Discovery to the Pacific Ocean and Behring's Straits, California, &c., in
the Russian ship Ruric, in 1815-1818.  By Captain Otto Von Kotzebue, (afterwards admiral
in the imperial navy.) In 3 vols., 8vo, London, 1823.  Editions also in German and French.
Chamisso was the surgeon and naturalist of the Ruric, and for many years after made valuable contributions to the learned societies of Russia, Germany, and France, on the fauna
and flora of the countries visited, particularly of Alaska. Kotzebue also made another voyage
to Russian America, the central Pacific islands, and California in 1823 to 1826, in the Russian ship Enterprise, or Predpriate, an account of which was published in English at London
in 1830, in 2 vols., 8vo.  In this voyage Eschscholz went as naturalist, and after his arrival
in Russia contributed valuable material on the fauna and flora of Alaska, California, &c.,
in different German, Russian, and French journals of learning and science, which are highly
esteemed.  Choris, the artist of Kotzebue's voyage, who was afterwards killed in Mexico,
also published an illustrated work on the voyage, entitled "Voyage Pittoresque."  These
two voyages of Kotzebue are often confounded as one, and the names of Chamisso and
Eschscholz, which Kotzebue attached to certain localities in Alaskla, are sometimes mistaken
for Indian or Spanish terms, and both as members of one expedition.  Admiral Kotzebue
served in the Crimean war, and was highly esteemed by his government, and  a hydrographic author of eminence.  Hle died, we believe, in 1858.
1824.-Voyage to Russian Aimerica S;c., by M. Chromtschenko; vide St. Petersburg
Archives of History, &c., &c., for 1824; also in German in the periodical Hertha, for 1824.
Chromtschenko and Etoline made surveys of the Alaskan coasts, which were reduced to
charts and maps.
1831.-Voyage of the ship Blossom to the North Pacific and Behring's Straits in 1825 to
1 828, to co-operate with the Arctic Expeditions from the Atlantic.  By Captain F. W. ]Beechey,
R. N., (afterwards admiral.) Published under orders of the British Admiralty. In 1 vol.
quarto, also in 2 vols., 8vo, London, 1831; both with plates, maps, &c. A quarto volume
on the natural history of the voyage was also published at London in 1839. The botanical
collections were edited by Sir William J. Hooker and others, in the separate volumes included
in the Flora Bo7eala Americana, published in 2 vols., quarto, about 1840, and Hooker's Plantae
Iconii, of 1844. A large amount of valuable material relating to Alaska is to be found in
all these volumes.  Admiral Beechey, we believe, died in London in 1859.
1836).-Voyage to the North Pacific in the Russian ship Seniavive, in 1826-'29, by Captain
Frederick Lutke, (now admiral in the Imperial navy,) in 4 vols., 8vo; St. Petersburg and
Paris, 1835-'36. This is one of the most valuable works on Russian America and the north
Pacific. The author served in the Crimean war of 1856.
1839.-Baer, Von K. E.  Statistics and Ethnography of the Russian American Countries.
This author, it is said, was with Admiral Von Wrangel when governor of Sitka, and made
valuable contributions on the above subjects and on natural history to the scientific journals
of St. Petersburg and Berlin, between 1837 and 1845.
1839.-The Physical History of Man. In 2 vols., 8vo, plates; 1839. The Natural tIistory of Man.  In 2 vols., 8vo, plates; 1855.  Both by Dr. J. Pritchard, of London, and
esteemed as high authorities in ethnology. They contain valuable matter on the Alaska
Indians. The volumes of transactions of the ethnological societies of New York, London,
and Paris also contain accounts of the tribes of the Territory to be found in no other publica
601 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
tions. In this category are also the learned ethnological works of Dr. S. G. Morton, of
Philadelphia, from 1840 to 1850.
1839.-Beitrage zur Kentniss des Russian Reichls, und der angranzanden Lander Asies,
by K. E. Von Bar and G. Von Helmersen, in several volumes, from 1839 et sig.
1840.-Notes on the Islands of the district of Unalaska, &c., in 3 vols. 8vo, 1840. Also
notes on the Koloschon and other Russian American Indian tribes and their languages, in
1 vol., 8vo, 1846, by the Greek Priest Jvan Veniaminov, (in Russian,) both published in St.
Petersburg.  W. Schott also published scme philological papers on the Koloschon language,
in Erman's archives, Berlin, 3d vol., 1843
1843. —Voyage of the Sulphur to the North Pacific, ~ic., in 1837-1841, under Sir Edward
Belcher, R. N., (now admiral.) In 2 vols., 8vo, 1840. The zoology of the expedition, in
quarto, was published in 1843-45. These accounts relate largely to Russian America. They
are government works.
1844.-Explorations, &'c., in the two Californias, ic., &ic., in 1840-43.  By  Dufiot de
Mofras. In 3 vols., 8vo, with volume of atlas and plates. Paris, 1844. Government work.
Contains notices of Alaska and its trade, Indians, &c.
1844.-Anales de la Philosophie Chretiene. Vol. 15 and others. Contains papers of M.
Prevaney on the ethnological connections of Alaska and Mexico by the Mongolian races.
1845.-Overland Journey Round the World,'c.  By Sir George Simpson, governor of the
Hudson Bay territories in 1841-42. In 2 vols., 8vo, London, 1845. Also in New York.
1845.-Exploring Expedition Round the World, in the Vincennes  and other government
vessels of the United States, in 1838-42, under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, (now admiral
U. S. N.)  In 5 vols., imperial octavo.  Government work, 1845.  Plates, maps, charts, and
plans. Some 40 volumes altogether were published on the results of this expedition, many
of which contain more or less valuable of scientific matter on Alaska. A number of the
officers of the expedition afterwards served in California from 1846 to 1867.
1846.-L'Oregon et les Cotes du Norde Pacifique, 4c.  By M. Felix.  With map; 1 vol.,
8vo. Paris, 1846.
1846.-Ethnology and Philology of IWilkes's Exploring Expedition.  By Horatio Hale.   1
vol., quarto. Philadelphia, 1846.
1847.-History of Oregon, California, and the North Pacific Coasts.  By Robert W. Greenhow.  I vol., 8vo, 4th ed., Boston, 1847.  Mr. Greenhow was United States attorney for
the California Land Commission of 1852, and died in San Francisco in 1856.  His work
contains valuable notations on Alaskan history.
1847.-Studies on the Primitive History and Antiquities of the Races of America and Oceanica, by Gustave D'Eitcthal, 2 vols., 8vo.  Fragments on the History, Geography, &c., of
America, by C. F. Jomard; 1 vol., 8vo. Both these works were published- (in French) at
Paris in 1847.
1848.-Volume of Charts and Maps on Russian America, ic., printed by the lithographic
press at Sitka in 1848.
1849.-The Collections of Lieutenant Zagoskin, of the Imperial navy, on the Indian Tribes
an,d Languages of Alcska, are printed in the Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Geographical
Society for 1847-'48-'49, et seq., and also in his work of travels, in 2 vols., 8vo.; St. Petersburg, 1847-1848.
1850-'60.-Orography,'c., of the North Pacific Countries, by Professor Grewingk, published in Transactions of the Mineralogical Society of St. Petersburg, and also in Germany.
This is stated by Mr. Sumner to be a very valuable work, particularly on the mineral developments of Alaska.
1850.-National History of the Varieties of Man, by Dr. R. G. Latham.   8vo, London,
1850.
1851.-Sir John Richardson's Arctic Expedition.  2 vols., 8vo, London, 1851.
1851.-A Nautical and Historical Directory of the Pacific Coasts and Islands, A-c., Aic., by
Alexander G. Findlay; 2 vols., royal 8vo, London, 1851.  This is a work of great merit,
and one of the best compiled on oceanic hydrography, and has been of great utility. The
author is well known in England, and an eminent collaborator in the proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society. His notations on the Alaskan coasts are from the best authorities of Russia and other nations.
1852.-Voyage of the ship Herald, under Captain Hy. Kellet, in 1845 to 1851, being three
cruises to the Behring's straits countries and a voyage round the world; by Dr. B. Seeman;
'2 vols., 8vo, 1853. Other volumes on the natural history of the voyage were published by
Prof. Edward E'orbes, I vol., quarto, 1853. A separate volume wdas written by Dr. Seeman
on the botany of the voyage, in quarto. All of them are in high esteem in the learned
world.  See also the volumes of Sir Leopold McClintock on his voyage to Behring's straits
and the Arctic, of 1852 to 1854; also, the volumes of the London Nautical Magazine.  The
602 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
work of Seeman contains the model of an exploring voyage, and is the most convenient
thing of the kind we have ever seen.
1855.-Admiral Von lvrangel. This gentleman, who several times visited California, was
governor of Russian America before 1848, and wrote largely in the Russian and German
journals on the status and natural history of Alaska.  His works are considered of first-class
merit.
1855.-Notices of the Crustacea and other Invertebrate Marine Animals of the North Pacific
Countries, by Professor William Simpson, surgeon, &c., of the United States North Pacific
expedition of 1854-'56. These notices were published in the transactions of several learned
societies of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, from 1855 to 1863, and would now make
a 12mo. of some 300 pages, and have become standard authorities in natural science. The
author is well known in California, has contributed valuable services to the Smithsonian
Institute, and is now in charge of the Chicago Museum of the Natural Sciences. His notations on the invertebrate animals of the Alaskan coasts are extremely interesting and curious.
1855.-Transactions of the California Academy of Natural Sciences, in 4 vols., Svo, from
1855 to 1866; contains several valuable papers on the natural history, &c., of Alaskla, by
writers of the ]Pacific domain.
1855.-The Birds of Texas, Culifornia, Oregon, $fc., by John Cassin, in 2 vols. quarto;
Philadelphia, 1855; with plates. Also the volumes of John J. Audubon on the Biography
of North American Birds, and his great work of accompanying plates, all published before
1855. The Quadrupeds of North American is a celebrated work; also written by Audubon
and Dr. John Bachman, 1840-'43. All these volumes are splendidly illustrated, and relate
largely to the natural history of Alaska.
1857.-John C. E. Buschmann, Librarian of the Royal Library of Berlin.  The philological treatises of this eminent savan on the Indian languages of Russian America, and showing their relations to the Athabascan families west of the Rocky mountains, and comparisons with the northern tribes of Mexico, are contained in the volumes of Transactions of the
Royal Academy of Berlin since 1850.
1857.-The North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, by Lieutenant A. W. Habersham, U. S. Navy; 1 vol., 8vo, 1857.
1857.- Three IYears in Tlashington Territory, with notices o(f the northwest coasts, by Jas.
G. Swan; 1 vol., 12mo, New York, 1857.
1857.-Mission to the Government of Japan, by Commodore M. C. Perry, U. S. Navy; in
3 vols., quarto, 1857, copiously illustrated. Contains highly valuable notices on the hydrography of the north Pacific, its great sea currents, &c., &c.; government work.
1857.-The Pacific  Railroad Survey voluincs, from 1853 to 1858, in 12vols., quarto, copiously
illustrated. The first volume and the 8th, 9th, and 10th contain valuable notations on the
Indians, birds, fishes, and animals, &c., of the Pacific domains and of Alaska. In the eighth
and ninth volumes may be found Spencer F. Baird's Bibliographies of American Natural History, where all the authorities on Alaskan zoology are set forth.
1858.-Reports of the United States Coast Survey Office, in quartos, since 1853. That of
1858 contains the excellent directory of George Davidson of the coasts of California and to
the far north, and incidentally of Alaska.
1858.-Literature of the Aboriginal Languages  of America, by  H. E.  Ludewig; with
additions by W. W. Turner and N. Truebner. I vol., 8vo., London, 1858.
1860.-Chinese Repository. An English magazine published at Canton since 1838, and
making now over 30 volumes.  It contains an immense amount of matter on Asiatic literature, and has papers on Alaska and Kamstchatka. It was first edited by an American missionary from Massachusetts.
1860.-Geographical Dictionary of all the Countries of the World, by J. B. McCulloch;
in 2 vols., royal 8vo, London, 1855, and recent editions.
1860.-The Forest Trees of North America, by Dr. J. G. Cooper, of California; in Patent
Office Report for 1860.  This is an addendum to the great work of Michaux and Nuttall.
1860.-The Flora of North America, by Dr. John Torrey and Dr. Asa Gray; in royal 8vo
volumes. Also, their continuations in the volumes of the Railroad Surveys.
1860.-Smithsonian Institution. The volumes of annual reports of this Institution, and
those entitled "Contributions to Knowledge," contain several valuable notations on the
Indians and natural history of Alaska. Major Robert Kennicott, of Chicago, one of their
most famous assistants, and who explored the eastern sections of Alaska in 1862-'64, died
at Michaelowski, in that Territory in May, 1866, while engaged in explorations connected
with Bulckley's Telegraph Survey. The manuscripts of his travels are said to be in possession of his friends in Chicago and the Smithsonian Institution.
1860. —The Indianalogy of California, including notes on the Indian tribes of Alaska and
other portions of the Pacific domain; published in the California Farmer newspaper in four
series of 150 numbers, from ]860 to 1864, by Alex. S. Taylor; perfect set in the mercantilo
603 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
library of San Francisco, and the library of the Smithsonian Institution. The valuable papers
of the late Albert Gallatin on the northwest Indian nations are to be found in the volumes
of the New York Ethnological society, after 1845.
1860.-The Geography of the Sea, by Lieutenant M. F. Maury, 8th edition, New York,
1861; also his Wind and Current Charts of the Pacific ocean.  This author was Superintendent of the National Observatory at Washington, and afterwards became an admiral in
the rebel service-of the southern confederacy. The work contains valuable notations on the
winds and currents of the North Pacific.
1861.-The Vegetation of the Coasts and Islands of the Pacific, from the collections on the
voyage of the Russian ship Seniavive, under Captain Lutke, 1826-1829, by P. H. Von
Kitlitz, in quarto, published in Germany, in 1861.
1861.-History of the Discovery of the Earth, by Carl Von Ritter; London,  1861.
1861.-History of Eastern Asia, Mongolia, China, Manchuria, the Amoor, Kamtschatka,
&c., &c., ic., by Professor Frederick C. Neuman, of Munich and Berlin; London, 1861.
1862. —Discoveries in northern Pacific from Mongolian Asia, before the times of the Icelanders, (A. D. 500.) These are said to be written by Mr. C. G. Leland, and published in
the Knickerbocker and Continental magazines of 1848 and 1862, and are mostly, as is understood, from the work of Professor F. C. Neuman, of Munich and Berlin.
18(02.-History of the Discovery and Chartography of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of
Nlorth America, by Dr. John G. Kohl.  1 vol., 8vo, London, 1862.
1863.-Report to the Inmperial Government on the Resources of Russian America, &ic., with
notices of British Columbia, California and the north coast countries, in 1860-'61, by Captain P. N. Golownin; St. Petersburg, 1863. Also published in some periodical in numbers,
and, as is said, in English.
1863.-Les Peuples de la Russie. This we judge, from Sumner's remarks, is a very
voluminous and valuable work on the populations of the Russian empire, published about
1863.  (See also the Almanach de Gotha for 1867, on the same subject.)
1864.-Travels in the countries of the river Amoor, with Notices of Russian America and
Northl Pacific Commerce, by Major Perry D. McCollins; 1 vol., 8vo; New York, 1864. This
was written in furtherance of the great enterprise of the telegraph connecting North America and Asia.
1865.-Atlas for the History of the Discovery of America, compiled under direction of the
Royal Academy of Munich. This collection is made by photographing old and scarce maps
on the Americas to the number 13, and 100 copies of the work were published in 1865, at
Munich, at the price of $18. Some of these, relating to the northwest coasts before 1571, are
taken from a scarce and celebrated chartographical collection of the Portuguese scholar Vaz
Dourada. (See notes of Professor F. C. Neuman, in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin.)
1867.-Speech of Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, in the United States Senate, in May,
1867, on the purchase of Alaska, and the resources, &c., of the Territory. Pamphlet, 8vo, of
48 pages and large map of the Territory and vicinities. The discussions on the transfer of
Alaska in the United States Congress will be found preserved in the volumes of the Congressional Globe, written down by the official reporters, in 1867.
1867.-TThe official correspondence between Secretary Seward, of the State Department, and
the Russian diplomats, on the purchase and transfer of Alaska, will be found at large in the
volumes accompanying the President's message for 1867-1868, from April to December, 1867.
(See also the San Francisco newspapers.)
1867.-New Map of Alaska.  A new and extended map of Russian America was  prepared in May, 1867, by the officers of the coast survey in California, which is stated to be
detailed from the most recent authorities, and the best to date.
1867.-Bulckley's Telegraph Survey. The officers of this expedition are stated to be engaged
in the preparation of a work on the Explorations of British Columbia and Alaska, connected
with this great enterprise.
1867.-Sea Charts. Some excellent navigating charts of the North Pacific coasts have
been within the last 18 months issued from the admiralty office of London. These contain
the most recent and reliable notations prior to the Coast Survey map mentioned in the foregoing.
1868.-Letters to the New York Tribune and Boston Advertiser.
1868.-Letters and speech of Senator Cole, of California, in favor of the acquisition of
Alaska.
604 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
GEitAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE
PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT-IMMIGRATION AND LABOR.
SECTION I.
INFLUENCE OF MINING ON OTHER INTERESTS.-Within  the brief space of
nineteen years our people have opened up to settlement a larger area of territory,
valuable as a source of supply for nearly all the necessities of man, than has
ever before in the world's history been brought within the limits of civilization
in so short a time.  Nineteen years ago California, Arizona, Colorado, Montana,
Idaho, Washington Territory, Oregon, Utah, and Nevada, occupying more than
one-third of the entire area of the United States, were regions chiefly known
to trappers and traders; traversed and occupied for the most part by barbarous
hordes of Indians. That this extraordinary advance, with all its concomitant
results to the trade and commerce of the world, has been achieved by the discovery and development of our mineral resources, no reasonable man pretends to
dispute. Every day's progress in our history speaks for itself, and the facts
are patent to all.
It seems a little singular, considering the millions of treasure thus added to
our national wealth, the vast range of industry opened to our people, the wonderful impulse given to agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, that of all our
great national interests, the business of mining has had the hardest struggle to
enlist the favorable consideration of our government. Of late years, through
the irresistible logic of results, something has been achieved in the way of more
intelhgeni ft leral legislation.
The mineral lant law, of July 28, 1866, granting titles in fee to the miners,
is an advance in the right direction.  The appropriation for the collection of
mniningi statistics is another.
There are in the Atlantic States many who will speakl of mining as an interest inimical to the welfare of a people, owing to its fluctuating and hazardous
character, and to the contempt it is supposed to beget for the more gradual
methods of acquiring wealth.  There is much truth in this view when it is confined to the early style of mining, which despised restraint and debauched the
morals as it impaired the constitutions of those who followed it in a spirit of
wild adventure. But the objection does not lie against mining as a regular, systematic pursuit, directed by skill and capital, and relying upon the steady continuance of moderate profits.  This kind of mrining, by common consent, is destined to be one of the most permanent and healthful sources of prosperity.  The
application of American ingenuity and enterprise to the development of the
deposits of precious metals found west of the Rocky mountains, is certain ultimately to makle mining for gold and silver as legitimate and safe a business as
mining for coal and iron, and as great a promoter of diversified industry.
If wve take mining only in its past condition and its present transition state,
we must admit that with all its evil effects upon individuals, it has caused most
important general benefits, especially in anticipating by generations the peopling
of the immense Territories of the west, and thus widening the field for the display of national energies, broadening the spirit and firmly bracing the national
credit.  But for the mining furor of the last 19 years, California would probably have remained a vast cattle range to this day, and all the great Territories
that adjoin it, now peopling with civilized communities, and nearly traversed by
a railroad uniting both shores of the continent, would still be savage wastes,
held and controlled by the barbarians who are fast retiring before the forces of
mnodern progress.
The direct effect of mining upon agriculture and commerce is strikingly shown
605' 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
in California.  How much wheat would now be exported from San Francisco
but for the mines and the population attracted by them? How many interior
towns would have been built; how far would the Pacific railroad have been
constructed; where would have been the overland mail and telegraph, and the
China steamship line, but for the necessities created by the development of our
mineral -wealth? The mines have not only led to these things, but they have
built up a great manufacturing interest, which already, in San Francisco alone,
estimates its annual product by a figure nearly as high as that of the gold fields.
The truth is, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and mining, are essentially
homogeneous pursuits. The only antagonism is one of wrong methods, and
these are sure to be rectified in time. In some quarters of the globe it is commerce that leads, in others agriculture, in others mining.  The last has been
especially conspicuous as a motor of emigration and industrial development in
the Pacific States, and has caused the others to flourish where nothing else could
have attracted them for a long time later. The rich silver mines of Nevada
have peopled that State with an industrious and thriving population. Farms
are seen where sage-brutsh deserts existed a few years ago; the rlugged declivities of the mountains abound in gardens. On the western slope of the Sierra
Nevada we have luxuriant orchards and vineyards, in the place of endless forests of pine.  Baron Humboldt, the most learned of travellers and most acute
of observers, tells us that the best cultivated fields of Mexico are those which
surround the richest mines; and he bears testimony to the fact that "wherever
metallic veins have been discovered, in the most uncultivated parts of the Cordilleras, on the isolated and desert table-lands,, the working of mines, far from
impeding the cultivation of the soil, as it is generally imagined, has been singularlv favorable to it." And the reasons he gives are conclusive:
Iant soon awakens industry.  The soil begins to be cultivated in the ravines and declivities of the neighboring mountains, wherever the rock is covered with earth. Farms are
established in the neighborhood of the mines. The high price of provisions, from the competition of purchasers, indemnifies the cultivator for the privations to which he is exposed
firom the hard life of the mountains.
The truth of these observations is strikingly illustrated by the example of
California. But mining in that State has a still more direct influence upon the
development of our agricultural resources than the direct demand it creates in
the mining districts for agricultural products.   The vast net-work of ditches in
the central counties has inaugurated a system of irrigation which may some day
be almost as indispensable to the farms, orchards, and vineyards of the diy
uplands as to the placer diggings. No purely agricultural interest could bear
the expense of constructing these immense ditches, some of which range from
50 to 60 miles in length, and cost singly several hundred thousand dollars.
Most of these ditches will be available for purposes of irrigation and manufacture, long after the original occasion for them shall have passed away.
That the agricultural and manufacturing will be far in advance of the mining
interests of California within a few years, none who have studied the market
and shipping lists for the past year or two can doubt; nor can it be denied that
this is a matter of congratulation, for while mining is so efficient as a stimulating
and co-operating industry, it is not the most solid or genuinely productive and
lucrative industry, and all human experience shows that a people never attain
the highest prosperity and the best culture who are largely devoted to a single
pursuit. fHumboldt says "the influence of the mines on the progressive cultivation of the country is more durable than they are themselves." While it
must be admitted, therefore, that "the produce of the earth derived from agriculture is the sole basis of permanent opulence," it is but just to say, so far at
least as the Pacific coast is concerned, that the working of mines has tended
more than all other causes to the development of that pre-eminent branch of
industry.
tAV6 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Although the business of mining has not advanced in any remarkable degree
during the past year, the average yield is fair, and greater confidence exists than
evei before in the profits to be derived from this pursuit when conducted upon
legitimate principles.  The depression in mining stocks, so far from affording
evidence of any actual decline in the value of the mines, is a healthy indication.
It proves that the era of reckless speculation which has resulted so disastrously
to thousands of our citizens is drawing to a close. It presents conclusive evidence that a system of mining based upon the fluctuations of a stock market
can never be permanently prosperous. Wherever the mines are carefully worked
by individuals or by companies we find the average of success quite as great as
in other branches of industry.
It is manifest, however, that quartz-mining, apart from the hazards naturally
incident to it, labors under disadvantages which do not pertain, in so great a
degree, to any other pursuit.  It requires a greater amount of capital and the
employment of a larger number of menl than any other productive branch of
industry, excepting, probably, nranufactures which are not subject to the same risks.
Taking the aggregate of losses and profits on all the investments made in quartzmining, there is no business, so far, on the Pacific slope which has proved less
remunerative to capitalists.*
COST OF LAnBO  AND EXPENSES OF LIVING.-A serious obstacle to the prosperity of the mining interest on the Pacific slope is the high cost of labor. It is
impossible that any mine, however productive, can long continue to bear the drain
upon its resources necessary, at the present rate of wages, to defray the expenses
of working it. There are innumerable mines in every State and Territory west
of the Rocky mountains now idle, which could be worked at a profit if the
expenses of labor were not so disproportionate to the cost of living.  Wages are
still in many instances more than double what they are in the Atlantic States,
and tenfold more than the wages paid in Europe.   The question arises, wvhy
should this be the case, when the cost of living is now but little greater in
many of the mining districts than in the Atlantic States, and certainly bears
no proportion between the wages paid and the cost of living in Europe.
In California the rate of wages for unskilled labor in the mines is $2 50 to
$3 per day; cost of board and lodging, $5 to $7 per week.   In Nevada, wages
$4 per day; living, $7 to $10 per week.  In Montana, wages $6 per day; living,
$10 to $14 per week. In Idaho, wages $5 to $6; living, $9 to $12 per week.
Inii Oregon and Washington, $1 50 to $2 50 per day; living, $4 to $6 per week.
Skilled labor varies greatly, according to the demand and supply.   The following rates paid in Virginia, Nevada, for the various grades of labor, may be taken
as a medium illustration:
Gold.
Ordinary miners, per shift of eight hours.......................... $4 00
Carpenters and mrnillwrights, per day........................ —---------------------- 5 00
Stone and brick-masons, per day.... —------------------------  6 00
Engineers, second class, per day........................ —-----------------------..$5 00 to 6 00
Engineers, first clas.................................... 6 00 to 8 00
MILL HANDS, TWO SHIFTS IN 24 HOURS.
Amalgamators and feeders........ —---------------------------—. 3 00 to 3 50
Rock-breakers and ordinary workmen........ —-------------------- 2 50 to 3 00
At the mills, when the men are boarded, the foremen get $55 to $60, the latter
$45 to $50, per month.
In section 18, page 384, a table is given of the market prices of provisions
and various other necessary articles where miners board and lodge themselves t
4 Some of these observations originally appeared in newspapers to which they were furnished by the undersigned.-J. R. B.
t The prices in San Francisco are from 25 to 30 per cent. less.
607 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
3Many of the better class build small cabins in the vicinity of the mines, where
they can obtain ground free of cost, and live comfortably and economically.
This is especially the case where they have families to superintend their domestic
affairs. Some of them have thrifty little gardens, and raise all the vegetables
they require.
Contrast this with the wages paid at Freiburg, in Saxony, where the miners
have as much as they can do to procure the necessary means of subsistence, leaving nothing for the future.  Ordinary miners receive per shift of eight hours 84
silver groschen, (about 22 cents,) equal to $1 39 per week. Many boys are
employed about the reduction works; they earn 14 to 5 silver groschenl for eight
hours' labor, equal to 34 to 114 cents per shift, or 21 cents to 69 cents per weelk.
The prices of labor in the Harz and in Hungary and Bohemia are nearly the
same.  It would be difficult to make a comparison of thie cost of living in those
countries as compared with expenses in the States and Territories of the Pacific
slope. If similar articles of subsistence had to be purchased in Europe, the
miners there could not earn enough to pay for their food alone.  They do not
live in the same expensive way, and consequently it costs them a much smaller
amount; but the miner in Nevada who receives $4 per day, or $24 per week,
and pays $10 per week board, has $14 left, while the Saxon or Harz miner, if
it cost him nothing at all to live, would have but $1 32 as the gross result of
his labor. The difference in other necessary expenses, such as clothing, &c.,
bears about the same relation to wages in Nevada, contrasted with wages in
Europe, as expenses of living.
I amn indebted to Mr. R. W. Raymond, editor of the American Journal of
of Mining, for the following particulars in reference to wages paid to miners inll
Great Britain.  At the date of his letter Mr. Raymond was in Boston, and not
within reach of all the sources of information familiar to him. It is proper,
therefore, that the data herewith submitted should be accompanied by his explanation.  lie writes under date of October 30, 1S67:
Cut off fromr my private library, and prevented by circumstances from making thorough
research in any of the public libraries of Boston, I cannot give you as full data as I would
like concerning the wages paid in England at the present time to miners and mining engineers; but I jot down a few statistics, hastily arranged, on which you may depend as both
modern and accurate. If you would pursue youir inquiries further, consult "Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom," Robert Hunt, F. R. S., 1865; reports of the committee of the
House of Commons on mines and of the commissioners on mines (parliamentary blue-books,
both 1866;) London Mining Journal and Colliery Guardian, 1865,1866,1867.  The Bergund-Iiuttenma/nische Zeitung for 1865,1866, and 1867 contains a series of admirable accounts
of coal-mining in England, with some particulars as to wages. This I have used, but the
others are at present not at hand; and I have only a few notes from Levi's "Wages of the
Working Classes," London, 1867; his authorities are HIlunt and the parliamentary reports.
Miners are not uncommonly paid (as, for instance, the tributors of Cornwall) according to
the amount and quality of ore extracted and its market price at the time; so that they sometimes make large profits and sometimes none at all.  In the following table I have arranged
the wages per week as well as I could:
Locality.                     Mince.                      class.              Shifts.            per
Wa ges  per
week.
~     s. d.
0    20  0
0    18  0
0   14  0
0    6  0
0     2  6
0   22  0
0    18 0
0    20  0
0    17  6
0    16 (
0    15  0
8-10    00  0
3    00  0
Cornwall................. —-----------------      -—....-.. 
Do............. -------------                                        ------------
Do..... —..-........ —----
Do.........................
Do.........................                                                                    
North of England...............
]Do -------------------------
Do.........................
D)o.........................
Do.........................
Wales..........................
Newcastle...-............. —---
Tributors.................
Tut-workmen.......... —----------
Surface...................
Women........ —-----------------
Children..................
Miners....................
Separators................
Smelters..................
Roasters..................
Miners....................
......................
Consulting engineer for ten
or twelve mines.
First manager of each mine.
608
Locality.
31ines.
Class.
Shifts.
Hours.
8
8
12
.12
12
8
12
24
24
8
8
........
........
Metal.............
.. -.do..............
-..do --------------
Dressing works....
- -.do..............
Iron...............
Dressiii g works....
Furnaces..........
.. -.-do..............
Metal --------------
- -.do..............
Coal...............
....do..............
Do........................ 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Table of wages, A-c.-Continued.
Locality.                      Lnes.                       Class.               Shifts.   Wages per
Wages per
week.
~     s. d.
2     8 0
0   35   0
0    28  0
0   40 0
0   35 0
0    26  0
0    16 0
0     8 0
0    24  0
0    24  0
0    16   0
0    28  0
0    25  0
0   22  0
0     7  0
0    22 0
0    6  0
0    25  0
0    10  0
0     8 0
0     5  0
0 20-40 0
0
0    12  0
0    10 0
0    6   0
Newcastle.....................
Do.........................
Do..... —-----------------------
Do.........................
Do.........................
Do.........................
Do.........................
Do.........................
South Yorkshire................
Scotland.......................
Do.........................
Do......... —-----------------------
UD      o                     f         -M-8-9                                   ------------------
Average of England......... —   Do.........................
Do.........................
Do.........................
Average England and Wales
Do.........................
Do.........................
Do........................
United Kingdom................
Second manager each mine.
Overmen each mine.. —------
Deputyover-men each mine.
Miners....................
Tunnellers................
Engine driVers............
DHo rse-keepers.............
Boys......................
Miners....................
..do.....................
Surface day laborers.......
Superintendent............
Second superintendent                         2 0
Men over'20 years.........
Boys under 20 years.... —Men over 20 years.........
Boys under 20 years.......
Men.......................
Boy.......................
'Vomen.-.-............ —--
Girls................
Men.......................
Boys......................
Women................... 
Girls...... —--------------------
N. B.-The averages given, especially in the case of metallurgical works, are made up of
widely differing wages, according to rank and skill of workmen.  The foregoing table, however, gives a good notion of the condition of the miners and smelters as a class.  It will be
seen that coal-miners (under contract) often earn more than the salaries of over-men, deputy
manaagers, &c. This is paralleled in Pennsylvania.
The following valuable information in reference to the cost of living in the
principal iron districts of England is furnished to the Chicago Tribune by its
London correspondent, under date of May 15, 1867. After a detailed statement
of the rates of vwag,es, the writer says:
Referring to the social condition of the workmen earning the wages indicated in the foregoing quotations, I proceed to give the prices of the common articles of consumption,
because man's position must be estimated by a comparison between his earnings and the
amount which he must of necessity expend in order to support himself and family.  The
cost of living is not quite uniform throughout the country, but in no district is it higher than
in the one selected for illustration.
RETAIL PRICES.-Flour, 2s. 8d. per 14 pounds, or ~1 ]2s. 4d. per barrel; butter, Is. to
ls. 2d. per pound; cheese, 8d. to 10d. per pound; bacon, 7do to 9d. per pound; beef, 7d.
to 9d. per pound; mutton, 6.1d. to 8Sd. per pound; pork, 6d. to 7d. per pound; sugar, 4d.
to 5d. per pound; tea, 2s. 6d. to 3s. per pound; coffee, ls. 2d. to Is. 4d. per pound; milk,
8d. to Is. per gallon; ale, Is. to 2s. per gallon; whiskey, 15s. per gallon; brandy, 13s. to 20s.
per gallon; gin, 10s. to 12s. per gallon: gray cotton cloth, 3d. to 6Gd. per yard; white cotton cloth, 4~d. to Sad. per yard; loom Dowlas, 7~d. to 10~d. per yard; white flannel, Is. to
ls. 6d. per yard; blue flannel, Is. to 6s. per yard; colored flannel, Is. to 2s. per yard; prints,
5~d. to S8d. per yard; French merino, Is. 6d. to 3s. per yard; Coburgs, 6~d. to Is. 2d. per
yard; Windsey, 6id. to Is. 9d. per yard; Linsey, 6~d. to 10~d. per yard; pilot cloth, 4s.
6d. to Ss. 6d. per yard; doeskins, 2s. 6d. to 5s. per yard; moleskin, Is. 6d. to 3s. per yard;
corduroys, ls. 6d. to 3s. per yard; regattas, 6d. to;d. per yard; men's worsted hose, 3-1d.
to Is. 4d. per pair; w omen's cotton hose, i]d. to Is. per pair; bed-tickinlg, Sad. to Is. 1011.
per yard; blankets, 5s. to 25s. per pair; cotton sheets, 2s. 6d. to 6s. per yard;  counterpanes,
2s. to 6s. each.
READY MADE CLOTHING.-Men's black cloth coats, 17s. 6d. to 30s.; men's bl.ack cloth
vests, 4s. 6d. to 9s. 6d.; men's doeskin trowsers, 0ls. to 18s. 6d.; men's coats, mixed goods,
15s. to 25s.; men's trowsers, mixed goods, 7s. 6d. to ]6s. 6d.; men's cord and moleskin trowsers, 6s. 6d. to Ss. 6d.; men's white duck trowsers, 2s. 6d. to 4s. 6d.; men's corduroy and
moleskin vests, 4s. to 4s. 6d.; men's corduroy and moleskin jackets, 8s. Gd.; men's blue
pilot-cloth jackets, 9s. to 14s.; men's heavy flannel jackets, 5s. to Ss. 6d.; men's white duck
jackets, 2s. 4d to 3s.; boots, 12s. to 14s. per pair; tobacco, 4s. per pound.
39
I
i1 1
609
Locality.
Mines.
Class.
Shifts.
Coal...............
. —.do..............
-..do..............
....do..............
....do..............
. —.do..............
.-..do..............
.... do..............
. —.do..............
. —.do --------------
.... do..............
..-.do..............
. —.do..............
. —.do --------------
. —.do..............
1NIetal..............
Coal...............
Ikletallurgical works
. —.do..............
. —.do --------------
.-..do --------------
Iron furnaces, roll  ing mills, &C.
-—.do..............
- -. (lo..............
. —.do --------------
--------
--------
........
7
8
12
8
12
8
8
........
........
........
........
........
........
--- ----
--------
........
........
........
B-9
........
........
........
Do.........................
Do.........................
Do ------------------------- 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
liouse rent varies from 2s. Gd. to 4s. 6d. per week.  Coals of ordinary quality range from
10s. to 12s. per ton. Rates and taxes will be from lOs. to ]5s. per year. In many cases the
houses have small gardens attached, and the occupiers keep a pig.  School fees are generally
not more than 2d. or 3d. per head per weekl. A few pence per week secures the benefit of
relief in sickness and medical attendance.
The iron trade is particularly an industry which is conducted on the piece-work and contract system.  The masters let the different classes of work to contractors, who employ the
requisite number of hands under them, and, as a matter of course, get the labor done as
cheaply as possible, in order that the margin of profit may be the greater for themselves.
Hence, althoughl the prices paid by any two masters may be nearly identical throughout the
mills and forges, it by no means follows that the net earnings of the contractors under each
firm will be identical. Boys are employed in the lighter kinds of work, such as door drawing and dragging out iron from rolls, but there are very few employed under 12 years of age.
The same writer adds:
It has been said that the English manufacturers live by pauper laborers, which implies
that the operatives are paid starvation prices-barely enough, under the most favorable conditions, to enable them to live, and that when a depression in trade occurs the workmen are
thrown upon the union. This is a gross misrepresentation. Any one who would take the
trouble to make a close acquaintance with the social condition and habits of the workmen in
any of the principal seats of English manufacture-iron, cotton, woollen, or earthenwarewould find that, as a rule, work is only carried on five days a week; that the operatives
have a keen appreciation of and an ability to purchase the good things of this life; that they
are enthusiastic pleasure seekers, and are lavish in their expenses in holiday times; that the
more provident are able to invest large sums in building societies, post office savings banks,
and the like; that many of the men live in their own houses, and a greater number have very
respectable and well-furnished houses.  Unfortunately,  high wages too frequently begets
extreme indulgence and improvidence, and there are many dark spots in the social life of any
district; but this is the fault of the individuals themselves, and were they willing they might
speedily improve their circumstances.
WAGEs GENERALLY AND DEMAND FOR LABOR.-Thle following is a copy
of an address from the Mechanics' State Council of California to the mechanics
of the United States and Europe:
A copy of a circular is in our possession, which we are informed is being distributed
throughout the Atlantic States and Europe l)y the authority of the Pacific Mail Steamship
Company, which bears upon one side of a half sheet the advertisement of that company's
California line, and on the other what purports to be a correct list of the wages paid for the
various classes of labor in this city and State. This list is accredited to the Alta Californian,
the organ of the capitalists and monopolists of this coast, and which has ever been the enemy
of labor and labor interests. It was published for the purpose of inducing an undue immigration to this State, especially of mechanics, expecting by that means to break down  the
trade associations in existence here, particularly those which have adopted the eight-hour
system.  This, too, is one of the objects of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in republishing it in the manner they have. They have threatened to bring large numbers of
mechanics here, let it cost what it may.
They have already brought from 40 to 60 here under contracts to work out their passage
after their arrival. The conditions of these contracts are all in favor of the company, they
not having bound themselves to give the men wvork except at pleasure.   Some of those who
came here under these contracts are now out of employment, and have demanded that they
be employed or that a return ticket be furnished them, both of which demands were refused.
A breach of the peace was the consequence, in which the agents of the company were the
victors. It is a fact well known to the agents of the various steamship lines having vessels
running to and from this port, that there is already an excess of workmen in all the ship-working trades here, and has been for years.  They kanow, too, that in consequence of this excess
the workmen are idle nearly, if not quite, one-half of their time. They know, too, that the
sum of $9 per day, quoted as the wages paid to caulkers, is not, nor has it ever been, the
current wages here for ten years past; and that $15 per day for Sunday's work was never
paid but in a single instance. Both these prices were paid by a steamship company to obtain
men to prepare a ship for sea, on one occasion, two years ago-the men working extra hours
to get her ready to sail as advertised.  The shipwrights, ship-joiners, caulkers, bricklayers,
stonecutters, and some one or two other trade associations, regulate wages and have uniform
rates.  In other branches each journeyman contracts for himself.  "The Mechanics' State
Council," a central organization, composed of delegates from the various trade associations,
have appointed a committee to ascertain and report to them, among other things, the rate
,of wages paid to journeymen in all branches, with the average amount of time employed
oto 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
nlsnea us the following statistics concernmig some of the principal trades:
Trades.          Highes     t w ages   geTrades.                       Highest w      ages
per day.                                              perday.
Shipwrights.............   $4 00             $2 8s  Plumbers...............    $3 00 to 4 00       $2 75
Ship-joiners.............  4  50 to 6 00      2 75  Gas-fitters.............. 3 00 to 4 03          2 75
Caulkers................ 3  00                2 50  Machinists.............. 2 50 to 4 00           2 75
House carpenters........ 2 50 to 4 00         2 25   Wood-turners........... 3  00 to 4 00          3 00
Painters................. 3  00 to 4 00       2 25   Scroll-sawyers.......... 3 50 to 4 00          2 50
Bricklayers..............    5 00            2 75   Stevedores..............    5 00         2 50
Plasterers............... 4 00 to 5 0         2 50   Riggers................. 4  00                 2 50S
Stone-cutters............   4 0o to 5 00      3 00 I Lathers.................3 00  2 03
Blacksmiths.............    3 00 to 4 00      3 25   Patternmakers                3 50 to 4 00       2 50
Boiler-makers........... 3 50 to 4 00         2 50)  Moulders                      4 C00             2 50
These figures were obtained by consulting the members of the various trades, and can be
relied upon as correct.  We are led to believe that an organization consisting of 30 or 40 of
our citizens, and known as the "Immigrant Aid Association," is aiding in the dissemination
of statements which are calculated to deceive the unwary. Therefore we say to all, receive
any statements relating to the rate of wages, the chance and prospects for obtaining good
arable lands near the market, or to there being a demand for skilled labor here, with many
grains of allowance.  They are but an ignis fatuus, intended to allure you here to accomplish some private purpose of individuals or monopolies. Times are dull here in many
trades, and they cannot be expected to improve while the rainy season lasts. Insome trades
the approach of wet weather tends to improve business; among these are the metal roofers,
asphaltum workers, and shoemakers. For the first time'in the history of this city, relief
committees to provide for the necessities of the members of several of the trades have
been formed, and hundreds of dollars have been collected and disbursed for this purpose.
Let no one come here without the means of support in case they fail in getting employment.
To mechanics, of all trades, we say, if you come here with good feeling toward your fellows, with the intention of working hand in hand with us in support of the interests of the
working classes, we will extend you the right hand of fellowship and welcome you as
brothers. But do not come here, as some have already done, in the interest of capital, to
assist in crushing the labor interest of this coast.  Any information regarding any trade can
be obtained by addressing the "Mechanics' State Council," box No. 1493, San Francisco, or
to either of the undersigned at the same post-office.
By order of the Mechanics' State Council of California, San Francisco.
H. J. LOASSE,
A. M. GREY,
CHAS. C. TERRILL,
Corresponding Committee.
SAN FRANCIScO, November 25, 1867.
Commenting upon the address above quoted, the Alta California says:
The document is a very singular one, and seems to have excited a good deal of surprise at
the east, where it did more to open the eyes of workingmen to the gross folly and injustice
of Trades Unions seeking to monopolize employments in a few hands at high wages'than
almost any argument could have done. There are thousands of industrious workingmen at
the east and in Europe, who at this time are unable to obtain work at all. Those who can
get employment receive $1 50 to $2 in greenbacks-say $1 to $1 50 (and average for the
year $1 for ten hours' work) in gold.  Flour is $10 gold per barrel, and other provisions and
expenses of living in proportion. Those people struggling for life have put into their hands
the address to which we called attention.
That address informs them, on the authority of the State council, that wages in 20 mechanical branches, which it enumerates, average $'2 55 in gold throughout the year for eight hours'
work. They know that flour and provisions here are cheaper than there, since they are
sent hence at a profit.  They know while the price of fuel there has risen, as the thermometer
falls to zero, to rates which absorb their whole earnings, that this climate nearly dispenses
with that expense. They know that the amount of labor to be done here in developing the
natural wealth of the coast is limitless, and that the more there is done the more capital
will increase to employ still more. They know also that passages are so low now that the
transit may be made for the wages of two weeks' labor here. Three weeks will transport
thetm from cold and idleness and hunger to warmth, abundance, and high wages. Having
a lively sense of these truths impressed upon them by the circumstances of distress which
surrounds them, they reflect upon the true import of passages like the following in "'the
address:"
"It (rates of wages) was published for the purpose of inducing an undue immigration to
this State, especially of mechanics, expecting by that means to break down the trade associations in existence here, particularly those which have adopted the eight-hour system."
611
I
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
"The shipwrights, ship-joiners, caulkers, bricklayers, stone-cutters, and some one or two
other trade associations, regulate wages, and have uniform rates. In other branches each
journeymen contracts for himself."
"Let no one come here without the means of support, in case they fail in getting employment.  To mechanics of all trades, we say, if you come here with good feeling toward your
fellows, with the intention of working hand in hand with us in support of the interests of
the working classes, we will extend you the right hand of fellowship, and welcome you
as brothers.  But do not come here, as some have already done, in the interest of capital, to
assist in crushing the labor interest of this coast."
These contain the whole programme. The rates of wages are so high here that very
little work can be done locally, none that can be possibly avoided. This is seen in the fact
that imports of goods made elsewhere increase enormously.   The evidence of this is in the
returns of duties, which for the first two months of this year were $1,419,089, against
$1,181,427 last year, an increase of 25 per cent. This increase of importations has taken
place since the eight-hour law was insisted upon, and as a consequence the address states:
"Times are dull here in many trades.  *  *  *  *  For the first time in the history of
this city, relief committees to provide for the necessities of the members of several of the trades
have been formed, and hundreds of dollars have been collected and disbursed for this purpose."
The stranger may ask, if, as the address asserts, wages are $2 50, gold, per day, how is it that
so many persons are to be relieved? Why will they not take less rather than turn paupers? The
paragraphs cited give the reply. The trades unions "regulate wages," and suffer no work to
be done but at their prices. If those are so high that employers are compelled to import the goods
instead of making them, and discharge the hands, those still in employ are assessed to give
charity to those discharged. So arrogant are these unions, that not long since many scores of
men in one shop struck workl because a boy had used a hammer for a short time upon some work.
What is called "undue immigration," is the arrival of any person not a member of the union,
who seeks work for any employer who will pay him. The right of a man in possession of
capital to employ a man to do some work for him, without asking permission of the union, is
utterly denied.  Also, the right of a man to work for wages without the sanction of "the
council" is sought to be abolished. Hence the address says, if they come here to obey the
council, "come," and get work if you can, but not otherwise.  The covert threat contained
in the advice not to come  "in the interests of capital" may be taken for what it is worth.
This sort of "dictatorship" in a country where slavery was supposed to be abolished is a
marvel. The extent to which this system may be pushed is made painfully manifest in the
horrors brought to light in England through investigation into operations of trades unions.
Happily, here we may rely on the good sense of the people at large, who understand that
the true interests of this coast can be served only by carrying out the principles of our institutions, which guarantee freedom to every man in the "pursuit of happiness."
When the eastern mechanics see that a close monopoly of unions here enjoying $2 50,
gold, per man, for 10 hours' work, not being satisfied with that, reduced the hours to eight,
thus increasing the actual wages paid by employers to $3 10, gold, and then coolly notify
"the mechanics of the United States and Europe" not to come here and disturb their "' good
thing," it is possible they may consider their equal rights under the law as good as those of
"the council," and conclude that if capital enable them to earn even $2 per day, gold, here
instead of $1 at home, then the "interests of capital" are worth considering.
An analysis of the data contained in the preceding pages of this report will
show the following results:
1. That the area of territory west of the Rocky mountains, abounding in the
precious metals, and in the useful minerals, is limited only by the geographical
boundaries of our possessions.
2. That of the vast number of valuable mineral-bearing lodes known to exist
in our Pacific States and Territories, but an infintesimlal proportion is in actualt
process of development.
3. That the area of lands suitable for cultivation is sufficient to support a
population greater than the total present population of the United States.
4. That with a climate so salubrious, and resources so varied, this region
offers inducements to immigration unsurpassed by any other part of the world.
The following table shows the area and population of each State and Territory, the number of miners actually at work in the mines, and the product of
bullion for 1867. In estimating the population engaged in mining, it is difficult
to fix upon an exact limlit.  lecbhanics who malke the machinery, or put it up in
the mines; teamsters who haul the ores or the supplies; assayers, metalurgists,
and other incidental experts and employeds, are to a certain extent engaged in
the business of mining.  3iany thousands who never see a mine. derive their
612 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
support from this interest. If we go beyond the superintendents, experts and
operatives directly engaged in working the mines, the field is unlimited, for it
may be said the whole population on the Pacific coast is interested directly or
indirectly in this pursuit:
Area, population, and pr-oduct.
States and territories west of the  Area-square
Rocky mountains.              miles.'
No. of men actually workin g in  mines.
25, 000
1O, 000
500
200
8, 000.
6, 000
1, 300
1, 000
California... —---------------------
Nevada.. —-----------------------
Arizona........................
Utah...........................
Montana...................... —--------------------—.. 
Idaho...........................
Washington Territory...........
Oregon........................
Orego —---------- -95 27               0  7,6           8 00          1 0,00  0
Total........................
Add for total product of the United States:
New Mexico.............................................. $500, 000
Colorado.................................................. 2, 500, 000
All other so urces..........................................  5, 000, 000
8, 000, 000
75, 000, 000
Total................................................................
* According to report of Commissioner of the General Land office.
The above table shows that with an area of 903,019 square miles we have a
population of only 780,000, less than one to the square mile.  According to the
eighth census (1860) the New England States have 49.55; the middle States
69.83; the southern coast States 15.25; the western central States 20.93; the
northwestern States 22.14; Texas 2.55.  tir. De Bow, in his compendium of
the seventh census, gives the density of population in Europe and other foreign
countries as follows: Russia in Europe 28.44; Austria 141.88; France 172.74;
England 332.00; Great Britain and Ireland 225.19; Prussia 151.32; Spain
78.03; Turkey in Europe 73.60; Sweden and Norway 15.83; Belgium 388.60;
Portugal 95.1.4; Hiolland 259.31; Denmark 101.92; Switzerland 160.05;
Greece 55.70; MIexico 7.37; Central America 10.07, &c.
It will be seen that while the population in the Pacific States and Territories is less than one to the square mile, some of the countries of Europe
exceed 300, as, for example, England 332.00; Belgium  388.60.  This simple
statement shows conclusively the great desideratum  of the Pacific coast.  We
have climate and natural resources equal to those of the Atlantic States and
superior to any in Europe; we have land enough for the support of millions of
laborers where we now have only thousands.  We  want population.  Cheap
labor will develop the dormant wealth of the country. To insure this we need
the speedy completion of the Central Pacific railroad, and the prompt construction of the two additional lines projected across our continent, one north and the
other southl. It is absurd to say, with such a variety of undeveloped resources
as we possess, that employment is difficult to obtain, and no demand exists
for labor. If we require no labor, there can be no demand for population; and
if we need no increase of population, then all progress must be considered prejildicial to the interests of the country.  The Commercial Herald and MIarket
Review, of San Francisco, judiciously remarks:
The recent numerous arrivals of immigrants from the east and from Australia foreshadow
the great rush which will undoubtedly be made in this direction during the current year, and
it is eminently proper that these strangers should be instructed by competent parties how to
I
613
Productofgold
and silver for
the year endingDoe.3l,'67
$25,000,000
20,000,000
500,000
..............
12,000,000
6,500,000
1,000,000
2,000,000
Estimatedpopulation in'67.
Acres.
488, 000
36, 000
3, 000
110, 000
32, 000
20, 000
13, 000
78, 000
I 88, 981
112, 090
11-3, 916
88, 056
143, 776
90, 932
69, 994
95, 274
120,947,840
71, 737, 741
72,906,304
56,355,635
92, 016, 640
58, 196, 480
44, 796,160
60,975,360
903,019 577,932,160
780, 000
52, 000
67,000,QOO 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
employ themselves with profit. An army of consumers, who are non-producers, cannot long
exist in that condition without means, and in this case our visitors are not overburdened
with cash. They cannot all find occupation in farming; nor are our manufactories sufficiently extensive to accommodate any large number of them; but our placer mines are far
from being exhausted, and still offer a lucrative field for the operations of industrious alnd
sober men. The cost of living has been reduced three or four hundred per cent. since 1852,
and, although the placer mines do not yield so richly as at that period and before, they are
still capable of returning better wages to the industrious miner than he can obtain in any
other State of the Union. Formerly five dollars, or even seven dollars, a day would not pay
a man for his time and labor, because the rates of living were too high; and many fields
were abandoned which are still capable of yielding those daily returns. Now, a sober,
economical, and industrious miner can support himself handsomely and save money on $2
per day.
The heavy floods of last winter have probably unearthed much wealth in our gulches and
other placer diggings.  The copious rains of 1861-'62 certainly had that effect, and new discoveries of a rich character were made at that period. Opportunities for reaching the mines
are now plentiful where none formerly existed.  Mining tools are abundant and cheap in
comparison with the prices ruling 10 or 12 years ago. It is then our earnest advice to
those newly arrived immigrants to furnish themselves with picks, hoes, and shovels, without
delay; taklie the earliest opportunity to leave the city and seek the placer diggings; go to
work with will and determination; stick to it with resolution, and but few years will elapse
before they will thank us for the advice, and congratulate themselves for having acted upon
it.  The longer they remain "waiting for something to turn up," the deeper will they sink
into the slough of despondency, and the less heart will they have for resolute and determined
action. Our placer mines still offer a remunerative field for industry. They are not "worked
out," nor impoverished to an extent that will not pay wages to the miner. Many of them
will yield from $2 to $4 a day to the hand. Of this there is no doubt, and if newly arrived
immigrants with limited means will only accept the offers held out by these mines, they will
do wisely.
On the same subject the San Francisco Evening Bulletin makes the following
timely and sensible remarlks:
IMMIIIGRATION IN 1849 AND 1868.-The pioneer immigrants of 20 years ago endured hardships of which the immigrants of this year will know very little. The six months' voyage
around Cape Horn in crowded ships, badly provisioned, or the bungalow passage up the
Chagres river, and the mule ride into Panama, with the long waiting on the Isthmus, or the
still longer overland journey-these are experiences of which the modern immigrant will
know little or nothing.  The men of'49 found nothing which could be called homes.  A
sand spit, with a few board and cloth houses, gave little promise of the future city. Every
article of food or clothing was enormously high. It cost nearly as much to reach the mines
from this place as the immigrant is now charged for a passage from Southampton to this
port. The Senator, a year later, transported passengers from this city to Sacramento at rates
varying from $30 to $35 each, and on reaching the latter place the rough and costly journey
was but just begun. If the miner was successful, his gains would secure very few comforts, for they were not in the country.  If he fell sick, the misfortune was aggravated by
exposure and the absence of all the comiforts and appliances which increased the chances of
recovery. There were both suffering and heroism, and as brave struggles with an adverse fate
aIs was ever known in the history of any country.
The immigrants of 1868 will assume no such risks as did these pioneers. They will come
to a country already dotted over with homes, even more attractive than those of earlier days.
There are cities, towns, schools, churches, highways, vineyards, orchards, and farms, while
the cost of living has been reduced below the prevailing rates in many of the Atlantic States.
And with all these advantages the chances of success in any industrial calling have hardly
been reduced at all. Wages are not so high, but the cost of living has been cheapened
more than the cost of labor. The advantages of permanent prosperity, upon the whole,
appear to be upon the side of the immigrant of 1868. It is a more auspicious time to begin
the struggle for a foothold and for a competence than it was 20 years ago.  The few great
opportunities for sudden fortunes may not be so apparent, neither are the risks of failure so
great.
No doubt, immigrants who land here during the present year without money will suffer
many hardships and privations. Some will belong to the great army of incapables, others
will suffer firom diseases incident to changes of country and climate. Many will come with
more hope than resources, either of capital or muscle.  But the immigrants of the present
year are not likely to incur greater risks of privation than will those who land at New York.
Of the 50,000, more or less, who may come to the State during the present year, probably
one-half will come from the States east of the mountains. A large number of them have
friends here, by whose advice or through whose information they exchange an old home for
a new one. This element of incoming population will need very little help. Very few of
them will want charity soups or free lodgings. With a little margin of ready cash they will
strike out for themselves and help to make their own opportunities. The immigration from
614 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
European countries will be more likely to need aid.  The country will be new and strange
to them, and there will not always be that ready adaptation to the exigencies of new positions. Taking the most favorable view of this incoming population, it will still be true that
a good work can be done in alleviating incidental cases of distress and in preventing others,
by furnishing to the immigrant without cost such information as will insure his employment
with the least possible delay.
The Sacramento Union, in an article advocating the organization of a proposed
"labor exchange," makles the following judicious suggestions:
How TO AID IMMIIGRANTS.-A preliminary meeting was held atthe Merchants' Exchange
in San Francisco, on Tuesday evening, to organize a "labor exchange," or a society to
devise means for securing employment and present subsistence for needy immigrants arriving in that city. The idea is an excellent one and well timed. The society should be organized without delay, and we hope to see it embrace a large number of the best men and most
practical minds in the State.  *         *                   *         *                   *
Many will arrive penniless.  Nearly all will be landed at San Francisco.  Without some
means they cannot leave there for any part of the State where the market for labor calls
them. It will be necessary that the city shall take present care of the needy. Alms-houses
are not to be thought of in this connection. The desideratum can only be reached through
a society having the hearty patronage of every business department and the use of large
sums of money to feed the immigrants and forward them to employment in the interior.
Such a society ought to embrace members of the large corporations of the State-railway
companies, steam navigation company, the chamber of commerce, the supervisors, and the
mayor of San Francisco. It could, with such a make-up, very soon enlist the good offices
of the press, and the accord of the people of the interior. These immigrants are coming
here because we have repeatedly given out that they are greatly needed, and that we have
an abundance of work for them.  These inducements were held out in good faith.   We do
need them, we have work for them. But it is sure to happen here, as everywhere else, that
any extraordinary influx of population will occasion some distress.  How to get along with
the least distress is the problem to be solved. We would suggest that the San Francisco
"labor exchange" organize at once, and enlist in its ranks as many of the practical business men of that city as possible. Let them then put the society in communication with the
leading business men of the interior, who are posted as to the probable demand for fresh
laborers in their respective districts. The several railway superintendents could tell them
within a score or two how many they can employ each month, and how many to forward.
The immigrants might be forwarded at the expense of the society, who could arrange in a
business way to be repaid by the interior employers from the first month's wages earned. The
great grain shippers of San Francisco have their purchasing anrd forwarding agents in every
grain region of the State. These are, no doubt, well posted as to the increased number of
hands the present crop will require in harvesting.  Let the society put itself in direct communication with these agents, and here will be an opening for hardly less than 10,000 men at
from  $50 to $60 per month for not less than two or three months.  By the same general
system other thousands might be employed in the timber and lumber regions, and in the
considerable improvements that will be made this season in all the towns and cities of the
agricultural districts.  It is not probable that more than a third of the new-comers will
require any other aid than such valuable information as a society so organized might be able
to give as to the best means of reaching this, that, or another point in the interior, the qual ity of its soil, climate, price of land, advantages of cultivating and means of marketing pro duce.  Doubtless many who conme will have the ready means to go to work for themselves
and become employers of others who are destitute. Of the 50,000 who may be expected,
10,000 to 15,000 are likely to need more substantial aid to start them off in a way to earn a
subsistence. There is room for all and more than these on the railways in course of con struction and in gathering a harvest nearly twice as great in area as any ever before planted
in the State.
SECTION II.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PRECIOUS METALS.
WHY GOLD AND  SILVER ArE -JSED  eOPn 3IONEY.-Gold  and silver were
adopted as standards of value long before the beginning of the historical era;
and their fitness for money was evident even to barbarians.  They are hard and
not subject to oxidation, and therefore they can be kept and handled with comparatively little loss.  Tlhey have a brilliant lustre suitable for articles of ornament; and the peculiarity of the lustre, color, and high specific gravity renders
615 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
them easily distinguishable from other substances, and makes imitations diffi cult.  Thev are fusible and malleable, so that they can be made into any form
or stamped with any impression, and the hardness will protect the form or impres sion from wearing out.  Both metals are found pure, so that savages would
become accustomed to their use before learning to smelt the ores of ironl, copper,
and lead.  Both metals are rare, and thus a small quantity has served to repre sent a large value of other articles; and wealth in the form of gold and silver
could readily be concealed, or transported from one country to another.  There
are other hard, rare, and lustrous metals, but they cannot readily be refined, or
their lustre is not peculiar, or the supply is not regular, or they have no recognized value in the arts; and thus gold and silver are to-day, as they were 5,000
years ago, the best of all metals for the purposes of monev.
THE QUANTITY OF THE PR-ECIOUS  MIETALS Ix GRIEEcE AND RomE.-The
quantity of precious metals wvas small when Athens began to throw the brilliancy of her intelligence and genius over the ancient world.  About the year
600, B. C., nine bushels of wheat could be bought for an ounce of silver in
Greece; or, in other words, a bushel of wheat cost 15 cents of our money.
The advance of civilization was accompanied by an increased production of gold
and silver. There were mines of both metals in Egypt, Thrace, Armenia, Spain,
and the dominions of Attica. Spain had the richest mines, and the placers in
the Asturias produced $4,000,000 annually for a time, and a silver mine at Guadalcanal yielded 300 pounds of metal daily.  The spoils of Persia added greatly
to the stock of the precious metals in Greece, and after the death of Alexander
an ounce of silver would buy only three bushels of wheat, or only one-third as
much as three centuries earlier.
In Italy, previous to the first Punic war, gold and silver were still very scarce
and high in price, but when "the senate and people of Rome" became masters
of the world, wealth poured in upon them from all the borders of the 3Iediterranean, and the bushel of wheat which cost the twentieth of an ounce of silver
350 B. C. cost an ounce and a third in the middle of the first century.
The annual revenue of the empire in the time of Augustus was $200,000,000,
and that emperor received $150,000,000 in legacies from his friends.
Cicero received $S00,000 in fees, a sum which has probably never been paid
to any modern lawyer.
C. C. Isidorus, besides large estates and 4,000 slaves, had $15,000,000 coin
at the time of his death, calculating the value of the money accordingto weight.
Jacobs estimates the total stock of coin in the Roman empire in 40 A. I). at
$1,750,000,000.
THE PRINCIPAL EPOCHS IN THE 3l0DERN PRODUCTION OF THE PRECIOUS
MlETALS.-As civilization declined, the quantity of the precious metals decreased,
and Alaric consented to spare Rome for $1,500,000, and 40 years later the Eternal City had somne difficulty in raising $1,200,000 to buy off Attila.   The annual
average wear of coin is estimated at about one part in 360; and when this continues for centuries with no newv supply it mnakes a great reduction.  According
to the estimate of Jacobs there were in 1492 only $170,000,000 of the precious
metals in Chlristendolm.  Previous to the conquest of Mexico the new world
yielded only about a quarter of a million dollars annually to Spain, the governmenlt of which lost considerably by the discovery, until Cortes succeeded in
overthrowing the empire of the 3Montezumas.
The Aztecs washed gold from the placers and smelted silver from the ores,
and had a considerable stock of precious metals on hand when Cortes came. He
of course took all he could get, and he and his associates soon commenced the
working of the lodes known to his subjects. Among these were Tasco, Zultepee, Tlalpujahua, and Pachuca, all in the vicinity of the capital. The annual
shipment to Spain from 1519 to 1545 was $3,150,000. In the latter year the
mines of Potosi were discovered, and their yield was so great for that age that
616 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
a vwonderfuil impulse was given to mining industry throughout the new world.
In 1548 Zacatecas began to produce its treasures; Sombrerete in 1555, and
Guanajuato in 1558. In 1557 a nliner named Bartolome de Medina, working
Pachuca, made a discovery that was more important to silver mining than even
the opening of Potosi.  He found that silver could be extracted fromn the coinmon ores by mixing the pulverized mineral with water, salt, and copper pyrites,
and it was a process that required very little water, no fuel, little machinery, no
mechanical skill, and few buildings.  It was a method of reduction peculiarly
adapted to the treeless and waterless mountains and to the ignoranit mining population of Mexico andcl Peru.  Previously all the silver had been obtained by
smelting, in a very expensive and wasteful manner, the furnaces being small and
very numerous; so that it was impossible to prevent great loss, both by inrcompetency and by dishonesty.
Some years elapsed before'the amalgamation process was extensively adopted,
but within 10 years it had been introduced into all the mining districts of Spalnishl America; and the worlkmen became expert, and as the mine-owners found
the separation of the metal on a large scale could be supervised by one or two
men, and that thus waste and thieving could be prevented to a much greater
extent than before, they made renewed exertions to extend their wiorkls.  The
production of Potosi was six times as great in 1585 as it had been 12 years
before, owing partly to the general use of amalgamation, which was first introduced there in 1570, and was not generally accepted until some years later. The
copper-panl or cazo amalgamation was discovered in 1590, at Potosi, by Alonzo
Barba, but its use was confined to a few districts.  It was durilng the last decenniurn of the 16th century that Potosi was in its most prosperous condition, producing $7,500,000 per annum.
In 1630 the mines of Cerro Pasco were discovered.
In the years 1726 and 1727 the Vizcaina and Jacal mines of Zacatecas yielded
$4,500,000.
The great bonanza of Real del Monte was opened in 1762, yielding $15,000,000
in 22 years.
The great wNealth of the Veta Madre was demonstrated in 1768, and Guanajuato rose almost to the leading position among thle argentiferous districts.
The production of silver in Mexico increased very rapidly from 1770 until the
beginniug of the revolution; and the increase was owing to various causes,
including the reduction of the royal tax from 20 to 10 per cent. on the gross
yield, the reduction in the price of quicksilver, the opening of commerce to Spain,
merchant vessels from numerous ports instead of confinrming the trade to vessels
from only two ports, the reduction of the price of blasting powder from 75 to 50
cents per -)ound, the abolition of the alcabala, an article needed at the mines, (an
odious aid oppressive tax on internal trade,) and the purchase of bars bv the
provincial treasury.  The fact that the country could produce $10,000,000 armially froni 1760 to 1770, as it did, in spite of all these restrictions, furnishes conclusive proof of the wonderful wealth of the mines, and also of the industry of
the people.  A  tax of 20 per cent. on the gross yield would paralyze everv
branch of British and American ininin, alnd would entirely stop the production
of the precious metals in many districts of California and Australia.  Quiclksilver, of which more than a pound was lost for every pound of silver extracted,
cost 80 cents per pound in 1750, iand was reduced in 1767 to 62 cents, and in
1 777 to 41 cents.  The purchase of bars by tie provincial treasuries was of great
benefit to the miners7 who previouslv had to sell their bullion at aloss of 20, 30,
or in remote districts even 40 per cent There were few merchants, and those
few expected to make great profits from their transactions.
The mines of Ilualgayo ill Peru were found in 1771, and three years later
the placers of the Ural, which were known in the time of Herodotus, were rediscovered.
.1.
617 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
It was estimated in 1777 that two-fifths of the silver of Mexico was obtained
by smelting, but this was probably an exaggeration, and when Humboldt was
in the country only one-seventh was taken out by means of fire.
The mines of Catorce were opened in 1778, and proved to be very rich, the
mine of Pad(re Flores yielding $1,600,000 the first year.
The mines of Guarisamey, near Durango, became productive in 1783.
For two centuries the pulp in the yard amalgamation process, made with pulverized ore, quicksilver, salt, pyrites, and water, was mixed by the treading of
men, who, notwvithstanding the cold, moisture, and mnercuryn were generally
healthly.
Singular as it may seem, it was not till 1783 that mules and horses were introduced to this workl; and, although the change saved 75 per cent. of the expense
on that branch of the workling, still it would probably not have been adopted when
it was, but for the greatly increased production of silver in Mexico, and the
difficulty of getting Indian rel1asadores in some districts.
The great bonanza of Ramos, that yielded $18,000,000 in nine years, was
opened in 1798.
The mines of Mexico continued to increase in productiveness until the revolution, which was a war of races, the Mexicans against the Spaniards, the latter
being in a small minority, but possessing most of the wealth, mining and commercial knowledge and enterprise in the country.  They were driven out, and
withl them wvent three-fourths of the men who had the money and brains to conduct large mining operations.  The production fell from $22,000,000 to less than
one-third that amount, but it soon began to increase again, and from  1850 to
1860 it was as large as from 1795 to 1805.
When the independence of Mexico wvas recognized and peace was restored, it
was expected that the production would soon rise far beyond its former figure.
The most brilliant hopes were excited in Englcand, and they were based on
many plausible considerations, but they were destined to bitter disappointment.
Many of the best mines were offered for sale for about the amount which they
produced annually.  Tlhey had been well opened; their value had been proved;
they had been abandoned while in full production, with large bodies of rich ore
in sight; some of them had not suffered much by standing idle; their production had been increased at the average rate of three per cent. annually for 40
years before the revolution, and the worlimeii familiar with all the processes
of mining and reduction were still numerous.  And if such production and
increase occurred under the oppressive policy of the Spanish government, and
under the ignorant nianagement of the Spaiiis  mine owners, what might not
be expected under a liberal republic and English engineering?  The mines
would no longer )be burdened with the payment of one-tenthli of the gross yield,
over and above all the costs of refining and coining.   The ore would no longer
be carried up to the surface from depths of 1,500 or 2,000 feet on the backs of
Indians, nor would it be packed 6, 10, or 20 miles on mules to the reduction
wvorks, nor vwotild the water be hoisted up inl raw-hide buckets by horse whims,
nor would mules and horses drive the arrastras and stamps.  Steam would pump
the water, hoist the ore, and drive the pulverizing machinery.  Wagons would
do the transportation.  Sklilful engineers would direct the cutting of adits, shafts,
and working levels and educated metallurgists would have charge of the amalgamationi.  The production should rise to $50,000,000 or $100,000,000 a year,
and those companies which could get possession of the best mines should make
princely fortunes for all their shareholdiers.  Great care should be exercised in
the purchase of the property; only those mines should be bought which had been
visited by Humboldt in 1803, and were mentioned in his book, and were known
to have continued productive up to the revolution. Oi' these principles, it was
supposed that failure would be impossible. But failure was possible, and it came.
England during the silver fever spent $50,000,000, for which she got little return
618 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
save dear experience.  Independence did not prove a great blessing to Mlexico.
Peace never came, and without peace there could be no success, for silver mining
above all other pursuits demands peace. Forced loans were levied by the government on the productive mines, and the silver ibars while on the way to the
coast were taken by highway robbers.   The steam machinery could not be taken
to the mines till roads had been made and wagons imported; the roads cost
immense suIms; when the engines were in place native engineers could not be
found, and foreign engineers were murdered; English superintendents and Mexican miiners could not get along together; the mines were found in a miuch worse
condition than that in which they were at the time of sale represented to be; and
in a few years the mines of 21exico were, with a few exceptions, abandoned to
the Miexicanis.
The most notable mining districts opened in the 19th century have been the
placer district of San Francisco in Sonora, in 1803; the Melkowka placers in
Siberia, in 1816; the silver district of Fresuillo, in 1824; the silver district of
Chaiiarcillo, Chili, in 1832; the silver district of Guadalupe y Caloo, in 1834;
the silver district of Guadalcallal, in Spain, about 1830; the placers of tihe Altai
mountains, in Siberia, in 1830; the placers of the Sacramento basin, in 184';
the placers of Australia, in 1851; the placers of New Zealand, in 1857; the
placers of British Columbia, in 1858; the placers of Colorado, in 1859; the silver district of W-ashloe, in 1859; the Nevada iron pan amalgamation, in 1860;
the silver and gold of Idaho, in 1861; the placers of AIontana, in 1862.
STOCK OF PnECIOUS METALS.-The stock of coin in Christendom in 1492,
and at various epochs since, may be thus estimated:
Stock of gold and silver coin in Europe in 1492...... —-------------------- $170,000 000
Production of 108 years, less loss by wear... —------------- $690, 000, 000
Used in arts.... —---------------------—. $140,000, 000
Sent to Asia...... —------------------------- 70,000, 000
Deductions.................... —----------------------—...   210,000,000
Net gain from 1492 to 1600............. —----------------------------  480, 000,000
Stock at end of 1600........ —--------------------------------------------—.. 650,000, OOC
Productien of the XVIIth century..... —-------------------- 1,687,000,000
Sent to Asia.. —------------------------  165,000, 000
Used in the arts..... —------------------------ 300,000,000
Abrasion and loss... —-------------------- 385,000,000
Deductions for the XVIIth century..- ---—.          850,000, 000
Net gain of the XVIIth century.. —------------------------  - 837,000,000
Stock at end of 1700......... —--------------------------------------- 1,487,000,000
Production of the XVIIIth century -------------------—. 4,000,000,000
Sent to Asia.. —--------------------------- 400,000,000
UJsed in the arts ------------------------— 800,000,000
Wear and loss.... —------------------------- 600,000, 000
Total deductions for XVIIIth century...... --  1,800,000,000
NSet gain of XVIIIth century... —--------------------------         2,200,000,000
Stock at end of 1800. —----------------------------------------- 3,687,000,000
Production of 1st quarter XIXth century ----------------- 750,000,000
Wear and loss............ —----------------------- 175,000,000
Used in the arts. —--------------------- 200, 000,000
Sent to Asia ------------------------—. 125,000,000
Deductions for 1st quarter XIXthl century. -    -        500,000,000
Net gain of 1st quarter XIXth century.. —------------------  - 250, 000,000
Stock at end of 1825........... —------------------------------------------—. 3,937,000,000
Production 2d quarter XIXth century...... —----------------- 1,200,000,000
Wear and loss..........-....- ------------------------ 200,000,000
Used in the arts.. —------------------------ 35, 000, 090
Sent to Asia... —--------------------------- 175,000,000
Deductions 2d quarter XIXth century     -    -- 725, 000,000
Net gain 2d quarter XIXth century.......................             475,000,000
619 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
Stock at end of 1850.......... —--------------------------------------—.. $4,412,000; 000
Production from 1851 to 1866, inclusive.. —-------------- $2,500,000,000
Wear and loss..... —----------------------- $250, 000,000
Used in ithe arts......................... ------------------------ 500,000, 000
Sent to Asia.... —-----------------------—. 800,000,000
Total deductions for 16 years.. —-...-. 1,750, 000,000
Net gain from 1851 to 1866............... —--------------------------—. 750, 000,000
Stock at end of 1866....................... —---------------------------------------—. 5,162,000, 000
The following is Jacobs's estimate, as given in Vol. II, pp. 70, 131, 214,
and 322:
Production 1493-1599 over loss and wear —------------— ~138, 000,000
Used in the arts —--------------------— ~28,000, 000
Net gain 1493-1599............................ —---------------------------------—.
Stock on hand at the end of 1599...... —-------------------------------—..
Productions of XVIIth century....... —---------------------- 337,500, 000
Sent to Asia... —-------------------------- 32,250,000
Used in the arts.... —----------------------- 60,250,000
Wear and loss...... —------------------------- 77,000,000
Total deduction for XVIIth century.... —------       170,500, 00(
Net gain of XVIIth century............ —--------------------------- 
Stock on hand at the end of 1699.....: -----------------------------------
Production of 1700 to 1809..... —------------------------—. 880,000,00(
Sent to Asia... —-------------------------- 352,000, 000
Used in the arts....... —--------------------—..  352,000,000
Wear and loss.. —------------------------- 93, 000,000
Total deductions 1700 to 1809. —----------- -       797,000,00(
Net gain from 1700 to 1809............ —----------------------------
Stock on hand at end of 1809..........................................
Production from 1810 to 1829........ —----------------------—. 103,736, 000
Sent to Asia.............................  40, 000,000
Used in the arts.......................... 112,252,220
Wear and loss........ —-----------------------—........ 18, 095,220
Total deductions from 1810 to 1829........ 170,343,440
Decrease from 1810 to 1829 ------------------------------                         66,611,440
DeStock on hand at end of 1829.............................. —---------------------------- 66,611,440
Stock on ha,nd at end of 1829.......................................... 313, 388,,560
It has been customary to minake estimates of the amount of precious metals in
Christendom at various times by deducting the quantity shipped to China and
IHindostan, and the quantity used for plate; but there is a constant change from
coin to plate and from plate to coin, and the wide line which once separated China
and Hindostan from European trade has now disappeared, and those Asiatic
countries are within the pale of civilized commerce and are almost as near to
London and New York as California and Victoria.
Whitney, in his Mletallic Wealth of the United States, says that in 1853 the Russian empire produced 64,000 pounds Troy of gold; Austria, 5,700; the remainder
of Europe, 100; Southern Asia, 25,000; Africa, 4,000; South America, 34,000;
and the Unite,l States, (exclusive of California,) 2,200.
The gold production of Chili in 1845 (the statistics for later years not being
obtainable at the time) was 2,850 pounds Troy; of Bolivia, 1,200; of Peru,
1,900; of New Grenada, 13,300; of Brazil, 5,100; and of Mexico, 9,900.
The yield of silver in 1850 is thus stated:
Russian Empire, 60,000 pounds Troy; Scandinavia, 20,400; Great Britain,
48,500; Harz Silver District, 31,500; Prussia, 21,200; Saxony, 63,600; other
German states, 2,500; Austria, 87,000; Spain, 125,000; France, 5,000; Aus
620
~34,000, 000
83, 000,000
380, 000, 000 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
tralia, 10,000; Chili, 238,500; Bolivia, 130,000; Peru, 303,150; New Grenada,
13,000; Brazil, 675; Mexico, 1,650,000; California, 17,400; total, 2,817,425
pounds Troy.
THE DRAIN OF SILVER TO ASIA.-It is admitted by all eminent authors
lwho have wvrittea about tlie present supply of the precious metal that it far
exceeds the demands of Christendonm, andl that the inevitable fall inll value is
retarded only by exceptional and temporary circumstances, the chief of which is
the remarkable stream of silver pouLrilng, into Asia.  The HIindoos and Chinese
and Japanese are industrious and very populous nations, which have to import
nearly all their gold and silver firom abroad, and their capacity to absorb those
metals increases as value declines, and as their stock becomes greater their wages
rise, and tihe obtain the means to purchase more foreign goods, and after a time
they will lhave as much coin proportionately to their productive powvers as the
Christian nations; and then their imports of merchandise wvill nearly equal their
exports, and the importation of the precious metals will not be one-tenth of the
present figuiire.
Asia was called "the sink of silver" by Pliny, and it has deserved that name
ever since and will continue to deserve it for an uncertain period in the future.
So long, as wve continue to consume so much tea, silk, sugar, rice, and other
Asiatic products, and so long as they consume so few of our products, so long vwe
must settle the difference by payment of the precious metals, and the precious
metals will probably not decline much in value. But let the vessel of Asiatic
trade, lnowv half empty of silver, be once filled, as it will be in 5, 10, or 15 years,
and then wve shall begin to feel the influence of the over-supply of the precious
metals, and their market value will fall rapidly.
Christendom and Asia may be compared to twvo tubs standing side by side,
and connected by a large open tube half way from the ground, and the supply
of the precious metals to a stream of water falling into the tub representing
Christendom. Before the water reached the tube, or before the tube was well
opened, the level rose very rapidly in the first tub; but now the stream pours so
sw\iftly into the second that the level can scarcely rise at all in the first.  When
the liquid gets up to the same level in both tubs, then it will rise with equal
pace in both.
The quantity of silver annually exported from England and the Mediterranean
to Asia has been as follows: 
Mediterranean.
185t...............................................
85 —--------------------------------------------— $,32  0 —--------— $,32  0
1852 -----------------------------------------------
185:3.....................................
1854-.-........................-........... —------
1855.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. —-----------------------
1856. —-------------------------------------------—.
1857.......................................... —-------------------------------------------—..... 
1 8,8...............................................
1859 -----------------------------------------------
1860.-.............-..........-.-.-.-. —-----------
]86[...............................................
1862...-. —----------------------------------------
1863.-................................... —--------
1864 -. —-------------------------------------------
.................
.............i............
$4, 240, 0C0O
7, 255, 0oo00
7, 620, 000
9,959', 000
] 0, 180, 291
16,150, 000
7, 340,280
8,120, 204
7, 980, 000
9,150, 000
29, 281, 000
41,255, 942
Total in fourteen years......................
The figures from 1851 to 1862. inclusive, in the above table are copied firom Hunt's MIerchants' Magazine for August, 1863, and those for 1863 and 1864 from newspaper reports.
MiGchel Chevalier says that in 1857 X20,145,921 were sent to Asia, or about
$100,000, 000.*
* Michel Chevalier on Gold, p. 65.
62-1
England.
Total.
$8,362,500
12,116, 210
,7, 790, 000
22, 821, (100
39,695,000
70,540.000
96, 657,461
31, 50A, 250
40,638,400
48,740,386
44, 379,175
61, 701,145
67,517,191
- i 8, 335, 139
$8,362,500
12,116,210
23,550,000
15, 555, 000
32,075,000
60,590,000
86, 477,170
25,444,250
33,298,120
40, 620,182
36,399,175
53, 551, 045
38, 236.,191
37,079,196
650, 85,753
503,365,035
147,522,718 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
The Westminster Review for January, 1864, says:
In spite of our trouble in India, and a state of chronic warfare in China, the increase of
our trade with the east during the last 10 years has been enormous. This, too, may be looked
upon as only the beginning of a commerce that must grow to proportions which cannot be
estimated. The most important feature, too, of eastern trade is the manner in which it
absorbs the precious metals. This is a peculiarity so intimately bound up with the social
condition of the east that it is likely to last as long as their ignorance and mutual mistrust.
Until a system of credit can grow up among them like that which in Europe dispenses with
the use of gold and silver for almost all things but retail transactions and the payment of
labor, the east must ever remain a perfect sink for the precious metals. What amount of
money would be sufficient to saturate the hoarding propensities of these hundreds of millions
of men who believe in nothing but the little store they know of under some hearthstone or
other favorite hiding place?  There is no practical limit to the demand of the east for the
precious metals except the industry they can develop in its acquisition, and that industry is
susceptible of indefinite development.
This passage is written in thie supposition that a nation possessing an immense
quantity of the precious metals in proportion to population could be a nation of
hoarders. This idea, however, is entirely erroneous. There never was, nor is
it probable that there ever will be a wealthy nation of hoarders.  With  the
exception of a few miserly individuals, hoarding is caused only by the lack of
opportunities to invest profitably; the insecurity of titles to real estate, and the
dangers of faimine and war.  HIoarding is far more frequent relatively in semibarbarous than in civilized communities; more frequent in the country than in
cities. As wealth increases, as education extends, as wars become rare, and as
the titles to property become secure, the motives for hoarding cease. Hoarding
is no doubt common now in Hindostan and China;  but the main demand there
for the precious metals is not for hoarding, it is for currency.   We  ship treasure
to Asia because, on account of the greater scarcity of the precious metals, labor
is cheaper, and because for that reason tea, cotton, rice, silk, and many other
articles can be produced cheaper there than here, and we find it more profitable
to import than to produce at home. But the Hindoos and Chinese having far
less trade and manufactures relatively than Europeans, do not need so much
coin relatively, and the increase of the precious metals is ten-fold faster among
them than the increase of business; so wages must rise, and their products must
become dearer, and our gold and silver will have less relative value to them,
and other of our productions will have more relative value. Then our international trade will be more of exchange than now, and less of sale.  Asia will
always be a sink of the precious metals in so far as immense quantities must be
lost, worn away and used in the arts amidst such vast multitudes of people, and
as the consumption is great and the yield nothing, there  must  be a steady
stream pouring in; but this stream after the level of industry has once  been
reached will be much smaller relatively than now.
The countries where labor is dearest must export treasure to those where it is
cheaper, and the quantitv of treasure that a nation will swallow  up  is proportionlled to its industry and poverty.
Another late writer says:
Regarding the amount of gold and silver afloat as currency in the various countries of the
civilized world there arc very conflicting opinions, but estimating the amount of gold and
silver circulating as coin in Great Britain, the country in which perhaps the greatest economy
of the precious metals consistent with the maintenance of the proper safeguards is observed,
at ~80,000,000, and the population at 30,000,000, and estimating the currency of India in
1857 at an equal amount, an estimate I venture to think high, and the population at
180,000,000, it requires but very little calculation to show that India is capable of yet absorbing silver to the amount of $400,000,000 in addition to this amount for the purposes of currency alone. Nor must it be forgotten that India is able to support a population many
millions more numerous than she at present possesses; nor on the otherhand that England has
many means of economizing the use of coin, which in consequence of her immense extent of
area will be denied to India, if not forever, for many years to come. If, then, it be admitted
that there is even a shadow of truth inthese estimates, it may not be unreasonable to conclude
that there is a possibility, distant it may be, yet still a possibility, of the requirements of
India for currency purposes approaching the enormous sum of $500,000,000 in silver coin.e
* The Drain of Silver to the East and the Currency of India, by W. Nassau Lees: London, 1864.
622 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
It is useless to attempt to say how much currency a nation may use. The
amount depends greatly upon its relative value. In an age when a day's work
is worth 10 cents, only one-tenth as many dollars will be needed for currency,
other things being equal, as inll an age when a day's wvork is worth a dollar.
Wages in India will not remain at their present low rate, and their rise will, in
itself, makle a demand for money.  We  may presume that an addition of
$2,000,000,000 to the currency of Hindostan would raise wages there to the
level in Europe, and after that importation of silver would be onlvy sufficient to
compensate for the wear and tear. However, long before that amount could
be added to the currency of India, the Hindoos would demand more European
goods than now, and these would pay to a certain extent for the goods exported
from India, and the transfer of the precious metals would gradually decline. Tlhe
larger the stock of money relatively, the higher the wages, and we may expect
that when the sutm of $4,000,000,000 is added to the currency of Asia, the wages
then will be as high there as they now are in Europe; but before that time the
wages may have doubled in Europe.
A  GrEAT IXCREASE OF PRODUCTION PROBABLE.-A great increase in the
production of both gold and silver is probable. In California, Australia, and
Siberia, gold mining is now conducted under many disadvantages.  In the two
former wages and interest are exceptionally high, and in all there is a lack of
that thorough knowledge, and of those economical modes of workling, which can
only be adopted by a generation educated to the business, and devoted to it as
a life-long occupation.*  In Spain and Brazil, which were once very rich inll
gold, and would probably pay for hydraulic washing, there must be numerous
quartz veins that are now untouched.
These will be made productive. The Andes and the Altai will be explored
with care, and hundreds of veins, as rich and large as those of Potosi and Guanajuato, will be found. MIachinery will be improved, so that tunnels or adits large
enloug,h for wagons can be bored 20, 30, or 40 miles long through high mouitains, so as to pay for purposes of travel, and at the same time any lodes that
may exist ill the chain will be opened to a depth far below anything now known
in nimnng.  The great lodes of the future will not be discovered by such accidents as those whlch revealed Potosi, Cerro Pasco, Somibrerete, Chafiarcillo and
the best mines of Catorce.  If veins like those could be found by chance, what
will not the well-directed explorations of the future find?  It is scarcely to be
doubted that a large tunnel commenced 1,500 feet above the sea level on the
western slope of the Sierra Nevadas at anlly point between latitude 30~ and 40~
would, in the course of 10 miles, run through a multitude of rich lodes.  We
have reason to believe that wvhenl the great mountains were formed, numerous
large fissures running in some places for hundreds of miles were filled with
auriferous and argentiferous quartz, and we fail to find them, not because they
are not there, but because they are covered with earth, and because the clamber ing hiunter, the benighted wanderer, or the charcoal burner does not pull up the bush
or does not light the fire at the right spot.  A tunnel running through the Andes
commencing near Lima or Santiagro would reveal wonders, and the progress
of mechanical industry is so marvellous that we are justified in hoping, if not inll
expecting, to see immense tunnels 20 or 30 miles long cut through high mountain
ranges.
PRELATIVE VALUE OF GOLD AND SILVER.-It is impossible to ascertain now
when or how the difference arose between the marklet values of the two metals.t
* The bill introduced by Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, providing for the establishment of a
national school of mines, is designed to remedy the present wasteful system of mining.
t Mr. Albert Gallatin, in a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury (Ex. Doc., 1st sess. 28th
Cong., p. 1071) on the relative value of gold and silver, says, under date of December 31,
1829:
"The relative value of gold and silver bullion differs from that of gold and silver coins,
623 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
It may be said that they are almost equally suitable for the purposes of money.
Gold has a higher specific gravity and is susceptible of a higher polish, but the
difference in these respects is not great enough to cause a difference of 50 per
cent. in value between them. There is reason to doubt whether the relative
values were ever proportional to the relative supplies. We have no precise
information about supplies before the beginning of the 16th century.  At  that
time an ounce of gold was worth 11.4 ounces of silver.  In the course of three
centuries previous to 1800 the stock of the precious metals in Christendom had
increased $5,800,000,000, of which two-thirds in value and 96 per cent. in weight
was silver; so that if the value of the two metals had been proportionate to the
supply, one ounce of gold ought to have been worth 30 of silver in 1800. Notwithstanding the immense production of silver in the 18th century, the relative
value of the two metals was precisely the same in 1816 as in 1717; and notwithstanding the vastly greater relative production of gold since 1849, the relative values have scarcely changed.  We observe, too, that although gold is very
scarce in India and Asia, it does not bear so high a price as in Europe. The
mere fact that gold is worth 15 times as much per pound as silver makes a demand
for it, because it is so much more convenient for use.
Although the values have not been regulated strictly by the supplies, it is certain that they have been affected by them. In consequence of a great increase
in the supply of gold during the life of Julius Csesar, an ounce from being worth
17 ounces of silver fell to be worth only nine;* and in the last 300 years gold
has risen, relatively, more than 30 per cent. in value.t
31r. E. B. Elliott, of Washington city, has kindly furnished the following data
on this interesting subject.  The annexed tabular statement has been prepared
by him with great care, and differs in some respects from that of the 3Ierchliants'
iMagazine:
Ratios of tlte market values of gold to silver, in London, for the 70 years from 1760 to 1829,
inclusive, and the 26 yearsfrom 1841 to 1866, inclusive-in all, 96 years.
1760 to 1789 (30 years)....14.50 to 1)
1790 to 1809 (20 yeaTs)....14.90 to I |
1810 to 1819 (10 years)....15. 50 to I  Prior to the opening of the gold mines of California
1820 to 1829 (10 yeais)... 15.80 to I              and Australia.
1830 to 1840 (11 years).............
1841 to 1848 (8 years).-...15.83 to I J
and is liable to greater fluctuations. Independent of these, there are two reasons which
makle gold bullion more valuable in relation to silver bullion than gold in relation to silver
coins. It is more expensive to coin ten silver dollars than one gold eagle, which, if the
charge for coining is the same for both, makes, in proportion, the silver coin more valuable,
and the unavoidable difference between the legal and the actual standard of the most faithful
coins, as well as the similar original difference of weight and the diminution arising from
wear, are more sensible and greater in value in gold than in silver coins, so that the loss in
melting the current gold coins of any country may be fairly estimated at one-half per cent."
* Chevalier, page 118.
t Hunt's Merchants' Magazine for August, 1863, contains the following table, showing the
relative value of silver to gold at various periods from 1344 to 1863, as shown by the prices
paid by the mint in London:
1344.... —--------------------- 1 to 12.475   1547 -..............1 to 11.400
1349.. —----------------------- to 11.141   1549.........................1 to 11. 250
1356... —-----------------------  to  11.286   1552......................... 1 to  11.186
1401.......................... 1 to  11.350   1553... —-------- ----------—... lto 11.198
1421. —--------------..........1 to 10.527   1560......................... 1 to  11.315
1464 ------------------------- to 10. 331   1600......................... to  11.100
14C)5. —----------------------- to 11.983   1604......................... 1 to 12. 109
1470.. —---------------------— 1 to 11.446   1626......................... 1 to 13.43i
1482. —-----------------------. 1 to 11. 429   1666......................... 1 to 14.485
1509.... —---------------------— 1 to 11.400   1717......................... 1 to 15.209
1527.... —----------------------- to 11.455   1816........................ to  15.209
1543.......................... to 12.000   1849..... —--------—............ 1 to  15. 632
1545......................... to  10. 714   1852......................... 1 to 15. 371
1546.......................... to 10. 000   1863.........................1 to  15. 069
624 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Discovery of gold fields in California, 1848.
1849 to 1852 (4 years)....15.60 to I-Transition period.
1853 to 1858 (6 years).... ]5.34 to 1
1859 to 1862 (4 years)...-15. 34 to l Sinco the opening of California and Australian gold
1863 to 1864 (2 years)       15. 37 to 1               fields, average 15.38 to 1.
1865 to 1866 (2 years)....15.46 to t)
Simplest, and probably most convenient, mint ratio of gold to silver, 15 to 1; present
United States mint ratio of gold to fr'actional silver, 14.88 to 1; United States mint ratio
of gold to silver dollar, (circulation limited because overvalued,) 16 to 1: British mint ratio
of gold to silver, 14.28 to 1: French mint ratio, gold to silver 5-franc piece, (circulation limited because undervalued,) 15.5 to 1; French mint ratio, geld to debased smaller silver coinage, 14.38 to 1.
The ratios since 1859 were deduced from the semi-monthly quotations of the
price per ounce of silver bars in London, published from time to time in the
journal of the Statistical Society of London.  From  1841 to 1848 the values
adopted were computed from data furnished bv yir. WYm. Newmarch in a valuable
paper read by him  before the London Statistical Society and published in the
journal of that society. From 1760 to 1829, inclusive, the values were taken
from the Funding System of 31r. Jonathan Elliott, which forms part of the Exei,utive Documents of the second session of the 28th Congress.  For the 11 years,
1830 to 1840, inclusive, there is a lapse in the information furnished; but it is
deemed safe to assume the ratio for this period as 15.8, the ratio of the periods
just prior and subsequent to the intewal.
It will be observed that with the discovery and working of the California and
Australian gold fields the relative value of gold to silver fell from an average
of 157 for the eight years 1841-'8, just prior to this event, to an average of 15.
for the 14 vears 1853-'66, which followed the transition period of four years
1849-'52.
The ratios adopted for the purposes of coinage by the mints of the United
States, Great Britain, and France, respectively, are herewith given. Comparison
of the data indicates that the simplest ratio which could safely be adopted for
the purposes of coinage at the mint is 15 to 1, a rate sensibly lower than the
market ratio for at least 60 years, and destined, it would seem from the present
upward tendency of the value of gold as compared with the market value of
silver, to remain so for years to come. The silver coins are thus, by the adoption of this simple ratio, overwalued, which is now the settled policy of the civilized world, and if made legal tender only in payment of small sums, as is at
present the case in the United States, in England, in France, or in many other
countries, would circulate freely withi our present standard gold coin-tthe latter,
of course, being made legal tender in all amounts.
The importation of silver from the silver-producing countries into Great Britaim, and the price per ounce for bar silver in London at various times since 1848,
arc shown in the following table:
SilnsShillingsShillings
Year.           Ounces.    per lb.            Year.           Ounces.    per lb.
troy.                                        troy. 
1848................ 17,337,226       59+    1857............... 16,798,163          61'
1849................ 20,486,600     59      1858...............  9,017,458   61i
1850.................14,715,247       60      1859...........-.... 11,909,246        62-,6
1851................ 16,304,403       61      1860.......... —------------- 16,624,696  61+1852... —------------ 18,848,521     60+    1861.. —------------- 19,954,001      60+x1853................ 17,421,714  61+    1862............... 20,828,538   611854................ 16,797,442       61      1863............................ 61+
1855................ 14,868,935       611    1866...........................  62
1856.... —---------- 17,041,761  61t
Or. which is the same thing pence per ounce troy.
40
625
iI
I
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
It was expected about 1853, lwhen the permanence of the Californian and
Australian gold mines was no longer a matter of doubt, that the relative value
of gold would soon fall as much as it had risen in the sixteenth century, but this
expectation has not been realized. It is impossible nowv to foresee or to form
any confident opinion whether gold will fall in value, as compared with silver, if
the present relative production is maintained.  Chevalier contended, in 1857,
that if it were not for the fact that France, since 18507 had been changing her
currency from silver to gold, the latter metal would have fallen greatly in value;
and he called France the parachute of gold.*  From 1850 to 1857 the French
mint coined $540,000,000 in gold, or an annual average of nearly $80,000,000,
while for 45 years previous to 1848 the annual coinage of gold had been only
$4,450,000.  His argument would seem to be that so soon as a gold currency
had been substituted in France, gold would fall, but since 1857 enough of that
metal has been poured into Europe to supply nearly all the nations with gold,
and still there is no noteworthy change in relative value.
There is such an immense demand for ornaments and table-ware made of the
precious metals, that a long time must elapse before it can be supplied.   We
must expect, too, that at no distant time Asia will use gold extensively for currency, and in fact it has already commenced to do so. We consider it entirely
useless to endeavor to predict the relative value of gold and silver in the future.
The financial and commercial history of the world during the last ten years
does not establish Chevalier's idea that gold as related to silver will soon commence to fall in proportion to the excess of its production. According to his
theory the fall should have commenced already. In 10 years that have elapsed
since he wrote $1,200,000,000 have been added to the possessions of Christendomn, more than enough, if his estimates were correct, to overstock the market.
But the market is not overstocked, as we know from the fact that the price is not
materially changed.  It is undeniable, however, that the market would soon be
overstocked in Christendom if there were no outlet. Gold, except for purposes of
small change, in sums less than two dollars and a half, is far more convenient
than silver, and is preferred for most of the purposes of coin; and that preference
will extend to IHindostan and China so soon as we have no more silver to spare.
We have now an excess of silver or we would not ship so much away, and so
soon as we have no longer an excess, the European and American merchants in
Asia will tell their customers that they must take gold in payment. The more
intelligent Chinese see the great advantages of a currency of gold coin over a
bartering for silver bars, so the more precious metal has already come into considerable use, and those Asiatics who have done business in California and Australia will help to nmake the change.  If it could be proved that all the gold
must be confined to Europe and America while Asia should continue her demand
for silver, then a great fall in the relative price of gold within a brief period
would have to be admitted; but that proof cannot be furnished.  Some fluctuations have taken place in the relative value of the two precious metals within
the last ten years, but they are too slight to furnish a basis for conclusions of
anv importance.
The coinage of all the nations fixes the comparative prices in such a manner
that no change can occur without overcoming obstacles which did not exist 200
years ago.  Throughout Christendom the governments and the merchants say
that one ounce of gold shall be worth 15 of silver; and to prevent any question
about the precise relation, coins of both metals are in universal use with a conventional value. The value is conventional to a great degree; we know that
it does not bear any precise proportion to the supply. If the value is now conventional why should not the conventionality stand?  A change in such a matter necessarily implies loss and inconvenience. The present relative prices of
* Chevalier, pp. 59, 73.
626 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
the two metals are very well suited to the wants of commerce.   We  can pay
large sums in gold without overloading a man;  we can pay small sums in silver with coin not too small to be handled or carried in the pocket.  It would be
very inconvenient to have all our coin of equal value per pound, for then large
surms would be burdens, or small coin would be too small for our fingers.  Tfact two metals are hardly enough and so copper and brass have been used foi
coinage by most civilized nations, in addition to the precious metals. Chevalier''
says, "Nobodv can say that some day silver may not also undergo a great fall
brought about by a production which should be distinguished by  the two following characteristics: Of being much greater in comparison with the employments to which it had hitherto been applied, and of being produced under mnore
favorable circumstances, that is at less cost per kilogramme for the metal
obtained. There are strong reasons for thinking that if the United States
annexed Mexico and penetrated further into the regions of Central America,
this event would not be of tardy accomplishment under the auspices of a race
so industrious and so enterprising as the Anglo-Saxonis."
How IXDIVIDUALS ARPE ENRICHED BY MIINING.-The first effect of the prodluction of the precious metals in rich mines is that it enriches the individual
engaged in mining, or at least gives him an opportunity to enrich himself.  A
large proportion of mankind are so stupid, so imprudent, so wasteful, or so
indifferent to the value of money, that they cannot make money  whenii they
have the best of chances, or keep it after they get it. The wages of miners are
higher than those of other laborers and when the mines are very rich the proprietors become possessed of immense sumrs. In the mining districts nearly
every man when hle goes out walking over the hills keeps a lookout for " indications,," in hope of finding some vein that may make him a millionaire.
The poorest white laborer in California working by the month gets a dollar a
day besides board, and as the French or German laborer in Europe receives less
tlianl 50 cents a day, the Californian can, with his earnings, hire two Europeans
to work for him, or he can purchase as much  as two can produce, or he can
afford to consume as much as two European laborers do.   lie wants their merchandise and they wvant his gold; so he exchanges one of his days' workl for
two of theirs. Inr this way he may live rich, even if on account of his extravagant habits he does not die rich.  But the disproportion between wages in California and Europe is still greater in other occupations. The average pay of
laborers and the average profits of business men in California are from three to
five as great as in continental Europe for labor or business of the same kind,
and the difference represents a ten-fold profit.  If it costs 75 cents per day to
live, the man who gets one dollar per day can lay by capital twice  as fast as
the man who makes only 871 cents. If the laborer of California had lived
during the last 17 years with as little unnecessary expenditure as the laborer of
Germany, there would scarcely be a man among the old residents without his
thousands.
HIow NATIONS ARE ENRICHED ~BY MINIING.-The second effect of the production of the precious metals is to enrich the nation which possesses the mines,
or to give it an opportunity to enrich itself. Nearly all mining districts are
poor, although they consume luxuries which can elsewhere be afforded only by
the wealthiest.  The finest silks and the most costly wines went to Virginia
City during the great bonanza in 1862, and similar extravagance had been witnessed before at Potosi, Cerro Pasco, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas. The owner
of a,. rich mine cannot dig, out the pure, precious metal with a shovel unassisted;
lie must employ a great number of laborers, and his money runs all through the
community and stimulates every branch of industry. The whole nation feels
rich, and it purchases for one day's work the productions on which other nations
* Pago 142. See also Chevalier's Political Economy, section III, chapter I and II.
627
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
have spent two day's. The gold and silver are sent abroad to purchase those
things which can be made cheaper abroad where labor has not felt the stimulus.
How THE PRECIOUS METALS  FALL IN VALUE.-The third effect of the
production of the precious metals in large quantities is that the prices of other
articles generally are effected.'We want gold and silver for coin and for use in
the aits, and the smaller the supply relatively to the demand  the higher the
value.  The experience of ancient as well as of modern times has proved this
principle.  After Alexander conquered Persia, and enriched Greece withl the
spoils of Asia, three times as much silver was required to pay for a day's work as
before; and now it requires in average years six ounces of silver to purchase
as much wheat in Europe as could be bought in 1490 for one ounce.*  The cause
of the change is the great relative increase in the supply of silver while there is
no relative increase in the supply of wheat. The result of the great yield of the
silver mines of Peru and Mexico in the 16th century was that between 1550 and
1600 wheat trebled in price. The production of the 16th century was about
$690,000,000, whereas, the production of $4,000,000,000 in the 18th century
added only 50 per cent. to the price which wheat bore in 1600, but more  than
200 p)er cent. of thle price wh7ich it bore in 1500.
When we compare ancient with modern times we see that the rise in prices
was very much greater relatively in Rome after she became mistress of the world
than it has been in modern Europe since the mines of America, Australia and
Russia have yielded their treasures. The difference is owing partly to the fact
that a large portion of the laborers in the Roman Empire were slaves, and the
number of those who used money and could possess plate was comparatively
small, and civilization was confined within narrow limits.
The decrease of prices was less in proportion to the production of the precious
metals in the 17th than in the 16th, and less in the 18th than in the 17th century, because business has increased with much greater rapidity in late times
than before.  Commerce, manufactures and intelligent agriculture have grown
wonderfully.  MIany branches of trade conducted mainly by barter several centuries ago are now managed exclusively with money. The laborers are all free,
and each needs a stockl of coin with which to make purchases in case of necessity.
The use of silver table ware and of gold ornaments is very extensive, and large
quantities of both gold and silver are used in various kinds of manufacture. The
introduction of steam in mills, boats and cars has doubled the productive capacity
of mankind, and far more than doubled the demand for money. The speed and
cheap communication between all countries has added vastly to the general
wealth, and has increased the demand for the representatives of wealth.  The
remotest parts of the world are now brought to our doors, and China and Hindostan open their laps to receive our gold and silver and prevent it from falling
in value by becoming too abundant in our hands. One of the best indications
of the increase of trade and the spread of civilization is the relative value of the
precious metals and we see that a net increase of $500,000,000 or an addition
of 250 per cent. to the stock in the 16th century, trebled prices in half a century, while a net increase of $5,300,000,000, or 900 per cent., since the year
1600, has not trebled prices in the last 250 years.
INFLUENCE OF INCREASED PRODUCTIONS ON NATIONAL DEBTS.-But whatever may be the relative position of the two metals, it is very certain that the
time is not far distant when the price of the two as compared with other products
of human labor must fall. They are now increasing far more rapidly than is
the demand for them, and at the present rate of increase they would soon have
to begin to fall perceptibly.  But the production will become much greater than
it is. The vast improvements that have been made both in gold and silver
mining within the last 20 years are applied to only a few mines; and the reward
*Chevalier, p. 18.  Jacobs, Vol. II., pp. 71, 113, 216.
628 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
for those who introduce them into other parts of the world are so large and so
certain that the introduction cannot be delayed to any remote period. If all the
argentiferous lodes of Mexico, Peru and Bolivia, known to be rich, were worked
with the machinery used at Washoe, their yield wouldcl really flood the world.
The placers of Brazil, exhausted for the slow processes known a century ago, will
yield treasure greater than they ever produced before. The hydraulic process
is needed in Siberia, and in Africa, and in many placers as worked out.
It may do very well in European monarchies, where it is considered a wise
policy, to preserve wealth in those families which have it now; but in the United
States our customs and our laws favor the individual rather than the family.  We
have no nobility, no princely salaries for officials, no hereditary titles, no social
reverence for blood, no primogeniture, no law of entail, no hampering of the
sale of real estate, no restrictions of education to the wealthy, no exclusive gov ernmental favor for the rich.  We are accustomed to see the rich become poor,
and the poor become rich; and we are proudt of our country because here the
career is open to talent, while in Europe it is, comparatively speaking, open only
to hereditary wvealth.  MLost of the rich men of Europe are the sons and grandsons of rich men; in the United States the rich men are mostly the sons and
almost invariably the grand-sons of poor men.  We are then not frightened to
think that those families which hold large sums in government and other bonds
should be poorer in half a century than they now are or were thousands of years
ago.  New deposits of silver will be found, and the innumerable rich lodes in
the Pacific slope of the United States, not yet opened, will be worked withli profit.
The m.lining processes are now b)eing studied by numerous learned and able men,
and improvement after improvement will be made in the modes of reduction.
The inevitable fall in the value of the Secious metals will be a benefit to
mankind generally.  It will reduce the wealth of the rich, and the debts of
nations.  The dollar of debt which represents the day's work of a common
laborer, will, before the end of the century, represent only four-fifths, perhaps
only two-thirds of a day's work. Thus, national debts now existing will be
reduced 20 or 33 per cent.-the interest as well as the principal.  The decrease,
however, will be so slow that it will scarcely be felt by any one person; so the
general public will be benefitted while individuals will lose little.
Chevalier thinks that government should do all in its power to keep the
relative value of a dollar at the present standard; but it would be hard to find
any good reason for such a policy.
The amount of bonds outstanding to be paid by the United States for national,
State, county, city, and railroad debts is not less than $5,000,000,000, and a
reduction of 50 per cent. in that debt by a fall of 50 per cent. in the value of
gold and silver, will be a vast benefit to the nation. Chevalier assumes that
gold will fall, and he urges France to make silver the only legal tender, so that
loss to the bondholders and the gain to the government may be as little as
possible.  Ile says, "if both metals remain legal tender, as they then were in
France, debtors will pay in whichever proves to be the least in value."  While
a change firom the present policy in this country and in England, France and
many other countries would seem to be of very doubtful expediency, it might
be wvorthy of consideration, under certain contingencies, whether our government,
looking at the matter from a different stand point, should not make both metals
legal tender, so that the government should have the benefit of any change in
relative value.
132.9
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AiND TERRITORIES
FOREIGN STATES AND TERRITORIES
LOWER CALIFORNIA.*
GEOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES.-The peninsula of Lower California extends
from the 23d to near the 32d degree of north latitude, about 775 miles in a direct line, and
varies in width from about 35 miles in its narrowest part to more than twice that where it is
widest. Bounded on one side by the Gulf of California and the Colorado river, and on the
other by the Pacific ocean, it has a coast line greater in proportion than almost any tract of
similar area in the world. Nor is this all; owing to its extremely irregular outline, this
coast is almost a succession of bays, harbors, and roadsteads, fuirnishing convenient depots
for the numerous whalers who resort here.
The general impression seems to have been that the whole peninsula was a mass of rugged
mountains, dry. barren, and desolate. This is by no means the case: there are mountains,
and a large part of the country is dry and desolate enough; but it has many redeeming
features, and wherever water exists its fertility is astonishing.  That portion lying south of
La Paz is by far the roughest, has the highest and most rugged mountains, the deepest valleys, and is in all respects the most picturesque.  The San Lazaro chain starts as low hills
near Cape San Lucas, and running north and northeast, culminating in the peak of San
Lazaro, perhaps 5,000 feet high, falls near Triunfo to not much more than 1,000 feet, and
continuing northeast again, rises in the high and frowning masses of the Cacachilas, making
a most imposing background to the beautiful town of La Paz, as seen from the bay.  Small
spurs run out from the San Lazaro chain down to the west coast, while eastward spurs and
nearly parallel chains fill in the whole area to the eastern coast. Beautiful valleys nestle
among these mountains.  The valley of San Jos6 dei Cabo runs northward, east of the high
mountains, about 20 miles in length, much of it in a high state of cultivation, and with
much more that could be easily rendered arable at trifling expense. Other valleys, smaller
in size but similar in most respects, occur, scattered here and there, and even on the summit
of the high spur known as the Sierra de la Victoria is said to be a long chain of little valleys with the richest soil, finest of grass, a superabundance of clear, sweet mountain water,
and bordered by groves and forests of saks and pines. North of this granite mass, and
extending with some trifling breaks to Sta. Gertrudi's or San Borja, lies a belt of table mountains of sandstones. These almost everywhere commence on the west coast as broad plains,
rising towards the northeast so gradually that, were it not for their being cut by innumerable
canons which show their steadily increasing height, one might still believe himself to be but
a few feet above the ocean.
The regular elevation of the tables continues to within a few miles of the gulf, where a
sudden descent cuts them off with a face so precipitous that, except in a very few places, it
is impossible to find a pass by which to reach the coast.  Seen from the west side, the mountains look like a sea of flat tables, barren and covered with loose stones; while from the
eastern face they are steep, rugged, and so serrated as to lose entirely their tabular form. On
- -EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.-An important and( interesting scientific reconnoissance of the
peninsula of Lower California was made last vear, under the direction of Mr. J. Ross Browne, who organize(d a party in San Francisco, consisting of'Mr. Wm. M. Gabb, of the State Gcological Survey; Dr. F.
Von Lohlir, of the School of Mines of Freiberg, and a corps of assistants. The results of the expedition
have not yet been published.  MIr. Browne and his party landed at Cape St. Lucas, from which point they
proceedcd by the coast trail to San Jos6 del Cabo; thence through the valley of the same  name to the
mining district of Triunfo, near the town of San Antonio.  Here they spent several days examining the
nines; after w hichl they visited La Paz and Pichiluigue, on the Gulf of California.  At La Paz they had an
insterview with Governor Pedlin on the subject of the proposed colonization of the Territory by Americans.
the general feeling of the people on that subject seemed to be favorable; but no encouragement was given
to the project by the officers of the Mexican goverllment then in power.  Judge Galvan, who has since
become governor of Lower California, is not considered inimical to American occupation; and the probability i,, lie  ill use his influence to promote the settlement and development of the Territory, should he be
permitted to remain in power, which is questionable.  On returning to Triunfo, Mr. Browne and his party
procured an outfit of pack-mules and saddlc-animals, and crossed the peninsula to the bay of Todos Santos.
iFrom that point they made a dreary journey up the coast to the bay of Magdalena.   Water is scarce along
the trail, and the country presents but few attractions, having an almost uninterrupted desert of sand and
i ocky masses, sparsely covered with cactus and thorny shrubs.  At Salado, an isolated water-hole, seven
miles fiom Magdalena, the party encamped to recruit their animals.  Several days were spent in visiting
the neig,lloring shores of Magdalena, but no water was found nearer than Salado, and the whole country
seemed to b)e wvithout resources.  Two w  hale-ships lay at anchor, from which Mr. Browne procured a boat
and crcw to make an exploration of the bay.  Dividing his party, he started the main branch of the expeditio1 acioss to Loreto, and thence, as experience and the object of the reconnoissance might suggest, northw-ard throughl the peninsula to San Diego.  Having made a careful examination of the bay of Magdalena
and its shores, and gathered material for an interesting report, Mr. Browne crossed the peninsula again, via
San Ililario, to La Paz, where he remained a short time, revisiting Pichiluigue and the Triunfo. Returning
thence to Cape St. Lucas, he crossed the gulf to Mazatlan, and fiom that point obtained passage in the governmeant steamer Suawnee to San Francisco.  His forthcoming official report on the mineral resources of the
States and Territories West of the Rocky Mountains contains a very interesting and valuable contribution
on the geology of the countmy, friom the pen of Mr. Gabb, who, with his party, crossed the peninsula ten
times, makinig the entire trip fi-om Cape St. Lucas to San Diego on mule-back.  As this is the first and only
scientific reconnoissance ever made of the peninsula of Lower California, the account from Afr. Gabb will be
found of great interest and value.  (Asmerican Journal of Mning.)
630 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
this side, and adjoining the coast, are some good little valleys; south of Loreto, for per
haps 20 miles, is a tract of level land bordering the coast, and often a couple of miles wide,
most of it covered with a fertile soil. Further north, at San Bruno, at San Juan, and again
south of Moleje, are broad valleys forming bays in the hills, from three to ten square leagues
in area, and all excellent land, only requiring water to be brought to the surface to render
them valuable.  On the west side, adjoining the Pacific, is a plain from near Todos Santos to
the mouth of the arroyo of Purissima, about 150 to 200 miles in length, and with an average
width of perhaps 10 miles, more than half of which is covered with good fertile soil, but
without water. In the various canons which cut the mesa lands, embouching on this plain,
are little valleys of from a few acres to several square miles in extent, usually well watered,
and some of them in a high state of cultivation.  Further niorh, between the bays of Ballenas and San Sebastian, the plains exist again, merging into mesas on the east, but separated
from the sea by a range of granite mountains parallel with the coast, known as the Sta.
Clara range.  Still further north, these plains continue with occasional interruptions to Rosarita, where they are cut off by the rolling mountain masses reaching the west coast. These
northern plains are, however, for the most part deserts, though a portion could perhaps be
reclaimed.
Near MAoleje the eastern side of the range undergoes a change. The abrupt eastern face
falls to some extent and retreats from the coast, the intervening space being filled with rolling hills or barren transverse ridges almost to Sta. Gertrudi's. In this space is the high volcanic mass of Las Virgines, nearly 4,000,feet high, and running westward from it to near
San Ignacio is a succession of irregular peaks and ridges of volcanic origin.
By the time the traveller has gone a day's journey north of Sta. Gertrudi's he will observe
a change coming in the formn of the mountains. The heavy sandstone beds that formed the
mesas begin to thin out, only cropping some of the higher hills, the others being peaks,
ridges, and spurs of granite with the irregularity of outline which usually characterizes that
rock. This transitionary state continues for the next hundred miles, to San Boija, beyond
which the range on the east side splits, sending off a branch of low hills to the northwest,
the main chain continuing along the east coast. This latter chain continues, high, rough,
and foirbidding, to Santa Maria, beyond which it extends as a low range of lava-capped
granite hills of constantly diminishing altitude, until it i.; lost in the desert of the northeast. In the mean time, the spur which started from San Boija as a chain of partially isolated
hills becomes more marked near the coast, and after passing San Andres it assumes very
respectable proportions, growing larger and higher, entirely occupying half the width of the
peninsula and connecting with the coast ranges of Upper California. East of this, and north
of Santa Maria, the country is represented to be mostly a sandy desert, with a few fertile
spots. Scattered through the western foot-hills, and along the flanks of the range bordering
the Pacific, are many beautiful and fertile valleys, which will be mentioned more in detail
further on.
The water-courses of the country are hardly worthy of a separate mention. Of rivers,
properly speaking, there are none. The largest streams are but a few feet in width, except
some few iu the extreme northern portion, adjoining Upper California. In the valley of San
Jose del Cabo is a little rivulet, fed by the springs in the granite ranges, and furnishing an
abundant and steady supply rf water for irrigating purposes.  A smaller but equallysteady
stream is found at Todos Santos, and is the means of keeping up the prosperity of the
place. Similar permanent streams exist at Comondo, Purissima, San lgnaclo, and elsewhere, and by supplying moisture to the soil, enable these places to support a comparatively
4ense population. These streams invariably sink on reaching the plains, and are lost to the
surface, though the water could be regained by shallow wells or carried on the surface by
ditches, thereby much increasing their usefulness.  This latter plan was successfully followed by the missionaries in several instances, the most valuable of which is at the deserted
mission of Guadalupe, where the water of San Jose creek was secured above the sink and
carried several miles in a ditch or canal, the dilapidated ruins of which still exist. At Rosario,
San Ramon, Guadalupe, and Fia Juana are streams, one or two of which would be called
rivers in Upper California; that at San Ramon and the Rio Fia Juana carrying as much water
as Los Angeles river, if not more.  Besides the above there are miany smaller streamis, flowing perennially in the canlons, along a part or the whole of the courses, which I have not
deemed worthy of special mention.
Adjoining or lying a little distance from the coast are numerous islands, several of which
are from 20 to 50 miles in length. In the gulf the largest is that of the Angel de la Guarda,
or the Guardian Angel, said to be rich in minerals, but very rock!y and desolate. Further
south, below Loreto, is the long, narrow island, noted for its salt, called Carmin island.
Still further south, near La Paz, are the three islands known as San Josef, Espiritu Santo,
and Cerralbo. On the west coast we have, among many others, the large island of Margarita,
forming one side of Magdalena bay; and lying off the coast, opposite the bay of San Sebastian, is the large island of Cerros, or Cedros, claimed to be rich in copper, and famed for its
wild goats. Most of these islands are very rough and inhospitable, and entirely unsuited
for either farming or grazing purposes.
As before mentioned, the whole coast line might be said to be nearly a succession of harbors. Most of these are, of course, small, shallow, partially exposed, or have some other
631
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
drawbacks, but several will compare well with any other ports on the west coast.  Perhaps
the finest is the bay of Magdalena. This bay, in the neighborhood of 100 miles from Cape
San Lucas on the Pacific side, is about 50 miles in length and, in places, several miles wide.
It communicates with the ocean by two entrances, one at each end of Margarita island, and
is well protected to the seaward by the sanie island.  Its importance as a naval station for
our vessels cannot be overrated, and if our government does not secure it for this purpose,
soine European nation will be very apt to make an effort to obtain it so soon as its value
shall become known.  Should any colony of foreigners ever settle in Lower California, it
will probably be placed on the plains bordering the long northern arm of the bay, where the
soil is extremely fertile, and an abundance of water can be obtained from shallow wells.
Nearly opposite to Magdalena bay is the harbor of La Paz, a fine bay, well protected from
all winds, except the fearful hurricanes or "temporales" which blow in the months of September and October, and come from such a quarter as to blow directly up the bay. Fight or
nine miles down the bay from the town is a sheltered nookl, called Pichilingue, used by the
United States war vessel on this station as a coaling station.  Here vessels are safely protected
on all sides. Half way up the west coast are two large bays-Ballenas, opening towards the
southwest, and San Sebastian Viscaino, opening towards the northwest.  Into the iormer enmpties the San Ignacio lagoon, and into the latter Scammen's lagoon.  These lagoons are two
land-locked bays, with comparatively narrow entrances, and much frequented by whalers.
They are said to have many shoals, though the channels are sufficiently deep for large vessels.  It would be useless, in the present connection, to mention in detail the numberless
other pcrts on the two coasts. Suffice it to say that there are many used by the regular
coasting trade, such as the Puerto Escondido, the harbors of Loreto, Moeje, Sta. Maria, Sta.
Domingo, andmany others.
There is still another item perhaps worthy of notice under this head. Several railroad
routes across northern Mexico have been canvassed. Most of these have been spoken of as
having their western terminus from Mazatlan northward.   Should such an enterprise ever be
carried to a successful termination, a short cut across the peninsula would be of value to
shorten the distance around the cape.  Several possible routes exist, all of which, with one
exception, would be required to pass through Purissima or San Ignacio.  From the port of
San Bruno, or the neighboring one of San Juan, it is claimed( that there is a low pass to the
head of the Pur.ssima arroyo.  I did not visit this; but if a road could be led into the head
of the Purissima arroyo it could then reach the west coast at, say the port of San Juanico,
without further engineering difficulties. From the port of Santa Inez or San Marcos, above
Moleje, an easy route exists up the arroyo of Sta. Aguida to the base of the main chain.
Here a mountain, about 600 feet above the valley, has to be surmounted or tunnelled to reach
the airoyo of San Ignacio.  Another way to reach San Ignacio is perhaps easier, however.
From the port of Sta. Maria, north of the volcano of the Virgins, there is no obstruction,
following the arroyo of Sta. Maria until we reach the pass of the Inferno.  Here a tunnel of
about a mile in length would carry the road to the mesa above San Ignacio, having a gentle
grade to the San Ignacio lagoon.  The easiest route, however, is from the port of San Luis
by way of the arroyo of Calaumjuit, past the old mission of that name, to the mesa of Sta.
Ana, along this mesa to the valley of San Andres, and down this valley and the arroyo of
San Andres to the coast. Along the whole line there will be no tunnelling required; nature
has already made the deep cuts, and there is not a stream to cross. An almost continuous
plain extends from coast to coast, without a greater rise anywhere than 30 feet.
GF:OLOGY.-The three geographical divisions into which I have separated the peninsula
are dependent for their peculiar features on their geological structure. The rough mountains
of the south are almost wholly granitic, the table lands of the middle are made up of nearly
horizontal sandstones and volcanic rocks, while the more northern portions combine the
ragged and irregularly-disposed ridges of the south with occasional flat-topped mountains,
capped by ro(ks of sedimentary or eruptive origin.
All of the higher ridges of the southern extremity of the Territory are made up of granites
and sienites, and formed, during the deposition of the heavy bedded mesa sandstones, an
island of considerable height and very irregular outline. The structure of these mountains
is so simple that a further description is unnecessary. It is not until within half a mile
south of the mining town of San Antonio that any change in the geology occurs. Here
mica slate is encountered for the first time, and forms a belt several miles wide, and running
from Todos Santos, on the southwest, past San Antonio and Triunfo, northeast. It probably extends into the Cacachilas range, and forms there, as at the other mining districts,
the country rock of the metalliferous veins. Beyond the mica slate again, on the road
between Triunfo and La Paz, granite is encountered, making the face of the range and
extending to near the latter town.
In all of the valleys scattered through these mountains, and in some of the lone hills on
the east side of the peninsula, are sedimentary formations of a comparatively late geological
age. At Santiago I was informed that three miles northeast of that place is a locality where
large fossil oysters occur in great abundance, and that they are collected and burnt for lime.
I had no opportunity of visiting the locality, a circumstance which I have regretted ever
since. A short distance further northeast, near the coast, at a rancho called Los Martyres,
is a high hill of sandstones, without fossils, dipping to the westward at an angle of about
632 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
15~. From its general appearance it is, in all probability, of the same age as the sandstones
which make up the mesas above La Paz. In none of these sandstones have I ever succeeded
in finding fossils by which to obtain a clue to their geological age. They probably, however,
belong to the same group as the Miocene sandstones of Upper California. Tihey have in
many respects the same lithological characters, and bear the same relations to the granites
that those rocks hold where we have had an opportunity of proving their ace. Besides this
very doubtful testimony, there is still another item of evidence which, in the absence of any
better, should have some weight.  Mr. John Xantus, an able collector, sent fiom Cape San
Lucas to the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, a feiw fossil oysters, which, if
my memory does not deceive me, belong to a species very characteristic of the Upper Californian Miocene-O. titan, Conrad.  Should I be correct, this is important, though half a
dozen years is a long interval, particularly if one had never devoted any especial attention
to the specimens remembered.
With so little evidence of their age, therefore, I have hesitated about pronouncing a decided
opinion, preferring to leave it an open question, trusting that some future explorer will be
more lucky than myself, and discover fossils from which these rocks can be assigned to their
proper place in the geological scale. In consequence of the difficulty I have adopted the
provisional name of mesa sandstone in speaking of the formation.
In addition to this sandstone, which will probably be found to have a considerable development along the gulf side below La Paz, there is an extensive deposit of horizontal gravels
filling or bordering all of the valleys, sometimes making, in part or in whole, the division
between them, and lying unconformably on the upturned sandstones, as at the Martyres.
This gravel formation is evidently the most modern deposit in the country, perhaps newer
than the recognized post pliocene beds, which will be described further on It is usually
made up of debris of the underlying granite, but in some places contains boulders of a porphyry closely resembling some which we encountered several hundred miles further north,
overlying post pliocene strata.  This porphyry is most abundant in the vicinity of the Martyres, and fiom there northward.  In a few places the gravel is replaced by a fine grairia
sandstone, and is occasionally, though rarely, disturbed, as at the Cuevas, where it tilted
three or four degrees. Almost everywhere this formation takes on the form of level terraces,
though often very much cut up by dry gulleys   At Sta. Anita and at Santiago, where they
arebest developed, these terraces are about 60 feet high and well defined.   ihey also exist
at Todos Santos, and northward along the coast for many miles. At Todos Santos the main
terrace is about 60 feet in height, but there is also another in the arroyo of about half the
height.  The latter is limited in extent and seems to be very local.  Going northward the
elevation diminishes until at last the tabular character is entirely lost.  On the northern border of the mountains, approaching La Paz from the south, are encountered for the first time
volcanic rocks in place. These form hills of firom 500 to 700 feet high, of volcanic ash overlaid by beds of compact porphyries and trachytes.  The rocks are pretty regularly stratified
and mostly dip to the west and northwest, though northeast of La Paz the disturbance is
general, and the dip in every direction.  The ash is to some extent quarried for building
purposes, and the new church or cathedral now in process of construction is being built of
this material.
After leaving the granitic ranges south of La Paz the whole appearance of the country
changes, and with it the geological structure. The granite itself has disappeared, only to
show itself as one or two insignificant outliers, and in its place come enormous deposits of
sandstones forming fiat-topped mountains, ragged and precipitous along the east coast, but
sloping off so gradually towards the Pacific as to merge insensibly into the broad low plains
of the west. Pretty regularly bordering the west coast and occurring occasionally alonf
the gulf are deposits of post pliocene age, in places filled with and almost made up of the
casts or shells of mollusca, still living in the adjoining waters. Penetrating both these formations, and often capping one or the other or both indiscriminately, are deposits of volcanic
origin. These volcanic rocks usually occur as dikes or broad superficial sheets which have
been spread over the top of the mesa subsequent to the deposition of the post pliocene, and
are by no means uniform either in thickness or in the manner of their distribution.  Very
few volcanic cones exist. Almost the only ones are the volcano of the Virgines, north of
Moleje, and a series of cones and ridges extending westward to near San Ignacio. Elsewhere the eruptions appear to have taken place in the form of long fissures, forming dikes,
which, having spread their surplus over the surrounding plains, have closed, never again to
reopen.  In this manner immense areas have been covered with caps of eruptive rocks often
100 feet thick, the source of which is now entirely hidden, an occasional hint only existing
in the denuded section of some bluff where the dike has been cut through by the agency of
running water.
The post pliocene rocks usually lie on the lower margins of the mesa in such a manner as
to show that they were deposited during the period of elevation of this portion of the peninsula. The older mesa sandstones are usually so.little disturbed that the two formations seen'
conformable, though sufficient evidence exists to prove that the elevating force had been
acting for a long time before the oldest beds of the newer formation were deposited. This
later series consists of fine grained argillaceous sandstones and shales, some coarser light
gray sandstone, and lastly a thin bed, highly fossiliferous, as are also some of the earlier
i
I
633
I
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
strata, but the latter highly calcareous. Where the series remains unbroken, this last stratumn
is always the highest, and it is nearly made up of the casts of living species of shells, Ostrea
Cummingii being almost the only one retaining its structure. At Purissima, on the west
slope, the mesa sandstones have been folded in a series of long and graceful undulations,
the tops denuded to a nearly straight line, and the post pliocene lies unconformably capping
the surface. On the opposite side of the mountains bordering the gulf there are still more
marlked instances of unconformability, which will be described in their proper place.
The mesa sandstones are easily distinguished from the overlying rocks by their coarser
grain, greater compactness, and above all by their being highly metamorphosed along the
greater part of their eastern margins.  Another marked feature is the presence of large quantities of boulders and pebbles of volcanic rocks imbedded in them, sometimes to such an
extent as to form even a preponderance of the bulk of some strata. These boulders are
uniformly small and very much rounded near the west coast wherever the rock is encountered, and increase in size towards the vicinity of Loreto, or rather towards that part of the
coast a little below Loreto, in such a manner as to point unmistakably to this region for their
origin.  Not only does the size increase, hut in the same ratio is the increase in number and
the decrease in the amount of attrition to which they have been subjected. The lithological
characters vary markedly from those of any eruptive rocks encountered in place on the peninsula; no similar rocks have been discovered between the mesa sandstones and the underlying granite, and the only reasonable conclusion which can be arrived at is that they must
have been derived from a body of land which formerly lay in that region now occupied by
the gulf, and somewhere in the vicinity of, or a little south of, Carmrin island.
Another striking feature of this region is the peculiar manner of the elevation of the mesa.
It has not been lifted by an evenly distributed force; not, like most mountain chains, by a
folding along a given axis.  The eastern side seems to have felt this force almost alone, the
elevation of that portion lying to the west seeming to be due almost as much to the rigidity
of the rocks as to the extension westward of the uptilting power. More properly speaking,
the great force was exerted very nearly parallel with what is now the coast line of the gulf,
and from there towards the Pacific this agency diminished so gradually as to produce no
breaks or even foldings worthy of mention. We thus have the whole width of this portion
of the peninsula tilted up by its edge from coast to coast, so that travelling eastward one
can hardly realize the rise until, within 15 or 20 miles of the east coast, he finds himself on
the verge of a precipitous descent of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet in height.  This eastern escarpmnent extends from near La Paz to near Moleje, with but few interruptions, and exhibits
nearly everywhere the projecting edges of nearly horizontal beds of sandstone, sometimes
unaltered, but usually metamorphosed. During the imperfect examinations which our limited time permitted us to make I was unable to determine whether this sudden cutting off of
the otherwise undisturbed beds was due to a gigantic fault, or whether the eastern slope of
an anticlinal axis had been carried away by denuding agencies. From what little we saw,
strong arguments could be deduced in support of either hypothesis, but I prefer leaving the
qlvestion an open one, content with having called the attention of future students to its solution. It is certain, hovwever, that a well-marked axis, if not several, exists further north;
and even at the Sauce, near Loreto, the presence of a mass of granite at the base of the
Sierra Gigantea, evidently exposed by denudation, seems to point to this agency as the means
of solving the difficulty.
On the west side the post pliocene strata form a strip extending from below Magdalena
bay to near San Telmo, with but very few interruptions. The eastern margin of this belt is
pretty clearly defined by the elevation of the mesa, rarely reaching but a few hundred feet
above the level of the sea. It extends to the coast except along that portion lying between
the bays of Ballenas and San Sebastian, where the granite range of Sta. Clara cuts it off.
On the east side, near Loreto, it occurs as hills several hundred feet in height, uptilted at
an angle, as high in parts as 55~, and dipping to the northeast. This disturbance appears
to be due in a very great measure to the intrusion of a large mass of volcanic rocks, which
separate the more modern formation from the mesa sandstones. The belt continues with
slight interruptions to near the Sauce, where the post pliocene sandstones, very full of fossils,
lie horizontally, abutting against the face of uptilted mesa sandstones, which are here highly
metamorphic.
Proceeding westward a mile or two, the older sandstones become horizontal, assuming this
position by a gentle curve, their edges abutting against a mass of granite. Still further west,
this granite mnass is seen to underlie the undisturbed horizontal beds of the same sandstones,
which make the great mass of the mountain. Dykes of trachytes and porphyries cut alike
the granite and sandstone, and in a beautifully exposed section on the face of the Gigantea,
can be seen running entirely to the surface of the mountain, over whose flat top they have
.pread a rocky mantle, which extends almost to the plains of the Pacific.
Space forbids me to describe in detail all of the minuter features of the geology of the
country. Suffice it here to say that except the retreating of the summit from the coast above
Moleje, and the presence of the belt of volcanic cones from San Ignacio to the volcano of
Las Virgines, there are no matters of special interest, until we reach Sta. Gertrudis, over
70 miles above San Ignacio, and just west of the summit of the range. Here a mass of
granite appears in the bottom of an arroyo, very similar in character to that at the Sauce.
634 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The overlying sandstones are not disturbed by it, but lie horizontally over it, or abut against
the irregularities of its surface. Northward from Sta. Gertrudis the mesa sandstones almost
disappear, except in the higher mountains to the east. In this region they seem to retain
their former thickness, but little abated to near the bay of San Luis, where very much
metamorphosed, disturbed and uptilted, they gradually run out in a series of low ridges.
Very soon after leaving Sta. Gertrudis, on the road to San Borja, these rocks thin out, capping only a portion of the higher mountains, the great mass of the country being granite.
The other stratified rocks, both post pliocene and volcanic, at times occupy similar posi
tions, and sometimes the whole three are found in their regular sequence on the summit of
the same hill.  The volcanic, however, has been all of this time gaining ground, while the
others are losing, and eventually at the Paraiso, and over the adjoining mesa, it is the only
rock found capping the granite.  At Trinidad and near Rosarito, below San Bolja, a few
outliers of post pliocene form hills 200 and 300 feet high, resting on granite, and usually
capped by volcanic rocks.  Again, at San Andres forming low, flat hills, underlying the
valley of San Andres, and forming the broad plains of Sta. Ana, we have the post pliocene
extremely developed and extending to and abutting against the highly uptilted mesa sandstones at Calaumjuit. Bordering the northern elge of the mesa of Sta. Ann, and north
of the bay of San Luis, extending almost from coast to coast is a mass of granite, which
rises at Sta. Maria to a height of about 3,000 feet, and is here capped by thin beds of the
same sandstones, which form the plain of Sta. Ana.  In most cases this sandstone on  the
summit of the mountains is capped with a thin deposit of volcanic rocks. The same structure
appears to continue northward, as well as we could determine at a distance, as far as the
range could be seen. Going westward towards San Fernando the valleys were at first all
scooped out in granite, the higher hills being formed at Sta. Maria; but by their steadily
dimiinishing height, the post pliocene first, and eventually the volcanic rocks reached the
plains, and the granite disappeared. Crossing the plains of Buena Vista, the road enters
the mountains of the west side, near San Fernando, and we found the structure somewhat
different from anything we had encountered further south. The structure is essentially that
of a broad granite core, flanked by stratified volcanic rocks, with many beds of ash, and not
unfrequently uptilted at high angles. This is the case on both sides of the chain, and colntinues to beyond San Diego. Westward, beyond the volcanic rocks, and adjoining the coast,
is a broad belt of horizontal post pliocene beds, which, with occasional interruptions, extends
to and even beyond San Diego, being cut off several times where the crystalline rocks reach
the coast. We had no opportunity of examining the geology of the eastern side of the range,
north of San Fernando, but I have no reason to suppose that any changes of importance
take place in that region. From Rosario, where the road reaches the west coast, after passing
through San Fernando, our route lay along the western flank of the mountain, sometimes
on the beach, sometimes across the late tertiary tables, and occasionally through the rocky
foot-hills of the range. There was no important variation from the structure described
above along the route, except at the salt ponds of San Quentin, where there is an isolated
group of low hills, composed of a dark gray, cellular trachyte, much of it filled with rests
of olivene, and some parts having an obscure basaltiform tendency. These hills have
no obvious connection with the main range, and the rocks of which they are composed are
entirely different from any rocks of, similar origin encountered elsewhere.
VARIOUS RESOURCES OF TIlE TERRITOiRY-MINING.-" Prospecting" has been carried
on over the whole length and breadth of the country, but, on the whole, without very marked
success. In the mica slate range of the south, valuable silver mines have been found, and
in the firontiers a single mine of copper has been opened, which promises well.
Of gold mines there have been many, but at the present time not one is being worked.  In
the granite hills neat Cape San Lucas gold has been undoubtedly found, but it seems that
the quantity was very small, and the locality is now forgotten. Further north, about San
Antonio there has been some placer mining on a small scale. Women have washed the
gravel of the arroyo in bateas or wooden bowls, obtaining a pittance per day, and the custom
has been kept up during the rainy seasons from time immemorial. Some foreigners who
desired to build a dam and wash out the arroyo at once, were refused permission by the
authorities, on the ground that it would deprive the women of their time-honored privileges.
In the granite mountains from Sta. Gertrudis to San Borja, and even in the metamorphic
sandstones, almost as far south as San Ignacio, there are innumerable tunnels, shafts, and
'coyote holes," where attempts have been made to find paying quartz mines.  They are
now, without exception, abandoned.  In most cases the veins were found to be unreliable,
mniere pockets or strings, and even in these the quantity of gold was not sufficient to pay for
working.
Similar attempts have been made to discover or develop silver mines. These are reported
as existing about San Boija, on the island of the Guardian Angel, on the main land opposite
this island, on the island of Margarita, and ill numberless other places, none of which have
ever yielded anything nor probably ever will.
About 45 miles below La Paz is the mining district of Triunfo and San Antonio.  Here
there are several veins known, only one or two of which have been sufficiently developed to
form a positive opinion as to their value. Mining has been carried on on all of the veins
since the time of the missionaries, but only for the purpose of obtaining the decomposed
635 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
surface ores, which could be amalgamated without roasting.  The result of this kind of work
has been to expose the veins along the greater part of their course by series of shallow pits
honey-combing the surface and rendering travelling across the hills rather perilous to a
stm,anger.  These ores (called "azoqu6," or quicksilver metal,) were worked in arrastras and
amalgamated without difficulty, the silver existing in its metallic state, freed by decomposition of the sulphurets. As soon as the excavations reached the unaltered ores of the deeper
part of the vein, known as  " fire-metal," they were abandoned and new openings made.
About 9 or 10 years ago, however, systematic work was undertaken, by a company fronm
Mazatlan, on a couple of mines called the San Pedros and San Nicholas.  They have a body
of good ore varying from 1l inches to three feet, mostly of excellent quality, and have been,
for a number of years past, in the habit of shipping their first-class ore to Germany.  The
material shipped averages over $l00 per ton of silver, and the expenses of mining, freight,
and everything, up to the time of delivery in Freiberg, amounts to about $70. This is too
much; the ore could be worked on the spot at a greatly diminished expense, and if the company had their own mill they could work inferior ores, too poor for shipment, and which are
now thrown away.  The manner in which the mines are worked is execrable, the person in
charge having hardly an idea of the first principles of mining engineering.
On the same vein, three or four miles south, are the mines of the Triunfb Company.  They
possess four mines on this vein and three on another adjoining to and parallel with the first.
Of these two have been well opened and are yielding the ore now being worked at the mill.
The two are the Mendocenia and Molinefia.  The former is on the summit of a ridge, and
was first opened by an inclined shaft or slope on the vein.  The slope, rarely higher than
200, was, at the time of our visit, about 550 feet deep, with five levels running each way
fiom 50 to 300 feet.  The vein is from 8 to 15 feet wide, and throughout carries a body of
ore averaging about, if not over, four feet.  The lower 50 feet of the vein had a body nearer
five than four feet.  The ore does not lie in chimneys, but in a continuous sheet, extremely
uniform both in thickness and quality.  It is a compound of various sulphurets, in which
antimony and lead predominate.  From a series of carefully made assays, Mr. L6hr reports
that the average ores, such as are being worked at the mill, contain from $90 to $124 per
ton, while picked specimens assayed as high as $225.  In the Mendocefla mine alone we
computed that there was ore enough exposed on the various levels to keep the present 24stamp mill running for over five years, working 20 tons per day.  Over 900 tons of ore were
stacked at the maill waiting for seduction, and on entering the mine wve could hardly tell
whence it had been taken.  Most of it had really been obtained while doing what is usually
counted "dead work" in the mine-sinking the slope and running the galleries.  Thie Molinefila is on the same vein and adjoining the Mendocenla, taking in the side of the hill. A
tunnel was being run on the vein here, intended to strike the base of the slope of the Mendoceflia and form its seventh level.  By this means a large amount of hoisting will be avoided
and all necessity for pumping obviated.  The other mines of the company are being opened
slowly. One en the adjoining vein has already yielded considerable ore, of a character differ.
ent from the other vein. In it zinc predominates, and the ore is said to be much less refractory than that fiom the Mendocefna.  This company started with a 10-stamp mill, and having
ascertained the proper method of working their ores, replaced it by one of 24 stamps, which
was receiving the finishing touches as we started on our way northward. Since then the
news has been perfectly satisfactory. The last two steamers have brought to San Francisco
bullion to the value of upwards of $30,000, as the result of about six weeks' actual working
of the ores. The company, in justice to itself, should at least double its mill capacity immediately.
Besides these mines, which I have described somewhat in detail, because they are the only
ones on which work was being actively prosecuted, there are many more on the same veins
which have been partially developed, and show every evidence of value.  Among these
might be mentioned more particularly the Sta. Maria, the Soledad, and the Fortuna. In
eachl of these are good bodies of ore, identical in character with the Mendocefia or the Mexican mines.  I cannot here give a catalogue of all the mines which are known or supposed to
be valuable; suffice it to say that many others have been opened, and the time will doubtless
come when they will be all thoroughly proven.  Labor, wood, salt, and, in fact, all the accessories for the mining and reduction of silver ores, are cheaper here than in upper California
or Nevada, and as soon as Lower California shall have fulfilled her manifest destiny a new
era of life and activity must spring up here, and make this one of the most productive silver
districts on the coast.
Copper, like gold, is reported from nearly every part of the Territory; numberless mines
have been opened and invariably abandoned. The Delphina mine is the only one that seems
at all promising.  This mine is in the northwestern part, between San Telino and Sta.
Tomas.  The principal work is a shaft about 150 feet deep, which we did not examine, fearing the presence of gas at its bottom. There being nobody present who knew the mine, we
did not feel inclined to run any risks. On the surface, however, there has also been considerable work, and the vein appears in a cut, over 50 feet deep, to be very well defined, with
distinct walls and from five to seven feet wide. The ores, (of course surface ores,) oxides,
and carbonates are usually rich and abundant. Between 300 and 400 sacks are stacked at
the mine ready for shipment, and I have been informed that several hundred sacks more of
636 
\~
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
the same character are at San Isidro, the shipping point, awaiting a rise in the market price
of copper, so that the proprietors can sell without sacrifice. Of course it is impossible to
prophesy the future of a copper mine on the character of its surface ores, but it is claimed
that, so far as the work has gone, the vein has not changed materially in character.
Baser metals exist, also, in the Territory, but there has never been any active search made
for them, and many a year must elapse before they can become valuable. Coal has been
reported in a few places where it does not exist.  It is said to be found near the Ojo de Liebre; it may be that some "brea" or asphaltum is found there and the two minerals confounded,
a mistake that has often occurred in Upper California.
Salt occurs in almost innumerable localities, but there are three spots which are noted both
for the quantity and quality of the mineral there obtained. These are San Quentin, Ojo de
Liebre, and Carmiil island, in the Gulf. We did not visit either of the latter places, but,
contented ourselves with examining the ponds of San Quentin. These ponds or little lakes,
half a dozen in number, vary in area from one to five acres. They are situated near the
coast among a number of sand hills, and separated from the beach only by low ridges of
sand. They are quite shallow, and the salt crystallizes on the mud flats on their margins in
flakes of half an inch or more in thickness.  By a dexterous motion this salt is lifted, unsoiled
from its soft bed, thrown into heaps, whence it is carried to the vessel. At present the place
is abandoned. The royalty required by the Mexican government, the cost of collecting,
hauling, and shipping, and the high United States tariff on imported salt, in the aggregate
amount to so nearly the price of the material in San Francisco as to completely eat up all
profits, and thus effectually close the only market to which this salt can be taken.
Sulphur is found in moderate quantities near Moleje, and is said to be very abundant in
the vicinity of the volcano of the Virgines.
Gypsum, generally in its crystallized form of selenite, occurs in many places in the postpliocene rocks, or weathered out from them and scattered over the soil.  It also occurs near
Mloleje, but not in the enormous quantities which have been reported by interested parties.
AGRICULTURE.-The climate of Lower California is so mild that all the usually cultivated
plants of both tropical and temperate countries grow side by side in the open fields. The
lowest temperature we encountered in four of the coldest months of the year was 57~ Fabhrenheit, and the winter averages from  650 to 70~, so far as our own experience went.  Several species of palms are native, and the date grows wild, thoroughly acclimatized.  Plantains and bananas, figs, oranges, olives, lemons, limes, pomegranates, peaches, and, in the
northern parts, even apples grow and flourish, requiring but little care when first set out and
none afterwards.  Vineyards exist everywhere, and the native wine is infinitely superior in
quality to that of Upper California. Fields of sugar-cane are too common to excite remark,
and the manufacture of sugar is one of the most important interests of the southern part of
the peninsula. Tobacco and cotton are cultivated in various places, especially in the valleys
south of La Paz, and over more than half the Territory wild cotton is as common a weed as
is the Jamestown weed (straronzium) at home.  The castor bean grows wild, a perennial
tree with a woody trunk, and melons are so abundant that during their season they make
the greater part of the food of the people in some districts.
The principal agricultural regions are as follows: The vicinity of San Jose del Cabo and
along nearly the whole of the valley and its branches. Here wine, sugar, dried fruits, cotton, and tobacco are the principal products.  The cane fields extend as far as the eye can
reach from San Jose, and there is still plenty of unoccupied land, only requiring the digging
of ditches to render it available.  This is necessary, as everywhere else in Lower  and in
many parts of Upper California. On account of the rains being confined to the wet season,
the dry season being literally so, vegetation requires artificial assistance, Santa Anita, 12
miles up the valley from San Jose, is a lovely spot, connected with San Jos6 by an almost
continuous line of gardens, and beyond it are ranches scattered along on every piece of bottom land, to the head of the valley.  Santiago is a little group of houses surrounded by
similar farms and gardens, a sugar-mili or two being engaged at the time of our visit in finishing the work begun by the farmer. Miraflores, Las Palmas, Los Martyres, San B,,rtolo,
and numberless other spots prove that wherever an acre or two of level land, or even hillside,
can be irrigated, the yield is such as to make a farmer from the Atlantic States open his eyes
in amazement. We Californians are so accustomed to large crops and to seeing nature on an
exaggerated scale that we could bear it with a commendable degree of equanimity. About
San Antonio are many pretty little patches of ground, which will one day be cultivated, as
well as many spots on the road to and in the vicinity of La Paz.
Todos Santo has a valley of one or two square miles, most of which is planted in canes,
vineyards, and orchards, and every year yields a fine revenue to the owners.
Manlay little valleys and nooks exist among the granite mountains of the south, still unoccupied, and which will one day be brought into cultivation.
On the west coast, bordering the northern part of the Bay of Magdalena, and the long
arm which extends northward, are extensive plains, nearly level, rising insensibly to the
east, and, in great part, covered with a rich soil. These plains, almost throughout, destitute
of the scattered stones on the surface which render so much land on the peninsula valueless,
are covered with a dense vegetation, of which the larger species of the cactus make a great
part. There is no water on the surface, and this fact alone has prevented their settlement by 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
anativepopulation. As soon, however, as land shall becomevaluable this "monte" or "brush"
will be cleared off, wells dug, and nearly the whole tract will be cultivated.   Water of good
quality and unlimited in quantity can be obtained by shallow wells; the sea breezes will
supply the lifting power, and a population greater than can now be found from San Diego
to the cape can here find comfortable homes and an abundant subsistence.  South of Loreto
is a similar but much smaller tract, which also, like the former, has an excellent harbor of its
own.  Among the table mountains are San Luis, Comondu, Purissima, San Ignacio, and a
dozen smaller spots, some of which are in a high state of cultivation, while others are capable
of it were there life enough in the people to urge them to it. Purissima alone ships a thousand cargoes of dried fruits annually, not to mention large quantities of wine and sugar.
Comondu has several sugar-mills occupied the whole season, and the thousands of date
and fig trees of San Ignacio fairly force their treasures into the hands of an indolent and
worthless set of proprietors. The unappreciative and ignorant laziness of these miserable
people is enough to keep a live man, passing through their country, in a healthy and almost
chronic state ot indignation.  But one result can follow the American acquisition of Lower
California-the indolent mongrel race forming its population must give way before the
enlightened energy and restlessness of our own people, as it has done in Upper California and
Texas; and Anglo-American enterprise will, within a decade, render this Territory more valuable than would Mexican laziness in a century.
North of San Ignacio there is but little of value in an agricultural point of view until, having passed Santa Gertrudis and San Borja, we arrive at the broad and uninhabited valley
of San Andres. This valley, with the adjoining plains of Santa Ana, should, perhaps, be
rather classed with the grazing than the agricultural lands.  The only water existing naturally on the surface is at the mouth of the valley, where there is a lake of brackish water
more than half a mile long even in the dryest seasons. Animals drink it freely,and the grass
in the valley seemed unlimited. From the position of the rocks it is certain that water could
be obtained by wells, arid usually, in localities like this, the well water is good even when
that of the ponds is undrinklable. With wells and windmills several square miles of excellent
land could be here brought under cultivation, while an almost unlimited quantity of stock
could find pasture on the adjoining plains, or in the unoccupied portions of the valley. F'urther north are the plains of Buena Vista, in which there is no known water, but the remarks
on San Andres will, with slight modification, be applicable here also.  In the mountains
adjoining these plains is the deserted mission of San Fernando.  The traces of former cultivation still exist, and a few hundred dollars would be sufficient to repair the irrigating apparatus, so as to bring over 10O acres of good land into condition for planting.
From San Fernando to the boundary most of the arable land is in the possession of private
individuals, though some tracts still exist as public property, subject to denouncement, which
are by no means to be despised.
After passing St. Tomas we saw cereals growing without irrigations and with promise
of excellent crops. Wheat, barley, and oats were noticed, the former with full, large head3
and short stalks. Potatoes and apples, adjoining a grain field, on the Guadalupe ranch,
reminded us of home, but looked incongruous, associated with olives and figs and overshadowed by one or two tall and graceful fan palms.
GRAZING.-Lower California, as a whole, can never be very promising as a stock country.
Except in the extreme northern portions, the thorny nature of the undergrowth must prevent the successful raising of sheep for wool purposes, though mutton sheep would succeed
admirably were there a market for them.  Horses, cattle and mules thrive.  The common
forage plant is the well-known "bunch grass" so common over the whole Pacific slope.  It
is not until after leaving San Borja that the alfalfa burr and other clovexs, alfilerillo and other
lTpper Calitrnia plants, acquire any importance.  In the south, where severe droughts are
not uncommon, and where, at times, the grass disappears entirely, stock does not suffer.
Here tall animals fare the best.  Several trees of the acacia family, which never suffer from
drought, which grow everywhere, and on which animals feed with avidity, these take the
place of the ordinary pasture. The principal of these are the mesquite and lipna. We camped
repeatedly where there was hardly a blade of grass in sight, and yet our mules had all the
feed they wanted.
The high mesa lands about the summit of the Gigantea, and again between Sta. Gertrudi's
and San BoTja, are said to be never affected by drought. The constant fogs keep the grass
green nearly the entire year, and cattle flourish here no matter how dry the season may be
elsewhere. Still further north, between Rosario and San Diego, the country is so nearly
like Upper California, and is subject to so nearly the same climatic laws, that it properly
belongs with the Southern Coast Range section of the State. It is a series of valleys scattered
through the mountains, pretty well watered, and sharing the fortunes of California, good and
bad seasons.
FSISHERS.-Along the coasts, especially on the Pacific sides, the whale fishery is an
important interest. Most of the large bays, more particularly Magdalena, and Scammon's
and San Ignacio lagoons, are visited by vessels year after year in search of whales, which
frequent these waters, probably for breeding. There are, perhaps, as many as from 12 to 20
vessels engaged annually in this branch of enterprise.  Seal fishing has also attracted some
little attention, though not as much as it merits. Myriads of seals and sea-lions line the
638 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
shores and fall an easy prey to the hunter. On the gulf side the pearl fisheries have been
among the most famous in the world for more than a century. Ever since its commencemient, the annual y ield has averaged about $25,000 per year, and it is still carried on, but with
diminished activity.
CONcL,USION.-By reading the foregoing imperfect sketch it will be seen that while Lower
California is by no means the faultless country it might be; while by far the greater portion
can never be made available for either mining, agricultural, grazing or any other purposes;
while its mines are few, its agricultural lands limited, and its supply of water small, still its
position, its harbors, its climate, and its resources are sufficient to give it a real intrinsic
value.  From its position with relation to Upper California, it is much more an appendage
to this State than to Mexico. out of sight across the "Sea of Cortez."  It commands the
mouth of the Colorado, and thus affects the trade of the great interior basin east of the Sierra
Nevada.  Its harbors are neither few nor small, and they have a direct value with reference
to our trade and navv in the Central Pacific. Its agricultural products can be increased ip
quantity; its fisheries are, as yet, in their infancy, and its mines alone would be sufficient
'eason for its acquisition by the United States. Further, everywhere outside of the moral
influence of La Paz, the seat of government, the people are earnestly in favor of annexation,
and I am by no means certain that a popular vote on the question would not result in a
decided majority in favor of such a measure.
MEXICO.
MINING IN MEXICO.-Mexico is peculiarly a mining country, and indeed it has no industry
worthy of note save mining. The exportation of agricultural products and manufactured
articles does not average 75 cents annually to the inhabitant, while in highly civilized states
the average is from $10 to $50.
All the past and present importance of Mexico in the commercial world is due to its silver,
which attracted the Spaniards to the country and fixed there and determined the location of
their towns.   With the exception of the capital, to which, of course, the wealthy men
resorted to spend their money, Puebla and Guadalajara, manufacturing towns, and Vera
Cruz and Mazatlan, seaports, all the largest towns were built in the immediate vicinity of
the mines, or in the agricultural districts nearest the mines. Guanajuato was a place of
minor note till its great mineral wealth was discovered in the middle of the last century, and
then it suddenly rose to be the second city of the country, and the adjacent plains of Bajio
at the sanme time grew rich by agriculture; and in the same way the mining town of Zacatecas and the agricultural district of Aguas Calientes grew up side by side. Durango,
Chihuahua, San Luis Potosi, Alamos, and hundreds of others of less note are strictly mining
towns.
The total registered yield of the mines of Mexico from 1521 to 1803 is reported by Humboldt at $1,767,952,000, and he thinks that an allowance of onie-seventh should be made for
the unregistered yield, giving a total of $2,027,952,000. Ward estimates the quantity produced from 1810 to 1825 at $159,255,840. According to Whitney the yield of Mexico, previous to 1845, was $2,700,000,000; and if we allow an average of $20,000,000 for each of the
22 succeeding years, we have a total yield of $3,140,000,000 from 1521 to the end of 1866.
The average annual yield of the mines of Mexico was as follows, at various periods:
About ]700.................. $5,400,000 About 1810............... —-------------—.... $19,000,000
1740..................    9,000,000          1815................... 7,000,000
1770.................. 12,000,000          1t1820.......... 10,000,000
1790.................. 19,500,000                      |:841.. -....... 18,000,000
1800.................. *22,000,000
The amount coined in 1825 was $8,000,000; in 1835, $11,000,000; in 1845, $15,000,000;
in 1856, ~$19,000,000; and from 1821 to 1856, $2,636,745,951.
The opening of all the ports of the country to commerce, the great reduction in the price
of quicksilver caused by the large production of the New Almaden mines in California, and
the gradual increase of educated engineers and of mining machinery, have brought up the
production of the country to a higher figure than that reached at the beginning of the centurythat is, in years of comparative peace and order, such, for instance, as most of those from
1850 to 1860.
If Mexico had a government as good as that of Chili, and had railroad communication
from Vera Cruz and Mazatlan to all the principal mining districts, and were protected against
the Apaches, the production would at least double within ten years.
The argentiferous region of Mexico is a long triangle, 800 miles long from southeast to
northwest, 350 miles wide at the base on the northern boundary, having the city of Oajaca
for its southern point.
Nearly all the mining districts of any note are from 4,000 to 9,000 feet above the sea.  The
great elevation counteracts the torrid influence of the latitude, and many of the mining towns
have very cool climates.
*Duport, p. 193.      t Ib., 194.     1 Ib., p. 190.     ~ Lempriere, p. 214.
639 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
In most of the districts porphyry is found with micaceouns schlists, and the conjunctions of
those two iocks with quartz veins is considered an indication of silver.
The mode of mining generally is very rude.  No mine is accessible by railroad, and few
have w agon roads.  Usually the reduction works are at a distance from the mines, and the
ore is packed on mules. The ore is brought to the surface on the backs of men, up steep
inclines, or even up perpendicular shafts, the carriers climbing up on notched poles.  In
s ie mines the ore is carried by men to the shaft and there hoisted by whim.  There is no
mention in Humboldt or Ward of tramways and cars to bring the ore from remote parts of
the drift to the shaft.  Water is hoisted in the same manner as the ore.
Steam was not used previous to the revolution, but it has been coming into use gradually,
and now much of the hoisting, pumping, and pulverizing is done by it.
The general practice in Mexico as to pulverization has been to mash the ore to. a coarse
sand under the stamps, and then grind it fine in arrastras. The degree of fineness varies
much in the different districts, partly because of differences in the ores and modes of reduction,. and partly because of ignorance and prejudice.  At Guan,ajuato the ore is ground to an
impalpable pow der; at Zacatecas, Catorce, and Fresnillo, in a coarse flour.  In 1842, 82 per
cent. of the silver yield of Mexico was obtained by the yard amalgamation; 8 per cent. by
the Cazo or copper-pan amalgamation, and 10 per cent. by smelting.*  In 1800 one-seventh
was smelted.t
The proportion of smelted silver has been decreasing gradually, and will no doubt continie to decrease.  A hundred years ago it was two-fifths of the total yield.
Since the opening of the Washoe mines and the successfiul introduction of the iron-pan
amalgamation there, a number of mines have been purchased in Sonora, Sinalea, Chihuahua,
D)urango, and Lower California, by Americans, who have introduced machinery and American modes of working, and they would probably have obtained some splendid results, at
least in a few instances. before this time, if the civil war had not thrown everything into
confusion.
The average loss of mercury in the yard amalgamation is a pound and a half to one pound
of silver extracted.
The best writers on mining in Mexico agree that the country has great wealth as yetundevcloped, and that a time must come when the production of the precious metals will far surpass anything of the past.  Humboldt said he was "tempted to believe Europeans have
scarcely begun to profit by the inexhaustible fund of wealth contained in the New World.
Europe would be inundated with the precious metals if the deposits of ore at Bolanos, Batopilas, Somnbrerete, Rosario, Pachutca, Moran, Zultepec, Chihuahua, and so many other places
that enjoyed an ancient and just celebrity, were assailed at one and the same time with all
the means offered by the perfection to which the art of the miner has attained."
The opinion of Ward is given in the following passages:'" That the great mineral treasures of Mexico commence exactly at the point where Humboldt rightly states the labors of
the Spaniards to have terminated, (above latitude 24~,) is a fact now universally admitted
by the native miners, although heretofore but little known in Europe.  The states of Durango,
Sonora, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa contain an infinity of mines hitherto but little known, but
holding out, wherever they have been tried, a promise of riches superior to anything that
Mexico has yet produced.                             *                 In common I believe
with all those who have had an opportunity of inquiring into the resources of New Spain, I
do regard it so well ascertained a fact that her mineral riches are almost unexplored, that I
am willing to rest upon it my whole calculation with regard to her future importance as a
country."  (Ward, vol. 1, pp. 127-160.)
D)uport expresses himself thus: "After having visited only Tasco, Real del Monte, and
Guanaju ato, Humboldt said 40 years ago that there was enough silver in the Mexican mines
to flood the world: what x,ould he not have said if he had pushed his researches further
north? More strongly convinced than he could possibly he of the abundance of the argentiferous veins, I am not so confident about the brevity of the time within which the progress
of science in Europe, and the free intercourse of all nations with Mexico, can exert any considerable influence on the amount of the production of the precious metais."t
And again hlie says: "The want of capital, of political quiet, of population, and of education in the northwest of the republic, and of wide-spread scientific knowledge, and finally
the high price of mercury, are the obstacles which oppose the increase of the production of
the precious metal in Mexico. These causes will exercise their fatal influence for some
years yet, and will prevent the yield from passing the figure which it reached at the beginning, of this century. But these obstacles are not permanent in their character; they are
only temporary, and will after a time be neutralized, and then overcome. by the abundance
of the ore and the progress of science, which gives a wider dominion every year to the power
of man.  The time wil come, a century sooner or a century later, when the production of
silver will have no limit save that imposed by the steady decrease of its value."~
NORTHERN STATES OF MEXICO.-The late Mr. A. Remond, whose untimely decease is
an irreparable loss to science, made a tour of exploration through the northwestern States
of Mexico during the years 1863, 1864, and 1865, in the course of which he carefully exam
Duport, p. 369.    t Humboldt, p. 141.    +, Duport, p. 380.  ~ Duport, p. 426.
640 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
ined the geology of the country, and collected some valuable statistics on the subject of mines
and mining. Professor J. D. Whitney, of the geological survey of California, in March,
1866, submitted to the Academy of Natural Sciences' an interesting report from Mr. R6mond.
The following extracts convey a clear idea of the geological formation and general charac teristics of northern Mexico.  The tables accompanying the report show the extent, charac ter, and condition of the mines:
"The name of the' Sierra MIadre' is usually applied to the main range of mountains of
this country, or the western border of the plateau which stretches north through the territo ries of the United States, forming what may be called the great orographlical feature of the
continent. In northwestern Mexico this crumpled border of the great plateau comprises an
extensive mountainous region, by no means forming a continuous single chain, but rather
several central ranges, with associated groups of parallel ridclges, all having the same general
course, which is approximately north-northwest and south-southeast.  As the breadth of the
chain widens as we go towards the north, so, too, that of the valleys increases in that direc tion, the whole system of mountains and valleys spreading out in something like a fan shape.
"Going north, the chain appears to sink gradually, although determinations of altitude in
northern Mexico are extremely tfew in number. It is certain that there is, in about latitude
32~, a depression of the mountain ranges which extends entirely across the continent, and
which would enable the traveller to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific, without necessa rily surmounting any elevation greater than 4,000 feet.t  The southeastern range is the
highest, and the culminating point is said to be the Cerro de Cuiteco, 60 leagues northeast
of Jesus Maria, on the western borders of Chihuahua. The approximate altitude of the
Cumbre do Baasscachic is 7,429 feet, and that of Guadalupe y Calvo 7,825  feet.  To  the
north, the ranges east of Sahuaripa are also very high; but they have never been measured.
No peaks or ridges, howe ever, in this portion of Mexico attain anything like the elevation of
the ligher portion of the Sierra Nevada, few if any points exceeding' 10,000 feet in altitude.
"The direction of the sierra is nearly that of a line connectilng some of the best mining
districts in Mexico, which are situated on or very near the summit of the mountains.  These
districts are the following, enumerating them in their geographical order from the south
towards the north: in Durang,o, San Antonio de las Ventanas, Gaarisimey, and San Dimas,
remarkable for their auriferous silver ores, and 62 Mexican leagues northeast of Mazatlan;
in Chihuahua, Guadalupe y Calvo and San Pedro de Batopilas, yielding fine specimens of
native silver; also, Jesus MIaria, in the same State, and the Real della Cieneguita, Sonora,
with silver and gold mines.
"GENERAL GEOLOGY.-The  geological structure of the occidental slope of the Sierra
Madre, as well as that of other parts of this great chain, is exceedingly interesting, and, as
yet but very little klnown, notwithstanding the valuable investigations of Humboldt and
other eminent men; for, up to the present time, the age of the different formations has never
been fixed with any degree of accuracy, from want of materials and of sufficient observations. In 1863, 1S8i4, and 1865, however, I explored quite a number of localities in northwestern Mexico, and was thus enabled to obtain a pretty good general idea of the geology
of that region; and, in Sonora, to which my attention was  especially devoted, I succeeded
in finding fossils in sufficient quantity to allow of the determination of the age of the principal formations of the northern Sierra Madre.  By tracing the connection of these rocks
with those of Central Mexico, additional light will be thrown on those districts of which, at
present, but little is definitely klnown.
"The igneous rocks, which occur more abundantly on the Pacific slope, are granites,
either fine or very coarse-grained; porphyries, more or less feldspathic; and greenstones, all
of which are cut by numerous dikes of extremely varied character.   The granites, however, are very poor in veins of the precious metals, while the porphyries are highly metalliferous.  In Sinaloa (Candelero) and Durango (San Dimas) we see that the granites underlie
the mnetallifercus porphyries, and that the greenstones, in Sonora, (near Ite mosillo and in
the vicinity of La Haciendita,) penetrate through them.
"The oldest sedimentary rocks which I have observed belong to the carboniferous series;
this is represented in the eastern part of Sonora by heavy masses of limestone, forming very
high and rugged ridges, runnin_ a little west of north.  The upturned strata are seen iu
many places to rest oni granite. Argentiferous veins occur throughout this formation.
"TThe next group of sedinmentary rocks in order is the triassic; this forms isolated mountain groups in Sonora, and offers an interesting field for investigation.  Instead of linestones, it is made up of heavy beds of quartzites and conglomerates, with coal-bearing clay
shales; all of these are disturbed and elevated, and rest on greenstones, feldspathic porphlyries, or granite.  Wherever metamorphosed, the triassic rocks are auriferous and contain
veins of silver ores.  The metamorphic slates and limestones of the Altar and Magdalena
districts, which include the richest gold placers of Sonora, may possibly be of triassic age;
but the fossils collected are too imperfect to admit of this being determined. There are
some reasons for believing those rocks to be rather of jurassic than of triassic age, as they
differ in lithological clharacters from both the triassic and carboniferous of northern Mexico,
* Proceedings Cal. Acad. Nat. Sciences, vol. III, pp. 245-258.
f See Emory, in Mexican Boundary Report, vol. 1, p. 41.
41
ll 41
641 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
resembling rather the jurassic gold-bearing slates of the Sierra Nevada, in Ca'ifornia;
besides, they lie outsiIde and to the west of the Sierra Madre. It may also be noticed that
the gold which they furnish does not resemble that obtained from the triassic strata.
"The cretaceous period is also represented at the foot of the Sierra Madre, at Arivechi, in
Sonora. The strata belonging to this series are chiefly argillaceous shales, and they rest
upon porphyries and carboniferons limestone.   They have been disturbed and elevated since
their deposition.  The fossils, which they contain in great number and in a fine state of preservation, will be noticed further on.
"All the above-mentioned formations were already in existence before the first eruption of
the volcanic rocks toolk place. These latter are found scattered along the whole Pacific coast,
and extend from the Gulf of California lup to the very summit of the Sierra.  It is very interesting to see the volcanic formations spread over so extensive a region, especially as there
are no active volcanoes known in northern Mexico, and not even any indications of ancient
craters or vents.
" MIINES.-The richest and widest veins are those northeast of Mazatlan, near San Dimas,
Guarisamey, &c., in Durango.  These veins cut all the rocks older than the cretaceous,
whether igneous or sedimentary.  The mines of Sinaloa are richer than those of Sonora.
In the former state the ore-bearing portion of the veins is from a few feet to several yards in
width; in the latter, generally from one to two feet.  In Durango and Sinaloa, gold, native
silver, and sulphuret of silver occur, associated with galena, yellow blende, and iron pyrites.
In Sonora the principal ores are argentiferous gray copper, with galena, black blende, copper pyrites, arsenical pyrites, carbonate of lead, ruby silver, arsenical silver, and gold. Each
mining district is characterized by a peculiar system of veins; in all as many as 20 different
systems have been observed. The most abundant vein stones are quartz, either chalcedonic,
crystalline, or massive; brown spar; heavy spar; oxide of iron. The veins occurring in
the metamorphic triassic rocks are usually parallel with the stratification, so that they lie
nearly horizontal where the formation has been but little disturbed. As to the yield of the
silver ores, it vaies extremely, and it would be necessary to enter into a full description of
all the different districts to give an idea of it. It may be noticed, however, that the arsenical
pyrites, which is auriferous in the Sierra Nevada, becomes argentiferous in the Sierra Madre.
The veins vary in their direction from a little east to a little west of north; the richest ores
near San Dimas run northeast and southwest.   There are but few rich mines in Sonora, a
state of which the mineral wealth has been much exaggerated.  There are, however, some
deposits of variegated copper, and veins of magnetic and specular iron.
"The annexed tabular statement will give the principal facts obtained with regard to the
mines examined in northern Mexico
'642 
Tabular statement showing thte position and character of tlte principal mines
BY A. RELMOND.
Location.
Near San Javier...-.
Labrador porphyry -. N. 35~ W. -
Greenstone..........
Labrador porphyry..
Quartzite, (triassic)                        -
Labrador porphyry..
Greenstone........
Quartzite  and  con   glom'e, (triassic.)
Quartzite, (triassic)..
Quartzite           -..-S....-.
Labrador porphyry -..
......do.............
......do.............
......do..............
...... do............
Altered sandstone &
slate, (triassic.)
.Labrador porphyry..
Quartzite, (triassic)..
Labrador porphyry..
......do.............
......do............. 
Quartzite, (triassic)..
Porphyry, (metarn.).
......do...........d.
..... do..............
...... do.............
Metamorphic rocks.. 
......do.............
..... do.............
Between S. Miguelito
and Los Bronces.
Near San Javier.
...... do.............
Near Los Brones....
...... do.............
Near San Antonio de
la Huerta.
...... do.............
Near Corral Viejo..
Near San Javier..
Near Los Bronces..
...... do.............
...... do.............
Near San Javier..-..
Near Los Bronceg....
Near San Javier....
LaT Barranca........
Near San Javier.....
...... do.............
.do.............
Between Los Bronces
and San Javier.
Candelero...........
...... do.............
...... do.............
...... do.............
Near La Puerta......
...... do.............
Between La Puerta
and San Dimas.
Quartz
...... lo
Quartz
Magnet!
...... do
Vesicul,
Decomy
Quartz,
Magneti
Sulphat
Magneti
White c
Iron ore
Ifagneti
Quartz.
...... do
Crystall'
White q
Quartz a
Qulartz.
...... do
..... do
White q
...... do
...... do
350 to 400
NE.
45~ NE.5'~ S. SE.
85~ S. SE..
80~ East...
15~ East...
350 NE...
30~ SE....
800 N. NW.
............
............
..............1
30~ to 40~
NE.
80~ South
............
301 NW-..
203 to 25~ E.
20~ to 250 E.
NE.......
55~ South
85~ SE...
85~ North
85~ North.
70~ to 80~
NWV.
760 NW.690  NW —Perp......
I
I
I
I
Mines.
Country.
Strike.
Dip.
50~ NE....
Width.
13 foot....
N
Naghuila............
Crystal
N. 45~ W —
N. 30 WV.
N. 65~ E..
N. 25~ E...
N. 5~ E...
N. and S --
N. 400 W.
NE. to SW.
N. 600 E...
N. 27 E. —
N. 25~ E..
N. 23~E...
N. 30~ W..
N. 50~ E..
N. 24~ E...
NE. to SW.
N. 10~ W.
N. 10o W..
NW. to SE.
N. 10~E...
N. 55~ E
N. 85~ E
N. 45~ E-..
N. 50~ E...
N. 63~ E-..
N. 35~ E. —
N. 650  E...
Eureka..............
Pleiteada............
San Juan.............
Ceballos..............
Iliguera..............
La Blanca............
S-an Luis.............
Santa Barbara........
La Sierra.............
San Jos6.............
El Secorro............
Zaragoza............
San Luis Gonzaga
La Colorado..........
Aguajito..............
Santa Edubigen......
La Cuadra............
El Rosario............
]El Escritorio...........
Santa Rosa..........
Soledad..............
Carmen..............
Atocha..............
Rosario..............
Contrestaca..........
Descubridora........
Soledad..............
..............
1} foot....
4 feet......
2 feet......
2} feet..-..
............
1I foot..
11 foot..
3 feet..
11 foot..
............
1............
8 inches...
5 feet......
............
2-i feet.
I foot...
' i fo'ot;~'  
3 feet...
30 feet....
28 feet....
14 feet.
17 feet.
1 —---------
............
............ 
Tabular statement showing the position and character of the principal mines of Northern Mexico, Sac.ontinue8.
Mines.             Location.           Country.         Strike.     Dip.      Width.         Matrix.                    Ores.              Yield, per ton
Candelaria..........Near San Dimas.....Porphyry, (metam.). - N. 630 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.. - 630 N~~~~~~~~~TW............White quartz..................................istolass, $3,210;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I Srie.  Di'      With
st class, $3,210;
2d class, $133.
1st class, $800;
2d class, $180.
...................................
Galena,  blende, gold..............
Galena,, blende, iron pyrites, brittle
silver glance, native silver.
Galena, blende, iron pyrites.......
Galena, blende, copper pyrites, &c.
.........do..o..N  500 W...50 E.do.
d4Galena, blende, copper pyrites -....
Oxide of lead, native silver.       ---
Sulphuret of antimony, mispickel,
copper pyrites, blende, iron py   rites.
Tepustete with copper and iron
pyrites, and gray copper ore.
Galena, arsenical pyrites,  blende,
copper pyrites.
Sulphuret of antimony and lead...
Gray copper ore, galena, iron  py  rites, native silver.
Indigo copper, chrysocolla, chalko   sine, chalcopyrite.
LaCloao.....Na............................
AChlorobrominde of silver..........
I Magnetic iron, gray copper, cop   per and iron pyrites.
...... do..........................- ----
Copper pyrites and gray copper                             0
Black  blende, iron pyrites, and
galena.
Gray copper ore and copper py   rites.
Galena,  blende, copper and iron
pyrites, (petanque.)
.........N.........................
Near San Dimas....
...... do.............
Near Zaragoza......
Near Cop,lla.........
...... do.............
...... do.............
...... do.............
A few leagues from
Mazatlan.
Near San Marcial....
1st class, $90 to
$100; 2d class,
$35 to $40.
Near ver San Javier....
...... do.............
Trinidad............
Nine miles from San
Marcial.
Near Copala...... —Near San Marcial....
Los Bronces.........
Labrador porphyry..
...... do.............
...... do.............
Por phyry, (volcanic).
Greenstone..........
Metamorphic slates,
(triassic.)
Greenstone.........
1st class, $350;
2d class, $40 to
$60.
$100.
1st class, $200;
2d class,$35 to
$40.
.... do............ N. 200~... 650E....
Black blende, iro n pyrites,  galena,
copper pyrites.
......................................
La Chipioiena........ Near TopiscD....... Granite............ri
a3
p
Porphyr,,v, (metam.) - -
...... do.............
Sienitic granite......
Greeinstone - -
...... do.............
...... do.............
...... do.............
Sienitic granite - - - - -
Metamorphic slates,
(triassic.)
...... do.............
N. 630 E...
N. 450 r,, - - -
W. 520 E...
N. 200 W. -
N. 100 W. -
N. 500 W. -
N. 220 W.N. 800 E - - -
N. and S...
630 NYIW -
'750 ST!....
750 NW. - -
450 ENE..
800 E.....
850 E - - -..
Perp......
800 N-....
300W.....
White quartz......
...... do...........
...... do...........
Quartz...........
Chaleedonic quartz -
...... do...........
...... do...........
Quartz.............
...... do...........
Cand,elaria...........
Bolanos..............
Cinco De Mayo......
Cinco Sefiores........
Napoleon.............
Rosario..............
Piatino...............
Haval................
Mina Grande.........
............
20 feet. - -.
4 feet
1 to 4 feet -
2 to 8.feet.
... i.......
4 et.. - -.
............
2 feet
Pd
bd
m
0
ci
Pd
t-d
02
0
tt
m
)-3
P.
bd
02
ti
w
0
w
bd
w I
Las Cruzecitas.......
N.150E...l 650E- -.
4-,X feet.... Heavy spar.......
..... do............
Quartz...........
Crystalline quartz -
....................
White quartz......
Chaleedonic quartz -
Rotteu quartz and
iron ore.
Heavy spar -------
Guijosita Vleja.......
La Antimonia........
Dios Padre...........
Agua Gra-nde..-..-...
La Colorado..........
Algodona............
Los Bronces...........
............
.. o.. -....
9 12 feet
of ore.
11 foot....
40 feet.. -.
8 inches -. -
............
W. 380-400
E.
N. and S...
....do.....
E. of N....
200 W... - -
30'W.....
850 E -....
La Priota............
Alta Gr,-tc,,,-t..........
Rosario de Guadalupe.
Aurora...............
El Taste.............
Providencia..........
.,...do.............
uartzite, (triassic) - -
Greenstone ----------
...... do.............
...... do.............
Quartzite, (triassic) - -
N. 400 E..N. and S ---
N. 700 E..
N. 100 E...
N. 150 E...
N. 100 E...
SOONW...
300E.....
600 SSE...
450-500 E -
500-550 E -
650E.....
...... do...........
Brown spar -------
Quartz............
31agnetic iron ------
Quartz - ----------
...... do...........
...;do.
ea San';'o"d'e'
la Hue ta.
San Javier..........
Near Los Bronces. - - -
Near San Javier.....
Near Tecoripa......
..-i........
4 et -. -..
2 feet
2 feet.....
5 feet.....
I ft. 2 in..
La Bojorquefia.......
..... do............
........... Quartz, (ferrugin               ous.)
.................................... 
Mina Prieta......... Near San Antonio doe Quartzite, (triassic)................................. Brown
la Huerta.
E1 Tesoro............ Cacanihilas.... —-------- Granite............. NW.- SE.  - 7 5~ SW... - 4 feet............
Rosario.............. Canada de la Iglesia,  Quartzite, (triassic).. NE.-SW..  85~ NW  -.. 2 feet.............
near San Antonio.
Babicanora-...............Limestone, (carboni-  NE.-SW...................   5 feet..... Quartz
ferous. )  
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
MIr. CUmmings Cherry, geologist and mining engineer, has written an interesting report
on the mineral resources of Sonora, published by the Cincinnati and Sonora Mining Association   It contains a great variety of valuable information, and shows conclusively the necessity of railroad communication to develop the rich mineral resources of that country.
"At present," says Mr. Cherry, "the roads are principally the simple pack-trails of the
country. From Guaymas, the port of entry, a good wagon road passes by way of Hermosillo
to Ures, and thence up the Sonora river to Arispe." Another wagon road from Guaymas
passes througlh San Marcial and Matape. Nearly the whole country, however, is traversed
by pac  trails.
Ieferiing to the miscellaneous resources of Sonora, as connected with the business of
minling, Mr. Cherry gives the following data:
"TIMBER.-A valuable element in mining enterprises, and one which the western and
southern districts of Sonora are very deficient in, is timber of such quantity and quality as
may be desired for building purposes and fuel. The timber and lumber used in the erection
of the beneficiating and other mining works of most of the, American enterprises in Sonora
and southern Arizona have been necessarily brought from San Francisco, and conveyed to
the mines at heavy expense."
In some parts of the country the smaller kinds of timber abound in considerable quantities.
At one place visited by Mr. Cherry:
"On the river margins, cottonwood, ash, willow, walnut, and sycamore of good size and
quality abound.  On the bottom lands, the lands formerly cultivated, is a dense forest of
mesquite, so thickly matted that we were in places obliged to cut paths through it.  I was
surprised to find many of these trees three feet in diameter, as in other localities they seldom
attain a diameter of more than six or eight inches, and with one exception this was the
most extensive forest of these trees I had seen. In the tributary carions and on the hillsides they also occur in numbers, but smaller. This mesquite timber cannot be too highly
appreciated as a fuel; it burns long and fiercely, and gives an intense heat.  It is particularly valuable for charcoal, which I pronounce a superior article. On the hills are several
varieties of oak, and on the higher mountain peaks, two or three leagues distant, are heavy
forests of pine.
" ARABLE LANDS AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.-Two crops are raised from the same
land in the year, and the yield is so abundant as to occasion astonishment to those who are
unacquainted with the productive nature of these soils. The rainy season sets in early in
June, and continues to October, though occasional showers fall'until March. Cornl and
other products which require rains to bring them to maturity are planted in June, and in the
latter part of November, or in D)ecember, wheat and other hardy products follow, though
where, as on these lands, irrigation may be iesorted to, the crops, however planted, are ever
sure. The wheat of Sonora is very superior in quality; its yield is 100 to 200 bushels to one
bushel sown, and it is not uncommon to get 250 to one. Corn yields large crops: the native
variety is a white flint, and may be advantageously replaced with ourAmerican yellow, and other
varieties. Peas ever produce three abundant crops in the year. Beans are the favorite food
of the people, and as they grace alike the table of rich and poor, surprising quantities are
consumed. I saw neither rice nor barley, though both nmay be successfully cultivated. These
lands are eminently adapted to the cultivation of sugar cane, cotton, and tobacco, which are
raised in the nearest settlements with excellent results.  From the suarca ne  a coarse kind
of sugar called Ipanoche is made by the natives; it is a favorite article of consumption, and
finds ready sale at $25 to $40 the cargo of 300 pounds, which leaves a handsome profit to the
cultivator.  Cotton is one of the most profitable products of the soil, and is becoming extensively cultivated. The staple is shorter than our cottons, though of good quality; it is
manufactured by the native women into articles of wearing apparel. Tobacco also yields
well; it is a profitable crop, and is becoming extensively cultivated.  Besides these, Chile
pepper-a capsicum of great pungency, and one of the necessaries of life with the nativesonions, garlic, melons, and sweet potatoes are produced, and our common potato and vegetables imay be successfully introduced.  Fruits of excellent quality could be grown, especially sweet and sour oranges, figs, quinces, and peaches; and the grape could not fail to be
a decided success.  Besides the valley lands on the river are those of the HTenrigo valley,
comprised in the timber tiact already spoken of; they are exceedingly fertile, and may be
irrigated from the creek which courses through them. Back from the river are several plateaus of rich soils, containing in all, perhaps, 500 acres, which, while they are too elevated
to admit of irrigation, would produce abundant crops of corn in the rainy season.
"  he only farming implements of the country are a pointed stick, serving for a plough,
a hoe, and a sickle, and where such grand results are attained with these, what would not be
the results of the introduction of our improved agricultural implements, and the applicatict
of farming knowledge?
"PASTURE LANDS.-The higher lands, unfit for agricultural uses, but covered with a
growth of nutritious grasses, are adapted to cattle and sheep ranges. There are three varieties of grasses upon the lands, the mesquite grass, confined to the ranges of the mesquite timber;
the sacatom, a coarse species found on the higher ranges, and the gr~ima (crondosiume,)
occupying the plateaus and less elevated hills. The latter variety has much the appearance
of dry, curled whittlings of pine wood, is very nutritious, and was greedily eaten by our
646 
6       47
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
animals.  Throughout the entire year the cattle graze upon the bills, there being no nleed to
preserve the grasses.  Northern Sonora is, without dispute, pre-eminent as a stock-raisilng
country.
"RPIvEts.-The Yaqui is the largest stream ill Sonora, and perhaps the only one which
may be deservedly termed a river. It takes its riso in the mountains near the Arizona
boundary, and flows in a southerly course.
" IIAInBOR OF GUAY~.'AS.-Our short stay at Guaymas was sufficiently protracted to impress
us with the important part it must play in the future of Sonora.   The town is situated on
the Gulf of Californlia, in latitude 270 42' north.  Its harbor is emjinently the best on the western
coast of Mexico, being much superior to either San Blas or Mazatlan, and because of the
trade winds, particularly desirable as a port for the trades of the  East Indies and China.
The bay consists of an inner and outer one, in all four to five miles in length, almost completely sheltered firom  the winds by the bold heights of Pajaros on the east, and the islands
of Terra FIiriia, San Vicerte, and Petayas on the west, leaving the channel narrow  and
deep between them.  Another entrance, Boca Chica, occurs between Pajaros on the south
and Cochin on the north. The tides are, irregular, being governed by the winds of the Gulf,
seldom rising and falling more than four or five feet. The depth of water is two fathoms at
the mole, which is a very superior one, to eight fathoms in the channel.   The town is surrounded by the iriegular hills of the Coast range, through which there is but one entrance
from the land side.  These hills, devoid of vegetation, give the town a dreary aspect.; it is
small, and of modern origin, containing one spacious street, and several cross thoroughfares.
In 18]0 to 1825, when a fiee port, a considerable business was transacted with tforeign ports,
and it was not uncommon to find 20 or more vessels loading and unloading at one time.
Thlis activity was prematurely checked by the internal strifes of the followinog five years,
during which it lost over two-thirds of its populatiotn.  During the years  IStlo0 to 1.864 its
received an impetus from the American mining and othei enterprises; considerable capital
ias invested in town lots, and many improvements of a permianent character were inaugurated, giving to the town a population of ovei 5,(000, and the appearance and live-awake air
of a California miining town.  The present unfortunate sttife and the despotic incubus of a
French garrison shackled this new-born energy, and at the present wriiting  Guaymas is in
as fossilized a condition as need be.  Were it not for tie continutial clanging of large  and
small bells with hoarse throats and shrieking voices, the daily occurrence of  a procession of
saints, images, and wax candles, the snarling of cuis, the rioeting of mariines fioiii some
foreign war vessel and the occasional view of a native propping up a house, or picking
vermin, we would have no out-door indications from whichl to conclude the place was settled.
With the native inhabitants, life seems to be a dolce far atsn'e, or more truly, wretchedness,
filth and inanity.  There are a number of fine structures of the architecture peculiar to this
country, and a fewv of American pattern.  The exports are the common products of the
country-wheat, corn, flour, cotton, tobacco, unrefined sugar, aguadiente, beet; hides, gold,
silver, and copper; for which it imports the products of the more southern States, and East
Indian and European manufacturers   Its exports of products and bullion for 18{,5 could
not have fallen short of $-1,000,000, though  for the present year it w ill hardly exceed half of
this sum.  The climate is pleasant from November to Apriil; the heat in the sumniietr months,
June to September, is excessive, the mercury reaching Io~ to 110~, and very seldom falling
below 970a or98~, and when the hot winds visit the towun, as they often do during tice summer
months, it frequently reaches 135~.  There is but little sickness, and what occurs is of a
light character; the water which supplies the town is procured fiom w ells sunk at the limits
of the town, and is slightly brackish, though wholesome.  With a harbor capable otf giving
good anchorage to 200 vessels, safe navigation in the Gulf, and a section of country requiring
only peace, enterprise, capital, and the energy of American settlers to till the lands, and
work the mines whichl Mexican indolence has permitted to fall into ruin, with the ildomritable spirit of American advancement to make of an old country a new California, Guaymas
is destined at no distant day to take her place as the grand commercial depot of western
Mexico, and I would venture to predict, of our own extreme southwestern Territoe,es."
General Rufus Ingalls, in his inspection report, (Ex. Doe. 111, 39th Cong., 2d sess., p. 9,)
says:
" A harbor on the Gulf is wanted, such, for example, as Guaymas, which is nearer to the
heart of Arizona than any point on the Colorado river.  From Port Libertad to Tucson is
only some 22o miles; from Fort Yuma it is 300.  Had we possession of Port Libertad, or
better, Guaymas, our posts in Arizona could be much easier and more cheaply supplied, and
a great number of mines could thnca be worked with profit that lie idle now.   This muatter I
am aware has received the attention of our authorities, who will probably cause a change in
our boundary in proper time.  I know that Generals Halleck and McDowell  have both
appreciated its necessity. and General Waller, who has been in Arizona, has written me a
letter on the subject., which I enclose."
SINALOA.
Sinaloa is comparatively poor as a mining State. The lodes are neither large nor numerous.
There are, however, several dozen mines that have paid well, and four or five that have
yielded handsome fortunes to their proprietors. The Guadalupe mine at Cosala, if Ward's 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
account of it is to be accepted, was, 40 years ago, one of the best mines in Mexico.   It was
very rich in gold, and the owner could obtain a thousand pounds of that metal fromn it every
week, but he was a crotchety, miserly bigot, who refused to workl his mine, refused to sell
it. refused to let anybody else work it, and bred his children in ignorance and dirt.*
Such an account about a mine of which we find no10 information ill other books should be
looked upon with some suspicion, especiaily since Ward did not visit Cosala; but his statement that $1,000,0t0 had been offered for the mine by an association of foreigners is probably correct, for he was in a position to be familiar with all the sales of valuable mines in
the country.
One of the most noted mines of Sinaloa is the Tajo at Rosario, which was discovered by
accident about the beginning of the last century.  A pious ranchero lost his rosary, and his
search for it kept him out in the mountains all night. He made a fire to protect himself
against the cold, aind in the morning he discovered that the stones on which he had rested
his wood were sparkling with silver. He claimed a mine, and called the place by the Spanish
name of Rosary. It yielded large quantities of silver, and tradition says that the Rosario
church, which cost $80,000, was built by a tax of one-quarter of a real on each marc (about
one per cent.) of the silver extracted from the mine.  This would imply that the total yield had
been $8,000,(00 previous to 1805, in which year the church was finished.  In 1820 100 men
were drowned in it, and most of the time since then it has been lying idle.
CHIHUAtlUA.
Most of the mines of Chihuahua are in a basin which has no outlet to the sea. The elevation is high, the climate dry, the earth rocky and bare, and the few streams are lost in lakes
or swamps which have no outl,ts.  Some of the mines, however, are on the western slope of
the Sierra Madre, and others in the basin of the Rio Grande. The principal mining districts
are those of Parral, Santa Eulalia, Morelos, Jesus Maria, Guadalupe, Calvo,and Batapolis.
Parral is in the southeastern corner of the State, and its ores are abundant bult poor. The
lodes have rocky crests which project considerably above the low hills of the region. Water
is scarce at the surface, and the mines are in a bad condition, having been long abandoned
and allowed to fall in.
Batapolis has a multitude of very rich lodes. The Carmen yielded a lump of native silver
weighing 425 pounds.  There was so much native silver in the ores of the Pastrafia mine
that the drill-bars of the miners were provided with sharp chisels at one end for the purpose
of cutting the metal.
Buen Suceso was another mine in which pure silver was found in large quantities.  It was
discovered by an Indian, who swam across the river (the Fuerte) and found the clear metal
on the bank, where it had been laid bare by the water.  I-e denounced the mine, and took
out much silver, but after getting down three yards the water became so troublesome that
he could go no further, and the mine was not worked while Ward was in Mexico, nor do we
find any mention of it in later books.
The mines of Morelos were discovered in 1826, and yielded $270,000 in two months. Jesus
Maria, on the western boundary of the State and nearly east of Guaymas, was discovered in
1622, and yielded extremely rich ore-so rich that it was packed to Parral, nearly 400 miles
distant, to be reduced.  Refugio was discovered shortly before the outbreak of the revolution;
yielded about half a million annually for four or five years.
About 15 miles southeast of the city of Chihuahua is the district of Santa Eulalia, wvhichll
produced about $100,000,000 in the course of the last century.  From 1705 to 1737 the
taverage annual yield was $1,748,742. In 1791 there were in the district 6,000 inhabitants,
73 amalgamating establishments, and 180 smelting furnaces.  About 1795 the district was
abandoned in consequence of the incursions of the Apaches and Comanches, and the mines
remained in their abandoned condition, although there is no reason to doubt that they might
be worked with great profit, if the laborers and property could be protected against the savages. Just before the district was abandoned a rich deposit found in one of the mines had
been worked out, having lasted nine years, in which time it yielded so much that a tax of
one real per marc (about one and a half per cent.) sufficed to build the cathedral of Chihuahua and establish for it a reserve fund of $10,000. We cannot estimate the total yield
of the bonanza at less than $4,000,000.
DURANGO.
Durango is very rich in silver, but its wealth was not known until just before the Ievolution, and there has been comparatively little exploration since. This State, like Sono-ra and
Chihuahua, has suffered severely from Apache incursions.
The city of Durango, 195 miles northwest of Zacatecas, had only 8,000 inhabitants in 1783,
but in that year Zambrano, the great miner of that region, discovered the mines of Guarisamey, and Durango soon trebled in population.  In 24 years he extracted $30,000,000 from
his claims, and a multitude of other mines were opened, so that the average yield of the
State was estimated to be $5,000,000.
Ward, volume II, page 324.
648 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The principal mining districts are Gavilanes, Guarisamey, San Demas, Tamusula, Canelas,
and Sianori, on the western slope of the Sierra Madre, and Cuencame, Guanaseir, and
Mapimi on the eastern. These eastern districts are marked by the abundance of lead; the
western by the abundance of gold. The lode at Gavilanes is 40 feet thick and the ore quite
rich, but it is stubborn both for amalgamation and for smelting. The richest district is Guarisamey, and the most productive mines are there-Araija, Cinco, Sefiores, Bolafios, Piramide,
Candelania, Dolores, and Tapia. The Arafia mine was remarkable for having a vault (like
that in Zavala mine at Catorce) filled with a fine dust, a large part of which was native gold
and silver.
Ward says of Durango: "The State is rich in mineral deposits, none of which, excepting
Guarisamey and San Demas, have been at all extensively worked. There is hardly a single
mine exceeding 100 varas in depth; for, in general, the use of even the simplest machinery
was unknown in the north, and a malicati, primitive as the invention is, would have excited
almost as much astonishment as a steam engine itself. The mines were worked as long as
the water could be raised, without inconvenience, by two or three tenatoris (carriers) with
leather buckets, and abandoned when the discharge of this duty became too laborious. Most
of the principal districts may, consequently, be regarded as virgin ground, and there are
few in which the old shafts might not be again brought into activity with a comparatively
small outlay." (Ward, II, page 293.)
SOUTH AMERICA.
PERU.
The silver of Peru in the present day comes chiefly from Cerro Pasco, Hualgayoc, Guamachuco, Couchuco, and IIuantaya-all except the last in districts near the summit of the
Andes.  In the beginning of the century Cerro Pasco yielded $2,000,000 annually, llualgayoc $560,000, Guamachuco and Couchuco each $40,000, and Huiiantaya $675,000. Since
then the production of all these districts has decreased. The fame of Peru for mineral
wealth was due mainly, for a long period, to the Potosi mines, which were transferred to
Buenos Ayres in 1778, and have belonged to Bolivia since Spanish America became independent. Huantaya is in the desert of Atacama, and is remarkable for the production of immense
masses of native silver, one of which, found in ]758, weighed 800 pounds.
BOLIVIA.
The town of Potosi is situated 13,200 feet above the level of the sea, 100 miles from the
Pacific, and 50 miles east of the main divide of the Andes. The summit of the Potosi mountains is 15,981 feet high, and is five miles firom the town.  The peak is conical, with sides
that rise at an angle of 45o to the horizon, reddish brown in color, and bare of vegetation.
It was on the side of this mountain that a poor Indian, named Diego Hualca, while clambering after a wild goat in the autumn of 1545, caught hold of a shrub to assist him up, and
it pulled out, exposing pure silver to view.  A brief examination proved the existence of a
rich mine, and soon Potosi obtained almost as much celebrity throughout the civilized world
as did California 300 years later. That barren and bleak mountain contained the largest
deposit of rich silver ore ever found in the world, and it has produced more silver than any
other district. The total production froml 1545 to 1803 is given by Humboldt' at $1,150,000,000.
The following table, showing the yield in various years, indicates the gradual changes in
production:
1549...... —--------—.. ------- $1,549,000 1720............ —------------------..... $1,300,000
1550...... —---------------------—.... 2,000,000   1745... —----------- ----------— 1,850,000
1590..... —----------------------- 7,500,000   1785..... —--—.. -----------------— 3,600,000
1630..... —----------------------- 5,000,000   1830..... —-------------------  t625,000
1680... —--—. -----------------— 3,0,000000
During the first five years large masses of ore were found yielding $10,000 per ton; in
1574 the first-class ore was worth $1,400 per ton; in 1607 the yield was about $35 per ton;
and in 1790 they got very little ore that produced more than $16 to the ton. The last quarter
of the XVIth century was the most prosperous period in the history of Potosi, which had
then a population of 130,000 souls.  The men were nearly all Indians, who were compelled
to work as slaves in the mines, and probably three-fourths of the 8,285,000+ red men who
died in the mines were sacrificed to get out the treasures that astonished the world during
two centuries after the discovery made by Diego Rualca. This imposing city, the largest
that has ever existed so high above the sea, needed great supplies, which could only be
obtained at vast expense. For the purpose of getting water 39 artificial lakes were made by
building dams across ravines and valleys in the mountain side.  The silver was carried by
ox-carts, by way of Tucuman, to Buen,)s Ayres, and not unfrequently 100 of these carts,
* Chapter XI, volume III, p. 249.  The amounts collected for the king's fifth, year by year, from 1556 to
1789, are given there.
f Templo, volume I, p. 309.  +  Temple, volume I, p. 320.
I
i
649
I
i
I
i
I
i
i
I
I
I 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
heavily laden, were seen in a train. It was probably from this stream of silver that the river
having its outlet at the same place was called the Plata, that word being the Spanish name
for silver.
For 30 years after the discovery of Potosi the silver was obtained exclusively by smelting
in portable fuirnaces made of clay, in the form of hollow cylinders, with a number of holes
for the admission of air.  Silver ore, galena, and charcoal were put in in alternate layers,
and the fierce winds which blow on the mountain side furnished a sufficient blast, and sometii.es even too strong, so that it was necessary to carry the furnaces to a sheltered place.
'Ihlie mixed lead and silver were afterwards melted again with a blast made by a dozen Indians
blowinrg with their mouths through copper tubes two yards long; and thus the baser metal
was burned off. At one time 6,0(0 of these furnaces could be seen burning on the mountain
side. The galena was found in the Little Potosi mountain. At the end of the XVIth century
15,600 slaves and as many llamas, and as many more mules, were enmloyed in the labors of
tLe mines and reduction works.
CHIILI.
Chariarcello, the richest mining district of Chili, and at present the most prosperous and
promising of all in South America, is situated in latitude 270 30', 50 miles southeastward
irom Copiapo.  It is 50 miles from the ocean and 3,000 feet above the level of the sea to the
lowest mines.  The most productive deposit of silver has been found within an area a mile
and a half long and a mile wide, in a cream-colored hill, all the adjacent hills being dark.
It is situated on the edge of the desert of Atacama, and there is very little vegetation, and
sometimes no ratin for a year.  The nearest water —at least the most convenient of access —
is 10 miles off, and it is sold at the mines at 16 gallons for $1, but it is fit only for brutes,
and the water for the men is brought further, and paid for at a higher price.
The first mine of Chafiarcello was discovered on the 18th of May, 1832, by a muleteer
named Juan Godoi, who, while out hunting, got tired of chasing a guanaco and sat down
on a stone to rest.  Happening to examine the rock, he saw that it was very rich silver ore,
and hle mnanaged to break off enough to load his two donkeys, with which he went to Copiape, where he asked the assistance and counsel of Juan Callejas, his friend and an old miner.
They obtained a title to the mine, and Callejas, in recognition of many favors, transferred
his share (one-third) to Don Miguel Gallo, who became one of the wealthiest men of Chili.
The mine proved very productive, and Godoi, who had been a very reputable muleteer,
becamne a low debauchee.  He spent all his immense wealth, and was reduced to beggary.
Ite had not even a donkey.  Gallo took pity on him  and gave him a little mine, which he
sold lbr $14,(0t0, and on that sum the discoverer of Chariarcello lived in moderation and quiet.
A mine called Bolados was richer than the pioneer claim, to which it was very near.  It
yielded $.3,000,000 to four owners, and, though all were married and had children, not one
of them left a cent to his heirs.  All had wasted their money in riotous living.  The largest
piece of native silver on record was found in this mine; it weighed 6,000 pounds, and was
wiorth $;150,000.  One lump of it cut out with chisels-for it could not be drilled for blastingweighed a ton and a half.
In 1t50 there were 1,750 miners in the Chaiiarcello district, two-thirds of them Chilenos,
and the remainder foreigners, mostly from other Spanish American States.  The  barreteros
or miners who break down the ore, received $25 per month and 20 ounces of bread, a pound
of boiled beans, six ounces of wheat, and 24 figs daily, the food being supposed to be
enough for an average family.  The apires, or men who carry the ore upon their backs to
the surlace, the usual load being from 250 to 375 pounds, receive $12 per month and the
same rations.
At the mouth of the mine the ore is broken with hammers into pieces of half a cubic inch
and assorted. ELverything that will not yield at the rate of $50 per ton was thrown to one
side as not richli enough to pay for working. and of this rejected material there were piles at
Chal/arcello, in 1850, estimated to conitain'$0,000,000 of silver.
Thile pulverization is effected in arrastras, and the amalganmation in wooden tubs with iron
bottomns. The stirriiing is done by four crooked iron arms fastened to a vertical shaft which
ievolves in the centre of the tub. There is no niuller or grinding of the ore in the tub.
The process requires six or eight hours.
In le50 there were in the province of Atacama 75 productive silver mines, 198 unproductive, and 2,914 persons employed. The amount of ore extracted was 15,398,996 pounds,
of which 10,410,(i00 were credited to Chariarcello and 3,000,000 to Tres Puntas.
At Chaisarcello there were 18 productive mines and 97 that had been opened and had not
paid expenses.'The total yield of the 10,480,000 pounds of ore obtained at Chariarcello was
,~2,70 0,0(U0, of which $2,100,000 was net profit.*
It would appear from this statement that the ores extracted yield on average more thani
50,(;(0 per ton.  The total yield of the Chafiarcello district from 1832 to 1860 is estimated a
$;80, 0,0( 000.  The value of the silver exported from Chili was $59,931 in 1830; $761,406 in
i35o; $1,381,030 in 1845; $3,555,045 in 1850.
The Tres Puntas mines were discovered in 1849, and are 7,000 feet above the sea.  Water
U.S. SNaval Astronomiacal Expedition, vol. 1, p. 262.
650 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
costs there six cents per gallon, and the country is still more desolate than about Chafiarcello.
The hill of Chaiiarcello is composed of regular strata, nearly horizontal, of rocks partly
calcareous, and partly argillaceous. In the deepest workings there are porphyries and some
dolomites.  The ores are chiefly chlorides and bromides either separate or mixed.
Cerro Blanco, 30 miles east-southeast of Chalearello, has a number of lodes  which were
rich in silver near the surface, but in the lower depths they yield little save copper, of which
the ore has a large percentage.
Carriso, in latitude 280 45', has some rich silver lodes and one of gold.  Eight miles southeast of Carriso is Agua Amarga, a hill resembling Bolaco, at Challarcello, with as many
argentiferous lodes, but not so rich. Most of them are now abandoned. A mile from Agua
Amarga are the mines of Tunas, which yielded $400,000 of native and ruby silver near the
surface.
BRAZIL.
The placers of Brazil, the richest known to modern times previous to the beginning of
this century, are found over an area 300 miles wide, from north to south between parallels
17 and 22 of south latitude, in the mountains which separate the valleys of the Amnazon
and the La Plata, and 800 miles long, extending from the western boundary of Brazil nearly
to the Atlantic. The rocks are granite in the higher peaks, with micaceous schists and slates
lower down, intersected by numerous veins of quartz.  Itacolumite is found extensi vely, and
diamonds, which are seldom found near it, are abundant in Brazil, which has furnished more
of those precious stones than all the other diamond mines in modern times. These  are
indeed, the only diamond mines of any note in Christendom. Very little is done in them
now.  The gold was discovered at Minas Geraes in 1599, and soon attracted a considerable
population.  The gold deposits of Jacoabina and of Rio do Carmo were opened in 1700, and
those of MLato Grosso in 1734.  From 1752 to 1761 the production was largest, and there
were then 80,000 miners employed.   It is said that in one year the production was
$20,000,000.  It is a matter of record that the 20 per cent. tax on the gross product, or the
kiing's fifth as it was called, for the district of Minas Geraes was $2,000,000 for  17,3. In
1725, when the yield was considerably less than it became a quarter of a century later
there were 100,000 slaves at work, and it was estimated that they took out an eighth of an
ounce ea(ch per day, as we learn from Southey;  but as this would give a total yield of
$60,000,000 annually, we must infer that many of the slaves were employed in other pursuits, and that many of the slave miners did not makle their eighth of ali ounce per dlay
The largest Brazilian nugget of which we find any mention, weighed 13 pounds and sold for
about $2,600.  After 177) the yield declined rapidly.  In 1812 the production was  about
$4,000,(000, and in 1822 $700,000, and now it probably does not exceed $5o0,000. The total
yield of the Brazilian gold mines from the time of their discovery till 180:3 was estimated by
Humboldt at $855,500,000, and we may estimate the production since 1803 at $,70,(00,000,
making the total contribution of gold by Brazil $925,5o00,000 in a period of 268 years: less
than California has furnished in 20 years.  So far Brazil has only two quartz mines, the St
John and the Gongo Soco. The latter yielded 33,000 pounds of gold from 1826 to 18l49. t
Of the St. John, WNVhitney* says: "The mine of St. John del PRoey is the most iremarkable
gold quartz mine in the world, having been worked for a longer time and baving produced
more gold than any other.  The working was commenced about 1725, and afteri nearly a
hundred years of success was abandoned, and in 1834 the workling was resumed, and fromn
1838 to 185' the mine paid a profit of $1,500,000.  The amount of rock reduced was 34,000
tons in 1846, and 82,000 in ]852, the increase being gradual.  The profit varied from $2 to $3
per ton.  The rock contained about.004 per cent. of metal. The crushing was done with 118
stamps. The mine is owned by a company which had 1,000 slaves and employed 80 European overseers, mechanics, &c. One of the mines was 1,200 feet deep."
BRITISHI POSSESSIONS.
BRITISH COLUMBIA.
The gold mines of British Columbia are in the basins of the Fraser and Columbia rivers
The chief mining district is Cariboo, on the north side of the north fork of Quesnelle
river, 100 miles above the mouth of that stream, in latitude 53~, and 100 miles 1loiii the
ocean, from which it is separated by a range of mountains 8,000 or 10,000 feet hiigh.  The
winters are very severe, and they last from October to June, during which period the cunrtry
is covered with a deep snow.  In July and August the streams are at flood height. The
gold is found at a depth varying from 12 to 100 feet from the surface in the beds and banks
of creeks, some of which run through swamps.  The auriferous deposit is very rich, and itf it
were in a genial clime and favorably situated, the yield per day would rival if not surpass
anything ever found in California, but the great cost of all supplies, the necessity of lying
idle a large part of the year, and the difficulty of finding good claims, prevent it from being
* History of Brazil, chapter XXXVI.  t Calvert, p. 231.  + Metallic Wealth, p. 111.
651 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
an attractive place for miners. Claims that have been well opened have, in many instances,
paid for a few weeks or month $500 per day to the man. One claim 25 by 80 feet yielded
$105,000.  The gold on Antler creek is 830 fine; on Lowbee creek 920. The metal is found
in coarse rough lumps, which look as though they had not moved far from their rocky source.
Some auriferous quartz lodes have been discovered, but little has been done in quartz mining.
The gold in the basin of the Columbia is found in the beds, bars, and banks of creeks,
between parallels 49~ and 51'. The diggings are mostly shallow, and not rich, although, as
they cover a considerable extent of country, they may in the course of a few years produce
more gold than Cariboo.
The following table shows the amount of gold shipped from Victoria to San Francisco:
Year.                 Am't shipped. I                Year.                Am't shipped.
1858...................... —------------------------------ $337, 765 1863................................ $2, 935, 172
1859                   ---------------- 1,211,304  1864................................ 162,784,226
1860............... —--------------------------------   1,652,621   1865................................ 2..., 067, 661
1861.................................. 1,942, 629   1866...................................1,62 fi5,311
1862.................................. 2,167,183   1867, (9 months).................... 1, 100, 588
AUSTRALIA.
The colony of Victoria in Australia did not begin to produce gold until 1851, but the next
year it had already risen nearly to a level with California, and since then the two States
have kept nearly an equal pace. The following table shows the number of ounces exported
annually from Melbourne, and the value as estimated in pounds sterling:
Year.             Ounces.          Value.               Year.             Ounces.         Value.
1851......... —-----------------   145,147  ~580,587   1859.................. 2,280,676            ~9,122,702
1852................... 2, 724, 933    10, 899, 733   1860.................. 2,156, 661            8, 626i 642
]853.. —----------------- 3,150, 021    12, 600, 083   1861.................. 1,967,420            7, 869, 758
1854................... 2, 392, 065        9, 568, 262   1862        8.................. 1,658,285  6, 685,192
1855................... 2, 793, 065    11, 172, 261   1863.................. 1, 627, 066           6, 507, 488
1856................... 2, 985, 696       11,942, 783   1864..................     1,544, 694      6,178, 776
1857.......-............ 2, 761,528    11, 046,113   1865.................. 1,543, 801             6,175,204
1858............... —----------------- 2, 528,188    10,112, 752   1866.................. 1,480, 597  5, 928, 948
We have no plain description of the character of the quartz lodes and placers of Victoria,
but they, especially the latter, differ from those of California.   Water is far less abundant;
ditches are fewer, smaller, and less costly; hydraulic claims, tunnel claims, and sluices are
rarer; shaft claims are far more numerous; the character of the leads appear to be less distinct; the gold is generally coarser in size and finer in quality, and the gold-bearing strata
seem to be richer.  There are few placer claims in California that would  pay for hoisting
dirt 100 feet through shafts, and washing in puddling boxes, as is done in many Australian
claims.  We see no mention in Victoria books or newspapers of ancient rivers, which occupy
a very prominent place in the placer mining of California.
Some of the peculiarities of placer mining in Victoria are suggested in the following extract
firom Westgarth:
Alluvial mining, however, differs from quartz mining in not being mainly dependent on steam machinery.
M3uch of it is still conducted by mese manual labor, but under appliances either new or much improved during
the last 10 vcars. lorse-power has also been largely introduced, and it is thegreat motive force of thepuddling
machinc, that grand institution of the alluvial mining world. This machine rapidly supplanted the original
cradle and tub; in fact, it represents both upon a giant scale.  The miner could readily apprehend that if
an ordinary washing tub of three or four feet in diameter could be made to yield an ounce of gold per day,
oue of as manyyards must, if equally well worked, yield proportionately more.  The cradle arrangement was
adapted to the gravel; while the tub was suited to the puddling of the finer debris, such as pipe clay or dirt
beds, which were much more friequent to the miner than pure gravel. iPuddling by wholesale was therefore
a subject of early attention.
STATIONS OF VICTORIIA.
At the end of 1866, there were 70,804 men engaged in mining, a decrease of nearly 10,000
within a year, of 27,000 since 1862, and of 54,000 since 1859; the average weekly earnings
of miners were ~1 Ils., or about $7 75 each, and in 1852 they were $22 40.
The machinery employed in quartz mining consisted of 522 steam engines, with an aggregate of 9,079 horse-power; 62 water and horse-power crushing machines; 55 water wheels;
210 whims and pulleys; 6 derricks, and 74 whips.
The machinery employed in alluvial mining consisted of 451 steam engines, with an aggregate of 9,338 horse-power; 2,799 horse-puddling machines; 400 whims and pulleys; 110
whips; 621 sluices and toms; 159 water wheels; 30 hydraulic boxes; 179 pumps; 5,835
sluice boxes, and 3 boring machines.
652 
WEST OF THE ROCKIY MOUNTALNS,
The total estimated value of the machinery employed in mining was $9,500,000, and the
claims tbemselves $43,000,000.
The length of the mining laces, or as we call them "ditches," at the end of 1864 was 1,747
miles, andthe approximate cost $941,655, or $539 per mile.  In the Stanley sub-district, the
races cost more than $2,000 per mile, the high average being caused partly by 14,383 yards
of tunnelling.
The poorest gold was 742 fine, and sold for ~3 3s. per ounce, and the richest was  96C
fine, and sold for ~4 2s. per ounce. The mean fineness was 854.
About one-third of the gold comes from quartz, and one-third from alluvial mines.
The total number of distinct quartz lodes proved to be auriferous is 1,700, and the area of
auriferous alluvial and quartz ground worked upon is 892 square miles.
In 1864, 843,515 tons of quartz yielded 433,981 ounces, or $9 54 per ton of 2,240 pounds.
This is the only quartz of which returns were obtained, though it is known that more was
crushed; how much more is not shown in the reports.
The population at the end of 1865 was 410,000, the number of sheep 11,000,000, neat cattle
2,000,000; the deposits in savings and other banks ~6,668,060.
The exports of wool in 1865 were 30,000,000 pounds, the number of acres cultivated 378,000;
the yield of wheat nine bushels per acre on the average, an average yield of 33bushels of maize
per acre; the production of coal 585,000 tons, and the importation of wheat and flour above
exports ~585,000 in value. The number of miners' licenses issued in that year were 15,458,
and assuming that this figure represents the number of miners, the average yield of the mines
per man for the year was ~75.* The wages of bricklayers, masons, and carpenters vary
fiom $1 75 to $2 50 per day in Melbourne.
NEW SOUTH WALES.
The following table shows the exportation in ounces of the colony of New South Wales,
year by year, since 1857:
Year.      Exporta-                   Exporta-       Year.      Exporta-       Year.       Exporta          ~~~~~~~Year. Year.YerYer
tion.                     tion.                     tion.                      tion.
Ounces.                   Ounces.                   Ounces.                   Olunces.
1851........... 161,880   1855..........  107, 250.293, 574  1803.......    422,722
1852 ----------- ]99, 500 1856.......... 134, 950  1860.......... 355,328   1864.......... 314,351
1853........... 173, 960 1857.......... 148 126   1861.......... 403,139   1865.......... 279,121
1854........... 148, 900  1858.......... 255,535   1862.......... 584,219   1866.......... 235,893
The gold yield in this colony decreased for three years after 1852, and then increased
rapidly for seven years, and again began to decline. The decrease since 1862 is attributed by
one of the Sydney newspapers to the exclusion of Chinamen from the mines, anid that policy
has no doubt had a very injurious effect on the production.
NEWV ZEALAND.
The mines of New Zealand were opened in 1858, and produced but little for three years,
and then rose rapidly in importance.  The manifested exported was 187,695 ounces in 1861,
and'39,722 ounces in 1862.  The amount of New Zealand shipped to England by way of
Melbourne was 284,118 ounces in 1863; 311,767 ounces in 1864; 216,046 ounces in 1865,
and 407,394 ounces in 1866. The total exportation of 1865 was reported to be ~2,226,474,
equivalent to about $11,000,000.
WESTGARTII'S ESTIMATES.-Westgarth makes the following estimates of the total production of the Australarian gold fields, from 1851 to the end of 1863:
Year.                          |Victoria.    New  South  New Zealand.
Wales.
1851......................................................... $3,000,000    $3, 000, 000.............
1852......................................................... 5 4,500, 000 6, 000, 000.............
1853......................................................... 63 000, 000    5,500,000....      ----
1854......................................................... 48  003, 00  2, 500, 060.. —1855......................................................... 57 000, 000    2, 500, 000 ----—. -------
1856,,....................................................   59500 000    3,000, 000. —---
1857........................................................ 55000, 000    3, 500, 000..............
1858......................................................... 50500,00    5, 500, coo     $500, 000
1859.........................................................         45500, O)  6, 000, 000  500, 000
1860......................................................... 43 000, 000    7, 000, 000   50., 000
1.861......................................................... 39 500, 000  8, 060,00    4,000, 000
1862......................................................... 3, 9 50a, 000    12,600, 000  8, 000, 00o
1863......................................................... 32 000, 000    8, 500, 000    14, 50o, 000
Total............................................... 584, 000, 000   73, 000,000    28, 000, 000
The total annual production of the Australian and New Zealand gold mines may be estimated at $50,000,000.  (Westgarth p. 345. Pounds (~) calculatad at $5 each.)
* Melbourne Age, January 4, 1867.
653 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
RUSSIAN POSSF&SIONS.
SIBERIA.
Siberia ranks third among gold-producing countries, and for a quarter of a century before
the discovery of the Californian mines, ranked first, The gold mining of the Russian empire
blegan inplacers at Jekaterinburg in 174'2; in 1753 quartz mines were opened at Berezov;
in iS'29 the placers on the western part of the Altai were opened, and in 1838 those of eastern
Siberia.'li he production was small for a long time, averaging only about $23,000 annually
of placer gold firom 1814 to 1820; but after the latter year it increased with great rapidity,
avern,ino $1,668,900 in the next decenniuni, and $3,860,000 in the 10 years from 1830 to
1840, ad,t  $12,'200,000 for the next decennium.  This is exclusive of the quartz gold, which
frontm I 752 to 1850, amounted to $ 28,000,000. The yield in 1853 was estimated by Whitney
at 64,000 pounds troy, or about $14,500,000.  In  1862 the production was reported to be
about $10,000,000.
As a( gold-producing country, Russia ranks next to the United States, and the colony of
Victoria, the present annual yield being about $15,000,000.  The mines are all in Siberia,
an the easterni slope of the Ural, and on the northern slope of the Altai mountains.   The
eornier chain runs with the meridian from latitude 450 to 670, and is auriferous for most of
its length, but its chief wealth is on the Siberian side.
The Altai chain runs nearly parallel with the equator, about latitude 500, and the auri ferois river beds and hills extend as far as 600, or even further.  The Altai reminds us of
the Sierra Nevada; bothl chains separate high and desert table lands from districts with rich
soil a,id abundant streams; and the side which has the streams abounds in gold, while silver
is found on the other side.*
' he climate of Siberia is very severe, and in most of the placer districts the ground is constantly firozen at a depth of three and a half feet, the cold of winter penetrating much deeper,
and the thawing influence of summer only reaching to that depth.  Washing is only possible
between M..y and September, so that half the year is lost for mining purposes.  The mines
are owined by the government or by wealthy proprietors, and the laborers are ignorant and
poor men, who bring neither intelligence nor zeal to their aid.  Each laborer receives from
his employer a certain ration of meal, and his money wages amount to about half an ounce
of gold for a year, or something like half an ounce of silver per month-50 or 60 cents ta
moiith.t
The methods of placer workling are not described fully in any of the authors whose
books aire accessible in this country; but it seems evident that the amount of earth washed
is considerably less, in proportion to the number of laborers, than in the Anglo-Saxon
mines. It is said that Californian modes of washing have been introduced to a limited
extent in a few of the districts; but we have no account of large ditches, of deep hydraulic
claims, of ancient river beds, or of various other interesting facts which mark mining in
California.  And yet the number of miners in Siberia is reported to be only 40,000, and if
they can obtain $15,000,000 in six months they make a very fair average production, much
larger than would be presumed from the cash wages of $10 or $12 per year.   According
to Atkinsont the pay dirt at Tagilsk contains one ounce of goldin 60,000 of each, or $8
in a ton. Duport~ says the richness in 1829 was two ounces in 100,000. In California
$1 to the ton of earth in a hydraulic claim is considered rich, and many mines that do not
contain more than 50 cents to the ton are worked with large profit.  It is difficult, however,
to malke comparisons between California and Siberia in the absence of precise information
in regard to the mines of the latter country.   There are many places in California in which
the pay dirt has yielded more than $50 to the ton of pay dirt, and in some claims where the
auriferous deposit was very shallow, or where it could only be reached by deep shafts or
long tunnels, or where water was very scarce, it could not be worked profitably for less than
$25. One very serious drawback to mining in Siberia is the fact that the government
levies a tax of 15 per cent. onii the gross yield of all mines, and fiom 30 to 35 per cent. on all
which yield more than $4(00,000 annually. l
As to the modes of quartz mnining, Erman says:
The ore collected is pomued into long troughs where water is added and it is beaten with cast-iron
stampers.  The current of waater which continually flows on it through pipes, caries off the fine powder
over the w-ashing benches which are laid like slightly inclined terraces under the troughs, while many of
the heavier grains of gold faill into the interstices of the double iron bottom of the stamping trough and are
collected firom time to time.  As is usual with poor sand, it is often raiked upwards on the benches with a
wooden rake.  Ores which, o.s here yield ore about one part in 64.000 of thch-i weight of metal, give not
more than one part in 1,000,000 to the first straining.  The richest part of the product which rest upon the
upper benches is well washed again in largely receptacles, as the weight prevents its being carried off, but
the pooier and finer part is again exposed to the atmosphere std a second time washed on little tables to
which the w ater is led through Ipipes that can be directed upon any point.  The iron, some of which is
fiom the wear of the stampers, is removed from the fine deposit by a magnet.  Though the separation of
the gold has been attempted by amalgamation, experience has proved that careful washing is quite as effec   The Ural mountains are notably auriferous on the eastern or Siberian side only, and as far as surveys
have gone, it would appear that one flank only of the Australian water sheds exhibit rich accumulations of
gold deliris, but in this case it is the western or interior side of the i-ange. (Calvert, p. 136.)
tAtkinson, la. 173.. Page 208.    ~ Page 305.     [1 Chevalier, p. 83.
654 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
tual. Special arrangements are made for continuing this operation through the winter; the windows are
carefully callked, stoves heated by horizontal shafts running below them ire prepared for thawin,; the tfrozen mulld and sand, and the materials passed in to the apartment through a narrow trap il the wall or
the opening of a door would sometimes lower the temi)eraturc to the freezing point in a few.mionuts.  (V 4.
1, 1). 207.)
The gold mines of Russia were opened  at Ieklaterinburg, on  the Ural chain, in 1743,
and in 1752 quartz workings were commenced at Berezov,but the Ural placers first beertino
important in 1814. The placers of western Siberia were opened in 1829, and those of eastern Siberia in 1838.  The yield is reported5 as follows: 
Placer gold from 1814 to 1820.................................... 1,085 pounds tlroy.
Placer gold from 1820 to 1830.................................. —------------------------------—.. 73, 200  
Placer gold from 1830 to 1840.................................... —-----------------------------— 175,460 "
Placer gold from 1840 to 1850................................ —-----------------------------—..553,955 
Quartz gold from 1752 to 1850............ —-----------------------------—.128,570 "
.pproxzimate statement of the value of the total annual production of gold and silver in the
principal countries of the world, during the year 1867.
[This table is extracted by permission from the unpublished report of Prof. Wm.  P. Blake,
upcn the "Production of the Precious Metals," irom data obtained at the Paris Universal
Exposition.  It is the result of extended investigation of the most recent statistics fiom  all
parts of the world, and although not yet complete, presents approximately, in round numbers, the value of the gold and silver production of the world.]
Country.                    Value.                     Country.                    Value.
IUnited States...................... $72,000, 000   Russia.............................. $15,203, iG0
British Possessions, (estimatedfor 1867)   3. C00,000   France, Austria, Saxony, Spain,Italy,
3Iexico, (estimate).................. 10, 000, 00  Great Britain,Norway and Sueden         10,600, 000
Central andSouth America,(estimated                     Borneo and the East Indies, China,
in part )......................... 10, 000, 000     Japan, and Cent'lAsia, (estimatedt)     10, 000, 000
Australia,includingNewSouthWales,                       Africa, (estimated).................. 1, 0C, 000
Victoria, and Queensland...........   33,200,000 1
New Zealand, (estimated for 1867 )         6,000, 00      Total............................171,000,000
*Whitney, p. 89.         t Subject to revision
655 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
APPENDIX.
INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE
TO THE REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS.
a1~~~~~~ B~~~IDEPART'MENT OF THE INTERIOR,
General Land Office, January 14, 1867.
GENTLEMEN: Herewith will be found the act of Congress, approved 06th July, 1866, "granting the right
of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes."
By the first section of this act all the mineral lands of the United States, surveyed and unsurveved, are
laid open to  all citizens of the United States, and to those who have declared their intention to becomo
such, subject to statutory regulations," and also "to the local customs or rules of miners in the several
mining districts not in conflict with the laws of the United States."
It therefore becomes your duty, in limine, to acquaint yourselves with the local mining customs and
usages in the district in which you may be called uLpon to do those official acts which are required by law,
whether the same are reduced to authentic written form, or are to be ascertained by the testimony of intelligent miners, which you ai-e to obtain as occasion may require and justify, in acting upon individual claims,
a perfect record whereof is to be carefully taken and preserved by the register and receiver, and to be
accompanied by a diagram or plat fixing the out bounda'ies of the district in which such customs and
usages exist.
The second section of the act declares that "whenever any person or association of persons claim a vein
or lode of q uartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and improved the same according to the local customs or rules of miners in the district where the
same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements thereon an amount of not less
than one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose possession there is no  controversy or opposing claim, it
shall and may be lawful for said claimant, or association of claimants, to file in the local land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise, as to conform to the local laws, customs, and rules of
miners, and to enter such tract and receive a patent therefor, granting such mine, together with the right
to follow such vein or lode with its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth, although it may enter the
land adjoining. which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition."
Mining claims miay be entered at any district land office in the United States under this law by any person, or association of persons, corporate or incorporate. In making the entry, however, such a description
of the tract must be filed as will indicate the vein or lode, or part or portion thereof claimed, together with
a diagram representing, by reference to some natural or artificial monument, the position and location of
the claim and the boundaries thereof, so far as such boundaries can be ascertained.
First. In all cases the number of feet in length claimed on the vein or lode shall be stated in the application filed as aforesaid, and the lines limiting the length of the claim shall, also, in all cases be exhibited on
the diagram, and the course or direction of such end lines, when inot fixed l)y agreement with the adjoining
claimants, nor by the local customs or rules of the miners of the district, shall be drawn at right angles to
the ascertained or apparent general course of the vein or lode.
Secopid. Where, by the local laws, customs, or rules of miners of the district, no surface ground is permitted to be occupied for mining purposes except the surface of the vein or lode, and the walls of such vrein
or lode are unascertained and the lateral extent of such vein or lode unlknown, it shall be sufficient, after
giving the description and diagram aforesaid, to state the fact that the extent of such vein or lode cannot
be ascertained by actual measurement, but th it the said vein or lode is bounded on each side by the walls of
the same, and to estimate the amount of ground contained between the given end lines and the unascertained walls of the vein or lode; and in such case the patent will issue for all the land contained between
such end lines and side walls, with the right to follow such vein or lode, with all its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining: Provided, The estimated quantity shall be
equal to a horizontal plane, bounded by the given end lines, and the walls on the sides of such vein or lode.
Third. Where, by the local laws, customs or rules of miners of the district, no surface ground is permitted to be occupied for mining purposes, except the surface of the vein or lode, and the walls of such vein
or lode are ascertained and well known, such wall shall be named in the description,  and marked on the
diagram, in connection with the end lines of such claims.
l,'ourthl. Where, by the laws, customs, or rules of anuers of the district,  a given quantity of surface
ground is fixed for the purpose of mining or milling the ore, the aforesaid diagram and description in the
entry shall correspond with and include so much of the surface as shall be allowed by such laws, customs,
or rules for the purpose aforesaid.
Flifth. In the absence of uniform rules in any mining district limiting the amount of surface to be used
for mining purposes, actual and peaceable use and occupation for mining and milling purposes, shall be
regarded as evidence of a custom of miners authorizing the same, and the groimnd so occupied and used in
connection with the vein or lode, and being adjacent thereto, may be included within the entry aforesaid,
and the diagram shall embrace the same as appurtenant to the mine.
Where the claimant or claimants desire to include within their entry and dcliagram any surface ground
beyond the surface of the vein, it shall be necessary, upon filing the application, to furnish  the register of
the land office - ith proof of the usage, law, or custom under which he or they claim such surface ground,
and such evidence may consist either of the written rules of the miners of the district, or the testimony of
two credible witnesses to the uniform custom or the actual use and occupation as aforesaid, which testimony
shall be reduced to writing by the register and receiver, and filed in the register's office, with the appllication, a record thereof to be made as contemplated under the first head in the foregoing.
By the third section of the act, it is required that upon the filing of the diagram, as provided in the second
section, and posting the same in a conspicuous place on the claim, with notice of intention to apply for a.
patent, the register shall publish a notice of the same in a newspaper nearest the location of said claim
which notice shall state name of the claimant, name of mine, names of adjoining claimants on each end of
the claim, the district and countr, in which the mine is situated, informing the public that application 1m.
been malde for a patent for same;- the register also to post such notice in his office or ninety laTs.
Thereafter, should no adverse claim have been filed, and satisfactory proof  should be produced that the
diagram iand notice have been posted in the manner and for the perioc sti0mdted in the statute, it will
become the duty of the surveyor general, upon application of the party, to, survey the premises, and makle
pilat thereof, indorsed with hlis approval, designating the number and description of the location, the
vaiuc of the labor and improvements, and the character of the vein exposed. As preliminary to the survey,
novever, the surveyor general must estimate the expense of surveying, platting, and ascertain from the
register the cost of the publication of notice, the amount of all of which must be deposited by the appliesint for
656 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
survey with any assistant United States treasurer, or designated depositary in favor of the United States
treasurer, to be passed to the credit of the fund created by "individual depositors for the stuveys  of the
public lands."  D)uplicate certificates of such deposits must be filed with the surveyor general for transmission to this office, as in the case of deposits for surveys of public lands under the 10th section of thl
act of Congress approved Mav 30, 1862 ant joint resolution of July 1, 1864.
After the survey thus paid for shall have been duly executed, and the plat thereof approved by the snir
veyor general, designating the number and the description of the location, accompanied by his officio2
certificate of the value of the labor and improvements and character of the vein exposed, with the testi
minony of two or more reliable persons, cognizant of the facts on which his certificate may be founded, as to
the value of the labor and improvements, the party claiming shall file the same with the register and receiver
and thereupon pay to the said receiver $5 per acre for the premises embraced in the survey, and shall file
with those officers a triplicate certificate of deposit, showing the payment of the cost of survey, plat, and
notice, with satisfactory evidence, which shall be the testimony of at least two credible witnesses, that the
diagram and notice were posted on the claim for a period of ninety days, as required by law, and as contemplated in the foregoing  Thereupon it shall be the clduty of the register to transmit to the General Land
Office said plat, survey and description, with the proof indorsedl as satishfactoy by the register and receiver,
so that a patent may issue if the proceedings are fotulnd regular, but neither the plat, survey description, nor
patent shall issue for more than one vein or lode.
The unity of the surveying system is to be maintained by extending over the mining districts the rectangular method, at least so far as township lines are concerned.
The contemplated surveys of the mineral lands will be made by-the district deputies, under contracts,
according to the mode adopted in the survey of the public lands and private land claims, embracing in them
all such veins or lodes as will be called for by claimants entitled to have them surveyed.
In consideration of the very limited scope of surveying involved in each mining claim, the per mileage
allowed by law may not be adequate to secure the services of scientific surveyors, and hence the necessity
of resorting to a per diem principle, it being the most equitable under the circumstances.
The surveyor general is therefore hereby authorized to commission resident mineral surveyors for different districts, where isolated from each other, and absolutely inconvenient for one surveyor promptly to
attend to the several calls for surveying in such localities, the compensation not to exceed $10 per diem,
including all expenses incident thereto. Such surveyors shall enter into bonds of $10,000 for the faithful
performance of their duties in the survey of such claims as the surveyor general may be required to execute
in pursuance of the aforesaid law and these instructions.
The fourth section contemplates the location and entry of a mine upon unsurveyed lands, stipulating for
the surveys of public lands to be adjusted to the lines of the claims, according to the location and possession
and plat thereof.  In surveying such claims, the sumeyor general is authorized to vary from the rectangular
form to suit the circumstances of the country, local rules, laws, customs of miners.  The extent of the
locations made from and after the passage of the act shall, lhowever, not exceed 200 feet in length along the
vein for each locator, with an additional claim for discovery to the discoverer of the lode, with the right to
follow such vein to any depth, with all its dips, variations and angles, together wits a reasonable quantity
of surface for the convenient working of the same as fixed by local rules:  Provided, no person may make
more than one location on the same lode, and no more than 3,000 feet shall be taken in any one claim by any
association of persons
The deputy surveyers should be scientific men, capable of examinin  and reporting fully on every lode
they will survey, and to bring in duplicate specimens of the ore, one of which you will send to this office.
aid the other the surveyor general will keep, to be ultimately turned over with the surveying archives to
the State authorities.
The surveyors of mineral claims, whether on surveyed or unsurveyed lands, must designate those claims
by a progressive series of numbers, beginning with No. 37, so as to avoid interference in that respect with
the regular sectional series of numbers in each township; and shall designate the four corners of each celaim,
where the side lines of the same are known  so that such corners can be given by either trees, if any are
found standing in place, or any corner rocks exist in place, or posts may be set diagonally and deeply
imbedded, with four sides facing adjoining claims, sufficiently flattened to admit of inscriptions thereon;
but where the corners are unknown, it will be sufficient to place a well-built solid mound at each end of the
claim. The beginning corner of the claim nearest to any corners of the public surveys is to be connected
by course and distance, so as to ascertain the relative position of each claim in reference to township and
range when the same have been surveyed; but in those parts of the surveying district where no such lines
have as yet been extended, it will be the duty of surveyors general to have the same surveyed and marked,
at least so far as standard and township lines are concerned, at the per mileage allowed, so as to embrace
the mineral region, and to connect the nearest corners of the mineral claims with the corners of the publice
surveys.
Should it, however, be found impracticable to establish independent base and meridian lines, or to extend
township lines over the region containing mineral claims required to be surveyed under the law, then, and
in that case, you will cause to be surveyed in the first instance such a claim, the initial point of which will
stait either from a confluence of waters, or such natural and permanent objects as will unmistakably identify
the point of the beginning of the survey of the claim upon which other surveys will depend.
Section 5 provides that in cases where the laws of Congress are silent upon the subject of rules for workling
mines, respecting easements, drainage, and other necessary means to the complete development of the same,
the local legislature of any State or Tenritory may provide them, and in order to embody such enactments
into patents you are directed to communicate any such laws to this office..
Section 6.' Should adverse claimants to any mine appear before the approval of the survey, all further
proceedings shall be stayed until a final settlement and adjudication are had in the courts of the right of
possession to such claim, except where the parties agree to settlement, or a portion of the premises is not in
dispute, when a patent may issue as in other cases.
Section 7 provides for such additional land districts as may be necessary.
Section 8, for the right of way.
Section 9, for protection of rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other
purposes; for the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals; and makes parties constructing
such work (after the passage of this act,) to the injury of settlers, liable in damages.
Section 10. Homesteads may, prior to the passage of this act, bv citizens of the United States, or persons
who have declared their intention to become citizens, but on which lands no valuable mines of gold, silver
cinnabar, or copper have been discovered, are protected, so that settlers or owners of such homesteads shall
have a right of pre-emption thereto, in quantity not to exceed 160 acres, at $1 25 per acre, or to avail themselves of the homestead act and acts amendatory thereof
Section 11 stipulates that upon the survey of the lands in question the Secretary of the Interior may set
apart such portions as are clearly agricultural, and thereafter subjects such agricultural tracts to pre-emption
and sale, as other public lands.
In order to enable the department properly to give effect to this section of the law, you will cause your
lcputy surveyors to describe in their field notes of surveys, in addition to the data reeuired to be noted in
42
I
657
i
I
-I
i
i
i
i
I
i
i
i
i
i
I
.1
i
i
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
the printed Manual of Surveying Instructions, on pages 17 and 18, the agricultural lands, and represent the
same on tow"nshil) plats by the designation of "agricultural lands."
It is to be undeerstood that there is nothings ol)liatory on claimants to proceed under this statute, and that
lwhere  thcv fail to do so, there being ino adverse interest, they hold the same relations to the premises they
may  be" osrlkiig wlhichl they did before the passage of this act, wTith the additional guarantee that they
possess the rig(ht of ocenpaucy under the statute.
The forcgoisg presents such views as have occurred to this office in considering the prominent points of
the statute, and wvill be followed by further instructions as the rulings in actual cases and experience in the
administr atioi of the statute may from time to time suggest
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOS. S. WILSON, Commissioner.
U. S. REGISTERS..D RECEIVERS AND SURVEYORS GENERAL.
SUPPLEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONS.
DEPARTaIENT OF TIlE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, June 25, 1867.
GENrTLEMEN: In the Ilweparation of forms adanp ted to the purchase of mineral interests under the act of Jtlv
26, 18;66, it is found necessary, in connection wilth circular of January 14, 1867, to direct your attention to the
followiug:
1st. VWhoee the rules of miners do not permit ground to be occupied, except the surface of the vein or
lode, the claims sl)rescnted may contain less thain an acre of ground. In such cases, as we do not, in regard
to rates, deal alith a fiaction, the price of $5 is to be paid for the same; if the area exceeds that quantity,
$10; ii miore than two acres, $15, and so on.
"d. Iii iapplicatioiis ifor mineral claims it will be necessary, where a claim contains less than one acre, thu.
the agreement expl)ressed should be to pay $5 for the claim.
3d. bliould a party appear as an "adverse claimant," as contemplated by the 6th section of the ant, you
will rei(uil c such person to shlow by proof the cloin or interest lie may have in the mine; and should the same
bc             satisfactory to yoi, all fisrther proceedings will be stayed until a final settlement and adjudication shall be
had      in the counts. But ill case the adve rse claimant, after proceedings have been stayed, shall fail to institute action in the courts cithber pending or at their next ensuing session, with a view to tihe final adjustment
of the claims, you wil proceed with the case as if no ol)jections had been filed.
4th. Yoei " ill enter all claims under the act in separate teact-books fiom those used for agricultural lands,
dividing the books into townships and ranges, allowing about eight pages to each township.
For the present you will use the blank form of Abstracts of Lanid Solci antd Register of Receipts in report in  returns, making such slight alterations in the headings as the cases may demand.   Should it 1)e found
ad' isable in the future to have special abstracts, forms wvill be prepared and printed and a supply duly transmitted to you.
You will commence a new series of numbers with the certificates-beginning with No. 1-and continue
the same oin regular order.  As no special fee is provided for in the statute, you will be allowed one per cent.
each on amounit of purchase-money, as in cash sales.  The moneys received for these claims will be accounted
for in the receiver's retouns as cash received for sale of mineral claims.
Forms of application, certificates, and receipts are being printed, and a supply will be sent as soon as
possible.
I also append an abstract of duties prescribed in instructions of 14th January, 1867.
Very respectfully,
JOS. S. WILSON,  Commissioner.
REGISTER A,ND RECEIVER.
ABSTRACT OF DUTIES.-The following is an abstract of the duties prescribed in mineral
instructions of January 14, 1867:
CLAIMANT.-To post a notice on the claim giving information of his intention to apply for a patent; to file
a diagram with the register, together with the evidence of the rules of miners in support of the claim and
its extent.  After the diagram and notice have been posted'0 days, and no adverse claim filed, the claimant
to apply to survevor general for survey of the claim, deposit the amount estimated by the surveyor general
to cover the expenses of the survey, platting, and notice with any assistant ITnite(l States treasurer or
designated deposi tory in favor of the United States Treasurer, to be passed to the credit of the fund created
by "Individual Depositors for the Surve ys of the Public Lands," taking duplicate certificate of depositfiling one with survevor general, to be sent to the General Land Office, and retaining the other; and when
the surmvey is approved and diagram thereof, together with the surveyor general's certificate as to improvements and character of the vein exposed, the claimant to pay to the receiver the price of the claim.
RPEGISTER AND rECEInVEIt.-To examine testimony filed by claimant showing  the applicability of miners'
rules in reference to the extent of the claim,   hich testimony is to be reduced to writing and filed with the
claimant's application in the register's office; also to cxamine the returns of survey approved by the
surveyor general and filed bv the claimant.
-EcEIv ER.-To receive fiom the claimant the price of the claim on his filing with the register and receiver
the approved plat and certificate of the surveyor general as to the value of the improvements and character
of vein exposed, based on testimony by two reliable witnesses.
REGISTERI'S diagram of the claim being filed by the claimant the register shall publish a notice in a newspaper nearest to the claim, naming the mine, claimant, adjoiling- claimanits, district, and countmty. informing
the public that application has been made for a patent.  The register will post the notice in his office for 90
days, and on the publisher's presenting his account to the register immediately on the expiration of the 90
days, he will transmit it to the smuveyor general; and on the receipt from the claimants of the surveyor
general's certificate of the improvements on the claim, together with plat and other evidences of the survey
approved, also the receiver's receipt for the payment folr the claim, the register will transmit same, with
proof, indorsed by register and receiver as satisfhaetory, to the Commissioner of the General Land Office
for patent.
SuvavEpor GENERAL'S dutv when no adverse claim is filed, proof furnished that the diagram and notice
had been posted for 91) days, and on receiving, also, from the register the' account of the publisher of the
notice: The surveyor general. when applied to by the claimant for the survey of his claim, shall estimate
the expense of the survey, platting, and notice, and when a certificate of deposit is filed with him by the
,cllimant, he shall order the survey to be made, and transmit the certificate of deposit to the General Land
w
658
ik 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Office.  When the returns of survey are made to the surveyor general's office he will approve the same,
hand the necessary evidence thereof to the claimant, to be filed by him in the register and receiver's office
for examination  and final preparation of patent-certificat e by therister foi transmission to the Commissioner of the General Land Office.  The surveyor genceral will also transmit returns of the survey to the
Coimmissioner, with the account of the suriveyor and that of the publishers of the notice, for direct payment
from United States treasury to parties entitled as in the case of payments made out of the fund(s deposited
under the 10th section of the act of Congress approved May 30, 1862, and joint resolution of June 1, 1864.
LEGISLATION IN REGARD TO THE MINERAL INTERESTS.-The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in his annual report for 1836, gives the following condensed summary of
the legislation by Congress in regard to the mineral interests:
The mineral interests in the public lands lhave been the subject of legislation (luring a period of 81 years.
The ordinance of 20th of May, 1785. reserved one-third part of all gold, silver, lead, and copper mines; the
act of 3d of March, 1867, dealt with lead mines; the enactment of 31 of March,.1829, author ized their sale
in Missouri; the pre-emption act of 4th of September, 1841, excluded fiom its provisions known satlines or
mines; the act of July 1, 1864, requires coal lands wlich, as mines, are excluded from the pre-emption of
1841, to be offered at $20 minimum, making them pro-emptible at that rate.
In the case of the United States vs. Gear, 3 Howar(l, 1845, it was held that it was not intended to subject
lead mines to ordinarv sale or p)re-emption in certain districts created by act of 26th of June, 1834.
In Attorney Gener,il's opinion, dated April 18, 1846, respecting mineral lands on Isle Royal, in La  ke Superior, it was stated that "salines, gold, silver, lead, and copper mines" were reserved ifor " uture disposal of
Congress."
The act of July 11, 1846, required the lead mines in Illinois, Arlansas, Missouri, and Iowa to be offered,
interdicting pre-emption until after offering, and then at a mninimum of $2 59 per acre, but if not taken at
private entry w ithin a year of the public sale, to be sulject to sale as other lands.
The act of lst of March, 1847, in creating the L'Lke Superior district and directing geological survey,
authliorizes the sale of lands containing "copper, lead, or othier valuable ores." with $5 per acre minimum.
The act of 3,l of March, 1847, for organizing the Chippewa district, Wisconsin, and also authorizing
geological survey, awards the privilege of' purchase, at $5 iper acre, to occupants at the date of the law, the
supiervision of mines, by act of 3d of -March, 1849, having been transifrred to the Secrectary of the Interior.
In opinion of 28th of August, 1850, the Attorney General held that hinds containing "iron ore merely"
arc not the "mineral lands " referred to in the 2d section of said act of 1st of March, 1847.
By the law of 26th of September, 1850, mineral tracts in Lake Superior and Chippewa districts were to be,
disposed of as other public lands
The act of September'27, 1850, creating the office of stioevor general of Oregon and making donations,
excludes "mineral lands" or reserved salines.  By the tr caty of 1851 with Peru, Peruvians are allowed to
work for gold in California; the third section of act March 3, 1853, for the surveys in that St..ate allowing
only "township" lines to be extended over lands mineral or unfit for cultivation; the sixth section excepting
mineral tracts from pre-emption.
The act of July 22, 1854, establishing the offices of surveyors general of New Mexico, Kansas, and
Nebraska, excludes from the privileges it concedes to individuals "mineral or school lands. salines. military
or other reservations."
The Attorney General's opinion of February 14, 1860, states that Congress had not then made any  pro.
vision concerning mineral lands in California, except reserving fiom pre-emption and donation.
The act of July 1, 1864, for the disposal of coal land and town property, allows coal lands not liable under
past legislation to ordinary private entry to be taken or pre-empted at $20 minimum per acre.
The act of July 4, 1866, giving authority for varying surveys in Nevada friom "rectangular form to suit
the circumstances of the country," reserves from sale, "in all cases, lands valuable for mines of gold, silver,
quicklsilver, or copper."
The last and most important expression of the public will in these respects is found in the act of Congress
approved July 26, 1866, chapter CCLXII, which declares that " the mineral lands of the public domain, both
surveyed and unsirveved," are "to be free and open to exploration and occupation by all citizens of the
United States, and those declaring their intention to become citizens, subject to such regulations as may be
prescribed by law," and "subject, also, to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts,
so far as the same may not be in conflict with the laws of the United States."
IMPORTANCE OF A NATIONAL SCHOOL OF MINES.
At no period in our history has there existed a greater necessity for an increase in the production of bullion than at present. The ablest intellects of the country have been for some
time past directed to the subject of our financial condition. Already numerous schemes have
been presented to Congress for the maintenance of our credit at home and abroad, and various projects having in view a reduction of the burden of taxation will doubtless be discussed
during the present session. Considering the great importance of the mining interest in this
connection, it seems singular that the annual decrease in our product of bullion for the last
few years has attracted so little attention. According to a statement in the President's message, "the production of precious metals in the United States from 1849 to 1857, inclusive,
amount to $579,000,000; from 1858 to 1860, inclusive, to $137,500,000; and from 1861
to 1867, inclusive, to $457,500,000-making the grand aggregate of products since 1849,
$1,174,000,000." This estimate certainly does not exceed the amount actually produced.*
But the returns of the principal mining States anid Territories will show that for several years
past there has been a gradual decline.
Thus California produced in 1853 as high as $57,330,030, as shown by the manifest of
bullion export from San Francisco. The actual production for that year probably exceeded
$60,000 000.  In 1865 the yield was $30,986,530; in 1866, $26,500,000; and in 1867, as estimated, $25,000,000.  Nevada, a silver-producing State, his increased somewhat during the
past three years, but all the other mining States and Territories have fallen off. The best
* The special commissioner, in his letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, (p. 6,) estimates the total product
at $1,255,000,000. 
I
i
I
I
i
I
II
i
i
I
659
I
I
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
authorities estimate the yield of Montana as follows: 1862, $500,000; 1863, $8,000,000; 1864,
$13,000,000; 1865, $14,500,000; 1866, $16,500,000; 1867,12,000,000.  The maximum esti mate for Colorado in 1863 was $9,000,000; in 1864, $6,000,000; in 1865, $4,500,000; in
1866, less than $3,000,000; and the probable yield for 1867 will not exceed $2,500,000.  The
product of Idaho for 1866 is estimated by good authorities at $8,000,000. This year (1867)
it scarcely exceeds $6,000,000. Arizona now produces comparatively nothing. Notwith standing these discouraging facts, so far from any diminution in the source of supply, recent
explorations have developed the fact that our great mineral belts extend over a much larger
area than was ever before supposed. The supply, in short, is inexhaustible. As yet it has
scarcely been tapped. Why, then, should our annual product be on the decline? Because,
in the first place the surface diggings very soon yield their maximum, and can never be
relied upon as a permanent source of supply; and in the next, vein or quartz mining is of slow
development, and requires capital and skill.
Assuming our total yield for 1867 to be, in round numbers, $75,000,000, and the average
loss arising from imperfect systems of reduction to be 25 per cent., we have a total loss on
gold and silver combined of,5,000,000. By the judicious application of science to the busi ness of mining, and especially to the treatment of the ores, at least $15,000,000 of this amount
might be saved. But this statement of loss is confined to ores actually taken out of the
ground and worked. No account is taken of the vast quantity of ore cast aside as too poor
to justify the expense of working under the present costly methods, or of the innumerable
mineral lodes now practically valueless, which, in any country possessing first-class mining
schools, would be inexhaustible sources of wealth. Nor does the estimate embrace the
immense losses to which miners are subject from the erection of unsuitable machinery and
from ignorance of the chemical composition of the ores and the process of reduction applica ble to each class. The same ores are worked by different systems in mills located within a
stone's throw of each other, and yet no record is kept of the depth from which they are taken,
what the yield is by one system as compared with another, or under what combination of
circumstances the best results are obtained. On the Comstock lode 500 tons of ore, it is said,
are worked daily with the aid of blue vitriol and salt, at an expense for these two articles
alone of $118,800 per annum. Some mills use double as much on the same kind and quantity
of ores as others.  Who  can tell the result?  Both cannot be right, and yet the mino and
mill owners have a direct pecuniary interest in knowing why and to what end these things
are done.
With all the experience gained in the treatment of silver ores since the discovery of the
Comstock lode, there are still many important questions to be solved. This can only be done
by experiments systematically conducted, and by repeated and careful comparisons of practical results. Among the subjects for investigation, and the questions which either cannot
be or have not been determined by private enterprise, are the following, submitted by the
distinguished metallurgist, Mr. Guido Kiistel:
1. Whether the use of blue vitriol in iron pans, for the purpose of decomposing silver ores, is necessary;
and, if so, in what proportion, and with reference to what silver combinations? Gould & Curry mill alone
splent $17,588 for blue vitriol, in 1866, on 36,000 tons of ore. The same mine expended $35,000 for quicksilver.
A great part of the loss in quicksilver is due to the use of blue vitriol.  The question is, whether this loss
was justified by the gain in silver, and to what extent that gais resulted from the chemical action of the
vitriol on sulphurets? There are no figures to solve this prolblem. Taking the low estimate of 500 tons of
Comstock ore worked daily with the use of blue vitriol and salt, and comparing the consumption of these
chemicals in the Gould & Curry mills with the total consumption upon that basis, for a year's manipulation
of 300 days, it would be equal to 150,000 tons, worked at an expense of over $118,800 for the vitriol and salt
alone. Now, it is more than probable that a careful investigation of the subject would result in the saving
of twmo-thirds of this expense. Some mills use twice as much vitriol and salt as others on the same kind of
ore, taken from the same depths and sometimes from the same mines. Both cannot be right. The product
alone does not determine the question. Expense must be considered; lbut at present there is no comparison
of results, nor is there any way of arriving at the facts from the books of the mills.
2. Whether the addition of salt for the same purpose is required? Gould & Curry expended for this article
alone, in 1866, $10,943. Contradictory views are entertained on this subject, but there is no exact data upon
which to determine the question satisfactorily.
3. Whether the iron pan decomposes silver ores for itself, without quicksilver; and, if it does, what kind
of silver ores?
4. Which process of amalgamation for silver ore is, for the length of time and expense, most economicalbarrel or pan amalgamation? and what is the loss of quicksilver in both cases, and the comparative loss in
each?
5. To determine which of the various methods of extracting gold from its ores now or heretofore practiced[ in the United States is the best, and whether better methods exist in Europe, South America, Mexico,
or elsewhere.
6. What method of concentration is most proper and economical with reference to different ores; what
machines are best; what is the comparative efficiency of different machines and inventions?  What is the
motive power required, and the wood and water consumption of each?  In Austria, under authority and
at the expense of the government, special attention is given to the solution of all such questions as these;
also, to some extent, in Saxony.  The best and only work on concentration was published in Vienna; another
is in course of preparation at Freiberg.  1-o independent work of this kind, devoted specially to this subject, exists in the English language.*
The Hale & Norcross mine, one of the best managed on the Comstock lode, had a lot of
15.639 tons of ore worked at 14 different mills during a portion of' the past and present year,
the assay value of which, according to their books, was $465,190 in gold; $822,942, silver;
I,*Mr. Kitstel has since published at San Francisco a very able and elaborate work on Concentration.
660 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
total, $1,288,132; amount produced, $397,157, gold; $419,819, silver; total, omitting fractions, $816,975; loss, $471,155. [See section XVII, table No. 2, p. 376.] This is a favorable example of the work done on the Comstock lode.   Not more than 65 per cent. is saved
on an avetage of all the ores worked. The returns indicate a yield this year of at least
$17,000,000. A loss of 35 per cent. would be $9,353,846. This is remarkable on a single
lode.   No nation on earth can furnish such  an example of extravagance.   The percentage
of loss on gold throughout the Pacific States and Ten'itories is not so great as on silver, but
it is quite sufficient to merit the most serious consideration.
The experts engaged in our mines are nearly all foreigners;  we send our young men to the
schools of Freiberg, Berlin, Paris, Schemnitz, and elsewhere in Europe, to learn that which
they could much better learn at home, if we had institutions equally thorough and compre
helsive.   And why should we not have such institutions?   Our mineral resources are of far
greater magnitude and value than those of any other country. Are we, a progressive people
in all other respects, to lack in this?   Whilst we are losing 35 per cent. of the product of our
richest mineral lode by inefficient systems of working, the entire loss in amalgamation, according to Inspector Winkler, in the treatment of the Freiberg ores-which are far poorer and
more rebellious than those of the Comstock-ranges from five to nine  per cent.   Allowing
for the difference in the cost of labor and material, and for the higher rates of interest on
capital in our country, this shows a remarkable contrast between the results of misdirected
energy and the judicious alpplication of science to the practical details of mining and metallurgy.
AMr. Rossiter W. Raymond,* editor of the American Journal of Mining, says:
Statesmen recognize the fact that many things must be done by the government which would otherwise not
be done at all; that the interests of education, industry, and commerce in every part of a nation are of vital
importance to the wvhole people, and that a wise discretion in such matters is better than blind adherence to any
political rule.  Of course, it is difficult to draw the line between jodicious and injudicious legislation in these
irections.  It is always easicr to be consistent than to be wise.  There is no general standard which can be
applied; every case must be judged upon its own merits, and full and thorough discussion must give the answer
to two all-important questions: first, is the proposed end one which concerns the whole nation, or only a part
of it? and second, can the benefit desired be obtained as well, or at all, by local legislation or individual enterprise?
Pining and agriculture arc the two productive industries upon whichl the wealthl of the world is base(d.
Strictly speaking agriculture is the most important silnce without it mcli could not exist; yet mining is almost
as essential, since without it there could be lno civilization, and men would only exist as savages   There is
this difference betu-cen the tuwo, that the products of mining arc, in general, far more impeishable, and, in
proportion to their first cost, of greater, becausc of morec p)rolonged, use to mankind.  After centuries of tilling the soil, mcen lhave no more  to eat than at first, and bad crops bring fimine and distress. The benefits
of minini, oel the otlher hanld. arc cumulati ve and pelrpetual.  AVWho can estimate the blessings diffused by a
tooion       mmined, smelted, cast or w rou(lit into forms of beauty and usefalness, serving for generations
the needs of men, and repeatedly reforge(d, and reappearing, as by a material metempsychosis to enter upon
iew periods of beneficence?  Miorc difflicult still is it to mieasure the importance of gold and silver, the prodIcetioil of which, aside fiom their intrinsic value and their apl)licatioli iii the arts, is so subtly connected
withl tlhe profolndest probleius of commerce aiid political economy.  Philosophers tell us that if we produce
and manufacturc largely, it is no matter    whlethlier wc lhave plenty of monecy or not; money is nothing but a
medium of exchange, aid,  hlien it is scarce, prices w ill 1be nominally low, while all increasec of money
nominally raises them, w ithout altering the real relations of labor and  e calthl.   bt history and daily experience tell a different story.  They showv us that the w iorld's accepted medium of exchange must bear a ceCtain relation to thle wvorld's amount of business; and that, in spite of all contrivances of credit, b)arter, and
paper money, the supply of the precious metals is of vital importance to all commercial nations.  This con-iction is the source of the univ ersal principle of law  that tlhe mineral resources of a country, especially its
mines of gold and silver, are the property of tlohe  hlole countri —  el)reseitfed in some states by the crouwn.
and in others by the general gov erinmeint.   Vc lave no filtt to lin(   itli tlhe American doctrine on that subject which throws open to individluall enterprise these sources of ilatioilal wealth, but it is a question vwhlethlier
individuals should be allowed to riiin, by igiiorant and \ astetiful mallageient, the endowment which nature
has established for succeeding ages as wcll as the present, and of which, ini  certain sensc, we are the trustees
?or posterity.  It is by no means indifferent to us all, whetlher the mines of the W'est acre skilffily and economically  eorked or not, whethler $!',00)0,000 of silrer a yeair are lost, lnever   to be recovered,  by the methods
of treating the ores of the Comstock lode, whether five  dollals ire  wasted for evcry dollar extracted fiom
the sulplinrets of Colorado.  These losses aire so much robbery of our childrein; and it is eminently within
the province of the governmeut to plreserve the mineral lresources of the country, just as it will be imperatively called uponII, bcfore maily years have passed, to prevent the destruction of its timber.  Statisties show
that, fir several years, our p roduct ion of gold ard silirer has been declining.  There is no great cause for
alarm in this fact alone.  The years of gi-eatest production -ere     thlosec in which superficial deposits were
worked bv rude methods, and since that time tlhe business of mining lias growna more  difficult ald expen
sive, while the numnber of miuiers -llas growln smaller.  It is not the diminisrcd productioni, but the increased
waste, whiclh is alarming.  All thlc indications are tlhat individual mine owners will not, or cannot, refoirm
this evil.  Tliev lack the necessary know ledge, and the means of obtaining it.  In -ain our    youig mcen crowd
the excellent schools of Paris, Frciberg, and Berlin.  Tllev need years of instruction here to make  their
European education available; ior those branches of metallurgy which are most widely practiced in this
country arc the ones most scantily known and taught in Europe.
Information is the least debt   luicli the o erinment owes to its citizens engaged in this work.  And there
is a special reason why this information shold( be nationally given.  Tle difficulties and interests of mines
are universal.  The main who is crushing quartz in Vermont ani(l the man nlwho is crushing quartz in California would gladly have a common  ceftre for the exchange of their experiences and the inistruction of their
ignorance.  The fnrmers of tho land need such an institution mucli less, yet they laie 0 it in the Agricultural
BIureau.  To a Burean of Mining, nnder competent direction, tlerc is no rcasonable objection,  except one.
An efficient Bureau of Mining is an impossibility.  In the first place, its location at'Washington would
defeat its object; and its location away from Washington would deprive it of the distinctive chciacter and
dependence of a bureau, and leave it without any individuality or vigor at all.  In the second place, a
* IRecently appointed special commissioner for thc collectioii of mining statistics, vice J. Ross Browne,
appointed minister to China.
661 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
bureau is not a progressive institution.  The best savant in the world, put into a bureau, is liable to clstallize just vwheiec lie is, and cnever grow any more.  The only wsay to secure vitality and progress in such an
estal,lishment      is to make it  a school.  Only a school can be in constant communication with practical men.
People -"ill not spolntaneously write to a mere burean, but the graduates of a school keep up relations with
their former comrades and teachers as long as they live.
If, then, the government is to spread among the people that necessary information on the sulbject of
mining and metallurgy, the slow aclquisition of whicl is costing us so many millions every year, and
wastiling our  resources for the years to come, there is no better way than to establish such a school as Senator Stewart proposecs, and make it, as it ought to be, the foremost in the world.
The Secretary of the Treasury deems the establishment of a national mining school a
matter of sufficient importance to give it favorable notice in his recent report.  After detailed
reference to the labors of the special commissioner he says:
Lider the most favorable circumstance s, such a drain Lupoi our resources as that to which attention is
now called would appear to demand the serious consideration of government.  The special commissioner
recommends, as the only possible remedy, the establishment at some cent] al point w-est of the PRocky mountains of a national mining schlool, orsganized upon comprehensive principles, analogous in its general design
and scope to the great mining sclhools of Europe. Bv the concentration of scientific experience upon
the processes of miiin  and metalliurgy, and the analytical and working tests that could be applied to
the tliircaet oros, -Aihere indiv-idual enterprise has so long and so signally failed, it is believed the results
would be )cieeficial. Witliout assumiiig to suggest by what means this object could be best accomplished,
the Secretalry- deems it due to the enterprising pioneers of the west, who hlave opened up a vast empire to
settlemenet sisid ci- ilization, that their wishes, as represented byv the commissioner, should meet with the
most fav-orable)l consideration. Whatever can be done to promote their welfare will be a national benefit,
anld none will question that the tendency of scientific institutions is to strengthen the bonds of interest and
sympathy between a people separated by a diversity of pursuits and the circumstances of their geographical
position.
Differences of opinion may exist as to the means proposed, but it cannot be denied that
the Secretary's views on the subject are just and liberal, and merit the favorable consideration of Congress.
A policy is presented, in the bill recently introduced by Mr. Stewart of Nevada, which
it is estimated will increase the annual bullion product to more than $200,000,000
within a few years. Now is the time for intelligent action on the subject. The Pacific
railroad is opening up direct and easy communication with the great interior of the continent. Our mineral resources are practically without limit. More than nine-tenths of the
mines discovered and proved to be valuable are now lying dormant.  The question is, will
government lend its aid to their development, or be content to ignore this great interest.
So far, individual energy has failed to accomplish the objects contemplated in Mr. Stewart's
bill. Possibly the miners may be more successful hereafter than they have been for the past
two or three years; but the history of mining in other countries does not sustain that hope
with reference to a more profitable treatment of the ores, or to the development of mineral
lodes now unproductive, or, indeed, to any of the objects designed to be accomplished by
the establishment of a national school of mines. It is clear, then, that unless some action is
taken on the subject by our government, past experience does not warrant us in expecting
an increase of the bullion product in the future.
Mr. Louis A. Garnett, formerly melter and refiner in the United States branch mint, and
at lIresent manager of the San F'rancisco Assaying and Refining Works, says, in a printed
letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, that it costs in labor alone $1 80 for every dollar produced from our mines.  He bases this estimate upon a population of 100,000 mien engaged
directly in mining, at the minimum wages of $3 per day for 300 days, and upon a product
of $50,000,000.  A mining population of 50,000, engaged in actual labor in the mines at $4
per day for 250 days, would probably be nearer the tfacts. This would give a result of
$50,0u0,000 as the cost for labor alone.  Add for current expenses of management, wear and
tear of machinery, material, &c., $25,000,000, and you have a total cost, without calculating
interest on capital, of $75,000,000 to produce $75,000,000, the maximum estimate for this
year; in other words, it costs a dollar to produce a dollar.  "Upon what principle of political economy," says Mr. Garnett, "a tax upon the mining interest can be justified I confess
I am unable to discover. It practically amounts to taxing a man for the privilege of working at his own expense for the public benefit."  If the miners are taxed at all, it would be
good policy to apply the tax in such a way as to increase the product of bullion; still better,
to take the tax off altogether, and make a direct and liberal appropriation to carry out the
object of Mr. Stewart's bill.
While many attach great value to a national school of mines, there are some who cannot
see why government might not as well establish a school of agriculture, or a school of consmerce, or a school of commercial navigation. In answer to this, it may be said that there is
a bureau in the Treasury Department specially designed to promote the interests of commerce and navigation. The Coast Survey, the Light-house Board, the Consular System,
the Board of Steam Boiler Inspectors, are all carried on at government expense for the benefi. of commerce and navigation. The Bureau of Statistics is an important aid to commerce
and navigation. Surely these great interests have no cause to complain. What has government done, on any scale commensurate  with these expensive branches of the public
service, to promote the interest of mining? Congress has already established a Department
of Agriculture, and provided by donations of land for "schools of agriculture and the
mechanic arts." But no mining school has been established by any of the States or Territories under the act of 1862. California is about to establish a State university, in which
662 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
there will probably be a department for instruction in mining, as in some of the colleges of
the east, with which  this donation  has been  consolidated.  Something, of course, wirill be
gained by such elementary instruction, b,it these miscellaneous institutions can never prove
a substitute for a great central mining school, devoted exclusively to miniug.   As for com merce, it will take care of itself, with all other schools for the promotion of industry and tie
products of the earth to sustain it.
Senator Stewart, in his able and elaborate speech of January 16, 1868, says:
Our mines are the heritage of the whole nation, bought andi retained at the expense of common blood andi
treasure.  The nationi is interested ii min'Il'iiig them available for great and beneficial purposes.  A de]3t of
gratitude is due to the pioneer -i ho iihas discovi-eed the hidden -ivealith of that recently siiikilowii regioii of
the Pocky -ii'd Sierra Xcev-adaI miouitaiis. It is ]ut just that the mines sho  lil llc fiee to him. lic must be
iew.dii~d( iir his risks and sacrifices oi others -iwill cease to explore, and discoveries of the precious metals
-%-ill terminate. But it is vimdalism to reqiuiire mnii to learn  the art of minili, not only,it the saicifitice of
their on 1111l01or and time, but  it the oxpenise of milliois of dollars in llsle of the uichest ores, w-ilile the
experience of mankiid is of record aind could be muade available to all by meaus of a common centre of
mining;             intelligence and instruction.   I  I         **
There is aniiotlie important i rginent     in  favor of the development of our mines. The region of country
in which they -tre situated is f-ir removed fro m inariket, -iiid the ag-icultural resources of themse lves are
iiisuflicieiit to induce settlements and the dcev-elopmeuit of the f( itile -ialleys a nd a-iallle lainds -wihidc we flud
interspersed -imong the imnouiiniiis -iiid deserts. Tli  miues ftii iiisli  it ready inirkct, enhance the value of
the ht11ds, build up -iqricultaltii comiuiniiiities, induce the construction of railroads and other internal
improvements, cause the e        rction of a fictories, school-houses, aiil churches, -iiid -ittrict all tlie advantages of civilized society. It is tiighily import-ilit tlihat these mountaini valleys should be inhiabited.  They
are more healthul i and inl-vigoratiiin foi the habitations of' men than aliy other portions of the United States.
There civilization and f'ee insti t    i   will in'ospjer.i5e waut the Pacific iid the Atlantic united by a
continuous line of popul,itioli a —s'ci as iv i-irilioads aind otlier airtiticitl chinunels of communication.
It is  usafmb  for the Picific slope, nitli its geiii-il climate, unboinded resources, and vast commercial
advantages, soon to be inhabited 11 b  iniiiy millions of men, to tie separated from the Atlantic by hundreds
of miles of uninhabited country. The lirospclity of the mining interests is the only means that will induce
settlement of the intei-venilng space and secure its dcevelopment.
The following extracts trom various eminent  authorities  are cited in support of the proposed national school of mines:
It is with indescribable iem'et that I have seen the youth of the United States migrating to foreigni counitr   ies,   in order to -icquine the liiglier tic-iiiclies of eludition, aid to obtain a kn()vwledge of the sciences.
Although it would be inijustice  to 1)reouceiiiic the certaiinity of their military maxilns not congenial with
rclilplicanism, it must bevertiless bc  idmiitted that  t s serious danger is encountered by sending about
-inmolig otlici i oltical systemus those who have not well learned the value of their own. (President Washiiigtoii to Pohert Brooke, esql.)
This species of establishment coutibutilets doul)lv to the increase of improvement by stimulating to enterprise and experiment, and byi dirain 1g to a com             0on centre the results eveirynliere of iiidivi(lual skill and
olbservatioii and spreading tlei theucenc over the icwnhole  nation. Experience accordingly has shown that
tlhy arc very clieip instruments of' immeose national benefit.  (President W-ashin,ton's speech to both
houses of Congress, December 7,  1)()
It is a consoliation to o tsirve ihat iiiidor every zone the cultivation of science and art establishes a certain
equality among men, and oblitleates ici - time aet least, all those petty passions of which the effects are so
prejudicial to social happiness.  (tliioi Humboldt.t
Settled by the hard 1l'1)or c liuiumai hands, they Ithe regions of the West] are now to be settled by the
labor-saviug arts, bv machinery, by the steam eiIgii-ii, and by internal improvements.  Hitherto the work to
be done n-s that n101iic nothing but the tough sinews of the arm of man could accomplish.  (Edward
Elverett's Orations -ind Speeches, vol. 1.)
Industrial enterprise     is every3wn hiere stimul-ited; the paths of adventure are opened; the boundless west
preveilts the older settlements ficom 1ing oi-erstock0ed, and gives scope for aii unlimited development of
eergy.  Education is ln-ii-inted to eiiligliteii and direct these active, moving powers.  Without it, much wild
vigor will be excited in -ain. Elierl y aicoe is uot enough; it must be turned to feasible objects, and ivork
by sound priiciples. (Ed uard EPeott b Oraitioiis, vol. 2.)
The history of the progress of the humanii mind shows us that, for want of a diffusion of scientific knowledge amoig practical meii, great evils hai 0re1suilted. Lotl to s111ien and practice.  (Eiward Everett, vol.1.)
If to the ingenuity of the Now Wor  ld, the thoroughness, the patience, and the science of the Old could
be -idded, far greater results might be expected than those wejiow attain.  (North American Review.)
Private establishments lre defe tive in their constitution, limited in their operation, and incapable, from
th    eir very nature, of developifig  and directiiig and rewardiug the indigenous talent of the country.  They
are under no obligation to do the scientific work of the State, or to promote any of those national objects
wlicels are intrusted to the organized institutions of other lands.  (Sir David Brewster, ad(-ess before the
British Association, July 31, 1850.)
It is only experience, aided by science, that is rapid in development and certain in action. (Lyon Playfaii, C. B., F. B. S.)
Mining schools have long existed in France, Bussia, Prussia, Saxony, Austria, Spain, Sweden, aid otiler
countries even less connected with mining; and their practical value is recognized by the fact that the
respective governments of these states hlame found it necessary to develop still further the educational
resources of such institutions.  The want of siiailar establishments in this country has long been felt iii
mining districts, and has been expressed both in Parliament and in memorials addressed to the government.
In the report of the committee of the House of Lords, (1849,1 the committee observed that "among those
best qualified to speak upoi this point, a -want -ippears to be felt of facilities for acquiring mining education,
such as provided hv the minilig schools and colleges established in the principal mining districts of the continent, apparently -with the most beneficial effect." (Prospectus government school of mines, London,
1852-3.)
Looking at the class of men -iwho, in this kingdom, are intrusted with the direction of collieries and mines,
we fiud them, in geuciral, cliaracterized by a iomnikahlc degree of energy and intelligence; and yet it cannot be deniiid that lndcpendciloly of the losses entailed by the uncertainty of mineral veins, large sums a:~
yearly siiuaiidoie onl0 ill-judged, and sometimes even absurd speculations, which a greater amount of expericince oni the pail ci the proposor would ba-ie taught him to modify or abandon. (Wrightman, Geological
Sni-vey, Great Britain.)
It is coucedod to aigriculturo that the fritils of the earth, reproduced annually, can be stimulated by an
applicalion of acquired kno-iledge, connected with practical training, upon a farm conducted upon toe
principles taught, -ihere theory aijil practice al-c combined.:But i111s denied to miuling, a pursult in whichl
663 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
nature gives but one crop, with the production of which man has not assisted, and where all the knowledge
demanded is to secure the production at hand by the most expeditious, economical, and safe means which
experience and science furnish.  (Gregory Yale, Titles to Mining Claims.)
The arts of mining and geology mutually support and illustrate each other.  As the geologist is indebted
to the labors and observations of the miner for many important facts relative to the formation of the crust
of the earth, so the miner must possess some degree of geological knowledge if he desires to ascertain the
presence of useful minerals in his district, such as ores, precious stones, rock salt, &c. He who abandons
the simple and correct way pointed out by geological experience, runs the risk of groping in conjecture and
doubt, and this is of particular importance in mining, for it is an enterprise brilliant and full of promise,
and at the same time expensive, and often illusory.  (Professor R. C. Yon Leonhard, University of Heidellerg.)
Of the importance of an increased product of the precious metals there can be no question.
TLe ablest political economists of Europe and America are unanimous upon that point.
Mr. Seward, in the course of a debate in the Senate shortly after the admission of Cali.
fornia into the Union, said:
The objects of the'United States in regard to the gold mines in California should be, in the first place, to
bring to the general public use of the people of the United States the largest possible acquisitionof national
wealth from their newly-discovered fountains; and secondly, to render the mining operations conducive to
the best and speediest possible settlement of our vast countries on the Pacific coast, which are so soon to
exercise boundless commercial, social, and political influences over the eastern world.
Mr. Benton was "decidedly of the opinion that the United States ought not to undertake
to make a revenue out of the mines; that the United States ought to content herself with
getting the wealth out of the bowels of the earth itself."
Sir Archibald Allison, referring to the wonderful effects of the gold discoveries in California and Australia, makes use of this emphatic language:
That which for five and twenty years had been wanting-a currency commensurate to the increased numbers and transactions of the civilized worlld —was now supplied by the beneficent hand of nature.  The era
of a contracted clurrency, and consequent low prices and general misery, interrupted by passing gleams of
prosperity, was at an end. Prices rapidly rose; wages advanced in a similar proportion; exports and
imports enormously increased, while crime and misery as rapidly diminished.
Mr. Conness, always earnest in his advocacy of great measures for the development of the
material resources of the Pacific slope, said, in the course of the debate on the mineral land
bill:
I will not undertake to extend this debate or the consideration of this question by entering into an esti mate of what the production of gold costs.  It would be mere guessing at best; but I undertake to say that
there is no commodity which the enterprise and commerce of our country and of the world require so nmuch
as the addition to our circulation of the precious metals.  I need not waste a word in stating how it incites
tl a trade and commerce of the country, and of the whole world.
Mr. Nye said, in the course of the same debate:
1 beg the Senate to bear in mind the fact that every additional dollar of gold and silver that we produce
lays the foundation of our financial structure on a more stable foundation.  Let it be known that we can
produce gold and silver to make our credit always secure and sure, that the interest will be paid in the pre cious metals, and our credit will stand as high it not higher than that of any other nation of the earth.
The importance of such an increase to the United States has been forcibly presented by
the Committee on Public Lands of the House. Mr. Julian, the intelligent chairman of that
committee, who  very  ably supported  the policy of granting absolute titles in fee to the
miners, though opposed to the form of the bill reported by the Senate committee, says, in a
report on the mineral lands, dated June 5, 1866:
In the judgment of the committee there is very great need of an increase in the quantity of precious
metals.  The disproportion of gold and silver to other values, and to our commercial wants, is very remarkable.  If practicable, it should be reduced.  The property of the United States, within the last ten years,
has increased about $900,000,000 per year; and this increase is estimated to be more than two hundred tines
greater than the increase of coin during the same period.  It is believed that some policy which will secure
to the government a fresh and liberal supply of the precious metals will be found absolutely necessary.
Mr. Robert J. Walker, the distinguished statesman and financier, says, in a recent able
letter:
All the benefits of skill and experience derived from years of devotion to business pursuits, are lost
through fluctuations in the cunrrency, which no sagacity or skill can anticipate.  When we reflect that each
nation is but a part of the great community of states, united by ties of commerce, business, and interchanges, and find the rest of the world sustained by a specie currency, which is of uniform, universal international value, how can we who are dealing with depreciated paper expect to compete successfully witl
those countries whose money is gold, or its actual equivalent?  No nation has ever tried this experiment
without vast sacrifices and great failures. So long as the currency of the world is gold, any nation departing
from this standard impairs its own power of successful competition, and gradually drives its products from
the markets of the world.  It is true that it may, to a certain extent, so far as smtuggling does not open the
safety-valve, keep out foreign imports for a time, thereby annihilating its exports; but prices soon rise at
home in a ratio corresponding with the augmented duties, and, the check becoming ineffectual, is sought to
be remedied by augmented tariffs.  It is totally impossible for a nation like the United States to withdraw
from the business operations of the world, and it is equally impracticable to carry on successful international
exchanges when the money of the country is depreciated paper.
December 2, 1867, Mr. Stewart, United States senator from Nevada, asked, and by unani
mous consent obtained, leave to bring in the following bill, which was read twice and
ordered to be printed;  December 3, 1867, referred to the Committee on Mines and Mining;
February 20, 1868, reported by Mr. Stewart, with amendments.
664 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
A  BILL to establish a national school of mines.
Be it enacted by the Senate and Hoitse of Represeitatives of the Uitited States of America in Congress
assembled, That the tax levied and collected upon gold and silver bullion i' the States and Territories
situated in whole or in part -est of the eastern base of the Rocky mountains be set apart, so long as the
same shall be collected by the government, as a special fired for the endowment and support of a school of
mines, to be located on the line of the Pacific railroad, west of the rocky mountains, as near as practicable
to the centre of the mining States and Territories.
[SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That each State and Territory located ill lwhole or in part west of the
eastern base of the Rocky mountains may appoint one member of n board of directors, a majority of whom
shall constitute a quorom; and in ease of failure on the part of any State or Territory so to appoint, the
President shall appoint such membelr by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; but no part of the
fund hereii provided for shall be expended in salaics, travel lin, or other personal expenses of the said
board of directors.]
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the management of the institutioni shall be unlder the control of
eight dlirectors, a majority of whom shall constitute a qutorunm. Tlhe directors shall be selected from the
mining States and Territories, and appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, and shall hold their office for four years, and until their successors are appointed and qualified:  Provided, That the following named persons shall constitte the board of directors fiom  the first day of July,
anne Domini eighteen lhundred and sixt- eight, cttil the first of Jnly, eilghteen hundred and seventy
namely: Sherman Day and William Ashbrni, of California;  F. A. Tritle and D. W. Welty, of Nevada,
A. C. Gibbs, of Oregon;, of Idaio; A. I. Simmons, of 3Iontuao;- and John Pierce, of Colorado;
In case of failure of any of the abo ve-named persons to serve, or should a vacancy occur  from any other
cause, the same shall be filled as hereinbefore provided. TIle directors shall receie,c no compensation for
their services, obut their actual trarvelling and other expenses incurred wh bile attending to the business of the
institution shall be paid.
SEc. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said board of directori  shall have power to make rules and
regulations for the organization and goverinhent of the school; shall appoint its professors, teachers, and
officers, and exercise supervision and control over the find liherein appropriated.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That no professor or teacher [or other officer] of this institution shall
be removed except upon charges and specifications duly investigatedo by the board of directors, and the
decision of the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom the facts and the evidence shall be reported, shall be
conclusive.
SEc. 5. And be it further enacted, That tuition in this institution shall )be free to any citizen of the United
States who may present proper evidences of qualification, to Jbe determined by the faculty; and it shall also
be free to students from other countries, duly recommended by the authorities of the schools in which they
shall have become qualified; but all expenses for books and stationery, and all personal expenses for lodging,
subsistenee, and travelling, shall be borne by thle students themsel es.
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the primary object of the school being an increase of the bullion
product of the country, by the practical application of science to miling, and the diffusion of correct
knowledge among miners as to the best methods of treating the ores, nlo clharge shall be made for assays,
tests, metallurgical or other experiments, except to cover the actual cost of material used.
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury. on and after the first day of July,
eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, shall set apart the fund hereby appropiriated for the purpose named in this
.act; and he shall, after receiving a report fiom the board of directors, locate the school and fiirnislh plans
and specifications for all necessary huildings and improvements, which shall )be plain and substantial, and
upon the most economical plan consistent with the purpeoss of the institution.
SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, Thlat in order that the board of directors may  be placed in possession
of the most approved systems of education, the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause ail examination to be
made of the principal mining schools of Europe, and a report to be prepared upon tile same, the expense of
such service to obe paid out of the [unexponded balance of the appropriation heretofore made for the collectioii of mining statistics] funds of the inllstitution.
SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the duties now performed by the special commissioner appointed
by the Secretary of the Treasury to collect mining statistics in the States and Territories west of the Rocky
mountains, shall, upon the organization and completion of the school of mines created by this act, be performed under a permanent system by the hculty of said institution, and their report shall be transmitted to
the Secretarv of the Treasury, to be by him laid  before Congress.
SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the professors aind teachers, under the direction of the president
of the institution, shall make [annual] visits to the principal mining districts, accompanied by their respective
classes, for the purpose of examining the mines, mills, and modes of working, and instructing the pupils in
the practical operations of mining and metallurgy; and the said professors and teachers shall also, as far as
thei time will permit, give free lectures to the miners on geology, mineralogy, metallergy, and mining
cengineering, and kindred subjects.  And the faculty may require, as a part of the regular course of instruction, the pupils to engage for a prescribed period in practical mining and milling.
SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall require  from the directors
and from the disbursing officer or officers appointed by the board of directors such bonds and vouchers as
he may deem necessary for the security and proper disbursement of the fund.
SEC. 12. And be it further enacced, Thatfrom and after the expiration of the fiscal year commencing July
first, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, not exceeding one-half of the fund arising from the tax levied upon
gold and silver bullion shall be expended by or on behalf of the institution, the [remaining half to] remain.
er shall be set apart by the Secretary of the Treasury and invested in government securities, which shall
remain, both principal and interest, a permanent hand for the support and maintenance of the institution;
and no part of the moneys so reserved, [half] either principal or interest, shall be drawn so long as the government shall continue to impose a tax upon gold and silver bullion, but after such tax shall have ceased the
interest on the reserved fund shall be used for the purposes hereinbefore mentioned.
I
I
I
665
I
I
I
I
i 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
PAH-RANAGAT DISTRICT.
WnEN the report on this district embodied in this work was prepared, it was necessarily
very brief and imperfect, as the district had been but recently discovered. Its importance
will justify the addition, in the form of an appendix, of a more detailed history, brought
down to the latest moment.
The district was discovered on the 17th MIarch, 1865, by those already mentioned in this
work. Major Sidney S. Lyon, topographical engineer and late State Geologist of Kentucky
(with whom I have been acquainted for many years), arrived in the district about the middle
of July, 1866, and spent nearly eight months ill a most thorough examination, the result of
which was entirely satisfactory as to the importance of the district. It contains within a
comparatively small area a very great number of metalliferous veins, forming a complicated
net-work.  These veins vary greatly in width, running from a few inches to over twenty feet
in breadth.
The croppings are immense, and fissures are found, with good ores at the surface, over
twenty feet wide, traceable down the denuded sides of the mountain for half a mile, retaining this magnitude as far as the exposure allows it to be seen, or two or three hundred feet
lower in the rock than the top of the mountain.
The walls of the lodes are firm gray limestone, metamnaorphosed to gray quartz. The
lodes are nearly vertical, and most of the veins will require little or no timber, and they can
be wrought for years without a single adit level, or any pumping machinery to free them
from water. This, of course, is an advantage in mining.
Carl Haber, mining engineer from Rhenish Prussia, made an examination of the mines
during the fall of 1867. Hle speaks of the prominent lodes of the district as true fissureveins, and, in his opinion, of great value.  He says in his report: "If, in conclusion, you consider the generally strong impression, as to its abundance and richness, which this mineral
belt makes upon the mind of a person of experience, your decision must be, that the mines
of the Pah-ranagat District promise rich rewards for an almost indefinite period."
The district is thirtv miles square, the lines bounding it run north and south, east and
west. The principal seat of the lodes lies in the northwest fourth of the district, enclosed
by the boundary defining it.  It consists of alternate mountain and valley.   On the east side
Pah-Rock range, near the centre Hyko range, on the west the Great Quartz Mountain; the
northwestern corner includes a portion of the Bonte Ranche range, which is the north end
of, and part of Tempiute's Mountains.
The valleys between these mountain-ranges are about 5,000 feet above the level of the
sea. The mountain-peaks rise 4,000 feet above the valleys, the greatest elevation in the district being about 9,000 feet above the level of the sea.
The Great Quartz Mountain forms part of a series of elevated lands, which separate the
Great Western Basin from the waters of the Colorado River.  This being the case, the district lies partly within and partly outside of the Great Basin.
The basin westwardly of the district is extended southwardly about one hundred miles,
when its boundary is sharply curved toward the west, with a line of elevated country, and
finally it connects with the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains. which; for their entire length,
form its western margin.
The general trend of the mountain-ranges of the Great Basin, and those forming its southern margin, is northeast and southwest, variously modified by denudation, uplift, and subsidence. The Great Basin itself is a vast mountain-plain with sharp wrinkles upon it, which
appear diminutive when compared with the vast piles of the Wasatch and Sierra Nevada
Mountains, which form the basin on its east and west sides.
The subordinate wrinkles of the basin vary in height, they are generally long, narrow
ridges, frequently interrupted, broken, thrown out of line, but still keeping up the general
plan. Sometimes interrupted by sharp steep caflons, again completely smoothed, rising and
descending a thousand feet by a gentle slope of from 50 to 100 feet to the mile. The
mountain-chains vary in width from  10 to 30 miles, if the mountains be considered as
descending to the centre of the valleys, which have been filled by the waste, which has partially smoothed the elevated rocks forming the mountains.
The configuration of the country is such that it may justly be compared to a series of
trough and ridge, nearly of equal height and depth, succeeding each other at regular intervals,
from the base of the Wasatch to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a distance varying from
200 to 600 miles, the distance varying with the place, and the direction of the line by which
it is crossed.
The long troughs are divided into a series of minor basins by lateral wrinkles, or piles of
wasted materials of the mountains, brought down by floods, and deposited at right angles
with the line of the valley.
These depressions thus formed are the locations at which are found the alkali lakes, so
called. An alkali lake is usually a level plain, dusty, covered with white saline incrustations.
Some of the alkali lakes contain water during the entire year, but the water is unfit for
domestic use or the use of animals.
666 
WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
The higher mountain-ranges receive considerable quantities of snow, and afford greater or
less quantities of water, which is seen in springs, rivulets, or creeks. These, as soon as they
reach the mountain-slopes or valleys, are swallowed and hidden in the loose materials form.
ing the surface of the valleys and many of the mountain-slopes.
The topography of the Great Basin and its margin offers no serious obstacle to travel and
the transportation of supplies. Good natural roads are found everywhere. All the natural
difficulties of the topography of the country may be turned. In fact, so great are the facilities of transportation by wagon, that the heaviest loads, from five to six tons, are placed upon
a wagon and boldly started into an unknown country, without trail or trace to guide the
teamsters, to places two hundred miles distant. Water-stations on the route are to be hunted,
and the country is to be explored before the advancing train. The country is traversed in
every direction; the mountains are turned or crossed at gaps or cafions. The lowest parts of
the valleys are avoided, and, although the roads thus made are not so direct as they are
marde in longer-settled countries, the country without roads is now traversed by teams transporting heavy burdens in all directions.
Roads, now well known and travelled, connect the district with Salt Lake City, four hundred miles distant. On this road there is now a line of stages, making the trip between the
two places in four days.
A road is also open to Austin, connecting with the overland mail-route, eight miles east
of that place. Upon this road, from 180 to 200 miles in length, heavy-loaded trains make
the journey in ten days.
The quantity of arable land in and around the district is not great, yet, considering the enormously productive character of these soils when  they are irrigated, they
will produce most of the food-supplies for a lirge population.  Some of these oases of the
desert may here be referred to. Nearest and first comes Hvko Valley. This valley is about
thirty miles ill length; it will average about one mile, in width, of lands that are susceptible
of irrigation, or 19,200 acres. This land has produced and will continue to produce enormous
crops of potatoes, wheat, barley, beans, pumpkins, onions, beets, and the usual crops of
warmn temperate climates.
These lands will produce a certain crop of potatoes, from 400 to 500 bushels per acre;
wheat, 40 to 60 bushels; barley, 70 to 80 bushels; and of all the crops that can be grown, a
proportionately greater production of the same crop than may be grown on the best lands in
the Eastern and Middle States.
The climate of the district is pleasant and healthy.   No  sickness occurred among
a population of five hundred during the six months' sojourn I made at this mining district.
The air is pure and bracing; breezes from the north are nearly constant every night.
These breezes render the air delightfully cool. The air being very dry, changes of temperature are not sensibly felt; and all out-door employments are carried on without  inconveniene or discomfort during the entire year.
The range of the thermometer during July was between 42~ and 94~ Fahrenheit. Great
as this change may appear, it affects the senses less than a change of 15~ does on the Atlantic
coast or in the valley of the Mississippi.
The thermometer rarely falls below 32~. When s,ich an event does occur, the temperature does not continue long below the freezing-point.
The rainy reason-not properly a rainy season, but the season of showers-is from the
first of July to the middle or last of August, when occasional copious showers fall.
Snow rarely falls in the valleys. When it does, it remains on the ground a few hours;
rarely one day.
Snow falling on the Great Quartz Mountain five to ten inches deep, does not remain on the
south, east, or west slopes more than a few days. The canions and gorges, and deep shady
places, retain the snow during the winter months.
A register of the thermometer kept in the district, part of the time at Hyko Spring, and
part of the time in the mountains, twenty-two hundred feet above the valley, shows the following mean temperature:
Greatest Heat.     Least Heat.      Mean for Month.
August....................92~............... 51~................68~
September.................88~...............49~...............67~
October................... 82...............430................62~
November................. 75~...............41~................ 53~
December.................7...............71  32...............50~
January...................68...........2....~ 25............... 41
February..................60~................21...............40~
The district of Pah-ranagat, as before stated, has three ranges of mountains extending
nearly its entire length from north to south, and a portion of a fourth range, which lies near
its northwest corner.   Hyko Spring range lies nearly in the centre of the district.  At the
foot of the Hyko range, on its west side, burst forth three springs of great power.   The most
northwardly of these springs, Hyko, rises near the centre of the district, measuring from the
667 
RESOURCES OF STATES AND TERRITORIES
east toward the west, and about 10 miles south of its northern boundary. This spring yields
about three hundred and twenty cubic inches of water under a head of six inches. This water
has been conducted by a ditch to the west side of the valley, where eligible mill-sites are found,
and will give an abundant supply of water for mills using a thousand stamps, and all water
necessary for the reduction of the ores that can be handled in these mills; enough water to
produce from the ores of the district $200,000 per day, or $20,000,000 per year.
Crystal Spring rises nearly south of Hyko Spring, six miles distant from it.  This spring
gives from 900 to 1,200 inches of water. Near it are eligible sites for all the mills that use
its water.
Ash Spring, rises six miles south of Crystal Spring, and is the largest spring in the valley.
The slope of the valley below Crystal and Ash Springs is sufficient to utilize the water of
both these springs as a motive power, should it ever be considered desirable to do so.
Wells sunk in any part of the valley reach water at a short distance, from 10 to 22 feet,
varying with the location, so that mills may be erected at any point selected, and the necessary water may be raised from wells for all purposes.
The clays of the valley have been proved to be suitable for the manufacture of brick;
some of the clay, being very refractory in fire, produces a very good fire-brick.
Quarries of stone suitable for building-purposes have been opened, from which a good and
cheap building-material can be obtained.
A few convenient localities supply limestones, which are easily reduced to lime of an excellent quality.
Timber for building-purposes has been obtained from the top of, and in the cafnons on,
the northwest side of the Great Quartz Mountain.   Large supplies of timber are found south
of Ilyko Springs forty miles. East of the springs, thirty-five or forty miles, in the Bennet
Spring range of mountains, large bodies of timber are known. Wood for fuel and mining
purposes covers the Great Quartz Mountain, and part of Lookout Mountain-also large supplies may be obtained from the west slopes of Pah-Rock range, from ten to fifteen miles from
Hyko Springs.  The hauling of wood and ore is from the mountain to the valley-down-grade
-large loads may be moved, and supplies of wood and ore obtained, at reasonable rates.
At the present date of writing, a great deal of late and highly-important information
about the Pah-ranagat District has been obtained. Practical investigation has been very
active and thorough during the last six months.  The district has been visited and minutely
examined by Mr. A. F. White, mineralogist for the State of Nevada.
Mr. White, in his report, says that "the veins of silver-bearing quartz in the Pah-ranagat
District are true fissure-veins, and are well defined for long distances." He assayed six
samples of ore taken indiscriminately from the Illinois Lode, and found their value per ton to
be as follows: First specimen, $942.53; second, $1,570.89; third, $325; fourth, $94.25;
fifth, $21.99; sixth, $204.18. At all points from which he made selections, Mr. White says
"the ledge preserves a uniform thickness of about 21 feet."  He is confident that water to
run any number of mills will be obtained very near the mines.
The richness of the Illinois and Indiana Lodes has been so well ascertained by the tunnels and shafts heretofore run, that a system of deep mining has been commenced.
The evidence of its being a true fissure-vein is unmistakable.   A remarkable "chimney"
of ore, worth from $100 to $2,500 per ton, is found enclosed in the lode; it grows richer
as it descends. In the lower tunnel some faint traces of water have made their appearance.
The Indiana is another remarkable lode, and the work that has been done on it has revealed its great value and assured its immense size. One of the tunnels is into the vein-matter
65 feet, and has not yet reached the "hanging wall" on the other side.  One pocket of ore,
worth ~2,000 a ton, was found in the vein. The Indiana, though not so uniform as the Illinois, is no less plainly a fissure-vein. The best practical and scientific judges that have inspected the Illinois and Indiana Lodes agree that both belong to the one great ledge of Pah
ranagat; and that the Webster, Chimney, Rio Virgin, Cocomongo, Soledad, and Yellow Lodes
are other links in the one gigantic "backbone" of silver-quartz that runs through the district.
The Hvko Company has commenced to run a tunnel into Silver Mountain at its base, and
so pierce the Illinois Lode 800 feet below the point where it crops out on the summit. This
is the kind of mining that deserves the warmest commendation. The results that may be
expected from this tunnel are:
First. Ability to mine a vast amount of ore, and carry it to the reduction-works without
hoisting a single ounce. The mouth of the tunnel will open in the cafion at the foot of the
mountain. The ore can be dug, dropped down, and dumped directly into wagons. This system will not cost one-twentieth of that entailed by the expensive hoisting-works at Virginia
City and elsewhere.
Second. The new tunnel in all probability will reach a supply of water. The importance
of this is quite beyond reckoning; it will enable mills to be built at the very entrance of the
mines, and the ore then might be conveyed by its own specific gravity from its native bed
to the battery-room in the mills. This would so cheapen the cost of reduction, that it would
virtually double the value of the ore; and, as there are hundreds of thousands of tons of ore
in Silver Mountain in the 800 feet between its base and apex, it can be seen readily that the
reaching of water by the tunnel must prove a source of incalculable wealth.
668 
WEST OF THiE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
'Third. There is hardly a shadow of doubt that the tunnel will enter the vein below the
"water-level," at which point all silver-bearing lodes change in character: the ore is more
concentrated, and grows much richer, and can be reduced with simpler processes, less ex  pense, and less loss of the precious mnetal.
Fourth. The determining of the water-level will give new life and energy to the whole
district; scratching on the surface will cease, and deep mining be universally adopted. With
a long tunnel under the Illinois Lode, and another just opposite, under the Indiana, the
cafion between the two mountains must be the site of one of the busiest mining cities on the
Pacific slope.
The present cost of labor and supplies in Pah-ranagat is one of the obstacles that a
very few years must remove, though in this connection it should be remembered that the
first white men entered the district but a little over three years ago. Miners receive $6 a
day, currency; and freights from San Francisco cost 10 cents per pound.  Passengers on the
stage-coaches pay 25 cents per mile, which few laboring men, of course, can well afford to
expend for long journeys. On the other hand, Pah-ranagat has some peculiar advantages
which must constantly increase in value: the Mormon settlements are near at hand, and a
portion of their surplus farm products seeks Hyko as a market, which enables the inhabitants
to purchase certain staple-supplies cheaper than can be done in other sections of Nevada.
The valley of Hiyko itself produces enormous crops of small grain and vegetables on such
ranches as have been irrigated.  The three immense springs that gush at convenient inter vals from the base of the mountatins on the east would, if combined, form a river of respect able size, and the water they discharge could be conducted in a network of ditches that
would suffice to irrigate every acre in Hyko Valley, 30 miles long. A north and south rail road, connecting the two main trunk-lines of the Pacific Railroad, will probably be built
within the next five or six years. The topography of the country is favorable to the enter prise to an extent that is surprising. Such a railroad must pass through or near Pah-ranagat.
With a successful system of deep mining, with mills and mines together in Silver Cafion, and
with railroad-trains to bring up supplies and carry off products, the lowest grade of ore ever
found in the Illinois, Indiana, and extension of the same, will be reduced at an enormous
profit.
The fact has been justly noted as of the first importance, that the parent vein on which
the Illinois and Indiana are located has the same general trend from north to south as
the Comstock Lode, and all the great gold-bearing ledges of California. What is called the
"great mother gold-ledge" in California runs parallel with the parent silver-vein in Pahranagat.  Croppings that run from east to west have come to be looked on as spurs  and
detached masses, a conclusion that practice and observation have invariably served to
strengthen.
The walls that enclose the Illinois are so perfectly defined that it has no rival in this
respect in Nevada. Cenceding it to be a true fissure-vein, and calculating upon its continuing
to be as rich as the latest reports assert, and as has been proved by the deepest shaft yet run,
we may safely say that it contains, properly developed, enough silver to insure fabulous
profits; yet the Illinois is but one small section of the main Pah-ranagat vein. The Indiana
is no less promising; nor are the Webster, Chimney, Yellow, Rio Virgin, Cocomongo, etc.
All the latest reports, from parties who have made personal examinations, confirm the existence in the Pah-ranagat District of inexhaustible supplies of wood. One of the most
common of the indigenous trees is the pition pine, which is unsurpassed for fuel.  Mills
ought to secure supplies of fuel for not exceedirng $5 (currency) per cord.   The ordinary
price in Virginia City is $15 (coin) per cord.
The extensive consumption of salt in the reduction of silver-ore renders its cost an item
of importance.  Pah-ranagat is as fortunate in this as in the matter of fuel; the mountain
of rock-salt, 100 miles south of Hyko City, is regarded as one of the most singular natural
deposits in the world. There is scarcely a valuable cabinet in Nevada or California without
its specimen of pure salt-crystal from this mountain. The supply there of salt is inexhaustible. It is now, I believe, the property of the Hyko Silver-Mining Company, and is looked
onil as the most valuable salt-mine in the country.
OF MILLS AND MINING.-The ten-stamp mill, erected at Hiyko City by the Hyko Company, is a very superior structure, combining compactness and convenience with all the
latest and most efficient improvements in machinery.   It is in running order, and on the eve
of being set to work; but the company have the good sense to bend all their energies toward
developing their mines, so that the mill, when it starts, can keep pounding away ad infnittun,
except when necessary to shut down for repairs.  If this line of operations  had been the
rule in American silver-mining from the start, a most damnaging blunder would have  been
avoided, waste of means prevented, and loss of confidence averted. Those who are best
acquainted with the silver-regions of Nevada are the most sanguine as to their future, and,
though they may have occasion to deplore the mistakes of the past, they are none the less
enthusiastic about the destiny of Nevada, the State of Silver. Silver-mining on the Pacific slope is not yet ten years old; and, if the great production of bullion has had some
offsets, it has been because ignorance and bad management have not been absent.  Silver
669 
RESOURCES  OF STATES AND  TERRITORIES, ETC.
mining is in its infancy, and infancy is prone to tumble; in the end it grows up into a
brawny giant.
Tie 1'ro Rata Company of Hamilton, Ohio, has several miners employed on a tunnel under the ledge on Springer's Mountain. The work is intended to be 500 feet long, and is now
completed for about 150 feet. This enterprise deserves to come under the head of deep
miniung, and its developments are awaited with great interest.
The Crescent Company is erecting a fine ten-stamp mill, and conducting active operations
on its ledge-the List Lode-one of the prominent croppings in the district.  The shaft of the
company has reached a considerable depth.
The Sherwood Silver-MIining Company, of Chicago, has commenced a tunnel on its ledge
on the north side of Sanderson's Mountain.
CONCLUDING SUMMARY.-In the three years that have elapsed since the discovery of the
Pah-ranagat District the work of making its great resources available and profitable has been
pressed on with a vigor that is characteristically American. Hyko City is a town of 500 inhabitants, two silver reduction-mills, about 75 houses, including stores, boarding-houses,
etc. It is the seat of Lincoln County, enjoys post-office facilities, and has a line of stages.
Several villages have sprung up elsewhere in the district.
At last accounts from the lower tunnel on the Illinois, the miners were digging in much
softer rock than ever before, and their rate of daily advance has been doubled. The Hyko
Company employs about thirty miners, working day-and-night shifts.  The position of their
ledges is such that all the shafts and tunnels can be easily and perfectly ventilated.  It is
confilling present operations to the two neighboritng lodes-the Illinois and Indiana.   A
large quantity of ore, assaying $100 a ton, is piled up for reduction.   The site for a new
twenty-stamp mill has been graded, and sites for future ones that may be needed staked out
in the immediate neighborhood of the mines.
The other active companies in the district are working steadily, and show a praiseworthy
disposition to expand their operations.
A shaft is being sunk on the Webster Lode. At the depth of 117 feet the ledge was cut,
and found to be 13 feet wide.  This, and other evidence, tends to confirm the general belief
that the Illinois and Webster are sections of the same parent-vein.
The ARAB LODE has very much the kind of ore found in the Indiana; it is parallel to it,
and a shaft has been sunk between the two, from which both lodes can be worked to advantage, when it has penetrated to a sufficient depth.  It is possible that the Indiana and
Arab unite and form a single vein.
CASTRO LEDGES, I., II., III.-Three names on the same fissure, from eight to ten feet
wide; little work done, but, from appearances, a good vein.
The JUNIPER LODE has been worked to some extent, and, judging from its appearance
and the clharacter of ore displayed, it is well adapted to the smelting process.
The DIANA LODE is six feet wide; ore poor on the surface.  A tunnel has been run to
it, and the ore obtained is quite rich. This is a good lode, and is probably on the same
fissure as the Juniper.
The YELLOW LODE is from sixteen to twenty feet wide.  The quartz is dark-colored; but
very little work has been done on it.
The HOHENLINDEN LODE is six feet wide, and resembles the Indiana.  It is considered a
good lode.
The SOLITAIRE LODE is ten feet wide.  The vein makes a very good impression, but no
wl,k has been done to fully determine its character.
The MAGNATE LODE is twelve feet wide.  The vein stands like a cliff above the mountain.
The AMAzON LODE is a ccmplete net-work of small veins, and, by its magnitude, reminds
one of the river after which it was named.
The ELY AND SANDERSON LODE shows a large mass of ore on its surface.  This is a very
attractive vein; although the croppings are not rich, it gives promise of great value.
The Rio VIRGIN LODE has very large croppings of very good ore.
The ledges mentioned are a sample of the good ledges of the district. Many more might
be mentioned that deserve notice; but these given have sufficient character to attract the
attention of those seeking the mineral regions for study or investment, and the district, taken
as a whlole, will assume a high rank among the silver-mining districts of our country, provided actual development shall be the main object of those owning its ledges-mere speculation, in the best mines in the world, without adequate work, would only disappoint those
investing their money.
670 
INDEX TO J. ROSS BROWNE'S REPORT.
Tuolumne county-Continued. Page.
Table mountain........................... 38
Quartz mining in Tuol umne ----------------  4-2
Golden Rule mine......................... 42
App mine.................................  43
Silver mine................................ 43
IHeslep mine............................... 43
Trio mine................................. 44
Reist   min e................................ 44
Mooney mine........o......................  44
Raw Hide mine............................ 44
Eagle mine................................ 44
Shareyout mine............................ 44
Clio mine.................................. 44
Meader and Carrington mine............... 44
Patterson mine............................ 44
Toledo mine............................... 45
Soulsby mine.............................. 45
Platt mine................................. 46
Starr King mine........................... 46
Old Gilson mine........................... 46
Grizzly mine.............................. 46
Mount Vernon mine....................... 47
Snell mine................................ 47
Monitor mine.............................. 47
CHazel Dell mine...........,............... 47
Summit Pass miae.......................... 47
Quartz near Columbia mine................ 47
HIunter mine.............................. 48
Lewis mine..... --------------------------. 48
Sell and Martin mine...................... 48
Sophia mine............................... 49
Bald Mountain mine....................... 49
Draper mine.............................. 49
Nonpareil mine............................ 49
Burns mine................................ 50
Other quartz near Big Oak................. 50
Page.
Letter of Secretary of the Treasury............ 1
J. Ross Browne to the Secretary of the Treasury.   3
.l~lariposa county........................
Placer mining.............................
Agriculture................................
Yosemite..................................
Mfariposa estate.............................
Princeton mine............................
- Pine Tree mine............................
Josephine mine............................
MIariposa mine.............................
Green Gulch mine.........................
Other mines...............................
Alariposa mills.............................
H~unter's valley............................
Epperson mine............................
Black mine................................
Ferguson mine............................
Louisi~ana mine............................
Flanniga mine............................
Coward mine..............................
Calico mine..:.............................
Compromise mine..........................
Mlarble Spring mine........................
Cherokee mine............................
Shimier mine...............................
Goodwin mine.............................
Bell and McGrew mine....................
McKenzie mine...........:.................
ttidley.,and Cunningham mine..............
Mary Harrison mine.......................
Crown Lead mine.........................
H~ite's Cove mine............................
Bridgeport mine...........................
Penon Blanco mine........................
Calaverals county ------------------------
Big Tree grove ----------------------------
Agriculture --------------------------------
Meteorology -------------------------------
San Andreas ------------------------------
San Andreas old channel -------------------
F nMokelumne Hill ---------------------------
Mokelumne Hill, old channel ---------------
Opals -------------------------------------
Camps near Mokelumne Hill ---------------
Douglass Flat mine ------------------------
-Murphy's mine ----------------------------
Vallecito mine -----------------------------
Minor Placer camps ------------------------
Quartz regulations of Angels --------------
Quartz regulations of San Andreas-.........
Quartz mising in Calaveras ----------------
Morgan  mine  Re —---------------------------
Reserve mine ------------------------------
Enterprise mine.:..........................
South Carolina mine -----------------------
Stanislaus mine ----------------------------
Santa Cruz mine --------------------------
Union Creek mine -------------------------
Carson Creek mine ------------------------
Bovee mine -------------------------------
Angels mine -------------------------------
oHill's mine --------------------------------
Stickles mine ------------------------------
Utica mine --------------------------------
Lightner mine -----------------------------
Ella mine ---------------------------------
West Point mine ---------------------------
Fisher's mill...............................
iHarris's mill...............................
Belcher's mill..............................
Lacey's mill...............................
I
I
I
CALIFORNIA.
SECTION 1.
C,eneral condition of mining interest............
Errors in mining...............................
Entries under act of July 26, 1866..............
IP,evenue law of California.....................
Surveys......................................
12
12
13
14
14
SECTION 11.
The mother lode.........................
Course and dip............................
Character of the gold......................
Width of lode.............................
Pay chimneys.............................
I-Iill"and hollows..........................
Peculiarities of the lode....................
Is it a fissure vein?.........................
Claims in lvfariposa........................
Claims in Tuolumne.......................
Claims in Calaveras........................
Claims in Amador.........................
14
14
15
15
15
15
15
16
16
17
18
19
SECTION.
19
20
20
21
21
23
27
27
28
29
29
30
30
31
31
31
31
31
3 )
32
32
32
32
33
33
33
34
34
34
34
34
34
35
SECTION V.
50
51
52
52
52
53
54
55
56
56
56
57
59
58
58
59
59
li9
Go
(o
o
61
6?
6 -?,
6-2
62
63
6 4
64
64
C4
64
65
r, 6
66
66
66
SECTION IV.
Tuolumne county.......................
Columbia..................................
Knapp's ranch.............................
Sawmill flat...............................
Shaw's flat................................
Sonora....................................
Big Oak flat...............................
Kincaid flat...............................
Jamestown................................
Other towns...............................
35
36
37
38
38
38
38
38
38
38 
INDEX.
El Dorado county-Continued. Page.
Miscellaneous resources.................... 82
Blue channel.............................. 82
Gray channel.............................. 83
Claims on Weber divide.................... 83
Claims on Reservoir hill.................... 84
Claims on Spanish hill..................... 85
Indian diggings............................ 85
Placerville mining regulations.............. 85
Mud Springs mining regulations............ 86
Georgetown mining regulations............. 86
Reed mine................................. 87
Pacific mine............................... 87
Harmon mine..............................   87
Shepard mine............................. 87
Cleopatra mine............................ 87
White and Burdiet mine................... 88
Persevere mine............................  88
White mine...............................   88
Manning mine.............................   88
Elle Ellen mine............................   88
Eppley mine......................... —--- 88
Davidson mine............................  88
Montezuma mine..........................  88
New York and El Dorado mill............. 88
Hermitage mine........................... 88
Union mine................................  88
Wilder mine...............................  89
Pocahontas minem...........................  89
Union Church mine........................ 89
Gray mine............................... 89
Bryant mine..............................- 89
Bea rd mine................................  89
Independence mine.................... 89
Stillwagon mine........................... 89
Silger mine.......................... 89
Greenwood mine.......................... 89
Taylor mine ------------------------------- 90
RosecranB mine4  H............................  9
Blue Lead mine............................  90
Collins mine.......................... —--- 90
Alpine mine............................... 90
Woodside mine.............................    90
James's mill...............................  91
Eureka mine..............................   91
Georgia Slid- mine........................ 91
Mosquito mine............................. 91
Plymouth mine............................ 91
Gopher mine......................... —--- 9L
Last Chance mine.......................... 91
Reward mine.............................. 91
Amador county..........................
Volcano..................................
Quartz regulations of Amador..............
Quartz veins about volcano................
3Iarlette mine,.............................
Coney mine...............................
Blue Jacket mine..........................
Trowbridge mine..........................
Oneida mine...............................
Hayward mine............................
Railroad mine.............................
Loring Hill mine............................
Wildman mine.............................
Lincoln mine..............................
Comet mine...............................
Herbertville mine..........................
Keystone mine............................
Spring Hill mine...........................
Amador mine..............................
Bunker Hill mine..........................
Hazard mine..............................
Loyal mine................................
Italian mine...............................
Seaton mine...............................
Potosi mine...............................
Webster mine.............................
Plymouth mine............................
Enterprise mine...........................
Richmond mine............................
Meader's sulphuret works..................
Rose mill and mine........................
W,olverine mine...........................
JKearsing mill..............................
Hinckley mine.............................
~Atchinson's mill...........................
Tnibb's mill................................
Paugh's mine..............................
U2nion m-ine................................
Tellurium mine............................
Anaconda mine............................
Those mill.................................
Craft's mine...............................
Golden Eagle mine............
Belden mine...............................
Pioneer mine..............................
Mitchell mine..............................
Golden Gate mine.........................
Sirocco mine..............................
Kelley mine...............................
Placer county........................... 92
Miscellaneous resources.................... 92
Forest Hill divide.......................... 92
Forest hill................................. 92
Blue lead at Forest hill.................... 92
Careless working.......................... 93
Future of Forest hill....................... 93
Principal claims........................... 93
Claims at Todd's valley................. —- 93
Dardanell's mine.......................... 94
Oro mine..................................  94
Green Spring mine......................... 94
Uncle Sam mine........................... 94
Hope and Rockland mine.................. 94
Fast and Nortwood mine................... 94
Snyder mine............................... 94
Independence mine........................ 94
7 New Jersey mine...................... —-- 94
Jenny Lind mine.......................... 95
Gore mine.................................  95
Main e mine................................ 96
Rough and Ready mine.................... 96
Peidesheimer  and other mines.............. 96
Michigan Bluff mine................... —-- 96
Tail sluices................................  96
North American claim..................... 96
Nitro-glycerine claim.....................- 97
Bath District claim....................... 97
Paragon claim............................. 97
Other Bath claim.......................... 98
Damascus claim........................... 99
T8 Mountain Gate claim...................... 99
Iowa Hill claim............................ 100
Wisconsin Hill claim....................... 100
672
Calaveras county-Continued. Page.
Skull Flat mill............................. 66
Carleton mine............................. 66
Vance's mill............................... 66
Morris's mill............................... 66
Alosquito mine............................. 66
Railroad Flat mill......................... 66
'NVoodhouse mine.......................... 66
Holmes mine.............................. 67
Boston mine............................... 67
Qua —'I Hill mine............................ 67
Collier mine............................... 68
Brushville mine............................ 69
Plymouth mine............................ 69
Lamphear mine............................ 70
Cadwallander mill......................... 70
French mill............................... 70
McGlynn -niill............................. 70
Cherokee mine 70
San Domingo mine........................ 70
Murphy's mine............................ 70
Crispin mine.............................. 70
Isabel mine................................. 71
Calaveritas mill............................ 71
Albion mine............................... 71
Thorpe's mine............................. 71
Radcliffe mine............................. 71
Carpenter mine............................ 71
Purnell mine.............................. 71
SECTION VI.
71
72
73
73
74
74
74
74
74
75
76
76
76
76
76
76
76
77
77
77
77
77
77
77
77
77
77
78
78
78
7'8
78
78
78
78
78
78
78
79
79
79
80
so
so
so
so
so
so
sa
SECTION VIIII.
SECTION VII.
El Dorado county.......................
Town.....................................
Shingle Springs railroad --------------------
Placerville wagon road.....................
81
81
81
81 
INDEX.
Placer county-Continued.                                 Page.
Roach Hill claim........................... 100
Morning Star claim........................ 101
Bird Flat and Lebanon claim............... 101
Gold Run claim........................... 101
Gravel at Gold run........................ 101
Outlet..................................... 101
Facilities for piping........................ 102
Caiion creek...............................    102
Water............................. 102
Squire's Caneon claims...................... 102
Caiion Creek claims........................   102
Goosling Ravine claims.................... 103
Lower Cai'on Creek claims................. 103
Gold Run canon........................... 103
Potato ravine.............................. 104
Indiana cement mill........................  104
Indiana Caneon claims......................  104
Moody's tail sluice.......................... 104
Kinder's tail sluice......................... 104
IHoskin's tail sluice......................... 105
Dutch flat.................................  105
Phoenix mine.-.-....-...-.. —------------- 105
American mine............................ 106
Buckeye mine............................. 106
Dutch Flat and Queen City mine........... 106
Bear River and Teaff mine................. 106
Boston, Gray Eagle, and Yankee claims...- 106
Drift claims............................... 106
Mill claims................................ 107
Other claims...............................  107
Teaffs tail sluice.......................... 107
Drainage of Bear river..................... 107
South Placer quartz regulations............  108
Canada Hill and Lone Star regulations...... 108
Green Emigrant mine...................... 108
New York and Empire mine............... 109
Schnable mine............................ 109
Walter and St. Lawrence mine............. ]09
Golden Rule mine......................... 109
Stewart's  Flat  mine........................  110
Damascus mine............................  110
Red Stone mine...........................  110
Canada Hill mine..........................    110
Harpending mine.......................... 110
Sierra county-Continued.                Page.
Highland and Masonic mine................ 140
Montecristo mine..........................  140
Deadwood mine........................... 140
Fur Cap, Sebastopol, and Grizzly mines.... 141
Gold Cation mine.......................... 141
Fashion claim.............................  141
Sierra claim............................... 141
Howland Flat mine........................ 142
Snow at Howland flat...................... 142
Union  claim.................................  143
Other claims......................................... 143
Quartz in Sierra county.................... 144
Sierra Butte mine......................... 145
Independence mine........................ 146
Keystone mine............................ 146
Primrose mine............................. 147
Mines near Sierra Butte.................... 147
Mines near Alleghany and Minnesota....... 147
Mines near Downieville.................... 148
Yuba county.............................. 148
Campton's, Brown's and Hansonville....... 148
Yuba river................................   148
Sucker Flat channel....................... 148
Timbuctoo mine........................... 149
Sucker Flat claims.........................  149
Smartsville Blue Gravel mine..............  150
Sicard flat................................. 151
Brown's valley............................ 152
Jefferson mine............................. 152
Pennsylvania mines..................... 153
Other quartz mines........................ 154
Brown's Valley quartz regulations.......... 155
Empire quartz regulations.................. 156
Butte county............................. 157
Butte Table mountain..................... 157
Cherokee mine............................ 157
Oregon Gulch mine........................ 158
Cherokee Blue Gravel claim................ 159
Eureka claim.............................. 159
Cherokee claim............................ 160
Diamonds....................-.... —----- 160
Morris, Nimshew, and Kimshew............ 160
Bangor.................................... 160
Cement barrel............................. 161
Wyandotte................................ 161
Forbestown............................... 161
Mooreville and Evansville.................. 162
Bangor quartz regulations.................. 162
Forbestown mining regulations.............] 62
lNisbet quartz mine........................ 163
Spring Valley mine........................ ] 63
Other quartz mines........................  163
Nevada county...........................                 111
Settlement................................ 1] 3
Placer mining............................. ] 16
Hydraulic mining.......................... 119
Birchville.............................. ] 21
French Coral mine........................   121
Moore's F lat   mine......................... 121
Cement mining............................ 122
Extent of the Placer mines.................  123
Chalk Mountain range.....................    126
Quartz mining............................. 128
Grass Valley district.......................   129
Eureka mine............................. 130
Golden Hill mine.......................... 130
Massachusetts Hill mine.................... 131
Ophir Hill mine............................ 131
North Star mine........................... ]31
Allison Ranch lode......................... 131
Nevada quartz district..................... 132
Gold Tunnel mine......................... 132
Illinois and California claims...............    133
Banner mine.............................. 133
Pittsburg mine............................ 133
Sogg's mine............. ——............-   134
Sneath and Clay mine...................... ]34
Lecompton mine...........................  134
Eureka quartz district..................... 135
Tecumseh mills............................ 136
Grizzly lode............................... 136
Meadow Lake district...................... 136
U. S. Grant mine.......................... 137
OPlumas county..........................164
Beckwourth's Pass......................... 164
Conly and Gowell's claim.................. 164
Secret diggings............................ 166
Port Wine................................. 166
Little Grass valley......................... 166
Saw Pit flat............................... 167
Eureka mine.............................. 167
Mammoubh mine........................... 168
Seventy-six mine.......................... 168
Crescent mine.............................  168
Whitney mine............................. 169
Golden Gate mine.......................... 169
Dixey mills................................ ]69
Bullfrog mine.............................. 170
Light and Callahan mine................... i
Premium and Sparks mine................. 170
Indian Valley mine........................ 170
Greenville mine........................... 170
Sierra county............................. 137
Brandy City............................... 138
St. Louis and neighboring towns..........-...... 138
Morristown mine.......................... 139
Minnesota mine............................ 139
Live Yankee claim........................ 140
Alpine county............................ 170
Altitude, climate...........................  170
Lakes, metalliferous veins................ 171
43
I
673
SECTION XI.
I
i
I
I
SECTION XII.
SECTION IX.
SECTION XIII.
SECTION X.
SECTION XIV. 
INDEX.
Alpine county —Continued.               Page.
~ Tunnelling, mining........................ 171
Mountains, reduction of ores............... 172
Wood and water........................... 17'2
Miscellaneous minerals —Continued. Page.
Lancha Plana mines................... —-- 213
Copper mines in Amador county........... 213
Copper mines in Mariposa county........... 213
Buchanan mine............................ 213
Copper mines in San Luis Obispo county.... 214
Copper mines in Los Angeles county........ 214
Copper mines in Plumas county............ 214
Copper mines in Del Norte county.......... 214
Copper mines in Contra Costa county....... 214
Copper mines in Nevada county............ 214
Other California copper mines.............. 215
Oregon copper mines ---—................. 215
Lower California copper mines.............  215
-Nevada copper mines...................... 215
Peavine copper mines...................... 216
Arizon a  copper mines........................ 216
Great  Central copper mines................   216
Planet copper mines.......................   216
Mineral Hill copper mines..................   217
Coppe r smelting works....................  218
Importation of metallic copper.............  218
Manufacture of sulphate o f copper.........  219
Iron......................................  219
First irsming iron othe Pacific e. -...... 219
Iron in California..........................   225
Specular iron ore........................ 222
Magnetic iron ore..........................  223
Hematite ores of iron ores.............. 224
Ephromni iron ores.......................... 224
Titanid   iron ores........................... 225
Mixed ironores............................ 225
Nevada iron orest...   C.......................  225
Utah iron ores.............................    225
Arizona iron ores..........................  225
Concluding remarks on ores................    226
Consumption  Tfuton in California...........  226
Iron founl1ries in San Francisco.............  226
Imports of iron into S an mincisco  in  1866-'67. 228
Exports of lron from SanFra nciscoin 1866-'67. 228
C      oal....................... —---—.""I'll' 228
New discoveries in California............... 231
Mount Diablo coal mines...................  232
Black Diamond coa l mines................. 233
Pittsburg railroad........................ 234
Teutonia coal mines.......................  235
Union coal mines..........................'235
Independent coal mines....................  235
Eureka  coa l mines Na....................... 235
Cen trcoal mines......................... 235
Pacific coal mines..........................  236
Labor, wages, &c..........................'236
Coal mines of Oregon...................... 237
Coos Bay coal.............................` 237
Coal in Washington Territory..............  238
Tuca Straits coal mines....................  238
Other coal mines  in Washington Territory...   -240
Coal in Nevada............................  244
Coal in Utah.............................. 240
Vancouver Island mines.................... 240
Concluding remarks.......................   O240
Marble, limestone, &c...................... 241
Inda  din mtggings............................ 243
Colfax quarries.............................   243
Other localities where marble   has been founde.  244
Limestone and lime........................  244
SulpRate of   lime........................... 244
Dolomite or magnes ian limestone...........  245
Hydraulic limestone......................... 245
Oregon  limestone..........................   246
Nevada limestone..........................  247
Building materials......................... 247
Granite....................................  247
Sandstone................................. 248
Br icks.................................... 248
Roofing slates............................. 249
Steatite or soapstone....................... 249
Clays..................................... 250
Kaol in....................................  250
Pipe clay..................................'251
Coloring earths............................ 251
Lassen county............................                                      173
Streams, stock-raising, hot springs.......... 173
Auriferous quartz.......................... 174
Stanislaus county....................... 174
Fresno county........................... 174
Tulare county............................ 174
Mercede county..........................2174
San Joaquin.............................. 175
Inyo county..............................                                   175
Owen's valley............................. 175
Population, towns......................... 1-76
Mills, roads................................ 176
Mining districts............................ 1L77
Mono county............................. 177
Climate................................... 177
Water-power, forests...................... 178
Claims.................................... 179
Mining ditches........................... 179
Expensive construction.................... 180
Bad engineering........................... 180
High flames............................... 180
Unprofitable investments................... 180
Decline in value........................... 181
Supplyl of water........................... 181
Small ditches............................. 181
Flumes.................................... 18l
Iron pipe.................................. 182
Ditch law................................. 182
Conflict between ditehers and miners........ 183
Proposed grant of land.................... 183
Measurement of water..................... 184
Eureka La,ke and Yuba Canal Companies...-  184
French Coral ditches....................... 193
Tuolumne ditches.......................... 193
Phoenix ditches............................ 194
Murphy's ditches.......................... 195
Mokelumne ditches........................ 195
Amador ditches............................ 195
Eureka ditches............................ 195
Indian Diggings ditches.................... 196
Natorna ditches............................ 196
South Fork ditches........................ 196
Pilot Creek ditches......................... 197
Michigan Flat ditches...................... 197
Coloma ditches............................ ] 97
Bear River ditches......................... 198
Michigan Bluff ditches................ I..... 198
Dutch Flat ditches......................... 198
South Yuba ditches........................ 198
Truckee ditches........................... 199
Sears ditches.............................. 199
Nevada Reservoir ditches.................. 1 99
Excelsior ditch............................ 199
Forbestown ditch.......................... 200
Oroville ditch.............................. 200
Table of canals and water ditches..........'200
674
SECTION XV.
sEcTioN xvr.
SECTION XVII.
SECTION XVIIL
SECTION XIX.
SECTION XX.
Miscellaneous minerals of Pacific
coast...................................... 207
Copper.................................... 207
New discoveries.......................... 209
Recent development of the copper mines. - -. 211
Copperopolis mines........................ 211
Keystone mines............................ 212
Other Copperopolis mines.................. 212
Napoleon mines........................... 212
-Cainpo Seco mines......................... 212 
INDEX.
Miscellaneous minerals-Continued.  Page.
Other deposits of graphite.................. 253
Importance of graphite.................... 254
Salt....................................... 254
Salt in California.......................... 254
Salt in Oregon............................. 255
Salt in N%evada............................ 256
Salt in Arizona............................ 256
Salt in Utah............................... 256
Willamette salt works...................... 256
Carmen Island salt......................... 256
Price of salt............................... 2.56
Asphaltum................................ 256
Petroleum................................ 258
Composition of California coal oil......... - 259
Manufacture of coal oil.................... 261S
Mode of occurrence....................... 262
Quicksilver............................... 263
Itedington mine........................... 26;4
New ldria mine........................... 264
Borax.................................... 264
Sulphur................................... 266
Page.
Ormsby county.......................... 324
Population................................ 324
Mountains................................ 324
Streams and wood lands................... 324
Mineral products.......................... 325
Washoe county.......................... 325
Valleys................................... 325
Agricultural resources..................... 326
Mineral deposits........................... 327
Storey county............................ 327
Mining excitements........................ 328
Quartz mills............................... 328
Population................................ 328
SECTION X.
Lyon county............................. 328
Ledges................................... 328
Quartz mills............................... 329
Agricultural resources of Califor nia ---------------------------------------- 266
Exports of California from 1860 to 1867..-.. 271
Climate of California....................... 275
Principal routes through California......... 280
Distances, fares, and freights............... 281.
Roop county............................. 3329
Surprise valley ---------------------------- 329
Climate ----------------------------------- 330
Population................................ 330
Warm springs............................. 330
General summary...................... 289
Area of California......................... 289
Arable lands.............................. 289
Precious metals............................ 291
Shipments of treasure...................... 292
Total deposits and coinage................. 298
Humboldt county...................... 330
Alkali lakes............................... 330
Population................................ 330
Arable land............................... 331
Cereals.................................... 331
Towns.................................... 331
Huinboldt canal........................... 331
Mills...................................... 331
Smelting establishments.................... 331
Mining................................... 332
Topography, physical features, and
natural productions................. 299
System of mountains....................... 299
Plains and valleys......................... 300
Sinks, sloughs, and lakes................... 301
Alkali flats and mud lakes................. 304
Rivers and streams ------------------------ 304
Springs of Nevada......................... 306
Salt beds.................................. 309
Churchill county....................... 333
Population................................ 333
Salt beds.................................. 333
Hot springs............................... 333
Desert district............................. 334
Mining operations......................... 334
SECTION II.
SECTION XIV.
Woodlands, coal, &c.................... 312
Coal...................................... 312
Whitman coal mines.......,................ 312
Other discoveries.......................... 313
Crystal Peak.............................. 315
CEsmeralda county...................... 334
Mineral productions....................... 334
Population................................ 335
Agricultural resources..................... 335
Mills..................................... 335
Mining.................................... 336
Towns.................................... 336
Argentiferous veins........................ 337
Columbus district.......................... 337
Salt deposits.............................. 338
Silver Peak district-............... 338
SECTION IV.
SECTION XV.
Meteorology, botany, zoology, &c.. 319
Lincoln county...........................      339
Discovery of silver........................ 339
Mineral deposits........................... 340
Wood lands............................... 340
Climate................................... 340
Pahranagat valley......................... 340
SECTION VI.
SECTION XVI.
Douglas county.......................... 322
Car      son valley............................. 322
Timber lands.............................. 322
Agriculture............................... 323
Cupriferous lodes.......................... 323
The Comstock lode...................... 341
Character of lode -------------------------- 341
Length of lode............................ 341i
Enclosing rocks......................._~..-. 
675
SECTION VU.
SECTION VIII.
SECTION IX.
SECTION XXI.
SECTION XI.
SECTION XXII.
SECTION XII.
NEVADA.
SECTION 1.
BECTIO',Q XM.
SECTION
Copper..................................... 316
Peavine district ---------------— I —-------- 316
Walker River copper region............... 317
SECTION V.
Social, industrial, and educational
progress.................................. 321
I 
INDEX.
The Comstock lode —Continued.                                                             Page.
CVest wall ------— i —---------------------- 342
WVidth ot' lode ----------------------------- 342
Filling of the vein......................... 342
Bonanzas --------------------------------- 343
Ores -------------------------------------- 343
Developments on the lode ------------------ 343
Mode of mining --------------------------- 344
Tunnels and drifts ------------------------- 345
Pumps ---------------—. —---------------- 348
Amount of ore raised from the mines....... 349
Yield of ore per ton........................ 349
Cost of mnining per ton --------------------- 351
Process of reduction....................... 361
Cost of reduction ---------------—..... 362
Percentage of yield and loss ---------------- 364
Hale and Norcross mine -------------------- 365
Gould and Carry mine..................... 366
Concentration............................. 366
Eastern Nevada —Continued. Page.
Smoky valley............................. 413
Toyabee mountains ------------------------ 413
Santa F6 district.......................... 414
Bunker Hill and Summit district........... 414
Blue Springs district....................... 414
Smoky Valley salt field.................... 414
North Twin River district.................. 414
Twin  river................................ 415
McDonald mine........................... 417
South Twin River district.................. 418
Hot Springs district........................ 418
El Dorado district......................... 418
Peavine district............................ 418
Smoky valley............................. 418
San Antonio district....................... 418
Silver Peak district........................ 419
Red Mountain district...................... 419
Palmetto district........................... 419
Lida district............................... 419
Edmonton district......................... 419
Columbus district.......................... 419
Volcano  district ----— 3 —-------------------  419
Clarendon district.......................... 419
Paradise district........................... 419
Pilot district.............................. 419
Marmouth district......................... 419
Union district............................. 419
tNorth Union district....................... 419
New Pass district.......................... 420
Silver Bend district........................ 420
Philadelphia district....................... 420
Official returns............................ 423
Northumberland district ------------------- 423
Danville district........................... 423
Hercules Gate district...................... 424
Hot Creek district......................... 424
Reveille district........................... 425
Empire district ---------------------------- 425
Milk Springs district....................... 425
Morey district............................. 425
Phranagat district......................... 426
Colorado district........................... 429
Tuscarora district......................... 429
Catalogue of minerals..................... 430
Sutro tunnel............................. 387
Yield of bullion --------------------------- 387
Talenciana mine t —— l —------------------- 388
English Real Del Monte Company ---------- 388
Abandonment of the mine ----------------- 390
Mining in Europe.......................... 390
Mining in Germany........................ 390
Freiberg district........................... 391
Ernst August tunnel ---------------------- 391
Description of tunnel ----—.... —----------- 391
Necessity of a tunnel to the Cmstock lode.. 391
Continuity of the Comstock lode ---------—. 391
Sutro tunnel.............................. 39'2
Time required to finish tunnel.............. 394
The overland telegraph...............431
History of its construction................. 432
Completion............................... 433
First message.............................. 434
System of working........................ 435
Breaks in line............................. 436
Effects of climate ------------------------- 437
Natursl obstacles -------------------------- 438
Difficulties................................ 439
Telegraphic laws.......................... 440
Connections; table of distances............ 441
ARIZONA.
SECTION XX.
SECTION L.
Eastern Nevada.......................... 394
Reese River district ------------------------ 396
Mode of working -------------------------- 397
Description of ores........................ 397
Sherman shaft............................. 399
The Timoke ------------------------------- 400
Plymouth Silver Mining Company.......... 400
Savage and other mines -------------------- 400
.Mills...................................... 401
Official returns............................ 403
Amador district............................ 408
Mount Hope and other districts............. 408
Cortez district............................. 408
N~ewark district........................... 410
White Pine district........................ 411
Diamond district.......................... 411
Eureka district............................ 411
Gold Cation district........................ 411
Kinsley district............................ 411
Yreka district............................. 412
Battle Mountain district.................... 412
Ravenswood district....................... 413
Big Creek district.......................... 413
WVashington district........................ 413
Marysville district......................... 413
General features of country......... 443
Mountain ranges.......................... 44,q
Mining districts............................ 443
Southern Arizona....................... 443
Colorado mine............................. 444
Santa Rita mine --------------------------- 445
Sopoft.................................... 447
Mowry mines............................. 447
Olive mines ------------------------------- 448
San Antonio mines........................ 448
Cababi mines.............................. 449
Sierriti mi 4es..............................S44,
Ajo mines................................. 449
Santa Rosa mines.......................... 450
ApacGe Pass.............................. 450
Mines near Tucson........................ 450
Lee's mine.....................42  L....... 450
La  Par mine....................:.......... 450
Spangler mine.............................  450
San Pedro lodes. —------—................ 450
W4 Maricopa lodes............................ 450
General remarks........................... 451
6-76
SECTION XVIL
Yield of mines, net profits, &e....... 367
Products of principal mines ---------------- 367
Costs and losses on silver mining............ 370
Bullion product of the Comstock lode.. -.. - - 380
Assay offices ------------------------------ 380
Stage routes centring at Virginia City...... 380
Stage routes centring at Carson City........ 381
SECTION XVIII.
Virginia and adjacent districts..... 381
Facilities for obtaining fuel................. 381
Coal -------------------------------------- 381
Consumption of firewood and lumber....... 382
Other mineral deposits --------------------- 382
Number of mining locations claimed and
opened................................. 383
Cost of materials.......................... 3S3
Population of towns ----------------------- 384
M-de and cost of living......... 384
Pacific railroad and its bases............ 385
SECTION XIX.
SECTION XXI.
SECTION II. 
INDEX.
S mlines, &c.-Continued.             Page.
Dakota lode............................... 499
Argenta district........................... 499
Summit district.............................. 50
Hot Springs district........................ 501
Helen a mines.............................  501
Mon tana bar..............................  503
Diamond bar.............................. 503
Highland district........................... 503
Comstock.................................  505
Flint creek................................ 505
Jefferson basin............................ 505
Bannock City............................. 506
Stinking Water............................ 506
Alder gulch............................... 506
Summit City.............................. 509
Nevada...................................  509
Valley of the Stinking Water.............. 509
Gallatin valley............................ 509
Other valleys and placers.................. 510
Helena...................................  510
Bar mining............................... 51.0
Confederate gulch......................... 510
Page.
Colorado river.......................... 452
Silver district.............................. 452
Castle Dome.............................. 452
NVeaver district............................ 453
Constantia mine........................... 455
Conquest mine............................ 455
Cruc mine --------------------------------- 455
Picacho mine.-.............................  455
Peach Bloom mine......................... 455
Williams Fork ---------------------------- 456
Mineral Hill ------------------------------- 457
San Francisco district...................... 467
Sacramento district........................ 460
Wauba Yuma distric~t...................... 461
General remarks.......................... 461
Central Arizona......................... 466
Prescott region....................... —--- 467
Tonito plateau............................. 467
Sierra Prieta........................ 468
Granite mountain.......................... 468
Structure of the range..................... 468
Timber of Sierra Prieta.................... 469
Water system of Sierra Prieta............. 470
Grass plains near Prescott................. 470
Skull valley............................... 471
Lynx creek............................... 474
Sterling mine.............................. 475
Montgomery mine......................... 475
Often mine................................ 475
i'uadaloupe mine.......................... 475
]Big Bug mine............................. 476
Ticonderoga mine......................... 477
Chapparal mine........................... 477
Dividend mine............................ 477
Turkey creek............................. 477
Bradshaw district.......................... 477
Pine flat.................................. 477
WValnut grove............................. 477
Vulture mine.............................. 477
General remarks.......................... 478
Area and population................. 512
Mountainsl..................................  512
Rivers....................................  513
Shoshone falls............................ 513
Salmon falls............................... 514
Valley of the Snake....................... 514
Sage brush......................... 514
Boise basin.................................  514.
Towns....................................  516
Mines, districts, and system of min.
ing........................................  517
Salmon River district...................... 518
Lemhi mines..............................  518
Boise Basin district........................ 518
Rocky Bar district......................... 520
Atlanta and Yuba district.................. 520
Owyhee mines.............................. 522
Oro Fino mines............................ 522
Boorman mines............................ 523
Flint district............................... 528
ClWmate...................................  528
Quartz mills.............................. 529
.Prospecting for mines...................... 530
General remarks........................... 532
Product of Idaho.....................534
WASHIINGTON TERRITORY.
General features................... 482
Wasatch mountains........................ 48'2
Colorado river ----------------------------- 48'2
Salt lake.................................. 48.2
Utah lake --------------------------------- 483
Salt Lake City ---------------------------- 483
Irrigation................................. 484
SECTION II.
SECTION L.
Hines and mining......................484
Minersville.......................    484
Rush Valley district....................... 484
Coal...................................... 484
Pacific railroad............................ 485
Iron -------------------------------------- 485
Salt...................................... 485
General conclusions........................ 486
Geographical memoir................. 537
Cascade mountains........................ 537
Columbia river............................ 538
Navigability of the Columbia............... 539
Natural divisions.......................... 539
Bays and harbors.......................... 541
Rivers emptying into Puget sound.......... 541
Rivers and bays on the Pacific coast........ 544
Gray's harbor............................. 545
Shoal-water bay and the Willopah valley.... 546
Tributaries to the Lower Columbia........ 546
Olympic or Coast range of mountains....... 547
Climate of Western Washington........... 547
Central Washington........................ 550
Climate of Central Washington............. 553
Eastern Washington....................... 534
Climate of Eastern Washington............ 559
Counties of Washington Territory.......... 560
Area and population ------------------- 487
Mountains................................. 487
Vegetable products ----------------------—. 489
Timber.................................... 491
Climate................................... 491
Navigable waters.......................... 49'2
Flint creek................................ 494
Deer Lodge valley........................ 494
Town of Cottonwood..................... 494
Mineral resources....................... 567
Coal...................................... 568
Bellingham Bay mines..................... 568
Stoluauamah coal...................... 571
Skookum Chuck coal fields................. 571
ClaUam Bay mines.............. 571
67,T
SECTION M.
SECTION IV.
IDAHO.
SECTION 1.
SECTION 31.
UTAH.
SECTION
MONTANA.
SECTION 1.
SECTION If.
SECTION 111.
Mines and systems of mining........ 496
Bannock placers.....................I..... 498
Bannock quartz........................... 498 
INDEX.
Mineral resonrces-Continued.            Page.'
Sea         ttle mines..............5      G........... 572
Lake Washington coal fields............... 572
Ship building.............................. 573
Puget sound and the northern fisheries...... 574
Page.
General considerations on the pre.
cious metals............................ 615
Why gold and silver are used for money.... 615
Quantity of the precious metals in Greece
and Rome............................... 616
Principal epochs in the production of pre     cious metals............................. f616
Stock of precious metals................... 619
The drain of silver to Asia.................. 621
A great increase of production probable.... 623
Relative value of gold and silver........... 623
How individuals are enriched by mining.... 627
How nations are enriched by mining........ 627
How the precious metals fall in value.......  628
Influence of increased production on na     tional debts............................. 628
Foreign States and Territories...... 639
Lower California.......................... 630
Mexico............................................ 639
Sinaloa............................ — 647
Chihuahua................................ 648
Sonth America.......................... 649
Peru r.....................................  649
Bolivia........... 649
Wlwreme9 Bo!ivia............................ 649
Chilif..............................650
Brazil....................................  651
British Possessions..................... 651
British Columbia........................... 651
Australia.................................. 652
Stations of Victoria........................ 652
New South Wales......................... 653
New Zealand.............................. 653
Mineral resources............    597.................                                                        597
T,Imber....................................... 597
Importance of the acquisition..................    597
Mr. Seward.................................. 598
Bibliography of Alaska........................ 598
Runssian Possessions.................... 654
Siberia...................................  654
Total production of gold and silver in 1867...... 655
APPENDIX.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE
PACIFIC SLOPE; PROGRIESS OF
SETTLEMENT; IMMIGRATION AND
LABOR.
Instructions from the Commissioner of the Gen  eral Land Office to the registers and receivers. 656
Supplementary instructions.................... 65
Abstract of duties.............................  658
Legislation in regard to mineral interests........ 659
Importance of a national school of mines........ 659
Opinions of eminent public men................ 663
Mr. Stewart's bill.............................. 65
678
SECTION 311.
OREGON.
SECTION 1.
Boundaries, subdivisions, naviga.
ble rivers, towns, &e................. 576
Subdivisions............................... 576
Navigable rivers........................... 578
Portland.................................. 560
SECTIDN 3:1.
Agriculture............................... 582
Miscellaneous resources.................... 583
SECTION M.
Mineral resources............. 590
Willow Creek mines.............:,.:::,.:::,.590
Quartz lodes............................... 592
]Iron interest............................... 592
ALASKA.
4k
SECTION 1.
Intluence of mining on other In.
terests.................................... 605
Cost of labor and expenses of living........ 607
Wage,% generally and demand for labor..... 610 
A SK ETCH
OF
THIE SETTLEXENT AND EXPLORATION OF
LOWER CALIFORNIA.
1.
I
I
I
i
i
Il 
I 
CO N TE N T S.
CHAPTER VH.
English and French Notices of Lower California
from 1700-1772-William Dampier and Rob   inson Crusoe make their appearance in Cali   for-nia,                                  35
Notices of the Coasts of Lower California from
1725-1800-Spanish Pilot-Book from Manil   Ia to Acapulco ante 1740-the Admiral  of
the Galleons-Voyages of Anson, Malaspi   na, and others,.... 39
WTRODUCTION,....      5
CHAPTER I.
irst Mention and Names of California,.      6
'he Gulf of California-its Titles,.  6
ts Ocean Lines, Coasts, and Northern Limits,   7
'he Islands of the Ocean and Gulf Coasts,.     7
CHAPTER II.
.'he Harbors, Bays, and Ports of the Penin   sula,...         9
rogress of Discovery and Exploration-the
Extra-Christian World divided between
Spain and Portugal,..       N11
ircumnavigation of the Earth-what was be   lieved Square is shown to be Round,.    12
'he Great South Sea also possessed by Spain,. 12
n search of the Spice Islands of Magellan  Voyage from Spain by Garcia Loyasa in 1525, 12
'ortez sends Saavedra to find the Spice Islands,  13
CHAPTER IIL
'irst Voyage ordered by Cortez to find the
Countries of Pearls and Gold,.     14
'econd Voyage ordered by Cortez to find the
Island of California, rich in Gold and Pre   cioIs Stones,....        14
'bird Voyage ordered by Cortez,.. 14
'ourth Voyage ordered by Cortez, in which he
takes command,..
'he Fifth and Last Voyage ordered by Cortez-  15
the Seven Cities, and the Grand Quivira
Cibola. and Totonteac, north of the Gila   King Tatarax with Crozier and long Beard,
hoary and rich,....  16
)iscovery of the River Colorado, and confirma   tion made that California was a Peninsula
and not an Island-no rich Cities or Peoples
found,.....    16
'ortez returns to Spain-the great Conquista   dor dies all humble Christian Sinner.. 17
~ovages of Villalobos and Rodriauez Cabrillo   Dqscovery of Alta California,..    17
CHAPTER IV.
'urtherVoyages and Explorations after 1543
and to 1588,... 20
.,he Discoveries of Juan de Fuca-they are de   nied as apocryphal for over 200 years-the
Straits of Annian-De Fuca's identity pro   ven in 1854,..    21
-he First and Second Voyages of Sebastian
Viscaino,...               23
CHAPTER  VIII.
Notices of Voyages from  1800 to 1846 touching
the Peninsula-Boston Voyage of 1808
makes a Mint of Money;...         41
CHAPTER IX.
The new Grant of Colonization to American
Colonists-Extent in square miles and acres
of this Grant-also of California and other
Pacific States,....   7
The great Stores of Fish, Shells, Cetacea, Pho    cidea, and other Marine Animals of the
California Peninsula,...     48
The Reduction and  Settlement of the Interior 4
of the great American Peninsula from 1700
to 1800-the Dates and Foundations of the
Jesuit, Franciscan, and Dominican Mis    sions,                                      49
Travel.line Distances by the Old Spanish Mis    sion'Road, from Cape San Lucas to San
Diego,......  52
CHAPTER X.
The Past and Present Population of Old Cai   fornia,...
The Indian Tribes and Languages of the Penin   sula,... 
The Political Changes and Status-the Country
divided into Municipalities after 1859,.
The True and the Approximate Latitudes and
Longitudes of Lower California Positions,
commencing at the Mouth of the Colorado
River,.5
The Climate and Country of the California Pen   insula-Rains without Clouds,.
Its curious Fossils and valuable Minerals,
CHAPTER XI.
Mineral Waters-Hot Springs-the curious Ver   milion-colored Caustic Waters of the Gulf   heads,...         59
Some of the strange Beasts and Fishes of the
Peninsula Waters-Mermaids and Devil   fishes-Great Stores of Whales and Seals   North-Pacific Whale-fishery in 1866,. 6(0
The Shell-fisheries-Anlones and Pearls-Cora   lines-the Edible Oyster,.    62
The Guano Deposits of the Ocean and Gulf
Shores,.....  64
i
I
i
I
I
I
i
i
PAGE
. 5
PAGE
I
i
I
i
i
i
I
I
53
53
54
56
57
58
CHAPTER V.
lower California Adventures from 1603 to 1700
-ardent Pursuit of Pearls,
CHAPTER VI.
.rhe Explorations and AccouDts of the Coast
Lines fr,)m I'TOO to 17',O-Voyages of the
Jesuits,.
27
31 
CONTENTS.
PAGE
sin and the Countries of the Gulf of California-Sublime Scenery of the Gulf Lines
-Wonderful Agricultural Resources of this
Region-Area and Population,..      75
CHAPTER XI.
The Native and Domesticated Animals-Moun   tain Sheep and Goats,..           65
The Native and Introduced Fruits, Grains, and                                                         5
Vegetables -Forest-Trees - no History of
its Botany known,.... 76
The Country on the Pacific Coast'between Vis   caino Bay and San Diego-an American
Fur-trapper's Account of it in 1827,.    67
Walker's Expedition to Lower California,. 68
The highest Elevations of thle Peninsula-Moun   tain-lake and the Snow-Peaks,..    68
The Pious Fund of California-Dried up in
1867-a California Bishopric established in
1836-the new Bishop arrives at San Diego
in 1841-a Land Grant in Alta California to
endow a College for the two Californias,    69
A California Bishopric for the two Californias
made in 1836-thc new Bishop arrives in
1841-a Land Grant in Alta California to
endow a College for the Bishopric issued
in 1844,...    70
The Destroyed Missions of the Colorado in
1752,.....        71 
The Chinese as Laborers in Lower California,   71
CHAPTER XIII.
The Railroad Lines to connect San Francisco
with Lower California,.                     2
Scraps and Fragments of Baja California Nota-  72
. bilia,t. a3
The Gates to an overflowing Commerce-im   menise Mineral Wealth of the Colorado Ba
THE LOWER CALIFORNIA COMPANY,.. 78
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA,.     82
REPORT OF CA PTAIN  C. M. SCAMMON, OF THE
U. S. REVENUE S ERVICE, O N THE  WEST
COAST    OF L OWER     CALIFORNIA,.  12.3
JOURNAL OF THI E EXPEDITION OF MR.  J.D.
HAWKS AND PARTY, THROUGH THE ANTE   RIOR OF THE PENINSULA OF LOWER CALI   FORNIA, FROM SAN DOMINGO TO SAN DIEGO, 132
REPORT OF DR. JOHN A. VEATCH, ON CERROSB
OR CEDROS ISLAND,...    143
EXTRACTS FROIK A HISTORY OF OLD OR LOWER
CALIFOtONIA,.....155
REPORT ON FRUIT-TREES OF LOWER CALIFOR   NIA,......    173
WASHINGTON TERRITORY,..    175
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEVADA, INCLUDING
BOUNDARIES, POPULATION, ABORIGINAL IN   HABITANTS, EARLY SETTLEMENTS, ETC.,   185
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA,. 199
ALTITUDES OF THE PRINCIPAL POINTS ON THE
PACIFIC SLOPE,....199
4
PAGE 
HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF LOWER CALIFORNIA,
FROM ITS DISCOVERY IN 1532 TO 1867.
BY ALEXANDER S. TAYLOR,
Author of the "Bibliografia Californica entre 1544-1867," "The Indianology of California," etc.; Hon.
Mem. of the California Academy of Sciences and of the Mercantile Li)brary of San Francisco,
and late Clerk of the United States District Court at Monterey.
INTRODUC T ION.
THERE is no such thing in existence as a present and past history of the
California Peninsula, which mray be said to have been the mother of the State
of California.  The missionary histories prior to 1700 are well as far as they go,
but are full of omissions, mistakes, grave errors of fact, and innumerable errors of
type, all of which have been copied in every publication issued down to the
present day, and making "confusion worse confounded." This little work is not
designed as a sc-Ois history, the printed materials for which would take years
to digest and arrange, and the consulting of immense numbers of manuscripts in
California, Mexico, and Spain, kept secret, from government motives, which
alone would occupy a lifetime.   The sketch is intended as an historical precis
or procession of events fiom the past to the present times, which has never
been made before-a skeleton guide collated, compared, and deraigned from the
most authentic and reliable sources, and the chapters and materials are compiled and arranged in a manner, we hope, convenient and simple, the plan of
which has never been attempted before in any work relating to the Pacific Coast.
It will thus, we flatter ourselves, be found useful to the immigrant, the merchant,
the seaman and navigator, the naturalist, the journalist, the traveller, the statesman, the historian, the miner, the manufacturer and the speculator, and, we may
add, it is made from the study of long years of California life.
Having been pressed, as it were, into a remote corner of the world for over
three centuries, the progress of events induced by the discovery of gold in 1848
has brouoht thousands of ships and millions of men in sight of the peninsular
shores for the last twenty years; yet that immense country is still empty-a
mere frame without a picture.  But the rapid completion of railroad commlunications across the continent, with hourly telegrams, the steamer lines now
securely connecting between Cape Horn and the Oregon, the opening in 1867
of the steamer routes to Australia and China, and the institution of legalized railroad corporations to connect the Gulf of California with the Bay of San Francisco and the Gulf of Mexico, will very soon draw, voluntarily or not, the California peninsula within the periphery of events, big with the fate of the future
States, commonwealths, nations, and empires of the great ocean which the
Divine Father of All seems ordaining for the immediate future. 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
CHAPTER I.
FIRST MENTION AND NAMES OF CALIFORNIA.
AFTER the subjugation of the empire of Montezuma by Fernando Cortez,
in 1522, pearls, emeralds, turquoises, garnets, and particular specimens
of gold, silver, and copper, fell to the lot of the conquerors, among
much other spoils of treasure. The courtiers of the Aztec emperor informed
the Spaniards that these treasures came from the countries and coasts of
the ocean, a great way to the west and northwest of the capital. The King
of Michoacan and the caciques of his province of Colima called this country of
treasures Ciquatan, a name adopted by the conquerors until they first discovered
the shores of the gulf below 27~, when it often went by the name of Santiago, from
a place on the coast of Tehuantepec, where Cortez dispatched his first expedition of 1532. It was, after 1532, called Santa Cruz, from the bay where
anchored Ximenez, the first European who was certainly known to have landed
on the peninsula. At this time it also obtained the name of Islas de Perlas,
from the accounts and specimens brought to Cortez by the companions of
Ximenez.  It was then often called the Islas Amazones, from a fable current in
Mexico of a nation of female warriors in these parts, and also bay, or gulf, or country "de Ballenas," or whales. After the visit of Cortez in 1535, it first acquired the name of California, or the Islas de California.  After the death of
Cortez, it often went by the name of Islas Carolinas, from the Emperor Charles
V., or from Charles the Second of Spain, under which term it is set down in
many old maps and charts, and as late as that of Anson inl 1740. After the
Jesuit settlement of 1690 the name of California became more and more confirmed, until, on the publication of the Jesuit Histories after 1750, it became permaneintly recognized in history, navigation, and geography, under  that title.
After the settlements of San Diego and Monterey of 1770, the lower portions
began to be styled California Peninsular, California Antigua or  Vieja, and
Baja California, and the country beyond the Gila junction of the Colorado and
its ]Parallel to the ocean, as Nueva California, California.Norte, and Alta California.  It was not till the American conquest of 1846 that the name of the
peninsula was confirmed in commerce as Lower California, and the northern
countries as Upper California, by which terms they are now more fully known
in politics and letters than the Spanish titles, leaving out the political divisions
of this last, forming subsequent to 1846 what is now known as the Pacific domain of the United States of America. After A. D. 1800, the two sections were
commonly termed Las dos Californias, or Las Californias, or in English The
two Californias-a ternmeo convenient as to be frequently applied to this day,
as others are too lengthy or prolix. The Spaniards and Mexicans sometimes
use the term La California and La Californiana, the country or pertaining to
the things of The  Californias.  Mr. E. E. Hale, of Boston, brings excellent
proof of the origin of the name California, from a Queen of the Amazons called
California, of the Greco-Syrian countries, contained in an old Crusader romance,
much read in the times of Cortez and Columbus, for a memoir of which see
papers of Hale, published in 1863 and 1864.
THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA-ITS TITLES.
This great arm of the Pacific, which penetrates the American continent
deeper than any other in  the New  World,  runs from near  23~ to that
of 31~ 30', or a length of say 600 geographical miles, to where it receives the
waters of the Colorado of the West.  It acquired its name of the  Golfo de
Cortez, or Mfar de Cortez, from the great captain, who visited it in 1537. Its
6 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
other names of Mar Vermiglion, Mar Rojo, and  fVar Vermijo, seem  to have
been first applied in 1537-1540, after the explorations of Ulloa and Alarcon, from
the reddish color of its waters, and the accounts given of its shores by Nuno de
Guzman and his officers, the first conquerors of Sinaloa.  After the discovery
of its entirety by Kino, in 1700, it became known as Mar Lautrentano, from
the Virgin of Loretto, patroness of the California missions, Seno California, Mar
California, when in the Jesuit maps fromn 1730 to 1772 it is set down  as Golfo
de California, the English of which last, gulf of California, is what is its most
acceptable, most confirmed, and widest-known title in 1866. The Gulf of California bathes the entire lengths of the eastern shores of Lower California and
of the western boundaries of the States of Sinaloa and Sonora, until these lines
are absorbed by the waters of the Colorado; that is, its shore line is 1,200 miles
in length. In its northern parts it is full of sand-bars, shoals, hidden rocks,
shallow soundings, and dangerous currents, while its southern portions contain
the finest harbors, bays, and anchorages, with the safest navigation for the major
portion of the year. Its breadth ranges all the way from 20 miles at its head
to 250 miles at its entrance between Cape San Lucas and the port of Mazatlan.
ITS OCEAN LINES, COASTS, AND NORTHERN LIMITS.
From Cape San Lucas, in a little below 23~, the ocean coast carries a general northwest direction for the distance of, say, 700 geographical miles to a
parallel line one marine league from the southernmost point of the Bay of San
Diego, near a place called Tia Juana, according to the Mexican treaty of 1848.
To identify this line beyond dispute, a marble monument was erected by the
boundary commissioners 6f the United States and Mexico in 1850, opposite
the Coronado Islets, and which monument is situated in a fraction over 32~ 31'
of latitude, and 117~ 06' longitude of Greenwich. The ocean shores run at
least 100 miles farther'north than those of the extreme head of the gulf. This
section of the peninsula, for 50 nautical leagues on the sea-coast below the boundary, is one of the finest districts for health, climate, and fertility, the climate
particularly being one of the most uniform and delightful in the world.
TIIE ISLANDS OF THE OCEAN AND GULF COASTS.
The first island on the Pacific after passing Cape San Lucas, is that of
Santa Margarita, which is 22 miles in length and 5 to 10 miles in breadth, according to De Fleury's map of 1864.  According to Payot's mnap of 1863, there
are several unnamed islands in the bay of Magdalena, of which Margarita
forms its southern defence, not at all inserted in De Fleury's map of 1864, nor
is there any description of these either in Belcher or Findley.  In fact, this
part of the coast has never been accurately located, a crying evil, as one steamer
and several vessels have been lost or greatly damaged in these parts since 1850.
The small island of Cresciente is within sight of Margarita to the northeast,
and only two or three miles from the mainland.
About 280 miles above Margarita is the island of Natividad, some four
miles long and two broad.  This, with the island of Cedros, forms the southwest defences of the bay of Sebastian Viscaino, so called from that navigator's
anchorage here in 1602. Cedros is some 25 miles long by five in breadth; to
the west of it are the small islets of San Benito.   Going up the coast, no other
important islands are met with till that of San Geronimo is reached, 140 miles
from Cedros, and situated opposite the Mission of La Rosario, and which is only
four or five miles in length.  The last island met with after Geronimo is Cenisas,
near the bay of San Quentin, which is,onlv two or three miles in length.
The island of Guadelupe, nearly due west fiom Cedros, and 120 miles from
the coast in lat. 28~ 45', is also included in the territory of Lower California
7
i
i
I
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
The position of this island was definitely fixed by Admiral Du Petit Thouars in
November, 1837, though it was approximately located on several old Spanish
and other charts even prior to 1820; it is onlv a mass of rocks some 20 miles
in circumference, and has often been visited since 1850 by California otterhunters and whalers.
Going from Cape San Lucas up the gulf, about 100 miles north, the first
island of the gulf is that of Ceralbo (or White Hills), some  12 miles in lengfth,
and stated to contain copper mines of great value. The second is Espiritu
Santo, about six miles long, containing also very rich copper-mines.  This last
island blocks the mouth of the bay of La Paz, which runs southeast for some
20 miles, in the western corners of which is the minor bay called Pichilingue,
containing the small island of San Juan Nepoceno. The third island is the
small one of San Francisco, in sight of which is the fourth, known as San Jos6,
and some 12 miles long. The fifth island is called Santa Catalina, and within five or
six miles of it is the sixth, called Montserrat: these two are about 10 miles in
circumference each. The seventh island is the celebrated one of Carmen, which
contains beyond all dispute the richest, most peculiar, and most accessible saltmine in the whole world, and entirely inexhaustible.  The Jesuits, about 1730,
asked from the viceroy a grant of this mine in perpetuity, from which they
would maintain their California establishments free of cost to the king's treasury.  Carmen Island is about 25 miles long by six broad, and is within a few
hours' sail of the old town of Loretto. Five or six miles beyond it is the eighth
island, called Coronados, of a few miles' extent.  Farther up from Carmen some
30 miles is the ninth island, San Ildefonso, and within two or three hours' sail,
that of Santa Isabel, the tenth, at the mouth of Moleje Bay: both of these,
with three or four others in the bay aforesaid, are only a few miles in extent.
The three islands called Galapagos, 30 miles above Moleje, are the eleventh,
and are also only of a few miles' extent; the Gallapagos are some 25 miles in
front and to the west of Tortugas Island, which is in midchannel and within
sight of the port of Guaymas on the Sonora coast: this island may be set
down for the Sonora coast, and, it is said, has an extinct volcano on it.
The thirteenth island is Trinidad, and the fourteenth San Bernarbe, both
some 20 miles in circumference and about 40 miles above the Gallapagos. The fifteenth are the Sal Si Puedes, three small islands, within sight
of two others, known as Las Animas and Raza, which together form an archipelago verv dangerous for their impetuous currents. To the west of Las Animas, there is a number of small islands close to the mainland, which are not
well known by name in geography.  Between the mainland and these, to the
eastward, is the Canal de Ballenas, or Whales, which divides off the sixteenth,
or Great Island of Angel de la Guarda, 50 miles in length and about  15 in
breadth.  Northward of Angel, some  50 miles in the bay of San  Felipe de
Jesus, is the rocky islet or farallon of Santa Felicia. Twenty miles farther
northeast is the seventeenth island, called San Eugenio, about seven miles
around, and sometimes called Farallon de San Eugenio, from a rocky islet close
by, off the southern coast of which are some extremely dangerous sunken rocks
and ledges. Immediately north of San Eugenio, at the narrowest part of the gulf,
are the eighteenth islands, known as Las Reyes, which block the entrance of
the Colorado and gulf. Above these last are a number of large fiat islands,
formed by the bores of the river and gulf, which are enclosed within the banks
of the river, and a regular network of similar formations is found nearly to
the junction of the Gila, and which all belong to Mexican territory.
Coming down the gulf from the river on the west shore of Sonora, or
the eastern waters of the gulf, is first the small island of Patos, which is
some 130 miles southeast of San Eugenio. A narrow strait divides this from
the large island of Tiburon, some 20 miles long and 10 broad, and which can
be seen from above the city of Hermosillo in clear weather. Below Tiburon,
8 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
some 25 miles, is San Pedro Martyr Island, and 30 miles farther south is that
of San Marco, a few miles north of Guaymas, the bay of which port has several
small islets. To the south of Guaymas, 50 miles, is the small island of Lobos.
At the mouth of the River Sinaloa are five or six small islands, among the
principal of which is San Ignacio and Macapula. Below the mouth of the River
Culiacan are several long, low islands along the coast, which are, however, very
little known in navigation or commerce. To the south of these last, to the port
of Mazatlan, the coast is generally clean, with open aspects; seaward at the
mouth of the gulf, where the ocean swells, in the hurricane months, beat with
immense surfs and rollers of overwhelming force. After the stormy season has
past, the navigation of the gulf is one of the safest and most delightful in any
sea, for more than eight months of the year. But the above-named islands of
the eastern waters belong in no way to Lower California, but pertain entirely
to Sinaloa and Sonora.
All this immense stretch and lines of 1,200 miles of gulf coast and 700 miles
of ocean shores, with their islands, are entirely unfixed hydrographically, either
in books, charts, or maps, except a few points by Spanish navigators, between
1770 and 1800, by the English and French, between 1824 and 1850, and by
Americans, between 1846 and 1866, the most accurate of which are those of
Admiral Belcher in 1839, confined, however, only to four or five localities on
the ocean coast.  With the wealth of minerals, fisheries, agriculture, and commeree, which is opening on these wonderful territories, and the immense amount
of shipping which sail daily within sight of its sea lines, the scientific survey of
them by competent persons is loudly called for by the principal maritime
powers of the world: probably it could be better done by a joint commission
of hlydrographists of the great naval powers. There is not an island in all those
we have mentioned, in the gulf or in the Pacific, except Santa Margarita,
Cedros, and Guadelupe, whose true positions or superficial dimensions are known
in navigation, geography, or history, and only a few of them are inhabited,
and then only by a few fishermen. If all these islands, which contain immense
resources in excellent harbors, in minerals, in fisheries, and in pearl-oyster banks,
were joined together, they would make a district of country 100 miles long by
80 miles broad, and at a rough estimate, they would make one-fifteenth of the
superficies of the peninsula.
CHAPTER II.
THE HARBORS, BAYS, AND PORTS OF THE PENINSULA.
COMING from San Diego to the south on the Pacific, the best-known harbors are:
First. The Bay of Todos Santos, near which is the well-known locality,
called the Sausal de Camacho, where salt has been procured in abundance
since 1855. It makes a fine harbor for vessels under 400 tons, and is now often
resorted to by whalers and others. A grant of great extent covers the lands of
this bay, claimed by Jos6 Y. Limantour.
Second. To the southward, about 100 miles, is the fine bay and port of San
Quintin, sometimes called in maps atnd charts San Francisco, and also Bay of
the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne;  San Quintin is the term now  generally known in navigation.  The apex of the bay at the north has valuable
salinas or salt-beds, which have been worked since 1853, and the salt from its
superior quality is well known in the San Francisco markets. A large grant
of land is also laid down here as belonging to Limantour.
Third. To the southward, some 130 miles, is the great bay of Sebastian
Viscaino, made bv Cedros and Natividad Islands; its western aspects are entirely open to the west for one-half of its length.   It has a small arm at its
9 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
northern apex, called Pescado Blanca, where is a valuable salt-bed, in the
vicinity of which is the grant of Mr. Millatowitch, a well-known Russian citizen
of California.   Several extensive lagoons make into the land, according  to
Payvot's map, which are laid down in no other map. A third grant, some 60
miles long and 20 broad, covering all the neighboring lands of the bay, is also
here claimed by Limantour.  Valuable salinas are found all along the shores
of this bay, which was discovered by Viscaino in 1602, though on many maps
it is put down as the Bay of San Francisco and also Saint Sebastian; on others,
the Bay of Magdalena is located here.
.Fourth. Some 10 miles below Natividad Island is the small bay of San
Bartholonmew, often called Turtle Bay, which contains valuable fisheries of
turtle, used for the supply of the San Francisco market.
Fifth. One hundred miles below San Bart's, after doubling Point Abreojos,
is Ballenas Bay, which in 27~ runs into the land for 20 miles, and is the resort
of innumerable whales in the calving season, and from which hundreds of tons
of oil have been shipped to San Francisco and the East since 1853.
Sixth. One hundred and fifty miles below Ballenas opens up the Great
Gulf or Bay of La Magdalena, discovered by Cabrillo in 1542, rediscovered by
Viscaino in 1602, and found from the descriptions of this last by the Jesuit
Father Guillen in 1719.  It is often mentioned by Spanish navigators, and is
one of the most extensive on the west coast of America, but was not known
properly in navigation till Admiral Belcher's visit of 1839.  The  bay forms
into a great many ramifications and arms, and is about  50 miles in extreme
length, with several low, sandy islands, as well as rocky ones; its breadth ranges
all the way from 5 to 20 miles.  For the last 50 years it has been the resort
of American whalers, sealers, and other hunters, and since 1854 regular establishmients of this class from California have aggregated on its shores until quite
a settlement is now formed. It is also much resorted to bv Chinamen from
San Francisco for gathering the mollusk called aulon, the nmeat of which is so
much esteemed by the wealthy people of China.
Seventh. Somne 50 miles below Magdalena the small bay of Todos Santos Mission is reached, near which are some of the most fertile spots of the peninsula.
Eiqhthl. About 35 miles farther (south), at the extremity of Lower Californria,
Cape San Lucas, the most celebrated promontory on the west coast of America,
is reached. And here we begin to turn north and east up the grand portals of
the Gulf of California, of whose best harbors, ports, and bays, we shall now
make such detail as is warranted from what has been noted of them, not a
single one of which, however, has been properly surveyed.
NVinth. The first is the roadstead of the old Mission of San Jos6, often called
San Jos6 del Cabo or of the Cape, from its proximity to Cape San Lucas, and
appears to be the same as the Bay of San Bernarbe or Porto Seguro of old
charts; from the cape it is distant some 20 miles near the mouth of the small
river or arroyo of San Jose6. This is a frequent stopping-place for whalers, and
the schooners running from Guaymas, Mazatlan, San Francisco, and San Blas,
and a considerable quantity of fertile land is found in its vicinity.
Tenth. Eighty miles above San Jos6 is the well-known bay of La Paz,
which penetrates the land to the south some 25 miles from Espiritu Santo
Island, having a varying breadth of from 6 to 10 miles. This is one of the
safest and finest bays and harbors in the two Californias, and has been known in
navigation and history for 350 years. It has been celebrated all this time for
the abundance of pearl oysters, and has produced pearls among the most valued
gems of the jeweller and lapidary, and prized in the regalia of kings, emperors,
and princes. It was the centre of operations of the American naval and military forces in 1846 to 1848, and is now the depot for the Mexican coast line of
steamers from San Francisco. Since 1830 it has been the capital of Lower California, where afll government operations centre.
10 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Tenth. The next harbor is the small one of the old Presidio of Loretto, which
has been known since 1700. It it formed by the Coronado and Carmen Islands,
and makes a fine anchorage in ordinary seasons; in its vicinity the pearl oyster
was formerly found in the greatest abundance.
Eleventh. The next harbor north of Loretto of value is that of Moleje, so
called from an'Indian camp found there by thie Jesuits before 1730. It is about
20 miles deep by an average of five, and is considered the best in the gulf after
La Paz. It is famous for the extent of its pearl-oyster banks, and was resorted
to by the divers from the Sinaloa coast in the time of Cortez.
Twelfth. Above Moleje the coast of the peninsula abounds in small harbors,
none of which are frequented or much better known than in the time of Father
Consag's voyage of 1746, the country having very few inhabitants above Moleje.
The large bay of Los Angeles, 180 miles above Moleje, capable as is said
of holding hundreds of small vessels, has been frequently resorted to within the
last ten years, and its waters and those of Angel Island abound in a peculiar
species of whale and rich banks of pearl oysters. Copper, sulphur, and argentiferous lead minerals are said to be very abundant in the country around its
shores, as intimated by Consag in 1746.
Thirteenth?. Above this bay of Los Angeles, some 160 miles, is the bay and
port of San Felipe de Jesus, which has been established since 1858, principally
by the exertions of Mr. Millatowich, who has here another grant of land. This
is described as a fine little harbor, and has been used by American vessels bound
to the Colorado, and for communications overland to the Bay of San Quintin on
the ocean coast, and for trading with the Indian tribes in the country around
the peninsular head of the gulf.  It was formerly, with that of Los Angeles, used
by the Jesuits and the Dominicans for conveying stores and effects in the founding of the missions on the ocean coast above Santa Gertrudes between 1760 and
1800, and since 1858 has attracted considerable attention.   There is now
(1867) said to be a small settlement here.
Above San Felipe there are no ports or harbors worth mentioning, as they
are said to be shallow and but little fiequented, or fitted for commerce, from the
dangerous shoals and cayes formed by the deposits of the Colorado.  All the
foremeltioned islands, harbors, bays, and ports of the gulf, were first made
known and named by Padre Pedro Ugarte, in his voyage up the gulf in 1721,
in the sloop Triumph of the Cross, and more thoroughly and in detail by
Father Fernando Consag in 1746, continued in small degree by Padre Winceslao Link in 1765; since that period nothing has been done in these gulf lines of
any account.
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION-THE EXTRA-CHRISTIAN WORLD
DIVIDED DETWEEN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
The treaty of Saragosa, concluded at that city on the 22d April, 1529,
between the King of Spain and the King of Portugal, by which the old understanding of 1494 was confirmed, and the islands or new countries discovered and to be discovered should be divided between Spain and Portugal. Pope Nicholas V. in 1454 hadl granted his bull of approval that Portugal should have the results of all her discoveries not occupied by
Christian people, made onl the coast of Africa, and to the eastward, which about
the time of Columbus's first voyagoe of 1492 they had succeeded in doubling.
Ferdinand and Isabella in 1494 therefore procured from Pope Alexander VIL
bulls of approval, granting them all discoveries made to the west.  Acrimonious
disputes arising under these bulls, the two powers made at the town of Tordesillas the famous Treaty of Partition of the Ocean, by whiclh all lands lying
to the east of a meridian line 370 leagues westward of the Cape Verde Islands
were to belong to Portugal, while all to the west of the said line fell to Spain
44
I
I.i
11 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
On this basis the navigators of both countries ran afoul of each other in the
Malayan seas and archipelagos in search of the valuable spices, and the precious
stones, pearls, and metals, when all Europe was again put in commotion by the
peppery disputes between the two Catholic potencies, of where East gave out,
and where West ended. Commissioners from these two nations, then the great
est naval powers in the world, met at the city of Badajos in Spain in 1523, but
without effecting any settlement.  The second commissions then came together
at the city of Saragossa in Spain, and on the 22d of April, 1529, aforesaid, a
final treaty of limits was effected by the King of Spain selling to the King of
Portugal all his rights to the islands of the Moluccas, for the suim of 350,000
ducats of gold, equivalent to $3,080,000 of our money, and for Spain to retire
within limits east of the said Moluccas.  This arrangement greatly affected and
stimulated the subsequent discovery, exploration, and conquest of the continents
and islands bathed by the waters of the great South Sea, now called the Pacific,
and hastened materially a better knowledge of the Californias, and the islands
of the great Eastern Archipelagos.
CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE EARTH-WHAT WAS BELIEVED SQUARE IS SHOWN
TO BE ROUND.
Only a few years before, Fernando Magallanes with three Spanish ships, after
a perilous passage of thirty-seven days through the straits which hear his iname,
entered a boundless horizon of water, which he named the Pacific Ocean, on the
27th day of November, 1520. So greatly was he affected that he shed tears of
joy, and ordered thanks to be returned to God throughout his fleet. Sailing to
the north and west lie arrived at the Western, now called Philippine islands, and
was killed at the Island of Matan in that group, on the 27th of April, 1521.
After many escapes from peril by sea and land, Juan Sebastian del Cato brought
the ship Victoria with 18 men, from the Moluccas, by the way of the Cape of
Good Hope, back throughli the Straits of Gibraltar, and came to anchor at the
port of San Lucas, in Spain, on the 6th September, 1522; the vessel being the
first which had made the circumference of the earth, and confirmed the theory
of men of learning who argued this fact from the figure of our planet when in
eclipse with the sun. For this great feat, the Emperor Charles V. imade Del Cano a grandee of Spain, and his 18 companions were all highly recompensed and
honored. Thus it came to pass that the sun never set on the empire of Spain.
THE GREAT SOUTH SEA ALSO POSSESSED BY SPAIN.
But it was nine long years before Magellan's circumnavigation, that Vasco
Nunez de Balboa saw from the mountains of the Isthmus the great sea, without
limits of horizon, to the southwest, and on the 25th September, 1513, he entered
the ocean at Panama, and took possession of the South Seas for the King of Spain.
IN SEARCH OF THE SPICE ISLANDS OF MAGELLAN-VOYAGE FROM SPAIN BY
GARCIA LOYASA IN 1525.
In the year 1525, on the 24th July, the Emperor Charles V. dispatched
Garcia Jofre de Loyasa, with a fleet of six vessels and 450 men, from Corunna, in
Spain, to take possession of the Spice Islands, in which expedition went Andres
de Urdanetta as one of the pilots, who afterward became an Augustine monk,
and was in the expedition of Legaspi in 1564.
The Pataca, commanded by Jago de Guevara, the smallest vessel in Loyasa's
fleet, which had separated in a storm on the first of June, after entering the Pacific by the Straits of Magellan, steered along the west coast of America, and
came to anchor at Tehuantepec, on the 25th July, 1526, after a passage of 55
days; Captain Guevara and his chaplain, Friar Arrevzagoa, were conducted to
12 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Cortez, in the city of Mexico. This is the first voyage on record from the coasts
of Chili to the coasts of Mexico. The remaining vessels of the fleet crossed the
equator, and in latitude 4~ north, on the 30th July, 1l26, Loyasa, the captaingeneral of the expedition, died, and was succeeded by Sebastian del Cano, who
had been sent by the emperor as second in command. Del Cano also died at
sea, four days after Loyasa. Torribio Alonzo de Salazar was then chosen commander, and immediately sailed for the Ladrone Islands, where they arrived on
the 4th September, after leaving which, Salazar himself died on the 10th. Martin
Iniguez was then chosen commander.   On the 31st December Iniguez anchors
ait Tidore, of the Moluccas, and is immediately menaced by the Portuguese.
Iniguez also dying, Hernando de la Torre was chosen commander, who, at Gillolo Island, met with the fleet of Alvaro de Saavedra, sent by Cortez from Mexico
in 1527, to cooperate with Loyasa's fleet. The expeditions meeting with great
trouble from the Portugruese, and Saavedra dying, De la Torre offered to cease
all opposition, if the Spaniards were returned by them to Spain.  This was
effected, and Urdanetta and De la Torre passed to Europe by the way of Portuguese India, thence to Lisbon, and arrived in Spain in February, 1537, having
left the Moluccas in 1534, and departed from Corunna in Julv, 1525: it had
taken them twelve years to get round the world.
CORTEZ SENDS SAAVEDRA TO FIND TiE SPICE ISLANDS.
The emperor had pressed on Cortez the discovery of a strait dividing the
continent, and the finding a way from New Spain to tlhe Islands of Spices, Magellan's vessel having brought a large quantity of those valuable materials, then
selling at immense prices in Europe. The Pataca, under Guevara, arriving in
Mexico about this time, Cortez was stimulated to effect promptly these great objects, and accordingly dispatched his kinsman, Alvara de Saavedra, with three
ships, the Florida, the St. Jago, and the Espiritu Santo, with 110 men. These
sailed from the port of Sihuantanejo, in West Mexico, on the 31st October, 1527.
Steering to the west, they met with great sufferings, losing two vessel, of the
fleet, and Saavedra, in the other, arriving at the Ladrone Islands  in January,
1528. From thence he visited Mindando, and finally joined the last vessel of
Loyasa's unfortunate fleet, under De la Torre, at Gillolo, of the Spice Islands,
who would not credit that Saavedra's ship had come from New Spain, until after
cautious inquiries. Saavedra repaired his ship at Tidore, took aboard seventy
quintals of cloves, and the 3d June, 1528, with only 30 men, set sail from  Tidore to return to New Spain, but after reaching lat. 14~ north, and meeting with
many misfortunes, was compelled to turn back to Tidore again, where he arrived
in October, and again repaired his vessel. In May, 1529, he left this island,
again to return to Mexico by the way of New Guinea, and,  after a short stay at
the islands Los Jardines (in 176~ W. of Greenwich), died at sea. Before dying, he
called his men together, and made Pedro Lasso commander. Saavedra was a good
man, and greatly respected by his men, and had formed a plan for opening a
passage by sea through the Isthmus of America. Lasso died at sea eight days
after Saavedra, and it was Urdanetta, as would seem from the confused Spanish
accounts, who brought back Saavedra's vessel to the Spice Islands, where he
arrived with only 18 men, and joined De la Torre. Here, from reports that the
Emperor Charles V. had sold the Spice Islands to Portugal, they fell into disputes, wars, and misfortunes with the Portuguese and the natives, and finally,
being greatly reduced in men in both ships, by scurvy and other sickness, entered into a treaty of peace with the Portuguese, until both parties could hear
from  Europe.  After many delays they gave themselves up, the Portuguese
agreeing in 1534 to return them to Europe, and they reached Spain, after a
tedious and dangerousjourney, in India, Asia, and the Mediterranean, in February,
1537, as mentioned in the account ofLQyasa's expedition. The two expeditions,
13
i
i
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
which had cost so much money and so many lives, experienced, from first to last,
a sad and innumerable train of trials, dangers, deaths, shipwrecks, misfortunes, and
disgraces, which greatly affected the public sentiment in Spain and Mexico, particularly when the emperor's sale of the Moluccas was made known through the
final treaty of Saragossa of 1529, this treaty being essentially promoted by the
difficulties and complications growing out of the operations of the forces of Loyasa and Saavedra.
CHAPTER III.
FIRST VOYAGE ORDERED BY CORTEZ TO FIND THE COUNTRIES OF PEARLS
AND GOLD.
IN 1528 Fernando Cortez dispatched, from Tehuantepec, Cristoval de Olid
and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza in five vessels to make discoveries to the north
and to the south, while he went to Europe (in 1528) to defend himself against
his enemies.  This enterprise, like the one sent by him  from Zacatula in the
same vear under Pedro Nunez Maldonado (or Francisco Maldonado), who went
up as high as the river of Santiago, in Jalisco, resulted in nothing of material
interest, except stimulating the desire of Cortez to know more of the northern
countries.
SECOND VOYAGE ORDERED BY CORTEZ, TO FIND THE ISLAND OF CALIFORNIA,
RICH IN GOLD AND PRECIOUS STONES.
After returning from Spain to Mexico, in 1530, where he was made Marquis of Oaxaca by the emperor, with the authority to make further conquests,
Cortez got ready four vessels, named La Concepcion, San Lazaro, San Marcos,
and San Miguel.  These last two hlie placed under Hurtado de Mendoza of the
1528 enterprise, directing him to make explorations to the north and west
among the islands and coasts of New Spain, and to find the Island of California,
rich in gold and precious stones. He had thus dispatched, since 1527, four
expeditions of discovery, viz.: Saavedra's, De Olid and Mendoza's, Maldonado's
and the present again under Mendoza. This last now sailed from Acapulco on
the 3d June, 1532, and, exploring the coast, came to anchor at Aguatlan, or
Santiago de Buen Esperanza, in 20~; from thence to the port of Matanchel in
21~: in a few days afterward he found the Magdalena or Tres Marias Islands,
60 miles to the northwest.  After this he proceeded slowly alongo the coast till
he made 27~ or near the mouth of the Mayo River.   Meeting with a constant
series of storms, attacks from the natives, short provisions, and his crews in a
mutinous state, he determined to send one vessel back by sea, while with the
other he continued his voyage to the north. The returning vessel was wrecked
at the mouth of the Vanderas, near Cape Corrientes, when all but three men were
killed bv the Indians, and the vessel was seized by the soldiers of Nuno de
Guzman. Of Mendoza's vessel nothing more is known than rumors prevailed
of his being wrecked farther north, with the loss of all on board. None of his
crew eVer returned. The three survivors from the Indian attack reached Cortez
in 1531, several months afterward, and from their accounts strong representations were made by him against Guzman before the royal Audiencia of Mexico.
THIRD VOYAGE ORDERED BY CORTEZ.
On the 30th October, 1533, Cortez dispatched from Tehuantepec the Concepcion and San Lazaro on the search after Mendoza and to further explore to
the north. The first was under Diego Becerra, with Fortun Ximenez for pilot,
and the second under Hernando Grijalva, with Martin de Acosta for pilot.
The two vessels a few days afterward separated in a storm. Grijalva, stretch
14 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
irg to the west, discovered the islands of Saint Thomas, now the Revilla Gigedos, and reached near the latitude of San Blas, after which, in the spring of
1534, he returned in the San Lazaro, and came to anchor at Acapulco. It
was in this voyage that the old captain met with the California mermaid, a sea
mammal seldom exceeding 36 inches in length or of the weight of seven or
eight pounds.
The Concepcion, under Becerra, stretched farther north along the coast of
Jalisco, when, his crew mutinying, he was murdered by his pilot, Fortun Ximenez: the scene of this atrocity must have been in the vicinity of the present
Mazatlan, as Ximenez immediately after stretched directly west, and came to a
new coast, never before visited, and anchored in a small bay which they called
Santa Cruz.   Here Ximenez and  20 of his men were killed by the Indians,
while the survivors made their escape in the Conception with many pearls and
curious things obtained, and took her over to the roadstead of Chiametla,
which is set down now on maps as a few leagues south of Mazatlan.  Here she
was also seized by De Guzman and her men made prisoners; on ascertaining
which, Cortez made energetic representations to the Audiencia, who were afraid
both of himself and Guzman, and gave him  no satisfaction, notwithstanding he
was then out of pocket 70,000 castellanos in gold, by his various sea expeditions.
FOURTH VOYAGE ORDERED BY CORTEZ, IN WHICH HE TAKES COMMAND.
Fired with indignity at such outrages on his rights, he assembled an army
of 400 Spaniards and 300 negroes, mounted and on foot, and reared and tore
up along the valleys of the coast, determined to punish Guzman and his minions;
sending his veszels, the Santa Agueda and Santo Tomnas, in August,  1531,
from Tehuantepec to Chiametla, where he recaptured the San Lazaro from the
party of Guzman: these two old rovers, however, were prudent enough not to
engage in pitched battle.
From Chiametla, on the 15th April, 1535, he sailed with his fleet to the west
for the place where Xinmenez was killed, and his escaped companions had brought
such fine pearls. On the 1st of May he found an island, called by him Santiago, probably Ceralbo or Espiritu Santo, and on the 3d came to anchor in the
bay where Ximinenez and his men were killed in 1533.   This bay is the same
accepted in history as that now called the Bay of La Paz, but which Cortez
named the Bay of Santa Cruz, which was solemnly taken possession of for the
crown of Spain.  Here he landed with 130 men and 40 horses, and sent back
two of his vessels to Chiametla to bring the remainder of his land forces. These
soon returned with a portion of the forces, and were immediately dispatched
back to bring the remainder, from which, however, only one returned, the other
being lost in the succession of storms then prevailing. Cortez then himself
returned to Chiametla, from whence he again landed at Santa Cruz after the
greatest dangers, and just in time to prevent his forces there from dying of
starvation.  Explorations were now made on every side by land and sea, and
so twelve months passed without finding any great cities or mines, or the longsought strait.  His men were now discontented  and mutinous.   His wife,
Juana de Zuniiga, hearing he was wrecked or dead, sent a vessel, in 1537, to
Santa Cruz to verify the truth, with the news that Don Antonio  de Mendoza,
the new Viceroy of Mexico, had arrived.  On receiving this news, Cortez immediately departed in one of his vessels, leaving his remaining ships, armaments,
and men in California, under the command of Francisco de Ulloa. On the way
he met with the vessel under Hernando Grijalva, and both entered the port of
Acapulco, about April, 1537. Ulloa, finding every thing going on bad in the
settlement, returned with all his expedition to New Spain, early in 1538.
15 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
THE FIFTH  AND LAST VOYAGE  ORDERED BY CORTEZ-THE SEVEN CITIES, AND
THE GRAND QUIVIRA, CIBOLA, AND TOTONTEAC, NORTH OF THE GILA     KING TATARAX WITH CROZIER AND LONG BEARD, HOARY AND RICH.
About this time all New Spain was in a whirl of excitement from the
arrival of Cabeza de Vaca, who had landed, in 1527, in Tampa Bay in Florida,
and had wandered with several companies across the continent until they
arrived at Culiacan of Sinaloa, in 1536, after great perils. And growing out
of this were the reports of Friar Marcos de Noza, who with some companions
had wandered from Culiacan, in 1539, to a new, strange country to the north,
where were many rich countries full of gold, silver, and precious stones, called
Cibola, Totonteac, and Grand Quivira, and in those countries was a king,
called Tatarax with a long beard, hoary and rich, who worshipped a cross of
gold and the image of the Queen of Heaven.  This country, heard of also by
De Vaca, was the same we now call Central and North Arizona, and Friar Marcos said they were populous in many peoples. To prove this, Viceroy Mendoza set on foot, in 1540, the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to
go by land, who got up as high in New Mexico as latitude 40~.   In concert
with these he also sent Fernando de Alarcon with two vessels, who proceeded
up the gulf, and ascended the Colorado beyond the Gila. But neither of these
expeditions found the great cities of gold nor the powerful and populous kingdomns. Excited by these movements, and to recover himself of his great losses,
Cortez determined to prepare another expedition to find out the great kingdoms
and rich peoples of the north. This expedition consisted of the barks Santa
Agueda, Santo Tomas, and La Trinidad, which were placed by him under command of his old officer Francisco de Ulloa, who sailed from Acapulco on the
8th of July, 1539. A few days out at sea the Santa Agueda broke her mainmast.  After repairing at the port of Colima, they left again, and shortly after
the Santo Tomas sunk at sea in a great storm.  With the other two vessels he
sailed up, as would seem, on the Sonora side, to the head of the gulf, and finding the two shores meet, returned down along the peninsular coasts until he
camne to anchor in his old port of Santa Cruz on the 18th October, 1539.
Sailing out on the 29th, he steered south, and, doubling a high promontory,
turned his ships north along the coast of the Pacific. After a stormy and dangerous voyage, attacked by Indians, and his men reduced by sickness, he
worked his way north as far as 30~, and on the 20th January, 1540, discovered
the island of Cedros or Cerros.   In a terrible storm  hereabouts  the vessels
were separated.   By some it is said Ulloa was never heard of afterward nor
his vessel, while the Santa Agueda found her way back in safety to Acapulco,
and gave the first accounts of the Sea of Cortez making a peninsula of the
land. Other chroniclers, as Gomarro and Bernal Dias, say Ulloa returned in
safety and afterward died in the province of Jalisco.
On the ocean coast were found no great countries or populous kingdoms,
nor spice islands, nor cities, the streets whereof were paved with gold and
silver. Francisco Presciado, an officer of the Santa Agueda, on his return to
Spain, several years afterward, published a history of this voyage, which is to
be found in Hakluyt and Ramusio, and is of very great interest in California
history. Thus was a name given to the land, and called California; and the
gulf without an outlet north named the Sea of Cortez.
DISCOVERY OF THE RIVER COLORADO, AND CONFIRMATION MADE THAT CALIFORNIA
WAS A PENINSULA AND NOT AN ISLAND-NO RICH CITIES OR PEOPLES FOUND.
To assist the expeditions of Vasquez Coronado, Viceroy Mendoza dispatched
from Acapulco, on the 31st of May, 1541, Hiernando Alarcon, with the barks
San Pedro and Santa Catalina. Sailing along the Sonora coast, he reached in
safety the head of the gulf, and discovering there the mouth of a great river,
16 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
called by some anterior Spaniards the Buen Guia, which he renamed the River
of Our Lady of Buena Guia, or, as he elsewhere terms it, the River Tisones or
Fire-brands; the same called by one of the Pima tribes the'River Tamosatzin,
and by the Yuma Indians Hawheelchawot; the river Gila is called by them
Haq?tisiseel.  In boats he made two voyages to a distance of some 250 miles
up the stream, where high mountains and rocks shut in the river. He found
neithler great cities nor gold nor diamonds, but made note for the first time of
the dangerous bores and overflows from the river. The Viceroy also dispatched
a land force in connection with Alarcon's from Culiacan, under Melchor Dias to
explore the country on the Sonora side, but, after passing many deserts, and meeting with great misfortunes, he returned without leffecting any thing important.
His pilot, Domingo Castillo, made a chart of both coasts of the gulf, in
which the connection of the river is plainly shown for the first time, and which
still exists in the archives of Spain and Mexico. This map was published by
Archbishop Lorenzano at Mexico in 1770, in his letters of Cortez. Not meeting
with any of Coronado's parties or men, Alarcon returned with his vessels to
Acapulco, satisfied that he had got four degrees higher north than the last of
that of Cortez. But the viceroy. vexed at his want of success, gave Alarcon the
cold shoulder, and he died soon after in Mexico, in disgrace.
CORTEZ RETURNS TO SPAIN-THE GREAT CONQUISTADOR DIES AN HUMBLE
ChRISTIAN SINNER.
Stung to the quick at the expeditions which Mendoza had promoted under
Coronada de Noza, Alvarado, and Alarcon, which all invaded his rights as adelantado and admiral of the South Sea countries, Fernando Cortez returned to
Spain in 1540, to get relief from the emperor from the power of his enemies,
and remuneration for his losses. After attending the court for seven years, disgustc4 with delavs and broken in spirit, the great captain met the grim conqueror of all in his own bed at the town of Castilleja de la Cuesta on the 2d
D)ecember, 1547. His body was afterward removed to the city of Mexico, and
buried in the vault of a chapel built with his own funds.  He was, says the old
chronicler, a man truly worthy of immortal reputation, his zeal most ardent ifor
the propagation of religion. For his sins he was chastised by Providence, the
just avenger of the weak, who, thus humbling him by an old age of troubles,
mortifications, and losses, enabled him to meet his end in a manner becoming
a good Christian, and to show him  the utter vanity of humani  riches and rellOWll.
The great conqueror had written to  his master the emperor in 1522
"They tell me that Ciguatan is an island inhabited by women without  any
men, although at certain times they are visited by men from the mainland, and
if the women bear female children they are protected, but if males they are
driven from their society. They also tell me it is very rich in pearls and gold,
respecting which I shall labor to obtain the truth, and to give your majesty a
full account of it." Thus his life went out. He had fulfilled his appointed
destiny; he had spent, as some pretend, what would equal three millions
of dollars of our money to conquer California. The Amazonians were not found,
but, centuries after, others picked up the gold and pearls. He merely lighted
the way-he bore the heat and burden of the day, he perplexed and worried
his soul till his head was gray, and others were to step in and open the box of
concealed treasures.
VOYAGES OF VILLALOBOS AND RODRIGUEZ CABRILLO-DISCOVERY OF ALTA
CALIFORNIA.
Pedro Alvarado, the  conqueror  of Guatemala,  having  at great cost
assembled a fleet of twelve vessels at the port of Navidad or Natividad, to
second his land expedition in connection with those of the viceroy's under
17 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
Coronado and Alarcon to outwit the enterprises of Cortez to the north and west
of Mexico, and Alvarado having died at Ezatlan, near Guadalajara, in 1541,
from the effects of a fall from his horse, the Vicerov Mendoza assumed charge
of his expeditionary materials, the vessels then going rapidly to destruction.
Five ships were repaired and put under the charge of his brother-in-law, Ruy
Lopez de Villalobos, having on board 370 men, who was dispatched from the
port of Natividad on the 1st of November, 1542, to make discoveries and conquests in the Western or Philippine islands, and which expedition, from numerous misfortunes, came  to an untimely end;  Villalobos never even sighted
the coasts of California, nor came within 200 miles of the peninsula.
On the 27th June, 1542, the viceroy despatched two more of Alvarado's
ships, named San Salvador and La Vitoria, from the port of Natividad or La
Purificacion, under command of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portugese navigator of high character, then serving in the Spanish navy. Cabrillo was directed
to continue the discoveries on the ocean coast above Ulloa's last point of Cedros
Island.  On the 2d June he says he got a "sight of California," anchored at
"Puerto San Lucas" on the 5th, doubled the land, and on the 8th camne to
Punta Trinidad in 25~; about the 20th discovered the "Puerta de la Madalena;" in 23 leagues from Madalena found a great bay, which he called Puerto
de Santiago, in 27~ 30'; five league, farther discovered some dangerous rocks,
called by him Abreojos; in 28~ found a port called by him  Santa Anna; on
27th July found the deep bay, Port Fondo, six leagues from. Santa Anna; on
the first of August found the port of San Pedro Vincula in 28~ 30', in sight of
"Isla de Zedros," from "California to which place they met no Indians."  To
the southeast of Zedros four leagues, found the island San Esteban, beyond
whlich was a grand blay (or ensenada), probably that now called Sabastian Viscaino, covered in places with immense sea-weeds; on Auglust 10th took in
wood and water on Cedros Island, which is in 29~; in ten leagues farther,
in 30~ short, he found the fine port of Santa Clara; on the 15th found the
Puita del Mal Abrigo in 30~ 30'; and ten leagues farther on found the island
San Bernardo.  Hereabouts the country was beautiful, and covered with many
trees.  On the 20th August, after sailing seven leagues from San Bernardo, he
came to Punta del Engaflo (or Deception), in 31~, after passing which, ten
leaguesfarther, on the 22d August, he entered a beautiful and safe harbor in 31~
30', named by him the "Puerto de la Posesion," where he took possession of
the country "in the name of his majesty, and the illustrious Senor Don Antonio de Mendoza." Here he stopped several days, and took in wood and
wvater. discovering a large salina near by, the Indians he met with telling him
by signs they had seen, five days' journey in the interior, people who were
clothed and armed like Cabrillo's men, and had maize and many dogs, on which
the captain gave them a letter to convey to these Spaniards; probably they
had seen the men of Alarcon's or Coronado's expeditions. These Indians were
anointed with a kind of white bitumen or asphaltum. On the 27th August he left
the port, and two leagues farther found the small island San Augustin, where he
was compelled to anchor from a heavy storm.  Here he found signs of people
and two cow's-horns, also great numbers of drift4ogs of immense sizes, measuring 60 feet long, and taking two men's stretched arms to embrace them, which
logs appeared to be of cypress-wood.
On the 3d September he left the island, and on the 8th, in 32~ 30', found the
Cape San Martin, near which he discovered a small lagoon of sweet water, and
where he met with a band of forty Indians, who gave him fish and the roots of
maguey roasted.  The land in the vicinity of this cape made a large fine valley,
w-th many smaller ones. Leaving this place, he came up a few days afterward, in
33~, with a point which he named Cape de la Cruz, where there was neither
wood, water, nor Indians, but after passing which, he says, "from La Califor.fia to this place the shores are all very sandy, but from hence commences a
18 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
country of different character and much better." On the 17th September they
left this cape, and six leagues farther on discovered the fine port of San MAateo,
in 33~ 20', passing a small island close to the mainland.  Here.they saw again
immense numbers of drift-logs, and large flocks of animals like the sheep of
Peru (or alpacas), with long wool and small horns, "de un xeme en luengo,"
or four inches long and an inch thick, with small round tails. These were no
doubt what are now known as the antelopes of California, as they were formerly *
abundant in the north parts of the peninsula.
On the 23d he left San Mateo, and, sailing for 26 leagues along a fertilelooking coast containing beautiful valleys and groves, they passed three small
desert islands in 34~, situated three leagues from the mainland, named by him
Islas Desiertas, the same now called Las Coronadas.
On Thursday, the 28th of September, about six leagues distant from the
islands to the north-northwest, Cabrillo entered a beautiful and land-locked
harbor, which he named San Miguel, now known as San Diego, which he
fixes in 34~ 20', and where he remained till the 3d of October. Here commence the first discovery and the primary explorations of the coasts of Alta
California, Cabrillo having passed the present limits of the peninsula.
In all these latitudes notated by Cabrillo it is to be borne in mind that his
instruments were extremely defective both for observing latitudes and measuring
the space passed over the water daily by the vessel. For instance:
San Diego in 1542 is made to be in latitude.......... 34~ 20'
U.S. Coast Survey by Davidson makes it in 1858.... 32  41'
Excess by Cabrillo.................... 1~ 39'
Or say 100 miles too much north. The Coast Survey instruments being tIhe
most approved of modern ones, in which but trifling errors can occur, as the observations are made on shore, makes their standard, at it were, indisputable.
The most of the geographical namnes inserted by Cabrillo in the foregoing,
and those given by him in his explorations to the north, between San Diego and
Cape Mendocino, were almost entirely ignored by Sebastian Viscaino in his vovage of 1602, for what reason has never been determined; Viscaino never even
alluding to Cabrillo's services in his account Eiven in Torquemada and Venegas.
As Cabrillo's voyage was the first complete reconnoissance made of the ocean
coasts of Lower California, we shall here insert the names he gave and those
punctuated by Navarette, in his remarks on Cabrillo's voyage, in his " History of
Spanish Explorations on the North Pacific Coasts," and as known on Spanish
charts in 1802, premising that Navarette's critique on this celebrated voyage is
found very meagre and defective when comparing it with the verbatim original
of Cabrillo in Smith's collection of 1857, which occupies twenty times more type
than Navarette's notations:
Cape San Lucas by Cabrillo in 1542-C. San Lucas by Navarette in 1802.
Punta Trinidad by Cabrillo in 1542-Punta Trinidad of Margarita Island in 1802.
Puerto de la Madalena by Cabrillo in 1542-Bay of Magdalena in 1802.
Santa Catalina y Santiago by Cabrillo in 1542-Las Abreojos Islets in 1802.
Santa Anna by Cabrillo in 1542-Asuncion Island in 1802.
Puerto Fondo or S. Pedro Advincula by Cabrillo in 1542-Port San Bartolomneo in 1802.
Isla de Cedros or Zedros by Cabrillo in 1542-Island of Cerros in 1802.
Mal Abrigo by Cabrillo in 1542-Punta de Canoas in 1802.
San Bernardo Island by Cabrillo in 1542-Island.San Geronimo in 1802.
Punta Engafo (or Deception) by Cabrillo in 1542-Cabo Baxo in 1802.
Puerto Posesion by Cabrillo in 1542-Bay of Las Virgenes in 1802.
San Augustin puerto by Cabrillo in 1542-In San Martin Island in 1802.
Cabo San Martin by Cabrillo in 1542-Point in San Quintin Bay in 1802.
Puerto San Mateo by Cabrillo in 1542-Bay of Todos Santos in 1802.
Islas Desiertas by Cabrillo in 1542-Las Coronadas in 1802.
Puerto San Miguel by Cabrillo in 1542-Bay of San Diego in 1802.
19
I
I
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
After 1802 many of the geographical terms of Navarette were again altered,
leaving this matter at the present time in great confusion.
CHiAPTER IV.
FURTHER VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS AFTER 1543 AND TO 1588.
FROM the unsuccessiful results of the explorations of De Niza and Coronado
by land and the voyages of AlarcQn, Ulloa, and Cabrillo by sea to find the
wealthy kingdoms and cities to the north and west of Jalisco and Sinaloa,
counterparts of those of Mexico and Peru, and because no strait or entrance by
water had been found leading from the Pacific to the Atlantic, the Spanish
statesmen came to the conclusion that no such countries were in existence, except
probably those to the north of 40~; and it appears to have been decided, if such
were known to other nations, it would be detrimental to the interests and policy
of Spain.
The next mention of the California coasts is when Andres de Urdaneta, a
mariner by profession and companion of Loyasa, and who went with Miguel
Legaspi in 1564 to conquer the Philippines, was sent in 1565 as a pilot of a
vessel sent from thence by Legaspi to Mexico; at this time Urdanetta bad
become a monk of the order of Saint Augustin.  Urdanetta steered his vessel
up north as high as 43~ in search of the northwest winds, which he met with,
and with which he first made the west coast of America near Cape Mendocino,
and then dropping down the line of the coast until he made the end of the peninsula or the country of Cortez, and so stretched off to the east and south for
Acapulco: he is not known to have landed in any part of California above or below
San Diego.  His derrotero, or course drawn off on a chart, was used by the
Spaniards  between Manilla and Acapulco for a hundred years afterward.
After the year 1570 vessels regularly sailed twice a year between Manilla an.d
Acapulco, following the route laid down by Urdaneta to Mendocino, and so to
Cape San Lucas and then to Acapulco, and in going from Mexico stretched off
from Acapulco to the west till they made Guam and the Ladrones, and so to the
Philippines.
Alvaro de Mendano, who was sent by the Viceroy of Peru in 1567 to discover the Solomon Islands near New Guinea, returned to Mexico by the way of
California, and anchored near Cedros Island in December of that year, from
whence he departed for the Mexican coast, and thence to Lima, where he arrived
in the spring of 1558.
In 1579 Sir Francis Drake, after capturingo a rich galleon near Payta in Peru,
and sacking Guatulco, above Tehuantepec, and getting with other prizes thereby
nearly two millions of dollars in his ship, the Golden IIind, stood up along the
coast of California, and anchored near Punta Los Reyes in June.  From hence he
sailed to the Philippines and Moluccas, and so via Cape of Good Hope to Plymouth in England in September, 1580, the Golden Hind being the second ship,
and Drake the first Englishman, who had circumnavigated the earth. He did
not touch at any point in Lower California.
In 1582 Francisco de Galle made a voyage from Manilla and Macao, and
discovered the coast of California in 37~ 30', which was entirely bare of snow; the
sea was covered with branches of trees and vegetation brought down by great
rivers; this was likely when in the vicinity of the Golden Gate after heavy rains.
He mentions the island Cedros, and those not far off called San Augustin and
San Martin, and afterward Cape San Lucas, from whence he sailed to Acapulco,
where he sent an account of his voyage to the viceroy.
In July, 1856, Sir Thomas Cavendish sailed from Plymouth, in England, in
a fleet equipped at his own expense, consisting of the Desire, of 120 tons, the
20 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Content, of 60, and the Hugh Gallant, of 40 tons, with crews amounting to 123
men, to carry the war between Spain and England into the countries beyond
Cape Horn.  Having burnt and sacked several towns on the coasts of Chili,
Peru, and Mexico, and captured many ships and procured great treasures there by, he obtained notice of a rich Manilla galleon, and determined to watch for
her, and sighted Cape San Lucas on the 14th of October, 1587, and continued
cruising in that vicinity till the 4th November. He now had only the Desire
and the Content, and with these came to action near the cape on this last date
with the galleon Santa Ana, of 700 tons, commanded by Don Tomas de
Alzola, which after a desperate encounter he captured, making prize of "122,000
pesos of gold," or as some say the value of $3,000,000 in silver, besides
a valuable cargo of China goods amounting to forty tons. After this he run
his vessels into the harbor called then Aguada  Se.qura or Porto Sequro, and
since the bay of San Bernarbe, a few miles east of Cape San Lucas. Here he
burnt the prize and liberated his prisoners, who numbered, male and female, 190
persons. Taking from them two Japan lads of 20 and 17 years, three Manilla
men, and a Spanish and Portuguese pilot belonging to the galleon, Cavendish
left his California anchorage on the 19th of November for the Philippines, but a
day or two out the Content was separated from the Desire, and never heard ot
afterward; she had a tempting lot of gold, silver, and other treasures aboard of
her, gathered on the west coast, and probably some bay, port, or island of Lower
California holds her undiscovered bones and spoils of silver and gold to this
day.  The Spaniards on the departure of Cavendish saved the remnants of the
Sanita Ana's hulk, and, with some sea-gear left by the conquerors, reconstructed
her and made their way to Acapulco, and gave account of their disaster to the
viceroy.
Cavendish, having cruised among the Philippines and Moluccas for some
weeks, finally left the island of Java in March, 1588, for the Cape of Good
Hope, which they doubled in May, and finally arrived at Plymouth on the 9th
September, 1588, after an absence from England of nearly twenty-six months.
"I have," says the old fellow, " navigated along the coasts of Chili, Peru, and
Nova Spagna, where I made great spoils; I burnt 19 ships, small and great, and
all the villages and towns I landed at I burnt and spoiled."  Master Francis
Prettv, who had been a companion of Drake in the Golden Hind, and who
wrote an account of that voyage at the great admiral's request, was also an officer in the Desire with Cavendish, and likewise wrote a history of this second
expedition.  Of her consort he makes this suggestive sentence: "We left the
Content astern of us, which was not as yet come out of the road (harbor), and
thinking as the wind blew fair from the E. N. E. she would have overtaken us,
we lost her company and never saw her afterward."  In view of Lucoitia, while
passing through the Straits of Bernardino, the unhappy Spanish pilot having
been detected with a written letter, was suspected as a spy, and by order of
Cavendish hung at the yard-arm. In the ship Santa Ana was the Greek pilot
Juan de Fuca, or Apostolos Valerianos of Cephalonia, not mentioned, however,
in the voyage of Cavendish, and whose identity has always been denied in
Spanish histories, who says he lost 60,000 Spanish ducats of his own goods in
the Santa Ana, and of whom we shall now give some account.
THE DISCOVERIES OF JUAN DE FUCA-THEY ARE DENIED AS APOCRYPHAL FOR OVER
200 YEARS-THE STRAITS OF ANNIAN-DE FUCA'S IDENTITY PROVEN IN 1854.
In the old cosmographical work of RIichard Hakluyt, of A. D. 1600, there
is preserved some account of the navigator, who is said to have first made known
the straits separating the Puget Sound country from the island of Vancouver.
De Fuca savs he was robbed of his goods by Cavendish, when the latter captured the Santa Ana near the Cape of California in 1587.  He afterwvard made
21 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
his way in the rebuilt bark to Acapulco, and states that a short time afterward
he was ordered as pilot to join a fleet of three ships and 100 men, sent by the
Viceroy of Mexico to discover and fortify the Straits of Annian in the northern
parts of the SouLth Seas, and prevent the English coming from the Atlantic
into the Pacific to plunder the countries of Nueva Espana. They proceeded
accordingly to the Cape of California, but from a mutiny among the soldiers
of the vessels, occasioned by the misconduct of the commander of the fleet. the
results were fruitless, the expedition returned from California to Mexico, and
the captain was disgraced.  In the year 1592 De Fuca was himself sent from
Acapulco by the viceroy as commander of two small vessels carrying only
mariners, to follow on and improve his former voyage when acting as pilot.
He sailed along the coast of Nueva Espania and California until he came to the
latitudes between 47 and 48 degrees, when he there entered into a great strait,
sailing therein for more than twenty days, the land trending sometimes north  west, then northeast, and also east and southeastward, and that he passed by
divers islands in that strait, and that it was narrower at the entrance than it was
farther inside; and that at the entrance of the said strait there is an exceeding
nigh pinnacle on a great headland, or island, like a spired rock or a pillar there  on; and that he sailed through that strait finding it wide and deep enough
everywhere, and that he saw people there who dressed in skins, and there was
in those countries gold, silver, pearls, and other rich things, and that the said
strait was about 30 to 40 leagues wide at its entrance. Not being sufficiently
armed to oppose the natives, he then returned to Acapulco by the way of the
Cape of California in the same year (1592), and made report to the viceroy, who
sent him to Spain after many delays, to get reward of his majesty the king, who
gave him no more for his discoveries than did the viceroy.
In the year 1791, by order of the King of Spain, the two vessels Sutil and
Mejicana, under Galiano and Valdez, were dispatched from Mexico to continue
the explorations of Perez, Martinez, Bodega, and other Spanish officers, made
between 1774 and 1790, and to verify rumors received in Mexico that the long  doubted Straits of Juan de Fuca had at last been found by some foreign vessels
trading for furs on the coasts to the north of California.  On the return of the
two vessels. these officers confirmed the report that such straits had at last been
found, but that the latitudes stated by De Fuca were too high: it was forgotten
though, in 1791, that all the observations of the Spaniards on the California
coasts were with defective instruments, which from 1600 to 1750 made their
geographical positions from 60 to 100 miles too far north. The accounts of
this voyiage were sent to Spain, and, by orders of the king, were put into the
hands of the celebrated historian Martin Fernandez de Navarette.  This emi  nent scholar, after, as he says, diligent search into the archives of Spain and
Mexico by various officers, states that no mention was ever made in any paper
giving the name, or alluding to the services, of the said Juan de Fuca, and ut  terly discrediting the belief that such a person ever lived. Strange to say, how  ever, the exceedingly high peak or pinnacle near the entrance of these straits,
mentioned by the Greek pilot, was really found by one of the foreign vessels,
after 1786, and to this day it goes by the name of the "Pillar of Juan de
Fuca," and may be seen represented in Wilkes's "Voyage of 1841."  In the
year 1854 the question of the existence of such a person as Juan de Fuca was
forever set at rest.  The author of this compendium of Lower California his  tory asked of Mr. York, the American consul at Zante, in the Ionian Islands,
if there existed in Cephalonia any person who bore the name of the old Greek
pilot.  The answer to this was, that the memory of such a person was well
acknowledged in that island, and that he left descendants and descendants of
relatives known there who still went by the name of De Fuca or Foca. A full
account of this matter may be found in the September and October (1859)
numbers of "ilutchings's California Magazine," and the most of the nonsenso
22 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
written by Navarette and other Spanish writers, with the turgffid sentences of
Humboldt, blown to the winds: Juan de Foca's genealogy and that of his living
descendants are as well known there in 1866 as those of the oldest families of
the Ionian Islands. De Fuca was 70 years old when he died, about 1602, and
had served on board the King of Spain's ships in the Spanish Americas forty
long years.
THE FIRST AND SECOND VOYAGES OF SEBASTIAN VISCAINO.
After the year 1580, the Dutch and English fillibuster expeditions, growing out of the wars of the Reformation in England and Holland, began to frequent the coasts of Peru and Mexico, and also those of the Philippine Islands,
and committed great havoc on the Spanish settlements, and captured numbers
of the king's ships, which greatly excited the attention of the Government and
people of Spain, who were lusciously inclined to lay down and effeminatelv
wallow in such luxuriant pastures they had stumbled on, and which were fast
sapping the Spanish vigor. The great rendezvous in the North Pacific up to
the year 1720 was the Cape of California and the bay of Pichilingue, which
last is an arm of the bay of La Paz.  Here they traded with the Indians for
pearls, smuoggled on the west coasts of Mexico, and laid in wait for the annual
galleons between Manilla and Acapulco, of which they made several captures,
amounting in value to millions of dollars.
Stimulated by these daring robberies and inroads on the Spanish domains,
which were fast bringingo the nation to disgrace, the ministers of King Philip
II. were directed by his majesty to order the Viceroy of Mexico to explore
the coasts of California, and to found settlements near the cape, and, if possible,
one on the northern coasts below Cape Mendocino. The principles involved
were: to aid, recruit, and refit the Manilla galleons, which now came down the
coast annuallvy; to occupy the country as part of his majesty's domain of New
Spain; to spread the knowledge of the Christian religion among the Indian
tribes, and, if possible, find out if some rich countries did not exist above 40~,
which by mistake had not been reached, and also "to endeavor the discovery
of the Straits of Annian," which were rumored to pass through the land in the
north of California from the South Seas to the Atlantic at the cod-fisheries of
Newfoundland.
The Viceroy Gaspar de Zufiiga, Count de Monterey, selected, to command
this new expedition and carry out the king's orders, Sebastian Viscaino, who
had acquired a high character in various services of his majesty in Mexico and
the South Seas. In 1596 he was dispatched from Acapulco with three vessels,
having on board four Franciscan friars, to make a settlement in the country of
California found by Fernando Cortez, where he arrived after touching at the
isles of Mazatlan. At the isles of Mazatlan 50 of his men deserted, and Viscaino stretched across the mouth of the gulf and landed first at the bay of San
Sebastian, and, not finding this suitable, went farther up to the bay of Santa
Cruz, where Cortez had made his colony in 1537, and at which he found many
remains.  This bay of Santa Cruz, or Puerto de Cortez, is said to be the same
now known as the bay of La Paz, the name given to it by Viscaino from the
peaceable character of the Indians, who here received him with good-will.
They found in the seas near by fish of all kinds in the greatest abundance, and
pearl oysters very plentiful. One of his vessels was dispatched up the gulf
sonse 100 leagues to make further explorations, on returning from which a body
of 50 of the men were attacked by a large number of Indians, who killed 19
of the men and wounded all the rest; the enemy, robbing the dead soldiers,
decked themselves in their clothes and arms, and danced defiance to the invaders in sight of the ship. On arriving at La Paz, where he had' stopped two
months, Viscaino, finding his provisions running low, his houses being burnt,
and his shipping getting out of repair, concluded to discontinue the enterprise,
23
0
i
i
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
as too risky for his means and material, and, embarking his forces, arrived at
Acapulco in October, 1596. During their stay in California, the four priests
made diligent eflorts to instruct the Indians in religion, and, with the humanity
and prudence of Viscaino, succeeded in making them friends to the new
visitors.
Philip II. having died in 1598, his successor, Philip III., in  1599, and
12 months after the death of his father, directed the Count de Monterey,
still acting as viceroy, to dispatch Viscaino on a second expedition, but
this time to explore the ocean or extra coasts of California, as it was said that
a ship had lately passed from Newfoundland through the Straits of Annian to
the South Seas, and his miajesty determined to occupy the countries thereaway
by Spaniards.  Some 30 months afterward, every thing being ready, on the 5th
of May, 1602, Viscaino sailed from Acapulco with a fleet of four vessels for
this expedition: to wit, the San Diego, termed also the Capitana, or Viscaino's
flag-ship; the Santo Tomas, called also the Almirante, under Toribio Gomez  de
Corvan, second in command; the third was a smaller one, called the Three
Kings, under Est6van Lopez, with whom was Ensign Martin de Aguilar, and a
barco longo, or long boat, for entering bays and rivers to take soundings and
surveys, which was left behind afterward at San Bernab6 Bay. On board these
vessels the viceroy sent three Franciscan friars of the Carmelites, Fathers Andres
de la Asuncion, Thomas  de Aquino, and Antonio de la Ascencion; Ascencion
kept a journal, and afterward wrote a history of the voyage. There were also
several other noted officers, military and naval, who were ordered to join the
expedition, among whom is mentioned Geronimo Martin, a great cosmographer
and draughtsrnman, who survived and was much employed afterward on the pub lic works in the City of Mexico; Alonzo Pesquero, who is stated to have
served with Magellan, which must be accepted as a good-for-nothing assertion,
as Maglellan's voyage of 1519 was then 83 years past, which would make  Pcs quero either a child in 1519, or over 100 years old in 1602; Antonio Flores and
Francisco Bolanos, celebrated pilots, Bolanos having been in the San Augrustin
galleon with Sebastian Cermenon when wrecked near San Francisco Bav in
1595; an ensign, Martin de Aguilar, whose name became famous for 250 years
as giving title to a great river beyond Cape Mendocino, leading to the Atlantic,
and who appears to have had command of the frigate Los Reyes, with the
pilots Florez and Lopez.
The expedition sailed in May, and arrived near the Mazatlan Islands early
in June, from whence they departed for California, and on the 14th June an chorecd in the place where Cavendish had burnt the Santa Ann, and to which
Viscaino gave the name of San Bernab6, referred to before in our account, and
so called to this day in many modern charts, and which is the same as the Puerto
Seguro of Cavendish.
At this place fish of all kinds were found in such abundance that boats
could be loaded with very little labor, and pearl oysters strewed the shores in
such unaccountable quantities as to make the beach appear like an immense
pavement of brilliant mosaics; game, wood, and water were also in abundance,
and the Indian population was civil and numerous.
After four attempts to sail out of San Bernab6 and frustrated by the
northwest winds and fogs, the fleet finally got out on the 5th July, and passed
the highlands northwest of the cape, known as the Sierra Enfadosa, and on the
20th Viscaino brought his vessel to anchor in the great bay of La Magdalena,
discovered by Cabrillo, and some ocean points of which were mentioned by
Ulloa. The bay was found to be very spacious, and populated with numerous
rancherias of docile Indians, and abounded in immense shoals of fish, whales,
pearl oysters, seals of all kinds, muscles, and other marine animals. On the 28th
July they left the bay, above which the land gradually fell down into a pleasant
and level country, the mountains retiring far inland, and on the 30th passed near
24 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
to the mouth of a river with dangerous breakers. This fact has been often
doubted, but recent explorations of that  vicinity, up to 1864, show that
there are three streams above Magdalena, which in the winter season are full to
the sea. A short distance above this, they found a large bay, named by them
from the immense numbers of whales seen, Baja de Ballenas, in the position of
which no two maps or charts agree: it was inhabited by myriads of sea-birds,
and all kinds of shell and scale fish were found in the greatest abundance; pearl
ovsters were also found here, which seems to be their northern limits. Some
eight leagues above this, they came to an island they called San Roque, on the
31st July, and to another one on the 5th August, called Asuncion, which seems
to be the same as those situated a few leagues below the present Bartolom6 or
Turtle Bay. The same abundance of fish and marine animals was met with
here, and on shore they found a large salina.  Passing by a very high mountain
above, of bare and naked rocks of varied and beautiful formations, which they
named the Sierra Pintada, or painted mountain, where great mines of gold and
silver were supposed to be: this mountain they were a week in passing, which
on weathering, they passed the island of Natividad of Cabrillo, and came to
anchor, on the 19th of August under the Isle of Cedros. Near San Bartolomn6,
they met with immense quantities of bitumen of an amber color, which was
likely, from the beds of asphaltum said to abound in that vicinity, and which
they say had a very bad smell: this fact was also mentioned  by Cabrillo.  The
weather was so bad at these places, then the last days of August, that he ]eft and
returned to Isle Cedros several times, from the prevalence of the northwest
winds, and they were constantly being separated from the other ships. Cedros
Island was found covered with trees of pine and cedar, and inhabited by numbers
of bold Indians: to the north and east an immense bay formed, which is now
named, and generally acknowledged in geography, as the bay of Sebastian Viscaino, and not that just north of Magdalena Bay, as located by De Mofras and
others.  On the 9th September they left the island, steering northwest toward
the mainland, and met with the Isle Cenizas; shortly afterward, on the mainland,
a bay called by themn San Hypolito, surrounded by a very beautiful country,
near which is situated at present the ex-Missions of La Rosaria and Santo ])omingo, the bay appearing to be the same sometimes called San Francisco, and
now known as Las Virgenes; four leagues from which was the bay of Santos
Cosmo and Damian, near the shore of which was a large freshwater lake and
with a fine level country in the neighborhood, which appears to answer to the
present bay of San Quintin. In this vicinity they passed by the Mesas, or tablelands, of San Cyprian, which appear to be the same as the curious five Hummocks of Vancouver (1792), forming five distinctly separated hills rising from
level lands, not far from which is the Cape Enganio of Cabril]o and Viscaino, supposed to be the same as Cape Colnett of the present maps. The greatest confusion obtains in this part of Viscaino's account, and his chart, published by Navarette in 1802, gives scarcely any assistance in identifying his numerous anchorages; this may be owing to the bad weather he had continually experienced.
Passing the islands San Ger6nimo, Cenizas, Pajaros, and San Hilario, they came
to the bay of San Simon and San Jude, placed now in the vicinity of the exMission of San Vicente, where the Indians were very troublesome, and this
character they bore as late as 1816, when they rose in rebellion. On the first
of November, Viscaino left this bay, and proceeding a few leagues above, came
to another large bay, surrounded by lofty mountains, which they named the bay
of Todos Santos, a name which it retains to this day. Shortly afterward, on the
5th, they discovered the Coronadas Rocks, called Islas Desiertas by Cabrillo, and
a short distance north, on the 10th of December, they entered a famous port,
called, by Viscaino, San Diego, which is the San Miguel of Cabrill0 as now accepted in history.
Thus ended the third great exploration of the ocean coasts of Lower Califor
25 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
nia, Viscaino verifying the former accounts of Ulloa and Cabrillo and making
a chart of the coast, which, though full of errors and interpolations by others, re
mains substantially the same, with all its grievous faults and omissions which have
caused the loss of several ships, as is used by mariners in 1867.
Taking his departure from San Diego, the expedition was employed  from
the 20th Novenmber, 1602, to the 20th January, 1603, in exploring the coasts as
far up as 430, or the vicinity of the present River Umpqua.   His second in
command, Gomez de Corvan, was dispatched from Monterey port in the Santo
Tomas or Alinirante, on the 20th December, 1602, with the Padre Tomas de
Aquino and a large number of Viscainio's men, who had been reduced by the
scurvy and unwholesome provisions; they had lost some 30 men at San Diego
and Monterey, and on the passage up the coast above Isle Cedros. The number of men who formed the seamen and military of the three ships is not stated
in any accounts which have come down to us, but, according to the Spanish
equipments of the times, and the extra care taken by the viceroy in fitting it
out, it is very likely they numbered not less than 300 persons.
Viscaino missing his consort near Cape Mendocino, and experiencing continual foul weather, with his men reduced by sickness and privations, headed
his ship, the San Diego, for the south, on his return to Mexico. The tender, or
Three Kings (Tres Reyes), on board of which were Antonio Flores, belonging to
Avilas, acid Est6van Lopez, the two pilots, and Martin de Aguilar, the military
officer, belonging to Malaga, on separating from the other vessel, was blown
farther north, as mentioned before, and after discovering the river and cape, still
marked on many maps and charts with Aguilar's name, and finding they had
got above the point mentioned in the viceroy's instructions, and experiencing
the same disasters as Viscaino's vessel, headed south, on the 20th January, to
look for the San Diego, and get home again. After continual hardships and sufferings, the two vessels did not meet again till arriving at Acapulco in April,
1603, where the Santo Tomas, under De Corvan, had anchored only afew days
before, with no more than himself and two other men fit to do duty; the Tres
Ieyes had been brought in by Estet6van Lopez, one of her two pilots, as De Aguilar and Flores both died before her return to Acapulco. The authorities for the
voyage say 48 men died from scurvy and other infirmities: how many men in
all were aboard the vessels is not stated.
On the viceroy's receiving notice of the arrival of Viscaino's vessels, orders
were sent to take every care of the officers and men. On their recovery, they
proceeded to the city of Mexico, where, on the 29th April, 1603, they were received with every respect by the Count de Monterey, at the palace of Chapultepeque, andall were rewarded and promoted, says old Torquemada, "to their entire
satisfaction and according to their respective pretensions."  Viscaino, who seems
to have been a man eminent for enterprise and of the highest character, shortly
afterward made application for another fleet to continue his surveys above his
northern discoveries; but the viceroy, not having sufficient power to gratifv his
wishes, sent him, with many recommendations, to Spain, where he arrived, and
was received with great favor by the king, who ordered his plans to be laid before the High Council of State.  These awful hidalgos, thinking the risks too
great, from the disasters experienced by Viscaino, on his two expeditions of 1596
and 1602, were not in a hurry to "rush things; " the old sailor, in great discouragement, returned to Mexico, which seems to have been his home, and in which
city, it is stated, he died in the latter part of 1606.' For after the authorities had
digested his propositions for three years, it was concluded, by the king in council, to accept them, and an order, dated the 19th August, 1606, was sent to the
viceroy to find him out again, and give him another fleet for a new expedition
to California. This kindness being frustrated by Viscaino's death, the whole
affair fell to the ground, and nothing material was effected on the northern coasts
till after 1774, or 164 years after Viscaino left this world, when the Spanish
26 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
monarchy found that it would have vastly aggrandized itself if it had followed
the counsels of the old sailor. By some of the Spanish writers, Viscaino is
said to have been a native of Biscay, whose people are well known  for their
industry, enterprise, and maritime spirit, and commonly called Basques.
It is to be observed that there is the greatest confusion, contradiction, and
ambiguity, with innumerable typographical errors, in all the printed accounts
of Viscaino's expedition as contained in Torquemada, Venegas, Navarette, Humboldt, De Motfras, and numberless other writers, who treat of his services, and
this assertion holds good with tenfold force on many of his geographical positions; besides, instead of mentioning in the relation the name of each vessel,
the utmost perplexities occur in the frequent use of the terms "Capitana," the
"Almirante," the "Frigata," the "Tender,"  as employed  on this or that
service, all through the narrative. Not only are his distances of sailing from
day to day full of uncertainties and evident errors, but his latitudes are from
60 to 80 miles too far north of, or many miles south of, the hydrographical
observations made by European and American surveyors, between 1825-1866.
This was, of course, to be expected from the imperfect nautical instruments of
those days; nevertheless, writers are found presumptuous enough and lazy
enough to pass off their crude windities on the world of letters up to this 1867,
as if they had carefully studied the results of his surveys. This is particularly
the case as regards the Pacific coasts of the peninsula, where the bay of Viscaino is set down in different charts over 100 miles out of the way of its generally accepted position as eastward of, and contiguous to, Cedros Island. Thus
San Diego, which is established now at 32~ 41', is placed bv Viscaino in 32~;
and Monterey, which is now in 36~ 36', is set down by him in 37~. The
manuscript accounts and charts of Viscaino remain to this day in the archives
of Spain and Mexico, and, singular to say, the Spanish Government has never
allowed them to be printed in full, at least in no book known of in the
State of California in 1867.  As Mexico has but a trifle of maritime commerce,
and the State of California an immense one, rapidly running into the hundreds
of millions, humanity, science, and traffic urgently call for some basis by which
Mexico and the United States could unite to prosecute a thorough hydrographical survey of the coasts of the gulf and the peninsula of California.
CHAPTER V.
LOWER CALIFORNIA ADVENTURES FROM 1603 TO 1700-ARDENT PURSUIT OF
PEARLS.
IN the year 1616 Don Juan Iturbi, with two vessels, fitted at his own expense, left Acapulco with the viceroy's license, to make further explorations in
California, and to fish for pearls. One of his vessels was taken by a Dutch%
fillibuster, whose rendezvous was at the Pichelingues in La Paz Bay; with the
other he ascended as high as the River Tizones or the present Colorado. Meeting with many disasters, he was obliged to put into the harbor of Ahome, at
the mouth of Rio Fuerte, where he was relieved by the Jesuit Father Perez de
Ribas, the author of the curious old chronicle called "Triiumphs of the Faith."
After arriving at Acapulco he went to Mexico, and, showing the beautiful pearls
he had procured in the gulf, filled the city with a whirl of excitement. One of
these pearls was valued at 900 Spanish crowns, and many of the finest were
sent to Spain, from whence their fame spread throughout all Europe. About
this time many voyages were made in small vessels from the ports in Sinaloa
and Jalisco to dive for pearls or get them from the Indians; and one Antonio
del Castillo, of Chiametla, accumulated an immense fortune in a few years.
In March, 1632, Captain Francis Ortega, through some high representations made at Madrid by Don Antonio Bastan, obtained a license from thei
45
21
i
I
i
I
I
II
I
i
I
4                      1
i
i
I
I
i
i
I
I
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
I 
SKETCH OF THIE SETTLEMENT AND
viceroy for pearl-diving and colonizing in California.  On board his vessel
of 70 tons went the priest Diego de la Nava, appointed by the Bishop of
Guadalajara as Vicar of California. Hie returned in June succeeding, with
a large quantity of valuable pearls, obtained between La Paz and San Bernab6
Bays, which so greatly pleased the viceroy that he was allowed to make other
voyages in 1633 and 1634, in both of which he was successful in pearl-trading.
Underhandedly his pilot, Est6van Carbonelli, obtained a license from the Government to prosecute a voyage on the same intent in 1636, but returning
unsuccessful, became an object of ridicule and disgrace.
In Ortega's last expedition went Padre Nava and another priest, named
Juan de Zuniiga, which, it seems, was at the suggestion of Ortega, a man of
character and prudence, who was desirous to Christianize the Indians, and to
make a colony at the bay of La Paz, with soldiers from the posts in Sinaloa.
The Duke of Escalona, the viceroy, in 1642, ordered De  Canas, governor
of Sinaloa, to explore the coasts of California with a view to founding a colony.
In this voyage went Jacinto Cortez, a Jesuit missionary of Sinaloa, who has
left an account that the expedition went to La Paz, and found the Indians extremely docile, and obtained numbers of fine pearls, which were sent to the
viceroy.
On the viceroy's return to Spain, he induced Philip IV. to order a new
expedition of conquest and colonization under Admiral Portel de Casanate.
In 1643 Count Salvatierra, the successor of Escalona, efficiently aided the
admiral in his plans, and three or four vessels were got ready at Acapulco and
the neighboring ports to carry out the king's orders. In this fleet went again
Father Cortez and another Jesuit, named Andres Baes, as missionaries to instruct the Indians and as chaplains of the expedition, the viceroy having especially
requested the superior of the Mexican Jesuits to do so. On arriving at the
ports of Sinaloa he was instructed to convoy the Manilla galleon to Acapulco
from the Pichilingue rovers in the gulf, which he effected in safety. On completion of this and on his returning, two of his ships were burnt on the coast
of Mexico; but not discouraged, he soon equipped two others, and in 1648,
accompanied by the two Jesuits, landed in California. While exploring the
coasts for the site of a colony, orders were sent him again to convoy the Manilla galleon from the Dutch rovers who now had become exceedingly bold, and
greatly harassed the Spanish colonies on the Pacific. On reaching Acapulco,
the further prosecution of this enterprise was suspended, and the admiral was
promoted to be captain-general of the province of Chili.
The king, in 1665, having ordered a further prosecution of the colonization
of California, the viceroy appointed Captain Bernal de Pinadero to undertake
it, provided it could be effected without outlays from the public purse, and
agreements were formally drawn up to this effect.   Two small vessels were
built at the mouth of the Rio Vanderas, now in Jalisco, and on arriving in
California, went to work with a voracious greed in pearl-diving, in which they
treated the Indians with great barbarity. Large quantities of the finest pearls
were procured, which in the division made such sanguinary quarrels among
the crews of the vessels as to occasion several murders, the confusion arising
from which induced Pinadero to return to Mexico. The Government, disapproving of his labors, ordered  him, at his own  expense, to make  another
attempt from Sinaloa, in 1667, in which his abilities as a colonizer resulted as
in his first failures, Pinadero having made formal contracts with the Government.
In 1668, some 12 months after Pinadero's second failure, Francisco Lucl
nella obtained a patent for a new expedition, to be undertaken without outlay
to the royal treasury, and, accompanied by Juan Caranco and Juan Ramirez,
two Franciscan missionaries, arrived in due time at the bay of La Paz. This
expedition, after a short stay, from all accounts, resulted in nothing, and
28 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Lucinella returned to Sinaloa, where, it appears, he had fitted out.  Lucinella
made a third proposition in 1686 (or 18 years afterward), to complete another
expedition, but was refused license.
With all these reverses and difficulties, neither the adventurers nor the
authorities in Mexico or Spain seemed willing to let the colonization of the
peninsula drop; small vessels from the coasts of Mexico annually visiting the
gulf coasts with and without license for the traffic and fishery in pearls.
Charles II. having ascended the throne about this time, and great concern
being felt at the injury resulting to the fame and the policy of Spain by the
extension of other European colonies in North America, and the wasting incursions of the filibusters on both coasts of America, the Council of the Indies
in the.mother country, by order of the king, in 1667, ordered the Viceroy Archbishop Enriquez de Rivera to offer the enterprise of colonizing the peninsula
again to private parties, and if such were not found willing to undertake it, that
it should be done at the expense of the treasury. As it appears from the chronicles of the times that speculators were wary of hasty action, the Admiral Isidro
Otondo y Antillon, governor of Sinaloa, and a distinguished officer, was empowered by a warrant from Madrid, of 29th December, 1679, to undertake the
enterprise, and given the title of Admiral of the California Conquests.   The
religious concerns of the colony were to be placed under the Jesuits, and Eusebio Francisco, a native of the city of Trent, in German Italy, and a former
professor in the Bavarian University of Ingoldstadt, well known as an able
geographer, and then for several years serving as a missionary in the Jesuit
establishments of Sinaloa and Pimaria, or North Sonora, was nominated as
chaplain ofthe expedition and colony. From this time we commence to date
a true knowledge of the interior countries of California and Sonora, the coast
lines being pretty well known from numerous prior examinations from 1535 to
1667.
But things moved slow in those grand old days of rich galleons, silver adobes,
bags of pearls, and piles of gold doubloons, pieces of eight, and pistareens; the
government of the hidalgos was as slothful and timid as it was high-toned and
dignified, a line of action very acceptable to the enterprising traffickers of England and Holland, Portugal about this time collapsing into a state of effeminate
apathy. It was accordingly not until 1683, six years after the order had been
issued, that Admiral Antillon was enabled to complete his plans and put them
in execution, the royal strong box at Mexico bearing the charges and outlays:
this great depository seems to have been continually suffering from a distressing
vacuity since the year 1600.
On the 18th May, 1683, the admiral, with two vessels and 100 men, left
the port of Chacala, a few leagues below the present San Blas, and being well
provided with stores and material for the proper effectment of the object indicated in the royal warrants. With Otondo went Father Kino as superior of
the religious mission, having with him the Fathers Juan Copart and Pedro
Goni, and meeting with good weather, the vessels landed at the bay of La Paz
on the 2d of June. After some unimportant troubles with the Indians had
been quieted by the address of the Jesuits and the prudence of the admiral,
this officer with Kino and a force of 25 armed men made an exploration of the
mountains to the west, and another party under Father Goni to the south and
east, both of which effected but little; Kino's party had penetrated into the
territories of the Guaycuros, and Goni's into that of the Coras. On the 6th
of June the Guaycuros or Wicuros attacked the camp, and from the scandalous cowardice of the admiral's men the colony was in danger of coming to a
speedy end, had it not been for the boldness of Otondo and the management
of the Jesuits, the old professor of geography remarking that the admiral now
well understood that his California colonists did not include "many of those
brave men who had subjugated America."
I
29
i
i
I
I
I
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT MD
The Spaniards having conquered a peace by the cunning and boldness of
the chief leaders, his expected supplies from the River Yaqui not reaching him,
the provisions giving out, and discouraged by the inefficiency and poltroonery of
his men, who were in terror from attacks of the Indians, the admiral was forced
to embark from La Paz on the 14th July, and arrived, after an absence of three
months, at the mouth of the Yaqui, experiencing much detention in seeking for
the vessel which contained his expected assistance.
Not discouraged at his first discomfiture, the brave old admiral sold a portion
of his effects, and even pledged the family plate and furniture in the purchase of
stores, and sailed again for California, and on the 6th October came to anchor
in a large bay which he called San Bruno, which, he says, is in 26~ 30', and
seems to be the same as the bay of Loretto. Father Kino and the othler two
Jesuits were still with him, and immediately commenced the study of the Indian language, in which Copart soon became the most skilful, and compiled a
catechism and vocabulary, which was of great use in the subsequent settlement
of the country, as the want of this knowledge had cost many lives and much
money and time in former enterprises. In December, obtaining new supplies of
money and provisions, by order of the viceroy, he took possession of the country in
the king's name, and immediately fitted out an expedition in person, accompanied
by the three Jesuit fathers, and travelled for several days north and west for
the distance of fifty leagues, endeavoring to reach the Pacific coast. In this
they were nearly successful, having reached a large plain on the top of the
mountains, where were many Indians encamped, who told them that within a
short distance was a small river which run into the western sea; but from fatigue
and bad travelling the party were obliged to turn back to San Bruno.
Nearly twelve months had now passed; the fathers had made good progress
in the language and baptized quite a number of the Indians; the soldiers and
colonists began to grumble, and the old admiral began to think he had "struck
a bad lead," and got into an inferior district of the country where very few
good pearls were found or benefits to gain, and determined, after holding a
council of his subalterns, to return to Sinaloa again, where he soon after arrived
and advised the viceroy of the result of his proceedings. Having soon furnished
his ships with supplies, he left Sinaloa again to see if he could not recover some
of his losses, went on a search for pearl-oyster beds, and reached the harbor San Ignacio, some  distance above San Bruno  Bay.   At  San Ignacio
he received advices from  the viceroy to discontinue  all his other  objects
except retaining the establishment commenced at San Bruno, to which he
soon returned, and, finding his provisions growing short, was obliged finally to
drop the whole enterprise in great mortification, and sail for the continent,
where he arrived at the port of Matanchel, which lies between San Blas and
Chacala. Advising the Government of his return, he was ordered to convoy
the Manilla galleon, then daily expected for Acapulco, and which fortunately a
few days afterward he met with and delivered out of the traps of some Dutch
filibusters who were waiting for her near the port of Natividad.  On his reporting to the Royal Audiencia, it was concluded that, as the admiral's enterprise had lasted three years, and cost the royal revenues 225,000 crowns of
money, California was not to be settled by such means, and its reduction
to civilization and the Spanish crown should be offered to the Society of Jesus,
with the assistance of an annual appropriation from the king's treasury, which
offer the superior of the Mexican Jesuits respectfully but firmly then declined.
The same political and religious motives operating in Spain and Mexico for
the acquisition of the long-sought possession of California, many plans were proposed without effect, until the king sent orders to expedite a new enterprise.
After a careful estimate by Otondo and his friend Kino in 1686, with the countenance of the treasurer of the Royal Audiencia, it was found that not less than
an annual subsidy of 30,000 crowns was necessary, on the most frugal bases,
30 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
to effect the desires of the king and the nation. This estimatebeing approved by
his majesty's officers, orders were sent to Mexico to advance the money to the
admiral to make a third attempt at colonization. But, as the old chronicler
hath it, "in the very week that the admiral was to receive his moneys, letters
came from Spain to send the king 500,000 crowns of money," and California
went down to zero again. In 1694 Captain Francis Itamarra obtained a license
from the Government to make a voyage at his own expense, which was granted;
but Itamarra arriving at San Bruno Bay, and finding but few pearls, and the
Indians telling him they were more desirous to receive the missionaries promised by Otondo, the party returned to Mexico, and nothing wvas again
done for California till the entrance in 1697 of Salvatierra for its systematic reduction under the Jesuit missionaries. After Otondo's affair, nothing else was
done publicly at the propulsion either by the king or by the viceroy, the royal
treasury having suffered to the tune of several millions of dollars in the gainless
expeditions, from Viscaino's in 1602 to Otondo's in 1685.
CHAPTER VI.
THE EXPLORATIONS AND ACCOUNTS OF THE COAST LINES FROM 1700 TO 1770                        VOYAGES OF THE JESUITS.
DEFERRING the account of the colonizing and settlement of the mission districts after 1685, we shall follow in their sequence the remaining relations of the
Jesuits and others of the explorations of the coast-lines of the gulf and of the
ocean.
The Padre Juan Ugarte, having built a small vessel at Loretto, of native
timber, brought with incredible labor from the mountains, and which he named
the Triumph of the Cross, by directions of his superiors in Mexico, prepared to
take a survey of the northern gulf coasts. This vessel appears to have been a
schooner of about 100 tons, and had a large boat to take soundings and enter
shallow places, and was the first shipping craft built in the Californias. On
board went as pilot one William Stratfort, who seems to have been the first of
English name connected with the Spanish settlement of California. He is described as a seaman of learning and experience, and Venegas states that he made
many charts of the coast while on this voyage, which could  not afterward
be found, neither could the journals of Ugarte when they were searched for in
Spain about 1735, to the great disappointment of the king. On the 15th May,
1721, the vessel, containing six European sailors and 14 Indians, and the boat
with eight others, left Loretto and arrived at Moleje (or Concepcion) Bay, and
from thence stretched across the gulf to the coast of Pimaria, after touching
at the Sal Si Puedes Islands. Hiere they examined day by day the upper coasts
of Sonora, landing at favorable places to communicate with the missions in the
interior to the eastward, until they arrived within sight of the Colorado. Landing in these vicinities, Ugarte in a clear afternoon obtained from an elevated
position a distinct and undoubted view of the connection of the northern mountains and shores of California with the coasts of Pimaria, or what is now called
the Gadsden Purchase of the present Territory of Arizona, and between 1800 and
1853 known as North Sonora, or Alta Pimaria, from the Pima Indians. After
much suffering from sickness, bad provisions, scurvy, and the tempestuous
state of the weather, with the vessel and long-boat much damaged, and in continual peril from the fearful currents and rapids between the islands of Sal Si
Puedes, Tiburon, and Angel Guardian, and at one time in great danger from a
terrific waterspout, the expedition returned to Loretto on the 15th September,
after an absence of 123 days. On the California coasts, above the bay of
Moleje, they found many good landing-places, with sweet water; while on the
Sonora coast, above the mouth of the Caborca, only three or four springs were
31 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
met with, and the shores were very sandy or of volcanic rocks, good land or water
in plenty being only found at a distance of many leagues in the interior. At any
rate, they gained valuable knowledge of the gulf navigation, and the party, communicating with friendly gentile Indians and the affiliating Jesuit missions in
Upper Pimaria, received such necessary succors and assistance firom them as
not only enabled Ugarte's party to recover their health and spirits, but actually
saved the lives of many of the expedition.
Ugarte notices the terrific velocity of the bores of the Colorado, formed by the
junction ofthe floods of the river with the incoming tides ofthe gulf, and vice versa,
which shift about and change every six hours, rising to the height perpendicular of
from three to seven fathoms, and overwhelming the land and every thing within
its influence for hundreds of miles. This now well-known phenomenon had also
been noticed by Ulloa in 1537, and by Alarcon in 1540, and after Ugarte's
time by Father Consag in 1746, as well as by Fathers Kino and Salvatierra
between 1695 and 1706.
Ugarte also notices the brick-colored and corrosive waters of certain parts
of the gulf-head, which raise blisters and ulcers on the skin similar to the
effects of scurvy, which is produced most likely by an excess of the iodides,
bromides, and sulphurets of minerals, derived, doubtless, from the abundance
of volcanic material so common in these portions of the gulf. This curious
phenomenon was more carefully noted by Consag, in his voyage in 1746; it is
also mentioned bv recent American voyagers to the Colorado River from
1850-1866, and deserves further investigation by men of science. It was also
noticed that certain docile California Indians of the shores above the Sal Si
Puedes manufactured a very handsome quality of earthen pots, a fact of considerable importance in their social economy, found in no other part of
the peninsula, and further mentioned afterward by Father Consag. The extreme tenacity and viscidity of the anchoring-ground near the river's mouth was
also observed, and gave them great trouble in lifting anchor.
After his return to Loretto, Father Ugarte, with the pilot Stratfort, made
another voyage in November along the California shores, as high up as beyond
28~, or say the entrance of the Canal de Ballenas, meeting with three good harbors and several fine watering-places.   The  sailing directions and charts of
Stratfort and the journal of the two voyages by Ugarte were afterward sent to
the viceroy, together with the account of Padre Clemente  Guillen, across the
peninsula from Loretto to Magdalena Bay in 1719. In this last Guillen had
entered that great bay from the land side, found three good harbors therein, and
named the present Santa Margarita Island, Santa Rosa; his short descriptions
agTee with those of Cabrillo and Viscaino, and the recent ones by Belcher in
1837.  As we noted before, none of these maps, pilot directions, or journals,
could be found in the archives of Spain when Burriel edited the work of Venegas in 1754, so that the names and titles of his stopping-places have nearly all
been lost, except the few saved by tradition.
In the year 1730, Father Sigismund Taraval, a native of Lodi in the duchy
of Milan, and son of a lieutenant-general in the Spanish armies, and a man of
distinguished learning and merit, came to California as a missionary, and was
sent on an expedition in the same year, from Loretto overland, to make explorations on the Pacific coast. He appears to have got as far north as the great
bay formed by Cedros and Natividad Islands, and usually accepted now as Viscaino's Bay, as he mentions the vicinities as contiguous to the mission now known
as San Ignacio, and that two islands, called by the Indians Afegua, or Bird
Island, and Amalgua, or Fog Island, lay only a few leagues from the coast,
with two smaller islands farther westward. These descriptions answer to Viscaino's Bay, and the dimensions and character of the island of Cedros, etc.,
mentioned by Taraval, answer to these and to the bay, and no other, within the
times and distance of his departures. The account in Venegas is very confused
32 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
and ambiguous, and it is stated that they saw other large islands, which were
thought to be Santa Catalina and San Clemente, mentioned in Viscaino's voyage
above San Diego, as they travelled considerably farther north, and state that
these last islands could be reached in three days' continuous sailing. Taraval
called the great bay San Xavier, and the islands, in a mass, the Islands of Dolores.   Prodigious flights of birds inhabited these islands, particularly the
smaller one, with crowds of seals and other marine animals. Among the birds
were some a little bigger than sparrows, which are of jet black, living all day at
sea and returning at night to their nests, made in burrows in the ground, like
those of rabbits, and four feet deep.  Another bird was of the size of a goose,
with black wings and white breast, and a hawk-like beak, also living in burrows in the earth, four or five yards deep. The larger island abounds with a peculiar and small species of long-haired deer, and a curious species of rabbit of jetblack color, with fur softer than that of a beaver. It is to be observed here,
that the maps in the English edition of Venegas, though much better engraved,
are not as many, nor as well punctuated, as those of the original Madrid edition;
Taraval's coast positions not being notated in the English map at all.
The next expedition of marine surveys undertaken by the Jesuits was that
of 1746, by Father Fernando Consag, of the missions of Dolores del Norte and
San Ignacio. This indefatigable priest was a native of Austria, and camne to
California from Mexico in 1732; he died while superior of the missions, in 1759,
at the age of 56. Having left Loretto in four open boats, the party arrived in
a short time at the anchorage of Sani Carlos, in latitude 28~, from whence they
departed for the head of the gulf on the 9th June, 1746, to examine in detail
the shores, ports, harbors, bays, islands, etc. As many of the positions and
places mentioned by Consag still retain their names on most of the charts and
maps of the present time, but nevertheless are yet unfamiliar to seamen, and
their localities little known even in the peninsula to this day with exactitude,
and some not at all, we shall make merely cursory mention of them, for they
are all yet to be hydrographically examined and located in all this dangerous
navigation. The first place he reached was three leagules from San Carlos,
called Santa Ana watering-place, which makes a harbor, the lofty capes of
which are San Gabriel and Las Virgenes; farther up was the bay of Trinidad,
where there is a pearl-fishery, dangerous from reefs and islets; at the extremity
was a bay named San Bernarbe, with a low island near by aboounding in seawolves. Farther on is the Cape of San Juanl Bautista, with a dangerous rocky
coast; the land is low, of hard clay soil and red appearance. A day's sail beyond
is the bay of San Miguel; the anchorage is tolerable and plenty of sweet water is
near by. Close to this is the island Tortoguilla, sometimes called Cerro Blanco, the
shore of which is troubled with dangerous currents, surfs, reefs, and rocks. Opposite Cape San Gabriel commences the island of Sal Si Puedes, and a few
leagues firom the cape is the bay of San Rafael, into which empties a small stream,
called Kadacaman; ill the shores are many caves and boiling springs, some of
which springs are covered by the high tide; the water of the bay is tinged in
patches of red and blue colors. A large pond of good water was found in one
part of the bay, and the Indians were docile and hospitable, but were enemies
of the Yaquis of Sonora, begotten of fights and murders growing out of pearl fishing. A day's sail above San Rafael brought them to San Antonio Bay,
in sight of a dark mountain, having two small rivulets in the vicinity, and a
fine fertile country is seen. The next day a bay is reached, called Purgatory
Bay, with several rivulets and much good country, and many hospitable Indians
there found, to whom the father preached the Gospel; in the morning the boats
were found aground, with only a fathom of water. A day's sail farther brings
you to Cape Las Animas, a few miles to the north of which is the bay of Los
Angeles, where a very troublesome and numerous tribe of Indians lived, and
great enemies of the pearl-divers; their young females went entirely naked. A
33 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
day's sail above Los Angeles is the bay of Our Lady of Remedios, containing
a pearl-fishery, in front of which is the island of Angel de la Guarda, which is
very rugged and mountainous. The channel between the island and the coast
was found so full of whales, that it was called then, and is still known to this
day as, the Canal de las Ballenas.
In these waters the party found valuable pearl-oyster beds, those near the
shore being the best. On the mainland near bv is a considerable rivulet; the
anchorages in all these vicinities were found full of dangerous rocks above and
below water. A short distance off is the watering-place of San Juan and San
Pablo, near which is a red-colored hill. A day's sail above is a bay shaped like
the letter G, full of rocks, called the bay of San Pedro and San Pablo, the
watering-places of which are not very good. A short sail above this bay is an other very large and commodious one, capable of holding any number of ves sels, called the bay of San Luis Gonzaga, in the vicinity of which was afterward
founded the mission of San Francisco Borja; in this bay were found great nutm bers of a variety of shells resembling the white pearl-oyster; also several rivulets
of brackish water enter the bay, filled with fish; and the Indians were very
numerous. The party dug wells on the shore, but the water was found bad,
but at the upper end of the bay is a good watering-place, called San Estanislao.
In San Luis Gonzaga Bay were found pearl-oysters and palm-trees; it was in
this vicinity the Indians made the earthen jars mentioned by Ugarte 20 years
before; a dog was also found among them and mentioned as a special curiosity,
and their women went entirelvy naked. A short distance above Gonzaga Bay
opens another bay, called La Visitacion, which seems to be of little account.
Above Visitacion Bay is that of San Fermin, which is the limit of habitation
of the pearl-oyster, and a day's sail above is the bay of San Felipe de Jesus,
and in another day's sail is that of San Buenaventura, after which are no more
harbors, but all sand-flats and marshes.
At San Felipe, which is due east from the mission of Rosario on the Pacific,
the water is very thick, of disagreeable odor and taste, and affects those who
drink it with a siclmiess similar to scurvy; the rivulet which affords it is on the
north side, and the shores of the bay are mostly sandy, and the anchorages
excellent at high tides, and in front of the bay is a high rocky islet or farallon.
In these vicinities were seen great numbers of wild sheep and wild goats, and in
the early mornings and evenings the land on the Sonora coast could be distinctly seen. About 40 miles above San Felipe some red-colored marshes are
reached, not far from the mouth of the Colorado, near to which is a bow-shaped
creek, formed by an island, where the water differs from that of the sea and is
caustic, and causes such malignant sores and boils as to last for many days, taking off the very skin like a blister, as was mentioned in Ugarte's voyage 20 years
before.  At the inferior bay of San Buenaventura no good water was found.
The party ascended the river, but meeting with the dangerous bores, did not
get up as high as the junction of the Gila. Indeed, their canoes do not appear
to have reached 20 miles from the mouth of the Colorado, when they returned
to the gulf on the 25th July, and after meeting with many dangers from currents, rapids, and.storms, finally reached Loretto about the 10th of August,
1746, after an absence of 60 days. Father Consag says, the reason why he
mentions no latitudes in his journal is, that they are all set down exactly in his
chart transmitted to the vicerov and published in Venegas's work, but the instruments of 1746 gave latitudes from 30-to 60 miles out of the way. It is the
chart which is the basis of all other charts and maps of the gulf shores of California down to the year 1866, and, of course, is full of dangerous errors.
Proceeding down the gulf on the Sonora side, nearly all that is known in
navigation and chartography is obtained from the explorations by land of
Fathers Kino and Salvatierra between 1697 and 1706. In these journeys Kino
ascertained the junction of the Colorado and the Gila, and from the elevations of
34 
EXPLORATIOX OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
the "Castle-dome" shaped mountains east of the present Fort Yuma, in the
afternoons and morningos obtained distinct views of the immense levels and flats,
on every side bounded by the scattered mountain-ridges of Sonora, and the
connected sierras of the peninsula, and proved the indisputable junction of the
continent with the peninsula, with long vistas to the south of the waters of the
gulf which laved the shores on the east and on the west of the Vermilion Sea of
California. The lands for a long distance below the mouth of the river consist
of meganos or arenales (in English, desert sands and hillocks of sand-powder);
on the Sonora side they extend to below the mouth of the Caborca or Asuncion rivulet, or for some 200 miles a howling wilderness where nothing useful
grows, which is bare of animal life, and where verdure is rarely met with. Just
below the mouth of the Caborca is Kino's bay of San Juan Bautista under latitude 30~, known since 1860 as Puerto Libertad. No other port of particular
consequence is met with till the fine harbor of Guaymas is reached, which is
one of the best on the Pacific coast; the intervening ports between Libertad and
Guaymas are unknown in hydrography, and the cultivatable and thinly-settled
country is many leagues in the interior. The most important facts in navigation and history connected with the Sonora coast are all from the Jesuit authorities ante 1760, and even these only give a general idea, and are full of material
faults dangerous to the storm-bewildered mariner, or the famished and thirstexhausted traveller.
The final attempt at the exploration of the gulf coasts of the peninsula under
the Jesuits was that of Padre Winceslao Link, a native of Bohemia, who had
recently founded the Mission of San Francisco Borja (pronounced Borcas),
which is situated in about 28~ 30', midway on the parallel of the port of Los
Angeles, on the gulf, and the northern extremity of the bay of Viscaino, on the
Pacific. Link, who had only then been a few years in California, instructed a
number of his Indians in the management of boats, for the purpose of fishing
and exploring the coasts of his mission district contiguous to the gulf, and by
the aid of whom in 1765 he made partial exploration of the great island of the
Angel de la Guarda from Los Angeles port.  He travelled over the greater part
of the island on foot, in which hlie met with several pleasant-looking valleys, but
finding no water, animals, nor inhabitants, concluded it useless to prolong his
investigations, and returned to his port of departure a few days afterward.   He
mentions that the island is about 51 miles in length, and only some six miles in
breadth; Americans who have touched at this island and others in the vicinity,
on their way to the Colorado since 1850, affirm that there are valuable fisheries
there, and the lands are full of copper, silver, and lead minerals, and in some
seasons immense numbers of a small and peculiar species of whales.
Two years after this expedition of Link, in the year 1767, the missionaries
of the Society of Jesus were expelled fromn the establishments they had founded
in California; and from that time to 1867, or the space of 100 years, the history
of the peninsula is vacant of transactions connected with their order.
CHAPTER VII.
ENGLISH AND FRENCH NOTICES OF LOWER CALIFORNIA FROM 1700-1772-WILLIAM DAMPIER AND ROBINSON CRUSOE MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE IN CALIFORNIA.
I)AY by day the power of Spain was weakening, and, in reverse, the other
states of Europe were strengthening. The French, by some astute arrangements
growing out of the celebrated family compact between the crowns of Spain and
France, had carried on, for a considerable period ante 1720, a very lucrative
traffic in armed merchantmen with the western coasts of South America; some
of these vessels carried 40 guns and 300 men, and more than one voyage was
effected by them between China and Peru: indeed, it is stated that as many as
I
I
I
i
35
I
i
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
20 of these French vessels traded to the west coasts in a single year. The suecess of these enterprises gaining as is said to French commerce in a few years
100 millions of dollars, greatly pricked the envy of the English, whose vessels
began now to furl their sails in every maritime market in the world.
Ill the European wars in the reign of Queen Anne of England, when Britain
and Spain were involved in conflict, a company of adventurers was organized in
the city of Bristol, in the year 1707, to carry the war into the South Seas, and
make reprisals on the west coast of Amnerica, where France was yearly squeezing
so much good money out of the supineness and ignorance of the Spanish colonists. Two ships were fitted out for this expedition as privateersmen, which
were placed by the company under the command of Captain Woodes Rogers,
whose name became so familiar afterward in English literature in connection
with the names of Dampier, Selkirk, De Foe, and Robinson Crusoe, and the
taking of a rich Manilla galleon near the capes of California. Having secured
a regular commission from Prince George of Denmark, the Lord High Admiral
of England, and husband of Queen Anne, the frigate Duke, of 320 tons, 30
guns, and 117 men, and the frigate Duchess, of 260 tons, 26 guns, and 108 men,
left Bristol for Cork in August, 1708, and arrived at the latter place in a few
days, from whence she departed for the South Seas on the first day of September. The Duke was commanded by Rogers, under whom went, as chief
pilot, the celebrated navigator William Dampier, who had previously been on
the west coasts as high up as Acapulco, and had made two or three voyages
round the world. The Duchess was commanded by Captain Stephen Courtney. In February, 1709, they arrived at the island of Juan Fernandez, to
recruit after their toilsome travels around "The Horn," and on this hidden
hermitage of the western seas found a solitary man whose name in a few years
became world-known as that of Alexander Selkirk, or better as Robinson
Crusoe, whose adventures, under the manipulating genius of Daniel De Foe, have
exercised such a wondrous influence on modern travel and adventure, and
peopled with phantasms the island-world of the Pacific. Rogers made Selkirk
second mate of his own ship, the Duke, and he is frequently in the narrative
mentioned among the names of his officers until his arrival in England; Selkirk
had been left on the island four years before, in 1703, bv Captain Stradling, of
the ship Cinque Ports.  After many adventures on the coasts of Peru, Chili,
and Mexico, where they sacked several towns and captured a number of valuable prizes, obtaining thereby immense amounts of treasures, the expedition
arrived off Cape San Lucas on the 1st of November, 1709, determined if possible to capture the Manilla galleon then on her way to Acapulco.
This feat was the sine qua non of their adventure, and not getting sight of
her after much buffeting about the neighborhood, they came to anchor at the
Porto Seguro of Cavendish (the present bay of San Bernab6), a short distance
northeast of Cape San Lucas, on the 19th of November.  After refitting his vessels, Rogers put to sea again, and getting sight of the galleon, captured her on
the 23d December, the vessel making a gallant resistance against the English
ships.  Her name was the Nuestra Seniora de la Encarnacion de Singano, of some
600 tons, 20 big guns, 20 small ones called patereroes, and 193 men, and was
commanded by a chevalier of France, Sir John Pichberty; the galleon and her
cargo are valued in some of the accounts of this voyage at over one million of
dollars, by others two millions. The prisoners in the prize reported they had
lost sight of a consort named the Bigonia three months before, and that she
was of 900 tons, with 60 big guns and many patereroes, and carried 450 men
besides many passengers, and had a cargo of great value. On receiving this
news Rogers and his men were in a delirium of filibuster delights, and immediately put to sea to waylay the Bigonia, which bore the admiral's flag from
Manilla, and came up with her a few days afterward, but was badly repulsed by
the Spaniard, who made his escape and got in safe to anchor at Acapulco. On
36 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
this discouraging result, the English vessels hauled off with the loss of several
men, Rogers himself being severely wounded, and put back to the California
port to repair and refit. Here the prisoners were ransomed by a draft for
$6,000 on London, and put aboard a smaller craft, in which they shortly afterward reached the Mexican coasts.
The galleon Singano, whose title was changed to that of the Bachelor, was
repaired, and put under the charge of Captain Thomas Dover, with Alexander
Selkirk as sailing-master, and all the vessels left the Porto Seguro of California
for the island of Guam on the 11th January, 1710. This Dover was the surgeon of Rogers's vessel, and it is said he was the original inventor of the famous
Dover's Powder of the apothecary, which holds its well-earned honors to this
day.
The descriptions which Rogers gives of this portion of California agree in
every particular with those left us in the Jesuit missionary histories. The
Indians were very numerous, friendly, and docile, and greatlv assisted the party
in procuring wood, water, fish, and other necessaries; and having been feasted
for days on the sweetmeats of Peru, Mexico, and Manilla, taken in the Englishmen's captures, became so attached to the strangers as to stop aboard the vessels till they got under way, when they jumped overboard and swam to land.
These simple people were often ornamented with necklaces of pearls, and such
was their skill in diving that on throwing overboard knives and such-like gifts
they would dive down and catch the articles before they had time to sink to the
bottom. In no part of the account of his stay in California did he meet with
the Jesuit missionaries then engaged in colonizing the country.
On board the prizes taken by Rogers's expedition was found a valuable derrotero, or coast pilot of the west coasts of America from Acapulco to the southern
islands of Chili, which is accompanied with charts, and occupies 56 pages of his
journal; his own chart of the voyage puts down California as an island, as does
also that of Shelvock a few years afterward, and Anson in 1740; yet Rogers says
he chooses to believe it is not an island, but joined to the continent.
In all these nautical matters, the genius and knowledge of that great navigator, William Dampier, is apparent, and all of them may be said to hold generally good to this 1867.
The expedition reached the island of Guam, on the 11th March, having
greatly suffered on the passage from bad provisions, and obtaining needful supplies, left for the Moluccas, arrriving at Batavia on the 30th June, and from thence
at the Cape of Good IHope, on the 29th December, 1710. In company with
several Dutch vessels, they shortly after quitted the Cape on their voyage, and
anchored at the Texel on the 23d June, 1711, and, after many delays there, finally reached England on the 14th of October, after an absence of more than three
years. The different prizes and sackings made by the English vessels are said,
in some of the accounts, to have aggregated to several millions of dollars, and exercised a most important influence in stimulating, subsequently, the attention of
seamen and merchants to the value of the Pacific trade and countries.
A few years after, several persons, who had been with Rogers, induced an
English association to fit out another expedition, under Captain George Shelvock,
an officer in the English navy. The vessels consisted of the Success, of 36 guns
and 108 men, under Captain John Clipperton, and the Speedwell, of 24 guns and
106 men, under Shelvock. The company first procured a commission for this
latter officer from the Emperor Charles VI. of Germany, then at war with Spain,
and giving Flemish names to the vessels, which were shortly afterward changed ~
back, as war between England and Spain followed in 1719, a few months
afterward, and new commissions procured, as English adventurers, from the
Government of George I. The ships departed from Plymouth, in February
1719, and there being much bad feeling between the two commanders, the ves
sels separated, and did not come together again until they met near Panama, in
37 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
1721: to both the commanders very poor characters are ascribed, which subsequent events seemed amply to justify, after their return to England. The Speedwell made her way to the coasts of Chili and Peru, and afterward to Juan  Fernandez, where she was wrecked in 1720. Here a craft of 20 tons, called the
Recovery, was built from the remains of the Speedwell, with which Shelvock
made his way back to the coast of Peru, where he captured a small ship, called
the Jesus Maria. With this hlie made many reprisals, and proceeded to the
coasts of Mexico, where, near Sonsonate, he captured, in March, 1721, another
ship, called the Sacra Famnilia, of 300 tons, 6 guns, and 70 men, and made further captures and reprisals, and, shortly after, met Clipperton again near Acapulco, from whom he soon separated, after the usual quarrels, never to come together afterward. Having got rid of his prizes and prisoners, and being warned
by the governor of Sonsonate that the war was at an end, Shelvock sailed with
the Sacra Famnilia to California, and anchored at the Porto Seguro, of Woodes
Rogers, on the 13th August, 1721, determined to hunt up the  annual galleon
from Manilla, and capture her, if possible, as he had no means to verify if Spain
and England were at peace or iiot: in fact, he "took the chances " to be treated
as a pirate.
This great object of their enterprise not appearing immediately-the name of
which they had learned was the Santo Christo, of 40 guns-and his crew and
ship being in a state of disorder, and unfitted to meet an enemy or bad weather,
on the 18th of August Shelvock made sail from California for the island of Guam,
where he arrived in bad plight on the 1st of October.  After a short detention
here, he quitted Guam and arrived at Macao on the 11th November, and "getting into a row" with the mandarins, who "squeezed" him to the tune of
several thousands, sold his vessel, divided some 200,000 dollars amongst his crew,
retaining a small amount for his owners-certain "gentlemen adventurers,"
whose backers seem to have been such high wigs as the Earl of Berkeley and
the Lords of the Admiralty-and finally took passage in the Cadogan, East Indiaman, and arrived in England on the 30th July, 1722, after an absence of fortythree months.  Shelvock, some time afterward, was arraigned before the English
courts as a pirate and swindler, and his owners were much incensed with him,
as, from his want of judgment, management, and prudence, and the lack of those
qualities in Clipperton, the whole affair turned out a ruinous speculation. His
work, and that of Betagh, who was in the Success with Clipperton, contains many
curious and interesting matters relating to the navigation, trade, and countries
of the American Pacific coasts, which subsequent explorations materially verify,
but they are not to be compared in value to those of Dampier and Rogers. His
description of the Indians and country around Cape San Lucas occupies 25
pages. The Indians treated him as well as they did Rogers, as he fed them on
sweetmeats as the latter had done, but he does not speak of the Jesuit settlements then going on farther north, and nothing in knowledge was further gained
than was shown by his predecessor.
Oii his passage from Cape San Lucas, at the distance of some 110 leagues
from it to the west-southwest, in about latitude 21~, Shelvock discovered a rocky
island of seven or eight leagues' circumference, which was named after him by
his men. This island is represented on many maps and charts to this day as
Shelvock's Island, but Burney and other geographers say it is the same as the
Rocas Partidas of Villalobos, described by that navigator before 1543; but to
this day the question is not properly settled, many subsequent navigators confounding it with the Islas NVubladas, farther east, or with the Islas Los Altijos,
several hundred miles west of Magdalena Bay. In the chart of Shelvock's voyage,
he sets down California as an island.
In the year 1708 the French ship Saint Antoine, under Captain Frondac,
made a voyage, between May and July, from China to the west coast, and having steered north as high as 45~, he met the usual westerly winds, which brought
38 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
him to the north California coasts, from whence he dropped down to a good port
in Lower California in 31~, where he so greatly refreshed his crew as to lose but
few of his men by scurvy and bad provisions, and proved the want of good management in the Manilla galleons.  This port, it would seem, must have been in
the vicinities to the north of Cedros Island. Frondac's venture was sold by him
in Peru and Chili at great profit, but the remnants, as contraband cargo from
China, permitted to be landed only at Acapulco, was seized at Concepcion
in Chili, and the Frenchman put in prison, from which he was only released by
the Spanish comandante, after being "squeezed" in the snug sulm of $14,000.
In the summer of 1697 an Italian traveller, Giovani Francisco Gemnelli Carreri, celebrated in geography and Mexican history, under the name of Gemelli,
made a voyage in the galleon from Manilla to Acapulco, which is described in
his six years' journey round the world, published in Italy about 1720, and afterward in several English and French collections. Gemelli relates a sad description of the ravages of the scurvy among the crew of his ship, and, from his statement, it appears to have been wholly owing to ignorance and filth. He gives
some immaterial account of the voyaoe in sight of the California coasts to Cape
San Lucas, and mentions, among other things, the immense quantities of seaweed they fell in with in the vicinity of the shores. In the latter part of 1697
he arrived at Acapulco, and afterward travelled many months in the interior of
Mexico, and collected accounts and pictures of the Aztec hieroglyphics and traditions, which are considered of superior value to this day, and often mentioned
by Humboldt, Prescott, and other eminent writers in American history.
NOTICES OF THE COASTS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA FROM 1725-1800-SPANISH
PILOT-BOOK FROM MANILLA TO ACAPULCO ANTE 1740-THE ADMIRAL OF THE
GALLEONS-VOYAGES OF ANSON, MALASPINA, AND OTHERS.
In a scarce old nautical work, published in Spanish at Manilla in 1734, by
Admiral Cabrero Bueno, an excellent derrotero, or coast pilot-guide for the
ocean parts of Lower California, is given between San Diego and Cape San
Lucas, the knowledge of which appears to have been acquired in the course of
many years' sailing along the coasts in the service of the galleons for Acapulco.
This work seems to be almost entirely unknown to English, French, or American hydrographists, as far as we are aware, except by Admiral Burney in his
work on Pacific voyages of 1816.  The meagre remarks of Burney indicate that
he was not personally acquainted with the valuable contents of the volume pertaining to the Californias, nor can we find it in Navarette's historical sketch of
Spanish northwest voyages of 1802, though it is merely alluded to in Paulou's
life of Junipero Serra.  The work of the Manilla admiral is the best punctuated
and most carefully-detailed of any work in history or hydrography which has
come under our notice on the Lower California coasts; and, though evidently
using Viscaino's materials of 1602, makes numerous and excellent additions to
them of at highly practical nature. The bay of Todos Santos, below the Coronados, is put down in 32~ largo, or a little over; San Marcos in 32~ escasos,
or short, with the bay of San Quintin near by; the bay of Virgins in 312~;
San Ger6nimo Island in 312~; next to this is the island of Cenizas, then the
mesas or table-lands of Juan Gomez, then the bay of San Francisco, then Cape
San Augustin, after which are found Natividad and Isle Cerros, then San Bartolom6 port, then Los Abreojos, then Asuncion Island, after which are found
the island of San Roque and the bay of Ballenas. The next locality of importance
mentioned is the bay of Magdalena, under 25~, the description of which agrees,
as far as it goes, with our present accounts. A bay farther in the southern parts
of Magdalena is called the bay of Santa Marina in 2410, evidently near the
island Santa Margarita; farther to the south is the Sierra Enfado, under 23~~,
after which you shortly arrive at the extremity of the peninsula known as Cape
39
i
i
i
I
I
i
i
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
Sail Lucas, near to which, to the northeast, is the bay of San Bernab6.  Many
other anchorages and localities are mentioned with much particularity, but not
by name as above noted; the titles of the points given are in the words of
Cabrera Bueno. We know of no recent work which is as reliable as a coast
pilot of the ocean coasts of Lower California as that of the Manilla navigator,
and it would answer to make a voyage by to this day. Hie places the island of
Guadalupe in 29~ lat. and 104~ 30' long., and Cape San Lucas in 22~ 52' lat.
and 113~ 13' long., both west of Teneriffe according to the old Spanish custom.
The island of Guadalupe was long disputed as a myth, but its definite locality
was only finally established in geography in 1837 by Admiral Du Petit Thouars
at 27~ 7' 251' of lat., and in 130~ 42' 45' long. west of Paris. The French
navigator in the same year also fixed the position of the rocky islets called Los
Alijos, discovered by the Manilla captain, Marquina, in 1791, some 150 miles
west of Magdalena Bay, in lat. 24~ 57' 30", and long. 118~ 5' 50" west of Paris.
It will be seen from these differences that Cabrera Bueno's instruments were extremely defective, but that was a quality all nautical observations partook of
before the year 1800.
In sequence of authorities ought not to be omitted the celebrated voyage
round the world of Lord Anson in the frigate Centurion, which left England in
1740, and returned from China in June, 1744. This expedition formed a squadron, and consisted of the Centurion, of 60 guns and 400 men; the Gloucester,
of 50 guns and 300 men; the Severn, of 50 guns and 300 men; the Pearl, of
40 guns and 250 men; the Wager, of 28 guns and 160 men; the Tryal, of 8
guns and 100 men; and two victualling-vessels.  Besides, there were on board
470 soldiers, or marines, of a land force, under Colonel Cracherode. The design
was to annoy the towns and commerce of Spanish America on the west coast,
and especially to look out for and capture the Manilla galleon.  After doing
much damage below Panama, and getting several prizes, and losing or retiring
of several of his squadron, and losing large numbers of his men by scurvy, the
Centurion and Gloucester, with three small vessels captured as prizes, arrived
off Acapulco in the spring of 1742. After anxious seeking for this great prize
without result, and without touching on any part of the coasts of California, of
which considerable is mentioned, in May, 1742, Anson burnt his prizes, and
with the Gloucester sailed from his cruising-ground, and, stretching off on the galleons' route, refitted at the island of Tinian, near Guam, and from thence sailed
to Macao, from which place he returned in the Centurion to the Manilla vicinities to look for the galleon. In the middle of June the Centurion came up with
the Cabadonga galleon, of 36 guns and 550 men, under Captain Geronimo Montero, and, after a desperate action, Anson captured her with nearly a million and
one-third dollars in silver, which, with the galleon and former captures below
Panama, were valued at 5,000,000 dollars. The Gloucester had been scuttled
and burnt at sea before arriving at Tinian, her crew joining the Centurion.
After the capture of the Cabadonga, he sailed for Canton, and from thence to
England, where he arrived in the midst of "the old French War."   For this
"streak of luck" Anson was given a patent of nobility, which his heirs enjoy
to this day. In his capture of the galleon he obtained valuable charts and
pilot-books of the galleons' route and of the coasts of California, which were
published in his accounts of the voyage in 1748, where as late as that date California was set down as an island!  This voyage of Anson subsequently had a
most telling influence on the affairs of the countries of the west coast of America,
and wonderfully elated the people of England and the American colonies, as
much as it chagrined the Government and people of Spain and her possessions,
Anson's force being much inferior, though better armed, than the Spaniards.
Anson's brave opponent was an old California and galleon navigator, and is
mentioned in Venegas's work, and was wounded in the action.
The next nautical notice we have of the coasts of the peninsula is by the
40 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
celebrated navigator Alexander Malaspina, who, from some grudge among the
officials of Spain, was incarcerated by the orders of Godoy, Prince of the Peace,
in the castle of Corunna, on his return to Spain from his voyage round the
world, about 1794, and was not liberated until, at the express request of the Emperor Napoleon, about the year 1808. Having touched at Acapulco, Monterey,
and many points above Cape Mendocino to Mount St. Elias in 1791, in the fall of
that year he returned on his steps to Acapulco along the coast of the peninsula,
and examined the positions of the island of Guadalupe, and also of the Mission
of San Jos6 delCabo.  The expedition of Malaspina consisted of the corvettes
Descubierta and Atrevida, in which went as his assistants the two afterward
celebrated hydrographists Bustamente and Bauza, who, with Malaspina, greatly
improved the chartograplhyv of the west coasts between Panama and Behring's
Straits.  Unfortunately, the Spanish Government has never allowed the journals
of this expedition to be printed.
On the return of the schooners Sutil and Mejicana from exploring the
Straits of Juan de Fuca in the fall of 1792, their commanders, Galiano and
Valdez, kept those vessels close to the coasts of the peninsula, but without coming to anchor at any place.  The latitudes and the longitudes of the Alijos
Rocks and of Cape San Lucas were examined, but without landing; but nothing
gained in science over what had been noticed by Malaspina, Marquina, and
others. Both Galiano and Valdez, with several other Spanish naval officers who
served ill California, were in the fight against Nelson at the battle of Trafalgoar.
None of the expeditions of Byron, 1764, Wallis, 1767, Carteret, 1768, Bougainville, 1768, Cook's three voyages, 1769 to 1780, La Perouse, 1785, nor those
of any of the Dutch navigators of the eighteenth century who left published accounts, ever touched on the coasts of Lower California; nor did any Spanish
one, except at Cape San Lucas.   In 1793 Captain George Vancouver, in the
Discovery sloop-of-war, on his return from Monterey to England, stopped at
San Diego, and afterward sailed down in sight of the coast of Lower California,
but he never brought his vessel to anchor in any place-a matter Findley, in
1851, does not make us aware of, but reference to the original voyage, pubhshed in 1798, shows the fact.  Vancouver's remarks on the peninsular lines
are therefore of little exact value either in geography or hydrography.
Between the years 1784 and 1800, American and English whalers, sealers,
and other hunters, began to visit the coasts of Baja California, and some of them
are stated to have made immense profits, but no account of these ventures has
been printed to our knowledge, or the sciences of navigation and geography
benefited from their enterprises-their remarks being confined either to the
islands and coasts of Mexico below the gulf, or to those of Alta California between San Diego and Behring's Straits.
CHIAPTER VIII.
NOTICES OF VOYAGES FROM 1800 TO 1846 TOUCHING THE PENINSULA-BOSTON
VOYAGE OF 1808 MAKES A MINT OF MONEY.
IN a fur-trading and otter-hunting expedition, fitted out from Boston in 1800,
Captain O'Keene rediscovered the bay of Virgenes, now often called San
Quintin, whereas present accounts make them two localities within a few
leagues of each other. This voyage is stated in some old magazine to have returned immense profits.
In December of the year 1807 the ship Dronmio, of 600 tons, belonging to
Boston, commanded by an old Northwest trader, and carrying 26 guns and 108
men, sailed from that port for a smuggling voyage on the west coast of America.
After making many good sales between Chili and Mexico, she arrived at Shel
41 
SKETCH OF THiE SETTLEMENT AND
vock's Island, southwest from Cape San Lucas, near 21~ latitude, in November,
1808, and employed her crev in killing fur seals, of which they succeeded in
accumulating in the course of a fortnight 3,000 skins, worth much good money
then in the Canton market, where the ship was bound.  From this island, the
latitude of which is not stated, they went to Guaymas in December, and sold
some $150,000 of goods, and from thence to San Jos6 del Cabo; at both these
places the ship's crew were treated with great kindness and liberality. Leaving
San Jos6 on the 31st December, they arrived at the bay of Todos Santos, on
4th January, 1809, which he places in 31~ 36' lat. and 116~ 22' long., and
which is to the north of the bay of Virgenes. Here many Indians and but few
Spaniards were met with, though they were not far from the mission of San
Miguel, and succeeded, after trading with the people for 34 days, in exchanging
most of the remnants of their cargo for 1,700 fur-otter skins. "For their cargo
shipped at Boston two years ago," says Captain Little, who wrote an account
of the voyage, "we had in its place $650,000 (coined), $40,000 in old silver
plate, $10,000 in plata fna and pearls, 3,200 fur-seal skins, and 1,700 fur-otter
skins.
On the 7th February, 1809, they left Todos Santos for China, and arrived
at the Sandwich Islands on the 25th of the same month, and at Canton on
the 10th of May, where their silver and fur cargo were sold at such spinning
profits that it purchased a cargo of China teas and silks for the Dromio, and filled
the ship Baltic, of Providence, with another.  These two ships finally sailed for
home, via the Cape of Good Hope, and having escaped the French and English
cruisers, arrived at Boston on the 4th of March, 1810, after one of the most
fortunate and profitable voyages ever made out of that port, the tea alone in
those days doubling net profits on the price in China.
In consequence of the wars in Europe and the revolt of the Spanish colonists in
Mexico and South America, and the absurd restrictions imposed on commerce
by Spain, all business carried on with the West Coast was contraband and clandestine between 1800 and 1825, when the mother-country gave up the contest,
and the legitimate trade of the West Coast began sensibly to augment, particularly from England and France, and by the year 1835 the influence of the new
system effected great changes in the two Californias.  Many whalers, sealers,
and otter-hunters, between 1808 and 1840, frequented San Jos6 del Cabo, La
Paz, Magdalena, Viscaino, Turtle, Ballenas, Virgenes, San Quintin, and Todos
Santos Bays, under American, French, Russian, and British colors, the greater
number of which were American, and valuable cargoes of sperm-oil and other
products of the sea were also obtained. The northern mission districts between
Viscaino and Todos Santos Bays were often traded with by these vessels; but
by the year 1835, after the secularization of the missions, those vicinities became
so poor from this cause and from the revolts of their Indians as to offer no motive for any extensive traffickings or smugglings.
In the year 1826 Messrs. Martin and Jacques Lafitte, in conjunction with
M. Laval, bankers and capitalists of France, well known afterward in French
politics and finance, fitted out the armed merchant-ship Heros, under Captain
Augouste Duhaut Cilley, an old sea-captain and Chevalier of the Legion of
Honor, for a mercantile adventure to the Sandwich Islands, the west coast of
America, and China. She was a fine-built large vessel, and well armed, and
with a numerous and well-appointed crew of over 100 men, properly officered
with lieutenants, etc., etc., carrying one of the best-selected cargoes ever sent
from France to the Pacific coasts.  This voyage seemed to have grown out of
that of Captain Camillo de Roquefeuille in the ship Bourdelais, of Bordeaux,
who traded on the California coasts from 1819 to 1821, and who was a friend
of Duhaut Cilley. Sailing from Havre on the 10th of April, 1826, the Heros
doubled the Horn and traded on the coast of South America until the latter
part of September of that year, and finally arrived in California, at San Jos6
42 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
del Cabo, near the end of October. Hle remained in this part of the peninsula
till the last of November, trading with the people on advantageous and friendlv
terms, and mentions the kind treatment he received from Padre Tomas Ahumada, the superior of the missions, then in his 65th year, who had lived in the
country 16 years, and by the military chief, Colonel Jose Marie Padres, and
Don Antonio Navarro, the administrator of the customs, and a solitary Frenchman by the name of Bello.  Colonel Padres was a native of La Puebla in
Mexico, and had served in the revolutionary wars under President Victoria; he
was the same who afterward came to Monterey, with HIijar, with the colonists
of Mexico, about 1833.
The observations of Duhaut Cilley in Lower California do not extend farther than the country between the cape and the Real de San Antonio to the
northeast, and they evince much that is interesting and valuable as to the nature
and resources of the country. He left afterward for Mazatlan, and from thence
visited the coasts of Alta California, trading for several months, in 1827-'28, at
San Diego, San Pedro, Sahta Barbara, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco,
and Ross, returning a second time to Cape San Lucas and Mazatlan, and making another trip to Callao, from whence he returned to Upper California.
He finally left California for the Sandwich Islands in September, 1828, and arrived at Canton on the 25th December of the same year, and, after freighting his
ship, finally reached Havre on the 19th of July, 1829. This work of Duhllaut
Cilley is one of the most interesting written on the two Californias before 1840,
and his voyage is said to have terminated very profitably for the owners, one
of whom, Jacques Lafitte, became a celebrated minister of the French Cabinet,
and a wealthy and well-klnown banker, connected with American commerce.
The voyage of the Blossom, under Captain F. W. Beechey (afterward admiral), in 1825-'28, with whom went Lieutenant (now Admiral) Belcher, did not
land on the coasts of Lower California, but Belcher returned in 1837-'39 in the
Sulphur, having as consort the Starling under Lieutenant Kellett, on another
California exploration, of whom we shall presently give account, as he surveyed
some ocean points of the peninsula with care, and which are used in navigation at the present time.
Between the years 1825 and 1831, Captain Benjamin Morrell made four
voyages to the Pacific from New York in the clipper-ship Margaret Oakley,
and visited and traded largely in the ports, islands, bays, and anchorages of the
two Californias, of which accounts were published by himself about 1835, and
by Captain Jacobs in 1844, for notations of which see our "Bibliografia Californica" of 1863-'66.  His principal business seems to have been seal and otter
hunting, and looking up islands of guano, intercalated with many adventurous
snaps of smuggling. His accounts are much ridiculed, but we cannot see for
what good reason, as his authority has been quoted by eminent navigators, and
much that he narrates on Upper California has been verified since the epoch
of gold. He mentions the immense numbers of whales, seals, otters, and fish
of all kinds when he visited San Quintin Bay, Cenizas Island, and other points'
on the peninsula coast.
In December, 1835, Captain Beechey was sent from England, in the Sulphur
and Starling, on another expedition to the coasts of the Californias and the
Northwest, to complete his surveys of 1826-'28.  Beechey invaliding at Valparaiso, Sir Edward Belcher assumed command of the expedition at Panama,,
the Starling being placed under Lieutenant (now Captain) Kellett, whose name
is so well known in California, and in 1837-'38 proceeded to complete the surveys of the coasts between Behring's Straits and Panama, from which he returned to explore those of certain parts of the peninsula below San Diego in
October and November, 1839. Entering San Quintin, Belcher fixed the position.
of the sandy point on the left side of the entrance, confirming the name of the bay
as San Quintin, as in contradistinction to that of Las Virgenes and Five IHills
46
I
i
i
I
I
i
i
43
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
Bay, and making no further mention of the true Las Virgenes a little farther
south: the sandy point of San Quintin is placed by him in 32~ 22', and longitude
115~ 56' 33".
From thence he moved down to the bay of Turtles, or San Bartolom6,
the northern head of which he placed in latitude 27~ 40', and 114~ 51' 20"
longitude.  On the 31st October hle anchored in the bay of Magdalena, of which
he made a survey of considerable detail. Belcher spent not less than 18 days
in this great bay, leaving for Cape San Lucas on the 18th November, but, singular to say, he neither mentions its proper dimensions, nor fixes the latitude or
longitude of a single one of its points, and this omission occurs also for Cape San
Lucas, that is, in his narrative now before us (see octavo edition of 1843, vol. i.),
and occupying six pages.  This was probably done from  some secret political
motive, as the French frigate Venus, under Du Petit Thouars, was then in the
neighborhood, and Wilkes's expedition also was expected on the California
coasts. On the 20th November he arrived at the San Lucas Cape, and afterward made survey of the islands of Socorro and Clarion, farther to the soutlhward. Belcher afterward visited the Sandwich and many other Polvnesian
islands farther westward, from whence he departed for China and took an active
part in the " Opium War" of 1840-'41, then being waged between the English
and Chinese. In 1841 he left for England via the Moluccas, Singapore, Ceylon,
the Seychelles, and the Cape of Good Hope, and finally arrived at Spithead on
the 19th July, 1812, after an absence of nearly seven years, and making the
most extended and lengthened voyage ever made by any government. Findley,
in his "Pacific Ocean Directory of 1851," in two separate portions of the work,
says Belcher makes Point I)elgado the position of his observatory in latitude
38~ 24' 18", and longitude 112~ 6' 21", a most extraordinary mistake, difficult
to account for, the place being under latitude 25~ in the chart attached to Belcher's own volume.  All this stuff and nonsense about Magdalena was doubtless
owing to the national jealousy growing out of the Oregon dispute, as Belcher's
book was published when this storm in politics was then getting under highpressure culminations, and John Bull determined to dole out his nautical knowledge in pennyworths of a bad quality.
WVhile Belcher's survey was in progress, the Government of Louis Philippe
fitted out an expedition from Brest in December, 1836, in the frigate Venus,
under Captain (now Admiral) Du Petit Thouars, who visited almost the entire
west coasts of the two Americas, particularly Upper and Lower California, and
many of the Pacific islands and groups, and finally returned to France in June,
1839. This voyage is remarkable from the important events growing out of
the French occupation of the Society and Marquesas groups, in which the
French admiral took an active part, and for the valuable and extensive additions
made in the sciences of hydrography, geography, and natural history of the
countries visited by the Venus, made by the officers and naturalists of the expedition, who are now distinguished savans in France. The Venus visited the
bay of Magdalena, and the French officers observed with proper instruments
several of its localities, and also fixed the latitudes and longitudes of the Alijos
Rocks, 140 miles to the west of Magdalena, discovered by Captain Marquina
of the San Andres galleon in 1791, and those of the island of Guadalupe, mentioned by Cabrera Bueno and other Spanish navigators between 1720 and 1800.
The United States exploring expedition of 1838-'41, under Lieutenant (now
Admiral) Wilkes, did not visit any portion of the peninsula of Lower California.
In the summer of 1847 the English frigate Spy under Captain S. O. -Woolridge, visited the port of Guaymas, and with his officer, Mr. Jeffrey, made careful examinations of its soundings and anchorages. The same officers also crossed
over to the peninsula, a few days after, and made similar explorations of the
bay of Moleje, but he does not appear to have fixed the latitude and longitude
14 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
of any of its points.  Woolridge, however, visited La Paz and the neighboring
islands, and fixes the noith end of Espiritu Santo in latitude 24~ 36', and longitude 110~ 22', and the Worth end of Ceralbo in latitude 24~ 23', and the longitude of its south end in 109~ 45'; the town of La Paz is placed in latitude
24~ 10', and longitude 109~ 45'.
Between 1837-'39 Dr. F. D. Bennet made a voyage in an English whalingvessel to the Pacific coasts, in which they captured many sperm and other
whales on the coasts of Lower California, and visited the settlements near Cape
San Lucas. Between 1836 and 1846 great numbers of whalers, English, French,
and American, recruited with much advantage in these southern settlements,
principally at La Paz and San Jos6 del Cabo, and always found supplies of
wood, water, fish, fruit, beef, and vegetables at reasonable prices. As many as
ten whalers have been anchored at a time in these ports, and they are still
resorted to, and offer cheap, reasonable, and convenient outfits to the best sealing and whaling grounds.
In June, 1845, the British Government sent the frigate Herald, of 26 guns,
under Captain Henry Kellett, and the tender Pandora, under Lieutenant James
Wood, for a voyage of survey and exploration to the coasts above Panama and
to the Arctic, and in the course of which was also ordered to search for the
remains of Sir John Franklin in the Arctic Seas above Behring's Straits. Kellett had formerly served under Belcher in the California waters ten years before,
and was now accompanied by several naturalists, and officers whose names
have since become celebrated in the natural and maritime sciences, and the
fruits of the Herald's surveys and labors were an immense addition to human
knowledge, of which a sketch may be seen in the volumes of Seeman, Forbes,
and their confreres, printed after 1853. Kellett sailed from San Francisco in
October, 1846, and after surveying several islands in the Santa Barbara group,
proceeded to make an examination of the Coronados Islets below San Diego,
the highest peak of which he measured as 575 feet above the sea, but Seeman
does not mention that any latitudes or longitudes of it were fixed, nor that of
Cape Colnett, not far from the Mission of Santo Tomas, which they visited a
few davs after. On the 14th October they fixed the position of the island of
San Martin in latitude 30~ 28' and longitude 115~ 57', the right-hand peak of
which was made 567 feet above the sea. On the next day they anchored off
San Quintin Bay, but made no observations, and, passing San Geronimo Island
on the 22d, anchored on the 25th under the eastern end of Cedros Island.  On
this island they found in good preservation, from the dryness of the atmosphere,
the head-boards of two English sailors who had been buried there from London
whalers in the year 1819. The summit of the highest peak of Cedros Island
is put down at 2,500 feet, and the position of the small bay where they were
anchored was fixed in latitude 28~ 03' and longitude 115~ 11'. On the 2d of
November (1846), thiey entered Magdalena Bay, where they stopped several
days to overhaul and refit the Herald.  On  the 10th they left for Cape San
Lucas, which they sighted and left for Mazatlan, where thev arrived on the 12th.
On the 21st they left Mazatlan for San Blas, and the lower coast, having on
board as passenger no less a person than the Rev. Father Macnamara, who was
making such a noise about that time in founding his great colony of Irish Catholic refugees in the Tulare valley of the present State of California. The Herald
immediately afterward proceeded to survey the coasts and islands of the provinces of Veragua and Panama, and those of the shores of the Isthmus of Darien,
Gulf of San Miguel and vicinities, which are (in 1867) attracting so much attention in connection with the great ship-canal.
Returning from the northwest coasts in November, 1849, the officers of the
Herald examined the coasts between the cape and the bay of Moleje, and in
February, 1850, surveyed (as noted by Lieutenant Henry Trollope) the islands
and points of those vicinities and south called Santa Inez Island, Points Palpito
I
I
45
I
I
I 
SKETCH OF THIE SETTLEMENT AND
and Mangles (near which are beautiful valleys and woods), the bay of Loretto,
Puerto Escondido, Carmen Island, and the Salinas Bay, and the D)anzante
Islets, and having also examined the vicinities of the port of Guaymas, in the
early part of March they fixed the positions of Santa Cruz, and the south part
of Ceralbo Island, and examined the rock of San Ignacio, and also Ballenas
Bay in the island of Espiritu Santo. The only position which is fixed in all
these places as noted in Seeman's narrative of the voyage, is that of San Jos6
del Cibo, of which Lieutenant Trollope gives the best nautical account of any
traveller we have seen, and which is set down as in latitude 23~ 3' 15" and
longitude 109~ 37' 53". On the 22d March, 1850, they returned to Mazatlan.
After again in vain searching the Arctic shores for Sir John Franklin's party, the
Herald left for the Sandwich Islands, and from thence to China, Singapore, and
the Cape, and arrived in England on the 6th June, 1851, after an absence of six
years.
In connection with the Gulf of California explorations ought not to be omitted the Pearl-diving and Coral-fishery Association established in 1825 at London during the great Anglo-Spanish-American rage for mining in Mexico and
South America, and which deceived so many thousands of credulous people in
England. This association sent out to Lower California, as their managing
director, Lieutenant Hardy, of the British navy, with a regular diving-bell and
all its fixtures, who, on his arrival, proceeded to make explorations of the pearloyster beds among the islands above the Sal Si Puedes and Tiburon, but without effecting much else than running away with a large quantity of good money.
Hardy afterward explored the lower part of the Colorado, and travelled overland
from Sonora to the Rio Grande, and in his book added many facts of curious
interest and value on the condition of the then little known  countries of North
Mexico ante 1830. It is likely that the new American diving-apparatus would
succeed where Hardy's English one failed.
In the commission formed under John R. Bartlett in 1850 to 1853, to survey the new boundary with Mexico according to the 1848 treaty, is mentioned
the attempt of carrying out a survey of the head of the gulf under the late
Lieutenant J. G. Strain, one of Bartlett's officers, but which fell through from
want of government support.
Between 1858 and 1860 Captain (now General) Charles P. Stone, a wellknown officer, who had served in the army in Mexico and California, made
many surveys of the country in the northern lands and coast-lines of Sonora,
between Guaymas and the mouth of the Colorado. This it was said at the
time was in unison with certain mining adventures and colonizations ill Sonora,
and the railroad plans of General Angel Trias, of Chihuahua, to connect the
Rio Grande valley with the port of Guaymas, but we are not aware of any
work published on these important affairs, otherwise than in brief newspaper
articles in the California journals.
In 1857 the Government of the United States fitted out a well-appointed
expedition to survey the river Colorado from its entrance at the gulf to its
farthest navigable limit.  A small steamer, called the Explorer, was purchased,
and the command of the exploration placed under Lieutenant J. C. Ives, of the
Topographical Engineers, who was provided with a distinguished staff of scientific assistants and artists, who accumulated a vast amount of valuable facts useful to the Government and the public, as well as to the cause of science:
the volume, published by order of Congress in 1861, containing the results of tlh
survey, was profusely illustrated with every object of interest pertaining to ote
of the richest in minerals and most extraordinary in physical development of
any district on the earth's surface.  Much useful and original information was
collected on the mouth of the river, and the islands, tides, freshets, bores, and
course of the stream from its entrance at the gulf to Fort Yuma, as well as of
the country, Indians, and climate of that portion below the Gila, which belongs
46 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
politically to Lower California and Sonora.  The map of the course of the
river as far as Fort Yuma is the greatest addition ever made to the accurate
chartography of any portion of the peninsula.  The river survey commenced at
the mouth of the Colorado on the 28th November, 1857, and ended near the
Great Canion in the middle of April, 1858.
In 1864, Captain A. D. Byrd, engaged for tile seven previous years as pilot,
etc., in the navigation of the Colorado, published in San Francisco a new chart
of the river from actual surveys and soundings, commencing at the entrance of
the gulf, and ending at the termination of ship navigation, or near Cocopat
Slough.
CHAPTER IX.
THE NEW GRANT OF COLONIZATION TO AMERICAN COLONISTS-EXTENT IN SQUARE
MILES AND ACRES OF THIS GRANT-ALSO OF CALIFORNIA AND OTHER PA   CIFIC STATES.
IN March, 1863, Jacob P. Leese, since 1833 a settler in Alta California, and
Santiago Viosco of Mexico, obtained from the government of Lower California
a concession of lands in Lower California, including all the country from the
gulf to the ocean, and between the parallels of Magdalena Bay and those of the
bay of San Quintin, or say from the latitude of 21~ to that of 31~, making the
limits come to within about 100 miles below the American frontier line.
The southern limits are bounded by the line of 24~, running from the ocean
to the gulf, and does not include any thing below certain points in the bay of
Magdalena. The grant includes all islands, points, bays, harbors, fisheries, etc.,
etc., both within the ocean and the gulf jurisdictions of the peninsula, and was
made for the purpose of introducing colonists. This great concession is stated
to cover nearly 50,000 square miles of land, or 32,000,000 of acres, and its
terms were confirmed by the proper representatives of the Mexican Governnment at the city of New York, in November, 1865, by the further payment of
$100,000, President Juarez ratifying the contract at the city of Chihuahua, in
August, 1866.  The original owners afterward included in their rights by purchase some of the most prominent public men and capitalists of California, and
of New York and other Eastern cities. All these facts were published in the
public journals of the United States at the time, and have been reverted to on
many occasions up to the present period.  In December, 1866, Mr. J. Ross
Browne, the former.Treasury agent of the United States for the Pacific coast,
and well known in California as an old traveller and author, was employed by
the company, with a competent corps of gentlemen of scientific character,
residents of San Francisco, as his assistants, to make a thorough exploration of
the country within the limits of the grant, as its true character is very little
understood, except from accounts of the Jesuits before 1768. In the month of
January, 1867, the proprietors of the concession were duly incorporated by the
Legislature of the State of New  York into a legal body, under the title and
status of The Lower California Colonization Land Company.
The American surveyors estimate that the peninsula of Lower California
and its islands contain 200,000 square miles of land, or 128,000,000 of acres.
The State of California contains, according to the most recent (1864) calculations of the United States Land-Office, a territorial extent of 158,687 square
miles, or 101,559,680 acres. Though no exact result of this kind can ever be
attained without an expensive trigonometrical survey, and though Lower
California is not well known in its length or breadth, or its latitudes or longitudes, there is no doubt that it covers at least as much ground as does the State
of California.   Oregon covers 95,248 square miles; Nevada, 81,539 square
miles; Utah, 106,382 square miles; and Arizona, 126,141 square miles. So
it is seen Lower California has quite a large area, and considerably larger than
4T 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
its neighbors, as even Sonora has 174,000 square miles, and Sinaloa 54,700
square miles.
THE GREAT STORES OF FISH, SHELLS, CETACEA, PHOCIDEA, AND OTHER MARINE
ANIMALS OF THE CALIFORNIA PENINSULA.
Having in the preceding notices given a sketch of the sea-shores and islands,
and of the succession and precession of discoveries and navigations of Baja California from the earliest records in 1532 to the present (1867), we shall now touch
summarily on the extraordinary and wonderful wealth of the animal life of its
marine waters. From all the accounts, histories, and voyages we have quoted,
and from the uniform testimony of those more recently who have personally had
knowledge of these matters since the discovery of gold in Upper California, it
would appear to excel any portion of the world in the wondrous fertility of its
fisheries. As early as 1537 and 1539, the infinite numbers of whales, seals, and
fur otters of numberless varieties, were noted by Ulloa, who first completely navigated the shores of the peninsula from the mouth of the Colorado to Cape San
Lucas, and thence on the ocean coast up to Cedros Island. Then all kinds of
shell-fish or mollusca, and of crustacea, such as lobsters, crabs, crawfish, etc.,
number by the thousands of species and all in great abundance and of excellent
edible qualities, as well as of the family of turtles. The proper family of fishes
of all the known genera are found in every bay and harbor, in such extraordinary quantities, and of such excellent dietetic qualities, as to have been remarked
by every navigator or writer we have mentioned or read of, and it is to the present time a matter of wonder to every visitor to Lower California. Except the
mollusca, cetacea, and phocidea, this great field of Nature has been but little explored by the naturalist, leaving in the true fishes vast numbers to be yet added
to the stores of science and human utilitv.  Many of the fishes and shells are not
only very curious but of extraordinary beauty, and highly prized by connoisseurs.
Mr. Hugh Cumming, the celebrated conchologist of London, who died some
three years ago, made a voyage about 1830 to Lower California from Valparaiso,
for the special purpose of studying its mollusca, and some writers have affirmed
that the California shells are the great feature of his collection, said to be the
largest and best preserved in the whole world. M. Regien, a French resident of
Mazatlan, some years after Cumming, also made a splendid collection of shells
of the gulf, of which extended scientific notices were made by the eminent Englishl conchologist, Philip Carpenter, in his contributions to  the Smithsonian Institute in 1859-'60.  In 1860-'62, Mr. John Xantus, a naturalist of great ability
and enterprise, who had served in many of the recent Government overland explorations of rail and wagon roads, was employed by Professor Bache, the director of the United States Coast Survey, to make observations on the tidal phenomena of the California seas below the parallel of Magdalena Bay. In connection
with his investigations, he employed much time in natural history collections of
the southern part of Lower California for the Smithsonian Institute, which numbered over 100,000 specimens of different animals, plants, and minerals, of which
some 30,000 were of fishes, shells, crustacea, sponges, star-fishes and corals;
about one-half of these specimens were entirely new to science.  This was  the
largest collection ever made in the fauna and flora of those or any other parts
of the peninsula explored by him, leaving out, as entirely unexamined by any
one, two-thirds of the country to the iorth of 24~, and was duly forwarded to the
Smithsonian Museum at Washington. Of the fishes he collected 800 distinct
species; of crustacea, such as crabs, etc., he collected 800 species; of radiata or
star-fishes, 40 species; of shells, 4,000 species; of corals, 8 species, and of sponges,
14 species; of these inhabitants of salt water, fully two-thirds are said never to
have been before examined or noted in science. It is therefore evident that the
fisheries of this country are to become a world of wondrous wealth to its future
48 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
inhabitants, of incalculable benefit to the laboring classes in reducing the cost of
living, and rendering them independent of the cruel exactions of capital, or the
fickle whirls of conmmercial prosperity or depressions.  There  can be no doubt
that the finest varieties of our edible oysters could be bred and cultivated to
suppiy all the Pacific domain forever, as doubtless could be done with the pearl
oysters, as is the case in some parts of the Oriental world, and the same holds
good with the cultivation of sponges, which is an extremely valuable business on
the shores of the Grecian Archipelago.  The real tortoise-shell turtle is also found
on both coasts of the peninsula, and the different species of the edible turtle are
particularly abundant, and, in many places, so easy of access as to be had for
the trouble of capture, and are frequently brought to San Francisco.
THE REDUCTION AND SETTLEMENT OF THE INTERIOR -OF THE GREAT AMERICAN
PENINSULA FROM 1700 TO 1800-THE DATES AND FOUNDATIONS OF THE
JESUIT, FRANCISCAN, AND DOMINICAN MISSIONS.
The Catholic missionary histories of the civilizations, foundations, and reductions of the different Indian districts of Lower California to the parallels of
Magdalena Bay, have been so often printed, summarized, and related, for the last
150 years, and are so well known, that the nature of our work requires no more
than filling up the vacuum between 25~ and 32~, which is unknown in English, and
putting all such matters in condensed briefs, as their detailed narration would
fill an immense and cumbersome volume foreign to the intent of this work. The
principal Spanish authorities are those by the Jesuit Fathers Venegas in 1757,
Clavigero in 1789, and Begert in 1772, who were neither of them, howvever,
California Jesuits, and the book of the Dominican friars, published at Valencia,
in Spain, in 1794; these last two authors served in the California missions, and
no other original works, from personal observation of the country, have been
compiled since the 1794 volume, which relates the founding of the seven Dominican mission districts on the Pacific, below San Diego, and to a short distance north of the bay of Viscaino. Though these four publications are very
valuable as original chronicles or annals, they are crowded with errors of fact
and errors of typography, and mostly devoted to missionary labors; these errors
are extremely confusing and contradictory to the reader and honest inquirer,
and all who have heretofore used or quoted them in English, French, German,
and Spanish have, without sifting or critical inquiry, passed their serious faults
on to the present generation, and making confusion worse confounded, as may
be seen in Forbes, Farnham,  ind others.  The efforts of the eminent Jesuits
Kino, Salvatierra, Piccolo, and Ugarte, for the ten years before 1700, were
merely preliminary, the legal license and commission for Christianizing the
country, given by the Conde dc Montezuma, Viceroy of Mexico, to Kino and
Salvatierra, being dated only on the 6th of February, 1697, after the struggles
of several years. So that the most proper and best period to commence the history of the interior districts of Old California is the year 1700. We now give as
complete a schedule of the Missions of Lower California as can be obtained from
the best accounts:
1. The mission of Nuestra Seniora de Loreto was founded by Father Jos6
Marie Salvatierra, ill October, 1697, in latitude 25~ 30'.
2. Mission of Dolores del Sur, or named at first San Juan Bautista de Malibat, founded by Father Salvatierra, in January, 1699, in latitude 24~ 30'.
3. Mission of San Francisco Xavier de Vigge, founded by Father Francisco
M. Piccoli, in March, 1699, in latitude 25~ 30'.
4. The Mission of Santa Rosalia de Moleje, founded by Father Juan M. Basualda, in 1705, ill latitude 26~ 50',
The mission of San Luis Gonzaga, founded by Father Juan Ugarte, in 1712,
in latitude 25~. This mission was made not far from the bay of Magdalena, on
49 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
the borders of which was one of its Indian villages with a chapel. It seems to
have been abandoned shortly after 1745, and was not ini the status of a mission
in 1767.
5. San Jos6 Coinmondu, founded by Father Julian de Mayorga, in 1708, in
latitude 26~.
6. La Purisima Concepcion, founded by Father Nicolas Tamaral, in 1718,
in latitude 26~.
7. Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, founded by Fathers Juan Ugarte
and Everhard Helen, in 1721, in latitude 27~.
8. Mission of San Ignacio de Kadakaman, founded by Father Juan B. Lu yando, in 1728, in latitude 28~.
9. Mission of N. S. de Dolores del Norte, in lat. 29~, made as an adjunct to
San lgnacio, but a few years afterward seems to have been absorbed into this
last and abandoned, as were two or three pioneer foundations of the same kind,
before 1740, as those of Santiago, La Paz, Santa Rosa, and Magdalena.
10. Mission of San Jos6 del Cabo, founded by Father Nicolas Tamaral, in
1730, in latitude 23~.
11. Mission of Todos Santos, founded as an adjunct to San Jose6,.about the
year i737, and formerly called Santa Rosa, in latitude 23~.
12. Mission of Santa Gertrudis, founded by Father Fernando Consag, in
1751, in latitude 29~.
13. Mission of San Francisco Borja (pronounced Borcas), founded by Padre
Winceslao Link in 1762, in latitude 30~ [?].
14. Mission of Santa Maria, in the vicinity of the bay of Los Angeles of the
Gulf, founded by Father Victoriano Arnes in 1767, in latitude 31~.
These 14 missions were all founded by the Jesuits, as given for 1745 in
Venegas's book of 1757, and in Clavijero's work of 1790, made  up from the
latest advices, prior to the expulsion of the order from the peninsula, on the
25th June, 1767, but those of Dolores and Guadalupe were abandoned before
1794. Fifteen Jesuit priests and one lay-brother died in California before 1767,
and 15 priests and one lay-brother formed the numbers which left in 1767.
The Jesuits were succeeded in their missions by 16 Franciscan friars from the
College of San Fernando of Mexico City, under Father Junipero Serra, who
arrived at Loretto on the 1st of April, 1768, and these establishments continued
under their care until May, 1774, five years after Father Junipero left, in 1769,
for Alta California, when the peninsular missions were delivered up. to the Dominican friars, from the College of Santiago of Mexico City, by Father Francisco
Palou, who afterward founded the mission of Dolores, near San Francisco
City, and wrote the well-known biography of Junipero Serra, in 1786.
15. The next mission founded was that of San Fernando Villacatta, by
Father Junipero Serra in 1769, in latitude 31~, and 60 leagues north from  San
Fernando Borga.
The Dominicans founded the next seven nmissions to the Alta California
frontier, to wit:
16. The mission of La Rosario, near the bay of Los Virgenes on the Pacific,
was founded in 1774, in latitude 30~ 25', about 50 miles northwest from  San
Fernando Villacatta.
17. The mission of Santo Domingo, near San Quintin Bay, and 20 leagues
north from Rosario, was founded in 1775, in latitude 30~ 52'.
18. The mission of San Vicente Ferrer, 20 leagues north from San Domingo, was founded in 1780, in latitude 31~ 30'.
19. The mission of Santo Tomas, near the bay of Todos Santos, the next
above San Vicente, was founded in 1790, in latitude 31~ 52' (the Indians being very troublesome to manage), about 40 miles above San Vicente.
20. The mission of San Pedro Martyr, about 40 miles east of Santo Tomas,
50 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER  (CALIFORNIA.
in the mountains, was founded on the 28th May, 1794, by Father Cayetano
Pallos, in latitude 31~ 50'.
21. The mission of San Miguel of the frontiers, some 30 miles south of San
Diego, was founded in 1782 (as appears from the Alta California archives), by
Fathers Tomas Valdellon and Miguel Lopez, and is in about latitude 32~ 10'.
22. The mission of Santa Catalina de los Yumas, about 50 miles east from
Santo Tomas in the mountains, was founded by Father Jos6 Lorient on the
18th May, 1797, in about latitude 31~ 20'.  Santa Catalina was the last mission founded in Lower California.
At the time of the date of the Dominican friar's book, in 1794 (who was
then serving at Santo Tomas and San Miguel, as expressed therein), the missions of Santiago, Dolores, and San Luis Gonzagoa, noted by Clavijero, as existing in 1767, were closed as mission centres or capitals, by order of the Government in Mexico, from the ravages of the small-pox and other diseases, and from
their unmanageable Indians; this change has been the cause of many blunders
by Lower California writers in the public journals since 1846.
The mission establishments of the peninsula were all secularized, as was the case
with those of Alta California, bv the celebrated decree of the Mexican Congress
of 1833. FroIm frequent revolutions in the peninsula and the central Governmnent,.
from the poverty and scarce populations, and its being before 1848 out of the
route of general commerce, and from the entire extinction of the Jesuit mission
Indians before 1825, the priests either died or gradually retired from the country, and were seldom replaced; so that at the American occupation in 1847-'43
inot more than three were left in the country, one of whon, Father Ignacio
Ramirez Arrellanes, was superior of the missions, and in October, 1848, was a
refuigee, and left with the Americans for Monterey, where he served as curate
of that town till 1854, when he left for Mexico; he was also one of the chaplains of the Monterey Constitutional Convention of 1849, the other being the
Rev. Mr. Willey, a Protestant clerfgyman, now of Oakland.
The missions of the Californias to carry out the idea of Kino, were attempted to be connected and aided from Mexico, by the establishment, between
1767 and 1781, of the two Franciscan missions, called Concepcion and San
Pedro-Pablo, nine miles apart, on the west bank of the Colorado, near the
present Fort Yuma, detailed more at large in an ensuing chapter, but these
were destroyed by the Yumas in 1782.  The Jesuits also established a mission
outpost, about 1700, called San Dionisio, on the northern bank of the Gila,
not far from its junction, and also another on the southern bank of the Gila,
several leagues farther cast, called San Pablo.  The recent writers on the sites
of these missions greatly confuse one with another, and mix the ancient accounts
up terribly.
In 1794 there were 17 missions in existence, under the Dominicans, that
of Santa Catalina, in 1797, being the last one founded, and after the most
recent accounts had appeared. When the author of the 1794 book left the
peninsula, in 1787, there were serving in these 17 missions 24 Dominican
priests, and of Indian converts 1,099 families, including 3,015 people of all
sexes and ages, and only six soldiers; this does not embaace the white and
mixed races of the towns of La Paz, Loreto, and San Jose6 del Cabo.
In the 14 missions left by the Jesuits, there were, then, in 1767, the number
of 7,495 Indians of all ages and sexes. In 1840-'42, when Duiflot de Mofras
wastravelling in California, he states that there were 3,766 inhabitants in all
the mission capitals, and including Loreto, La Paz, and San Jos6 del Cabo
towns: two-thirds of these, however, were Mexicans and Lower Californians,
of white and mixed blood. In the seven Dominican missions, between San
Diego and Rosario, at that time, there were about 1,300 people, and some
Lower Californian informants say one-half or even two-thirds of these were
Indians, the rest being mestizoes, not mission converts.   Before  1825, as we
i
i
51
I
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
have been informed, every one of the Jesuit converts had entirely disappeared
from their old missions by death, in the course of nature, or by the wastings of
disease from syphilis, small-pox, measles, etc.: that is, 7,495 aborigines had
entirely disappeared from off the earth in 58 years. Venegas does not state
what was the number of convents in 1745, the last accounts and dates in his
history of 1757.   At the date of 1867, accepting the statements of correspcndents from the peninsula in the San Francisco newspapers, there  do
not remain 500 Indians in the Dominican or northern ex-missions above Viscaino Bay, and none at all between the Viscaino Bay parallels and Cape San
Lucas-the other Indian tribes, unconverted, loosely estimated at present at
about 2,000 souls, being those found below the American frontier line to the
mouth of the Gila, embraced in the country in the lower valley, to the west of
the Colorado, and so following down on the gulf shores until even to the Canal
de Ballenas, and porit of Los Angeles. The most of these are the well-known
Cocopas, and their affiliating tribes, and mixed with Yumas. Dialects of the
Yuma extended from Santa Catalina, all the way from San Miguel to La Rosario, and dialects of this language extended up the coast as far as San Lu.is
Rey, north of San Diego.
TRAVELLING DISTANCES, BY THE OLD SPANISH MISSION ROAD, FROM CAPE SAN
LUCAS TO SAN DIEGO.
The distance, as travelled on mules, from the Cape to San Diego, may be
estimated from the map, day by day, in English miles, as follows, from mission to mission, which takes up the whole length of the peninsula. These
figures are only approximates:
1. From San Jos6 del Cabo to Todos Santos mission to the northwest on
the Pacific, 70 miles; from San Jose6 to Real de San Antonio, near the gulf, 40
miles; from San Antonio Real (or mining village), to the town of La Paz, on the
bay of La Paz, 20 miles.
2. From La Paz to Dolores del Sur, 90 miles
3. From Dolores del Sur to San Luis Gonzaga, 45 miles.
4. From Dolores to Loreto, 90 miles, by the long gulf road.
5. From Loreto to San Jose6 Comondu, going west, 40 miles.
6. From San Jos6 Comondu to San Francisco Xavier, going to the south,
30 miles.
7. From San Jose6 Comondu to Purisimina, 40 miles.
8. From Loretto to Moleje, by the turns of the gulf coast road, 90 miles.
9. From  Purisima to  San  Ignacio  Kada  Kaman  (or country of sedge
brooks), 110 miles, and which is about 20 miles from the Pacific; San Ignacio
is about 110 miles, by the road northwest of Moleje.
10. From San Ignacio to mission Santa Gertrudis, going northeast, it is 40
miles.
11. From Santa Gertrudis to San Francisco Borja mission, going north, it
is 70 miles.
12. From San Francisco Boija (or Borcas), to Santa Maria mission, going
north, it is 75 miles; here the mountains are very high and rugged.
13. From Santa Maria to San Fernando Villicatti mission, in the mountains,
it is 56 miles.
14. From San Fernando, in the mountains, going north by west, to the mission of Rosario, near the ocean, is 50 miles.
15. From Rosario along the sea-coast to Santo Domingo mission, it is 60
miles.
16. From Santo Domingo to San Vicente nmissions by the coast, it is 50
miles.  Both these missions are in the vicinities of Virgin and San Quintin
Bays.
52 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
17. From San Vicente to San Pedro Martyr, going northeast into the
mountains, it is about 40 miles.
18. From San Vicente, along the coast of Santo Tomas, it is 30 miles;
Santo Tomas is near Todos Santos Bay.
19. From Santo Tomas, to the last mission, San Miguel, along the coast, it is
about 50 miles, which brings the traveller to within about 40 miles of San
Diego Bay.
20. From Santo Tomas to Santa Catalina, going to the east via San Pedro
Martyr, it is about 70 miles; Santa Catalina being only some 60 miles from
the Colorado River, at the head of the gulf.
From Rosario to San Diego, since 1840, private ranches for cattle and
sheep have been established at distances varying from  5 to 20 miles apart.
This part of the coast has become much better known  than formerly from the
letters of Mr. R. K. Porter (who resided there several years, between 1858 and
1863), which were published in the San Francisco Bulletin. The distances we
use are only approximate, and calculated from travellers' reports, and from the
maps of 1845 to 1864; if not exact, they will answer very well to travel from
mission to mission, and not greatly lead the voyager astray.
CHAPTER X.
THE PAST AND PRESENT POPULATION OF OLD CALIFORNIA.
LA PEROUSE, when at Monterey, in 1786, was informed by the Governor
of the two Californias that there were then, in the 15 mission districts of the
peninsula, 4,000 Indians, and 54 Presidio soldiers. In Humboldt's " New Spain"
he states that, in 1802, there were not more 5,000 Indians and others, and
that the barbarous tribes to the north numbered about 4,000 more, or 9,000
in all. From the best public authorities, Alexander Forbes says there were in
1837 not over 15,000 inhabitants of all kinds. Loretto contained 300 souls,
while La Paz with the Real de San Antonio contained 2,000 souls.   In 1848
the village of San Jos6 del Cabo contained some 200 people. In 1842 the
Mexican Congress admitted two delegates from the two Californias on a basis
of 33,439 population, 12,000 of which were acknowledged as belonging to the
peninsula. At the time of the American occupation of 1847-'48, it was also
admitted as numbering about 12,000 souls. The seven Dominican missions of
the north sea coast are said to have contained 5,000 Indians in those establishments in the year 1800.
When the American occupation ended, their vessels took away some  500
political refugees, who arrived in the different vessels-of-war at Monterey, in
October, 1848, from the peninsular ports below Loreto. After these left, and
in the fall of 1848, commenced a voluntary emigration from the peninsula to
dig gold in the new placeres of Alta California, which was estimated to take
off some 1,200 of the best classes of the population, about one-half of whom
found their way back before 1855. It is estimated, in 1867, that there are
about 26,000 people in the country from San Diego to San Lucas, about 1,000
of whom are foreigners, as miners, whalemen, traders, etc., including French,
English, German, and American, two-thirds of whom are Americans; the most
of them arrived since 1855. No accurate account of the population has ever
been published or even ascertained since its foundation; the old Spanish notices
up to 1802 being merely confined to the mission colonies, or settlements.
THE INDIAN TRIBES AND LANGUAGES OF THE PENINSULA
All the Indian tribes of the peninsula seem to be affiliated with the Yuinas
of the Colorado, and with the Coras below La Paz. If their languages are
53 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
truly distinct, then it would appear, from the testimony of different missionary
writers indicated in this summary, that they have mixed and remixed one with
the other; the Cochiemies, above Loreto, throughout the north, speak more or
less different dialects of the Yumra-the farther north, the more perfect the
Yuma.   The Jesuit writers declare that different tribes pronounce so differently
the same idiom, as to appear to a stranger as distinct languages.  All the Indians
of the missions above Santa Gertrudis are undoubtedly Yuma in their family
relations.  The entire numbers of them could never have exceeded 25,000 before civilization was commenced, say in 1700, from the cape to the Colorado, as
s shown from the small numbers gathered into the different missions from time
to time, and in no case do they differ in intellect, habits, customs, dress, implements of war, or hunting, traditions, or appearances from the well-known Digger Indians of Alta California, and undoubtedly belong to the same race or
family. Going from the north, we may locate them as follows: on the Colorado bottoms were the Cocopahs, the southern gulf tribes of which Coilsag (1746)
calls Bagiopas, Hebonumas, Quigyumas, Cuculutes, and the Alchedumas. Those
of Santa Catalina, San Pedro Martyr, and San Miguel, and Santo Tomas, such
as the Gueymuras, and Gimiels, were nearly pure Yumnas, as were those of our
San Diego.  From Santo Tomas to San Vicente, they were termed Icas; from
this last, including San Domingo, Rosario, and San Fernando,  the Uchitas
roamed, mixed with their affilees, known to the missionaries as the Vintacottas
and Vilicatas. Between San Fernando and Moleje were the Limonies, divided
(going from the north), into the Cagnaguets, Adacs, and Kadakamans.   From
Moleje to Loreto were the purer Cochiemies, or Guaicuris, or Vicuras, whom
the Jesuits assert were of the same language as the Limonies.  From Loretto
to the parellels of Magdalena Bay were the Monquies and Edues, and from these
last to the cape, Pericues and Coras. The first who reduced the language to
writing, in catechism, etc., was Father Copart, who was with Kino, in 1697, at
the time of Admiral Otondo's expedition.  The most copious writer was Father
Begert (of 1767), on the Cochiemies or Waicura, which was only a meagre
grammatical analysis and religious explanations of the language, contained in
three or four pages, as detailed in the Smithsonian Report of 1864, by -ir.
Charles Rau, of New York.   No systematic grammar or dictionary of the
peninsular languages is known in philological history.  Francisco Pimentel,
the famous Indian philologist of Mexico, compared, in 1862, a Cora vocabulary
of the vicinities of Cape San Lucas, with one of the Cora tribes of the Nayarites
clans of Sinaloa and Jalisco, but they show no analogy or likeness whatsoever
to each other, nor to any Mexican dialect or language.
THE POLITICAL CHANGES AND STATUS-THE COUNTRY DIVIDED INTO MUNICIPALI                             TIES AFTER 1859.
After 1767 the viceroy placed the administration of the government under
the comandante of the Presidio troops, the capital being at Loreto, and that
officer acquiring the name of governor. In 1775 the governor, who was then
Philip de Neve, was ordered to remove his residence to Monterey, which became
the capital of the two Californias.
*   Up to the year 1821 Lower California remained under the Viceregal Government of Mexico, but on the assumption of the Independent Government under
Iturbide, with Alta California, it acknowledged the supremacy of the patriots.
After 1830 it was constituted into a separate territory, and allowed one delegate
to the National Congress of Mexico, the territory of Alta California being allowed the same.  The military and civil officers for several years after 1830
seemed to be under the orders of the Monterev chiefs; but they gradually diverged into independent action from the immense distances intervening and
the constant revolutions occurring. Indeed, after 1825 Lower California was
54 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
troubled very little by the Mexican Oficialidad from its poverty and the docility
of the people. The stuccession of political chiefs is not set forth in any publication.  This state of things prevailed down to the declaration of war between
Mexico and the United States in 1846. In 1847 the naval forces of the United
States, under Commodores Shulbrick and Jones, captured the ports of Guaymas,
Mazatlanm, and of La Paz and San Jos6 del Cabo of the peninsula, the flago being
raised in Lower California by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry S. Burton, of the army,
and Captain T. Bailey, of the navy, on the 28th July, 1847. Several companies of Stevenson's regiment of New York Volunteers were stationed in different parts of the cotuntry, and generally the people readily submitted to the new
powers, and so continued until the American evacuation in the early part of the
fall of 1848, when all warlike material was removed to Monterey, the American
fleet bringing several hundred refugees who had compromised themselves with
the conquerors, among whom were Governor Palacios and Padre Ramirez.
After 1849 a number of the American volunteers returned to Lower  California, and since 1860 several hundreds of our countrymen have emigrated
there. Since 1850 the country has been in a continual turmoil of petty revolutions, and governor succeeded governor, or revolutionary chief, every twelve
months, of whom it is almost impossible to make even a list. Under the Comonfort Government of 1857, General Jos6 Castro, of Monterey, was made military commandant of the northern frontiers, which governed the northern districts above the bay of Viscaino.  The revolution imposed in Mexico between
the Republican Government of Juarez and the Imperial assumption of government by Maximilian and the French did not extend to the peninsula, nor did
the invading forces attempt any changes by armed operations there between
1862 and 1867. A full official account of the American occupation of 1847-'48
may be found in the documents accompanying the mnessages of Presidents Polk
and Taylor, published between 1848 to 1850. Since 1855 an American consul
has generally resided at La Paz, but none, we believe, of any other nation.
Since the year 1863 a regular monthly line of steamers plies between San
Francisco and the Mexican coast poirts as far as San Blas, touching at La Paz
and San Jose6 del Cabo, and bringing Lower California into steam connection
friom British Columbia to Acapulco and Panama, and soon to Chili, which is
having an important influence on the political, social, and commercial affairs of
the country. In February, 1867, a steamship company was organized in San
Francisco to connect all the settled gulf ports of Lower California, which will
greatly stimulate commerce, mining, and emigration. The several incorporated
railroad companies to run through the southern counties of the State of California to the Colorado valley will also have, within the next 10 years, important
effects on the destinies of the country. The same may be said of those proposed firom the valley of the Rio Grande to the port of Guaymas, which will
doubtless be accomplished before 20 years have elapsed.
The changes growing out of the new constitution of Comonfort's revolution, 1856-'58, and continued by that of Juarez up to 1861, caused the various
portions of Old California to be politically and judicially divided into seven
municipalities or jurisdictions. Going from San Diego to the south, these are
named as follows, and each having an alcalde, or juez del distrito, as judicial
heads:
1. Municipalidad of Santo Tomas, from the frontier to a short distance of
the mission of San Vicente, and including the land from ocean to gulf; capital, Mission Santo Tomas.
2. Municipalidad of San Antonio, from a little below San Vicente over to
the gulf above San Felipe Jesus Bay; its southern parallel crossing Cedros
Island; capital, La Rosario Mission.
3. Municipalidad of Moleje, from the parallel.of Cedros Island to near the
mission of Purisima; capitals, San Ignacio and Moleje Missions.
55 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
4. Municipalidad of Comondu, from Purisima parallel to the northern parallels of the bav of Magdalena; capital, Mission San Jos6 Comondu.
Each of these four jurisdictions is at such an inconvenient distance from
another's centres as to be from 100 to 150 miles apart by the line of the
road.
5. Municipalidad of Todos Santos, capital at Todos Santos Mission; and
6. Municipalidad of La Paz, capital, town of La Paz, are divided longritudinally from each other, but are bounded north and south by similar parallels.
7. The last municipalidad is that of San Jose, which covers the remaining
territory to Cape San Lucas, with its capital at the pueblo of San Jos6 del Cabo.
These divisions were first inserted on De Fleury's map of 1864.
Wvhen the Dominicans assumed the entire control of the missions from the
Franciscans, in 1774, all the country below the bay of San Diego to Cape San
Lucas began to be termed politically and religiously, in official documents, as
California Antigua, or Vieja, and all above San Diego Bay as California Nueva.
About that time also, or about 1770, the viceroy made the military comandante of the peninsula a lieutenant-colonel, acting as political chief, with headquarters or capital at Loreto; but in 1775 the capital of the two Californias
was removed to Monterey, to whom the officer at Loreto reported until the
year 1822, on the final separation of Mexico from Spain.  This system was not
entirely altered till several years afterward, or about the last of Figueroa's term,
or say 1835.
After 1835 the peninsular chiefs began to report to the head-government of
Mexico, and dropped official reporting to the Monterey governor.   But such
was the mixed-up state of things in the far-off Californias before 1846, that the
greatest confusion exists in their political affairs and archives. Since the American evacuation of 1848, the country has been placed under a general of the
Mexican army, as political and mnilitary chief, with his capital generally at La
Paz; sometimes at San Antonio Real, or other places.
THE TRUE AND THE APPROXIMATE LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES OF LOWER CALI  FORNIA POSITIONS, COMMENCING AT THE MOUTH OF THE COLORADO RIVER.
The most reliable instrumental and astronomical positions in the peninsula
have been taken by American officers in Ives's Colorado expedition of 1858,
and contained in his celebrated survey, and is probably the most valuable and
best prepared memorial yet given on any district of the continent of North
America. The other positions narrated below are from Findley and other English and French works noted in our Summary, and one locality from Weller's
Boundary Monument of 1850, but only a few appear to have been taken from
observatories and instruments established or set up on the solid land. For instance, the positions of Vancouver, Belcher, and Kellett are often stated, or to
be inferred, as taken from aboard ship at anchor, which, of course, renders observations liable to greater error. The latitudes and longitudes of the Jesuit
and other Spanish observers are only approximate, and, even when given mathematically, were by the old-fashioned instruments ante 1820, and are consequently
of little practical use. Commencing at the Colorado, we shall enumerate going
south on the coasts of Lower California:
N. Latitude.
1. Robinson's Landing, ten miles from the mouth of the. ore
river, is in.................................. 31~ 49' 21"  8
2. The initial point of the boundary between Upper and
Lower California at the monument near the sea    shore, erected by Weller's Commission of Bound    ary Survey in 1850, one marine league south of the
southernmost point of San Diego Bay and opposite
the Coronados Island, is in................... 32~ 31' 58" 46
56
Longitude
W. of igreenwich.
114' 51' 15" 0
117' 06' 11" 12 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
N. Latitude.
(as stated in Davidson's "Coast Directory of the. ote
United States Pacific Coast of 1858," as detcr      mined by coast survey shore observations.)
3. Angel Guardian Island, south point............... 29~ 06'
4. Cape San Gabriel............................... 28~ 36'
5r. Moleje Village, in the bay of same name........... 26~ 52'
6. Point Concepcion, farther south................... 26~ 57'
7. Town of Loretto............................... 26~ 14'
8. Carmen Island, east point........................       26~  10'
9. Catalina, or Catalan Island, north point............ 25~ 41'
10. Ceralvo Island, ncrth end........................ 24~ 23'
11. San Jos6 del Caho, mission (land observation)....... 23~ 03' 30"
12. Cape San Lucas (Belcher, 1839, land observation)... 22~ 52'
San Bernabe6 Bay or Porto Seguro, or Pueblito
del Cabo, is only a few miles just inside to north      east of Cape San Lucas.
Going from San Lucas up the Pat.fic Coast.
13. Mesas, or Table-Lands, of Narvaez.............. 23~ 56' 
14. Gulf of Magdalena, at Delgado Point (land observa      tion)........................................ 38~ 24' 18"
15. Cape Lazaro (1,300 feet high).................... 24~ 44' 50"
16. Farallones of the Alijos Rocks, some 140 miles from
the continent (Du Petit Thouars, 1838).......... 24~ 51'
17. Point Abreojos................................. 26~ 42'
18. Ascencion Island............................... 27~ 08'
19. San Bartolome6 or Turtle Bay (Belcher, land ob      servation)................................ 27~ 39' 50"
20. Cedros Island (bay inside eastern end, Kellett, 1846,
land observation)............................. 28~ 03'
21. San Benito Islets, west end.......................      28~     12'
22. Santa Marina Point, or Santa Maria (Kellett)........ 28~ 55'
23. San Geronimo Island (Kellett).................... 29~ 48'
24. Port San Quintin (west point, Belcher)............. 300 21' 30"
25. Point Zufliga (Vancouver, 1792, ship observation)... 30~ 30'
26. Ceniizas Island, northwest point (Vancouver)....... 30~ 32'
27. San Martin Island (Kell       ett)........................   30~ 28'
28. Todos Santos Bay, Pt. Grajero (Vancouver).......             4.  31~  44'
29. Boundary Monument, opposite  Coronados  Islands,
which are seven miles off shore (Davidson, 1858).. 32~ 31' 58" 46
The hydrographic points on the coast fiom San Diego to the northern
b)oundary of Washington Territory were more carefully and exactly defined by
the United States Coast Survey than ever before, and are contained in Davidsoni's " Directory" before mentioned.
In all these twenty-nine positions only eleven were made on land firom fixed
observatories, while the others are from shipboard and are unreliable, though
sufficiently and approximately correct to be of practical use to mariners. 
THE CLIMATE AND COUNTRY OF THE CALIFORNIA PENINSULA —RAINS WITHOUT
CLOUDS.
Tile climate of the country between the boundary and Magdalena Bay is one
of the most delightful, salubrious, and equable on the face of the globe, and, if
settled, would be among the most accessible and acceptable sanitariums in the
world, and is admirably adapted to raising many of the fruits of the torrid zone,
and all of those of the Mediterranean basin as well as all the vegetables and
cereals of Alta California; and all agree that they are of much better quality than
those raised above San Diego. On the gulf shore, unider the same parallels, it
is not only much hotter, but is subject in the summer and fall months to terrible
hurricanes and water-spouts; but these do not occur every year, and practised
mariners know how to avoid and escape firom them to the ports close by with
little difficulty.  In the winter months, after the first rains of November to May,
the transparency and delightful effects of the cooled atmosphere are said to be
57
Longitude.
W. of Greenwich.
112' 5 2'
112' 3 I'
112' 29'
112' 04'
ill, 30,
111' 02'
110' 47'
109' 45'
109' 41'
109' 53'
110,
112' 06' 21"
112' 16'  0"
115' 47'
113' 34'
114' 18'
114' 51' 20"
115' 1 l'
115' 46'
lisp 31,
115' 47'
115' 56' 33"
115, 58,
116' 02'
115' 57'
116' 46'
117' 06' 11" 12 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
so exhilarating as to be unequalled in the world: the moonlights aire as brilliant
as those of Arabia Felix and Palestine, and good eyes can read print with ease
from the light of the moon; the earliest notices since 1539 to 1867 remark these
facts.
A beautiful phenomenon is experienced in the peninsular meteorologies which
is felt on land and on sea, particularly on the gulf coasts, and we believe is known
in no other country.   This is the fall of rains in the summer and autumn
when the sky is without clouds and the atmosphere perfectly serene.  Much
has been written on this bv various eminent savants, and which, as far as we are
aware, is not accounted for.  But may it not be the showers falling from those
immense water-spouts or cloud-bursts of which frequent examples occur in the
gulf shores, through the Colorado country, and below the Santa Barbara Channel, and as high north as the great basin of Washoe and Utah, of which five or
six recorded examples have occurred since 1861? May not these showers, taken
up by the whirlwinds generated by the cloud-bursts, sweep off the falling waters
far from their centres, and, with the force of the terrific winds, carry the rains into
perfectly limpid atmospheres, where they deposit their drops upon the earth a
This question may be propounded to scientific meteorologists.
It must not be supposed that such a country is not sometimes scourged by
disease; on the contrary, the warmer and oldest settled parts below Magdalena
are often unhealthy in the summer and fall, but nothing like to other tropical
countries or even those of the Mexican coasts. The sun is terribly hot in these
parts, but the air pure and dry, and the Lower Californians always boast of the
salubrity of their hotter latitudes now settled for 170 years, and hundreds of instances, past and present, could be reported of longevities of from 100 to 110
years of age.  It possesses the healthiest tropical latitudes in the world, because
the winds from the ocean and gulf temper effectually the ardor of the summer
suns; health can be preserved there by prudence as in the best portions of Alta
California.  All the mountain districts of the peninsula possess a uniformly temperate and equable climate, preserving this quality in the shade even in July and
August.
The peninsula is a very steep, rugged, rocky country in the interior and on
many districts of the coast; the shores in most parts are lined with heavy sanddunes, and the Jesuit writers affirm that the land, both on the gulf and ocean coasts,
was believed to be sensibly elevating before 1767. Lieutenant Ives, in 1858, assumes that the gulf bottom is also perceptibly rising for, say, 100 miles below the
mouth of the Colorado.
Several California observers suggest that the Gulf of California at one time
extended up to the Sierra Nevadas, while, on the other hand, others think it can
be proved that the mouth of the Colorado at one time opened not far from the
parallel of Guaymas harbor; that is, its ancient entrance is nearly 200 miles south
of its present one, and that it run up to the north by prior or subsequent changes
and rechanges to the Great Death Valley, north of the Mohave, near where are
the present silver-mines of the Pahnaragat district of 1.867.
ITS CURIOUS FOSSILS AND VALUABLE MINERALS.
The peninsula is said even to exceed the State of California in the extent of
its fossil remains of shells, fish, mammalian animals, and even, as is suggested, fossil man.  There are immense formations of fossil remains in the vicinities of
Magdalena Bay, Loreto, and Moleje, noticed by the Jesuit writers and by Belcher
and others.
Argentiferous galenas are very common above Moleje, and pure sulphur occurs in heavy deposits near the volcano vicinities, not fat from the same old mission. Copper ores abound in several localities between San Diego and Rosario,
and two mines have been worked there ever since 1855, and copper ores are also
58 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
said by the Jesuit writers to be very common on the northern gulf coasts and
islands; those of Ceralvo, San Jos6, and Espiritu Islands being very rich and
now well known.  It is likely, when the business is well established, that the copper deposits of the peninsula will be very profitably worked, from the proximities of all of them to harbors and ports, as in no other parts of the world are they
so accessible to good seaports.   Quicksilver ores are also said to be found near
Santa Catalina Mission since 1858. The salinas of the ocean coasts from San
Quintin to Magdalena are very numerous and plentiful, and the salt is easily
gathered. The salt-mines of Carmen Island are said to be sufficiently extensive to
supply the whole world, and large quantities of salt have been sent to San Francisco
during the last ten years, as it is very dry, pure, and of the primest quality, and
is taken out only a short distance from ship-anchorag(e.  Before 1750 the Jesuits
offered to the viceroy to entirely support the California missions, if this deposit
were granted to them by the King of Spain, but the offer was declined. For the
last few years the Mexican Government has raised considerable revenues from
farming out this salt-mine. All these salinas will add greatly to the resources
of the country for the reduction of mineral ores and salting the product of the
teeming fisheries of the coasts.
Marble of excellent quality is found near La Paz and Loreto, and sulphate
of lime or gypsum in large slabs, so trapsparent as to be used for windowav-lights.
Immense beds of gigantic fossil oysters are found in many of the old settled districts, some of which measure two feet in length and weigh 20 lbs., and have long
been used for making bricklayers' lime.  Between 1861 and 1864, some twenty
mining companies were incorporated in San Francisco to work the silver-copper
mineral deposits of the peninsula, particularly those called El Triunfo and San
Antonio Real, below La Paz, and large amounts of money have been spent and
successful progress made in three or four of them. The silver-mines near San
Antonio were worked since 1748, and much metal obtained from them by very
simple processes, amounting to something under a million of dollars.  Deposits
of impure carbonate of soda, or tequisquite, exist in several parts, and are in common use. All kinds of building-stone are very accessible and abundant.
One of the Jesuit missionaries, about 1765, found, near a locality of San Ignacio Mission, called San Joaquin, the remains of a fossil animal, whose bones
exactly resembled those of a human being: the dimensions of the skull, vertebral and leg bones represented the remnants of a man over eleven feet high.
Similar remains have been found in Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties in California State since 1860, which highly excited the attention of the learned world.
It would seem, from all accounts, that the country offers one of the most inviting fields in the world for the investigations of the mineralogist, geologist,
and fossilologist.
CHAPTER XI.
MINERAL WATERS-HOT SPRINGS-THE CURIOUS VERMILION-COLORED CAUSTIC
WATERS OF THE GULF-HEADS,
MINERAL springs of highly medicinal qualities, both warm and cold, are found
in n(-early every district of the country.  Several boiling-hot springs are known
on the gulf shores above San Felipe Jesus harbor.
One of the most curious of these mineralized waters is found in numerous
pools near the mouth of the Colorado, on the peninsular shores. It is in color
vermilion-red, and of such a caustic quality as to rot the clothes of those who are
incautious in meddling with it, and it produces quickly most irritable blisters on
the skin, and even boils and swellings, as in the attacks of scurvy.  It is undoubtedly of volcanic origin, and contains large proportions probably of bromine,
chlorine, and iodine, as silver ores of these powerful metalloids are often found.
47
I
59 
SKETCH OF THIE SETTLEM3ENT AND
in the Sonora, Washoe, and Arizona mines, aad it is well known  that bromine
and iodine exist in unusually large proportions in the marine waters of the northern coast and of the Santa Barbara Channel. It has lately been discovered in
France that an analysis of the upper waters of the Red Sea vielded bromine in
such large quantities as to be easily obtained, when there is any great demand
for the consumnption of that powerful substance.  In Padre Ugarte's expedition
up to the Colorado entrances in 1728, and in that of Padre Consag's in 1746,
these caustic waters occasioned dangerous ulcers, blisters, and other sickness of
their boats' crews, and greatly retarded the success of their explorations. All
travellers and navigators should bear in mind  the dangerous properties of these
waters; they are well known bv the American navigators to the Colorado and
those who reside on the river below Fort Yuma, and are not to be trifled with.
In some seasons it is hard to keep a ship clear of this water.
SOME OF THE STRANGE BEASTS AND FISHES OF THE PENINSULAR WATERS-31ER   MAIDS AND DEVIL-FISHES-GREAT STORES OF WHALES  AND SEALS-NORTH   PACIFIC WHALE-FISHERY IN 1866.
The waters of Lower California abound with some of the grandest and largest
of marine vertebrata and mammnalia. There are some ten species of whales, or the
cetacea, among which is the sperm whale, which, fortv vears aoo, were numerous between the Santa Barbara Islands and Cape San Lucas, and made the fortunes of hundreds of ships.  There is a small species of cetacea found between
Moleje and the head of the gulf, which is said to yield a very superior quality
of oil, that dries so quick as to be used in painting, andl is equal to linseed-oil. The
California whale, right whale, hump-backs, and several other varieties, are found
mostly on the ocean coast, and since 1854  regular settlements of whalemen are
made among the bays, islands, and harbors between  Magdalena and San Diego
(the centre of which is Magdalena Bay), who capture the cetacea from shore,
where the blubber is "tried out," and the whalebone cleansed and prepared for
market. When sufficient material is accumulated, it is either sold to shore merchlants or to visiting whale-ships, or it is shipped direct to San Francisco, which
is the centre of all their operations, and from whence they receive their outfits
and make their ultimate returns. In some years there are reported to have been
not less than thirty different whaling and sealing camps below San Diego, aggregating some 2,000 men; and as seals and the affiliative families are in the greatest
abundance, cargoes are often prepared with great rapidity.  Some five or six of
these camps have become permanent establishments of ten years' standing, and
many of the whalemen have married in the country and settled ashore in the
vicinity of the calups, particularly in Magdalena Bay.  All this business, with a
stable and intelligent government, is capable of most profitable and even indefinite extension, and will greatly assist in the development of the country.
especially as the whole ocean coast is fill of ports and bays, and particularly salubrious, and supplies of edible fish, turtle, and shell-fish are abundant and easy to
take.  Great numbers of these "'longshore whalemen" are Portuguese mariners
brought up in the American trade, and very steady, quiet, industrious men. The
New Bedford journals of January, 1867, give the following data on the status of
the whale-fisheries of the North Pacific for the year 1866. The total number of
whale-ships belongring to the United States in 1866 was 311, measuring  73,289
tons' capacity; of these, 281 belonged to the State of Massachusetts, the most
of which hailed from New Bedford.
In 1866 there were 106 vessels of this fleet employed in the North Pacific,
who made a catch of 65,000 barrels of oil, or 1,950,000 gallons.  As  many as
two-thirds of these vessels fished in the Arctic, Kodiak, and Okotsk Seas, above
the parallels of 52~; while the remaining, or say 25 vessels, fished on the Lower
California and Mexico west coasts, and to the north of the Galapagos. This
60 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
includes no'longshore whaling ventures of the California coasts, having their
centres.in San Francisco. The amount of products in money value of the'longshore fisheries between San Francisco and Cape San Lucas may be estimated,
including the catch of seal-oils, at some $800,000 per annum since 1862, and
one-half of this pertains to Lower California. There are no means of getting at
a proper account of these affairs, ours being an estimate from the most recent
reports.
One of the curious and interesting animals of the gulf waters is a species of
dugong, called by the Spaniards mulier and woman of the sea, and which almost
answers to the sailor-myths of the mermaid. It is found all the way from near
San Blas up to the islands of the Sal Si Puedes, and was first noticed by Grijalva, one of Cortez's California captains in 1532, and has been frequently mentioned as seen and even caught from that time to the present. From the descriptions given, it appears never to exceed ten pounds in weight, eyes large and soft
in expression, a grayish dull-white color for the upper body, breasts similar to
those of a man or woman, head similar to a dog or sea otter, skin smooth and
without scales or hair above the navel, and having the lower parts, or one-half of
the body, like such a fish as the saltnon, and covered with scales down to the end
of the tail, which is of half-moon figure. The dimensions of this curious animal
appear never to have exceeded three feet, at least of such as have been described
as handled or closely observed, and they are so shly as rarely to have been
taken.
The three great beasts of the California seas are immense and ferocious
sharks, or tiburones, thirtv feet long, the terrible manta raya, devil-fish, or
great ray, and the great octopods, or eight-armed cart-wheel-shaped squids, so
famous in marine traditions.  Some of the sharks of the upper gulf waters are
said to be as large as middling-sizedl California whales, and to weigh over 1,000
lbs. There are great numbers of them in certain parts, and they are exceedingly
dangerous to pearl-divers, boatmen, and fishermen, both on the ocean coasts below Cedros Island and among the islands of the gulf. Great numbers of the
different species of sharks abound in every bay and harbor, and there is no
doubt the manufacture of shark-oil could be most profitably carried on.
The manta raya is an immense brute, of great strength, cunning, and
ferocity, and is more the terror of the pearl-divers than any other creature of
the sea. It measures from nose to tail as much as 20 feet at maturity, nearly
five-eighths of which consist of an immensely long and spinous covered tail;
the animal has been found to weigh 1,000 lbs., and to require 60 men to lift it
by tackles and blocks on board of a British man-of-war.  The superior forward
parts consist of immense thick blanket-like flaps, 12 feet across, and the nose is
said to be armed with a beak or horny mandible. All the upper parts of the
body are provided with hard knots and spines, and the hide is very rough, and
thicker than that of a bull.  The meat of this "beast of the sea" is said to be
particularly good eating, and very white and juicy, and is much more compact
than that of ordinary fish. The habit of the animal is to hover at the surface
over the pearl-divers, obstructing the rays of the sun, and moving as the diver
moves, and, when he is obliged to come up for breath, hugging him in its immense flaps until he is suffocated, when the brute, with hisformidable teeth and
jaws, devours him with a gluttonous voracity. They are also found at the entrances of the Mexican rivers, between Tehuantepec Bay and Mazatlan, where in
some places they are very numerous, and dangerous to the boatmen and fishermen, frequently attacking boats with their beak and flaps, and sometimes upsetting them.  Many fishermen and pearl-divers have been killed by them.
The eight-armed octapod, or great squid, shaped like some gigantic spider,
inhabits the rocky holes and cavities of the sea-shore, particularly where, sheltered by headlands and islets, the force of the surfs and swells is broken, and
among the sea-weeds, and they can quietly watch for their prey. At all ages
I
I
I
61
I
I
I
I
I
ii
i
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
this beast is dangerous, but at maturity it attains an immense size, and is
the fountain-head of whalemen's fish-yarns, and said to come up to the size
of a 74-gun frigate, and can attack and throttle a sperm-whale.  Its arms
measure from 10 to 20 feet in length, tapering fiom three inches in diameter to
the thickness of a man's finger. On the lower parts it is furnished with flat
disks or suckers, as round as a dollar, every two or three inches apart; the
body is a spherical, pulpous, flat mass, in the middle of which is a large bill or
beak, shaped exactly like that of a vulture or a parrot. WAVith these arms they
seize, smother, and envelop their prey, and at leisure devour it with their
sharp and formidable bills. The skin is as smooth and slippery as an eel's, and
of a dark lead-color, and its greedy, round, red eyes express the ferocity of a demon, and is altogether an ugly, dangerous customer to get within a man's distance.
Sword-fish of immense sizes are also found in the peninsular waters, which
have been known to attack vessels and leave their shafts in its timbers. Another
singular fish is the boeps, ochione, or bull's eye, which has only one large eye,
set in the centre of the upper part of its body, of the size of a bullock's,
and seems to be a species of sun-fish, from the descriptions given of it.  It is
described by Clavijero as some two pounds in weight, entirely flat on the under
parts, and elevated above, with a single eye set in the middle of the upper parts,
and even when dead making an ugly, repulsive appearance.   The boton is a
curious fish, not well described, and the liver of which is said to contain a virulent poison.
Nearly every species and variety of edible fish found in the waters of the
Mediterranean, or on the coasts of Europe, or the West Indies, and of Atlantic
North America, or Chili, are found in Lower California in greater abundance
than elsewhere, and which have been before touched on in this summary. Their
numbers are not only incredible, but many of them are of extraordinary beauty
and brilliancy of colors. The missionary and discovery writers bear invariable
testimony to this feature of the animal lite of California.
THE SHELL-FISHERIES-AULONES AND PEARLS-CORALINES-THE EDIBLE OYSTER.
The family of Haliotis, univalves, represented by the aulon (improperly termed
abalone), or ear-shaped shells of Monterey port, number, as is said, over  18
different species or kinds on the coasts of Lower California. They are particularly abundant in the islands, and in aud out of the bays and ports where rocky
and, not sandy formations abound. For the last ten years the northern aulonfisheries above Santa Barbara depleting year by year, the Chinese fishermen
have gathered large quantities of this excellent shell-fish, below Cedros Island,
which, when dried, brings from $12 to $30 a quintal in the Chinese markets,
and is considered a great delicacy. The demand for it is large and permanent.
This shell-fish is much more abundant in the peninsular waters than in those of
Alta California. Of later years a traffic has opened for the shipment of the
shells to Europe and China, which are preferred byi many manufacturers for
ornamental purposes to those of the pearl oyster, or mother of pearl.
The pearl oyster is also said to exist in two distinct species, and a third is
thought to be the same as those met with among the Sal Si Puedes Islands.
Pearl oysters are not found everywhere on the coast, but intercalate at intervals,
preferringq well-sheltered bays or harbors where fresh water empties; but this
rule is not invariable. They are met with, for over 1,000 miles of shore line, between Magdalena and around the cape, and all the way up the gulf north above
Angel Guardian Island, and the missionary writers state that after hurric anes
they are known to have been thrown up on the beaches by the cart-load.
There are, doubtless, many extensive beds never fished or even discovered in
these little-knowli seas, as is the habit of the oyster family, ard there is every
62 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
likelihood they could be cultivated and increased as are the oysteries of Long
Island and the Potomac, or of France and England.
The pearl-fisheries, which are always prosecuted near noon and in cloudless
weather, are still pursued in the peninsular waters every year, and it is very
likely the new diving-apparatus and machinery, getting into such common use
in San Francisco and other large ports for submarine operations, would succeed
admirably in facilitating not only the finding and working of them, but in hauling larger numbers to the surface. A New York company is now in operation
in the pearl islands of the bay of Panama, with a diving-apparatus, specially
adapted to this business, which is stated, in January, 1867, to be in successful
working, for account of which see page 75. It is to be borne in mind that the
value of good pearls will make it always profitable to look for them, and a number one size and lustre is worth still from $5,000 to $6,000, and even more, for
single pearls. Ordinary pearls are always abundant every year, but extraordinary sizes and colors are very rare. The most splendid of the pearls in the
Spanish regalia were brought from the gulf of California before Napoleon's invasion, and they had always been in high demand in Spain since the days of
Cortez. An American minister, in 1863, says that some of these pearls were as
large as pigeons' eggs, and were among the most valuable jewels in the crown
regalia.  The common way of pearl-diving by men from open boats is of great
antiquity, and is practised in Ceylon, Persia, among the Malayan Islands, and
on the islands off the coasts of Venezuela and in Panama Bay, as well as in the
gulf of California.  As we have mentioned before, a California pearl-diving company was instituted in London in 1825, during the great mining excitement of
those times, the management of which was put under Lieutenant Hardy, who
came out to Lower California afterward to prosecute the enterprise, but no reliable accounts have reached us of how much profit resulted, and it has generally
been considered an entire failure.  Humboldt mentions that in 1802 a Mexican
priest invented a diving-bell for the purpose of taking pearl oysters, which he
experimented on in one of the lakes near Mexico Cityx, over 7,000 feet above the
sea, but nothing more ever came of it. The pearl oyster has been eagerly
hunted in Lower California every year since the times of Cortez, and the early
divers, even before his arrival, found them much easier than they did after 1750,
and the Indians possessed great numbers of them, which they counted as
money, and hung in strings, as to this day they preserve their common shell
money; the early traders got great bargains by exchanging trinkets and knives
for valuable gems. After heavy storms in the season of 1740, immense banks
of pearl oysters were thrown up by the waves, and completely paved many
parts of tlhe ocean coasts below and above Magdalena Bay. The Indians of the
vicinities of the Mission of San Ignacio, then recently civilized, knowing the estimation in which these were held by the Spaniards, brought large quantities of
pearls from this sea-upheaval to the mission, and sold them to Manuel Osio and
his fellow-soldiers for trifling values. With these treasures he procured his discharge, and, hastening to Sinaloa, purchased boats, supplies, and men, and in
1742 was fortunate enough to fish up not less than 127 pounds' weight of pearls,
and in 1744 the large amount of 275 pounds, all of which made Osio the richest
man in Lower California, and his descendants live there to this day. This lucky
arazador de perlas afterward commenced the first silver-mine near the RPeal
de San Antonio, but he is said not to have made much money by his mining
operations. The Jesuit writers say after 1750 the pearl-fishery was absolutely
abandoned in the peninsular waters, but this is not so, as other Spanish writers
state it was followed profitably at periods down to 1812, and also after the independence in 1822, and down to the American occupation of 1847.
Even since the epoch of gold, great hauls have been made, and only in 1857
it was stated in the San Francisco journals, a lucky armador, or master pearl-diver,
had taken, with his boats' crews, some three bushels of pearls, many of which
63
i
I
I 
SKETCH O0' THE SETTLEMENT AND
were very large and valuable. Antonio de Castillo, a Spanish settler, of the
port of Chiametla, below Mazatlan, made  a large fortune in pearl-diving, between 1618 and 1625, and Captains Ituibi and Ortega about that time engaged
in the business, and took some extra-fine pearls to Mexico City, one of which
sold for $4,500, greatly stimulating the traffic. The seamen of Cavendish's ship,
in 1587, of Woodes Rogers's, in 1711, and of Shelvock's, in 1720, when at the
cape, in exchange for common trinkets, procured many fine pearls from the
California Indianis, some of which afterward became famous in England, and
had considerable influence ill stimulating after west-coast adventures.  California pearls of good quality have been in profitable demand in Mexico arind
Peru for the last 300 years, and there is no more danger that the business will
ever "dry up" than of our gold-minies, as has often been predicted by shallowminded men. Above the Sal Si Puedes Islands, and near Isle Tiburon, in the
gulf, is said to abound a small species of brilliant white-shelled pearl oyster, but
we are not aware of the special quality of pearls they yield. The species of white
and red coral so esteemed in jewelry has been also found in the peninsular
waters in considerable abundance for some years.  Between 1700 and 1710, the
king's share of one-fifth of all the pearls taken in California, for each and every
vessel employed or engaged, amounted annually to $12,000. The traders were
obliged to procure a license from the governor of Sonora, and generally started
from Guaymas. These vessels measured from 15 to 30 tons; the owners are
called armadores, and the divers buses, and the barks, each, carried from 30 to
50 divers; the armador advanced all the outfits and provisions, and carried
supplies, and goods to exchange with his men for pearls: a venture all round.
In the years mentioned, as many as 800 divers, mnostly Yaqui Indians, have
been employed in the season from July to October. Il 1825, as Forbes states
from Hardy, 18 small vessels were employed, and, when fortunate, obtained
from 500 to 1,000 dollars' worth of pearls each. In 1831 four small barks, with
boats, fitted out from the Sonora ports, carryingo 200 divers.   One vessel got 40
ounces of pearls, worth $6,500; another, 21 ounces, worth $3,000; another,
15 ounces, worth $1,800; and the fourth, 12 ounces, worth $2,000; total,
$13,300. In 1855 the value of $65,000 in pearls and pearl-shells was obtained,
and in 1857 the amount of $22,000 in pearls, and $30,000 in shells.
THE GUANO DEPOSITS OF THE OCEAN AND GULF SHORES.
There are stated to be guano deposits on several of the islets and rocks of
the upper gulf sections, where myriads of sea-fowl congregate; and, as rains are
infrequent there, the quality is, doubtless, profitable to work.   From  1855 to
1857 great excitement was created in San Francisco, touching the deposits on
the ocean coast of the peninsula, and the little island of Elide, so called, as we
are informed by Captain Kimberly, of Santa Barbara, from an American vessel,
which first took a cargo, was the centre of some spicy events for many months.
The island is said to have yielded many large cargoes for several years, gaining
several hundred thousand dollars, by a few long-headed speculators; but at
present, we believe, it is exhausted. Growing out of this discovery, some active
California traders started off to Mexico, and are said to have secured a monopoly
of all guano deposits on both coasts of Lower California, the result of which
was the establishment of the well-known Mexican Guano Company, of San Francisco. Elide Islandis in the northern part of Viscaino Bay, in about 28~ 50~,
and some 50 miles northeast of Cedros Island, and at Natividad and Assumption Islands, below Cedros, guano is also said to be found as well as on several
other islets and points farther south.
64 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
CHAPTER XII.
THE NATIVE AND DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS-MOUNTAIN SHEEP, AND GOATS.
THE indigenous quadrupeds, insects, birds, and reptiles of Lower California
are nearly precisely those of Arizona, and the southern parts of Alta California,
below Point Conception.  The quadrupeds are grizzly and cinnamon bears, antelopes, or berendas, big-horn sheep, sometimes called by the Mexicans tajes and
cervatos, the mountain-goat, deer, wild-cats, two kinds of lions, so called, very destructive to horses, ground-squirrels, gophers, skunks, badgers, raccoons, coyotes,
hares, rabbits, wolves, and foxes. Among the insects are locusts, or chapules, which
are very destructive at times, several species of bees and wasps, tarantula and
other spiders, and many other insects peculiar to Sonora.   Among the birds
are two species of vultures, called Burrowes vulture, and the California condor,
the common turkey buzzard, various kinds of owls, eagles, and hawks, the Caifornia quail, blackbirds, finches, humming-birds, larks, ducks, geese, a great
variety of sea-birds, and numbers of others of the feathered kingdom, not met
with in the southern parts of the State of California.
The Jesuit fathers mention seeing, on several occasions, large flocks of wild
goats on the gulf shores above the latitudes of the Sal Si Puedes Islands, and
it is likely identical with the true Rocky Mountain goat, or it may be a distinct
species.  The  big-horn sheep, called taje by the Loreto Indians, was formerly
very plentiful in the mountains, and is figured in Venegas's volumes; it has often
been met with by mineral hunters since 1848.
The ox, horse, ass, sheep, goat, domestic fowl, turkey, hog, dog, and  cat
were introduced by the Jesuit padres before 1730, but they never increased in
such proportions as they did in Alta California, from the greater scarcity of water, and the ruogged nature of the country.  The cattle and horses are extremely
hardy, and acquire the habit of feeding on the cactus and the agave-plants,
which abound in prickles; and such is the wise provision of Nature, that the
toongue and inside of the mouth become so hardened as to resist and break down
this spinous vegetable fodder, and they thrive on it. There can be no doubt that
the fine, long-hair goats of Cashmere, Armenia, Angora, and Morocco, would
succeed without difficulty in Lower California, as the common goat is extremely
hardy and prolific in most parts; the northern districts are admirably adapted
to the fine-haired varieties, as the temperature is warm, pleasant, and equable.
These animals not only furnish abundant and easily-clipped fleeces, but they
supply excellent meat for the butcher, and the cost of keeping them is much
less than that of sheep or cattle. The camel could be also introduced, and
would be very serviceable in travelling.
Before 1848 there were said to be in Lower California about the following
numbers of domestic stock in the different mission districts, those below the San
Diego frontier being the richest, i. e., between Santo Tomas and Rosario:
Cattle.........................................-......... 60,o000oo head.
Horses..................................................'7,000 
Sheep..................................................200,000   "
Mules.................................................. 2,000 "
Asses.................................................. 2,000"
Goats.................................................. 20,000   "
The ass and goat thrive better than other introduced animals.  IHogs
and  domestic poultry  are always plentiful and cheap.   These  figures  are
mere approximates, the mission fathers of the peninsula never having kept
such careful statistics of their animals, products, and Indians, as did those of
Upper California, so there is no other rule to go by than popular report. Lions,
coyotes, wild-cats, wolves, etc., are much more destructive to domestic animals
in the peninsula than above San Diego. The great drought of 1863-'64 made
65 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
great havoc among the flocks and herds of all parts of the peninsula, and injured the prospects of the northern districts on the ocean particularly.
THE NATIVE AND  INTRODUCED  FRUITS, GRAINS, AND  VEGETABLES-FOREST                  TREES-NO HISTORY OF ITS BOTANY KNOWN.
All kinds and varieties of the cactus or prickly-pear family, amounting to
some 50 distinct species, abound in every part of Baja California, and yield the
most delicious and healthy quality of fruits in the greatest abundance. The
family of the agaves (mercals, magueys, or century plants) are extremely abun dant and varied, and it is likely in the future will make an important article
of commerce for the manufacture of spirits from the roots, and of rope, bagging,
and paper fibre, from the leaves or pencas, which often weigh  50 pounds.  It
is certain that the fibre of the agaves could be furnished easily and in the great est abundance, in any quantities, and within short distances of ship-anchorage.
For rope and bagging it exceeds every fibre we have seen in strength, length
of fibre, and durability.   The family of acacia-trees, called mesquites, algarro bas, and locusts, abound in every part of the country. Two kinds of native
palms, bearing edible fruit, are very abundant, and several kinds of cone-bear ing trees, as pines, cedars, etc.  Oaks, wild plums, cottonwoods,  sycamores,
willows, and elder, are also met with in mountain and valley.
The missionaries, after 1730, introduced the Arabian date-paln, which succeeds admirably, and yields abundantly, and also oranges, lemons, and all the
species of the citrine family, pine-apples, bananas, plantains, and the most of the
valuable and curious fruits produced in Mexico, below the level of 3,000 feet.
They also planted the vine, olive, fig, pomegranate, almond, peach, quince, and
even plums, apples, pears, melons, watermelons, and such like, in more elevated
and cooler districts;  the vine, fig, olive, currant-grape, almnond, quince, and
peach, are much more luscious, and grow much quicker, and with less labor
and expense, than in Alta California, and in many special localities are unsurpassed in the world for luxuriance, sweetness, and flavor.   The fig and grape
are much sweeter than in our State, and the grape ripens better and quicker,
from hotter and drier suns. and makes much richer wine, brandy, raisins, and
currants. Before 1849 the Lowver Californians sent up annually to Monterey
large quantities of dried figs, currants, grapes, dates, and peaches, and cheese
also, which were sold at reasonable rates and good profits.   The cultivation of
all the fruits named, and of many others of Asia and Oceanica, could be indefinitely extended, with sufficient population and a stable government.
Wheat, barley, oats, maize, or corn, and all the cereals of Europe or Asia,
which have been tried, succeed well, according to localities and temperature,
as well as such vegetables as sweet potatoes, okra, peas, beans, cabbages, and
pumpkins, onions, egg-truit, and the native vegetables used for the table in
Mexico and Peru. The sugar cane has been cultivated for more than a century,
and yields a sugar as strong and sweet as that of Peru, and very abundant in
juice. Coffee has also been tried, and its quality is excellent, as the valleys of
Lower California, where sheltered from heavy winds, resemble in climate and
soil the elevated country near Mocha in Arabia. If there is plenty of such
land in the peninsula, coffee can be easily made to become a profitable business,
l)ut it must be always grown under the line of heavy frosts, or it bears no fruit.
The date-palm, in all its varieties, such as are found in Egypt, Morocco, and
Arabia, is capable of being cultivated to an indefinite extent in Baja California,
as it grows in upland and lowland vigorously, and bears the finest quality of
fruits. The same may be said of the cocoa-nut palm, which could be made to
flourish by the million; indeed, there would be no  difficulty in growing any
species of palm, except those peculiar to moist districts.
No botanist has ever consecutively explored the peninsula in detail, and the
66 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
history of its botany, or flora, like that of its animals, or fauna,is yet to be written. What is known of it is only of partial districts.
THE COUNTRY ON THE PACIFIC COAST BETWEEN VISCAINO BAY AND SAN DIEGO
-AN AMERICAN FUR-TRAPPER'S ACCOUNT OF IT IN 1827.
One of the best portions of the peninsula, in soil, fertility, climate, salubrity,
and abundant fisheries, is that settled by the Domninicai friars between  1774
and 1800. The best map of this portion of old California (as we are informed
by Captain Kimberly, who has frequently visited it as trader and otter-lunter)
is Payot's map of 1863.  There is much good land in the vicinity of the csteros,
or lagoons, and also near the missions of Rosario, San Vicente, Santo Donlingo,
and Santo Tomas; several permanent streams and a number of coast lagoons
furnish abundance of excellent water for animals, irrigation, and ship supplies,
and turtle and fish are exceedingly abundant and easily taken.  The orange,
lemon, banana, date-palm, grape, fig, olive, almond, peach, pomegranate, quince,
and plum, do much better there than to the north of San Diego, and are not
only sweeter, but are cultivated withl  much less difficulty than with us, and
arrive at maturity much earlier. The climate, from its proximity to the sea,
is not only extremely salubrious, the people enjoying uncommonly good health,
and being long livers, but the atmosphere is extremely fine, pleasant, and
invigorating, and seldom troubled with cold summer fogfs and winds; these facts
are well known since 1770, the testimony of travellers and seamen being uniform. Many good harbors and ports are found, with every requisite of wood
and sweet water for the use of ships; and all that is wanted to make  a prosperous country is population and a stable government: there is said to be sufficient
good land and other requisites to maintain and build up a large city.
The first American who visited this section of the peninsula from the East,
or indeed the first white man, was James O. Pattie, as long ago as March, 1827.
IHe was taken with his father and a party of distressed beaver-hunters by a
squad of soldiers at the mission of Santa Catalina, from whence they travelled
to San Vicente, and then up the coast to Santo Tomas, San Miguel, and San
Diego, at which place they were all put in prison by General Echeandia, the
first MAexican governor of the two Californias.  Il  his book, Pattie says this
part of the coast contains large quantities of fertile land, and the padres had
excellent vineyards, gardens, and orchards of all kinds of fruit, grains, and vegretables, and feasted the travellers on good wines, fruits, and viands. Solme 4,000
Indians were seen in Santa Catalina, San Vicente, Santo Tomas, and San
Miguel, and they had then mnany thousand head of horses and mules; the valleys
and plains were covered with bands of cattle by the thousand, and in Santo
Tomas alone they had 30,000 sheep. As he did not travel below San Vicente,
it is fair to estimate that the five coast and vicinous mountain missions to the
south of San Vicente, and as far as Viscaino Bay, must have had equally as
many Indians, and been quite as rich in cattle, horses, and sheep, and had as luxuriant gardens, orchards, vineyards, and cultivated fields.
Since 1851 all this part of the coast has been infested by runaway rascals
and vagabonds from Alta California and Mexico, who have greatly injured the
prospects of the respectable people settled in that section of Lower California.
This got to such a pass that between 1856 and 1861 several of these desperadoes had to be shot, and their less guilty companions run out of the country.
If it were well protected and governed, this section would rapidly increase in
wealth and population, as it has, besides the above-mentioned advantages, excellenlt mines of copper, silver, lead, coal, and other valuable minerals. The opposite parallels on the gulf, which are entirely unsettled, are also said to contain
much good land and timber, with sufficient good water for large settlements.
In speaking of these northern sections it is proper to bear in mind, that the
i
i
I
I
I
A
67
I
I
Ii
I
i
I
I
i
I
I
iI
i
I
i
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
great drought of 1863-'64, which was so severely felt in the two Californias, was
experienced in Mexico, Buenos Ayres, Chili, and Australia, and all over the
Mississippi and Missouri countries.
WALKER'S EXPEDITION TO LOWER CALIFORNIA.
This summary would not be complete without some mention of the crude,
childish, and ill-advised invasion of the peninsula by some 250 to 300 filibusters under General William Walker, so well known in the State of California,
and whose name afterward became famous in connection with the civil wars of
Nicaragua and Central America between 1856 and 1860, and who soon after
lost his life by military execution near Omoa or Truxillo, on the Atlantic coast
of Honduras, through the interference of a British man-of-war.
On the 15th of October, 1853, the bark Caroline, having on board General
Walker, with a large number of armed men, and a regular cut-and-dried staff
of secretaries of war, navy, state, etc., etc., after the ancient Texas plan, sailed
from San Francisco, and arrived at La Paz on the 3d of November, where
WValker, having seized the public archives and captured PRobellero and Espinosa,
the chief officers of the government, passed through several small skirmishes, hauled down the Mexican flag and hoisted a new one, declaring Lower
California a separate republic. Walker was proclaimed president, and a-regular
staff of civil and military offices defined and laid down. On the 18th January,
1854, all this was changed, and Lower California and Sonora declared an integral government and nation under the style and title of The Republic of Sonora.
In the mean time the bark Annita, with some 100 more armed men under Colonel
Watkins, completed their arrangements on the sly, and slipped out of San Francisco on 7th December, 1853, arriving at an agreed-upon place on the coast a
few leagues below San Diego, where Walker soon joined the party, and commenced dating his orders and decrees in March and April, 1854, from Santo
Tomas, La Tin Juana, La Grulla, La Enseniada, and San Vicente, shortly after
in the filibustering style of the magnifico order of fire-eating words.  Meeting
here much unexpected opposition and coming out of an expedition to the Colorado to capture Sonora, made in person and resulting very disastrously to his
command and his prospects, on his return to Santo Tomas, being hard pressed
by the comandante  Melendez and his Mexican soldiers, Walker " evacuated
Lower California" and retired across the frontier line, where Captain Burton
and Major McKinstry, United States military officers at San Diego, received his
surrender on the 6th May, 1854. Walker gave his parole to these officers to
take his trial for a breach of the neutrality laws of the United States, when
reporting to General Wool at San Francisco, and the invasion then came to an
abrupt end by the dispersion of the party at San Diego. The trial of himself
and some of his officers was held shortly after at San Francisco, but, nothing
being proved, the whole aflfair ended in smoke, and Walker went on editing
California newspapers for one or two years lolnger, when he accepted the Nicaragua proposals, which all know terminated so disastrously to some 5,000 men.
THE HIGHEST ELEVATIONS OF TilE PENINSULA-MOUNTAIN LAKE AND THE SNOW                                   PEAKS.
As the vicinities of the bay of Viscaino are reached, and after passing the
parallel of 28~, the mountain system begins to rapidly rise from 4,000 feet
to the elevation of perpetual snow, which it appears to attain opposite the
mission of San Fernando, which from several accounts it seems to carry
until near the mission of Santa Catalina. These snowy peaks (for it is only on
the highest peaks snow is seen) must be over 12,000 feet high, as they are
reported to be covered with snow in the spring and early summer, by Kino in
68 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
1702, Link in 1765, and by Pattie in 1827; but these nevadas have never been
laid down geographically correct in the two or three old maps of the Jesuits;
indeed, they are not laid down on any we have seen dated after 1830. In their
vicinities is stated to be a large mountain  lake which feeds the various small
streams north of Viscaino Bay.
It is the melting of the snows on this range which makes the northern part
of the peninsula so much better watered and more fertile than the southern districts, or even better than our sections between San Diego and San Bernardino,
and in consequence several permanent but small streams are found between
Santa Catalina and the latitude of Cedros Island.  After passing to the north
of Catalina the land gradually lowers to 3,000 and 4,000 feet, and going south
from Cedros Island it falls down bv degrees, till it reaches the ocean level at
Cape San Lucas.
THE PIOUS FUND OF CALIFORNIA-DRIED UP IN 1867-A CALIFORNIA BISHOP   RIC ESTABLISHED IN 1836-THE NEW BISHOP ARRIVES AT SAN DIEGO IN
1841-A LAND GRANT IN ALTA CALIFORNIA TO ENDOW A COLLEGE FOR
THE TWO CALIFORNIAS.
During the period of the Jesuit occupation of the peninsula from 1700 to
1767, a large amount was collected by them in Mexico from various devout
men and women, which they invested in large haciendas with herds, flockls, and
cultivations, and in house property, principally in Mexico City.  At the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, this funded property had acquired a legal and
religious status under the style of "El Fondo Piadoso de California," worth
about $1,000,000, and yielded   sufficient income to give to each priest in the
Califoblrnia missions from 400 to 500 dollars annually, together with assisting
the mission expenses generally; no faithful and exact account, however, of these
matters, to our knowledge, has ever been given to the world.   On the expulsion
of the Jesuits in 1767, the fund was placed under the care of the king's treasurer
in Mexico, who portioned it off yearly to each Dominican or Franciscan mission and priest in the two Californias, in about the same amounts as formerly
paid to the Jesuits.  This system was faithfully carried out until about the
year 1806, when, Spain being in trouble and money scarce, the king's fiscal
agent in Mexico appropriated some $200,000 of it, and, from the heavy load of
war and family troubles then accumulating in Spain, it was soon evident this
nice little amount would be retained permanently.  The confusion of Mexican
affairs and the poverty of Spain after 1810 prevented any salaries or expenses
being paid out of the fund for some twelve years more, when the viceroy's government dried up (1822), giving no account to the representatives of the California friars in Mexico City of what had become of long lapsed receipts.  The
republican government kept things in this wav until between 1840-'44 (having
nominally given the new bishopric of the Californias, instituted about 1836, the
use of the rents of the fiund, from which some driblets were obtained), when
Santa Anna by a government decree put it under the charge of General Valencia as administrator, reporting to Santa Anna for his approval.  After this
brilliant cast the whole effects, lands, houses, loose moneys, etc., etc., of the
fund evaporated as seems forever firom the government of the Catholic Church
authorities, either in the Californias or in Mexico.  When Archbishop Alemany,
of San Francisco, visited Mexico about 1854, with intent to probe all these
matters, every thing was gone; not even a fragment remained, it is said, to hold a
nail to.  After 1810 the priests in the two Californias, until the American flag
was raised in 1846, were entirely dependent on the incomes from their herds,
cultivations, vinevards, and orchards, for the maintenance of their Indians, the
care of the churches and the missions, and for their own personal expenses.
The Lower California missions being very poor, except those on the coast
69 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
between San Diego and Rosario, felt this loss very severely, and these establishments began rapidly to decline and run to seedy ruin, a state of things completed by the retirement of the Spanish priests after 1829, and the secularization
of the missions in 1833.
A CALIFORNIA BISHOPRIC FOR THE TWO CALIFORNIAS MADE IN 1836-THE NEW
BISHOP ARRIVES IN 1841-A LAND GRANT IN ALTA CALIFORNIA TO ENDOW
A COLLEGE FOR THE BISHOPRIC ISSUED IN 1844.
On the 13th September, 1836, the Mexican Congress passed an act erecting
the territories of the two Californias into an episcopal jurisdiction, under the
title of the Bishopric of California, which was charged with the direction of the
Pious Fund properties; the bishop was to have $6,000 per annum, and $3,000
for an outfit. On the 8th February, 1842, the Government, by a public decree,
took back the charge of the Pious Fund, against which the bishop protested,
without avail, however. Previous to this, in the year 1840, Fria Francisco
Garcia Diego, a Mexican Franciscan, who had served several years previously in
the Alta California missions, was nominated bv the Government to the bishopric,
and afterward confirmed by Pope Gregory XVI. at Rome. On the 16th December, 1841, Bishop Garcia arrived at San Diego from San Blas in an English
vessel, accompanied by several priests and school-teachers, San Diego having
been appointed as his residence, where and elsewhere throughout Alta California he was received with every respect, but he never visited Lower California.
The bishop's residence was afterward removed to Santa Barbara, at which place
he died earlv in 1846, before the American flag was raised, and was buried
at the mission of Santa Barbara.  In 1850 Father Joseph S. Alemany was mtade
bishop of Monterey, which included the jurisdiction of the State of California,
that of Lower California being in abeyance, as belonging to Mexico.  In 1853
Father Alemany was made Archbishop of San Francisco, and the country inorth
above the line of Santa Cruz town, and south to the Mexican boundary, retained
under the name of the bishopric of Monterey and Los Angeles, to which was
appointed as bishop, in 1854, Gather Tadeo Amat, whose residence is at Los
Angeles.
After Father Amat was appointed, the Mexican Government, about 1856,
desired to make Lower California into a bishopric, and, it is said, requested
Father Jos6 M. Gonzalez, of Santa Barbara, to take charge of the diocese, but
Father Gonzalez, being well in years, and having resided since 1833 in Alta
California, declined the appointment as not proper at his time of life and at
such a distance from his residence. In 1861 the country above Sacramento
was divided off again by the formation of an intermediary bishopric, with its
centre at Marvsville, and Father Eugene O'Connell as vicar apostolic.  After
1850, when Father Alemany was made first bishop of Monterey and second
bishop of California, or successor of Bishop Garcia Diego, Lower California
was assumed to retire under the charge of the bishop of Sonora, whose residence was at the city of Culiacan, and under whose jurisdiction all the missions
of the two Californias had been placed since about the year 1774, and up to
the year 1840, when Garcia Diego was confirmed.
Under the government of Micheltoreno, a grant of eight leagues of land,
or about 35,000 acres, was made in the vear 1844 to the bishopric of California, as dowry to establish and sustain an institution of learning for the youth of
the two territories. This grant was located near the mission of Santa Ynez in
the present county of Santa Barbara, and to this day goes under the name of
the Rancho del Colegio, or College Ranch, and is valued at about $20,000.
Under the terms of the grant the "College of Our Lady of Guadelupe" was
instituted at Santa Ynez by Bishop Diego Garcia, and, after going through many
reverses, still exists as an institution, under the charge of Franciscan teachers,
with some 20 pupils.
70 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Since 1850 this grant of land has always been administered under the charge
of Father Alemany at San Francisco for the benefit of all the districts included
under the charge of the ancient missionaries of both Lower California and the
State of California, but the profits and usufr-ucts of the grant have so far
amounted to nothing, as the great drought of 1863-'64 nearly swept off all their
large stock of sheep, horses, and cattle. When any profits do issue, the ecclesiastical body of Lower California will receive its due proportion.   In consequence of this curious mixture of church and worldly matters, the Romana
Catholic ecclesiastical chiefs represented to the Pope at Rome how the matter
stood, and desired a division of the property, but Pius IX. referred them to the
Congress of the United States as the proper body to cause a legal partition of
the grant or its usufructs. This representation was made to Congress in 1864,
but up to 1867 no effectual changes have been made in the status of the College
Ranch grant.
THE DESTROYED MISSIONS OF THE COLORADO IN 1782.
In the fall of 1782 the Yuma Indians destroyed the two missions on the
west bank of the Colorado, opposite the junction of the Gila, which had been
founded a short time before by order of the Viceroy Buccarelli, and not far
fromnt whlere Fort Yuma now stands. These missions were nine miles apart;
the upper one was called La Purisima Concepcion, and the lower one San Pedro
y San Pablo, and they were under the charge of four missionaries of the Franciscan College of Santa Cruz of Quer6taro City, which college had charge of
all the old Jesuit missions of Sonora. The Indians surprised the people one
Sunday when at mass, by congregating in hundreds, and murdered the two
missionaries of Coucepcion, named Padres Juan Dias, a native of Estremadura,
and Matias Moreno, of Burgos, and the other two of San Pedro y San Pablo,
natned Juan Barreneche, a native of Santa Helena in Florida, and Francisco
Garces of Arragon; this last was a well-known missionary traveller among the
Indian nations of the Gila, the Colorado, and the Mohave, and had visited the
Moquis and several other tribes in New Mexico.  With these priests were also
murdered Captain Fernando Rivera Moncada (who had long served in Upper
and Lower California, and in Sonora) and some  30 soldiers, and as many
Sonorians, male and female, who had settled there as colonists by order of the
viceroy to keep open the overland communication between Upper California
and Sonora. The next year Colonel Pedro Fages was sent from California to
examine into the matter and punish the Indians, but they could not be caught.
He found the bones of the murdered people scattered around, bleaching in the
sun, and had them gathered up and buried with becoming decency. The bodies
of the mnissionaries were placed in boxes and carried by Fages to the president
of the Sonora missions to be buried, after which Fagoes passed to Arispe to report the results to the comandante-general, De Croix. Padre Kino had also
founded a small out-mission, not far from the junction, but on the Gila bottom,
about 1704, which he called San I)ionisio, but this had been deserted since
1720.
THE CHINESE AS LABORERS IN LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Whatever may be done in future under the different political aspects which
may obtain in the California peninsula, no great amount of agricultural, marine,
or mineral products can be accumulated without a sure and sufficient supply of
tropical laborers at reasonable rates.  The only people who can fill this necessary vacancy for long years are the Chinese, who have proved sufficiently docile
in railroad and manufacturing operations in California State, or in Peru and the
Sandwich Islands as cultivators of sugar and other products.   With proper
treatment and good laws, under the management of capitalists, the copper, siIver, and lead mines, the overflowing fisheries, the cultivation of the vine, olive,
41
-i
71 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
almond, date-palm, magney, cocoa-palm, nuts, figs, and currants, and  of sugar,
cotton, coffee, chocolate, or cocoa, tea, and hundreds of other tropical and intertropical productions could be carried on with great profits and in a verv
healthy and desirable climate, and in the vicinity of good shipping ports.  The
Chinese are not strangers on the Mexican coasts, having resided in Acapulco,
San Blas, and other places, for years before 1800, having come in the old
galleons from Maliiilla as merchants, servants, or sailors, and many of their descendants exist to this day in Western Mexico. There are no tropical laborers
eithler as good, or as cheap andl docile, as the laboring classes of China, and after
a while they would soon make permanent residence in the country.  They
are doubtless intended by Divine Providence to play a most important part in
the development of the dountries of Pacific North and South America: nothing
can long obstruct their coming.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RAILROAD LINES TO CONNECT SAN FRANCISCO WITH LOWER CALIFORNIA.
THERE are now regularly organized railroad corporations to connect the bay
of San Francisco with the countries of the Colorado and the gulf of California,
whbch without a doubt will be completely effected before the year 1880, or only
13 years hence. These may be enumerated as follows, and all of them will join
wsith the great railroad of the central route between Sacramento and Great Salt
Lake, and so to the Mississippi, which will be completed by the 1st of January,
1870:
1. The southern railroad coast line from San Jos6 to Gilroy, and over
through the Tulare Valley, and from thence by the way of Los Angeles and
Saii Diego to the Colorado, generally called the Phelps Company.
2. The Sacramento and Arizona Railroad Company, from Sacramento via
Stockton, Visalia, Fort Tejon, and to the junction of the Colorado and Gila.
3. Air-line railroad line from Matagorda Bay, in Texas, by the Mesilla Valley, the table-lands of Chihuahua, Arizona, and across the Colorado Valley and
the coast mountains to San Diego Bay; called Pease and Wood's Line.
4. A line from Great Salt Lake, via the Pahranagat silver-mines, to the Colorado River at a navigable point.
5. The railroad company of General Angel Trias, which has a route surveyed from Matamoras and through Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango,
and Sonora, to the port of Guaymas, with liberal grants of land, mining privileges, etc., from the Mexican Government.
All these routes will be accompanied by telegraph lines. Railroad and telegraph lines will, of course, follow through the length and breadth of Lower
California, and through all parts of Sonora, and down to Mazatlan, there being
no insuperable difficulties in existence. The Overland Mail route, through from
Texas and Arizona to San Diego, will likely also be soon reopened, and after
that we shall speedily have regular mail lines between San Diego through to
Cape San Lucas. So that, within a time much shorter than expected, daily mail
commnunications may be instituted between Stan Francisco and the southern
parts of the peninsula, and also from the Gila all through Sonora and Sinaloa
to Mazatlan.
The effects of the Panama Railroad, the railroads through Tehuantepec,
Nicaragua, Honduras, Chiriqui, and Costa  Rica, and the great ship-canal
through the Isthmus of Darien, all of which will, doubtless, be effected by 1880,
the passage by the canal of the Isthmus of Suez, the steam lines from California
to China and from China to Europe, with the telegraph crossing from America
to Asia, and thence through Russia to England, and so back to America, will,
in the short space of twenty years, accumulate such overwhelming results in the
2 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
North Pacific States as to involve, by the forces of an irresistible attraction, the
peninsula of California in the grand circle of events in commerce and politics
now rapidly hastening to a providential culmination.
SCRAPS AND FRAGMENTS OF BAJA CALIFORNIA NOTABILIA.
The Dominican missionaries state that the Indians of Comondu Loreto,
Cadegomo, and Moleje are false, melancholy, and very filthy; those of San Fernarndo and Rosario are docile, pacific, and easily managed; those of San Domingo and
San Vicente are unquiet, proud, and fickle; while those of Santo Tomas, San
Pedro Martyr, Santa Catalina, and San Miguel, are quick-tempered, treacherous,
warlikle, and difficult to govern.
The Indians of the missions to the south of San Ignacio were so infected
with the syphilis, measles, small-pox, and other diseases imported by the
Spaniards, which occasioned such ravages among them, that not one of them
was left in several of the reductions before 1794, while in others those numbering by thousands were diminished to hundreds. The small-pox is said to
have been introduced about 1781 by a company of Sonorians. By the year
1825, it is said, not a single pure Indian could be seen in the missions below
Loreto.
In the year 1774 the King of Spain donated $1,000 to found the mission of
La Rosario, in the circles and vicinities of which the padres found several thousand Indians.
In 1781 the mission of San Vicente was attacked by 2,000 Yuma  Indians
from the mountains, who did great injury. This attack was soon afterward
avenged, and the Indians severely punished, by Don Theodore de Croix, comandante of the Mexican frontier, who was subsequently Viceroy of Peru.
Between 1789 and 1800 the intfant missions of San Pedro Martyr and Santa
Catalina were several times attacked by the Yumnas, who greatly retarded their
establishment and growth. These Indians finally effected the entire desertion
and abandonment of the two missions before 1828, and at present they are
seldom visited.
An insurrection of the Indians of Santo Tomas occurred in 1803. Two
American vessels anchored in San Quintin Bay to get salt; they had been fired
into at San Diego by the fort.
In January, 1795, Father Cayatano Pallos became superior of the missions
of Lower California, and left the frontiers to reside at Loreto.  Ile retired in
1797, and Father Vicente Belda was made superior in his stead.  During these
years much dispute was going on among the northern missions as to the ownership of the valley of San Rafael, between San Vicente and San Domingo.
In 1802 Padre Rafael Arvina became superior of the missions, which, giving
much discontent to the Dominican missionaries, nine of them the next year refused to obey his orders, and drew up a manifesto against him, and forwarded it
to Governor Arrillaga. The superior, on learning this, requested the governor
for an armed force to compel his friars to obedience. In 1804 Padre Arvina
was deposed, and Padre Placido Sanz made superior in his stead. These
quarrels among the Dominican friars proved very injurious to the missions and
Indians, and caused much scandal in the two Californias, it being plain that the
Dominicans were incompetent to manage the Indians as well as the Jesuits or
Franciscans.
In 1802 there were only 47 soldiers in the Presidio of Loreto. At San Jos6
del Cabo was another presidio, with a small number of soldiers.
In May, 1803, Captain Jos6 Maria Ruiz reports to Governor Arrillaga the
murder of Father Eduardo Surroca by the Indians of Santo Tomas, and in June
he further reports that he had severely chastised them.
In 1806 the Indians of San Francisco Borja revolted, and gave much
trouble.
3
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLE.MENT AND 
In 1813 Father Ramon Lopez was made superior of the missions of Baja
California.
In 1826 Father Toinas Ahumada was superior of the missions, and resided
at San Jose6 del Cabo.
In 1828 the missions were becoming very poor, the friars were decreasing
every year, and Father Domingo Luna was made only provisional vicar of the
Lower California m,issions. In that year Padre Luna writes to Governor Echeandia, touching the legalitv of his missionaries taking the oath of allegiance to
the Mexican Government, demanded of the missionaries by the government of
the two Californias in 1827.
All the Dominican and Franciscan friars in the two territories were then natives of Old Spain.
From 1843 to 1846 Father Ignacio Ramirez de Arrellanes was superior of
the peninsular missions. In October, 1848, he left, as a political refugee, with
the American troops, and acted as parish curate of Monterey until 1854, when
he returned to Mexico.
In the years 1818-1819 the priests inform the governor they have received
information that the Americans are fitting out expeditions in Texas and New
Mexico to take the Californias.  Great excitement about this time concerning
the expected visit of Bouchard, the Buenos Ayres privateer, who afterward
plundered Monterey and scared Santa Barbara to death.
In the fall of 1717 tremendous hurricanes and water-spouts visited the
southern missions, and did much damage, lasting for three davs. In 1784
great hurricanes again occurred, with whirlwinds of sand. In 1849-'50 similar
phenomena visited the country and did much damage. In 1863-'64 the great
drought was simultaneous in both Californias, and occasioned heavy losses in
stock animals.
in  1864 asphaltum deposits were said to have been found in the vicinities
of Viscaino Bay.
In 1863  one J. L. Hopkins, a printer from San Francisco, established
the El M[exicano newspaper at the town of La Paz-the first of the kind, we
believe.
In 1858-'59 Dr. John L. Veitch, of Washoe, visited the island of Cedros and
vicinities on a scientific expedition, an account of which is given in the San
Francisco Hesperian Magazine of 1860-'61.
During the time of the Spanish sway in the Californias, the government and
public correspondence was brought from Mexico to Guaymas once a month, and
passed over by boat to Loreto, from whence it was sent on horseback through
the missions of the peninsula to San Diego, Monterey, and San Francisco. This
was commenced about 1776, and ended about 1816, during the revolution.
After 1835 it was sometimes sent by way of the Colorado, but dispatches came
generally till 1846 by sailing-vessels from Mazatlan and other Mexican ports.
The coral-fisheries of the island of Sardinia employed 290 small vessels and
1,900 sailors in 1866, and procured not less than $300,000 worth of this beautiful
aid to the jeweller's art.  It is principally used for children's toys and making
cameos, breastpins, seals for watches and rings, and a variety of ornamental purposes. There is said to be an abundance of this substance in the waters of the
gulf and Magdalena Bay.
In 1863 a large number of pictures and church valuables were brought from
Lower California to San Francisco and placed on exhibition in that city. Among
these were said to be several originals of the great Spanish painters Velasquez
and Murillo, and also original oil-portraits of Fathers Kino, Salvatierra, and Junipero Serra, these last three being from the church of Loreto. Some greedy
speculators, with or without authority from the Mexican Government, had cleaned
out the mission churches of the peninsula, even we believe as high up as San
Vicente. What became of the portraits we are not aware, but it was looked
74 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
upon by all right-minded persons as nothing but church robbery and sacrilege.
The Pacific Pearl Company, of New York and Panama, in January, 1867,
undertook to fish for pearl oysters among the Pearl Islands of Panama Bay. A
submarine boat was arranged, capable of carrying ten or twvelve men at one
time, who can work under the water for many hours, and so constructed that it
may be lowered or hoisted at a moment's notice: when the boat is lowered, it
can be opened at the bottom by means of two trap-doors, which allows a space
of ten feet square under each trap-door for working space over the pearl-beds.
This enterprise is said to be effectual and prosperous.
A recent number of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin gives the following
summary of Lower California exports for the year 1857, which appears to be
taken from official Mexican sources, and must be greatly under the true amount
of exports:
Values.
Salt fish, 1,150 pounds.............      $96
Brazil-wood, 150 tons.............. 3,000
Silver ores, 250 tons, cost price....... 5,600
Silver metal, 2,000 marks........... 16,000
Gold, 80 ounces................... 1,120
Tortoise-shell, 300 pounds...........  6,000
Pearls, value...................... 21,750
Mother of pearl shell, or concha nacar,
495,700 lbs. at 6 cts............ 29,742
Values.
Hides, 13,000 pieces...............$32,500
Salt, 2,000 tons................... 12,000
Cheese, 100,000 pounds............. 8,000
Brown sugar, or panoche, 29,0001bs.. 11,000
Dried figs, 32,500 pounds...........    1,300
Raisins, 28,500 pounds............. 2,200
Soap, 2,610 pounds................ 2,610
Wine, 54 barrels.................. 540
Dried dates, 20,000 pounds......... 1,200
Oranges, 22,000 M................... 220
Amounting in all to about $155,000 in value. This makes no note of such valuable material as whale-oil, seal, sea-elephant and sea-lion oils, and that class of
marine products, nor of pelts of fur seal, or of the sea otter, or the numbers of
cattle, mules, and horses sold in Alta California, which must have made the true
values of exports double. In 1866 the exports of mineral ores and many other
articles had greatly augmented, and large amounts of whale and marine animal
oil, with sea-otter pelts, were known, beyond cavil, to have been exported out of
the country, and the shipments of Carmen Island salt were very considerable.
It is no exaggerated estimate to put down the value of the exports of Lower
California ill the year 1866 at one million of dollars; and it is just as likely, from
the present high prices of oil, it would run to two millions of dollars.
THE GATES TO AN OVERFLOWING  COMMERCE-IMMEiNSE MINERAL  WEALTH OF
THE COLORADO BASIN AND THE COUNTRIES OF THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA   SUBLIME SCENERY OF THE GULF LINES-WONDERFUL AGRICULTURAL RE   SOURCES OF THIS REGION-AREA AND POPULATION.
As we approach from the south and west, open the portals of the most wonderful metalliferous district that is known in the world. To the right lie the
green and fertile shores of Sinaloa, and on the left the rugged mountains and
castellated turrets of the California peninsula. As we sail farther on, black,
serrated islands, like giant guardians of these seas, cleave the transparent ether,
and quickly we get glimpses of both shores of the gulf of Cortez. Now commence, in the quiet and tranquil daylights and twilights of the seasons of winter
and spring, the most sublime, awful, and enchantingly magical changes and vistas which earth opens to the vision of mortal men. For hundreds of miles peak
after peak, and rock after rock, and island after island, rise sharp and straight out
of the depths of the sea, projected against a vault of the purest, densest azure,
and the pinnacles and sumtnmits of earth's upheavals and terrible convulsions seem
to touch the very firmament of heaven. Here on the shores of Pimaria lie the
desert stretches and clear-cut, solitary mountain masses, fading out dimly to the
east till absorbed into the great Cordillera of Mexico; while to the west follow
48
II
5
s
i
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
fold after fold and range after range of the Sierras of California.  The profound
stillness of these wondrous solitudes of Nature is, as it were, to new eyes the
entrance to another world, and different from any other part of our beggarly
little planet; the mystical depths of man's imagination are exalted to the highest pitch, and the exorcisms of a magice enchantery seem to bewilder the reasoning powers of his intellect, and, in these awful visions of actual Nature and her
deep, hidden powers and terrific forces, he feels the littleness of his existence.
As the shades of night gather, the whole constellations of the heavens burst at
once into stellar refulgence, and each particular great bo(ty in space projects itself round, distinct, and defined, appearing like inferior moons, and enabling
human eyes to define objects exactly at great distances, even in some to
read with precision. To the west, in the track of Sol, are seen the mild, pellucid
splendors of the zodiacal light, stretching in an immense trail from the horizon
to the zenith like the faint outlines of the shrouds of a comet, and seeming as
if making some effulgent pathway from the abodes of heaven to guide celestial
messengers to the earth. But now, under the edclges of the eastern firmament,
among the calm, cool waves, and veiling among the island-crags or continental
summits, like some coy maiden to meet her lover, rises out of the depths Luna
with her silvery face wrapped in smiles and scattering the sombre shades of
darkiess to their bidden caves, and making all nature dance  with joy.  She
seems to rise by visible, movable, tangible motion, as if sailing on a tranquil
ocean, and, as constellation after constellation is reached, dimming their lustres
and absorbing their splendors, passing them like some messenger bound on momentous purport. Such are the effects of her presence, that all Nature becomes,
as it were, bewitched to an entrancing tranquillity, and the heats of earth's atmospheres, cooled to the most refined enjoyments experienced in human sensations, the soul of man is thrilled to the utmost depths of its hidden faculties.
As the sun is rising into day, or as his rays are declining into night, the
most beautiful and changing colors of green, red, purple, gold, blue, and black,
define themselves along the mountain-heights, and the colors of the rainbow
mingle, transform, and commingle, mlake, and dissolve, and beautify or deform
the strange lands and rugged hills and crags as in the phantasms of a wondrous
dream. The msot absolute, profound, and overpowering silence comes over the
face of Nature as the king of day retires, and the spirit of man is involuntarily
hushed into stillness.  On the firing of artillery or musketry, rock after rock,
and island after island take up the sound, and the hollows, the shores, and the
peaks, catching the echoes, reverberate, in solemn and swelling voices, their protests at the puny efforts of man's intrusion into this grand arcana of earth's
wonders and mysteries.
For hundreds of leagues on every hand, within the domains of these shores,
are found lodes, and veins, and masses of pure copper, iron, lead, mercury, tin,
-gold, silver, soda. salt, sulphur, borax, alum, and every metal or mineral substance known in the avarice or utility of man, and from which great treasures
have not only been drawn for a hundred years, but from which now greater and
more plenteous riches are being yearly developed. The wonderful, undoubted,
and inexhaustible wealth of minerals in the countries which are drained by the
affluents to the Gulf of California must, before many years, make it the centre
of a commerce of extraordinary developments, destined to have the most penetrating influence on the events of those regions which are laved by the waters
of the great Pacific Ocean, and entirely change the present aspect of affairs.
But it is not only in the caves and caverns of the earth that its wealth is
secreted. On the contrary, the prolific and exuberant soils of these countries
produce not only all the cereals, and fruits, and vegetables of such countries as
Syria, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Spain, and France, but the valuable tropical productions of sugar, coffee, dyewoods, rice, indigo, cotton, date-palms, cocoa-palms,
the orange, lemon, plantain, and thousands of other plants too tedious to name.
76 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
The best of pastures for the domesticated animals also abouind in the mountain
valleys and hollows, sufficient to maintain them by the million; and the fig,
olive, grape, almond, date-palm, and quince thrive quicker, easier, and yield
prompter and more sweet and abundant than in any other part of North America.
In superficially glancing at these resources, the mind is irresistibly drawn to
the conclusion that, on these now scarcely populated but accessible sea lines,
must before many years rise, not only one mighty centre of stirring commerce,
but many other populous marts and cities of active traffic. The land is empty of
men, but other lands are not far away where men and women swarm, and crowd,
and hunger, and starve by the million: their babes are without food and their
old age is beggary, famine, and hungry want; the very waters are the habitations
and birthplaces of millions of men whom earth rejects of sustenance and loathes
to serve them. Such are the strange aspects of countries 60 days' distance from
each other.  But henceforth man shall move as far in one lunation as he did in
twenty lunations of the past, and human hearts everywhere be quickened into more
cheerful life, there being abundance and to spare in all these wondrous lands.
' The following outline in round figures will serve as a guide to a better understanding of the status of the States and Territories which are served with
commerce from the shipping points of the Gulf of California, in the year
1867:
In Mexico.-Sonora......... 174,000 square miles.... population....130,000
Sinaloa....... 55,000   "    ".... "....150,000
Lower California. 200,000 " ".... ".... 26,000
Durango........ 54,000 ".... "....... 160,000
Jalisco.......... 70,000.... "....680,000
Chihuahua......108,000   "    "........148,000
Zacatecas...... 20,000.........275,000
In the United States.-Arizona..........126,000   "    ".... "..... 12,000
Utah..........106,000   "....    "....  0,000
Portions of the States of California, Nevada,
and New Mexico, say...................100,000   "    ".... ".... 60.000.
That is to say, in the foregoing Mexican confines there are, say, 680,000
square miles, with a population of not less than 1,670,000 souls.
In the confines of the United States domain, there are, say, 332,000 square
miles, with a population of not less than 60,000 souls.
The present export values of the mineral and other products of all this
region may be set down as within $20,000,000, and the values of the imports
at the estimate of $15,000,000. If at entire peace from savage hordes and
from civil wars, in one year's time these values would undoubtedly double, and
in 10 years after astonish the world by their development.
-1
I
i
I
i
I
I
I
7.
I
i
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
THE LOWER CALIFORNIA COMPANY.
THE Lower California Company is organized upon the basis of a grant made
by the Republican Government of Mexico, the terms of which comprehend all
that portion of the peninsula of Lower California embraced within the parallels
of 24~ 20' and 31~ north latitude, and lying between the Gulf of California and
the Pacific Ocean. The grant, likewise, comprehends both coasts of the peninsula; comprising altogether, the vast area of 46,800 square miles. Within this
area only scanty properties ever have been settled by the natives; while the
few and limited grants previously made within it, by the Mexican Government,
have almost, without exception, been vacated for non-fulfilment, by a subsequent decree of March 14, 1861.
This grant was originally made to certain wealthy and influential Americau
citizens in Upper California, through Jacob P. Leese, of San Francisco; but
those parties having failed to fulfil its conditions within the period prescribed
to them, the Mexican Government, by decree of August 4, 1866, under the
hand of its President, Benito Juarez, permitted the said grant to be transferred
to the Lower California Company. This transfer was duly made at the Mexican legation in Washington, on the 4th May, 1866, and ratified by President
Juarez in the following August.   In evidence thereof, a duly-authenticated
copy of said grant, and memoranda of such transfer and conveyance, certified
by the Mexican minister, have been filed in the office of the Secretary of State
of the United States, in order that the American Government may have official
notice thereof; and to the end that, should the present republican and acknowledged Government of Mexico be supplanted by another, and possibly a hostile
government, the Company may rightfully claim of the Government of the
United States that it should protect this legitimately acquired grant to its
American proprietors, and make its recognition by such new government a
"condition precedent" to the official recognition of said new government, by
the Government of the United States.   The overthrow of the Archduke Maximilian, however, has disposed finally of any apprehensions which may temporarily have existed as to the stability and safety of the grant; and the act of
the Government of Mexico, which made the grant (before the arrival of said
archduke in Mexico), and which now reaffirms it, since he and his pretensions
have been disposed of, renders the title a perfect and complete finality.
By reference to the grant, a copy of which accompanies this circular, it will
be seen that it confers upon the Company full powers of municipal administration, subject only to the general laws of Mexico. It likewise grants immediate
citizenship to the Company's colonists, exemption to those colonists from military services, remission of taxes upon wearing-apparel, provisions, mining-tools,
and other of their imports-privileges which have never been equalled for
liberality, in any grant made by a government to foreign citizens, in the history
of the world. Such was the opinion of the Ron. Caleb Cushing, whom the Company legally consulted at the time of their acquisition of the grant; while the
validity of the grant stands further certified to, by ion. Robert J. Walker, who
also was professionally consulted in the premises.
178 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
ULTpon the basis of this vast property, with its franchises and its privileges, the
Company, through its trustees, applied for last winter, and obtained, a charter from
the State of New York, which vests in the trustees of the Company the power
"Of holding, leasing, and improving lands in Lower California, and of obtaining therefrom all minerals and other valuable substances, whether by working or mining, or disposing of privileges to work or mine  *  *  *  and to dispose of the proceeds of all such
lands, mines, and works as it may deem proper.  *  *  *  The said Company shall also
have power to establish agencies for the purpose of procuring and forwarding to Lower
California emigrants and other persons, and of owning and managing such ships and vessels as it may deem necessary for that purpose; and to own and carry on such transportation, on inland waters, as may be necessary for its purposes in Lower California; or for the
purpose of encouraging regular means of communication between any part of the United
States and any part of Lower California."
TJnder this charter, which does not prescribe any limit as to capital, the
Company fixed its capital stock at $25,000,000 (to be issued in shares of $100
each), and organized on the 9th July, 1867, by electing Wm. G. Fargo, president; Hon. John A. Logan, vice-president; Wm. R. Travers, treasurer; and
George WTilkes, Secretary. It likewise formed the following board of directors:
C. K. Garrison, August Belmont, Leonard  W. Jerome, General B. F. Butler,
Wm. R. Travers, George Wilkes, Wm. G. Fargo, David Crawford, Hion. John
A. Griswold, General John A. Logan, and Richard Schell.
General Logan was chosen by the board to be the "governor of the Company and superintendent of colonization," which election, and his acceptance
of the same, completed the organization of the Company.
In addition to the above-named officers of the Company, the other members
and holders of original interests in the grant rank among our wealthiest and
most influential citizens, to wit: Hon. Caleb Cushing, Hon. John A. Griswold,
John R. Garland, S. L. M. Barlow, Edwards S. Sanford, John Anderson, Ben.
Holladay, Francis Morris, IH. C. Stimson, George A. Osgood, John B. Davidson,
etc., etc., etc.
It is the intention of the Company, in whose behalf extensive and detailed
surveys have been and are being made of the territory covered by the grant, to
commnence its purposes of colonization some time in December next, at which
time the headquarters of its superintendency in Lower California will be made
known, and the surveys will be sufficiently defined for the distribution of land
and mining interests.
The climate of the peninsula of Lower California, is described by all travellers as being unsurpassed for its delicious softness, without being subject to
any extremities of temperature. Its products, according to the official data of
1857, are wine, hides, salt, cheese, sugar, dried meats, figs, raisins, dates,
oranges, salted fish, Brazil-wood, gold, silver, and copper ores, gold and silver,
in marks and ounces, pearls, and mother of pearl, etc.; while portions of its
lands have recently been found peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of tobacco,
opium, and cotton.
It is believed that, upon proper development, the mines of Lower California
will not be found inferior to those of any other portions of the continent, while
its copper and salt deposits are known to be among the richest in the world.
Upon some of its islands the new and valuable kind of iron, which is found in
grains, and which is known to commerce as the titaniferous iron ore, has been
discovered in abundance.
Its fisheries are unequalled in any portion of the Northwest coast. This
article of its commerce ranges from whales and seals to the pearl oyster; and in
relation to the latter, the eastern, or gulf, coast of the peninsula has always
been the great pearl-fishery of past and present history. The prospect of a
new mode of conducting this fishery by steam, instead of by native divers as
heretofore, is likely to give it very great importance, and to prove highly
remunerative, perhaps, in the article of mother of pearl alone, which has of late
4i -
9
i
i
I
i
I
I
i
I
I
I
i
I
11
I
I
i
i
i
I 
SKETCH OF THiE SETTLEMENT AND
years become one of the most highly-prized elements of elegant ornament and
household furniture. Projects are already formed to utilize the other fisheries
of the peninsula, by the means of Chinese labor, and with the salt in such profusion as it is found in several of the islands, there is but little doubt the fisheries of Lower California will compete with any other known fisheries on favorable terms. The great advantages of most of those productions and opportunities is, that they lie directly in the new high-road of commerce; while the
peninsula itself affords the short cut by which the southern interoceanic railway can reach the Pacific coast, and take up the China and the San Francisco
trade.
Finally, the Company have determined to offer half of their stock for sale
at 15 per cent. on the par value, payable, two and a half per cent. in cash on
the date of subscription; two and a half per cent. on the 10thl of October following; five per cent. on the 10th of February, 1868, and the remaining five
on the 10th of August, 1868. It is proper to state in this connection, that
there are negotiations now going on with the Mexican Government, which are
likely to vastly enlarge the domain of the Company, and greatly increase the
value of its property. The present territory, however, taken in connection with
its commanding position on the Northwest coast, is large enough to yield, under judicious management, ample returns on any investments that may be
made, on the terms offered by the Company.
The books of the Company will be opened and subscriptions received, at the
office of the Company, No. 18 William Street, in the city of New York, on the
80th July, inst.
GEO. WILKES, Secretary.
OFFICE LOWER CALIFORNIA COMPANY, 
NEw YORK, July 20, 1867.  t
GRANT.
SALTILLO, Marc'h 30, 1864.
The Citizen Jose6 M. Iglesias, Minister of Fomento of the Mexican Republic, with the previous express direction of the citizen, the Constitutional President of the same, and Jacob
P. Leese, a citizen of the United States of America, in the name of the partners who compose the Company of Colonization of Lower California, have agreed to the following clauses
for the colonization of the vacant lands of the peninsula, from 31 degrees of latitude north
in the direction of the south to 24 degrees and 20 minutes of latitude:
1st. The "empresarios"  (managers) will colonize the respective vacant lands of that
tract, respecting the property previously acquired by Mexican citizens by birth, whether they
have or not the confirmation for their titles, the real corporeal occupation or quasi occupation of the lands which they may claim being sufficient to give them preference. This being
understood with regard to the property granted before the Government complied with this
petition, but not so with the occupations that might be made afterward, with fraud to the
prejudice of the same.
2d. The lands comprehended between the twenty-seventh degree and the thirty-first
of latitude are granted in all their extent for the claimed colony, reserving therein only onefourth part for Mexican citizens by birth who might solicit the property thereof. These will
also have one-fourth part in the lots in all and each of the new towns which might be founded
by the colonists.
3d. All the minerals, of whatsoever class, that may be found in the granted vacant lands,
will be worked by the colonists in accordance with the provisions of the ordinances and laws
in force in the Republic in reference to mining operations.
4th. In relation to the fishery of whales and seals in all the extent of the coast of the
peninsula, the colonists will subject themselves likewise to the provisions of the respective
laws in the matter.
5th. Every "sitio de ganado mayor" (square league) that shall be occupied by the Company of Colonization will be paid for at the rate of one-third part less than the price of the
tariff, as a mean term among the bad, the good, and the best. The fourth part that may
correspond to the Mexican citizens by birth, will be paid for by them on their own account.
6th. Of each one of the towns that may be in the progress of being founded, there will be
80 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
made a plan on account of the "empresarios," of which a copy will be forwarded to the
office of the Minister of Fomento, and another to the Government of the Territory of Lower
California, for the cognizance thereof.
7th. Within the term of five years, reckoned from the day of the approval of this project
of colonization, the "empresarios" will introduce in the Territory two hundred  colonizing
families at least.
8th. The salt-works of the "Ojo de Liebre," and "San Quintin," which  at present are
Trented by the Government, when the existing contract shall have expired will be rented to
said colony for the term of twenty years, with the condition that there will be paid to Government twenty reales per ton of salt that shall be exported from the salt-works aforesaid.
9th. The colonists shall enjoy liberty of religious worship, and the rights and guaranties
which the political Constitution of the Republic of 1857 has declared as the rights of man.
10th. The colonists shall be independent in their municipal administration, in virtue of
which they will be empowered to freely frame all the institutions they may consider proper
for the development of their intelligence, and of their morals and good manners; to make
regulations for the government of their respective municipalities, provided they do not conflict with the Constit-ltion and general laws of the Republic; to freely elect their authorities;
establish municipal taxes, and promote and execute all the material improvements proper to
the welfare of the colonies, simply giving information of all to the Political Chief of the
Territory, and subjecting themselves to the obedience of the authority thereof, in all those
things wherein it might be necessary to apply thereto, and ask relief for any of the parties.
11th. As soon as the colonists shall be established in any part of the Territory, they will
he considered as Mexican citizens, with the same rights and obligations as Mexican  citizens
by birth, and only with the temporary exemptions which are granted to them to insure the
foundation of the colonies.
12th. All the effects of wearing-apparel; all classes of iron tools that might be introduced for the exclusive use of the colonies, as well as all the provisions and things necessary
to preserve life, shall be free from duties for the term of ten years.
13th. For an equal period of time shall the colonists be exempt from paying for all
classes of imposts and taxes, except the municipal contributions which they themselves may
establish.
14th. The colonists are exempt for five years from service in the national army; but after that time, they will render their services therein, like all the other Mexican citizens, with
entire subjection to the provisions of the recruiting laws. The said colonists will be under
the obligation of serving in the National Guard of each one of the towns they may establish,
with the view of keeping order in them.
15th. Twentv vears after the foundations of the colonies, the lands which are granted to
the "empresarios " must be divided in such a manner that each colonist will not possess
more than three square leagues.
16th. The "empresario" will advance the sum of one hundred thousand dollars on account of the price of the lands they are to colonize, delivering, at the term of one hundred
and twenty days after signing this agreement, the said sum of Mexican gold in San Francisco,
California, to the Mexican consul at that port, or to the person whom the Supreme Government may opportunely designate.
17th. Itf the "empresarios" should not fulfil some or any of the conditions stipulated in
the time and form prescribed, the concession shall be null and void, and of no effect; even
though they had delivered the sum advanced which is spoken of in the preceding article, in
which case they will be indemnified with five hundred square leagues  (sitios de ganado
mayor) between the twenty-seventh and thirty-first degrees of latitude, with the particular
understanding that at the term of twenty years from the nullification of this contract, none
of the "empresarios" will be able to hold more than three leagues in property, each of them
being authorized to sell, within this term of twenty years, all the lands that may properly
appertain to them, but with the condition of not giving more than three "sitios de ganado
mayor " to one sole person.
18th. Within four months from the signing of this agreement, the representative of the
Colonizing Company of Lower California shall present himself to ratify and accept, in the
name of said Company, all and each one of the clauses contained in the said agreement, in
order that from that time it may be obligatory on the part of the Company, in the name of
which Mr. Leese has made the said agreement.
In due witness whereof, we sign the present agreement, in duplicate, at the city of Saltillo, the capital of the State of Coahuila, on the thirtieth day of the month, one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four.
(Signed)
(Signed)
JACOB P. IGLEESE.
JACOB P. LEESE.
81 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
J. Ross BROwNE, ESQ.:
DEAR SIR,-Herewith I submit my report of the peninsula of Lower California, made by
my division of the party organized by you, and of which you were director-in-chief, during
the earlier portions of this year.
I have thought it best to give a continuous narrative of the whole route of the party,
from the first landing at Cape San Lucas to the end of the journey at San Diego, rather
than to confine myself strictly to the territory included in the grant to the New York Company. The reasons are obvious. The grant covers nearly all the peninsula: any material
interests which exist in one part of the territory must necessarily affect, to a greater or less
extent, the adjoining regions; and, finally, there is perhaps no part of North America that
has been, up to the present time, a more complete terra igcognita to the outside world than
the peninsula of Lower California. We landed at Cape San Lucas, January 5th, and proceeded to the little mining town of Triunfo, where we procured most of our outfit, and after
making several excursions, went to Magdalena Bay. Here we separated, and I, taking
charge of the party, started northward, accompanied by Dr. Fred von Lohr, as topographer,
together with a cook and two Mexicans. We reached San Diego on the 20th of April, having travelled over eighteen hundred miles, crossing the peninsula ten times, and visiting
almost every point of interest in the territory.
I remain, very respectfiilly, your obedient servant,
WM. 31. GABB.
SAN FPANcIsco, CAL., Jfay, 1867.
Our party went aboard of the steamer Continental on the day after Christmas, 1866;
but, on account of a storm raging outside, we did not leave the harbor until about noon of
the next day.  After an uncomfortable passage of eight days, in rain, wind, and fog, we
came in sight of Cape San Lucas, on the morning of January 5th.
We were landed on the beach after a delay of anl hour, and proceeded to the house of
Captain Ritchie, an old Englishman, who has lived here for forty years. The poor old man
was in great tribulation. A party of American filibusters, with a commission from Corona,
one of the Mexican generals, had possession of the premises and were making themselves
very much at home. Their insolence and abuse had driven away the native servants, and
poor old Ritchie hardly knew what to do. We spent an hour or two waiting for animals to
take us into the interior, and devoted most of the time to an examination of the vicinity.
The extreme point of Cape San Lucas is a mass of naked granite rocks, worn by the
waves and weather into a variety of fantastic forms. It is said that this place gave the name
to Califoriiia-the rocks in the heat and glare of a midsummer sun are doubtless as hot as a
furnace, and the name of Calida fornax is not inappropriate.
The country, from the broad sandy beach back as far as the eye can reach, is desolate in
the extreme.
Rolling ground, covered with cacti of a dozen species, so thick as almost to hide any
other vegetation, rising in the distance to the high mountain-chain of San Lazaro, does not
promise to the traveller a very pleasant picture of what he is to meet in the interior. A
closer examination of the country shows, however, that there are many pretty little valleys
in which cactus is scarce, and grass abundant, so that even in the most desert portions of the
country more or less food can be found for animals.
hIaving procured a sufficiency of saddle-horses and mules for our party, we started about
noon for San Jose del Cabo, accompanied by Mr. Brooks and Mr. Dubois of the Triunfo
mines.
Our ride was mostly close to the beach, over the rolling grounds at the base of the hills.
The soil was unusually gravelly, and supported an abundant growth of cactus, with numerous
shrubby plants new to us. In places, there were a few acres of grass, and near two or three
springs and streamlets were reanchitos or little huts of the herders who take care of a few
cattle that roam over the surrounding hills, and which, from their sleek, glossy appearance,
seemed to pick up a good living among the thickets of thorns and briers.
San Jos6, twenty-four miles from the cape, is a little village of whitewashed adobe-houses
with fiat roofs, most of the principal houses being built around an elongated plaza. A scattering suburb of tumble-down shanties, thatched with palm-leaves, serves to add to the pic
82 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
turesque beauty of the place, rather than to injure it by their squalor. The population is
variously estimated at fiom a thousand to fifteen hundred, including a few foreigners, among
whom  our fellow-countryman, Mr. Gillespie, stands preeminent.  Mr. Gillespie, who acts as
our consular agent and sub-agent of the ubiquitous Wells-Fargo Express Company, is one
of the most flourishing and prosperous foreigners on the peninsula.  He received us on our
arrival, and treated us with great hospitality.  Owing to the deficiency of mules, the day before, we were obliged to leave our baggage under the care of the cook at the cape, until
means of transportation could be found. They did not arrive until about the middle of the
morning, and all hands were very hungry, after an unexpected fast of nearly twenty-four
hours. After a delay of several hours, we left San Jos6, and rode up the beautiful valley of
the same name, about twelve miles, to Santa Anita. A little incident that transpired while
we were saddling our horses illustrates so well the grasping propensity of these people, that
it is worth recording.  It shows that sharp practices are not  confined to Yankees and
Scotchmen:
A little fellow, about ten years of age, whose costume consisted of a straw-hat, the crown
of which seemed inclined to part company with the brim, a shirt that was one only in name,
and a pair of pantaloons that "had seen better days," was engaged to take our animals to
the pasture and bring them back when wanted. For this service the sum of dos reales,
twenty-five cents, had been stipulated. After the horses and mules had been delivered, he
went not only to every member of the party, but even to Mr. Gillespie, and thus secured his
payment half a dozen times over. Not satisfied with his success in financiering, he thought
he could get a little more, and represented that as he was riding one of the horses barebacked, he had been thrown, pointing to one of the many holes in his pantaloons as the restilt, and wanted dos reales more, to pay damages and heal his wounded feelings. Unfortuntately he applied to the wrong person: Mr. Gillespie, of whom he made the demand, commenced scolding him for attempting to swindle, and remarked that he had paid him already;
whereupon the "and I too" of all the party put an abrupt termination to further speculation
on the verdancy or sympathy of the Gringos. The little fellow's coolness and effrontery,
however, were so perfect that he certainly earned all he got.
Bidding good-by to our friends, we rode through a little paradise to the rancho of Santa
Anita, one of the most beautiful spots I have ever beheld. Around San Jose6, and every mile
of the valley, are plantations of sug,ar-cane, cotton, corn, and tobacco, while in the gardens
are groves of orange, fig, lemon, lime, and pomegranate trees, and the broad leaves of the
plantain and banana are seen overhanging almost every ditch or aqueduct. At Santa Anita,
standing on a broad terrace, in front of the fine substantial ranch-house, and looking down
the valley, the black and ragged peaks of the San Lazaro shut in the view on the west; rollin,g hills, studded with the tall shafts of the giant column-cactus, bound it on the east; while
to the south, one sweep of the eye takes in all the luxuriance of a tropical scene, trained
and cultivated by the hand of man. To one who sees it for the first time, there is something indescribably grand in the waving groves and long alleys of palm-trees, such as we see
here.  This is none the less true, notwithstanding that we all greeted the first oak we saw on
approaching the frontiers, as if it were an old and dear friend, and all agreed that the sight
of one such tree was better than that of a forest of palms.
Starting next morning, we rode through a rather pretty country, past La Palma and Miraflores, to a place called Santiago, a collection of half a dozen houses. The road lay sometimes in bottom-land, nicely cultivated; sometimes over a piece of table-land, composed of
gravel, the dibris of granite and volcanic rocks.  This table, or mesa, is about sixty feet
above the valley, and is more or less cut up by dry water-courses.
It supports a scattering growth of bunch-grass, and affords pasturage to large herds of
cattle.
In some places in the lowlands are a few oaks, resembling remotely the Upper California
live-oak. These are to be seen occasionally as far north as San Antonio, where they finally
disappear.  At Santiago there are extensive plantations of sugar-cane, and a sugar-mill was
in active operation. The process throughout is of the most primitive kind, but the result is
a very palatable sugar, moulded into cakes somewhat like maple-sugar, and known as panoclie. This place was the scene of the decisive fight between the rival candidates for governorship in the last revolution, that took place before our visit. Navarette, the incumbent,
occupied with his forces the edge of the mesa on one side, and Pedrin, the aspirant, held the
other side. They were at farthest not more than a third of a mile apart, and consequently
there was some risk in exposing one's self outside the friendly cover of the houses and walls.
The fight was kept up for two or three days-one man at a time peeping out from his shelter,
and, with fear and trembling, pulling the trigger of the flint-lock with which he is armed.
Each party being more anxious to protect itself than to injure the other, the battle might
have continued a month, had it not been brought to a sudden conclusion by one of Pedrin's
men crawling through the canes in the bottom, so near two men of the opposite party that
he succeeded in killing both without being hurt himself. Navarette's party considered this
as being a little more than they bargained for; they were perfectly willing to kill, but had no
desire to be killed, so that as soon as the news of the death of their two comrades reached
them, they became demoralized and fled in disorder, leaving Pedrin in possession of the field
83
I
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
and of the government. Navarette, abandoned by his forces, was obliged to escape as best
he could, and at the time of our visit was said to be safe on the other side of the gulf.
From Santiago our road ran along the dry beds of streams, and across the same gravelly
mesas as the day before, to the rancho of Los Martires, close to the east coast. Here we
found an American, Captain Smith, an old resident of La  Paz, who had recently purchased
this ranich for the purpose of making it his home. It was quite a treat to us to see his little
tow-headed urchins after the very dark complexions we had become accustomed to. A residence of several years in the tropics had not killed the go-ahead American spirit of the
captain, as was fully attested by the amount of work that had been done in the few months
since he had taken possession of the property.  Southeast from the house I observed a high
sandstone hill, the strata dipping to the west or southwest at a lew angle.  Our time was so
limited that I was unable to visit it, but the rock, of which I saw a piece near the house, seems
to be of tertiary age. I observed no trace of fossil remains by which it could be accurately
determined.
After spending a couple of hours with Captain Smith, and taking dinner with his family,
we resumed our journey and rode until late in the evening, arriving at a little mountain
settlement, called San Bartolo or Las Choreas. Our route lay for a mile over a sandy beach,
covered with shells. We saw one or two shoals of fish, sporting in the water even inside
the surf.
Leaving the beach, we entered a deep caeion with very steep sides, covered with brush
and cactus, and followed it, mostly in the sandy bed of the stream, to near its head. This
caioit is so characteristic of the water-courses of Lower California, that it is probably worth
describing.  When the heavy winter rains fall, the caiton or ravine is filled with a wild torrent of water, but in a day or two after the cessation of the rain, the greater part of its
length is a mere dry sandy bed. In places, however, where the underlying rocks come to
the surface, it can be seen that there is still a running stream, although it is to a great
extent subterranean. In such places the water runs over the surface of the rocks, showing
itself first, perhaps, only as moisture in the sand, growing to a trickling rivulet, and eventually tumbling and foaming over the rocky bed in the most orthodox manner; but a few
hundred yards down, it will have disappeared entirely, leaving only the dry, shifting sands
of the arroyo.  Thus, just before reaching San Bartolo, we found the sand wet, and, within
a quarter of a mile, were climbing over rough granite masses, with the waters dashing past
us in deep channels worn by their never-ending flow. Crossing the stream just above the
fall, we ascended the hill-side in a darkness that could almost be felt, and, trusting entirely
to the instinct of our horses, we allowed them to pick their way along the narrow trail where
a false step would have been almost certain death. Half a mile of such travel, that seemed
almost a league, brought us to the houses.  Tired and hungry, we unsaddled, and, after the
usual Mexican delay, were regaled with a supper of tortillas and eggs.  Our poor animals
did not fare so well, but, having eaten all the thatch they could reach, were turned into a
corral, or pen, where they were fed on green sugar-cane.
The next morning revealed a pretty and withal rather a wild sight. Half a dozen little
adobe-houses, perched on the flanks of the steep hill, constituted the village; every available
spot that was not too steep for cultivation was carefully terraced, and water led to it by
ditches for irrigation. Vines, oranges, bananas, and, in short, nearly every tropical fruit, are
here cultivated successfully, and, together with the few cows that can pick a living among
the cactus, constitute the sole support of the people.
From San Bartolo our route lay along the same canon, to its head; thence into the head
of another running to the northward.  We followed this to its mouth, where it opens into a
broad level valley which runs down to the coast at Ventana Bay.  Crossing the valley, which
supports a magnificent crop of nearly every species of cactus known in Lower California, we
reached the village of San Antonio. About half a mile from San Antonio, a marked change
takes place in the geology.
The granite of the south is replaced by mica-slates which form the "country rock" of all
the metalliferous veins of this region, and which extend to near Todos Santos on the northwest, and nearly to La Paz on the northeast, so far as our observation permitted us to
determine.
San Antonio is a little scattering mining town of several hundred inhabitants, including
many foreigners, mostly Germans. Two or three years ago, there was considerable life and
activity here, owing to a spasmodic mining excitement.  Nearly all of the old mines were reopened, many new ones started, and for a while there appeared to be every prospect of permanlent success. But a revolution came. The speculators in San Francisco did not realize
the success they had anticipated. Mines had been taken up, not for legitimate work, but fo,:
sale at enormous prices;  these sales were not made, the owners failed to send down the necessary funds to carry on the work, and in several instances the superintendents were thrown
into prison for debts contracted in good faith, relying on the promises of their principals.
In other instances, the owners of the mines started in good earnest, intending to do legitimate
work; but they were in most instances unfortunate in obtaining possession of poor or valueless mines. Still other cases are mentioned where the superintendents were dishonest, and
at least had the reputation of appropriating money to their own private ends, that had been
84 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
sent down for carrying on the work of developing mines. Thus the whole history of the
district has been for the last few years, with one or two exceptions, a chronicle of disaster,
misfortune, or dishonesty. The result shows itself in the town. It wears a deserted, melancholy look.  The foreigners are, with a few exceptions, anxious to get away; many have left,
and more propose to as soon as they shall become able.  There are many mines in which
work will doubtless be resumed at no distant day, and were there any security for property under the government, they would no doubt be remunerative. Almost everybody holding material
interest in the country seems to be waiting for the time when the Americans shall take possession. Many persons assured me that, did they not hope for such an event, they would
leave the country and abandon their property. In fact, it seems to be the universal opinion
of the whole country tlhat its "manifest destiny" is annexation.  The foreigners of all nations
are anxious for it; half the native population desire to see it, and the remainder look forward to it as an inevitable calamity.  When the event does take place, it will be the commencement of an era of activity and prosperity, such as has never been known before in this
out of the way and almost forgotten corner of the world.
Across a low range of hills from San Antonio, at a distance of about four miles, is the
little village of Triunfo, the headquarters of the Triunfo Mining Company. Here is, with
the exception of one other, the only successful mining enterprise on the peninsula.*
* Mr. Brooks has kindly furnished the followin, data:
"The Triulfo Gold and Silver Mining Company was organized in consequence of the representations
of a commission appointed by the government of the territory, for the purpose of interesting San Francisco capital in the development of the mineral resources of the peninsula.  Don Pedro Navarete was
governor at the time.  The commission consisted of Don Felix Gibert, Don Ramon Navarro, Don Salvador Villarino, and Don Santiago Viosca-all gentlemen of lhigh standing in the territory, and all intimately connected subsequently with the fortunes of the company.
"The first ores extracted were shipped to Europe, there being no mill in the territory, and no reduction works of any kind.  This ore turned out remarkably well, but the larger proportion being consumed in expenses, the company resolved to erect a mill and furnaces of their own.  Great good judgminent was evinced by the directors in the erection of machinery suitable to the nature of the ores, which
are exceedingly rebellions, consisting of sulphliurets of zinc. arsenic, antimony, lead, iron, cobalt, etc.,
in combination, with scarcely a trace of silicious matter. Withal, they did not escape the usual fate of
mining companies. No adequate conception seems to have been formed by the company or its directors
of theextent of the enterprise on which they were entering. One of its by-laws seems to have been, that
the agent should not be permitted to incur an obligation exceeding five thousand dollars, whereas, the
freight and duties of a single shipment have exceeded that amount. Moreover, shortly after the organizaticnn of the company, the mining-fever broke out in California, and probably every one of its stockholders
had stock enough to make them poor men for life.
"The mill, when completed, contrary to general expectation. worked the ores with complete success
from the start; but the blunder of blunders was not wanting-the ore had not been provided. In this
case the mismana gement appears to have been unpardonable, for subsequent developments have proven
the existence of immense deposits.  The company appears to have been much in debt at this time, and
to have relied upon the mill, of ten stamps only, to relieve them promptly as well as to furnish handsome dividends. Had an abundant supply of ore been provided, their expectations would doubtless
have been realized; as it was, additional assessments had to be called fo)r, until the mines could be put
ill better shape. As soon as this condition of affairs was realized, their superintendent was removed,
and a newv manager appointed.
"About this time, Don Felix Gibert. a gentleman of rare intelligence and a great friend to American
enterprise, was elected governor of the territory. During his administration were built the wharf at La
Paz, the foundation of the new custom-house, the fine wagon-road from La Paz to Triunfo, as well as
many other public works of note. After the lapse of a few months the mines of the company appear to
have yielded not only an abundance of ore for the mill, but also some for export, thus giving promise
of the great abundance since developed; but of course this was attended by a great additionalexpense,
and the company, the stock-fever having subsided, grew weary of their enterprise. Thus, just about the
time that their property had really become valuable, one of the stockholders birought suit to restrain the
directors from collecting further assessments, and the injunction being granted. the directors, to cover
themselves as far as possible, sold the bullion shipped by their agent, and returned his drafts protested.
Had the agent not been very prompt, this would have been fatal, for, contrary to the general belief, executiori would have been issued instantly by the creditors upon every thing belonging to the company,
the bare mines excepted.  This danger was avoided by their manager giving a mortgage to the governor,
Don Felix Gil)ert, ill behalf of all the creditors; and then, calling them together, and explaining his
motives, he obtained, after much exertion, an agreement signed by all, granting four months' time to
the company, in which to arrang,e their affairs.  With  this he proceeded to San Francisco, and,
finding the company completely demoralized financially, he succeeded in procuring a legal meeting of
the stockholders, who voted unanimously to dispose of the property on the best obtainable terms, appoilting, their agent to proceed to Newv York and, if necessary, to Europe, in order to negotiate a sale.
By this time a month of the four months' grace had been consumed, and by the time the agent reached
New York, nearly two months had elapsed.
"In the mean time great changes were taking place on the peninsula.  The governor to whom we
have alltuded, Don Felix Gibert, was strongly suspected of a tendency to imperialism, but, in good
truth, he had been placed in a dilemma between the horns of which it was really difficult to choose. This,
led to Charybdis-that, to Scylla; and while hesitating, he was spared further agonyby being driven out
of office.  Trhe French, it appears, coveting the peninsula, and yet not having a soldier to spare, caused
it to be rumored repeatedly that they were about to send the Victoire, or the Venus, or the Lucifer, with
forces to take possession.  Havin_  occasioned a sufficient degree of alarm, they sent over to say diplomiatically, that if the Lower Californians would recognize the empire. no force would be sent, governors
and potentates. custom-house officers and what not, should be permitted to remain and thrive-every
thing should proceed exactly as heretofore; not a Frenchman should desecrate the soil; a commissioner. and he a Lower Californian, should be appointed just for the form of the thing-nothing more.
"The bait took, the governor called a meeting of the Legislature to lay before them the proposition.
That august body wished to shirk the question, li)ut it was delicately intimated that they could choose
between graceful compliance and a very ungraceful one, and so, after due deliberation, it was decided to
welcome Sefior Espinosa.  Now, Espinosa had formerly been governor of the territory, at which
time Don Felix Gibert had been his private secretary, and his friend and pupil; so, whatever Don Felix
85 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
The Triunfo mines, some seven in number, and all lying in a compact body, belong to an
American company of the same name, and are owned partly in San Francisco and partly in
Philadelphia. Like nearly all of the others, these mines would have been abandoned by the
proprietors, had it not been for the energy and perseverance of Mr. Henry Brooks, the very
able manager and principal owner. At a time when all were losing confidence, because
they did not see large shipments of bullion, and when the trustees in the States hesitated
may have thought about imperial matters, he received his friend gracefully and cordially, as in honor
bound.  This led to misapprehension, and thus it was in the nature of things that when a small force,
dissatisfied with their pretty little arrangements, marched on La Paz, Don Felix and his friend both had
to retire with remarkable promptitude. So far Don Felix had made a mistake-a mistake only; but
from this time forward every step was a fatal one. If he had retired quietly from La Paz to the interior,
he was so generally beloved that he would not only have been perfectly safe, but he would have been reinstated in a few weeks at farthest. As it was, he crossed over to Mazatlan, where he was of course
greeted as a distinguished sufferer for the imperial cause; from thence he proceeded to the city of Mexico, was introduced to Maximilian, received at his hands the decoration of Guadalupe, which cost him
fifty dollars. and thus destroyed at a blow the brightest prospects for a distinguished and eminently useful life that ever fell to the lot of a young man of eight-and-twenlty.
"The above is a great digression; but thus it was that when the agent of the Triunfo Company returned from the East, having been successful inll the object of his mission, the best friend of the company
was a fugitive, and the agent who had been intrusted with the care of his property sought to foreclose
the mortgare in his own behalf; fortunately-although the attempt occasioned considerable expense-it
was a complete failure; the new company paid the debts, released the mortgage, and took possession in
due form.
"The new company, entitled the Triunfo Silver Mining and Commercial Company, had decided upon
the erection of a larger and better mill, since it had been proven that the product of the mines would be
far in excess of the old one.  After arranging affairs in La Paz, the agent proceeded to San Francisco to
order the machinervy, and in the mean time another revolution, or rather two or three of them, occurred,
or perhaps they might be described more justly as a revolut ion and a revolutionary fizzle.
" Don Antonio Pedrin, who succeeded to the governorship by virtue of his olffice as vice-governor, is
one of those (alas, farce aves in these days) who prefer retirement and simplicity to the honors and emolumeuts of office; therefore he signified his desire that a nlew election should be held as promptly as
possible.  The rival candidates were Don Ramon Navarro and Don Pedro Navarete, both ex-governors.
During the election char,es and counter-charges were made of ballot-box stuffing; a quarrel ensued,
which culminated in an attempt on the part of Navarro to seize the person of Navarete; this was foiled,
owing, it is said, to the intervention of Americans, a very imprudent intermeddling with local squabbles.
The upshot of it all was that nobody was elected, so, for a while, Don Antonio Pedrin continued to hold
the uncoveted dig,nity.  But Navarete, who was from San Jose, was bent on office; assuming that he
had been legally elected, and making a charge against Pedrin of having sympathized with his rival, he
marched on La Paz, took the vice-governor prisoner, whom he had a strong disposition to shoot, but
finally banished.
"It wivas during these troublous times that an event occurred-more fatal, for the time being, to the
interests of the peninsula than any which had occurred. This was the seizure of the Mexican packetship John L. Stephens at Cape St. Lucas, by Dana, au American, holding commission under Corona.
The act was of course perfectly justifiable, and the steamer a legal prize, had Dana chosen to make a
prize of her; but though she escaped on very easy terms, the company withdrew their steamer from the
peninsular trade, and thus the country remained almost entirely cut off from conmmunication with the
world for nine months, and this too with steamers running up or down the entire length of its coast every
two or three days.
"The Triunfo Company were the greatest sufferers by this disaster, for their machinery, as also a
very large amount of merchandise and material, had been purchased under contract to be put aboard the
steamer of May, the seizure of the John L. Stephens occurring in April. After much difficulty and delay,
the company chartered a sailing-vessel which, after getting out to sea, had to put back in a sinking condition.  The machinery had to be reshipped on the brig Lopud, which finally put to sea in July, reaching La Paz about the middle of August.  In the mean time, the agent, who had returned to the peninsula, after securing, as he thought, the shipment of the machinery, unable to conceive the occasion of its
non-arrival, crossed over to Mazatlan in a small sailing-vessel, and from thence took steamer to San Francisco, to ascertain the occasion of the delay.  On his arrival the brig had sailed, whereupon he took the
Eastern steamer Colorado, for the cape; but a storm springing up, he was unable to land, and was carried on to Manzanillo and Acapulco, detained there some days, as the up-steamer had broke her shaft,
and finally took passage back on the steamer California, to encounter a still severer storm at the cape
despite of which he landed, at the risk of his life.
"From this time forward, the erection of the new mill of the Triunfo Company and the development
of its mllines steadily progressed. despite of several additional revolutions, with a revolt of the guard
thrown in; for Navarette had made himself extremely unpopular among all classes.  During his administration it was customary to levy a forced loan upon the Mexican merchants about once a week; an
attempt to play the same game upon Americans resulted in an indignation-meeting and the development
of a spirit which he had little expected  Several attempts were made to remove him-one by Don Salvador Villarino, which resulted ili the slaughter of two horses, and a diplomatic termination, leaving
Navarete still Gefe Poulitco.  On the reappointment of Don Antonio Pedrin by Juarez, that gentleman
returned from San Francisco to the peninsula, sending forward his credentials to Governor Navarete
at La Paz. Navarete answered in person, accompanied by all the force he could muster, and advancing
lay forced marches, the rival governors encountered at Santiago, where, after fighting three days, or a
week-I forget which-with a loss of two men, Navarete retreated, leaving Don Antonio Pedrin master of the situation.
"Withal, this is a very peaceable country (don't laugh)-nobody is ever robbed or murdered; at least
such an event does not occur oftener than once in a year or two. During all these disturbances, when
armed men were running all over the country, no outrage of any kind occurred; neither when they were
finally disbanded.  Governor Pedrin, confident in the affection of the people, has dismissed every soldier, keeping not even a guard.
"As to the Triunfo Company  it has successfully surmounted all the innumerable obstacles it has
had to encounter, and it is worthy of note that during all these disturbances its property was scrupulously respected. On the road, while native teams and pack-trains were freely taken by either or rather
every belligerent, those of the company were never interfered with.
"The amount of ore crushed and roasted in three weeks' run was 350 tons; the amount amalgamated, 100, less than half of the amalgamating power being completed at the start. The yield was seventy dollars per ton, rather a poor grade of ore being worked first, for precaution's sake. The bars
averaged 960 fine, and command the highest premium of any shipped to San Francisco market."
86 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
about further assessments, Mr. Brooks, nothing daunted by the difficulties with which he was
surrounded, spent his own money freely, to keep up the credit of the company and carry on
the work. At last, stimulated by his zeal and persistency, the company came again to his
support, and, as a result, are to-day owners of a mining property equalled in value by very
few on the continent. The work heretofore done has been principally opening the veins,
with a view to steady work in the future. Two of the mines have been prepared so that
they can keep the five twenty-four-stamp mills running for several years by the ore already in
sight. These two mines, the Mendocefia and the Molinefa, adjoin each other, and need
but a few feet of tunnel to connect their workings. The vein is so situated in a hill, that the
mines can be worked to a depth of between 600 and 700 feet from the surface without the necessity of pumping, and as soon as the two mines are connected (inf the seventh level of the Mendocef.l), all of the ore can be taken out of the tunnel of the Molinefia, thus saving the cost of hoisting.  The body of ore in these mines averages throughout about four feet in thickness, very
uniform in character, and varying very little from the average width, except that it shows a
slow though steady tendency to widen downward. It is probable that measurements would
show an average thickness of nearer five feet than four, in the lowest fifty feet.  The ore itself is a compound of sulphuret of lead, antimony, etc., containing about one hundred dollars of silver to the ton.
Mr. Lobher made a series of assays from samples selected with the greatest care, to obtain
average, and his results varied from $90 to $124 per ton.  Choice specimens of first-class
ore yielded $225 per ton. An extension has been made on the dip of the vein, so as to give
the present company control of the vein to any depth to which work will probably ever be
carried.
Besides these three claims, there are also four others, belonging to the same company, on
a parallel vein somewhat smaller, and with ore of a slightly different character. On one of
these claims considerable work has been done, and a large quantity of ore taken out.  During
the period of struggle for existence, this ore was worked in a ten-stamp mill, and supplied a
considerable portion of the funds used in keeping under way the work of preparation on the
other mines. This ore contains a preponderance of zinc, and I was told by Mr. Youngjohn,
the metallurgist, that it is less refractory than that of the other veins. On all of the claims
in this vein small shafts and irregular excavations have been made by the Mexicans from
time to time, for the purpose of extracting the "azogue metal," or ore that could be amalgamiated without roasting, and which results from the decomposition of the sulphides near
the surface. These excavations, trifling in themselves, are still sufficient to prove that a considerable body of ore is found along the whole line of the vein included within those boundaries. From the relative positions, and the angles at which these two veins dip, it is not
improbable that they may eventually be found to be united below, inasmnuchl as in descending they approach each other rapidly, and are not very far apart even at the surface.
The vein on which the Mendocefia and Molinefia mines are situated has been traced several miles, and the whole length is covered with claims. Some of these are held on the
Micawber principle, while others have been opened partially, or, as in the case of the "Mexican Mines," to the extent of successful working.  These mines, known as the San Pedro and
the old and new San Nicolas, have been worked in an irregular and in.efficient manner for a
series of years, and, in spite of the miserable manner in which the work has been done,
proved throughout very remunerative to the owners. There is no material difference between
the appearance of the vein here and in the mines already described. Besides these mines,
there are in the vicinity of Triunfo and San Antonio a few that will undoubtedly prove good,
and, of course, as is always the case, a host of worthless ones.
During our stay in this neighborhood we were the guests of Mr. Brooks, who had been
our travelling companion from the cape.  Through the untiring kindness and courtesy of this
gentleman, assisted by all the other officers of the company, we were enabled to see much
more of the region in the limited time we spent there, than would have been possible had we
been thrown on our own resources.
After a delay of four or five days, partly spent in investigating the mines and partly in
fighting against the inevitable "poco tiempo" procrastination, which is the most marked
characteristic of the whole Spanish-American people, and which drove Mr. Browne to his
wvit's end with impatience, we ran down to La Paz on a flying visit. There is a good road all
the way, for which the county is indebted to foreign energy.  The distance is 45 miles, and
this, together with another wagon-road from San Antonio to Ventana Bay, 25 miles long, and
also made by foreigners, makes about one-half of all the length of wagon-road on the peninsula.
Our party, consisting of Mr. Browne, Mr. Brooks, and myself, started from Triunfo on the
morning of January 12th, and rode to a rancho called Las Playitas, some 33 miles from
Triunfo. The road is gently undulating, with occasional stretches of level ground. As a
work of private enterprise it reflects great credit on the company, at whose expense all the
more important parts were made, although it is called a "camino real," and is really the
property of government. The route lies through an undulating, rather hilly country, and is
on an average descent from the summit of a ridge not more than half a mile from the offices
of the company. The hills are covered with a vegetation very characteristic of the lower
87 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
part of the territory, and this ride alone from La Paz to Triunfo would give to a botanist a
verv fair idea of the flora of the region. On the elevated ground the two species of giant
cactus (Cereus sp.?) tower everywhere from 30 to 40 feet high; with them are the more
graceful shafts of the Pitahaya dulce, yielding a fruit said to be superior to the strawberry;
not so prominent in altitude, but more numerous, are the Sour Pitahayes with their snakelike branches and formidable thorns, while less obtrusive than any of these is the Visuaga or
Turk's-head cactus, one of the most useful plants in the country. This is a spherical or
elongated mass about a foot in diameter, covered with formidable spines, three or four inches
long, crossing each other in every direction, and the longest of them curved like a fish-hook.
Woe to the man who should stumble against them in the dark! but, in this country, people
are very careful not to stumble'in the dark. The very babies learn to run barefoot where
half the vegetation is covered with thorns like needles, and accidents from this source are
nearly unknown. The weary traveller, dizzy with the overpowering heat of the sun, and
parched with thirst, can find relief almost instantly by the use of this plant. It grows almost
everywhere, from Cape San Lucas to beyond San Diego, and its bright-red thorns distinguish
it at once from all the other Cacti. Unlike most of the others, it has no woody skeleton, and
with a large knife can be readily cut to pieces.  The interior, cut into thin slices and held in
the air for a few moments, cools by evaporation and can then be eaten, or at least chewed so
as to extract the moisture. The amount of fluid matter in it is very great, and the taste is
not unlike that of green cucumber. Besides the above more prominent species, there are
the graceful Carambuya, most to be admired because its thorns are short; the Choreas, which
have a bad trick whenever they are touched of dropping their leaves, studded with thorns as
sharp as a cambric needle, and which attach themselves to one with a pertinacity worthy of
a better cause; the flat-leaved "prickly-pear," and half a dozen more of the "small fry,"
which, although hardly worth a separate mention, demand their full share of attention from
the unfortunate, who is obliged to pick his way through a Lower California thicket.
Of trees, the preponderance of species belong to the family of the Acacias; the Mesquit
and Lipua, invaluable for forage; the Palo Blanco, with wood like ivory or lignum vite for
hardness; the Palo Verde and-the Palobrea, with bark as green as grass, that of the latter
being, as the name implies, a coat of resinous gum instead of a true bark; two species of
Torote, with wood so soft and brittle, that a green limb two inches in thickness, and without
a flaw, broke short off close to the trunk under the weight of my saddle only: these, with half
a dozen shrubs, some bearing beautiful flowers, are all acacias. Less abundant, but found
occasionally, are the wild fig-trees, and one or two bearing excellent fruit. The undergrowth
consists of a great variety of bushes, nearly all of which were strangers to us, and most of
them, bearing their full proportion of thorns, fill in every available spot, and make a dense
and tangled mass of vegetation, throiugh which only the native cattle attempt to force a passage.  These animals, with a supreme contempt for the thorns, rove everywhere, and pick up a
good living, feeding principally on "bunch grass," a kind of grass that exists everywhere on
the west coast of North America, and which is one of the most valuable of our forage
plants.
Oni the north side of the road, at a place called the Calabazas or Gourds, is a range of
granite hills, in which many traces of copper have been found. Some attempts at mining
have been made, but so far they have all ended unsuccessfiilly. There are nevertheless
many persons here who still retain confidence in the future value of these mines, or at least
say they do.  They all seem to own shares, and are perfectly willing to sell at good round
prices. Not having time to visit them, we had no opportunity of forming an opinion for ourselves.
The Playitas is a little rancho in the hills near the borders of the plains of La Paz. The
granite on the edge of this plain is overlaid by stratified volcanic ash, and this in turn by a
very hard porphyritic trachyte, dipping usually to the west and northwest, but somewhat contorted near La Paz. South of this is the high granite chain of the Cacachilas, in which are
also some mines claimed to be good.
Our duties did not lead us in this direction, and we were obliged reluctantly to forego the
pleasure of visiting the district.  The ores which I saw resemble those of San Antonio and
Triunfo, except in that they seem to contain much more lead.
The road along the plain to La Paz is wide and perfectly level, cut in the greater part
through a monte, or thicket of cactus. The soil is good in places; in other parts, especially
near La Paz, it is somewhat gravelly. A large tract here could be cultivated, were it not for
the absence of water. Doubtless, water could be obtained by artesian boring, but, from the
thickness of the volcanic ash, the wells would in all probability have to reach a great depth
before striking a good supply.  The high range of the Cacachilas would supply more water
than would be needed to irrigate the whole valley, but the depth necessary to obtain it is a
problem that can only be solved by actual experiment.
The city is one of the very few which do not belie, on a close inspection, the appearance
they present from a distance. Seen from the road one cannot obtain a very good idea of it,
though its white houses, nestling among palms and cottonwoods, make a picture that, once
seen, can never be forgotten. But if the view from the land side is lovely, words almost fail
to convey an idea of its beauty when seen from the bay. The houses are, with a single
88 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA..
exception, and a foreign innovation at that, all of one story; they are mostly built of adobe,
or mud bricks dried in the sun; the walls are very thick and whitewashed, the roofs are flat
and are made of burnt bricks, or tiles laid on palm-poles, and the whole covered with cement.
The streets are mostly shaded by cottonwoods and willows, and in many of the gardens are
the tall and graceful fan and date palms, sufficiently numerous to stamp the picture with an
unmistakably tropical aspect. The principal part of the town is built on a low flat but little
raised above the tide; back of this is a very low table-land, on which are many of the finer
residences, the cuartel or barracks, the church, and, in fact, all the more imposing edifices.
Seen from the deck of a vessel the brilliant contrast between the white houses and the dark
foliage of the lower part of the town is relieved by the more scattered but more pretentious
buildings of the upper portion, and the effect is immeasurably heightened by the rugged
masses of the sombre Cacachilas in the background. But alas! even here is not yet paradise; one of the prettiest towns in the world, a climate with which even that of the muchpraised Italy cannot compare, a country in which laziness is at a premium; in fact, when it
would seem that one could dream life away without a care, even here the picture has a dark
side. In the months of September to November the town is subject to the most terrible
hurricanes, ships are driven on shore high and dry, trees are torn up by the roots or broken
like reeds, every thing that the storm-king touches is destroyed as effectually as if by fire, and
in a day perhaps may be ruined property that has taken years to accumulate. It is principally on this account that the houses are built so low, and with so little about them that can
be affected by storms.
In La Paz we were very well received by Mr. Elmer, the United States consul, who is very
enthusiastic over the value of the peninsula, and who, moreover, as in duty bound, is a firm
believer in the doctrine of "manifest destiny." Another gentleman here, Mr. Vioska, the
agent of the steamship and express companies, very kindly did every thing he could to assist
us and facilitate our work. Accompanied by this gentleman, we had a long and tedious interview with Don Antonio Pedrin, the governor. The old gentleman has the reputation of being
a much better ranchero than politician, and certainly the little I saw of him confirmed me in
thait opinion. The free manner in which he saw fit to criticise the acts of his superiors before
strangers, and foreigners at that, was not at all calculated to convey a high opinion of his tact
as a politician. Nevertheless, the thinking men of the Territory are better satisfied with him
than they generally are with their governors, from the fact that, whatever are his feelings in
other respects, they believe him to be strictly honest and incorruptible.
After spending two days in La Paz, and visiting the United States steamer Suwanee, which
was lying in the harbor, we returned to Triunfo, accompanied by Dr. Wiss, a German physician of San Antonio, who afterward joined us on the trip to Magdalena Bay.  Our ride back
was accompanied by no incidents of special interest, except the persistent efforts of a Mexican, who followed us several miles, endeavoring to sell us a mule for about two and a half
times its real value. The sale was not effected. We reached Triunfo on Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday, January 17th, while Mr. Browne was immersed in the pleasant occupation of buying mules, and trying to avoid being cheated by the Mexicans, who are the worst
jockeys in the world, Mr. Loher and I spent the morning visiting some of' the mines that we
had not as yet examined fully. Returning a little after noon, and taking a hasty lunch, we
packed up, bade a reluctant good-by to our friends, and, with many regrets at leaving a
place where our stay had been so pleasant, we started out, about the middle of the afternoon,
en route for Magdalena Bay, our party consisting of seven, including Dr. Wiss and his mozo,
or servant, and Jesus Castillo, our Mexican guide.  We rode but halfa dozen miles and made
our first dry camp; that is, we camped at a spot where we had pretty grass, but no water
except what we carried in our canteens.
Next morning, passing through a deep cafion cut through cliffs of mica slates, we emerged
on a mesa, covered with a scanty soil of red gravel, and in the afternoon reached Todos
Santos, forty-five miles from Triunfo, and a mile from the west coast. The village is built on
the edge of the mesa, overlooking the creek bottom, and contains a population of about a
hundred souls. It consists of the inevitable plaza, with a fine church on one side, the other
three sides being bordered by fiat-roofed houses, mostly private residences, though one or
two are occupied as stores. The most pretentious of the houses is that of Don Salvador Villarino, the great man of the place, and almost the only resident, if not the only one, who can
speak English. We spent a very pleasant evening at his house, and found that, like most of
the more intelligent of his countrymen, while he looked upon the eventual absorption of the
Territory by the United States as inevitable, he was nevertheless bitterly opposed to it, because, as he frankly acknowledged, the two races cannot come into contact without resulting
in the extinction or driving out of his own people. He had witnessed it in Upper California,
where, over whole counties, the local names are almost the only trace left, by the Spanish
race, after the short space of twenty years of American occupation. The gardens and fields
here are many acres in extent, and cover all the land that can be irrigated in the bottom.
Figs, oranges, vines, bananas, and sugar-cane are the principal productions. The latter is by
far the most important item, many thousands of pounds of sugar being made here every year.
The spot is very pretty, and perhaps looks the more so by contrast with the semi-desert appearance of the surrounding country.
89 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
Having procured one more mule here, thus filling our complement of animals, we started
about noon, and went as far as the mouth of the Arroyo de las Palmaritas, or little palm-grove,
travelling the whole distance over sandy and gravelly fiats, covered with cactus and bushes,
without trees. We camped near the only water, a well of saltish water, dlg near the merest
pretence of a house.  The rancho was inhabited by a large family, who eked out a scanty subsistence firom a few cattle-cheese and milk being almost their entire food, as is the case with
very many of the poorer people of this region.   The proprietor, in blissful ignorance of allny
thing better, asked us, with all the simplicity in the world, how we liked his place; he "liked
it very much" himself, so nicely situated, and with such good pasture for animals.  We, of
course, admired it exceedingly, complimented him on the extent and excellence of the improvements he had put upon it; said improvements consisting of a house of upright poles set in
the ground, and admitting of admirable ventilation, covered by a ragged thatch, a corral or
cattle-pen, and a well of execrable water.
The next morning, the 20th, we left our contented friend, and travelled  twenty-seven
miles over a barren sandy tract, supporting a scanty growth, passing a rancho at the mouth of
the Arroyo de Carrisal, similar to the one we left in the morning, and camped in the afternoon
on the rancho of the Innocentes. This is a much better rancho than those we had passed; there
being no arable land here, it is only fit for stock-raising, but the proprietor, Sefior Carvallo, is
said to be, in the local sense of the word, rich. He has large herds of cattle, sheep, goats,
horses, and mules, besides all enormous family of sons and daughters. This beirng my birthday,
we celebrated it by a rather poor attempt at aguardiente punch, made in a tin pan, drunk out of
tin cups, and profusely seasoned with apologies from our cook because he could not do better.
Seflor Carvallo is "compadre," or fellow-godfather to our guide Jesus, and, at the suggestion
of' the latter, we engaged one of the sons of the former to accompany us as mozo and general
assistant. Domingo, a large, fine-looking man, twenty-six years of age, had never been farthier from here than to La Paz, and it was only after profuse promises of taking care of him
that his mother would let him go, even under the especial care and protection of Jesus. And
well she might fear, for a more ignorant, unsophisticated, overgrown baby never left a
mother's side. Lazy to a proverb, he was utterly useless, except when on the road he was
placed behind the pack-mules to drive them, and there his mule carried him along without
any exertion on his part. Like most lazy people, he was an excellent trencherman, and this
trait, especially when our supplies of fresh meat ran low, made him a constant thorn in the
flesh to the cook, who declared that he liked to see fair play.
Jaenuary 21st.-Our road lay over low gravel tables close to the coast, twenity-one miles to
a dry camp. We gave the animals water about noon, and carried sufficient for ourselves in
leathern bottles.  Near this camp we first encountered the peculiar  table-lands which make
half of Lower California.  They are here represented by a very slight elevation of an impure
limestone with obscure casts ot' fossil shells, all apparently belonging to living species.  The
limestone dips at an extremely low angle, sloping upward to the eastward, until it caps high
hills with their tops as fiat as if they had been planed off by the hand of man.
Our camp being but a few hundred yards from the beach, I spent an hour on the sand and
among the rocks hunting for shells or shell-fish. Neither I nor the Mexican, who was down
with me, could find any thing except old shells, inhabited by hermiit crabs.  Of these there
were hundreds running over the sands, hiding under every loose stone, arid even travelling
into the bushes, a hundred yards from the water, apparently in search of food.  Star-fishes
and actineas were abundant, but there was little or nothing of any interest to a conchologast.
On the 22d we rode twenty-three miles, partly on the tables, partly on the hard sand
beach.  Our ride was varied by but few incidents.  We captured a turtle on the beach, but
he was either wounded or sick, and, as we could not determine what was the matter with
him, we threw him into the water. He was so weak that the next wave turned him over on
his back, and he did not seem able to resume his natural position, so we abandoned him to
his fate, mourning that our bright visions of aldermanic fare had come to so untimely an end,
before we had hardly had time to realize our seeming good fortune. But we were, after all,
not doomed to disappointment. Within half a mile of the turtle, a band of three or four
black-tail deer crossed a little hill in advance of us. I dismounted, followed them on foot,
and, before the pack-mules were fairly unloaded, I was standing exultingly over a fine fat
buck kicking in his death-struggles within three hundred yards of the camp.  He made a welcome addition to our larder, for the cook had just announced the melancholy intelligence
that we were entirely out of fresh meat.
On Wednesday, the 23d, our route lay inland mostly on the low tables, except a couple of
miles across a piece of bottom, known as the Arroyo Guadalupe. This word arroyo, meaning
strictly the bed of a stream, is applied in Lower California to any place in which water runs,
whether it be a deep ravine or canion, a broad open valley or cafiada, or a mere gutter.
The Arroyo Guadalupe is at least two miles wide, and what should be properly called the
arroyo is perhaps ten feet wide. There is no water in the valley; but the line of mesquit and
willow-trees, and the numerous patches of very green grass, show that water had either been
there until very recently, or that there was considerable moisture in the soil. Leaving this
valley, crossing a very rocky but narrow range of hills, and picking our way among angular
90 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
firagments of volcanic rocks, we reached the Agua Colorada or Red Water, so named from
the color of the rocks.  We made in all about twenty-six miles, but they were long ones and
tiresome, due partly to the heat of the sun, and not a little to the broken and rocky nature of
the ground over which we had come. We camped beside the wvater, which was good, and our
mules, hoppled and turned loose, had their choice between browsing on the mesquit4trecs overhead or eating the grass, excellent though scattered, which they could pick up among the
bushes.
Our camp was about a mile from the ranch-house, and we received several calls in the
course of the evening from the men belonging to the place.
They appeared to know perfectly well who we were, and what was our object in travelling
through the country. In fact, they had been expecting us for several days. Even here, where
mails and newspapers are unknown, and where not one person in a dozen can read, they appear to keep as well posted in the news as are the people in the rural districts of our own
country.
Throughout the whole journey we never found a spot so retired but that, when we
reached it, we found that our coming was expected, and our business known.  The  next
mornlitng, the 24thl, we passed the house as we started out, stopping a few  moments to see
their well and pond. It proved to be merely a large watter-hole, where the proximity of the
surface of a hard rock stratum keeps a constant supply of pretty good water, a portion
really of a subterranean stream. It is such ponds as this that enables people to travel at all
in thi3 country, and not unfrequently will the road diverge ten miles from its direct course
to pass by one.  The  water-holes of Agua Colorada are a fair illustration; the nearest
water southward being       miles distant, while to the northward the nearest water is
miles off.
At the house, we were surprised at being addressed with a civil " Good-morning, gentlemen," in excellent English, by a bare-footed, very ragged individual, whose countenance, unnecessarily black, with flat nose and thick lips, showed at a glance that he was not of Mexican or of Indian origin; his curly but not woolly hair seemed to imply that he was not an
African, nor did he look like a Kanaka. Hle soon told us his story. He was a runaway sailor,
spoke but little Spanish, had reached here on his way to Comondu, where he claimed to
have a friend.  The Mexicans urged him not to undertake the trip, because, alone and on
foot as he was, and ignorant of the many trails that cross the plains of the Magdalena in all
directions, the chances were almost certain that he would perish from thirst. Even Mexicans,
born in the country, but unacquainted with these plains, do not dare to venture it without a
guide; and many a thrilling story is told, by the flickering light of the camp-fires, of men be'vildered in this sea of cactus, who, after almost incredible sufferings, have only escaped with
their lives to tell their tales of horror. Many a poor wretch has left his bones, picked clean by
the coyotes, to tell that he, unable to find his way out, had died from that most terrible of tortures-thirst. Our dusky friend, however, did not appear to dread such a difficulty, and replied, with a little tone of pride in his voice, that he was an Australian bushman, and had been
used to such things all his life. He did not think the risk would be very great for him, and
thought "he could get along." Sure enough, that same evening, almost before we had become fairly settled in our camp, twenty-four miles off, he came along, his whole baggage consisting of a quart bottle. He stayed an hour or so, got something to eat, refilled his bottle with water, and started off again. The last we saw of him was at the Salada, near Magdalena Bay, where he had contracted to work for a neighboring ranchero for a while, and
where, as he informed us, he had already established "relations" with one of the old man's
daughters.
From the Agua Colorada to the next water the country is very uniform. We rode 24
miles over dry, gravelly, and in places rocky mesas, occasionally intersected by dry watercourses, until we found a spot where grass was more than usually abundant. We here made
a camp, a day's journey from a drop of water. Our mules had drunk all they wanted in the,
morning, and were doomed to wait until the next afternoon for their next supply.  Fuel was
rather scarce. We were obliged to burn the woody skeletons of cactus, which, although they
make a hot fire, require that the collectors shall exert considerable industry and activity to
keep up the supply.
Bright and early the next morning we were in the saddle, and by noon we reached the.
water-hole of La Palma, probably so named because there is not a single palm in sight.
Stopping only long enough to water our thirsty animals, we proceeded to La Salada, six miles
from the shore of Magdalena Bay. The last four or five miles was along a pretty bottom;
with luxuriant grass and a perfect thicket of mesquit, while, as a special treat, we had but
very little cactus.  Along this bottom are ranches every mile or two, the Salada being the
one nearest the coast. At the latter is a large pond, sometimes of fresh water, but at the
time of our visit so salt from the influx of the tide as to be useless. We obtained water by
digging wells in the sand along its margin. The sides of the arroyo here are very abrupt,.
and expose a section of nearly 60 feet thick of horizontally stratified sandstones, the upper
beds of which are highly calcareous, and are filled with casts of living species of shells, the
most common of which is the large Acapulco oyster (O. Cumningii).
On the 26th the whole party made an excursion to the shore ef the bay. The mesa falls'
49
91 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
rapidly to near the beach, and is bounded by a belt of low, barren sand-hills. We signalled a
couple of whalers lying out in the bay, and amused ourselves collecting clams in the sand.
Finally one of the captains came ashore, and Mr. Browne made arrangements with him
for the use of his boat to make some explorations of the bay by water. From the single
point from which we saw it, the bay seems to be as large, commodious, and nearly as well
protected, as the harbor of San Francisco.  Mr. Brownle's opportunities for ex.amination, how
ever, having been so much better than mine, I shall undertake no description, feeling con  fident he will do the subject full justice.
Returning in the afternoon, we completed our arrangements for separation, and in the
morning of the 27th Mr. Browne and Dr. Wiss left us, charged with a multiplicity of mes  sages to our friends, while we remained in camp writing letters and oppressed with an un  pleasant feeling that we were saying good-by to the outside world for two or three months.
This feeling was in the main produced, or at least heightened, by the fact that all the diffi  culties, discomforts, and dangers of the country before us had been exaggerated to such an
absurd degree, that we almost dreaded to enter it. But even such a preparation has its ad  vantages.  The troubles resolutely faced, proved to be such trifles, compared with what our
overwrought imaginations had pictured them, that we were kept throughout in an almost
chronic condition of agreeable disappointment.
On Monday morning, January 28th, leaving our letters and last good-by for our com  panions with Manuel, the Doctor's servant, we found ourselves fairly embarked on our jour  ney.  Our party consisted of Mr. Loher and myself, constituting the scientific corps; Cor  nelius Ironmonger, who presided over the pots and kettles, and whose fort was to surprise
not only the natives, but ourselves not seldom, by his accounts of the wonders that could be
achieved by the great Yankee nation; Jesus, our guide, one of "Nature's noblemen," and a
man who, although a Mexican, could be trusted to do his duty without watching; and, lastly,
Domingo, who never did any thing without being told, and then only half did it.  We rode
18 miles over the same level mesa, covered occasionally with stones and supporting a thick
growth of cactus, camping at the rancho of Buena Vista. Almost the first inquiry made of
us was whether any one of the party was a "m6dico," or had any "remedios." Having some
simple remedies in my saddle-bags, I inquired what was the matter. The old man had rheu  matism, his wife was constipated, a boy had a stitch in the side, but the girls, of whom there
were several, and not ugly either, were all alarmingly healthy. I gave the father a counter  irritant, the mother a heavy dose of podophylline, and let the boy take care of himself. On
the strength of this little incident, I at once acquired the reputation of a great "medico,"
which preceded us all the way to the frontiers, and on several occasions was of considerable
service to us, enabling us to procure supplies of fresh meat through gratitude where money
would have been useless.
Thursday, 29th, rode 18 miles to a camp where we had excellent grass and plenty of wood,
but no water.  Started as late as we dared, so as to give the mules a chance to drink as late
as possible in the day, and then rode up the arroyo, filling our barrels at the last water. On
the way we stopped at a little rancho belonging to another "compadre" of Jesus.  I am at
a loss to account for the great numnber of compadres and comadres claimed by our guide.
Either he is a very popular man with his countrymen, or they have great confidence in his
piety, and for that reason choose him as godfather to their children, or, as I strongly suspect,
he may be guilty, at times, of inventing this convenient relationship for the occasion. The
presence of a very pretty young girl, and the cordial manner of his reception at this place,
would have been excuse sufficient, were the last surmise correct.  We  succeeded here in
replenishing our stock of' tobacco, which had begun to get alarmingly low, and went on our
way rejoicing. For the last mile and a half the sandstones showed considerable disturbance,
striking to nearly all the points of the compass, and often standing almost vertically.
On the 30th we travelled 17 miles, passing the old mission of San Luis Gonzago, where
we stopped an hour to allow Mr. Loher to take a latitude observation. While he was thus
engaged, I amused myself by making a sketch of the mission buildings.  The church is verv
small, but in excellent preservation. It is built entirely of stone, roof and all. Not a piece
of wood enters into its construction, except in the door.  The roof, like most of the better of
the mission churches, is an arch of stone. Except in the two towers, which answer also for
belfries, little or no labor was wasted on ornament: the builders having an evident eye to
the useful rather than the ornamental. The fine comfortable house, formerly, no doubt, oc  cupied by the padres, is now inhabited by a family who have quite a number of horses and
cattle, and who culivate an acre or two of garden here. The water comes to the surface and
runs along the arroyo over a rocky bed for a few hundred yards. A dam has been constructed,
and the water thus obtained is turned off in ditches to irrigate a little patch of peas, beans,
maize, and onions, all of which were flourishing nicely and promnising a good crop. The disturb  ance of the sandstone noticed the day before continued to within a mile of San Luis, where it
culminated in the appearance of a large dike of white porphyry and with crystals of glassy feld, spar. This continues beyond San Luis, and is the cause of the appearance of the water in the
arroyo. Farther on our road we encountered innumerable small dikes projecting through
the soft sandstones, and only disturbing them for a few yards on each side. The general
strike of these dikes is almost due north and south. These sandstones contain in some
92 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
places large numbers of rounded, water-worn boulders of volcanic rocks, which at times
make almost the entire bulk of some of the beds. Our camp was at an uninhabited place,
called the "ranchito," or little rancho.  A house and a band of cattle showed possession,
but, from the appearance of the house, it seemed to have been a long time without occupants.
We had excellent grass, with plenty of wood, and good water in abundance.
Twenty-three miles to the Cerritos, another little rancho by a water-hole, constituted our
next day's travel.  About six miles from the ranchito we entered a beautifil valley, contain ing about a thousand acres of the finest grass, with little or no cactus, with plenty of wood,
and only requiring water to make it an extremely desirable spot for a rancho. The soil is
excellent, and all the surrounding hills support a good growth of grass among the bushes.
From the nearly horizontal stratification of the underlying rocks, and the appearance of water
on the surface wherever a volcanic dike cuts across a water-course, there is no reasonable
doubt but that wells here of judicious depth would yield a constant supply of water. It is a
spot that will, without doubt, be pounced upon some day by an enterprising foreigner,
who will turn it to good account. There is no fear that any Mexican will ever take the
trouble. From this valley to the camp the trail ran over an undulating country, mostly clothed
with an abundance of grass, growing among the stones and cactus. Horses and cattle were
seen at times grazing quietly, until, catching a sight of our caravan, they would dash off like
frightened deer.
About 15 miles from the Cerritos is the rancho of Jesus Maria; and on the 1st of Febru ary we rode past this place, camping in a rocky arroyo about three miles beyond. Our route
lay all day over horizontal mesas, cut by innumerable water-courses. The sides were gen erally rather abrupt, and the stratification of the sandstones was beautifully exhibited. The
surface of these tables was almost everywhere covered by rounded volcanic boulders, left
there by the disintegration and washing away of the soft sandstones in which they had been
imbedded. In some places also were flakes of seleniite, or transparent crystallized gypsum,
left there by the same process.
Saturday, 2d, we rode about six leagues, 18 miles, mostly between higher table-hills of
the arroyo of Santa Cruz. We had been working toward the eastern side of the peninsula
during the whole week, and had now gotten to where the country was perhaps nearly 2,000 feet
high. The rocks still dipped with an almost imperceptible inclination to the west and southwest,
and the summits of the tables, now good-sized mountains, retained a constant parallelism
with the constituent stratification.
We camped still on the western water-shed, about 500 feet below the summit of the tables.
The table-land is cut into an infinitude of fragments by the deep canions which drain it,
most of the fragments being long and narrow, and ranged parallel, like the teeth of a comb,
and pointing toward the west coast. Lateral branches of the streams have:n many instances
cut off fragments, which thus stand isolated from the main mass, sometimes as sharp cones,
and in other cases as large unbroken tracts of level land. On nearing the east side of the
peninsula, the fragments of volcanic rocks included in the sandstones become larger and less
water-worn, many blocks of two and three feet in diameter being found, with their angles as
sharp as if they had been just broken off from the parent mass.
We remained in this camp over Sunday, giving our animals a day's rest, with pretty good
grass to feed on, while we spent the day under the shade of the moesquit-trees, repairing the
various rents in our clothing, incidental to continued travel among the thorns, and in speculating on what was going on in the outside world, from which we were now as completely
separated as if we had been on some desert isle in the wide Pacific.  Some time after dark,
on Saturday evening, a man with a peculiar-looking hump on one shoulder, rode into our
camp, and, in an odd kind of a voice, asked us a variety of questions as to who we were,
where we were going, and what we were doing. He declined our invitation to dismount,
saying he had come from a rancho in the mountains off to one side of our trail, and was going to Loreto to get some medicine for a sick man. After questioning us to his entire satisfaction, and convincing himself that we were what we represented ourselves to be, he suddenly straightened himself up in his saddle, the hump disappeared from his back, he pushed
his hat back from his face, and his voice assuming a natural tone, he laughingly told us all
he had said before was a lie. He was a servant at the adjoining rancho of Santa Cruz, and
he had come down to find out who we were.   There was a report that Senior Larraque, the
sub-prefect of Molejo, was out on a man-hunting expedition, to impress soldiers to send to
the other side, and everybody was on the qui vive to cut and run at the first alarmn.  Becoming satisfied that, at least in that respect, we were harmless, he became very communicative, and gave us a very detailed account of the road to Loreto, this being a region with
which our guide was not acquainted. Before he left we commissioned him to bring us some
eggs, chickens, and cheese. Next morning he returned loaded with commodities for sale,
including a bottle of milk.  We bought all he had, until he came  to the chicken, an old
hen, for which he wanted a dollar. The usual price for chickens being three reales, we objected, asking him if he supposed he was trading with fools.  He declared he had no discretion in the matter, the chicken belonged to the "patron," and if he sold it for less he would
have to pay the difference, or take a beating, or perhaps both. We then told him to take it
back; then he asked for permission to leave it with us until his return, since he was going to
93 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
hunt some cattle. He afterward came back to our camp three times, each time falling a
little in his price, each time receiving the same answer, "I will give you three reales; if you
want that, take it; if not, take your chicken away," until at last he said, "If you won't
give any more, take the chicken for three reales, but give me a little tobacco." From the
first the scamp did not expect to receive more, but we were strangers, and he was only doing
like anybody else. In Mexico foreigners are always considered fair game, and the only way
to avoid extortion is to learn the tariff; never ask, "How much do you charge?" but always
say, " If you have so and so to sell at such a price, I will take it." They universally ask
more than they expect to get, and fall to the regular price.
On Monday morning, February 4th, we started up the arroyo, and travelled all day over
v-ery rocky ground. The whole distance accomplished was but 19 miles, of which the first
14 were nearly all up-hill, a very gradual ascent. This took us to the summit of the range
which, at the point where we crossed, was quite narrow, but perfectly level. From the summit
the whole aspect of the country is changed. It no longer seems like a rolling, hilly country,
with innumerable fiat-topped mountains. It now becomes an immense plain, cut up by huge
canions of almost unfathomable depth.
This appearance extends, to the west and south, as far as the eye can reach. To the
northwest, however, where the rocks are highly metamorphosed, the contour of the range is
changed. The tables disappear near the summit, and in their stead the crest is weathered
into the most fantastic outlines, which, continuing northward a hundred miles, produce in
the Sierra gigantic irregularity of form-perhaps unsurpassed by any range of mountains
on the west coast. It is the more remarkable that these mountains should be so irregular on
their eastern crest, when we consider that they are composed entirely of horizontal stratified
rocks, and that, within a mile or two of this crest, they degenerate into an almost perfectly
level mesa, sloping thence to the plains on the west coast, without a break, except where
the winter rains have cut their deep and narrow channels in almost parallel lines.
From the head of the arroyo of Santa Cruz the road traverses the table for a few hundred yards, and then commences to wind down the side of another arroyo that opens to the
eastward.  This descent had been described to us as a "little longish, and a little stony."
We found it five miles long, and so full of large, angular, and loose pieces of rock, that we all
felt like giving vent to a sigh of relief when we reached the bottom, without a broken bone in
the party, and without having lost a mule. We camped directly at the base of the descent,
by the side of some water-holes in the rocks, known as the "tinaja," or jar.  The water was
good and abundant, but can hardly be permanent, inasmuch as it is only what remains from
the winter rains in pot-holes in the granite; and, doubtless, after one or two dry years, it
must become exhausted by use and evaporation.    At the time of our visit there were probably in the half a dozen holes about five to eight hundred gallons. We had here plenty of
wood, and a sufficiency of grass, on the steep hill-side.   As  we discovered, the next day,
we would have done better to have watered our animals, and have gone a mile or two farther,
where there is a nice little valley, with an abundance of grass, and without rocks.
On the 5th we followed this valley down to the coast, some three or four miles distant,
and then travelled up the coast, sometimes on the beach, sometimes behind the sand-hills,
and occasionally across the end of a spur of the hills to a lagoon in a beautiful little valley,
Almost all the land passed in this day's ride is susceptible of cultivation. It is a rich soil.
covered with a dense growth of shrubbery and cactus, and almost entirely without stones.
Water is easily obtained by wells, and is of a good quality. At the Chuenca rancho, the
only inhabited spot we passed, and which differs in no respect from the rest of this tract,
there are a couple of wells, 10 or 15 feet deep, and yielding an abundance of sweet, cold
water.
From Chuenca we passed, by a very rugged trail, around the end of a high hill, in places
so steep that a false step would have thrown mule and rider two or three hundred feet into
the boiling surf below. Directly after passing this point we descended into the head of a
long, narrow valley, which runs parallel with the coast two or three miles, separated only by
a low, rocky ridge. Here we mnade camp by the side of a lake, the result of last winter's
rains.
After supper, leaving the Mexicans, Mr. Loher, the cook, and myself, started to cross the
hill to the beach. We went part way, and, giving it up as unprofitable, returned, having
worked for an hour and a half, and not having accomplished in all more than half a mile of
climbing, and fighting our way over rocks, and through cactus. Poor Ironmonger hobbled
back in a dolorous plight as usual; through one finger-nail he had a pitahaya-thorn, while
another pinned his boot to his feet; he was always in trouble, and declared he never could
touch a piece of fire-wood without finding a cactus-spine lying in wait for him underneath.
There is no doubt but what the pitahaya agave is a great incentive to profanity.
From the "Laguna" we rode fifteen miles along a fertile, level tract to Loreto. Several
spots, where natural bodies of fresh water exist, are occupied; and in one canion, coming
down from the mountains, there is a large and flourishing orange-plantation, which sends
annually an entire schooner-load of oranges to San Francisco.
There is no reason why, with American energy, the whole tract, from Loreto to the
Tinaja, should not be a continuous garden. Good water can be obtained everywhere-wells
94 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
are from three to five yards deep, and inexhaustible windmills supply all the necessary
pumping power; and there is no fruit or vegetable, either tropical or temperate, that cannot
grow here in the open air. Cabbages and cotton, lettuce and tobacco, wheat, maize, and
onions, were all growing together in a garden in Loreto, while the castor bean, or "palma
cristi," here a perennial plant, a large tree, with a woody trunk, was flanked by the date-palm
and banana. The gray-green of the olive trees was relieved by the dark, glossy foliage of the
orange and lemon, their limbs bending under their treasure of golden fruit, and the vineyards
here produce a wine unequalled by any of the wines of Upper California.   Several ports
and good anchorages exist along this part of the coast; the best of which is the "Puerto
Escondido," or hidden port, a beautiful little bay, or rather lake, completely land-locked,
and deep enough for schooners of average size. This bay is often used by the people of
Loreto, when vessels dare not lie at their anchorage.
The town of Loreto, the ancient capital of the two Californias, is a little straggling village of adobe houses, mostly thatched with palm-leaves.   The site was  very badly chosen,
being directly aside of a water-course, often dry for several years, but which, after a heavy
rain in the mountains, is apt to become, in an hour or two, a frightful torrent.  From time to
time portions of the town have been destroyed, and the remains carried off by this stream,
and now nearly all that remains of the old town is the mission church and its adjoining
buildings. The church has been deserted for many years, except, perhaps, for some passing
priest, who may make an occasional visit to marry and confess those who have an inclination that way. No regular services have been held here, nor, in fact, in any of the missions
north of this, for so long a time, that many of the people would make good subjects for the
proselyting efforts of a new set of missionaries.
In Loreto, however, they are still near enough to the centres of civilization, so that they
are not completely heathenized yet, and the church, though little used, is in pretty good
repair. It is alarge stone structure, with an arched roof, and a round dome of stone at the
upper end. All the pictures that were uninjured were taken away in 1862, by order of the
Government; but those that were left behind, together with other remaining ornaments, testify to the richness if not the good taste exhibited in the adornment of the church by the
worthy padres.
The buildings attached to the church in the form of an L on one side, designed for the
residences of the priests, for granaries, etc., share in the ponderous solidity of the church
itself; and, after the lapse of a century and a quarter, are still in perfect repair, except in the
single item of the absence of doors.  Of the remainder of the town but little can be said.
Three or four good houses with flat roofs, and 20 or 30 roughly-built adobe shanties with
thatched roofs, constitute, with the church and its buildings, all that is left of the once
flourishing city of Loreto. The population of the place was estimated by Viosca in 1862 to
be 79. It certainly appeared to me to contain nearer two hundred. The only inference that
can be drawn is, that the population has really increased, since Mr. V., who was over-sanguine
in every thing connected with the territory, would not be guilty of under-estimating the number of inhabitants. The port is an open bay, nearly semicircular, and open to the east and
southeast. Good anchorage exists in several parts, and the bay is considered perfectly safe
for a large part of the year. In front of the port lies Carmen Island, about twelve miles distant.  It is uninhabited except by some persons engag,ed in collecting the salt which has
rendered the island so famous. It is twelve or fifteen miles long, very narrow, and without
any hills of importance. Seen from the mainland, it seems to be composed of the same
nearly horizontal stratified rocks which constitute the table-lands. These are slightly disturbed on the southwest side, and dip very regularly and gradually to the northeast.
In Loreto we found an aged Englishman, Don Tomas Taylor, an old resident, and one of the
principal men of the place. Mr. Taylor is an honorable exception among the foreign residents in the interior of the country. These men, principally American, are as a general thing
the most worthless, lazy, and often dishonest men who can be found in the country. They
are so mean that they cannot live at home, and are contented to hide themselves, principally
out of the world, and live despised even by the degraded Mexicans who surround them.   Mr.
Taylor, although not rich, is, in the sense in which the term is understood here, comfortable.
He is married to a native of the country, and has a nice little family growing up around
him. None of his children can speak English, although they understand it to some extent.
During our short stay in the town we received every attention from Mr. Taylor, who kindly
placed an unoccupied house of his at our disposal, and who when we left furnished us with letters of introduction to various friends of his on our route.
We spent two days here, examining the geological and other features of the neighborhood,
and in having our mules shod. It was in this vicinity that I first obtained proofs that the
nearly horizontal rocks of the mesa could be divided into two distinct formations.  The older
rocks are here highly metamorphosed, the metamorphic action first exhibiting itself on our route
at Chuenca, though from the contour of the country it doubtless extends some miles farther
south, inland. They here also contain large angular blocks of volcanic rocks, and sometimes so abundant as to constitute more than half the bulk of some of the strata. The dip
is very low, but constantly toward the westward. About six miles northwest from the town
there is an extensive protrusion of volcanic rocks, and lying to the castward of this are
I
95 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
several hills made up of loose-grained, entirely unaltered post-pliocena sandstones abounding
in fossils, and dipping at high angles to the eastward. I afterward found these post-pliocene
beds lying unconformally on the other rocks where the latter were very much disturbed.
On the 9th we rode a dozen miles to a place called Cresta Blanca, or white ridge, camp ing in a dry arroyo, with plenty of good grass and wood, but no water. We found the plains
north of Loreto along the coast somewhat differelt from what they are on the other side.
The good soil is replaced in part by sand, and in part by a coarse gravel full of fragments of
volcanic rocks.  After striking the hills the post-pliocene sandstones continued to the camp.
Here they contained sheets of selenite, or crystallized gypsum, sometimes as much as an inch
thick.  The next day we travelled 15 miles to the rancho of San Juan, still along the same
geological formation, and camped about half a mile from the house, in the edge of a willow
and mesquit thicket, by the side of a good pond of water. From here we went the next morn ing to the port of San Bruno, and in the afternoon to the plains of San Juan.  Tle port is
small and open, but is said to contain good anchorages. The plain back of it is several miles
long, the soil nearly all of excellent quality, and covered with a dense growth of grass. The
plain of San Juan lying north of this, and separated by a hill about a thousand feet high, is
of a similar character, except that it contains almost no bushes or cactus, and is excellent
grass land. All the foot hills and rolling ground at the head of the valley are covered with
mesquit and lipua, two trees which never suffer from drought, and on which horses and cattle feed as freely as on grasses. On the rancho of San Juan is an old stone ruin, said to have
been built for a chapel of the missionaries, and it is claimed that this was intended as the
site of the mission which was afterward located at Loreto. The story runs that the padres
were on their way to this place, which had been prepared beforehand, when, as they reached
the present site of Loreto, the mule that was bearing the image of the Virgin miraculously
stumbled and fell, throwing the image to the ground. This event was accepted as an intimation of the Virgin's desire to locate here, which was accordingly done. From a comparison
of the two localities, I am inclined to think that she or the mule showed very bad taste, but
tastes differ.  Next dav we rode to the Sance copper-mine, near the base of the Sierra Gigantea. On this day's ride we had a greater variety in the geology than in any one day previously since starting. From the alluvial bottom, bounded on one side by uptilted metamorphic
rocks, overlaid by horizontal trachytes, we entered an arroyo in horizontal beds of postpliocene abounding in fossils; these abut against metamorphic sandstones dipping to the
northeast at an angle of 35~.  This rock, afterward horizontal, abuts against a mass of granite
which is three or four miles long and a mile wide, forming the base of this portion of the
Gigantea, and which is again overlaid on the west side by the same metamorphic rocks capped by volcanic. The volcanic rocks also form dikes throughout the granite, and the adjoining metamorphic sandstones. At the mine we met an American family who are part owners
in the mine, and are here holding possession. While they treated us very politely, they took
great pains to prevent us, by a course of "masterly inactivity," from seeing any thing.  The
shaft was locked up, and Mr. Somebody, who had the key, could not be found.  Not to be
defeated if we could prevent it, we went to the mouth of the shaft, and had to return about
as wise as we went. The mine is for sale in San Francisco, and I have been told that the
modest sum of $600,000 is asked for it.  My friend Mr. Ashburner, whose opinion on such a
point is worth as much as that of anybody else in California, was employed to examine and
report upon it, and his opinion was so decidedly unfavorable that his report has never been
made public by the proprietors.
The next day (13th) we lost, having taken the wrong trail and travelled all day along the
base of the mountain. In the afternoon we returned to within four miles of our startingpoint.  All the ground over which we went was a sloping mesa, cut by deep arroyos and
strown with angular fragments of volcanic rocks. In most of the arroyos there are little
patches of smooth ground covered with grass; all are enclosed with fences, or have a little
shanty to indicate possession, and in one or two we found families living.  We camped in
such a place, had excellent water, plenty of fuel, and an abundance of grass.
On the 14th we started for the mountain, Jesus having gone out before dark the previous
afternoon and found the trail, which was very indistinct. We climbed by a winding, zigzag
route up, what seemed from below, inaccessible cliffs, and we suddenly found ourselves on a
plain covered with mesquit and cactus. We had left clear weather in camp, and here we
encountered a drizzling rain, and the wind blowing a gale. From the face of the cliff we
travelled along this flat, between higher tables rising on each side for 3 or 4 miles, until
these tables, constantly diminishing in height, eventually lost themselves in the plain. Portions of the route were sandy, though a great part was excessively rocky. This was more
especially the case near Comondu, where in places the rocks had been thrown out on the
two sides to make a road. Much of this road, the work of the missionaries, was 5 and 6 feet
below the level of the loose rocks on either side. Twenty-four miles from our camp we
reached Comondu, the site of another ancient mission. We had been travelling for 20 miles
over pretty level ground with a gentle descent, and suddenly found ourselves on the edge of
a canion cut in solid lava over 100 feet deep, with the walls in most places so steep that a
goat could not find a foothold. Below us lay a group of huts built of bamboo, and-covered
with the universal palm-thatch. Picking our way cautiously down a narrow trail cut in the
96 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
solid rock, we at last reached the bottom, and on turning a point came in view of the mission.  The church was doubtless once a superior building of its class.  It is now utterly
ruined, only a portion of the walls remlaining, though what is left retains abundant traces of a
rude, semii-barbaric magnificence.   The walls are mostly composed of cut stone nicely dressed.
The accessary buildings are in a pretty good state of preservation, and being occupied by a
friend of Jesus, we were at once placed in possession of one of the unoccupied rooms.
Comondu proper is not the collection of huts above, nor yet the group of houses about
the mission. It is, strictly speaking, the whole valley. It comprises a valley rarely more
than a quarter of a mile wide, and some six miles long, through which flows a fine perennial
stream of water. The whole bottom is extremely fertile, and most of it under a high state of
cultivation. The principal produce is native sugar, called panoche, wine, and dried fruits.
The land is owned by very small proprietors, each one occupying but from two to half a dozen
acres. Many persons resident here spend a part of the year on the coast, during the times of
the whlale-fisheries, in cleaning the carcasses of the whales after they have been rejected by
the whalers. They take them on to the beach, open them, and obtain ten or a dozen barrels
of oil from the interior, which they sell to the whalers.
Friday (15th) we rode a dozen miles down the cation to the last water of the creek, before
it silnks and disappears entirely, and canmped at a deserted ralncho. The volcanic rocks of
the higher tables continue to form the walls of the cafion to a great extent, though the deposit diminished from over a hundred to thirty or forty feet thick.  In places the rock assumled c distinctly columnar structure, though this basaltic form was rather uncommon.  Under
the lava are horizontal stratified sandstones, containing large quantities of volcanic debris.
The next day we rode eight leagues to where the canion opens out on the plains, and camped beside a little watei-hole of three or four feet across, known by the rather pretentious name of
the "Pozo Grande."  We had pretty fair feed for our animals, but almost no wood.  A poor
1l'tiily lives here, depending on a few cows-their diet being little more than cheese and milk.
Te avlcanic rocks disappeared near the plain, and the sandstones, overlaid by the post-pliocene limestones, dip under the plain at a very low angle. We spent Sunday at this camp,
and on Monday morning started in a drizzling rain for the port of San Juanico, across the
plain. Before noon the rain was falling violently, and stopping at a clump of trees (yuccas,
or Spanilsh bayonet-trees), we built a hasty shelter of blankets thrown across ropes, so as to
make a poor substitute for a tent, and spent a miserable afternoon. We fortunately had one
barrelful of water, so that we were not obliged to travel 30 miles to the next water. On
Tuesday morning, the weather had cleared up, and we went on to the mouth of the Purisimo
cation, where we got good grass, pretty good water, and plenty of wood. Here we dried our
blankets, and were enabled to pass a pretty comfortable night.
Our ride from the Pozo Grande to this place was, in one respect at least, very satisfactory.
The plain is almost unlimited in extent; the soil is unsurpassed anywhere; the rocks lie inll
such a position with relation to the highlands east, as to secure an unlimited supply of water:
the long northern arm of Magdalena Bay runs up to within three or four miles of the Pozo,
and there is no reason why, by digging wells for irrigation, the whole plain should not be cultivated. Wells exist at many places, such as Sto. Domingo, La Soledad, San George, and San
Xavier, and they are all shallow, and furnish a permanent supply of good water. Nothing
but the unconquerable laziness of this worthless Mexican mongrel race has prevented the oc cupation of this plain, a tract of land that can be safely estimated as a hundred miles long
with an average width of ten miles.  Where they have not water op. the surface, they are too
lazy to dig ten feet for it.
Should a successful colony ever be located on the peninsula of Lower California, it must
be on this plain. Here is the only tract sufficiently large for a large enterprise of such a
kind, that comprises the other requisites of a good soil free from stones, and good water  ac cessible in sufficient quantities.
On the 20th we rode eight leagues along the coast to the port and spring of San Juanico.
The plains, with all their former characteristics, continue some distance beyond the mouth ot
the Purisima, but are very much narrowed by the encroachment of the tables. They are
succeeded by a long belt of rolling, sandy country, separated from  the beach by a range of
sand-hills nearly a hundred feet high in places.  Immense numbers of snails (Helix areolate)
were found among the bushes, tempted out by the rain, and the dead shells whiten the ground
in some localities, as if there had been a snowstorm.  They are so abundant in some of these
places that one could not take a step without mashing a dozen of them.  This species fre quents the lowlands, and is found from the Salada, near Magdalena Bay, where I encountered
the first specimen, to Santo Tomas.  Just before reaching San Juanico we  met a couple of
boys on the beach, at some rocks, fishing for abalones (Haliotlis), a large limpet-like shell-fish
found attached to stones near the low-water mark.
We stopped a little while and collected a few shells. The locality is very rich, and I re gretted exceedingly that we were not able to spend some time here, but we were obliged to
leave.  At our camp there was barely enough grass for one night, and all the wood we could
get was the very little we could collect on the beach.  The spring is on a barren hill-side, and
is slightly sulphurous. Only a little marsh-grass grows around it, and in the vicinity is a
small quantity of bunch-grass. The port is semicircular, opens to the southwest, and is
91
v 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
about five or six miles across. The anchorage is reputed good, and there are no rocks in the
bay. The country adjacent is so perfectly worthless, however, that there will probably never
be any use for a harbor here, unless as a shelter for passing vessels, or a place to replenish
their supplies of water.
From San Juanico we started southeast on our way to Purisima, riding five leagues to a
fine deep pond in the arroyo San Gregorio, at a place called the Mesquital. The termination
al is applied to a grove or thicket of any kind of trees or plants,-thus, a mesquital is a grove
of mesquit-trees, a saucal, of sauce or willow-trees, etc.  The  mesquital is a dense grove of
mesquits in a piece of bottom-land bordered by rocky mesas. -We had an excellent camp,
with the best of water and an abundance of wood, the mules browsing on the tender twigs of
the mesquit. Our road to this place was partly among some barren rolling hills, partly over
a mesa of loose volcanic rocks. There are here two distinct terraces, the lower about fifty
feet high, the other about one hundred feet above the first. The upper one is capped by a
sheet of volcanic rocks, which continue almost unbroken to the summit of the Sierra Gigantea.
The volcanic tables usually support a scattering growth of various species of cactus, with an
admixture of shrubby plants and small trees.  Of the latter, one of the most striking is the
Palo Adan or Adam's tree, the bark of which is much used in washing, making a very good
lather like soap, and having strong detersive properties.  It is a ragged and naked-looking
plant, grows ten to fifteen feet highl, the branches often springing from a trunk not six inches
high, and continuing straight and without a twig to the extreme tips; in some cases it is
more arborescent in form, but its peculiarity is that the branches rarely divide and never send
out twigs; the leaves grow directly on the branches, are very much of the size and form of the
box-leaves, and grow in groups of' two or three, while just below each group is a spine an inch
long, perfectly straight, and as hard and sharp as a needle. The flowers are a brilliant scarlet,
and grow only on the extreme tips of the branches.
The lomboi, another peculiar plant, found nearly the whole length of the peninsula, also
flourishes here.  It is a small tree, rarely more than ten feet high, with soft, brittle wood, thick,
clumsy branches and twigs, and leaves a little over an inch across, and very sparsely distributed,
so as to give the tree a naked look.  On cutting the twigs or branches, avery fluid, milky   looking sap exudes abundantly. This sap, on exposure to the atmosphere and light, turns
black as promptly as a solution of nitrate of silver, and is equally indelible. White cotton or
linen clothing hung on these bushes to dry is almost certain to be stained by the sap.
February 22d, we rode six leagues across the same rocky tables as the day before, to the
old mission of Purisima, in a deep cafion of the same name. On the way I shot a hare, cut   ting off both his forelegs, and even then he managed to elude the whole party for at least ten
minutes, dodging from one bush to another. Our appearance pursuing the poor little wretch
with sticks and stones was, doubtless, far more ludicrous than dignified. These animals are
the commonest of all the game in Lower California, and not unfirequently furnished all the
fresh meat we could obtain for a week or two together.  The trail descends from  the mesa
into the Purisima Arroyo, about a league below the town, and winds along the hill-side most
of the way, bounded by a marsh on one side and by overhanging cliffs of volcanic rocks on
the other. A beautiful natural section is here exhibited; the older sandstones lie in broad,
gentle undulations, capped by post-pliocene shales and limestones deposited on the demuded
surfaces, while covering all is a sheet of trachytes, varying from 50 feet thick, to where de  nudation has carried away all hut some loose fragments scattered over  the surflee.  Just
above the town is a peculiar-loolding hill, isolated from the surrounding mesa-sloping up in
a pretty regular cone, and surmounted by a level cap of basaltic trachyte so abrupt on the
sides, that it is said human foot has never trod the suinmit.  It is said that from the head of
this canion there is a pass, not more than a hundred feet high, opening in the plain of Snn Juan,
above Loreto. We were unable to visit this pass, and can only mention it as a piece of
hearsay information for what it is worth. The bed of the canion is more or less rocky
throughout, and the water runs, as a consequence, on the surface, instead of being subter  ranean, as is usually the case. Where the trail enters the canion there is a pretty little water  fall of eight or ten feet high, the water making a sheer leap of that distance, and forming a
deep pool very suggestive of silver-sided trout. In ally other country this would be an ex
cellent trout-stream, but in Lower California things never are as the)y might be expected to
be, and he who would ever look for "suckers" here would be doomed to disappointment.
At this waterfall a splendid mill-site could be obtained, the body of water being large and per  manent, and sufficient fall existing to supply all the power necessary. A considerable tract
of unoccupied ground exists below the fall, said to be subject to overflow during thle heavier
freshets, but with a trifling expenditure this could be obviated.  Viosca says, " In olden times
the Purisima furnished grain to all the other missions."  The land now under cultivation is
but a small part of what could be rendered available, being but a few hundred acres in all, il  though the canion is from a hundred yards to half a mile wide,  aid several miles long  Vines
figs, oranges, cotton, peas, beans, wheat, sugar-cane, and many Northern vegetables are r dised
here almost without labor.  In addition to what is consumed on the spot, about a thousand
cargoes, of three hundred pounds each, of dried fruits, are exported from here annually,
be sides considerable quantities of panoche and wine. The population was estimated in
1861 to be 250. The inhabitants are so scattered that it would be difficult for a mere passer
98 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
to arrive at any thing like a satisfactory estimate, but it can hardly vary much from that
number.
At the mission is quite a village, of perhaps 20 or 30 houses, mostly poor, roughly-built
shanties. One of the poorest was inhabited by the only foreigner, an Englishman, whose
appearance and habits were very much in keeping with his home.
As we entered the village, he came running across a garden to meet us, and in reply to
our question about a spot for camp, incontinently took possession of us, bag and baggage.
In spite of our protests he took us to his house, as we fondly supposed, prompted by feelings of hospitality; but, as the result proved, so as he could have us more to himself, in
order to fleece us at his leisure, uninterfered with by similar efforts on the part of his neighbors.
On the whole, however, it is doubtful whether we were not the gainers by this arrangement. He procured us good pasturage for our mules in somebody else's "potrero," and
while he took good care that he should make all he could from us, he guarded us jealously
against imposition from anybody else, so that we were only moderately cheated by one man,
instead of being robbed by the whole village.  Don Pedro M          made a successful raid on
us, or rather used us as a pretext for a pretty good general speculation.  He announced a
ball to be given in honor of the Americanos. When the evening came, we went to his house
and found everybody, his wife, all of his children, and not a few of his servants assembled
there, the ladies ranged round one end of the room on chairs, benches, and bedsteads; the
male portion of the company was huddled into the other end, in positions often more picturesque than decorous. Costume was a matter of little moment, convenience being consulted rather than the arbitrary rules of fashion.  Mr. Loher's pantaloons, covered with
parti-colored patches, were unnoticed, and mine of dark cloth, profusely reenforced with
white buckskin, failed to attract attention. The dancing was kept up almost without interruption, but the dancers found time to refresh themselves quite frequently. In an adjoining
room Don Pedro had a barrel of wine "on tap," from which hlie treated his guests for the
slight consideration of a real a glass. Judging from the effects, the affair must have been
profitable: by 11 o'clock some of the "gentlemen" were becoming affectionate, others noisy,
and a few sleepy.  Thinking discretion the better part of valor, we made our adieus and retired as quietly as possible, but long into the night we heard the shouts and singing of those
who didn't want to "go home till morning."
Our host's wife, like most of the women of this country, has a much higher opinion of
foreigners, or rather, of the whites, than of her own countrymen. It seems to be the highest
ambition of these women to marry a white man, and many of them, married to Mexicans, are
more proud of a child with suspiciously-light hair and eyes than they are of their swarthy,
though legitimate offspring. So with our hostess: she seemed to be very proud of her
guests, and was untiring in her exertions to show us, by every means in her power, how
highly she appreciated the honor of entertaining us.   This took a rather embarrassing form
as we were saying good-by. When I approached her for that purpose, she made a motion
to embrace me in the manner of the country. Not being accustomed to such cordial treatment from her sex, and being a bashful man, I instinctively retreated out of arm's length,
much to the confusion of the lady, and the amusement of my companions.   Had she been a
little cleaner, a little prettier, and not quite so public in her demonstrations, I think I might
have submitted; as it was, with a blundering apology I shook hands with her, and, abashed
by her ill success with me, she did not attempt it with my companions.
While in the town we visited the church. It is neither large nor pretty. Four walls,
roughly built, support a new palm-thatch, and on the door, also new, is a scrawling inscription, that Don Fulano de Tal repaired this church, in 1859, at his own expense.  There were
a number of images inside. A plaster cast of a Roman soldier, with a helmet, sword, and
shield, does duty as the Virgin, having his inappropriate accoutrement covered up by a tawdry mass of cheap finery. An artist's common wooden lay-figure, with all its ugliness is also
rigged out in an alarmingly modern manner to represent Saint Somebody or other, while on
the altar is a crucifix entirely out of keeping with the rest of the establishment.   The original
cross is gone, and is replaced by a couple of rough sticks tied together; but the image of the
Saviour, about a foot in length, is really a fine work of art. It is carved in some soft wood,
now gray with age, but the position, the muscular anatomy, and the expression of the face,
are excellent.
On the 25th we rode six and a half leagues from Purisima across rocky tables to the upper part of the San Gregorio Arroyo again.  On the road we passed a rancho, called Old
Purisima. The principal occupation of the people here appears to be the manufacture of
mescal, a strong, highly alcoholic liquor, made from the sap of the maguey-plant.   The
plant is selected just as it is about to send out its flower-stalk; all the leaves are cut off
leaving a core not much larger than a man's head. This is crushed, the sap allowed to ferment, and is afterward distilled. The liquor thus obtained is as limpid and colorless as
water, but excessively alcoholic, and with a harsh, rasping taste like new wkskev.   Next day
we travelled seven leagues up the arroyo over an excessively rough, rocky route; most of
the way without a trail, our mules being obliged to pick their way, as best they could, among
the rocks and boulders, stumbling at every step, but never failing. We eventually came out
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
99 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
on a little flat of a few acres, reasonably free from stones, with plenty of grass and wood,
and a sufficiency of water among some rocks.
Glad to find such a place, and fearful that we would not find such another if we went on,
we made camp at once. Along all of this day's ride the rocks were more or less disturbed
and highly metamorphosed; the model fossiliferous rocks of the coast having entirely disappeared.
From this place, known as the Zapote, we rode, the next day, five and a half leagues,
leaving the Arroyo Guadalupe, crossing a very rocky and steep ridge with a flat top, and
descending by a long, winding, and steep descent into a broad, open valley which runs down
to Moleje.  After crossing the ridge we found at its base a good-sized spring of pleasant
water, and, after filling our barrels and watering the mules, we pushed on into the valley,
making a dry camp with an abundance of grass and wood. Although the distance travelled
was not great, the road made up in height and roughness what it wanted in length.  From
here we pushed on, and reached Molejo in six leagues farther; riding down the valley, most
of which is fiat grass-land, with good soil, without stones. No water exists, except a few small
springs near the edge of the hills.  The rocks are all highly metamorphosed, but no volcanic
rocks were seen,' even where we crossed the summit the day before.
Moleje is a small, straggling village of adobe houses, with a population of, perhaps, a couple
of hundred persons. It has a dull, deserted look. The ditch that supplies water to the gardens had been broken two years, and efforts were just being made to repair it.  We had a
letter of introduction from the governor to Sefior Larroque, the sub-prefect of the place, and,
on presenting it, were received very kindly. The government building, which serves the
joint purposes of calaboose, barracks, arsenal, and government offices, was placed at our
disposal, and Sefior Larroque did all in his power to make us comfortable. We found him
a very accomplished gentleman, and a man of the world, and were rather suprised to meet
such a person living in such an out-of-the-way place.   There were several other gentlemen
here, to whom we were introduced, and who contributed toward making our short stay
very agreeable. These gentlemen make a little coterie among themselves, and thus serve to
lighten somewhat the tedium of what would otherwise amount to little less than practical
banishment.
Moleje contains no ruins, except the broken-down walls of an old church, now almost entirely demolished. The port is merely a little creek, navigable part way for very small
vessels. The bay of Molejo is farther to the southward. Poor Domingo, our mozo, has
some unpleasant recollections of the town.    He was shamefully swindled by a rascally
Frenchman, named Abadie, in a mule-trade. Abadie, who keeps a store here, took a fancy
to an extra horse that Domingo had with him, and offered a very good-looking mule for him.
Domingo, not suspecting any trick, bit at the bait, made the trade, and, when it was too late,
found that the mule was so badly sprained in the back as to be worthless. With the coolest
effrontery, Abadie followed us to our camp that evening, and, on Domingo's complaining of the
cheat, offered to buy the mule for nine dollars. The poor boy had no redress, and took the
money rather than lose all.
Our stay at Moleje was very short. We left the afternoon of the day after our arrival,
and, riding across some rolling hills, camped early in a little valley with rather poor grass,
but the best to be had for a long distance. We saw something of the famed gypsum deposits,
and were decidedly disappointed. The quantity is very much less than has been represented,
and I consider it extremely doubtful if it could ever be rendered profitable, unless other deposits, which we did not see, may prove more extensive and accessible.
From the hills we emerged into the plains of Magdalena, as they are called.  They must
not, however, be confounded with those on the west coast, near Magdalena Bay. These
plains, several miles wide, extend along the coast, northward, almost to the volcano of tle
Virgins.
A portion of the tract has been acquired by a company, organized in San Francisco for
the purpose of founding a colony here.  Such folly or dishonesty, as the case may be, cannot be too strongly reprehended.   If the company chose this land on mere hearsay, their
carelessness is culpable; and if it was recommended by a person who was acquainted with it,
he was guilty of a direct attempt at swindling. There is not a drop of fresh water on the
property of the company; but that is not so important a matter, since water could doubtless
be obtained from wells. The great objection is, there is not an acre of land in the tract that
can be cultivated, so thickly is the surface strewed with rocks.
Such an enterprise as this is the more to be condemned by all honest men, because the
victims are usually poor men, who invest their little all in the vain hope of securing a home,
and find out their mistake when it is too late. A similar outrage was perpetrated a few
years ago at Ventana Bay, south of La Paz, and some of the stories of sufferings and hardships to which the luckless victims were subjected are truly heart-rending. The memory
of them is still fresh in the minds of the people of that country.
The mission of Guadalupe is situated on the edge of the Magdalena plain, at the mouth
of the canion of San Jose. The buildings are entirely destroyed, their foundations only
remaining in part. A fine aqueduct exists here, several miles long, partly cut in the rocks,
and in other places built of solid mason-work.  It is now so broken down as to be useless,
100 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
though it could be repaired.  It was constructed for the purpose of irrigating the few acres
of arable land near the mouth of the calion, and was, beyond question, the finest work of the
kind in Lower California. It is in many places filled up, and large bushes and trees grow in
and around it.
San Jose6 is about three leagues from the mouth of the cation. We rode directly through
the village, and camped in the bottom, a little beyond. Here is quite a large pond of good
water, which might almost be called a spring. It is there the subterranean stream first
reaches the surface. It afterward sinks, and reappears a number of times, as the rocky bed
approaches or recedes from the surface.  Farther down it becomes a permanent and  continuous stream, running to the mouth of the canion. At the camp we had hardly a blade of
grass, but the mules did well, browsing on the lipua-trees, which form a thick grove.
From San Jos6 we travelled up the dry arroyo, across rocky tables and  rolling hills, to
another arroyo, until we reached the deserted rancho of Dorotea, by a little water-hole. The
water, what is left from the winter rains, in a rocky basin, is much resorted to by a band of
cattle scattered over the surrounding hills, and we, as a consequence, had the pleasure of
drinking a suspicious fluid with a decidedly cowy odor and taste.   It was as green as grass,
perfectly opaque, and seemed actually putrid.   But we were glad to get it, although it gave
the cook another opportunity to growl at the country, and one of which he availed himself to
his heart's content. We were now faiirly in the mountains; the main ridge here retreats to
some distance from the coast, and the intervening country is a mass of rugged, barren hills,
with scattered patches of grass-land in the valleys.  Water is very scarce, and usually poor
when found.  The rocks are all metamorphic, and comparatively very much disturbed, being
folded with a general northwest strike.
On the morning of the 4th we left the Dorotea, without a regret, and crossing a- ni mber of ridges from 200 to 400 feet higher than the included valleys, we at last ascended the
face of the main chain, climbing about 600 feet of a pretty steep trail. From the summit we
could see almost to the plains on the west coast, the view being only interrupted by the haze
hanging low over the lowlands.  The valley which we left opens either at or near Sta. Aguidi,
about 25 miles north of Moleje, and within very easy access of several small ports.
Should it be desirable to build a railroad across the peninsula at this point, this ascent
is the only obstacle that would be encountered from coast to coast, and there is plenty of
room to make an easy grade on the hill-side to surmount it.   There are other points, however, which, from the hasty glance which alone we were able to give them, seemed preferable
to this. The pass of the Infierno is probably better, than this, and still better than either is
the route by way of Calamujuet. From the point where we first struck the summit, there is
a gradual and gentle descent all the way to the plains. The trail follows down a canion
to the little rancho of Sta. Cruz, and thence, partly in the caflon, and partly on very rocky
mnesa, to San Ignacio.  We went about two leagues below Santa Cruz, about eight leagues
in all from Dorotea, and camped beside a water-hole, turning our mules out on the mesa to
pick the grass from between the stones.  Just as we struck the summit we encountered a
dike of trachyte, 25 or 30 feet thick, striking northwest, and running a mile and a half in a
straight line, protruding above the surface like a colossal wall.   One or two other parallel
dikes were seen, but no lateral outflow could be detected.   If any ever existed, it had probably been carried away by denudation.
Next morning, March 5th, we rode eight leagues, mostly over flat tables, strewn with a
profusion of volcanic debris, to San Ignacio. Passed a beautiful volcanic cone, and had an
excellent view of the volcano of the Virgins.   It bears a striking resemblance in form to
Monte Diablo, presenting from this side two points, one slightly higher than the other, while
the flanks slope off at a low angle.
Approaching San Ignacio, the post-pliocene of the coast again presents itself, inserted
with a thin edge between the older rocks and the volcanic, gradually widening out until at
San Ignacio it makes all the section where the mesa is cut by the arroyo.
San Ignacio is a village with a population, including the suburbs, of about 20 families.
The only buildings of any importance in the place are those belonging to the mission. The
others are mere shanties. The church buildings, consisting of the church itself, and two
lateral wings, one of which is prolonged into an L, are in excellent repair, and are the most
inposing buildings of this class in the territory.  They are very solidly built of stone with
arched roofs, being out so as to be flat on top.  The church is in the form of a Latin cross,
and has a hemispherical dome of stone, at the intersection of the cross. There is a fine
commodious gallery for the choir, also of stone, and, in fact, no wood enters into the construction of the building, except the doors, unless it may be some of the lintels.  The orntaments which vandalism, sacrilege, and the poverty of the Government have left are still sufficient
to show that neither expense nor labor was spared to make this the most elaborate church
in Lower California.
The buildings all stand on a terrace, partly artificial, about four feet high in front and
ten feet behind, very carefully walled up with stone.
The place is occupied by Don Ventura Arce, a jolly, fat old fellow, who lives here in
in truly patriarchal style, surrounded by a troop of his children and grandchildren. The
gardens are very extensive, perhaps more so than any others north of La Paz. Grain of
i
101 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
various kinds, beans, and all sorts of vegetables are raised in abundance, while thousands of
date-palms, growing spontaneously, yield their proprietor a large income. Besides these, figs,
olives, grapes, and pomegranates are cultivated extensively, and sugar-cane is raised to such
an extent, that panoche is an important article of export. A perennial superabundance of
running water relieves San Ignaeio from all fear of drought, and the only labor necessary is
to keep open the irrigating ditches, and collect the crops. With industry, energy, and intelligence, the capacities of the place could be trebled in five vears.
The residents here claim that a good port exists below here, which they call the "Laguna." I had not time to visit it, but Captain Scammon, who is familiar with every nook and
corner of this coast, has dodbtless described it in flll in his report. It is said to be similar
to Scammon's Lagoon, though smaller, and empties into Ballenas Bay.
We brought a couple of letters of introduction to Don Ventura, who received us kindly,
and placed us in an unoccupied room in the mission buildings. We spent a day here, waiting for some mules to be brought in, and, as is always the case, they could not be found
unt-l the next morning. When they were brought in we made an exchange, getting a fresh
animal in place of one of our pack-mules, and in the afternoon sallied out, more for the purpose of getting a start than because we expected to travel any distance.
After a promiscuous hand-shaking with nearly the whole town, we made our escape, and
rode about a league, half of which was over unoccupied bottom-lands in the arroyo, that
could at but little expense be all rendered available for cultivation. Most of this land is protected by heavy embankments of stone, built by the Indians under the missionaries, to confine the winter torrents within their proper channels. After leaving the arroyo we travelled
over a very table to near the base of a volcanic ridge, and camped in the midst of a thicket
of cactus on a bed of red pumice, the only place where we could find sufficient grass for our
animals.  For fuel we had only the woody skeletons of cacti.
On the next morning we left camp with many misgivings. We had to undertake the longthreatened and much-dreaded passage of the Infierno,-the worst pass of Lower California.
We had heard of this pass ever since we entered the country, and before we left San Ignacio
we received the cheering intelligence that it was worse than ever. We rode between four and
five leagues over rocky tables, with obscure traces of a road that may have once existed;
that is, there were fewer rocks where we went than there were on either side of us, until at last
we reached a place where the road was evidently artificial. In some places it was cut inll
hill-sides, in others, it was cleared of all the larger rocks, so that travelling was comparatively easy.  Eventually we entered a cation, and here the road-way was a regular dug-way, or,
more properly speaking, what remained of one. In fact, where it was not broken by the
rains, it was almost wide enough to drive a wagon; but the frequent jump-offs and jumpovers would have tested to the utmost the strength of the best "Concord."
Ill some places it was almost impossible to ride across the gullies worn by the rains of
half a century.  But we soon found that we had antedated our troubles.  We  kept up the
canion, between beetling cliffs that threatened to bury us under a cairn more bulky, if not
more honcrable, than ever covered the remains of any Celtic hero, until at last we could not
tell, two hundred yards ahead, which way we would have to turn to find our way out. The
road, however, was well marked, an.d our guide had been through it before.  Iteaching the
end of the canion proper, it struck up a side branch, the steepness of which would have been
appalling, had we not been forewarned.  We picked our way, as best we could, around and
over the water-worn boulders, often using the united inducements of lash, spur, and voice to
persuade our cautious mules to undertake some difficult feat, until at last even the Mexicans
dismounted, considering it unsafe to ride farther. Finally we were obliged to halt the packtrain, and after driving our saddle-animals through the rest of the bad part of the pass, we
unloaded packs and pack-saddles, carried them ourselves to smooth ground beyond, drove
up the pack animals, and reloaded.
Ironmonger, the cook, as usual, had more than his share of trouble.  It had been his
boast that little Johnny, his mule, was so docile, that he would do any thing he was told.
After 15 minutes of hard work, during which he skinned his knuckles, and did irreparable
damage to his temper, he found it necessary to call in the united assistance of the whole
party to persuade Johnny to pass a narrow place between two rocks. (Mem.-Ironmonger
never boasted about the wonderful docility of his mule afterward.)
But, joking aside, the condition of this pass is disgraceful. The united labor of three
men for one week would make it, if not a good road, at least very passable.   All that is
required is to throw large stones into the worst holes, or to cut a trail on the hill-side around
two or three bad places. Yet, persons who have lived in this vicinity all their lives, and
who cross this pass many times every year, while they say it ought to be repaired, never think
to do the first thing themselves toward accomplishing that object.
Having passed the Infierno we descended on the opposite side of the ridge into a rocky
fiat, which extends to the east coast, and camped at the deserted ranch of Santa Marta.
Here we had every thing that goes toward making a desirable camp —wood, water, and
grass. By previous arrangement with Don Ventura Arce, to whom this rancho belongs, and
who had some cattle here, we killed a yearling calf, jerked the meat, reserving as much as we
could eat fresh, and had a general overhauling of our wardrobes, washing and mending
102 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
wherever it was needed. In both these latter operations we had become so expert that the
poorest hand in the party would be able to start in business, either as laundry man or tailor,
without further preparation, and with reasonably fair prospects of success, especially if his
customers were not particular.
On the 12th we rode seven leagues past Rosarito, where there are a spring and a deserted
mining-camp, to a spring on the eastern base of the mountain called San Juan. After leaving
the arroyo of Sta. Marta we crossed a valley ten miles wide, mostly more or less rocky, though
with some good soil.
At Rosarito there is a fine spring of good water under the bank in the head of a little
arroyo. This is so inconspicuous that it is doubtful whether a person unacquainted with the
country could find it.  Near it is an old arastra, and the other appurtenances of a miningcamp long since deserted. Some futile attempts have been made to mine the little strings of
quartz found in the metamorphic sandstone of the high range back, but the quantity of gold
has proved too small to be remunerative, or the vein had given out. From Rosarito to our
camp the ground was a succession of barren ridges separated by sandy arroyos.   The spring
of San Juan is off to one side of the main trail a mile or two, in a deep canion. The water is
much warmer than the surrounding atmosphere, being 78~ Fahr. at six P. M., when the air
was but 57%, the coldest day we had had so far.
March 13th, we crossed the main ridge again, and, entering the head of a ca-ion, proceeded
down it to Santa Gertrudes. The route is very rocky, but, after the Infierno, any road seemed
good. The rocks of the eastern side of this portion of the peninsula are everywhere much
disturbed, but on approaching Sta. Gertrudes they become again horizontal. The elevating
force evidently came from the more modern volcanic rocks and from the granite intrusions, as
is here beautifully illustrated. A belt of granite crosses the arroyo so as to bring to the surface a fine body of water; but the overlying sandstones are horizontally stratified and not in
the least disturbed by it, the lower beds abutting against the sloping sides of the granite mass,
while the higher beds lie horizontally across all; showing that the exposure of the granite is
due to denudation and not to intrusion. Where the granite belt first shows itself in the bed
of the arroyo, it brings to the surface a fine little body of excellent water, sufficient to irrigate
a small tract of land cultivated as a garden.  All suchl springs as this can be depended upon
as permanent. They are said to vary but little whether the season be good or bad. Santa
Gertrudes is a miserable little collection of three or four adobe houses, inhabited by a couple of
families of Indians. They eke out a miserable subsistence by cultivating half an acre or so
of garden and by milking a few cows; cheese being their principal article of food.  There is a
small church here, in a pretty good state of preservation, but it has nothing about it of interest.
Approaching Santa Gertrudes we encountered, for the first time, a remarkable plant
which we afterward found to be very common, especially in the mountains, to near Rosario.
It is called by the natives "cirio," and belongs probably either to the genus Fouguiera or
Bronnia.  In its habits of growth and in its size it resembles somewhat the columnar cactus,
consisting of a single shaft from thirty to fifty feet high, a foot or more in diameter at the
base and tapering gradually to two or three inches thick at the top. It sends out no branches,
unless from a wound; the top may divide into two or three which always appear to be abnormal.
The leaves are identical with the Palo Adan, but are arrayed on twigs a foot or so in length,
profusely interspersed with thorns; the flowers are said to be like those of Palo Adan, except
that they are white; they grow on two or three long spikes at the extreme summit of the
shaft. The most marked peculiarity of the tree, however, is the internal structure of the
trunk.   The bark is a thin, yellowish-brown skin; this covers a layer of fleshy substance,
similar to that of the large cactus; inside of the layer, which is from one to three inches thick,
is a cylinder of woody texture, hardly thicker than the hand, and which, after the death of
the plant and the decay of the other parts, remains as a network of tough wood.   Inside of
this cylinder is the heart, a mass of flesh of just about the consistency of a firm turnip. The
whole appearance of the plant is peculiar, and the only comparison that I can make is that
when seen at a little distance it looks like a tall hop-pole, covered with a rather scanty vine.
The natives consider it a cactus, from the resemblance of its internal structure to that family.
My learned friend, Dr. Behr, to whom I have carefully described it, says it must belong to one
of the two genera named above, or at least to the same family.
From Santa Gertrudes we rode eight leagues through a very desert country, to a place
called Calmilli. The road ran half a mile in the arrovo of Sta. Gertrudes, thence across a
rocky mesa two leagues, descending into a low, flat, desert valley, studded with innumerable
clumps of tree yucca, whose gnarled and twisted stems, each terminating in a great awkward
bunch of bayonet-like leaves, though ugly enough of themselves, served to relieve the eye
after the apparently interminable monotony of cactus. Travelling along this waste, after
suffering from the glare of the white and nearly naked soil, we entered the granite again and
soon struck down an arroyo, running out of the valley through a range of hills.  A couple of
miles down the arroyo we found the sand wet, and several willows growing on the banks.
By dint of hard work, digging in the sand, we succeeded in obtaining a supply of miserable
water, strongly impregnated with sulphur, and having a taste of decayed vegetable matter.
We were, however, very thankful for it, since the next water was at least twenty miles off.
Next morning, nothing loath to leave Colmilli, we followed the arroyo to where it opened
103 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
into a valley like the one we crossed the previous day; crossing this also, we entered another
arroyo and travelled up it, making a-out seven and a half leagues in all.  The ascent of the
latter cafion was extremely bad. It was full of large rocks and quicksands; the trail, if any
had ever existed, had been completely washed away, and between the difficulties of getting
the mules along among the rocks, and the occasional variation of dragging one, cargo and all,
out of a quicksand, our poor Mexicans had very hard work. More than once they had to
take the load off a mule before they could extricate her from a particular soft spot, and
then she would have to be almost lifted out bodily. In this respect mules are very foolish: a
horse, when in difficulty, will second the endeavors of those trying to help him; but a
mule, once thoroughly scared, seems to lose all control of himself, and will often give up in
despair.  After struggling through all the worst part of the canion, we reached a flat with
some grass, and plenty of wood.  We were all unusually tired and glad to avail ourselves of
the first opportunity to stop.  The camp was not a particularly desirable one, but we did not
like to leave it, not knlowing how far the next spot would be where a camping would be
possible. The next day we resumed our journey, and two leagues took us to the deserted
mining-camp of San Sebastian.  Here we found a fine stream of water, a pretty fair shanty
of palmn-leaves, and, what was more desirable than either, a flat of several acres, almost free
firom stones, and with a profusion of excellent grass. Such an opportunity was not to be
thrown away.  Our poor mules were very tired, and had been on rather scanty feed for several
days; so we unloaded at once, turned them out, and made ourselves as much at home in the
house as if it had been built for our especial accommodation. We were detained here for the
next two days by rain, and the house being somewhat out of repair, we were obliged to mend it;
the whole party went to work collecting palm-leaves and patched up the old roof until we made a
very respectable shelter of it. Our arrival here was very opportune, because this was the
only thing resembling a house along the road from Sta. Gertrudes to San Borja, and had the
rain overtaken us at any other part of the route, we would have suffered great inconvenience.
As it was, the mules had three days' rest and an abundance of food, so that we were actually
gainers by the forced, though not unwilling detention. During our stay we had the opportunity
of repairing all damages incidental to travel, and at one time we might have been taken for a
camp of tailors. Many are the shifts to which the luckless traveller in an uninhabited country
is obliged to resort.  Pieces of flour-sacks, coat-tails, and even the terminal parts of certain
under-garments, were pressed into service to repair the rents and thin places on the knees
and elsewhere on our pantaloons; so that by the time we were ready to leave San Sebastian
our costumes began to present a more varied and picturesque appearance than is prescribed
by the rules of fashion, or would be permitted outside of the limits of a masquerade. But
tailoring did not occupy our entire attention. Some attempt at mining had been made here
on a small scale, and we examined the work as well as we could without anybody to guide us.
An old arrastre, with fragments of quartz scattered around, showed that gold had been the
metal sought. On hunting around in the neighboring hills we found that there were numerous
small holes made on a little streak of quartz outcrop, but nowhere had any regular mining
been done.  No veins of any importance had been found, and, as we afterward learned, the
quartz found had never yielded enough gold to pay current expenses. The whole thing had
been an experiment, and had proved unsuccessful.
At last, on Tuesday morning, March 19th, we broke up camp in San Sebastian, and leaving
a diminutive seven by nine specimen of the stars and stripes fluttering over our hospitable
shelter, as a memento of our visit, we climbed the hill-side until we reached the summit of
the mesa. We rode along this some six leagues, crossing many deep valleys and winding
between deep arroyos which cut the tables here into an infinitude of fragments, until we suddenly, and, to all but our guide, unexpectedly found ourselves on the brink of a chasm about
1,200 feet deep. This was the canion of the Paraiso or Paradise, and certainly, if difficulty of
access is the criterion, it deserves its name.  For many miles the brink is a vertical precipice
of volcanic rocks, in some places several hundred feet high, without a break; below these are
granite cliffs so steep that even a goat would find a difficulty in getting foothold.   The trail,
bad enough, is still sufficiently entire to permit animals to clamber down without serious
risk of breaking their necks.  After passing the volcanic rocks which cap  the mesa, it is a
very fair trail, cut in the soft granite and winding down the face of the cliffs to the bottom.
As seen from above, the valley appears to be a thicket of mesquit, cactus, and fan-palms, with
occasional openings of grass-land; but on reaching it we found the greater part was clothed
with a sufficiency of grass, and in some places it was very abundant. Some nice pieces of
level land, with pretty good soil, exist in little bays and nooks, though the greater part of
the bottom shows that it is subject to overflow during the rainy season. We found various
traces of former occupation, such as an old corral, part of the fiame of a house, and the remains of an irrigating ditch, now filled up. The bad weather had not entirely left us, and we
had every prospect of a rainy night.  After holding a council of war, we concluded to build a
shelter, and in an hour had a fine large thatch of palm-leaves, sufficiently water-tight to answer
our purpose. We were not disappointed, and before morning had' good reason to be pleased
with the result of our forethought. A drizzling shower continued until the middle of the
next morning, but, anxious to save all the time we could, we started in spite of it and were
rewarded by the sun coming out almost as soon as we reached the mesa on the north side.
101 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
che climb here is not so steep nor so bad as it is on the south, running along the crest of a
ridge most of the way.  From the Paraiso we rode five leagues to another cation, where there
is a single spring under the edge of the bank, known  as the Agua de la Cabra, or "Goat
Spring." This ride was so nearly like that of the previous day that the same description will
answer for both; a broken rocky mesa, covered with loose angular rocks, cut by innumerable
carions, and with occasional depressions, making little grassy valleys. In the cafion of the
Cabra there was but little grass, but on the mesa the mules found good feed.
On the 21st we rode two leagues over the same kind of mesa, and then, descending into a
sandy and stony valley, followed it down another league to San Borja.  The granite does not
show itself along this part of the route as much as it did below. It is covered by a heavy
cap of volcanic ashes and trachyte, which form tables sloping to the northwest.  Beyond these
as far as the eye can reach is a maze ofjagged ridges covering nearly the whole field of vision,
and disposed without any apparent order. We entered San Borja and presented a letter of
introduction to Don Pedro Nunez, who proved to be not only the principal man of the place,
hut a full-blooded Indian, and one who was deservedly more proud of his blood than the
majority of his mongrel fellow-citizens, who had no origin worth speaking of to boast upon,
and who, for their lives, could not tell whether they were more Spanish or Indian, though
their appearance would indicate the latter.  Don Pedro occupies the mission buildings, and
on my reading the letter to him, he at once placed at our disposal a suite of unoccupied rooms.
He acts as a sort of chief by inheritance among the Indians, as justice of the peace and general
agent of the Government for the municipality, and, in short, as head man generally over a
region extending from coast to coast, and for a hundred miles or more each way, north and
south. His subjects are almost without exception Indians of greater or less purity of blood,
and neither he nor they can either read or write. The schoolmaster has not yet reached this
benighted region.
The mission consists of a very good stone church with an arched roof, never entirely finished; suites of rooms of stone surrounding two sides of a court-yard, while on a third side
are the remains of a very.extensive series of apartments built of adobe and now utterly ruined.
Scattered around irregularly in front of these, is a number of modern adobe shanties. The
population consists of perhaps a dozen or twenty persons, mostly the relatives of Don Pedro.
Besides the younger of the population, there is an old Indian named Melchor, who was said
by Viosco in 1862 to be 108 years old. He is totally blind and deaf, and hobbles around the
place, the sole remnant of the principal tribe subjugated by the missionaries. The gardens,
all belonging to Nunez, are cultivated on a small scale; barely sufficient to furnish subsistence to their owner and his dependants. The available land is moderately extensive, but the
supply of water for irrigation is limited.  They also milk a number of cows, and make a considerable quantity of cheese. Having obtained from Nunez a short vocabulary of the Cochimi
language, given him some remedies for a sick daughter, and exchanged a little flour for some
fresh beef, we started on the morning of the 22d for the west coast The peninsula is extremely narrow here. They say it is but six leagues, eighteen miles, by the trail to the bay of the
Guardian Angel on the east side, while we reached Rosarito, a league from the west coast, in
eight leagues, or twenty-four miles.  The width of the land therefore, in a straight line, cannot be more than 35 miles, since there must be a loss of at least ten miles from the windings
of the trail.
The most direct trail from San Borja is to Calamujuet by way of Yuba.i, but we had  a
double object in making the detour by way of Rosarito. Although nearly twice as far as the
straight road, we would find better water and more of it on this route, and we desired to visit
some copper-mines said to exist near the coast.  Mines of silver are said to exist in the mountains about San Borja, but the story is too old and too familiar to deceive an old Californian.
The same story is told in every mission of Upper California. In the mountains, not far off,
are old silver-mines, formerly known to and worked by the missionaries. They were very
rich, and not only furnished much of the means for carrying on the ponderous and expensive
machinery of a large mission, but the worthy padres appeared to take an especial pride in
having all their alter service made of silver from their own especial mine. The secret of the
mine is still extant, but is in the possession of some old decrepit Indian, perhaps blind and
bowed under the weight of a century. This aged individual, usually an old woman, would not
divulge the secret for worlds, from fear of the threats of excommunication mande by a priest
whose very grave is now forgotten.  So the story runs; the mines have been searched for for
nearly two decades, ever since the American occupation of California, but always unsuccess.
fully. I myself have assisted in these excursions on several occasions, and I was too well
posted to be deceived by the same threadbare narrative.  Nevertheless, these stories find believers like the very authentic accounts of the treasures buried by Ciptain Kidd, and the
search for the long-lost silver-mines has not yet been abandoned even in Upper California.
Leaving San Boija, we travelled all day down a dry, sandy arroyo through a beautiful
assortment of cactus, including several species new to us, until we reached a marsh  covered with salt grass and rushes, and interspersed with innumerable ponds of brackish
water. This is Rosarito, and here we found a little house built of rushes and belonging to
a young Frenchman, who had accompanied us from San Borja, partly because he had noth.
i
105
i
i
i
i
i
i
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
ing better to do, and partly because we desired to see some mines in which he had an enor mous fortune in prospective.
Our French friend, who called himself John, had built this house while prospecting in the
vicinity, and now, with an air of the greatest hospitality, placed his mansion and his extensive domains at our disposal.  The latter were far more satisfactory in quantity than quality,
but the former proved to be "a deception and a snare."  We  made camp here, and the next
morning, leaving the cook and Domingo to take care of all we left behind, we started southward, accompanied by Jesus and our new-found friend. We rode along the coast about seven
leagues, and, entering a canion about a mile, found a pretty little spring, high up on the
face of the hill, in a place where nobody, unacquainted with its locality, would ever look for
water.  The canion in which we camped is called the Trinidad, and is probably the lower
part of that which is known as La Cabra above.  After supper, the weather looking threatening, we explored the vicinity to see if we could find a shelter, and selecting a cave formed
by an overhanging ledge of rock in the direct bed of the steep water-course, we moved all
our saddles and other baggage to it, and made our beds on the level sandy floor. Before
morning a steady drizzling rain set in and continued all the next day, which was Sunday,
and a drearier Sunday I do not think I ever spent. All Sunday night it rained hard, and
in the morning we had a beautiful cascade above us, where the water made a sheer leap of
200 feet, scattering into a sheet of spray long before it struck the rocks. In front of our
cave was a little rivulet which, running down the canion, crossed the roof of our shelter, and
jumped clear of us, splashing and spluttering among the stones a few feet below. Still farther down in the main cation a furious river was roaring and foaming where the day before
had been a dry bed, sand, and boulders.  Here  was a nice prospect before us; we had done
nothing, had but two days' provisions left, three days' work to do, and no certainty that we
were not shut in by impassable streams. On going out on the hill we saw there was clear
sky to windward, and we determined to visit our mine, which was not only the best known and
most developed, but also the nearest. Accordingly, leaving Jesus with the pack-mule and
all unnecessary baggage, we went to Larroque's mine, at the mouth of the Arroyo del Paraiso.
We were obliged to make three efforts to cross the stream before we succeeded in passing it.
It was so deep that we could find but one place where we would not have to swim, and so
rapid that our mules could hardly stand up against the force of the current.  This was a
couple of miles out on the plain. To have tried it in the cafion would have been sheer madness.
A few minutes at the mine served to convince us of its character. A streak, in the granite,
of copper stains, accompanied by small quantities of carbonate and red oxide of copper and a
little copper glance, but without the slightest trace of vein structure, constitute the mine. A
hole, 18 feet deep and 10 feet across, is all the work that has been done. There is no water
within ten miles, no grass, and only some stunted and gnarled tovote-trees, three and four
feet high, for wood. The place could not possibly be more desolate, and yet here Sefior Larroque,
a gentleman of education and refinement, one fitted to grace the most polished circles of society, spent months alone, working with pick and shovel like a common miner, in the vain hope
and belief that he was on the eve of acquiring a fortune. If any one has a desire to try a little
Robinson Crusoe life, he could not find a better opportunity than to take possession of
Larroque's shanty. He will have an excellent field for the display of his ingenuity, in
overcoming every disadvantage that Nature can combine in one  spot.   He will find no
caves in the hill-sides, for the house is on the plain; no wild goats, or any substitute,
for the country is too barren to support any higher life than rattlesnakes and crows, and
I believe the crows make their living principally by eating rattlesnakes that have died of
starvation; and as to man Friday, he would be very apt to continue Crusoe and man Friday
combined to the end of the chapter.
Having seen  one mine, and being assured that the other  was similar, "only a great
deal better looking" (they all are), we expressed ourselves satisfied and returned to the
camp in the cave. Our first appearance was greeted by a column of smoke, Jesus being on
the lookout for us, and by the time we reached camp, supper was nearly ready. This time
we crossed the stream high up in the canion, but so rapidly had it fallen that it was now hardly
a foot deep.
Next morning we returned to Rosarito, but the ground was extremely disagreeable to
travel on, being a soft gravel saturated with the late rains and burying our mules' feet to
the fetlock at almost every step. All troubles in this life have an end, and at last we reached
camp in much better spirits than we found the men we had left there. They had a dreadful
woe-begone and generally bedraggled aspect-very like a hen that, having been in the water,
has not yet thoroughly dried her feathers.  Trusting to the semblance of a roof overhead,
they found, when it was too late, that it only served to collect the rain into streams which,
with a maddening pertinacity, insisted on dropping into their faces if they laid down, or running down their backs if they sat up. They had tried all sorts of expedients, but without
avail; every thing was wet, and a day of half sunshine, half cloud,'had hardly served to get
blankets and clothing into a state fit for use. Domingo, with the stolidity and good constitution of his race, had not suffered nore than the temporary inconvenience of a wetting; but
his companion was seriously ill with rheumatism and fever for a week afterward.
106 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
On this side excursion we followed, most of the way, the coast road. There are two routes
from San Ignacio northward, which unite again at Calamujuet.  The shorter one, usually trav elled in winter, is by the plains; the longer, always the safest, though the roughest, goes by
Santa Gertrudes and San Borja. It was the latter which we had taken; the former goes down
the arroyo from San Ignacio, crossing some low tables, seven leagues to San Angel, where
there is a spring of very salt water, almost undrinkable; from San Angel the next water is
Ojo Liebre, thirty leagues. The Ojo Liebre is a well dug in the plains. It is much resorted
to by coyotes and smaller wild animals, many of which are drowned in it, and the water is said
to be always unendurably foul. From the Ojo Liebre the next water is E1 Toro, 20 leagues.
This water is not to be depended on, especially in dry seasons, when it often dries up entirely; when it does exist, it is always salt or brackish. From the Toro it is eight leagues to
Trinidad, where we camped, but here it is more than likely that a stranger would fail to find
the water. For the information of any person who may read this and wish to find this spring,
I will describe it, so that he cannot fail to recognize the spot. Riding northward, at about
six or seven leagues from the Toro can be seen some very low round hills on the coast, and
just north of these hills is a little bay. To the right are low but irregular mountains, ending
quite abruptly along the margin of the plain.  Nearly opposite the bay is a large piece of
mesa, separated from the irregularly-shaped mountain by a deep cation. This cation is the
Trinidad. The spring is on the north side of the cation, about a mile from its mouth, and at
the foot of a white bluff.  There are several such bluffs along the south side of the mesa, but
the one at the spring is the farthest one up the cation that can be seen from the plain. The
spring is about half way up the slope of the hill, and its position can be recognized at a little
distance by the presence of a clump of fan-palms.
I have been thus minute in my description of the position of this spring, because,
although it has the best water that can be found on the coast for a hundred miles or more
either way, it is nevertheless known to but few even of the Mexicans. It is the more important, because it is the first permanent water after leaving the Toro, where water cannot
always be found.
Leaving Rosarito on the 27th, we rode a couple of leagues north to a little spring at the
base of a hill called San Domingo. The water is good, but from some unknown cause it is
unsafe to camp here. Animals that feed on the grass at this place are very apt to be poisoned.
It is attributed by the Mexicans to some unknown plant which they call "la yerba" (the
plant), and which is found also at Yubai, Santa Maria, Agua Dulce, and Santa Ursula. It is
not reported as occurring elsewhere.  I noticed that at all these places there is a small rush
on which animals feed with avidity, and which grows in very wet ground. Whether this is
the poisonous plant, or whether it is something else, I was unable to determine. We never
stopped longer at one of these places than was necessary to give the animals water, and then
pushed on, usually camping several miles from the water, where we could find sufficient pasture of a mlore harmless kind.      The poison is said to be very active and invariably fatal.
The animal affected shows the results of the poison by first reeling and staggering like a
drunken man, he then lies down and dies within two or three hours from the time of first
attack.  From San Domingo our road approached the coast, reaching a lagoon and marsh in the
arroyo of San Andres, five and a half leagues from  Rosarito, and about two miles from the
beach. We here watered our mules, filled our barrel, and went about a mile up the arroyo,
where we had the finest pasture we had so far encountered onil the whole route. It was in
this valley we saw the first antelope. They do not seem to be common below, if they occur
at all.  The antelope live almost entirely in plains and large valleys, and it is hardly probable that they ever pass the extensive hilly and mountainous tracts which lie between here
and the more southern plains.  From our camp in the arroyo  we rode all day on level
ground, leaving the arroyo about noon and travelling along the mesa of Santa Ana, which
forms one side of an extensive valley, making a camp without water. Just before leaving the
arroyo I succeeded in killing a small antelope doe, the only game we had seen since leaving
camp.  In this vicinity game is extremely scarce; we had been living on bacon for a week,
not J2,?in been able to kill eren so mueh aS a haro sineo tyo had started from San Borja..
The flesh of the antelope is somewhat like goat in taste, and very tough.  It has not so
pleasant a flavor as that of deer.  From the camp on the mesa we  rode nine leagues over
level ground, cut by a few shallow arroyos, and, descending about 20 feet into the arrovo- of
Calaimujuet, stopped at the first water we found.  The water is slightly brackish, and forms
pools in the sand where the narrowing of the cation and the elevation of the rocky bed bring
it to the surface.  The camp is not a particularly good one, but this spot is of great importance to travellers, being at a long distance from other water. The next morning we broklte upcamp, rode a league and a half to the mouth of the cation opposite the old mission, and made
a camp again.  Accompanied by Jesus, Mr. Loher and I then rode to a distant ridge, from
which we could see all the land from our camp to the coast at the bay of San Luis, We
were thus enabled to ascertain definitely that there was not the slightest obstruction in the
way of a very easy and direct railroad route from coast to coast along this line. Any other
route north of La Paz would require deep cuttings, heavy grades, and in all probability some
tunnelling; while from San Luis Bay past Calamujuet, and the mesa of Sta. Ann to the arroyo
of San Andres, there is an open tract of level country. From the bay on the~ east side the
50
10,T
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
road would ascend the arroyo of Calamujuet, rising about 30 feet above the water-course to
the mesa by a very gentle grade. From the mission of Calamujuet there would be about six
miles of side-hill cutting along the cation to where it opens out into the mesa of Santa Ana.
Over this table the ground is mostly perfectly level, though in some places slightly rolling,
but without a single hill.  Reaching the arroyo of San Andreas, the line would descend into
the broad bottom-lands and follow the plane in a nearly straight line to the narrow spot at
the marsh. Here a mile of side-hill cutting would pass the canion, and reach the undulating
plain on the coast. Not a bridge nor a piece of trestle-work would be required on the whole
route, unless small bridges should be considered preferable to culverts in crossing some of
the dry gullies. The greatest ascent or descent would be to the mesa at Calamutjuet, and
from the mesa of Santa Ana to the valley of San Andreas, at most 20 or 30 feet each. The
distances are, approximately: from San Luis Bay to Calamujuet, about five leagues; Calamujuet to our camp on the mesa of Santa Ana, 10~ leagues; from this camp to the upper
end of the marsh in the arroyo of San Andres, six leagues; thence to the coast, one to two
leagues-in all, 22 to 24 leagues; say, as an outside limit, 75 miles. There is said to be a good
harbor at or near the mouth of the arroyo of San Andres, but of this I cannot speak, since
we did not visit it. But one can hardly go amiss for harbors on this coast, there is one every
few miles, and some of them are excellent. Should a railroad ever be built across Northern
Mexico, this route will undoubtedly become valuable, since it will save two or three days of
steaming. The great drawback in all this country is the entire absence of all woods suitable
for lumber. Mesquit, or palo blanco, if they occur in sufficient quantities and of their usual
maximum size, would answer admirably for railroad ties, but they are scarce, and one of sufficient thickness is very uncommon. In fact, there is so little wood of any kind in the country that, in all probability, fuel for the engine would have to be imported. This could, however, be provided against in the course of time. The valley of San Andres is at least ten
miles long and averages a mile wide.  Black locust flourishes everywhere in this country where
it is planted, and in five years, with the excellent soil which covers nearly the whole valley,
extensive artificial forests of good-sized trees could be obtained.  This last is not an idle
suggestion. The experiment has been tried successfully in Upper California, and is being
tried below La Paz with every prospect of success. The tree grows rapidly, and makes an
excellent fuel, besides requiring but little care in starting it. The day after our arrival at
Calamujuet being Sunday, we remained in camp, harassed by a strong cold wind that blew
constantly. We examined the ruins of the mission buildings, which stand on a gravelly mesa
on the south side of the arroyo, and near the hills. They consist of three or four small
buildings constructed of a very poor gravelly adobe. They are roofless, and the rains of
nearly a century have almost destroyed them. The church is a little structure about 15 feet
wide by 25 feet long, and a broken-down mass of adobe at one end shows where once stood
the altar.
A couple of palm-poles half buried in the d6bris of the crumbling walls are all that remain
of the thatched roof which once protected the half-savage worshippers from the inclemencies
of the weather.  Any one, having doubts of the sincere piety of the worthy men who founded
these missions, will have but to visit such a spot as Calamujuet or Sta. Maria, to convince
himself that neither fame nor worldly gain could have induced them to leave home, friends,
fortune, and every thing that man holds dear in this life, and spend the best years of their
manhood in such places as these. Whatever one's creed, it is impossible not to honor and
respect the zeal and devotion that would prompt, and, more than all, sustain such continued
sacrifices.
On Monday, April 1st, we left Calamujuet and rode three or four leagues to San Francisquito, where we watered our mules and filled our barrel, after which we went on to a point
on the mesa near the mouth of Santa Maria canion, in all about nine leagues from Calamujuet.
Here we made camp among the rocks, having plenty of wood and grass, but no water except
what we had brought with us. The mountains through which Calamujuet cuts its way rise
rapidly, culminating near Sta. Maria in two or three flat-topped knobs. Our route lay over
rocky mesas nearly parallel with the base of the range, and a mile or two from it.
Next morning we crossed the arroyo of Sta. Maria in the plain below the mouth of the
canion, and climbed a very rocky and hilly trail until, having reached a height of perhaps 1,500
feet above the sea, we descended a couple of hundred feet and found ourselves in a sandy
arroyo in the bottom of a deep canion. Ragged granite peaks shut us in on every side, and
below us the cafion was so steep and full of rocks that it was impassable for horses, if not for
footmen. Winding our way amid groves and thickets of palms, we at last found ourselves
at the ruined mission of Santa Maria. The buildings, consisting of a church and two or three
other edifices, all of adobe and roofless, are now in complete ruins. The place has a most forbidding aspect; nothing can be seen but granite rocks, with a scattering growth of cactus,
while down the canion is the sole redeeming feature, a winding line of tall and graceful palmtrees, waving with the slightest breath of air. No grass exists here, and there is not a foot
of land fit for cultivation. Crossing a little ridge we came to a' marsh with a small stream
of water. Here we as usual filled the barrel, and, watering the mules, started to climb the
ridge to cross the summit for the last time. Our patient mules had hard labor to work their
way up the steep ascent, worn smooth by the travel of more than a hundred years. In some
1 0  
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
places it seemed doubtful whether the heavier-loaded pack-animals would not actually fall
over backward, so steep was the trail, and it was with feelings of intense relief that we saw
the last one safe on top of the mountain. From the summit the ground slopes gradually to the
northwest, somewhat broken by low ridges of granite, but without any deep carnons. Travelling a few miles farther, we at last halted in a little canion where there were some grass and
mesquit, but no water.  We had come nine hard leagues, and all of us, animals and men,
were thoroughly tired out.
On the 3d we rode seven leagues, the first half of it being over a most peculiar country.
It was nearly a plain of granite, covered with a scanty soil, supporting a very scattering
growth of cactus, while innumerable masses of granite, projecting above the soil in every
direction, were weathered into the most fantastic forms. Here and there, scattered over the
plain, usually several miles apart, were isolated hills, some of them fiat-topped and capped
with volcanic rocks, while others were so ragged that no painter would dare to copy them
for fear of being accused of exaggeration. About the middle of the day's ride we reached a
dry arroyo, and following it to its head we found the spring known as Agua Dulce, or sweet
water. It is a pool twenty or thirty feet in diameter, several feet deep, and beautifully clear.
Our thirsty mules drank with avidity, and after procuring a supply for camp, we continued
our journey to the plains of Buenos Ayres. After riding a couple of leagues over volcanic
fragments, thickly strewed over the ground, we entered a broad plain, extending to the north
and northeast as far as the eye could reach, covered with clumps of mesquit-trees, bushes,
and tree yucca, while the soil, rich and fertile and without stones, was clothed with a profusion of grass.  I find a memorandum on the margin of my note-book at this point, "Not a
cactus in sight," followed by a large and emphatic-looking exclamation-mark. This was not
strictly correct. After writing it, while hunting, I saw a few choreas, but they were so scarce
as to hardly attract attention.  It was the first time we had camped in Lower California
without being surrounded with cactus, and we fully enjoyed the exemption. The plain seems
to be very little known, to the northeast of where the road crosses it.  If it retains its
character for a few miles, and a constant supply of water could be had, it would prove a
valuable stock district. So far as known, no water exists in any part of it.
Thursday (5th), rode about six leagues across the corner of the plain and through the hills
to the deserted mission of San Fernando.  This mission, founded in 1768, 99 years ago, consists of a large adobe church, now entirely in ruins, and a rather extensive series of rooms in
an adjoining building, still in a pretty good state of preservation. They were placed on the
hill-side, on a little fiat, partially artificial, and overlooking a marshy tract nearly half a
mile long.   Below this marsh there is probably as much as a hundred acres of arable
land, and the remains of old ditches testify that at least a portion of the land was cultivated.
A party of Chilenos or Sonorians occupied the mission buildings during a portion of 1865
and 1866 while searching in the neighboring mountains for minerals; but the fact that they
went away and opened no mines is pretty good proof that they were unsuccessful, despite
the statement of Viosca that gold is found in the vicinity.  At the mission we encountered
the first species of the California ground-squirrel (Spennophlus, apparently Douglasee.) They
were scarce, however, until within a day's ride of San Diego.
From San Fernando we rode ten leagues across rolling and hilly country, and through
another range to a rocky plain called India Flaca, or thin Indian, a very appropriate name,
since any Indian or white man either who should live here a few weeks would be sure to be
thin enough. We passed the place called the Agua Amarga (bitter water), or Santa Ursula,
where we obtained a supply of water for camp use, and then pushed on to the west side of
the above plain. Camping in an arroyo near the western margin of the plain, close to a low
range of hills, we found a sufficiency, and had cactus skeletons and maguey-stumps for fuel.
We had become so accustomed to camping without water that we hardly noticed its absence.
During this same week we made five "dry" camps, watering our mules and obtaining a
supply of water in our barrel some time during the day. On the way to-day we killed a
couple of rattlesnakes, and after cutting off their heads carried their bodies into camp. To
the great disgust of the Mexicans, we cooked and ate them; more, it is true, by way of experiment than any thing else. They are, however, very palatable; the flesh is a little tough,
but sweet, without bad flavor, and resembles eels somewhat, but is not so greasy. The Mexicans were convinced that the only reason why I had not been poisoned in handling their
reported venomous lizards and toads, and in eating snakes, was because, being a "medico," I
was proof against poisons. Our immunity did not reassure them in the least. From the
India Flaca we rode five leagues to Rosario, where we bought and killed a sheep, filled our
barrel, and went two leagues farther to a deep canion in the coast called the Arroyo Honda,
where we made another dry camp. Having passed Rosario, we were told to expect a great
improvement in the country.  The rocky tracts were to disappear, and beautiful valleys were
to take their place. Of a truth, there was a great change, but Rosario is rather an arbitrary
point, San Quentin would be a nearer approximation to the truth. At the Arroyo Honda we
were terribly annoyed by a sharp cold wind that blew all the evening and riearly all night.
We could hardly keep a camp-fire burning, so fiercely did it blow. We were not sorry in the
morning to leave so bleak a place, and rode nine leagues to San Simon, or, as it has lately
been christened, the city of Santa Maria. The road lay along the coast, much of it on the
I
i
i
I
i
i
I
i
109
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
t
I
II
i
II 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
hard sand-beach and rarely out of sight of the surf, until we struck inland X mile or two below
Sta. Maria. Approaching the place, our eyes were gladdened by the sight of two or three very
American-looking board houses and a well-cleared piece of road, broad and smooth as a racetrack.  What was our surprise, on riding up to the house, to find a couple of sign-boards on
one corner, one bearing the inscription "Hyde Street," the other "Barry Street! "  Without
knowing it we had stumbled on an embryo American town. We were met at the door by
an elderly man, whose name we afterward learned was Porter.   He welcomed us cordially,
showed us where to put our baggage and saddles, directed the men where to find pasture for
the mules, and took us in, treating us with the greatest hospitality. We remained over the
next day, and learned that the proposed city of Santa Maria was a speculation of a Juage
Hyde, of San Francisco, based on the problematical event of his being able to make this the
terminus of the best road across the mountains to the Colorado. A large sum of money had
been spent here, and all that remain to show for it were two good houses and one very poor
one, a few hundred yards of useless road running nowhere on a plain, a corral, and a little
vegetable garden. The port is so small and shallow that the little vessel of eight or ten tons,
that comes here occasionally, has a difficulty in passing the bar; the plain on which the future
city is to be built is too salt to admit of cultivation, and is subject to overflows when, as last
winter, it is covered with half a foot or more of water; firewood there is none, except a
scanty supply of willow, and the general resources of the region are just nil. There is excellent grass on the plains, especially among the willows and near the hills, and the water, which
is very good, is reached by wells of from three to twelve feet deep.
Bidding adieu to the city which is to be, we went eight miles to the salt-ponds of San
Quentin. These we found deserted, and took possession of the house, which has a general
look of dilapidation, and sadly needs repairs. Riding over a lowv hill, we found ourselves on
the margin of one of the lakes. These are some half a dozen in number, and cover areas
from one to five acres each. The salt crystallizes in the mud-fiats around the margin, in sheets
of nearly half an inch thick. This is collected in heaps, and needs no preparation to fit it for
shipment. Although the underlying mud is often very soft, they can, by a peculiar manner of
shovelling, lift the flakes of salt almost unsoiled and so nearly pure that it is unnecessary to
refine it for ordinary purposes. Numerous heaps of the salt, thus collected, are standing on
the dry ground around the lakes, awaiting transportation. The quantity is estimated at about
a thousand tons, and from appearances this seems to be about the real amount. Several important drawbacks exist, which combine to prevent the profitable working of this deposit.
The only market of importance is, of course, San Francisco. The company that has possessionI of the property holds it under a lease from the Mexican Government, to which a heavy
royalty has to be paid; the port for shipment is eight or ten miles distant and hauling is
expensive; add to this the cost of collecting the salt, the freight to San Francisco, the duties
here, and the competition, and there is little profit left for the producers. On the little ride
of a mile or two while making the circuit of the ponds, we found rattlesnakes rather too
common to please nervous people. We killed three in the trail, in an hour. About San
Quentin the pasture was exactly like that of Upper California in its best condition.  Alfilerillo
alfalfa, burr, and red clovers make the greater part of the forage-plants, while the yellow
poppy, primrose, and other familiar flowers, complete the resemblance. In fact, the belt from
here to Rosario may be laid down as the dividing line between semi-tropical floras of the
lower peninsula and the more northern vegetation of Upper California. Many species of
cactus disappear soon after leaving Rosario, as well as a large number of the other plants
with which we had become familiar; and of those which do continue, a large number cling
tenaciously to the mountains or highlands, and are even there scattered and thinning out.
On the other hand, we had noticed for more than a week, one after another of our old northern
friends coming in, first scattered, stunted, and evidently away from home, but gradually increasing in number and size, almost insensibly, but none the less surely supplanting their
southern neighbors. This overlapping of forms takes place much more markedly in the high
land than in the plains. In the latter the vegetation is much more sectional, that is, it resembles much more closely the district to which it belongs. As an illustration, an Upper
Californian, suddenly transported to San Quentin, would have no special reason to suppose
himself out of his State; while if he were placed on the mountains directly east, or even northeast, he would find the same plants that make the characteristic landscape about San Borja
or even farther south. Two or three miles from San Quentin we saw the last cardon, or
columnar cactus; and in the line of demarcation which I had laid down, we encountered the
first-buekeyes and elders.  Chapparal oaks make their appearance between this point and San
Telmo, and the hills support, for the first time, a scattering growth of chamiso.  The ceanothus, with its little bunches of purplish flowers, appears about the same time.
On the 10th we rode along the coast, half a dozen leagues over good grazing-land to San
Ramon, where we camped aside of a marshy arroyo, under shelter of a clump of willows. A
quarter of a mile from us was a house, the headquarters of a ranchero. The people here are
engaged in raising horses, of which we saw several bands. The animals are of good size, finelooking beasts, and their condition spoke well for the character of the pasture. The worst
annoyance they have here is that the country is overrun with rattlesnakes. On this ranch
three or four horses had been bitten during the week previous to our arrival. Leaving San
.110 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Ramon we followed the coast four leagues farther, over a similar country to that behind us,
and then our road took us four leagues farther across a range of pretty high hills to San Telmo, a little settlement, near a deserted and ruined mission, in a deep valley. Every thing
bore the impress of an approach to Upper California. Large herds of sleek, nice-looking
cows were grazing on the flats and lying under the shade of the trees, while several flocks of
sheep could be seen dotting the hill-sides, or huddled together in some shady spot, under the
care of a drowsy shepherd, whose more vigilant dog would rush at us with furious barking,
trying to drive us away from his charge.
The people of San Telmo are very temperate in their habits. We sent Domingo down to
the village, a mile below us, with instructions, while buying some fresh meat, to bring along
"something strong." He searched carefully and reported that, in the whole place, there was
neither wine, aguardiente, mescal, "nor any drop to drink," except water. From San Telmo
we had a dreary, disagreeable ride of six leagues in the rain to E1 Salado; why so called I do
not know, unless by the rule of contraries. We certainly saw no salt. Our route lay nearly
parallel with the coast, and three to five miles distant.
A ranch-house at the Salado, deserted by the owners, is occupied by a family or two of
Indians, a miserable, half-naked set of wretches, hardly above the brutes in intelligence. A
mile or two below is the Delphina copper-mine, owned by some gentlemen in Upper California,
among whom, I am told, are General Rosecrans and Captain Winder, U.S. A. A very substantial adobe house, with a couple of smaller ones here, belong to the company, and all the
property was in charge of a man who is known variously as "Chino" or Marto de la Cruz.
Chino represents himself to be the generalissimo or head chief of all the Yumas, Cocopas, and
several adjoining tribes. He says he is a full-blooded Indian, although nearly everybody else
says he is a Mexican. He is certainly very light-colored for an Indian, and speaks Spanish too
well. He also talks, besides English and some French, several Indian dialects. He has a large
number of testimonials from various army officers, Indian agents, etc., including a pretentiouslooking document from Navarete, the predecessor of the present governor in Lower California. These all speak of him as a good friend of the whites, and a man to be depended upon.
The morning after our arrival was spent at the mine. We did not see as much of it as we
could have desired. There is a shaft, said to be about 150 feet deep, into which we did not
go, not being sure that it would be safe, it having been deserted for some time.  We  saw,
however, some quite extensive works on the face of the hill near the shaft, the principal of
which was a deep cut from which a large quantity of surface ores had been taken. This cut,
extending along the vein, is about 50 feet deep vertically and horizontally, and exp6ses a
well-defined vein five or six feet wide. The ores, oxides, and carbonates, are very rich, and
have been obtained in large quantities. Besides what has been carried away, which, I am
informed, made several extensive shipments, there were at the mine 300 to 400 sacks of picked
ore of excellent quality awaiting transportation.
In the afternoon we rode across a rolling granite country, three leagues, to the old mission
of San Vicente, where, the next day being Sunday, we remained until Monday morning. Our
camp was one of the most beautiful I ever beheld. We were on a perfectly level tract of a
few acres, nearly shut in by a grand old hedge of prickly pear; the whole area was covered
with a mat of the greenest grass. Back of us was a table 10 or 15 feet high, on which stood
the not unpicturesque ruins of the mission buildings; at our side was a fine stream of water,
and overhead the dense foliage of a clump of venerable olive-trees, in the midst of which we
had made our camp. The mules luxuriated in the rich, juicy herbage, and we enjoyed the
beauties of the place to the fullest, leaving it with regret when Monday morning reminded us
that we could idle no longer.
San Vicente is now private property, though it is unoccupied. It contains several leagues
of good, very fertile bottom-land, and a considerable tract of grazing-land on the low rolling
hills. A large portion of the bottom seems to have been cultivated during the time of the
missions, judging from the remains of irrigating ditches winding around the hill-sides.  Let
American enterprise wake these people out of their lethargy, and San Vicente will become one
of the most flourishing ranches of Lower California.
From San Vicente we rode inland seven leagues to Sto. Tomas, through  a rolling, rocky
country, with plenty of water. This latter place is in the bottom of a wide arroyo, 21 nmiles
from the coast.   It is quite a town,  of some, perhaps, 50 or 60 inhabitants, containing
half a dozen houses, and the ruins of the small mission establishment. A few acres of
ground are under cultivation, irrigated by the water of three or four large springs. This
is the headquarters of the sub-government of the frontiers. Sefior Zerega, the deputygovernor, to whom we had letters, was absent, but we were very well received by the
family of a brother-in-law of Jesus'. A group of old olive-trees here, surpassing in size even
those of San Vicente, are almost the only traces of early cultivation of the vicinity. The
valley is said to be excellent ranch-land for some distance farther up, and all the way to
the coast. Some cattle and sheep are raised here, and considerable quantities of wine are
produced.
Resisting with some difficulty the very cordial invitation to remain, which our new friends
almost insisted on our accepting, we rode the next day 12 leagues to Saucal. The country
did not differ materially from what we passed through the day before: a series of rolling
ill
i 
SKETCHI OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
hills, succeeding each other almost interminably, with pretty and fertile valleys interspersed,
and groves here and there of the California live-oak, while a little sycamore dotted the
lines of the water-courses. Both of these trees occur here for the first time, this being their
southern limit. At the Saucal, which is directly on the coast, there is an embarcadero or
landing for small vessels.  We found here, too, another brother-in-law of Jesus', who keeps
a small store. He took us in and treated us very hospitably. This family is very different
from the majority of their countrymen. They are lighter in color, indicating a purer blood,
and are very intelligent and-but it would be invidious to make a distinction in the Spanish
race in the matter of politeness.
On the 17th, accompanied by our host, we rode eight leagues, past the San Antonio "copper-mines" and the rancho of Guadalupe, to a little canion called Los Burros. We spent a
little while looking at one or two of the copper claims, and saw  nothing, more than the
deceptive copper stains in granite, which have caused so much useless expenditure of money
in Upper California. Satisfied of the utter worthlessness of all we saw, and which, we were told,
were the "best mines," we pushed on.  Guadalupe ranch is by far the best rancho in Lower
California. It comprises seven leagues of bottom-land, with a stream of water running through
it. The land is of great fertility. and several acres of wheat and barley, already headed out,
showed that it was excellent grain-land. There is here also a large orchard of various fruits,
including peach, plum, apricot, pomegranate, fig, etc., and a fine vineyard. The grass in the
uncultivated parts of the valley was unsurpassed by any thing we saw on the whole journey,
below or above. Two leagues beyond the Guadalupe, we camped under a large spreading liveoak by the side of a beautiful stream of water gurgling over its pebbly bed, and enjoyed the
luxury of a rousing camp-fire.
From here we travelled, still in the same rolling hills, across beautiful little valleys, crossing stream after stream to the Valley of the Palms. If palms ever existed here, they must have
died or been killed, since we did not see one. I have been told, however, that the fan-palm
does really exist in some little valleys back of San Diego. Whether they are natural stragglers from b!elow, or whether they had been planted there, I could not ascertain. The valley
in which we camped is broad, open, and sandy. It is covered with a good growth of grass and
numerous trees, but does not look as if it would produce very astonishing results under cultivation.
From the "Valley of the Palms" we went to the Tia Juana, crossed the boundary, and
camped at the rancho de la Punta, once more under the protection of Uncle Sam. Tile monument that marks the dividing line is in such a dilapidated state that something will have to
be done shortly. Either a new one must be placed there, or better, the necessity for one obviated by the selection of some more natural line of demarcation, say, for instance, the Gulf
of California. This must be sooner or later.
I have given an honest, impartial account of the impressions made on me by whatever I
saw.   I have not given a very glowing account of the country; still, Lower California,
with its fisheries, its mines, its cultivated lands, and its extensive grazing-tracts, not to mention
its geographical position, must be of more value to the United States than the recently
acquired territory of the Northwest. Not only that, its resources, with the equable and stable
government that it would thus acquire, and with the aid of American energy, skill, and capital, will increase themselves fivefold in hardly more than as many years.
GEOLOGY.
THE peninsula of Lower California can be separated geologically into three pretty wellmarked districts. The first includes the high mountain portions, between La Paz and Cape
San Lucas; the second extends from this to beyond San Ignacio, say to Santa Gertrudes; the
third includes all that part lying north of Santa Gertrudes. The date of upheaval of the
mountain-ranges, as proved by the sedimentary rocks which are disturbed, allies them to the
Coast Range of Upper California, with which, in fact, they are connected by a continuous chain.
It is possible to trace an uninterrupted granite ridge from the San Gabriel Mountains north of
Los Angeles, through Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties, into Lower California and along the peninsula to within a few miles of the old mission of Sta. Gertrudes. From
the exposure by denudation of masses of granite under the sedimentary rocks, as at Sta. Gertrudes and Sauce, near Loreto, it is probable that an elevation of say, another thousand feet,
would carry the continuous line of granite entirely through to Cape San Lucas. This will be
better understood by a more detailed account of the various phenomena observed during our
hasty reconnoissance.  The first region mentioned above consists of a high, nearly north and
south range of mountains, commencing at Cape-San Lucas and extending with its branches
to the Cacachilas range, southeast of La Paz.
Other spurs and accessary chains cover nearly the whole extremity of the peninsula with
a rugged mountain mass, very variable ill height, and interspersed with almost innumerable
valleys, some of which can hardly be equalled in beauty and fertility in any other part of
the world.  Even high up in the mountains are said to be fine valleys, well watered, with a
constant supply of the best grass, capable of raising any thing, and, what is most important
112 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
of all in a country where wood is scarce, surrounded by the finest kind of oak and pine
timber.
The main chain of this region is the San Lazaro, a mass lying west of the valley of San
Jos6, and culminating in the sharp peak of San Lazaro, about 5,000 feet high.   This range
is extremely rugged and picturesque, and appears to be heavily timbered, at least in parts,
as seen from the valley of Santa Anita. It sends out many lateral spurs, and its deep caflons
all abound in perennial supplies of excellent water.
The coast side, as seen from a passing vessel, is even more barren and forbidding than
its inland aspect. At its southern extremity it opens into a y shape, near Cape San Lucas,
and north it sends out several branches, one of which, the Sierra de la Victoria, some 30
miles south of Triunfo, rivals in height the main chain. Triunfo itself is in a low part of the
same range, and within a mile or two of the dividing ridge which separates the watershed of
the Pacific from that of the gulf. Here, however, the elevation is, perhaps, not more than
1,000 feet above the sea, and the descent is almost unnoticeable, except to the experienced
eye.  The same ridge rises again on the peninsula included between La Paz Bay and the gulf,
making the rugged granite chain of the Cacachilas perhaps 3,000 feet high.   In the tract
included between the ranges above mentioned, is the east coast; that is to say, between
a nearly direct line from San Jose6 to La Paz on the west and the gulf on the east, there are
numerous small ranges and spurs, none of great elevation, and which we had no opportunity
of examining in detail.
The geology of this lower portion of the peninsula is quite simple. The high ridges are
all essentially granitic; the rocks varying in structure from a true granite to a true syenite
with every intermediate gradation. Approaching San Antonio from the southeast, the granite
is replaced for the fipst time by a mica slate, which makes a belt running northeast and
southwest across the country.   I found it extending uninterruptedly to and six miles beyond
Triunfo, on the La Paz road. To the west from Triunfo, toward Todos Santos, it continues
to the extreme edge of the mountains, bordering the plains, and is said to continue to the
Cacachilas.   It is in this rock that the only really valuable mineral deposits of the territorv
have been found. Gold is reported from many places in the granite of the San Lazaro; and
Sefior Carillo, of Sta. Anita, assured me that, when a young man, he had seen "chispas," or
nuggets of gold, one as large as the palm of his hand, said to have been brought from the
low ranges east of Sta. Anita. Be that as it may, subsequent search has alwvays failed to find
the spot from which they came. Copper and silver are also reported, and traces of the
former at least doubtless exist. At the Calabazas, 18 miles from Triunfo, on the road to La
Paz, in a low ridge to the left of the road, copper-mines or traces of copper exist.   No work
is being done, the exploration having ceased long before our visit.  In the mica slate only
have deposits of metal been found sufficiently valuable to pay for regular mining.  The principal districts are in the vicinity of San Antonio and Triunfo, within three or four miles of
each other, and containing the same system of veins, and the district of Cacachilas, on the
southeast side of the range of mountains of the same name, and between 20 and 30 miles
from La Paz. This latter district was not visited by us, for a variety of reasons.
Our purpose in visiting the country was to make an exploration of the lands included
within the grant to the Colonization Company, and these lands did not commence until some
distance farther north.  We were in a hurry to get at our legitimate work, and our time
was necessarily limited; besides, having ascertained the main features of the mineral deposits,
we had no inclination to go into the details of every mine.
We spent several davs in and around Triunfo and San Antonio, and visited all the
principal mines of that region. They are almost all on two parallel veins, running nearly
north and south, and quite near each other. The largest of these veins is remarkable for the
great uniformity it sustains throughout, both in the character of its ore and in the size and
continuity of its ore deposit. The vein, with a thickness of fiom 8 to 15 feet, carries a body
of metal of from three to five feet, wherever any deep excavations have been made on it
within a length of four or five miles. Several mines are in successful operation, and others
have been sufficiently opened to render their future morally certain of success, so far as one
dare judge one mine by analogy with another. The injudicious expenditure of large sums by
incompetent men in doing useless work, instead of applying them in such a manner as to prove
the vein, has retarded almost beyond calculation the development of this region.
It will require years to restore the confidence thus lost, and establish on its proper basis
the prosperity of the district. The mistake always made has been the employment of men,
unfitted by study and experience, as superintendents of the mines, simply because their
services could be obtained at a price which, when too late, proved to be in a nearly exact
ratio with their ability.
Besides the two principal veins, there are several smaller ones on which are many mining
"claims," but, inasmuch as work has been many times commenced and abandoned on them,
and no result even yet attained, it is probably safer to pass them by with the mere mention.
Besides the crystalline rocks already described, there are also some deposits of later age,
in this district, though very limited in extent. They belong to two distinct geological eras.
The newer is a modern gravel deposit which fills nearly all the valleys, is horizontally stratified everywhere, and consists of the debris of granite with some foreign admixture, such as
113 
SKETCH OF THEI, SETTLEMENT AND
boulders of volcanic origin. This gravel forms mesas in some places as much as 60 feet
above the valleys, perfectly level, nearly always covered with loose stones, and supporting an
entirely different character of vegetation from that found in the fertile bottoms.   Sometimes,
as at the Cuevas, it is a pretty compact, even-grained sandstone, and at times is a little dis turbed, having a dip of a few degrees in one direction or another. It fills the valley of San
Jose6, lining the sides either as a. regular table, or occasionally cut into rolling hills. From
the head of the valley, between Sta. Ana and Santiago, it forms the only division between the
watersheds of the two streams. At Santiago it is a mile or two wide, and forms a beautiful
terrace, with a sharply-defined margin and steep face.
The other rock, probably the same as that so extensively developed farther north in the
mesa, is a hard sandstone, resembling closely that of the tertiary of Upper California.    The
only place where I saw it well developed in this region was at the Rancho de los Martires
where, east of the house, is a little hill composed of strata dipping westward at an angle of
about 15~.  The rock, of which I saw much in use about the house, is said to be all alike.
What I saw was a fissile sandstone, splitting into sheets answering admirably for flagging.
The horizontal gravel abutted against the sloping faces of this rock. I saw no fossils, nor
any means by which I could ever approximately establish the age of the formation.  Large
fossil oysters are said to occur three miles east of Santiago, but I was reluctantly obliged to
leave without visiting the locality. The only clew I possess is indeed a slight one. About
seven years ago, Mr. John Xantus sent from Cape San Lucas to the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia a few fossil oysters.  These were considered at the time  by Mr.
Conrad and myself as probably belonging to Mr. C.'s. species, O. Georgiana, but a more inti mate acquaintance with O. Titan, Con., in California, inclines me to the belief that they were
the long slender variety of that species.  Should O. Titaz  be found in this rock it would be
pretty good proof of the miocene age of the formation, since that species is very characteristic, not only of the formation, but of a single meniber of it. Throughout the whole extent
of the territory I never encountered a single fossil in the mesa sandstones; and, while I con sider that antalogy, and all the little items of presumptive evidence that can be obtained are in
favor of their miocene age, I should notwithstanding be very reluctant to decide, on such
grounds, to place them in one formation rather than another.
On the road from Triunfo to La Paz, after passing Playitas, and emerging into the valley
of La Paz, the granite is succeeded by hills of from 500 to 700 feet high, of stratified volcanic
ash covered by a deposit of very hard porphyritic trachytes.  These volcanic rocks are not
extensively developed on this side of the bay, but form a narrow strip along the base of the
higher mountains, forming the Cacachilas range. The stratified ash has a low dip, usually
westward, though in some places, especially east of La Paz, it is very much disturbed, dipping
in all directions. The new church now in process of' construction, in La Paz, is of this solidified ash, which is sufficiently hard and of a good color for building purposes.
We encountered no other volcanic rocks in place in this region, but I observed, especially
near Santiago, in the gravels, numerous pebbles anid occasionally large boulders of a light-gray
porphyry with crystals of white feldspar. Inquiry among the natives failed to elicit anv information regarding similar rocks in place, and the boulders have a rolled look, as if they
might have travelled a long distance.  From the borders of the mica slate, on the road toward Todos Santos and northward, there is an entire change in the geology and an accompanying one in the appearance of the country. The rugged mountains and beautiful tropical
valleys disappear, and in their place we had broad arid-looking plains, or at best flat-topped
table-mountains, extending as far as the eye can reach, as tiresome in their monotony as the
plains themselves. The general structure of this, the middle portion of the peninsula, is a
series of non-fossiliferous sandstones lying on a granite base, the former often metamorphosed, especially on the eastern side. On the western margin these rocks are overlaid, usually
more or less conformably, though with occasional instances of non-conformability, by a comparatively thin series of sandstones and calcareous beds, often highly fossiliferous.  The
fossils, all or nearly all of living species, indicate for this group a very recent age, most
probably post-pliocene.
On the eastern margin, near the coast, these rocks are found in a few isolated patches,
lying very unconformably on the upturned edges or abutting against the inclined surfaces of
the older sandstones, and in most cases filled with fossils in an excellent state of preservation. Overlying both these sedimentary formations, and often protruding through them in
the form of dikes, are volcanic rocks, porphyries, trachytes, and pumice.  The  elevation of
the range commenced long before the deposition of the post-pliocene beds, and is demonstrated
by the fact that they hardly ever attain an elevation of more than four or five hundred feet
above the sea; and on the west slope, where the disturbance has been least, they thin out
almost imperceptibly along the eastern margin.  An exception to this exists, however, in the
high mountains of Santa Maria, which are capped by thin beds of fine-grained, soft sandstones,
and a little limestone, which, although without fossils, are, no doubt, members of the same
formation.
A very interesting feature of the older beds, or mesa sandstone, as I shall call it for convenience, is the presence of immense numbers of fragments of volcanic rocks. These are
markedly different in character from the more modern outflows which have covered alike
114: 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
both formations, and by their hardness have assisted in preserving the tabular form of nearly
all the hills.  In some of the beds these pebbles and boulders are so numerous as to produce
a conglomerate, in which the cementing sandstone is a comparatively unimportant part. From
the manner of their occurrence they show that their origin was somewhere east even of the
present coast line: thus, about -Magdalena Bay and toward Comondu and  Purisima, they
are small in size, few in number, and very much rolled, as if they had been brought a long
distance; but, on approaching that part of the coast from Chuellnca to Loreto, their numbers
and size increase steadily, and in the same ratio is the decrease in the amount of attrition to
which they have been subjected. In no place have the rocks from which these boulders were
derived, been encountered, and they certainly do not underlie the mesa sandstones at any
point where the base of that formation has been seen. At Sauce, and again at Sta. Gertrudes,
I have seen this rock lying directly in contact with the granite, but without any trace of an
intermediate formation. The only solution of the difficulty, therefore, that has occurred to
me is that, at the time of the deposition of the mesa sandstones, there was a body of land
lying where is now the Gulf of California, and near the present position of Carmen Island,
and that the volcanic boulders which make so important a part of these sandstones were derived from that land.  The line of elevation of this portion of the peninsula is very close to
the east coast.  From La Paz to beyond Moleje, the summit would probably not average more
than 15 miles in a direct line from the beach, and it is often within five miles. The whole
country is elevated, with a slope so gentle as to be almost imperceptible, from the shores of
the Pacific to this summit, and from there descends to the gulf so precipitously as to render
it very difficult, and not unfrequently impossible, of ascent.  Nor is there any anticlinal axis;
the mountains look as if they had been broken off rather than pushed up, and it is not impossible that more detailed investigation than I was able to make will demonstrate the existence of an enormous fault along this line of coast.
After leaving the mass of mica slate between Triunfo and Todos Santos, the road runs
over gravel mesas or tables which extend northward, frequently interrupted by water-courses
and little valleys, for about sixty miles, along the coast from Todos Santos. These tables
show in places a distinct terrace structure.   At the point of their greatest development they
are about thirty feet high each, one above the other. From this they fall to nearly nothing.
Looking eastward, can be seen far inland low, broad, flat-topped hills, which gradually approach the coast, and eventually, about eighteen miles north of the rancho of the Innocentes,
and perhaps fifty miles south of the bay of Magdalena, they reach the beach.   From here to
the bay of Ballones they continue, sometimes close to the coast, at others retreating more or
less inland, and always quite low near the Pacific, but rising gradually to the eastern summit,
where they culminate in the high ridge of the Sierra Gigantea, near Loreto, there they reach
the height of over three thousand feet. These hills were formerly connected as one entire
plain, but are now divided into innumerable flat tables, often separated by canons of a thousand feet deep. At the Salado, near Magdalena Bay, and about six miles inland, the canion
shows a good section of about sixty feet high.  The rocks here are fine-grained, soft sandstone below, overlaid by soft calcareous beds with many casts of fossils-all, so far as I could
determine them, belonging to living species. The same beds continue as far south as we saw
this group of rocks, but on going eastward the limestones disappear within a few miles, having probably been removed by denudation. The underlying soft sandstones, interstratified
with some white shale, continue inland to a point a little beyond the old mission of San Luis
Gonzag,a, where they thin out, and are underlaid by a coarse-grained, more compact sandstone,
filled with volcanic boulders, of which mention is made above.
Before leaving this part of the coast a word about the large island of Margarita would be
in place. We did not visit it, and could obtain no reliable information about it; but, from its
contour, and from its being reputed to contain veins of silver and copper, it is in all probability a mass of either granite or mica slate.
About San Luis are many dikes of a light-gray porphyry, filled with small white crystals
of feldspar. These dikes, striking with great uniformity within a degree or two of the
magnetic north, disturb  both the sedimentary formations for nearly twenty miles.   The
post-pliocene beds, which also contain a few boulders of volcanic origin, probably derived
from the underlying strata, are sometimes covered with a "pedregal" * of rounded pebbles,
which render travelling extremely unpleasant. Near San Luis, the surface of the earth is
covered in many places with flakes and scales of selenite, sometimes of several pounds in
weight, and doubtless derived from the destruction of the shells which once existed in these
rocks, and the chemical recombination of their constituent lime.  From  San Luis to the
eastern summit, above the Tinaja, the mesas rise with a gentle curve, the dip being to the
southwest.   No fossils were found, the post-pliocene had disappeared, but in one or two
places pieces of table were seen capped by thin sheets of basaltiform rocks.
No traces of metamorphism were encountered here, though the hills but a few miles farther
* This word, for which I know no exact English equivalent, is used to designate a tract covered with
a great number of loose stones. Many spots on the Pacific slope are so covered to a depth of several
feet, and without a particle of soil visible, over areas varying from a few acres to many miles in extent.
I have adopted the word partly because of its descriptive brevity, and partly because it is in common
use wherever this state of things exists.
I
1
115
i
I
I
I
t
I
I
i
ii 
SKETCHl OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
north are most unmistakably metamorphic. Nor did we encounter any volcanic rocks in place
on our trail.  The nearest we saw were some small patches at the distance of several miles
northwest of the rancho of Jesus Maria.  My lamented friend Remonld, who visited the
region just north of La Paz two or three years ago, says that there are there extensive tracts
covered by volcanic beds.
Descending the eastern face of the range at the Tinaja, the rocks, entirely unaltered, retain
so nearly a horizontal position that the dip cannot be detected in a short section, and, except
one or two slight twists of very limited extent, the same remark will hold good for the whole
face of the range to the Gigantea itself, inclusive.  Carmen Island, in the offiugs, appears to belong to the same formation, having a low dip to the northeast, with a slight disturbance at
its southwest or higher extremity.  At the Chuenca, about 15 miles south of Loreto, we encountered the first traces of metamorphism. Here the sandstones lose, to a great extent,
their sandy structure, but retain very markedly their stratification. This peculiarity exists
almost everywhere where the rocks have been altered. The most notable exception to the
rule is found near Moleje, where the loss of stratification is restricted to one or two hills only,
and even there seems rather to be due to a complete crushing of the rocks by upheaval, than
to a blending of the strata. Half a dozen miles north of Loreto is a group of hills of postpliocene age, highly fossiliferous.  The largest of these, perhaps 600 feet high, is known  as
the Cerro de los Ostiones. The fossils are in a pretty good state of preservation, are all living
species, but the variety is not very great. Between the mesa sandstones and the post-pliocene is a ridge of about 300 feet high, and perhaps two or three miles long. It is composed
of a brown trachyte, and tilts the more modern formation to an angle of 55~ east, with a strike
N. 10~ W. mag. Half a dozen miles farther north there are spots in the post-pliocene
entirely destitute of fossils, their place being taken by seams of selenite. The same fossiliferous rocks extend along the base of the range, resuming their horizontal position, and gradually thinning out, the last encountered being near San Juan, and a few miles east of the base
of the Gigantea. Between the bay of San Juan and that of San Bruno there are some low
hills of highly metamorphosed mesa sandstone, in one place exhibiting a distinct synclinal
axis, the strike being still nearly north and south. On the inland side these are flanked by thin
beds of the more recent rocks, overlaid by a heavy deposit of volcanic origin, principally grayish
trachytes. South of San Bruno, the same hills extend a few miles, eventually hidden by the
post-pliocene beds.   Going westward from San Juan to Sauce, at the base of the Gigantea,
the road first crosses a narrow alluvial valley, then passes between hills of horizontal postpliocene, covered with the same trachvte found toward the coast; the lower of these two
rocks abuts horizontally against the face of strata of highly metamorphic mesa sandstones,
dipping at an angle of 35~. These sandstones, within a mile, assume a horizontal position,
and in turn abut against a mass of granite which forms the base at this point of the Gigantea.
The granite is a small firagment exposed by denudation, about four miles long and a mile wide,
and the sandstones lie horizontally on and against it in such a manner as to prove that they
have not been materially disturbed since the deposition. The enormous succession of beds,
rising with an almost perpendicular face, and forming the whole height of the mountain, is
unbroken, except by a few dikes, which also cut through the granite and the sandstones lying
on its opposite sides.
The section exhibited by the face of this mountain proves the origin of the immense sheets
of volcanic rocks which cover so much of the surface of this region. Except the volcano of
the Virgenes and the few cones about San Ignacio, no true volcanoes occur on the peninsula.
The country has been covered by means of the inconspicuous dikes which, having exhausted
themselves in inundating the neighborhood with a fiery deluge, have become at once and forever extinct. From the summit of the Gigantea to the west coast, the section is practically
identical with that described from Magdalena Bay to the gulf.   Regularly stratified mesa
sandstones, cut by dikes and capped with a nearly continuous sheet of volcanic rocks, extend
to near the edge of the plains. The metamiorphism of the sandstones disappears by almost
insensible gradation below Comondu, and, almost simultaneously with the loss of the volcanic,
we find again the post-pliocene coming in, first with a thin edge of limestone, nearly made up
of fossils, afterward making up the entire thickness of the low mesas, so far as could be
seen by the sections in the arroyos. From San Juanico south, for half a dozen miles, is a tract
a mile or two wide, covered by barren sand-hills, and showing no underlying rocks. Back of
this are low tables and rolling ground made up of the lower beds of the post-pliocene, without
fossils, but filled with seams of selenite, and in most places overlaid by a deposit of volcanic
rocks. This continues to near the mission of Purisima, where the mesa sandstones coming
in more or less disturbed, lying in gentle undulations, the post-pliocene covers them unconformably and rapidly thins out.  From the Purisima to the summit the older strata continue,
slightly disturbed, and in the higher parts more or less metamorphosed. The metamorphism
continues past the summit to the coast. Here, for the first time, appears some trace of an
anticlinal axis, the hill between the main crest and the gulf being more marked, the distance
being greater, and the rocks dipping in various directions, an easterly dip predominating. Near
Moleje the disturbance seems to have reached its climax; in some places the stratification is
completely lost, the rocks are altered as if by the action of mineral waters, and look as if
they had been burned in a kiln, and considerable quantities of alum and sulphur are said to
116 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
exist in the vicinity. Selenite also exists, but not in the quantities that have been reported
by irresponsible parties, whose aim was to speculate on the credulity or love of gain of persons who were unable to test their veracity.   The existence of sulphate of lime in some of
the metamorphic rocks about Moleje renders it probable that at least a portion of them may
belong to the more modern formation, since, should they prove to be the older mesa sandstones, this will be the first instance in Lower California where gypsum has been found in
that formation.
For about fifty miles northward along the coast the road continues on the east side of the
main summit, crossing innumerable ridges all made up of metamorphosed mesa sandstones
very much disturbed, and with a prevailing southwesterly dip, striking nearly parallel with
the direction of the peninsula. Soon after crossing the main ridge the rocks begin to lose
their mietamorphic character and to lie more regularly, assuming again their gentle southwesterly inclination. Directly where the trail reaches the summit of the ridge are several
large dikes of trachyte, the principal one of which strikes N. 55~ W. magnetic, and, projecting above the surrounding rocks and soil, runs a mile or more like a wall. No farther
change takes place in the geology until within a mile or two of San Ignacio, where a fine
little volcano cone towers isolated al)ove the neighboring tables, and sends out a sheet of
lava over every thing in the direction of the Pacific coast. Almost at the same time, the
post-pliocene rocks show themselves under the volcanic, and in a few hundred yards reach
the base of the section in every arroyo, the older rocks disappearing under thenm.
Going northeast from San Ignacio the section is the same, except that the volcanic does
not end in a mile or two as toward Moleje. Peak after peak and ridge after ridge of trachyte,
porphyry, and pumice, succeed each other, forming an apparently continuous belt to the
Volcano de las Virgenes close to the gulf coast. Turning more to the north, and leaving this
volcanic belt to the right, the trail strikes directly for the main range and enters a highly
metamorphosed and somewhat undulating mass of the mesa sandstones, which here lose entirely for a time their "table-mountain" structure.   The chain, here very jagged and broken
in appearance, makes a sudden bend away foiuo the main coast, and, curving around again, approaches it near Sta Gertrudes.  From this part of the range the tables slope down as before,
toward the Pacific, but, instead of reaching the coast, are cut off by a small range, known as
the Santa Clara Mountains, which are said to be granitic, and which extend almost all the way
from the bay of Ballenas to that of San Sebastian Viscaino.   The region included within the
before-mentioned curve of the main ridge and the gulf coast is a barren, sterile tract, made
up of lov irre,gular ridges of metamorphic sandstone, without water or grass, and hardly able
to support the stragling growth of cactus which alone gives a semblance of life to this most
inhospitable waste.   Water exists at but three spots on this side of  the  mountains:
Sta. Marta, as a little stream trickling along a rocky bed; at Rosarita, as a spring without
overflow, and again at Sanl Juan, in a cafion close to the base of the ridge, as a little tepid
spring, with a rivulet of but a few rods in length running out of it. From San Juan the trail
climbs directly up the face of the mountain, here called El Obispo (The Bishop), and, entering
the head of a rocky canion, follows it down to Sta. Gertrudes, while east of the mountain,
the usual amount of slight disturbances exists; as soon as the summit is passed, the sandstones
resamne their nearly horizontal position and retain it almost without interruption, but without
again losing their metamorphism.   Directly at Sta. Gertrudes a small mass of granite shows
itself in the cafion, cut into and exposed by the denuding effects of the mountain-stream.
This is but a few rods in extent, and for the next two leagues on the road to San Borja the
metamorphic sandstones continue, interrupted but once by a large and very peculiar-looking
dike of dark-gray cellular trachyte.  This is exposed by an excellent section of about forty
feet high, on the nearly vertical bank of an arroyo. The sandstone was uplifted from below
over a space of a couple of hundred feet, the sides rising in regular and gently converging
curves. The volcanic rock filled the cavity thus formed and broke through in the middle.
Subsequently the whole mass was denuded to a nearly perfect level, and the section now presents the appearance of a very blunt wedge of trachyte with concave faces,'on which lie
curved strata of sandstone. The dike, which, from its greater hardness, resisted longest the
denuding forces, now strews the surface with its fragments for many hundreds of yards in
every direction.
Soon alter leaving this dike the trail enters a broad desert valley, covered with a scattered
volcanic "pedregal" and underlaid by thin horizontal beds of non-fossiiiferous shale, resembling in every respect the post-pliocene of farther south. In two or three leagues the shale
thins out and disappears entirely, the only rock remaining being granite covered in places
by a thin soil of granitic sand.  The higher hills are also granite, but are usually capped by
beds of volcanic and sometimes sub-basaltiforin rocks, with a marked inclination to the southwest. These may be considered as outliers of the mesa structure, and as the connecting link
between the middle and northern sections into which I have divided the peninsula. In some
places the lavas are underlaid by thin beds of post-pliocene, acd near San Sebastian I observed a few hills in which the whole series was represented; the volcanic' on top, underlaid
by post-pliocene, the mesa sandstones under this, and granite forming the great mass of the
hill. The sedimentary rock where they thus exist is quite thin, forming with the overlying
volcanic cap not more, perhaps, than a couple of hundred feet in thickness. North from
0
li
I 
*
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
San Sebastian, to the south side of the range of hills behind Yubai, the whole country is
capped with greater or less regularity by volcanic tables, which at San Borja are three or four
hundred feet thick, and, while they are very thin at Trinidad, southwest of San Bolja are
underlaid for a mile or two by fi-om two to four hundred feet in thickness of post-pliocene
sandstone and conglomerates. About Rosarito the lavas generally disappear a few miles from
the coast, the outer hills being low, rolling, and composed of a soft granite in which some
copper stains have been observed, and some unsuccessful mining done. One little group of
hills about a league tothe northwest of Rosarito is capped by some post-pliocene outliers
entirely isolated, the nearest other locality of this rock which we saw being about fifteen miles
distant. From this point to the valley of San Andreas the whole country is granite, cut by
a dike of blackish porphyry at Santo Domingo, where there is a small spring of water.
Another dike at San Andreas acts as a dam, and forms quite a large lake and extensive
marsh.  In the valley of San Andreas and the adjoining low mesas, the northern a mile or
two wide, the southern extending probably almost to Yubai, are beds of a soft, light-gray
sandstone horizontally stratified and without fossils. Judging from analogy and litliological
resemblance, I consider this to be post-pliocene.
About here, or rather between here and San Borja, the whole topographical system of the
country undergoes a decided change.
The table-lands, gently sloping up from the Pacific to near the Gulf coast, disappear. The
western side, first broken into low, rolling hills, begins to form a decided mountain-range, colnnected, it is true, with the eastern side, but by cross-ridges instead of tables.
The horizontal stratified mesa sandstones still retain a strong development, but cling
close to the east coast, and eventually disappear in a series of low, ragged ridges near the
bay of San Luis. The chain, however, is continued as a granite ridge some distance farther
up the coast, finally dropping as a series of lava-capped hills, falling lower and lower until
they are lost to sight in the distant deserts of the northeast. In the mean time the western
range, constantly assuming grander proportions, covers with its spurs more than half the
width of the peninsula, and, running northward, continues across the boundary into Upper
California, uniting with the San Gabriel range.
From the northeastern margin of the mesa of Santa Ana where the trail strikes the high
hills, the rocks are all of mesa sandstone, highly metamorphosed, forming quartzites, mica
and talcose slates and jaspers. These continue east to the coast with variable strikes of from
N. 24~ W. to N. 46~ W. magnetic, the prevailing dip being high to the northeast. Along the
east face of the range they thin out and disappear about three leagues above Calamujuet,
being replaced by granite.
At Sta. Maria the summits of the highest parts of the ridge are capped by post-pliocene
sandstones covered with volcanic rocks. From here to Agua Dulce the same structure continues.  The plains  and  valleys  are of granite, the higher hills being capped as at
Sta. Maria. From Agua Dulce the hills fell rapidly, the post-pliocene eventually forming
the valley land, the granite disappearing and the few low tables that exist being made up in
part or in whole of volcanic rock. This continues to the margin of the main chain within
a league of the deserted mission of San Fernando. The chain here consists of a core of
granite, on both flanks of which are stratified volcanic rocks, ash, pumice, and harder lavas
lying highly uptilted against the granite, but assuming a horizontal position on the west side
at a short distance from the granite.
These volcanic beds are soon succeeded by horizontal stratified beds of post-pliocene
sand and gravel which extend to the coast, covered in places with a rough pedregal. Following utip the coast they form low tables, usually at some distance from the beach, but
extending to within four leagues of San Telmo, where they are cut off by a spur of the higher
range coming down to the ocean. As seen from the coast road the high chain inland appears
to retain its structure as we saw it at San Fernando.
At San Quentin, near the salt-ponds, are two or three hills composed of hard, gray, cellular
volcanic rock, in parts having a sub-basaltiform structure. They are entirely isolated and
cover a comparatively small area. From San Quentin there is no rock, except the post-pliocene on or near the coast, for 10 leagues northward to where the high range sends down a
series of spurs. From here the features of the country suffer a marked change. The higher
chain, with its granite core tipped and bordered with volcanic rocks, occupies the whole
western half of the peninsula from this point to the boundary. A border of rolling hills of
trachyte and porphyry, about a league or a league and a half in width, forms the flank of the
range. Crossing this, the road enters granite, which then continues uninterruptedly for more
than 10 leagues along the crooked trail to the old mission of San Vicente.
At San Telmo there is a curious belt of a mile or more in width, in which the granite
presents almost the appearance of a conglomerate.' It is filled with masses of a darker, finergrained granitoid rock, very much harder than the including mass, and in fragments of all
sizes from a cubic inch to two or three tons' weight. These included masses are, so to speak,
sub-angular; that is to say, they present imperfect faces, of which all the corners and angles
are blunted, exactly as if, having been torn off from the walls of a fissure, they have become
entangled in the molten mass of what is now granite, their surface partially melted, and, on
cooling, they have become thoroughly welded into the matrix.  This  welding is so perfect
118 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
that on breaking the rock the cracks cross the line of union with even greater facility than
they will follow it.
Six leagues from San Telmo is the Delphina copper-mine at a place called the Slada.
The including rocks are all granite, and although only one mine has been opened, it is
claimed that there are croppings for many other veins in the vicinity. From the Salada, the
road again approaching slightly toward the coast, we encounter directly north of San Vicente
more volcanic rocks, but for the next half dozen leagues only as caps to the higher points.
Approaching Santo Tomas, the volcanic belt widens, extending inland at least beyond
this mission, which is 21 miles from the coast.
Passing here, the road again approaches the coast and winds through and skirts hills of
volcanic origin to the Saucal 12 leagues. The rocks are mostly a black porphyry with small
crystals of white feldspar. Along this part of the route the granite has almost entirely disappeared, only forming the bases of some of the hills.  But in a league northeast from the
Saucal it reasserts itself, the porphyries and trachytes thinning out and disappearing as a
series of low hills along the coast.  From here to the boundary the granites make the entire
range.  Along this coast for a few miles, and extending up the valley of the Tia Juana, are
some low terraced tables of post-pliocene age which abut horizontally against the granite.
Those below the river end abruptly near its mouth, but those on the east side continue to
flank the hills as a low mesa, reaching the coast near San Diego.
The region east of the summit of this range and north from Santa Maria is entirely
unknown geologically.  It is said to be a dry, anid desert, mostly covered with loose sand,
with some fertile little spots scattered through it such as Santa Catarina.  So far as I could
learn by carefully cross-questioning several Indians, it appears that the mountains occupy
the western half or two-thirds of the peninsula, the remainder being nearly level. It was
with extreme regret that we felt ourselves obliged to neglect this district, but it was outside
of the tract which we had undertaken to examine. The necessary delays we had been obliged
to make elsewhere had kept us much beyond the time we had allowed ourselves, our mules
were nearly exhausted, as well as our funds, and, after three or four months of exile, without
the sight of a letter or newspaper, we were all anxious to catch the first possible glimpse of
civilization, and find out what had been going on in the world. We, therefore, consoled
ourselves with the belief that "that corner wasn't of much account anyhow."
MI I N ING.
As is the case in almost every part of the Pacific side of North America, mining excitements have been raised from time to time in nearly every portion of Lower California.
Search has been made for all the more valuable metals, and for coal, until arrastres and
"prospect-holes" are as common as in the Sierra Nevada of the "Golden State."
Unfortunately for the honest miner, whose zeal and faith in most instances far outweighed
his knowledge, the very great majority of these ill-directed efforts have proved abortive.  Coal
has been hunted for on the slight inducement of masses of black mica in granite; gold, silver,
and copper mines have been opened in unaltered tertiary rocks, and the history of mining in
the territory has been the usual one of ignorance, stupidity, and disaster.
But, while so many unfortunates have been wasting their little means, learning, when it
was too late, how completely they had deceived themselves, a few have been more fortunate.
Near the two extremities of the peninsula have been found mines which will bear a fair comparison with similar mines in other parts of the world. Below La Paz have been found
veins of silver ores of sufficient size and richness to yield a fair if not a very large profit to
their owners, as recent shipments of bullion to San Francisco will demonstrate, and between
San Telmno and Santo Tomas the recent workings of the Delphina mine promise success for
that region.
Gold has bean faithfully sought for over nearly the whole length and breadth of the country. It is claimed that in the granite mountains of the vicinity of the cape, veins of goldbearing quartz exist, and that small but rich placers are known.  Their never having been
worked throws a grave suspicion over the veracity of the statement.
It is a well-authenticated fact that, in the arroyo running down from San Antonio to
Ventana Bay, gold has been washed during the wet seasons by women in bateas or wooden
bowls almost from time immemorial. Farther north in many of the cafions in the granite
mountains, I "prospected" the gravel carefully, but failed to ever find a "color."  That is,
in plain English, I washed the gravel in a pan, miner-fashion, and failed to find even the
slightest particle of gold. The reason is easily found. That the metal does exist here is an
indisputable fact, but the quantity is so small that it would take all the gold from Santa Gertrudis to San Diego to make one good placer.  At many places quartz-mining has been undertaken, but as often abandoned. Old shafts and tunnels and dilapidated arastras are scattered
all over the country, from San Igiacio to Rosario, but, wherever their history was remembered, we were told that the miners failed to find the vein, or that the quantity of gold was
too little to pay.
In the vicinity of Triunfo and San Antonio, silver-mining has been carried on in a small
way ever since the time of the missions. The ore being of a highly refractory character,
119 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
where undecomposed by surface influences, baffled the skill of the early miners; who, con
sequently, contented themselves by taking out and working the "azogue" metal or decom
posed surface ore, which would amalgamate without roasting.
The result is, that almost every vein has a series of shallow openings along nearly its whole
length, from which the yellowish fiiable vein-stone filled with free silver has been taken.
More recently a couple of mines, called the San Pedro and San Nicolas, were opened by a
company from Mazatlan, and have been worked in an inefficient and irregular manner for
nine or ten years. The better class of the ore has been selected, and sent to Germany fori
reduction. The total expenses per tonll for mining, sorting, and shipping, up to the time of
delivery to the mill, have averaged about $74. Notwithstanding this heavy burden, the mines
have been profitable to their owners. They are still being worked, and, in spite of all sorts
of disadvantages resulting from mismanagement and ignorance, pay to the comnpany a fair
return on the investment.
In the hands of an intelligent and educated miner, with a good mill to reduce both first
and second class ores on the spot, these mines would become of immense value.
On the same vein, and at a distance of perhaps three miles from the "Mexican Mines,"
are the mines of the Triunfo Company. I have already described these in another part of
my report so fully, that it is unnecessary to say more here.  The last two steamers from
Lower California have brought up returns from the mill to the amount of over $30,000, as
the result of about six weeks' actual work. The probable run will be in the neighborhood of
$20,000 per month, and the company will be perfectly justified in doubling their mill capacity
just as soon as they can get their machinery on the ground. Their least trouble will be to
find ore to work. 
Besides the Triunfo and Mexican mines, there are others in the same district, which have
been so far opened as to prove that all they require is energetic and intelligent labor or a
few months, to put them in a condition to rival their already successful neighbors; and see
no reason why, in a couple of years more, this region should not be one of the most thr] ing
and productive silver districts on the coast; provided American capital, American enk rgy,
and American intelligence, under the security of the American Government, could take the
mines in hand and develop them as their value merits.,
The Cacachilas district is claimed as rich in silver, but no mines have as yet been developed
there. For reasons, explained elsewhere, we did not visit it, and I shall pass it by with the
mere mention.
Silver-mines are also claimed to exist on the east coast opposite the island of the Guardian Angel. If this is a fact, the knowledge of it exists only as a mere rumor, and certainly
no work worthy of mention has ever been done.
The accounts were so vague and the location of the "mines" so imperfectly known that
we did not consider it worth while to spend a week hunting for them. I believe their existence even to be very problematical.
Copper stains and little streaks of this metal exist in almost innumerable localities
through the peninsula, both in the metamorphosed mesa sandstones and in the granites.
The principal localities where any work has been done are at the Calabazas, between Triunfo
and La Paz, at the Sauce near Loreto, Larroque's mine near the mouth of the Arroyo del
Paraiso, at the northern San Antonio, and at the Delphina mine at La Salada.
At the first of these places some mining has been done, the work stopped, and the owners
are waiting to sell.  They say the mines are good.  At the Sauce the same condition of
affairs exists. The owners seemed to consider it to their interest to prevent our examining
the mine, and we only know its character from information. Mr. Ashburner, who was employed to examine it, has no confidence in it. Larroque's mine is one about which no doubt
can exist, and the other in the same vicinity is said to be almost identical.
The various mines about San Antonio, in the "Frontiers," are apparently similar to Larroque's, although it is said that very good "indications" existed in the bottom of the shaft
of the Azul mine, now caved in.
Some very rich ore is reported to have been brought from out-crops on the granite plain,
between Santa Maria and San Fernando Mission, but, so far as I could learn, little or no work
has been done to test the veins. Our guides were ignorant of the locality, and we passed it
only to learn of it on reaching San Diego.
At the Delphina mine much work of a good substantial character has been done, and the
greater part of it with a view to legitimate mining. The vein looks extremely promising
above, where we had an opportunity of examining it, and, according to the best information
we could obtain, does not change its character, except for the better, along the line of shaft
some 150 feet deep.
The absence of everybody who knew the shaft, and the fear of foul air and other dangers
incidental to a deserted mine, prevented us from going down to examine the vein along its
depth.
A good proof of the value of the mine exists in the presence of between 300 and 400
sacks of excellent ore awaiting shipment, besides which, I have learned that several hundred sacks are stacked on the beach, ready to ship as soon as a rise in the market price of
copper shall enable the owners to sell without serious sacrifice.
120 
EXPLORATION   OF LOWER  CALIFORNIA.
Veins of the baser metals are reported to occur on the peninsula, but many a year must
pass before they can be of any value to the country. (foal has been searched for unsuccessfillv.  I heard a rumor of' its occurrence near the Ojo de Liebre, in the vicinity of Scamilloni's Lagoon, but the rocks there are post-pliocene. It may prove to be asphaltum such as
is found in Santa Bitrhara, and Los Angeles Counties, California, and which has been repeatedlv mistaklen for coal by ignorant persons.
Sulphur exists in small quantities about Moleje, and is said to be found abundantly in the
vicinity oft' the volcano of the Virgins.   gypsum occurs scattered over many parts of the
tablea-nd, and in sheets in the rocks, especially on the western slope.  It is most abundant,
however, about Moleje, where extravagant stories have been told about its quantity.
Salt-lakes exist on Carmen Island, at San Quentin, and the Ojo de Liebre, sufficiently
extensive to be one day a source of great revenue; but so long as the salt has to pass two
customi-holses on its way to a market, the duties will consume all the profits.
FISHERIES.
ALONG the western coast, in almost every large bay, whalers have been in the habit of spending a whole season at a time for many years past.  Every season finds from three to a dozen
whaling-vessels in Magdalena Bay and its adjoining estuary, and the proceeds of a season are
so regular that year after year the samne vessel is found at its accustomed berth. The principal ba vs frequented by the vessels engaged in this business are Magdalena, and
the. vo like bays, one below San Ignacio, and the other bv the Ojo de Liebre, the latter
kiiowi  as Scaminon's Lagoon.  This opens by a narrow mouth into the broad open bay of
San ebastian Viscaino; the other, which has no other name than La Laguna, opens into
IBalle as Bav.
O. her parts, such as San Juanico, Sto. Domingo, and others farther north, are visited freIlientvy, but are not the sites of regular fisheries.  Besides the whale-fisheries, the whole
Pacific side of the peninsula furnishes unusual facilities for seal-hunters. Seals swarm by
miyriat's everywhere, and this branch of industry has been heretofore almost entirely neglected
in Lower California. Nor are these all; shoals of fish frequent these shores in such abl)undance, that the surface is often agitated for hundreds of yards by a school playing almost
within arm's reach of the sands.  On either coast there are countless spots where fisheries
could -be established with all the facilities of a good beach, and excellent port and
unlimited quantities of salt. Besides these, there is another source of revenue inll the waters,
not to be despised-the immense beds of' pearl oysters.  They are principally in the gulf'
Pearl-fishing has been for over a hundred years a regular business, and one of the most
profitable in Lower California. It is estimated that in the last century and a half upward of
five and a half million dollars' worth of pearls, and pearl shells have been taken in the Californiant waters.
The fishing commences in May and continues to October. It is conducted by companies,
the divers beinm principally Yaqui Indians from the other side of the gulf, who receive, in
addition'to a trifling pay, a portion of the proceeds of the fishlery.
Between their ignorance and the rascality of their employers, the poor fellows, who do the
work at the risk of their lives, come in for a very small share of' the profits.
Diving-bells and submarine armor have been tried at great expense, but their use has
been abandoned.   They could Lot compete with the naked Indians in cheapness, nor rapidity
of work.
AGRICULTURE.
WITH the great extent of desert and rocky land that covers so much of the territory, Lower
California can never aspire to a high rank as an agricultural country.  But there is no picture without its brightest side   Even in the worst parts, the weary traveller, after journeying day after day over rocks or sands, will suddenly find himself in the midst of a little Eden.
In the most inhospitable parts of the peninsula, these little valleys are scattered through the
mountains, as if to redeem the country from the bad name that all its neighbors seem to agree
in giving it.  It is difficult to imagine a spot more beautiful than Santa Anita in San Jose
valley; mnore fertile than the neighborhood of San Jose6 or San Ignacio, more unexpected than
Comondu or Pnrisima, or with a climate more perfect than Lower California.
There is hardly a fruit, flower, or vegetable that will not grow in the open air in any valley in the country, and, of those that are cultivated, there is hardly one that requires care beyond a little irrigation.
In the granite mountains of the south are innumerable valleys, all capable of cultivation,
all with fertile soil and most of them with an abundance of good water.  The greater part of
these are occupied, but there is still an immense quantity of unoccupied land, capable of being
brought into an available condition with a trifling outlay of capital.
The immense plains northeast of Magdalena Bay are covered with rich soil, and only reqilire wells to bring water to the surface for irrigation, to render them available.  There is,
in this one tract, landl enough to support a population of many thousands, on which there is
I
I
i
I
121
I
i
I
i
i
II 
SKETCII OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
not a single inhabitant.  Alllong the table hills to the east of this plain are many small valleys with good little tracts of bottom-lanld and plentv of water. Most of these are without
inhabitants.  A fewv such as Coniondu, Purisimia, Sta. Cruz, etc., are occupied, and in some,
such as the first two of these, there are populations of twentv or thirty families.
In the vicinity of Loreto, especially along the coast southward to Chiuenca, there is much
good land, without occupants, because there are no springs or lunning streams on it. Water
can be obtained by wells, and there is no good reason why, if, required, it should not be all
cultivated. This is also the case with the valley of San Andreas farther north, and the valley
south of MIoleje, through which our road ran before entering that town.
San Ignacio, with its viniieyards, its orchards of figs, oranges, and olives, and its forest of
palmns, is enough to reconcile one to the relinquishment of ambition and the adoption of the
dream-life of the tropics; while, a little farther north, in Sto. Tomas, San VTicenlte, Guadalupe,
and a dozen other valleys, the farmrer can cultivate his fields of grain, live in the shadow of
his own vine and fig tree, or, if he prefers it, shade his house with the palm of the tropics,
and the oak and sycamore of more northern climes.
GRAZING.
AT the time of our passing through the country, with the exception of some spots which
rather proved the rule, the whole country was clothed with an abundance of good grass. But
this was an unusually good year. There are times when, in all the lower grounds, the grass
will be so killed by drought that were it not for trees, such as mesquit and  liptia, all the
animals would die of starvation. But even in the dryest seasons, these trees, as well as some
smaller ones and bushes, retain their freshness, and the horses, mules, and horned( cattle feed
on them with avidity.
In the higher table-mountains firom San Ignacio to San Borja, the grass is said to be always good, on account of the dews and fogs, and cattle flourish here when  there is not a
mouthful of grass on the lower lands.  North of Rosario, the forage-plants are similar to those
of Upper California, and the climate is more like that of the adjoining regions  north  thani
south. It is said that in the years 1863 and 1864, when a large proportion of the stock of
Upper California died of starvation, there was little or no suffering south of San Diego.  The
greater part of this region is suitable for sheep-raising, the dense thorny thickets of the south
having given place to a less aggressive growth, and the climate being sufficiently mild to permit a good crop of wool.
.122 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
REPORT OF CAPTAIN C. M. SCAMMON, OF THE U. S. REVE    NUE SERVICE, ON THE WEST COAST OF LOWER CALI    FORNIA.
FROM the boundary between the United States and Lower California the west coast
presents a bold shore, with precipitous cliffs, or hilgh mountain-slopes, as far south as Cape
San Quentin, and, as laid down on the charts now in use, is in latitude 31~ 05' 06" N., longitude
116~ 40' 33"' W. An indentation here occurs in the coast-line, and the face of the country for
a few miles toward the interior, and southward to Cape Bajo, is less elevated; about the port
of San Quentin, the low sand-hills, covered scantily with a stunted growth of bushes, intermixed with cactus and prickly pear, or moderately elevated hills of volcanic origin, give this
portion of the country a barren and uninviting aspect.
Salt-springs, at the head of a lagoon 16 miles from the sea, where are erected six or
eight houses and shanties to accommodate the salt-hands, constitute San Quentin proper.
The salt is collected from January to August; this establishment, it is said, car. be made to
yield 1,000 to 1,500 tons annually.   Vessels of small capacity usually go for the salt, as the
depth of water on the bar is not over three fathoms, and the channel narrow. The usual number
residing at San Quentin is six or eight individuals, who are compelled to go for fresh
water some six miles across the lagoon. Rich copper-mines, reported to be not over 30 miles
from the town, are now about to be opened.
From Cape Bajo to Passaedo Blanco Bay, the same bold coast continues, except to the
south of San Geronimo Island, in latitude 30~ 16' N., a distance of 10 or 15 miles; shoal water
is found extending several nmiles from the shore, which is marked by kelp, in places growing
in thick beds that maybe seen some distance from the mast-head of a vessel at sea; the
soundings vary from 5, 10, to 15 fathoms. From the last-named bay to the south side of the
large open bay of San Sebastian Viscaino, moderately elevated land meets the coast, diversified
occasionally by low, rolling sand-hills; midway between Passaedo Blanco Bay and latitude
28~ N., lies a projecting point called Lagoon Head; it appears like an island when seen at sea
a distance of 15 miles or more: from this point southward to the extreme southern limit of
San Sebastian Viscaino Bay, a low sandy desert country presents itself, reaching the mountain-range of the interior, a distance of from 20 to 50 miles. Immediately at the shore line, low,
drifting sand-hills predominate, behind which lie three lagoons, bearing names given by
whalemen, as follows: Upper Lagoon, Black Warrior Lagoon, and Scammonil's Lagoon. Upper
Lagoon, the most northern of the three, is but a few miles in extent, and has a narrow entrance, with 10 feet of water on the bar at high tide. The American schooner Elsie, of 12 or
15 tons, is the only vessel known to have dropped anchor in it.  Black Warrior Lagoon
is said to be 15 miles long, varying in width from three to five miles; it is fronted by a sandbar, as is invariably the case with all the lagoons on the California coast.   The  channel is
tortuous, but vessels of 300 tons have passed in, drawing 13 feet, the depth being equal to
that of Scammon's Lagoon bar. Several vessels resorted to Black Warrior Lagoon, thinking
the whales would come there as well as in other lagoons; but, strange as it may appear, it was
not a favorite haunt, and I believe but one whale has ever been captured there. In the year
1859 the American whaling-bark Black Warrior was lost in this lagoon, while attempting
to tow out: this disaster gave rise to the name. Scammon's Lagoon was first commercially
known in 1858; the passage into it is lined by continuous breakers. On the south side, forming a curve that extends four miles from the heads of the harbor, reaching to the bar that hag
three fathoms depth of water on it in ordinary tides, detached breakers on the north plainly
mark that side of the passage, it being of sufficient width to afford a good beating-channel for
a vessel of 300 tons, drawing 12 feet.  The brig Boston, with the schooner Marin as tender,
on a whaling, seal, and sea-elephant voyage, were the first vessels that traversed this hitherto
unknown whaling-ground.   At that time the waters were alive with whales, porpoises, and fish
of many varieties; turtle and seal basked upon the shores of low islands studding the lagoon;
and game of many species was so abundant that shoals of acres in extent, left bare by the
receding tide, would be closely covered with geese, duck, snipe, and other species of sea-fowl
that are found along the coast. The surrounding country for miles from its shores is a sandy
desert, of decaying trap formation, with occasional clusters of dwarf shrubbery, and the universal cactus and prickly pear, struggling, between an arid climate and sterile soil, to maintain
existence.
On the south and southwest sides are seen high and boulder-like peaks, named Sta. Clara.
51
123 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
Between them and the sea is a broken range that separates the lagoon from St. Bartolome6 Bay;
from the bar to the extreme end of it is a distance of 35 miles, varying in width from four to
12 miles. A good channel is found along the south shore, reaching to near the head, where is
found an extensive salt-field, called Ojo Liebre. From the northern boundary of the lagoon to
the north side of the channel it is much cut up with sand-shoals and low islands, the latter
being the breeding-places of seals and sea-fowls.   The whales found in the lagoon are the
species known as the California Gray. From 1858 to 1861, many whaling-vessels resorted
thither in the winter months, and a large amount of oil was taken during that time, the
aggregate. amounting to 22,250 barrels; valuing the oil at $15 per barrel, it amounts to
$333,750.   At the present time, however, so few whales are found there that it has been
abandoned as a whaling-ground; the decaying carcasses and bleaching bones strewed along
the shores give evidence of the havoc made by the most enterprising and energetic class of
seamen that sail under our national flag. The salt-fields of Ojo Lebre are capable of supplying an almost unlimited quantity of excellent salt. Vessels of 400 tons' burden can find good
anchorage within five miles of where the commodity can be embarked in lighters of 25 to 50
tons' capacity; every thing for man's subsistence, except fish, turtle, and sea-fowl, must come
from the interior, or be imported by sea. The nearest fresh water is seven miles distant, and
is of poor quality. A year or two after the whaling commenced, vessels were dispatched from
San Francisco, Upper California, for cargoes of salt; the first two, after cruising a length of
time off the desired port, returned with the account that no such lagoon existed, or, if it did,
no channel could be found to get into it. A third vessel was sent with a master determined to
either find the place or "break something;" he lost his vessel between Black Warrior and Upper
Lagoon. Subsequently the late Captain Collins, of San Francisco, a gentleman of much experience, and a skilful seaman, obtaining the most reliable information at hand, sailed for the
place that seemed to baffle the efforts of his predecessors to find. In due time he arrived at
the desired haven, without difficulty procured a cargo of salt, and returned to San Francisco.
These voyages were followed up for a length of time, but the low price of the article compelled the proprietors to abandon the trade. A series of disasters seems to have occurred in
the vicinity of these lagoons somewhat remarkable when considering the small number of
vessels fi-equenting them, and the uniform good weather that usually prevails. The first was
the British whale-ship Tower Castle, bound from the Pacific to Europe, wrecked on the
south side of the mouth of Scammon's Lagoon, in 1836. From the meagre data obtained, it is
supposed many things were saved from the ship. The crew built a comfortable house, and
wvere well provided with cooking-utensils, etc. An officer, with a part of the men, in a boat,
improved a favorable opportunity to leave for the nearest port to obtain a vessel to take off
their companions and whatever was of value that had been saved of either ship or cargo, but
before their return the supply of fresh water became exhausted, none could be found by digging, and a fruitless search of the back country for springs or standing pools in the ravines
only hastened their end. On the return of their comrades to rescue them, a journal kept by
the officer in charge revealed the sad intelligence that one after another had died from thirst,
and the last writer makes mention of feeling the same symptoms as the others-" It is but
reasonable to expect that my time will come soon"-this seems to have been the purport of
the last lines penned by the remaining survivor of the ill-fated party.
In the winter of 1859 the American bark Warrior, Captain Brown, was totally lost at the
mouth of the lagoon which bears the name as before mentioned. No lives were lost by this
disaster. Captain B. had a small schooner for a tender to his ship, which proved doubly valuable
at the time. A number of vessels were lying at anchor under Lagoon Head, but a short distance off, the officers and crews of which were ready to give any assistance required, so that no
suffering occurred by this mishap. The brig Advance, from San Francisco, California, bound
to Scammon's Lagoon, for salt, was wrecked between Black Warrior and Upper Lagoon. In
1861 the ship Speedwell grounded on a sunken rock when at anchor in the lagoon, and sunk;
she was sold at auction as she lay, purchased by the masters of two whaling-vessels, who,
with their ships' companies, raised the vessel, temporarily repaired the bottom, and sailed for
Honolulu, where she was again sold.
Following along the south shore of the bay of San Sebastian Viscaino to the westward,
the mainland terminates in a moderately elevated cape, named Pt. St. Eugenio, thence to San
Bartolom6, or Bartholomew Bay. The coast makes a curve that is named Frenchman's Bay,
on account of a French ship being wrecked there many years since. St. Bartolome6 Bay is an
excellent harbor; the north head, according to observations made by Sir E. Belcher, R. N., is
in latitude 27 40' N., longitude 114~ 51' 20" W. The anchoring-ground, however, to be
sheltered from all winds, is not large, but could accommodate three or four vessels. A large
number may anchor on the northern shore, sheltered from all winds, except from the southwest. The face of the country here is high and broken, abounding in many varieties of
trap-rock. The boundary of the bay to the south is a low gravel and shingle belt, connecting
the high ridge that forms the western shore.  A small patch of low, sandy land, intermixed
with broken shells and rock, lies on the northeast side of the bay; and immediately back
of this, again, you come to the same broken country, with but few traces of vegetation.
St. Bartoleme is the Turtle Bay of the whalers, and formerly was much frequented by the
~halemen, who availed themselves of this fine harbor to "break out and cooper their oil,"
124 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
refit ship, and change the routine of the whale-ship by catching turtle and crawfish, with
which the waters of the bay swarmed. Wood may be had here, in case of extreme necessity,
by searching for small, green bushes, in the low land about the eastern shore; the roots of
this bush are found running along near the surface of the ground, eight or ten feet long, and
often six inches in diameter; it burns well, and produces the required heat.
At the time sailing-vessels were plying between San Francisco and Panama, occasionally
one of the large number that were in distress for the necessary articles of provisions, put into
Port St. Bartolome6, as laid down on some charts, hoping to have their wants, to some extent,
relieved. One vessel is said to have anchored here with nearly all her crew down with the
scurvy, and several of them died. Numbers of hapless adventurers have found a final resting-place along the shores of the inner bay; and on an islet that breaks the ocean swell in
front of the harbor, are found grave-boards, some rudely carved, giving the date of interment,
other graves only marked by rough head-stones. Countless numbers of birds nightly cover
the ground above them. The nearest waterin-place to this bay is on Cedros Island, which
will be spoken of hereafter. The same bold, rough coast continues to the southward, as far
as the island of San Roque, in latitude 27~ 14' N., longitude 114~ 28' W.; from thence the
coast presents a more inviting appearance, the front-land being of moderate elevation, and in
places nearly level, or gradually ascending toward the high ranges of the peninsula, and its
green appearance gives evidence of a producing soil. This description of country extends
along the coast near to Point Abreojos, which is in latitude 26~ 42', longitude 113~ 42' W.;
then again occurs a sandy coast, behind which are found small lagoons, with passages into
them from the sea, that will only admit the smallest craft, or ordinary open boats, in very
smooth weather at high tide; the shore line at this point makes a sharp turn, running to the
northeast, a distance of 28 miles, then turns abruptly again to the southeast, forming the
open bay of Ballenas. The soundings of this bay are quite regular, reaching a long way off
shore, gradually decreasing to three fathoms within a mile of the beach; with the strong coast
winds a heavy swell sets in, that causes a high surf along its shores.  Whales of the humpback
species formerly made this a favorite feeding-ground on account of myriads of small fish being
found there.   In fine weather countless numbers of pelican were seen making awkward
plunges to catch their swimming food.
Off Point Abreojos, an outlying reef of rocks extends six miles.,Abreojos, or "Open-youreye Point," seems a fitting name for it; there is a passage between the reef and the main,
that may be used in case of necessity.
In latitude 26~ 40' N., longitude 113~ 15' W., Ballenas Lagoon connects itself with the
sea. It was seen by Captain Pool, of the whaling-bark Sarah Warren, in 1858. He examined the mouth of it in hopes of finding a safe passage in, but at that time did not succeed.  In the summer of 1859 he again visited it, in company with another vessel.  At this
time a passage was found which was deemed practicable for a vessel drawing 12 feet water.
The passage is very narrow, not more than half a cable's length in width; but at this particular place a strong land-breeze blows in the morning, and the same may be said of the seabreeze that comes from the opposite direction in the afternoon. The regularity of these winds
throughout the year is surprising, when it is well known that no dependence can be placed in
the land-breeze at any other point along the whole coast; and were it not for the certainty of
these winds the passage into this lagoon would not be practicable for sailing-vessels.  The
following December the Sarah Warren, with the schooner Nevada as tender, and the barks
Ocean Bird and Carib, with schooners A. M. Simpson and Kate, anchored off the lagoon. The
Kate was the first to pass the bar, and was probably the first vessel that ever sailed in those
waters. In a few days the whole fleet, having a favorable chance, also passed the bar, and entered the unexplored waters in safety. The main branch of the lagoon is two miles wide at
the mouth, running northerly about three miles, then turns westerly, increasing in width to
four miles, terminating 14 to 18 miles from the bar. A small branch, making from the south
side of the entrance, and taking a more easterly course, runs through a low country, a distance
of 12 or 15 miles, where it reaches a high table-land. Another small estero, 15 miles farther
south, emptying into the sea, joins the southern branch of the main lagoon. Near the head
of this fine sheet of water are two low islands, each not over two miles long and less than one
broad. The upper one, on its highest elevation, has a growth of green bushes, which affords
a pleasant contrast with the surrounding country; the southern one is quite barren. Flocks
of gray gulls literally covered its shell beaches; pelicans and cormorants filled the air and
surrounding waters; hawks were building their high nests of dry sticks; around the shores
huge turtle in large numbers lay sleeping, and shoals of cow-fish and porpoise played their
undulating gambols. All gave evidence of its being, unfrequented by any human being.
The fleet of vessels that had arrived came for the purpose of whaling. About the 1st of
January the whales (California grays) came in in large numbers, and the whaling commenced
with the most flattering prospects.  Soon after, several large vessels appeared off the bar, but
of too heavy a draught to warrant them getting in safely. However, one captain, who did not
fancy looking on to see others "filling their ships," decided to take the chances. The ship
was lightened, and every precaution taken to prevent accident, but when the attempt was
made to get over the bar the vessel grounded, and remained for several davs thumping at high
tide, and changing from side to side of the narrow passage, getting a little farther in occa
I
i
i
125
I
i
I
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
I
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
sionally; finally a high tide and strong sea-breeze took her inside, and the good old ship wal
once more afloat, but with rudder-pintles gone and the ship so strained as to leak badly. At
all events the ship was in, and the captain declared he would make the most of the whaling,
and made every effort to carry his resolve into effect. This addition to the fleet already arrived, and another ship outside, which "mated" (as it is termed) with the one last arrived,
swelled the number to five large vessels with three tenders; in all eight vessels, manning 19
boats. The aggregate of oil taken was 3,500 barrels. The following year 4,700 barrels were
taken by four ships and a small shore party, making in two seasons (which may be set down
as commencing on the 1st of January, and ending the 10th of April of each year) 8,200 barrels,
valued at $123,000; but this limited whaling-ground very soon gave out, and the quantity of
oil taken the succeeding seasons has been comparatively small, and the place is no longer
regarded as valuable for that purpose.
FACE OF THE COUNTRY.
THE face of the country, immediately in the vicinity of this inland water, on either hand is
nearly level and extremely barren.  A few stunted mesquit-trees are now and again met
with, and a species of rush-grass grows in many places, but so scattered that no evidence of
any thing but a sandy plain, or low marsh, is met with about the shores. To the southwest
rises a long table-land, to the height of a thousand feet. In going from the lagoon to the foot
of this table-land and near to it, we passed through what might almost be termed a forest of
the largest species of cactus, some of them reaching the height of 40 to 50 feet. On ascending to the top of the table, there is nothing to be seen inland but a wild mountainous
country, as far as the eye can reach, with here and there a green gulch or slope of limited extent. To the northeast there appears to be a belt of comparatively level land that extends
across the peninsula to the Gulf of California. To the northwest there is another tract of
barren waste, running between high broken land. An old native, who appeared to have a
knowledge of the country, stated that along this was a trail leading to the salt deposits of Ojo
Lebre, the distance being 70 miles. The coast, from Ballenas Lagoon southward to Cape St.
Lazarus, is of the same general character as already described. From Ballenas a low, sterile
foreground divides the iiaerior elevations of the peninsula from the sea, as far south as Cape
St. Lazarus. A high promontory, latitude 24~ 48' 20" N., longitude 112~ 16' 28" W.,
may be seen at sea 50 miles. Then comes the open bay of St. Maria. To the eastward a
narrow elevation, nine miles in length, forms the west head of Magdalena Bay.   The entrance
is three miles wide. Margarita Island is a cluster of rocky peaks and slopes, extending east
and west 36 miles; the western end forming the eastern head of the Gulf of Magdalena, as
termed by Sir E. Belcher, R. N., who explored the coast in 1839. The eastern point of the
island reaches Lee Passage, a shallow outlet to Lee Bay. Then again a moderately elevated
coast is met with, increasing in height and abruptness, till it terminates at Cape St. Lucas.
MAGDALENA BAY AND LAGOONS.
MAGDALENA BAY is probably more generally known than any other on the Lower California
coast, and by many regarded not only as a spacious and safe harbor that might shelter the
navies of the world, but the adjacent country toward the gulf is generally capable of producing abundantly, if properly cultivated, and there are other tracts valuable for grazing. The following is based upon information obtained from the most reliable sources and personal observation: The bay is 40 miles long, greatest breadth 15 miles; points making from Margarita Island
and the mainland divide this grand sheet of water into two bays, named by the whalemen
Weather and Lee Bays; the former being the western and larger of the two, with channel
depths from 3 to 18 fathoms. The northwestern part of Weather Bay has a number of narrow channels, two of which form a junction with the mouth of a lagoon, varying in width from
a few hundred yards to two miles; that follows the general trend of the coast northward, terminating near port St. Domingo, in latitude 26~ N. Its extreme length cannot be less than
20 leagues; a narrow strip of land separates it from the sea, with three passages through it
where whales pass in and out, but not navigable even for the smallest-class vessels. Between
the bay and the first passage a shoal makes where the tides meet, one current running from
the passage opposing that from the bay. This shoal is called the First Divide; a similar one
is formed between the first and second passage, called the Second Divide. It is seldom whales
go over these shoals; in fact, only one instance ever has been known, and that was in order
to escape the deadly harpoon. When viewing these shoals at low water, no one would iuiagine a vessel of 200 to 300 tons could ever get over into the deep water between the divides;
but the whaleman, after contending with the stormy elements and drifting ice of the Arctic
Ocean, plies his ship toward the tropics to pass the winter months, seeking his source of
wealth in a more temperate clime, with all the determined energy and tact characteristic of
his calling. He now finds the object of pursuit not in the fathomless blue water, but huddled together in narrow esteros, the banks on either hand lined with the evergreen mangrove.
Frequently the hollow sound of the spouting whale is heard through the trees, and the vapor
ascending is seen above them; the vessel is lightened in every possible way, and by dint of
126 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
running out anchors, heaving, hauling, grounding, and listing, the ships cross the divides, and
the whaling is pursued as though no unusual difficulties had been overcome, or none were to be
again contended with to reach the open sea. Whaling-vessels have ascended the lagoon 40
miles from its mouth, and then would not be three miles from the sea-shore. Numerous
small lagoons. with a growth of mangrove on the banks, are scattered along the northern side
of both Weather and Lee Bays; their entrances are usually shallow, making it frequently difficult for boat navigation   Lee Bay is about 12 miles in extent, east and west.  A body of
water makes inland from the north shore, called the " mud-hole," which was formerly the
favorite place of resort of whales coming into the bay, and usually there were more ships in
this bay during the whaling season than in the Weather one.  An outlet to this bay runs
along the east end of Margarita Island, but too shoal and intricate for any thing but boat navigation. A lagoon makes from near this passage to the eastward, a few miles in extent; its
approaches are difficult, and have only been resorted to occasionally by boats from whalingvessels. Mangrove Island is low, formed of sand and mud, and in many places covered with
a thick growth of mangrove-trees.  A long, narrow, sandy point making from the east side of
Weather Bay, running to the south, forming the north head of the passage between the two
bays, has passed under a variety of names, the last being Lagoon Point. The only fresh
water to be found about the extensive shores of the whole Magdalena Bay, or Gulf, as it may
be termed, is found by digging in the sand, on the shore of Lagoon Point, next to Mangrove
Island. The usual process of obtaining water is to take both heads out of a cask, then place
it on the beach where the water is found; work the cask down through the loose sand, and
removing that on the inside of the casks, till sufficient depth is reached for the water to ooze
in, and convenient for bailing. The water, when first brought on board ship, had a white or
milky appearance, but after settling for a few days and pumped off, seemed quite clear and
drinkable. It is said water may be procured in the same way along the sandy belt that separates St. Maria Bay from Magdalena; but in 1846 search was made to find it, yet without
success. Two places are marked on the late charts where fresh water is to be found on the
west side of the main passage into the bay.  Frequent search has been made along the shore
by the officers and men who have sailed with me, but they were never fortunate enough to find
even the smallest spring of fresh water; and it is not possible for water, in any great quantity,
to be visible there without being easily found. There is said to be quite good water, where
vessels have obtained a supply, up the north lagoon, about 25 miles from Cape St. Lazarus.
Appearance of the Cotutry around lVaydalena.-On the south, the broken ridges of mountains that separate the bay from the ocean give slight indication of any thing like verdure
about them; to the east and west the bay is principally bounded by low, sandy belts, that
have been before spoken of. On the north a low country spreads out a considerable distance
inland, on some portions of which the tall cactuses seen from the waters impress one with their
likeness to scattered trunks of forest-trees; several small lagoons wind a short distance toward the interior or along the shore, their banks generally covered with a thick growth of mangrove; between these lagoons level land is found in some places, producing a thick growth of
high grass, others again quite barren.   Taking a general view of the surroundings of the bay,
there is but little to induce the emigrant to settle there. The resources may be summed up
as follows: the bay and lagoons emptying into it abound in many varieties of fish; among the
different species of bivalves, oysters are found in abundance that grow to the trunks of the
mangrove-trees, where the tide-water comes to them.   Clams and muscles, of several large
kinds, are found on the fiats. Game on the northern shore is plentiful. Vast numbers of
whales formerly were found here during the winter months, and a numerous fleet annually
came for the purpose of whaling. The bay offered them a safe harbor, and the growth of
mangrove in the lagoons gave them a convenient and unlimited supply of wood; but good
water to keep at sea is hardly to be found, and it was very seldom that ships watered here.
During the time the whaling-fleet lay here, rancheros and others from different places came
to trade, bringing cattle, leather, raw hides, soap, cheese, figs, oranges, dates, pearls, shells,
and, in some instances, silver articles of native manufacture, which were exchanged for readymade clothing, tobacco, heavy cotton cloths, calicoes, and some few articles of cutlery.
There being no officer of the customs in the vicinity, traders from the missions occasionally
made their appearance with ready money and purchased. It was not unusual for the inhabitants to come 40 or 50 miles to exchange a few arrobas of fruit for necessary articles of family
use. No exports of the scanty products of the country are made from the bay, and where
thousands of barrels of oil were taken annually, now only a few hundred are obtained. An
approximate calculation gives the quantity of oil taken from 1856 to 1861, 34,425 barrels; at
$15 per barrel, it amounts to $516,375.
The climate, although dry, is pleasant; the bay, as a place of shelter, is spacious and safe,
and, to obtain a supply of wood or water, in case of great distress, might be recommended; but
of the latter most needful article on shipboard, I would remark that, although a supply can
be had as before stated, still it is not so easily to be found as would appear by a glance at the
chart, and the shifting sands would soon obliterate all traces of a former watering-party should
they have removed the cask used to form the well.
i
127 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
ISLANDS OFF THE WEST COAST OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
THE number of islands on the west coast of Lower California are  15, viz.:-Los
Coronados (two); St. Martin; St. Geronimo; Guadalupe; Cedros, or Cerros; St. Bonitas
(three); Natividad; St. Rouge; Asuncion; Santa Margarita; Elide; Chester's; Maria.
Los Coronados are merely two barren rocks of trap formation, situated in latitude 32~ 24'
to 32~ 26' N., and six miles from the coast line; several smaller ones are scattered between
the two largest; anchorage can be found on the southeast side of the most southern one,
which is the largest, and is a mile in extent.
St. Martin: this island lies in latitude 30~ 20' N., and longitude 116~ 121' W.
it is of moderate height, and in extent 12 miles long and 2 wide, with anchorage on its
south and southeast sides in depth of 12 to 18 fathoms.   A little lagoon is found on its
southern side (which is quite low), where the seal used to resort in large numbers; it is quite
barren, producing nothing approaching to vegetation, except the prickly pear, and shrubs or
herbage that grow in a scanty soil, among broken rocks, in a dry climate. St. Geronimo is
of moderate elevation; like St. Martin, is long, and about the same in width, and extremely
barren; the sea-otter hunters called it Round Island; its position is doubtful, some observations
placing it 25 miles farther to the south than others; in fact the whole coast, as laid down on
the general coast chart in use at the present time, is much in error, from latitude 28~ N. to
the northward as far as latitude 32~.  St. Geronimo affords a good shelter, on its northeast
side, from northwesterly winds, a convenient distance from the shore. The distance firom the
mainland is three miles. A reef lies between the island and the shore, where the sea breaks
heavily in rough weather. There is a good passage, however, between the reef and the island,
and when the sea is smooth the thick kelp marks the shoalest places. Rocks awash, or just
above water, form a line of breakers from the island a mile or two to the southward. Vessels
of ordinary draught may pass between it and the main.
Guadalupe Island is a high elevation of land running nearly north and south, in extent
about 15 miles. There is no safe anchorage around it, the shores being bold, and its banks
generally high and precipitous.   The highest land, which is near the northern extremity, is not
less than 3,400 feet above the sea, with a growvth of pines or cedros upon it similar to Cedros
Island.  On landing, the island does not present that parched appearance as those nearer the
coast, still vegetation is by no means abundant; fresh water is found here, and goats in large
numbers find sustenance among  the ravines.   Fur-seal and sea-elephant once made the
shores a favorite resorting-place. Two small islets lie off its south end; both are quite barren.
Some persons of state are said to have been banished here firom Mexico. A vessel passed
near the island several years since, the crew of which discovered a signal, and the captain
landed; to his surprise, he found six or eight Mexicans, men, women and children, who implored him to take them on board, which request he granted, and landed them on the coast;
for this act of kindness he received the sincere thanks of the party, it being all that they
could give, being in abject poverty, their scanty clothing having been made from goat-skins.
The personal effects of the party consisted of the garments they stood in, a few earthen dishes,
two or three flint-lock muskets, a rusty cavalry-sword, and a handful of cotton fabrics, much
the worse for wear.
Elide Island is in latitude 28~ 29' N., longitude 114~ 25' W., a naked rock, one mile in
circumference.  A few years ago it was covered with guano.  From 1857 till the supply was
exhausted, about 28,000 tons were shipped from this place. It is close to the coast, and the
natives come with their produce to sell to the parties working on the island, and to the ships lying, there. The articles of trade were dried figs, oranges, and cattle, which were brought from
the missions of St. Borja and Gertrudes, distant 36 miles.   The nearest fresh water from
Elide is seven miles to the eastward, on the mainland.   Chester's Island is a mere islet, lying
close to the north side of Point St. Eugenio, and has only been brought to notice on account
of a guano deposit that was taken from it several years ago by an American sea-captain,
whose name the island has since borne.
Cedros Island bounds the west side of San Sebastian Viscaino Bay, its south point is in
latitude 28~ 03' N., longitude 115~ 25' W.; it is an island of mountains, nearly its whole extent being a mass of high abrupt peaks, the highest being 2,500 feet above the level of the
sea, and may be seen in clear weather a distance of 60 miles. On near approach its sombre
and barren appearance is any thing but inviting. Many of the southern slopes present a darkred hue, interspersed with high variegated cliffs that give a little change to the otherwise dull
scene. On landing, one is sensible of the extremely dry atmosphere prevailing; there must
be, however, occasionally heavy rains producing mountain torrents, which have cut their way
through the sand and gravel bottoms that skirt the southern bases, but they are of rare occurrence, those best acquainted, who have been living there or along the coast for nearly the last
five years, have never known it to be visited by any other than light showers, and those at
long intervals apart. On the northeast side, about three miles from the extreme north end, a
low, sandy point makes out; to the south of this there is good anchorage during the prevailing
coast-winds. In a gulch near by is a small stream of fresh water, and likewise in several of
the valleys leading from the shore to the southward water may be found within a mile or two
of the beach. At one of these places it is of excellent quality. The only practical place,
128 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
hiowever, for a vessel to obtain a supply, is on the southeast side, where is found a spring
running through rushes at the foot of a high peak close to the shore.   The casks are filled
by placing them within a few feet of the stream, and conducting the water into them by means
of a wooden spout, on the side of which were the words, "Whoever uses this will please put
it in its proper place, for the benefit of those who may come for water."   Anchorage may be had
off this spring within two cables of the shore in 20 fathoms water, but a much better place
for a large vessel to lie is two miles farther south, off a low shingle beach, where it is not so
deep, and the gusts that come down the mountain when the wind is west are not so heavy as
at the other anchorage.   A vessel can always find shelter from the northwest winds on the
south side of the island, the depth varying from 6 to 20 fathoms, and these winds blow with
the regularity of a "trade" from May to October, and the only precaution to be kept in mind
in choosing an anchorage, is to avoid fixed kelp. From October to May, much of the time
the winds are light and the weather delightful. Occasionally a strong norther, or a light
southeaster or southwest gale blows the first part of the winter, and strong gales from the
northwest again set in about the 1st of May.
PRODUCTIONS OF THE ISLAND.
THERE are several species of small trees scattered about the lower portions of the island,
as well as clusters of tall pines or cedros on the high ridges of the north end, which may have
suggested the name cedros.  Among the dwarf species is one called by the whalers "tamaariid-tree," from its bearing fruit similar in taste to the real fruit of that name. An evergreen is found which produces a nut, shaped largest in the middle, tapering to both ends,
about an inch in length. If eaten to the number of six or eight, it will produce headache and
vomiting.  The most peculiar tree found is the "tay-tay" so called; it appears swelled out of
all natural proportions, and is of a light spongy nature. When an incision is made through
the bark, a milky gum exudes freely; this gum, mixed with the tallow of the native goat, seems
to have been a sovereign remedy with the former frequenters here, for cuts, burns, etc. Goats
and deer, in small numbers, are found, that feed chiefly on the tender twigs of the tay-tay,
and the protruding roots of the cactus. The flesh of the latter is invariably tender and fineflavored, while that of the former is all seasons tough and unpalatable. The climate, or what
they feed on, perhaps both, prevent them from being strong and active, as is their real nature
to be. Sailors when on shore run them down, and frequently catch them in that way.
SEALS AND SEA ELEPHANTS.
SEALS and sea-elephants once basked upon the shores of this isolated spot in vast numbers
and in years past its surrounding shores teemed with sealers, sea-elephant, and sea-otter
hunters; the remains of their rude stone-houses are still to be seen in many convenient places,
which were once the habitations of these hardy men; one of these houses found on the west
side is of large dimensions, a rough measurement making it 40 feet square. The sea-elephants,
amphibious animals, at particular seasons of the year come on shore to shed their coats,
and bring forth their young, and in various nunmbers lie promiscuously along the beach, or
up the ravines near by; they are gregarious, and when not disturbed will congregate ilnl "rookeries" of hundreds.  None but the full-aged males have the proboscis; some of them are truly
enormous creatures, being from 12 to 20 feet long, and otherwise of proportionate size with
the common seal, which in form nearly resembles the same. The female is about half the
size of the male; before shedding their coats, both the nmale and female are of a yellowish
brown, but after the old coat falls off they become the color of the land-elephant, and continue so for four or five months, then gradually change to the former color again. A singular
fact connected with these animals is, that they have never been found north of the equator,
except on the islands and coast of California, their chief haunts being in the high southern
latitudes.  When on land they are naturally clumsy in their movements, but at times in their
own defence exhibit more agility than one would think them capable of. On first coming to
their favorite landings, a gently rising sandy or pebbly beach, they are very fat, the largest
making from four to six barrels of oil, but after "shedding" they becomes so poor by the time
they return to the water again that they would not yield more than half that quantity.  The
usual manner of taking them is for a party of men, in one or more boats, armed with clubs,
lances, and rifles, to land in front or near the rookery while they are asleep. Then stationing
themselves between the animals and the water, with one simultaneous rush, with weapon in
hand, the work of slaughter commences. What seems strange to those unacquainted, they
all mnove in a body up the beach away from the water, where they may be captured at pleas
ure. Now and then some overgrown male, that may have escaped from some former attack,
will stand his ground; a ball from a rifle through his brain dispatches him at once, and all
rush on again to share the sport together. The quantity of blood in the elephant is surprising; it is supposed to be fully double in proportion to that of a bullock. They are taken
for their oil, which is of good quality, and next to sperm for lubricating purposes.
THE SEA-LION AND SEAL.
THE sea-lion, also amphibious, is nothing more than the full-grown male hair-seal, its length
being eight or nine feet, otherwise of proportionate size compared with the sea-elephant. The
129 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
female is called a" clap-match;" the "flippers" of the lion, which take the place of legs, are
longer, and the animal on land or in water is more active, than the elephant Those found on the
coast of California are of a dark-brown color, and are destitute of the mane which this
species have that inhabit a high southern latitude. The food of the seal is principally fish,
but occasionally birds; this is the case with the lion particularly. The manner in which they
decoy and catch the white and gray gulls exhibits a high order of instinct; when in pursuit of
these birds the seal dives deep under water, swims a short distance from where it disappeared,
then rises slowly again, just showing the tip of its nose above the surface, giving it a rotary
motion, as often we see a kind of water-bug at play. The unwary bird on the wing seeing
the object alights near by to catch it; at that moment the animal again settles, and, at one
bound, with extended jaws, seizes its prey.
The fur-seal in form and habit is much like the hair species, except that they delight in playing through the heavy surf on a rocky shore; they are covered with a fine fur, which makes
their skins valuable. The full-grown males are called " wigs," the females and pups have the
same name as the hair-seals; all of them are taken for their skins and oil, and in the same way as
the sea-elephant, unless they are found on narrow beaches, or detached rocks; in such places
they are shot with a rifle. But those innumerable herds of sea-elephants have long since
been nearly exterminated, and here seals likewise are found only in comparatively small
numbers.
ACCOUNT OF TWO MEN LIVING ON THE ISLAND.
ALTHOCUGH extremely barren, man may live on the productions here found, as will appear
from the following: In 1856 two men were left on San.Bonito Island, by the American
sloop Ino, to take seals, while the others on board went to another point on the coast for the
same purpose, intending in due time to return, but the Ino never came. As a last resort the
two adventurers crossed over in a small boat to Cedros; here they passed three months, living
principally on the flesh of the deer, which they hunted in the mountains; their names were
Francis Miller and J. N. Whitney. These men were inured to hardship and rough living,
but they came to the firm conclusion that bread was the staff of life, although they consumed
incredible quantities of deer-meat and fish. Still, to use their own expression, they " always
felt hungry."
It is said, by those having had experience in searching for minerals, that indications of
extensive deposits are found scattered over the island, gold and copper predominating.
Whether any valuable mines do exist remains to be proved.
SAN BONITO ISLANDS.
THE San Bonito Islands are three in number; two of them are moderately high, the middle
one quite low, latitude 28~ 3', longitude 115~ 45'. They lie 15 miles west from Cedos; they are
separated from each other by narrow passages, where boats may pass through in safety, but
not practicable for large vessels.  The whole length of the three islands is not over 10 miles.
The western one is largest, being about five miles in extent; the other two about half the size.
All three are very barren, affording neither wood nor water; seal and sea-elephant are the only
animals found on them, of these there were formerly large numbers. In 1853 there were
found on the south side of the largest of the group the remains of a Japanese junk; whether
it was some part of one said to have been cast away on the coast of Oregon several years
ago, or the remains of some other Asiatic craft, is a matter of conjecture. That it was one
or the other there is but little doubt; the planks were fastened together on the edges, with
spikes or bolts of a flat shape, with the head all on one side. The seams were not straight,
although the workmanship otherwise was good; it appeared to be the bottom of a vessel,
and gave evidence of having been a long time on shore. Anchorage may be had on the
southeast side of the middle island in from 10 to 20 fathoms, but the bottom is quite rocky
and poor holding-ground.
NATIVIDAD ISLAND.
BETWEEN Cedros Island and the coast lies the island of Natividad, which rises 700 feet
above the level of the sea; its length is five miles, and not more than one mile wide, perfectly
barren, the breeding-place of large numbers of sea-fowl and seal. From an islet of the west
end (Maria Island) several small cargoes of guano have been taken; it was at this place a
few years ago that several American ships let in a great hurry, their masters supposing they
had been warned off by true Mexican authority.
St. Roque Island is in latitude 27~ N., and less than two miles from the coast; it is a low
rock, nearly covered with coarse gravel and light sand, intermixed with bird-lime.  The whole
extent of the island is not over five square miles; its shores are the herding-places of seals
and once a favorite resort of the sea-elephant; large numbers of the small sea-fowl called
"mutton-birds" burrow in the sandy covering of the island, where they hatch their young.
Good shelter can be found for a small vessel between the island and the main, which is occasionally made use of by sealers.
Asuncion Island is of the same description as St. Roque, except being a little higher; it
is in latitude 26~ 50' N., longitude 114~ W., and affords a good anchorage on its southeastern
side in 12 to 15 fathoms water, well sheltered from the prevailing northwest winds.
130 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
SANTA MARGARITA ISLAND,
As mentioned before, is high, broken, and extremely barren. Vague reports have frequently
been circulated about veins of coal, copper, and gold, hidden in its mountains. We have
never known of any real discovery being made of the precious metals, or deposits of coal.
Two ships' companies once carried on gold-mining (as they supposed) for a few weeks pretty
extensively, and large quantities of the virgin metal were taken on board, but, much to the
disgust of all concerned, it proved to be nothing but iron pyrites.
GENERAL REMARKS.
THE whole extent of the west coast is quite barren, and its approaches bold, except at such
points as have been before spoken of in this report.  San Bartolom6 and Magdalena Bays are
both excellent harbors, and their entrances free from all hidden dangers; the latter has an
extent of navigable lagoons connected with it of over 100 miles. There are many places
where anchorage may be found, and roadsteads where a ship may lie and find some shelter
from the prevailing coast-winds; also, islets that have not been made mention of,-in fact,
there is but little extent of coast where anchorage cannot be had in case of necessity. The
climate is a pleasant one; the principal sources of wealth have been its whale and seal fisheries, guano, and salt; of the latter there is comparatively an unbounded supply. Of guano
there are now no deposits known worthy of notice. The whale and seal fisheries have from
the beginning been monopolized by American vessels; a few French, English, and other foreign flags might be seen along the coast, among the many ships that wore  the stars and
stripes. All combined have nearly exhausted this branch of commerce, so that where once
the waters were alive with different varieties of marine animals that gave adventurous  employment to the hardy mariner, and wealth to the merchant, now only are seen a few stragglers making their periodical migrations. The sea-beaches of island and coast, once the herding-places of these amphibious animals, whose peltries were highly prized among the enlightened classes of both Europe and America, are now deserted; except at the most inaccessible points, there are but few found, and their wild and watchful habits plainly tell that
the species is nearly annihilated. Of the four sources of wealth before mentioned, salt seems
to be the only one that has not been to a great extent exhausted.
The interior of the peninsula must be much more productive, to sustain the numerous herds
of cattle, and varied animal life, that range through the hills and valleys, from Cape San
Lucas to San Diego.
C. M. SCAMMON.
131
i
I
I
I
i
i
I
I
I
I
I
I
i
I
I
i
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
JOURNAL OF THE EXPEDITION OF MR. J. D. HAWKS AND
PARTY, THROUGH TIHE INTERIOR OF THE PENINSULA OF
LOWER CALIFORNIA, FROM SAN DOMINGO TO SAN DIEGO.
OrN the 21st day of April, 1849, the New Grenadian schooner San Juan, 23 tons, having
23 persons on board, sailed from the port of Panama, bound for San Francisco. In 49 days
she made the harbor of Acapulco, and sailed from there on the 21st of June. On the 10th
day of August she came to anchor at Point San Domingo, Lower California. At this place a
spring of water was found near the shore, and the schooner was supplied with about 300 gallons, which was taken off in India-rubber bags through the surf.  A party of six of the passengers was made up, consisting of the following persons: J. D. Hawks, Daniel T. Hulett, George
H. Davis, John C. Gilsey, Henry M. Smith, and J. J. Ellis, to proceed by land to San Diego.
Having purchased a horse of some Spaniards who were travelling south, we packed such articles as we could conveniently upon him, but each of the men was obliged to make a pack
for himself to carry. Bidding our companions farewell, we started at about two o'clock
P. m., on the 11th of August, taking the road which was made by the Jesuits some 200 years
since. We travelled about nine miles, and encamped at dark near the foot of a mountain,
very much fatigued. Throwing ourselves upon the ground, we were soon asleep. We had
failed to provide ourselves with a sufficient quantity of water.
A?. qust 12th.-Started at four o'clock, by moonlight. The road was so blind that we were
obliged till daylight to feel our way with our hands. We travelled about six miles, and were
overjoyed at finding water. This was in one of the river-beds, and in the rainy season must
be quite a considerable stream, but now it was nearly dried up, and the water was only found
in pools, and very warm. We caught a few fish in one of the largest of the holes, and having
cooked and eaten them, we started at 4 P. N. on our journey. We travelled about six miles,
and encamped for the night en an extensive plain. The feet of some of the men are getting
very sore. The earth is parched up; there are no signs of vegetation, except the cactus, a
few shrubs, and sage. Every plant and shrub is guarded with thorns, and as we pass along
they will penetrate our flesh, and we frequently pull them out, and find they have been imbedded for half an inch.
-August 13th.-Started at four in the morning, and travelled about two miles, when we
came to water, which was in a small valley. This water was only in small quantities, but we
found some under the shade of a large rock, that was quite cool and refreshing. In this valley we found immense quantities of the cactus-some of the species known as Cereus;
being eighteen inches in diameter and from 20 to 30 feet in height. Here we met a Spaniard,
who gave us some grapes and figs, which were very grateful. We filled our pouches and bottles with water, and again started for the rancho San Jose6 de Grace, which the Spaniard told
us was three leagues distant.  The sun was intensely hot, and in passing through some of
the ravines among the mountains there was not a breath of air.  In about eight miles' travel
we came again to water, where we halted, washed, and were greatly refreshed. Started again,
and were soon in sight of the rancho, which consists of some five or six houses. This valley is
very small, and is entirely surrounded by high mountains. It cannot be more than two or
two and a half miles across it in its greatest extent, and not more than a half or three-quarters of a mile wide. The soil is very fine, and we found all kinds of tropical fruits, such as
figs, grapes, pomegranates, peaches, oranges, and lemons; likewise tobacco, cotton, corn,
wheat, with melons, etc. There is a fine stream of water, that is used for irrigation. The
people were at first quite suspicious of us, not knowing whether we were friends or enemies,
as they had not heard of the cessation of hostilities and the treaty between Mexico and the
United States. We soon gave them to understand that they need be under no apprehension
in regard to us, and we had their confidence. We learn that Don Jose4, the owner of the
rancho, will be at home to-morrow; that he has several mules with him, and we shall wait,
and engage him to take us for a short distance on our way. We spread our blankets in a
small storehouse, and were soon asleep.
A'gust 14th.-While partaking of a dish of ortola, with some grapes, for our breakfast,
we espied Don Jose6 coming down the mountain. As soon as he arrived we engaged him to
take us to the ranch of Sefior Ramon Argular, some nine leagues distant.  At this place we
learned that two Americans had but a few days before passed by, who had left a vessel by
means of a raft which had gone to pieces in the surf, and they were unable to regain the
132 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
schooner. From the description given, we are under the impression that they are from the
schooner Jose6 Cascaras, which was built by some Americans at the port of La Union. These
men had been wrecked on the steamer Galveston, in the bay of Honduras, crossed the country,
and at La Union had built this schooner of 13 tons, and put to sea in her.
August 15th. —At three o'clock in the morning we were ready for a start, and, having taken
leave of our kind friends, with Jose6 for our guide, we commenced the ascent of the mountain.
In about one hour we had reached the top. Here we came upon an extensive plain which we
were to cross, and at eight o'clock we halted 15 miles on our way.  We found water in a deep
ravine, into which we descended by a very rocky and precipitous road; in some places it was
so steep that it was fearful to ride over. This is one of the wildest places imaginable. On
the opposite side of the ravine there is a perpendicular wall of rock from four to six hundred
feet in height, and the whole place is covered with immense boulders of stone.
We remained in the ravine until one o'clock r. M., when we started, and, passing over a
very dry and inhospitable country, we reached the rancho Patroeruna, where we found Sefilor
Ramon Argular. An hour before reaching the ranch we were drenched to the skin by a
heavy shower of rain.
At this place our horse which we purchased of the Spaniard before starting gave out, and
we sold him to Sefior Argular for $6. We expected to be able to obtain at this place a supply
of horses and mules, but are disappointed, and we have made an arrangement with our faithful guide, Don Jos6, to go on with us to the mission of San Ignacio, which is two days' travel
from here. The loss of our horse reduced us now to the necessity of taking one of the mules for
our baggage, and as the feet of two of the party are too sore to admit of their walking, the
balance of the party are obliged to perform nearly the whole of the distance on foot.  After
a supper of boiled beans, we were conducted to one of the out-houses, which we were to
occupy for the night.
Here we saw Joseph Adams, of Baltimore, one of the two Americans who had passed the
ranch of San Jos6 de Grace, and he gave us a history of their trials. From his account it appears
that when the schooner Jos6 Cascaras was in about latitude 25~ 30' north, they were on short
allowance of water. Four of the passengers left the schooner ill the only boat; they had to land
through the surf, intending to proceed by land; they were taken off by the steward of the
schooner, who was to have returned to the vessel with the boat. The schooner waited nearly
a day for his return, but as he did not appear they supposed that he had gone on with the
others, and left them without a boat. They then set sail and went above latitude 26", where
they made a raft of some barrels, and Dr. Phillips, of Mississippi, and Joseph Adams, volunteered to land on it through the surf in search of water. The raft went to pieces in the
breakers, and they were not able to regain the schooner, and were left on this desolate coast
without food or clothing. They were supplied for two days by Captain Hamilton of the
schooner with food, which was sent to them in a barrel, which was taken ashore by the tide
and secured by them. At the end of this time the captain sent them a note stating that the
water on the schooner was exhausted, and directing them to proceed to the bay of San Bartolome6, and that he would put in there for them. They wandered on to the northwest, and
just at night struck the road, and in two days they arrived at San Jose6 de Grace. Dr.
Phillips has gone on, and Mr. Adams intends to go from this to San Rosalie on the Gulf of
California to try and get a passage to Mazatlan.  Dr. Phillips was in the steamer Galveston
when she was wrecked in the bay of Hondurus.
A?gust 16th.-Started this morning at 5 o'clock, and went about five leagues, when we came
to water, and remained until afternoon, as the heat is too oppressive to travel in the middle
of the day. At 2 o'clock we started and passed over a very rough country. There is a succession of plains and steep mountains. The ground for the entire distance is covered with
immense quantities of stones, as though they had been emptied from carts and spread around,
we passed to-day large tracts that appeared to have been grouted with lime and sand, and
the crevices of the rocks were filled as though done by masonry.  Passing over one of the
mountains, we came in sight of the Pacific Ocean.  We suppose we are in latitude 27' 30.'
We encamped at 5 o'clock on the banks of one of the dry rivers; there was but little water,
and we found it only in holes. It was very good, however. We spread our blankets under
a mesquit-tree for the night.
August 17th.-Started at 3.45 A. M. It was quite dark, and our road very blind; for an
hour or more we were obliged to pick our way over immense stones, and through brush and
cactus; this was the most fatiguing and worst place we have yet seen. The road ill some
places is well defined, and has been made by throwing the stones on each side, so that for
miles they are piled up like winrows, and in other places the track is entirely obliterated, the
road having been washed out. We saw to-day some cochineal or a bug similar to it. At 7+
P. M. we arrived at the rancho of San Joachin, which is about five leagues from where we
encamped last night. This is one of the old missions gone now entirely to ruin. It consists
of two stone buildings, or rather parts of the walls. There is some fruit here, such as figs,
grapes, pomegranates, etc. A little jerk-beef with some grapes was all we could get to eat.
This place is occupied by an aged American, named Noah Hall, who has been in the country
some thirty-five years. Mr. Hall landed at the bay of San Bartolome or Furth Bay, from
a whale-ship that put in there. We learned from Mr. Hall that some time since a Peruvian
133 
SKETCH OF THlE SETTLEMENT AND
brig was abandoned near this on the coast, and most of the passengers and crew are sup posed to have perished; only two are known to have survived, and they were fifteen days
without water. The mate, who was an American, with one of the crew, was saved, having
been found by a party going from San Rosalie to some other ports on the gulf. They
had been wandering for 62 days; the vessel was at anchor when abandoned, and is supposed to have gone to pieces.  The body of the captain, with his papers, was found some
time afterward.
We left San Joachin at 2.45 P. M., and proceeded over a very good road, some three leagues,
to the mission of San Ignacio. Here we overtook four of the passengers from the San Juan,
who had left two days before us. They had taken up their quarters in a large room attached
to the church, and we joined them there.
Auyust 18th.-The church buildings of San Ignacio are in a very good state of repair, and
we find the padre who has charge of the mission a very excellent man. He has been constant in his attentions to us, and has assisted us materially in making our purchases of
animals, etc. He invited us into his library, where we found a fine collection of books, maps,
etc. We found here a map of Mexico, including Lower California, from which we have made
notes for our future guidance. The padre has kindly offered to send letters for us through
Mexico, and I shall avail myself of his offer and write home.   He has also given me a letter
to the padre of San Tomas, and I think this may be of service to us as we journey through
the country.
Besides the church buildings, the town is composed of a few miserable huts. The whole
country appears to be under the proprietorship of a portly old Castilian, named Don Buentura, or Buenaventura. He owns all the cattle and horses, and we are endeavoring to make
some purchases from him. We were obliged to-day to bring him to terms. One of our party
had a quantity of jewelry, consisting of rings, chains, etc., and as we were trading, a Spaniard
very coolly put a ring on his finger, and went off with it against the remonstrances of the owner.
He appealed to Buentura to have him stop the man, but he affected indifference, and allowed
the fellow to mount a horse and ride off with it. We at once determined that it would not
answer to allow the matter to rest in this manner, and the whole party of six, armed with a
rifle and pistols, went immediately to the house of Buentura. As he saw this formidable
army approaching, he surrendered, coming forward and asking the value of the ring. I
answered $10, and he said that he would settle it, and we marched back to our quarters. In
about half an hour he came in and handed us the amount, and we had very little trouble in
trading with him after this.  He sent out for some horses, and sold us some saddles, and
assisted us in various ways.
Sutnday, Au?q?t 19th.-Not much attention is paid to Sunday here.  The church was
open for mass in the morning, with an afternoon service, with a sermon. We were invited
by Don Luis Argular to visit his casa, which is about a mile from the church, and at the
upper end of the valley. We found his house delightfully situated, surrounded by date and
fig trees, with a fine vineyard and melon-patch. The grapes were the finest we have seen.
After spending a couple of hours with Don Argular and his agreeable wife, we returned to
our quarters.
Monday, Auyust 20th.-The day has been spent in getting our animals for the journey
before us. We have four horses and one mule. We find it difficult to obtain saddles, but
we have secured two very good ones and one pack-saddle, and hope that we shall be ready
to start to-morrow.
It rains every afternoon at this season, and the rain is accompanied by high winds and
severe thunder and lightning. We fear that these storms may annoy us on our journey, as
the streams rise so suddenly in the mountains that it will make the travelling dangerous.
The padre invited us to dine at one of the houses, and sent his own plate for the table.
At a little distance in front of the church there is a large octagonal reservoir built of stone,
with a stream of water running through it. The masonry is very good.
Tuesday, August 21st.-The entire day has been spent in completing our arrangements.
The rain this afternoon was not as severe as yesterday.
Wednesday, Au?gtst 22d.-We started this morning, after getting all the information we
could in regard to the country through which we were to travel. The road for a short distance was very good, but we soon came to the mountains. The roads over these mountains
defy any description. The defiles and passes in some places are perfectly awful; we were
obliged to unpack our mule in several places, and carry the articles up for some distance,
as it was impossible for him to get through with his pack on. We have had a hard day's
work, and our animals have had nothing to eat, as we were told before starting that we
should reach the rancho of San Martin after about seven leagues' travel. We fear we have
missed our way; we have passed over the roughest road to-day that we have yet seen. The
mountains are piled up on the top of each other. They are terrific. Selecting a place where
we would be partially protected by an overhanging clifi, we unpacked our animals, and,
making them fast, laid down for the night. It was dark before we were ready to spread
our blankets.
Thursday, August 23d.-This morning we fed our horses for a short time on some messuit, which we found growing here. One of the party went forward, and soon returned with
134 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
the intelligence, that the rancho of San Martin was about one mile farther on, and we at once
started for it. This ranch consists of a miserable hut, made by driving some poles into the
ground, and covering them with boughs.  It is quite an extensive but unproductive valley, and
all that could be obtained here was a little milk and cheese, and the fruit of the cactus. We
endeavored to procure the services of one of the two men we found here as guide, but as he
had no horse he would not go. We rested here a short time, and at 11 o'clock we started,
the old man at the ranch acting as guide out of the valley. We travelled for two hours and
came to water, and very good feed for our horses. We let them eat for an hour, and then
went on till five o'clock, where we encamped for the night; one of our horses has given out.
Just before night we met a man and woman who represent the next water to be about 12
leagues ahead. They were very thirsty, having no water with them. Our encampment is on the
Rosaletta; the mosquitoes and ants were very troublesome during the night. We have seen
several hares and a few rattlesnakes to-day.
Friday, Augus! 24thi.-Arose at half-past three and went back one and half miles to water
our animals and let them feed. We also washed our clothing and made ready for the day;
drove very hard. The day was sultry, and we suffered much for want of water, having but
little with us, and with the prospect of passing the.night without any. At about 10 o'clock
one horse gave out again, and we were obliged to abandon him. Smith went forward with
the mule, and found water at about two o'clock in some holes; he halted until the rest of the
party came up, and we concluded to encamp for the night.  The road to-day has been over
plains and along the beds of the dry rivers; we found the water as we were just entering the
mountain-passes. We met three men and two boys; they are one month from San Diego.
We suppose that we have travelled about six leagues to-day.  The country presents the same
barren, unfruitful, and forbidding appearance, as that we have passed through. The cactus
and a few thorny shrubs, except on the margin of the dry river, where the mesquits and a
species of willow are sometimes found, are all that is to be seen.
Saturday, August 25th.-Started at about five o'clock, as soon as we could see the road;
it ran along for some distance, following the bed of one of the dry rivers, when we again
struck the mountains, and have crossed some very high points.  We passed to-day large
beds of copper-ore in the form of an epidote; the sides of the mountains are covered with it,
it also shows defined veins. It can never be of any avail, as it is among almost impassable
mountains, with no fuel or water near. At nine o'clock we halted at the San Juan, which is
merely an indentation, without much grass or water. We met this morning three men and two
women going south, 35 days from San Diego; from them we learn that it is about six or eight
leagues to Santa Gertrudes.
After leaving the San Juan we were in great doubt as to our course, but after making a
careful examination of the track we decided which path to take. The road here passes over
the steepest and highest mountain that we have yet crossed. Some of the way up it was
almost perpendicular, and we were obliged to crawl on our hands and feet. It was a very
great task to get our animals over, and could only do it by taking one at a time, one to lead
and another to drive them. We were fully two hours in getting to the top. From this
mountain the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean were distinctly visible, and seemed to
be at our very feet, and we could see all the islands and indentations along the coasts.  As it
was nearly dark when we reached the summit, and we were obliged to pass the night there,
we suffered very much from cold during the night. In looking about we found a little
water in some holes in the rocks, and but for this fortunate circumstance we should have
been obliged to go all night without water. There is no grass for our animals, and they
begin to show signs of giving out.  We found a few prickly pears.
Sunday, Au7eust 26th.-Left our encampment in the mountains, down through ravines following the watercourses, which are now  dry, crossing over some very high places; at times
the road was almost obliterated, an# it was with great difficulty that we could make it out.
We are fearful that we may not be on the right road, as it makes too much to the west to
suit us, but we have learned that, in a country like this, which for the whole length of the
peninsula is little better than a barren desert, we cannot depend upon the compass, but
that the road has been made as passes could be found through the mountains, and also to
connect, as much as it is possible to do so, the few and small valleys that are found. There is
no doubt but the traveller through this country by the road we have taken passes the best
portion of it; and if we have seen the best, what can the balance be? At 10 o'clock we
reached the mission of Santa Gertrudes, the whole party, both man and beast, in almost a
famished condition, as we had been without food for nearly two days. The people at one of
the houses had just made an "ortola," a kind of pudding, for themselves, but seeing our condition they brought it to us, and I believe there was but one opinion in the party in regard
to the quality of the dish.
There is an old church building in which two or three families appear to live. A cross is
erected in the centre of the plaza; on one side is a wall or piece of crude masonry, in which
are hung three bells. The church and two of the houses are built of adobe. The name of our
host is Jose Maria. In answer to our inquiries as to whether we could procure any thing to
take along on our journey, they replied that they were very poor, and could not make us any
tortillas. We asked for meat, but they had none. During the day, having occasion to make
II
135
I
i
tI
I
I
I
I
i
i
I
ii
i
I
i
I
I
I
i
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
use of a small box of medicine, which I had brought with me, it was seen, and the inquiry at
once made if I was a doctor.   Jose6 Maria had been troubled with a severe headache, and 1
administered to him, and in a short time some three or four patients were brought in, who
were prescribed for. They then said that they would make some tortillas, and soon another
one brought us a basket of grapes. We procured a few figs for the road. We here purchased
a mule, which we think will be of great assistance to us. The valley in which this mission is
situated is very small.
Mlonday, August 27th.-Left Santa Gertrudes at half-past seven o'clock, and travelled for
the whole day over a very rough road; at twelve o'clock we found a small quantity of very
bad water in a hole in one of the rocks. At three o'clock we started again, and the road is
worse than that in the morning, and I think it is the worst we have yet seen since we started.
The mountains are piled on top of each other-" Alps on Alps arise." The sides of the
mountains and the plains are covered with immense granite boulders, and in some places they are
almost impassable. We could not ride through some of the places between the rocks without curling our feet upon our horses' necks.  Passed to-day ledges of clouded marble,
some of which appear to be very fine. Encamped for the night in the bed of a dry river, and
found water by a sign left by Mr. Cook, wvho is of the party ahead of us, and who has a guide.
We should not have found it without the notice, as it was in a hole in a deep ravine, and
fi-om which we were obliged to bring water in our pouches and bottles for the animals, the
mosquitoes were very troublesome during the whole night. Made about six leagues to-day.
Tuesday, August 28, 1849.-Started at five o'clock, being detained some time in conlsequence of the breaking loose of one of our mules, and who strayed away in search of water.
We soon found him, and were ready for a forward movement. The road to-day has been for
most of the time over barren plains, with two high mountains, the crossing of one of which was
very difficult and tedious, and composed, like those we passed yesterday, of immense boulders
of granite and other rocks. Encamped on a plain, without water or grass for our animals.
W7ednesday, August 29th.-Started this morning at four o'clock, and went about two miles,
where we found water at the left of the road in a ravine. We were here in great doubt as to
whether we were upon the road or not. We explored, and soon found on our course a road
leading over a high mountain; this we took, crossed the mountain, and descended into a large
plain, where the road appeared to assume the form of a track again. The rains had been very
severe, and had covered the valley, but had subsided and washed away the track in many
places. We, however, kept on our course as near as we could, which brought us to a deep
ravine. This we followed up, and at some distance we found the path again, but it was very
obscure. About noon we found a small patch of dry grass, and we stopped to allow our animals to feed, as they were nearly exhausted for want of food.   While they were grazing, we
made explorations, both up and down the ravine, to see if we could find the road. We found
where'fires had been made, but little else, as evidence that the country had ever been visited
by man.  Started again, but, as we were in great doubt in regard to the road, we came to the
determination to retrace our steps to the valley and try and find the road again from the foot
of the mountain. When we arrived in the valley we unpacked our mules and horses, and
myself and Smith went north across to see if any road passed it. It was very tiresome, as the
walking was rough. No road could be found, and we returned. Hulett and Davis took
horses and went back to the foot of the mountain, but could find no trace of the road. It
was dark before the party returned, and we encamped for the night.
Tltursday, August 30th.-Started at five o'clock, and retraced our steps for the river-bed
we went up yesterday. As we could find no other track, we went on till eleven o'clock, some
of the party going ahead to explore the country. We can find no signs of any habitations,
l)ut we can see occasionally the path making up the valley. We halted, and some of the
party again went off to see if any signs could be found. We are now in a very bad condition,
as we are in great doubt as to our course; in fact, we~do not know where to go. We are
considering the expediency of sending back to Santa Gertrudes for a guide. Davis is exploring a ravine below this, and we are somewhat apprehensive that hlie has missed his way. It is
the worst place I ever was in to find one's way. A person could be within 20 rods of our
stopping-place and searchli all day for it without finding it. We shall soon determine on what
course to pursue, as our case requires prompt action. Four o'clock.-We are all in camp
and have determined to remain here to-morrow, and Smith and Davis are to go ahead up the
valley, and explore the country around, before we send back for a guide, as that would detain us six days or more. We have seen a few quail to-day, and hope that we may be able to
get some to-morrow.
Friday, August 31st.-Smith and Davis started early this morning up the valley. Hulett
and myself go down to see if there is any ravine where the road might pass over the mountain; also to kill some quail, if possible. Gilsey and Ellis are in camp to take care of the
animals, etc. 4 P. M.-Smith and Davis have just returned, and report a road ahead, bearing
N. W. by W., which is our course. We have resolved to push on in the morning. They have
had a hard walk and have returned nearly exhausted, but we all feel better under the prospect
of getting ahead again, although we have but little to eat, having but one fig and about an ounce
af jerked beef each for our supper; this morning we had about the same allowance. ilulett
and myself found some green nuts looking like hazel-nuts. We ate some of them, and were
136 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
soon taken sick. We both had an attack of cholera morbus. We also killed two young partridges and two pigeons.  We have been delayed two days by not being able to find the road.
It is a piece of great presumption for any one to attempt to travel through such a sterile, unproductive, and mountainous country as this, without being well provided with such provisions as can be carried along, and without a guide; and, in case he is able to supply himself with provisions for the trip, he cannot take fodder for his animals, and they are sure to
give out.
Saturday, September 1st.-Started at five o'clock, and after a laborious march, for our animals were too weak to ride, we reached the base of the mountain, and found the road as
reported by Davis and Smith. There is no doubt but it is the old mission road. We found
water in a natural cistern in the rocks.  The road is now over difficult mountains; then  a
dry, sterile plain; and again the mountains.  We have been almost entirely without food for
three days, excepting the four small birds which we killed. I can scarcely imagine that there
can be a worse country than this to travel through, with nothing to subsist on except the
fruit of the cactus, and a few figs which we find at the missions, with little or no grass for cattle. Went on until nearly dark, when we came to a small valley in which we found good
water, but little food for our animals. Ellis and Gilsey, who had pushed on to try and reach
the mission, and, if possible, to send us relief, have not returned. We find an old corral
here. Our party is somewhat separated. Smith and myself having travelled faster than the
others, we found ourselves at the foot of the mountain at dark; while Davis and Hulett were
still on the way down when night overtook them, and as it was impossible for them to travel
after dark, they were obliged to remain on the mountain.  We  spread our blankets under  a
mesquit-tree and here passed the night, which was quite cold.  Just before dark, as I was
riding along, a young pigeon settled down in the road a few feet ahead of me; I alighted and
threw my hat over and caught it. We dressed it and made our supper from it.
Sunda,y, September 2d.-As Davis and Hulett came down from the mountain, we were
ready for a start, and proceeded down the valley.  We soon came into a succession of valleys
and mountains, and through a singular defile, which is very narrow, the rocks on each side rising nearly, and in some places quite, perpendicular for three to five hundred feet; and as we
pass one point we think we shall soon get out into an open plain, but we find another and
still another point to pass. We came to an open plain perfectly sterile, where we rested for
two hours, without food or water for ourselves or animals. At two o'clock we started again,
and pursued our way over plains and mountains.  Some of the mountains were of the description of those we passed a few days since, being composed of immense boulders; they are very
rough and difficult to cross.  We are encouraged to-day by the appearance of fresh tracks in
the road, and we know that there is a party ahead of us.
Just before night we were overjoyed at the sight of a stone cross which was standing on
the brow of a hill overlooking the valley, and in a few moments more we were at the church
of the mission of San Boija.  Worn out with fatigue, and  faint for want of food, we asked
for something to eat, and were told that a little green corn, some figs, and pomegranates, were all
they had.  Just at dark, however, we had a small dish of ortola, which revived us a little; we
also went out and picked some corn and boiled it. We were directed to take possession of a
part of the old church building, which we did.  This mission must have been quite extensive
in its day. The church buildings were surrounded with a high adobe wall, but it is entirely
thrown down now.
There are no grapes raised here, but there are a few vines, and the grounds show that in
former years they were cultivated.  The figs are good.   The place is occupied by a few indolent, miserable Indians.   It was with great difficulty that we could induce them to spare us
corn enough to subsist on while there.  We were obliged  to go and pick the corn, which we
carried to their house, counted the ears, and paid them for it.  A striped shirt, or a bright
handkerchief, pleased them better than money. This valley is small, like all the valleys that
we have passed, and never can be made available, on account of the impossibility of ever
making a road to connect them with each other and with the rest of the world. No road can
ever be made that can be traversed, except by mules, and but few of these get through alive,
as all there is for them to subsist on for a great part of the distance is a little dry grass-and
this not often found-the mesquit, and a few thorny shrubs and thistles.
Jfonda'y, September 3d.-This d.ty has been spent in making preparations for our journey.
Exchanged an old mule for a horse. Traded a gun for a very fine young mule, and purchased
another horse.  We have now six horses and two mules.   The mule we purchased at Santa
Gertrudes gave out entirely. We procured a few figs and a little green corn, which is all we
have to take us to El Rosario, fourteen days distant, to which place we have obtained a guide
to go with us. From San Borja to El Rosario there are two roads; the one known as the
mountain-road, and which is a continuation of the one we have been travelling over, and the
coast-road. We have concluded to take the latter.
Tuesday, September 4lb.-Left San Borja at seven o'clock with our guide, and travelled
for three leagues over a dry, sandy plain to a place where, by digging  in the sand, we procured a little water. We rested for two hours, and went on again till six o'clock, when we
encamped under some mesquit-trees, but without water. We cut some boughs from the
trees for our animals to browse on; there was no grass for them. Made about 25 miles to-day.
137
i
I
I
I
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
Wednesday, September Sth.-Rose at four o'clock, and were under way as soon as it was
light enough to see the path. Our road to-day has been very good, mostly over sandy and
gravel plains. We halted, at 11 o'clock, at a small salt-marsh, where we could pick up
crystals of beautiful salt, and our shoes and clothing were incrusted with it. There is a freshwater stream that makes through or rises in the valley or marsh. The water is good, has a
slight smell of sulphur, but is cool and clear, with but a little brackish taste.  This is called
San Andres, and was once occupied by an American named Gilbert, but who has abandoned
it. We left the marsh at one o'clock, and went on over a sandy road without a sign of vegetation. One horse gave out, and we were obliged to abandon him. We encamped at 5+ o'clock,
near some brackish water which we procured by digging. This is called Santa Catalina.-25
miles.
Thursday, Septemnber 6th.-Left at four o'clock, and had a good road.  We  struck the
beach this forenoon and travelled for two miles along on the sand; picked up a few clams.
We dug for water in a little swale, where we found it, but it was quite salt. We went out into
the surf to some rocks, and procured a few muscles, which we roasted, and also found some
abalones, which we cooked.  We were obliged to abandon one of our mules.  We travelled
about three hours and came to some dry grass where we rested for the night. This place is
called San Nicolas.
Friday, September 7th.-Started at one o'clock this morning, travelling by moonlight over
a very good road for five hours.  We are obliged to move slow, as our animals are greatly reduced by want of food and water.  At six o'clock we came to a spring of fresh water called
Pontia el Marcha. Here we remained until nine o'clock, when we again started. We went
over a sandy road, with no signs of vegetation.  We lihalted near the beach to let the animals
pick at the sea-weeds and dry grass. The mule which we procured at San Ignacio gave out
in the afternoon, and we were obliged to leave the poor creature to his fate in a barren country, with but little food and no water. This is a severe blow to us, as he has been a serviceable animal. Davis and myself led and drove him without any pack for five hours, in hopes
of being able to get him to some place where he could find grass and water. At night we
found a little dry grass but no water. The road to-day has been comparatively level, over sandv
plains, and at times on the beach. Our provisions are getting low, but we think we shall get
through, as our guide appears to understand the country.
Saturday, September 8th.-It is six months to-day since we left New York, in the steamer
Falcon, at which time we expected to have reached San Francisco in 45 days. We started
this morning at five o'clock, and travelled over an entirely barren but level country till eight
o'clock, when we reached a well of very bitter water.  Our horses drank of it, and we went
on.  This forenoon my horse gave out and f(ell down a ravine some 60 or 70 feet, where it was
impossible to get him out. He was a noble creature, and I had got very much attached to him,
and it was hard to part under such circumstances, but there was no help for it. Our
other horses are failing, and we fear trouble in getting along. I have walked entirely for the
two days past, leading my horse. We have now distributed our luggage among all our horses
and the mule, and are all on foot ourselves; and travelling over a level but barren country,
we encamped in the bed of a dry river. We have this afternoon struck off toward El Rosario,
leaving San Fernando on our right.  Our guide, Capistan, says that he saveys the way, and
will save a day by it.  We find we have too much baggage, but we hope to get it to El Rosario,
as we can exchange it for horses and mules.  No one should ever travel through this country
who does not start well equipped with mules, and his means should not be in money, which is
of little consequence to the natives, but should consist of guns, clothing, medicine, trinkets,
etc. Our guide brought us a lot of muscles which he had taken from the rocks.
Sunday, September 9th.-Started this morning early, and travelled over some barren hills
and mountains covered with stones, and it was hard travelling for ourselves and horses. After
a time we struck the beach, and at nine o'clock we halted and went out into the surf, where
we gathered a quantity of muscles from the rocks. This morning another horse gave out; this
was upon the side of a mountain, which it was impossible for him to climb. We sold the
saddle to our guide. We started again and passed on over a rolling country. Some of the
hills are quite steep, but cannot be called mountains; they are covered with broken stones.
We expected to reach water at one o'clock, but were disappointed, as the place was dry. We
went on for an hour, when we came to a low place, where we dug for water and found it, but
it was very salt.  We drank it, however.  It operated as a cathartic.  Here we found good
grass for our horses. We are encamped just below Point San Francisco.
Monday, September lOtli.-This is a day which we shall all remember. Oln waking this
morning and going for our animals, we found that our mule was missing, and looking for
our guide he was not to be found. The scoundrel had stolen the mule, and left us in a
barren, inhospitable country, where we were entirely unacquainted with the roads.  We
trust in God to get along, but He only knows whether we shall get through. We are all
in good health, although much reduced in flesh, and our misfortune does not cast us down.
On ascertaining our loss we determined to retrace our steps to where we left the road
for San Fernandez. We packed our best horse and put some on the other two, but they are
reduced so low that they are not able to carry much. By seven o'clock we were ready for
a start. We left a saddle and some clothing; followed the tracks we made yesterday for
138 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
most of the day. At 10 o'clock another horse gave out, and we left him, with a saddle
and more baggage.   We  struck the beach at the place where  we gathered the muscles;
gathered a quantity, which we roasted, and went on.  At four o'clock, George Davis's horse
gave out; left him, with another saddle. This leaves us but one horse and a pack-saddle.
We  soon after reached the place where we encamped on Saturday night.  Here we again
dug for water, and after several attempts we struck, at the foot of a willow, a fine spring
of good fresh water without a particle of salt. This is truly a God-send to us. We encamped here for the night, George Davis going back to bring up his horse, which we had
abandoned. Spreading our blankets, we were soon asleep.
Tuesday, September 11th.-We did not awake this morning till near five o'clock, but we at
once prepared our packs and were soon under way, each one carrying as much as he can.
I have a small travelling-bag with my clothing.   The path is very blind, but we knew  the
general direction, and kept on. It is impossible to keep the track long, but we find our marks
in the ravines. The hills are so much alike, and so little to distinguish one from another, that
it would trouble one unacquainted with the country to get along.  About eight o'clock we came
to the place where we left the road on Saturday, and took it. The road here bears north and
away from the coast. Our horse appears to stand it, and we are in hopes of getting him
through to San Fernandez. At nine o'clock we found good water; filling our pouches, we
started, and travelled very slow over a heavy, rolling country-which presents the same barren, unproductive appearance as that we have been travelling through for some time-in
about an hour we found a small patch of dry grass, where we fed our horse. Our own provisions are getting low. We cannot have more than 50 figs left. Travelled for most of the
afternoon over a very hilly country, crossing some mountains similar in character to those we
crossed south of San Borja, being composed of sand and sandstone.   At half-past four o'clock
we found good water and grass, and encamped for the night. We have travelled slow all day,
and have not made more than 10 miles on our course, after striking the road. The water
here is a little bitter, which is the case with much that we find.   For several nights past the
fogs have been very heavy, wetting our blankets through.
Wednesday, September 12th.-Filling our bottles, we commenced the day, and travelled for
about three hours in the bed of one of the rivers. The sand was deep, and it fatigued us and
our horse very much. Nine o'clock, our horse appears to be giving out, having fallen twice
on a smooth road. Should he fail, we shall be obliged to abandon a considerable quantity of
baggage. Our provisions are nearly gone, and there is no hope of getting any thing to subsist
on. We do not find the fruits of the cactus, as we did farther south. At two o'clock our
horse fell down and we could not get him any farther. We killed him, and from his hams
cut portions of meat, and building a fire, cooked and ate of it. This was a hard duty, but our
lives depended upon it. We made over our packs, throwing aside such articles as we could
dispense with most readily, leaving a large India-rubber bagful.   Started at four P. M., and
walked over a very rough country, and encamped among the mountains.
Thursday, September 13th.-Started at daylight, travelling along the bed of one of the dry
rivers of which the country is full, and which, on account of the deep sand, we find very hard
walking. Found water this morning. This is much better than any we have found for
several days past, as most of it has been very bad. We have crossed some high hills to-day.
The weather is very warm, and in passing through some of the ravines it is almost suffocating.
We are not able to carry much water, and each man's allowance is poured out for him.   We
have suffered greatly for want of water, and our horseflesh has nearly given out. Our packs
are heavy, but the belief that we are near some town induces us to keep all we started with.
We encamped for the night at the spring of water that we found. Travelled about 10 miles
to-day.
Friday, September 14th.-Filled our bottles, and started soon after daylight, going over
hills and plains.  The walking has been better to-day.  Found a little fruit.  Some varieties
of the cactus yield a very pleasant fruit, and if we are fortunate enough to get it before the
ants, we find it refreshing. This afternoon we passed a quantity of some kind of ore which
was strewn over the ground; it was heavy, and had the appearance of antimony. I have
broken off a small sample, and shall take it with me. We have walked very fast this afternoon, hoping to find water to pass the night by. Just at night we found good water, and on
the banks we discovered fresh tracks; and on going forward a mile, the mission buildings of
San Fernandez were in sight.  It was dark when we reached them, and we commenced a search
for inhabitants, going into the ruins of the church, but we could find no one, and we spread
our blankets under some pomegranate-trees, on which there was no fruit, and so passed the
night.
Sturday, September 15th.-Arose early this morning and commenced a reconnoissance of the
place, and in passing down the valley we discovered two huts and a field of corn and melons.
The only inhabitants are three old Indians. One of the men made us a dish of "ortola,"
which revived us very much. There is a small stream of water running through the valley,
which is used for irrigation. There are no grapes or figs raised here. The old church buildings are entirely in ruins, and are not occupied for any purpose. We are not able to procure
horses here, and shall be obliged to walk to E1 Rosario, and we have concluded to go on this
afternoon. At three o'clock we started, one of the old men acting as guide out of the valley
52
l
I
i
I
I
i
l
i
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
and starting us on the right road; we walked about six miles, having crossed two mountains,
and encamped on a plain.
Sunday, September 16th.-Started this morning as soon as it was light, and crossed several
heavy mountains.  Found water at half-past seven, nine, and ten o'clock. At the last place we
rested for an hour, taking a bath and filling our pouches; travelled until six o'clock; passed the
night among the mountains. It was very cold and unpleasant. Have walked a good distance
during the day, and are nearly worn out with fatigue and hunger. The country through which
we passed to-day presents the same barren, unforbidding appearance, without much vegetation. A few mesquit and willows are all that can be seen.
Afonday, September 17th.-As soon as it was light enough for us to see, we started.  We
cannot travel very fast, as our feet are very sore, and we are almost worn out with fatigue.
Davis and Smith are quite ill, and cannot go much farther without help; and as we know that
we are not far from El Rosario, a part of the party go on, and if we find any one will send relief to them.  At 10 o'clock we saw a smoke rising from behind some willows, and we at once
went down into the ravine and found some Indian huts. The Indians were cooking some
beans and we obtained them, ate a few, and sent back to our companions the balance.  As
soon as we had finished these we proceeded down the valley to the casa of William Ennis, which
is situated near the church of the mission of E1 Rosario. This is the most extensive valley we
have yet seen. I am not able to say how long it is, but think about five or six miles by about
a mile in average width. The soil is good, but is but little cultivated. There were formerly
two church establishments here, but they are now both in ruins. The one near where we are
stopping is now used as a sheep and cattle pen.   We find here Don Nicolas, who is on
his way from San Diego to some point down the coast on the gulf, and we are treating with
him to take us to San Diego. He has 10 mules. We learn that Cook and his companions,
who left San Borja two days before us and took the mountain-road, came in here in a very
destitute and miserable condition, having lost all their animals but one, and that so reduced,
that thev were obliged to leave him here. It would be hard to choose between the two routes.
Tuesday, September 18th.-Davis and Smith are both better, and we  have made arrangements with Don Nicolas -     to take us to San Diego, and are to start on Thursday morning.  Have made a map of our route for the last week, and a man leaves here to-morrow to
try and find some of our abandoned horses and goods.   They tell us that we were within two
days of El Rosario, and one day of San Fernandez, when our guide left us.
WVednesday, September 19th.-We begin to-day to feel in earnest the effects of our severe
hardships and exposures. We are not disposed to stir about, but wish to keep as quiet as
possible.  What we have suffered for the past month or more can never be known except
by ourselves, and can only be appreciated by those who have been placed in similar situations.
What with the want of food, and the actual suffering for the want of water; foot-sore and
weary; with heavy burdens upon our backs; with the sun pouring down upon the already
heated sand; at times literally drenched with perspiration; in doubts as to whether we
were upon the road-it is a perfect marvel that we have got through as well as we have.
Thursday, September 20th.-I passed a very sick night, which I attribute to the fact ofeating so much green-food, and overloading my stomach, as when we arrived here we were nearly
in a state of starvation, and could not control our appetites when food was placed before us.
But, as we had named this morning for starting, I determined to go on. Left El Rosario at
nine o'clock with our contractor and his son, who goes with us to San Diego. After travelling
a few miles, I threw considerable from my stomach, and was much relieved. We rode 10
leagues, and encamped for the night by a creek of fresh water. The road has been over a
barren country for most of the day.
Fril,ay, September 21st.-Started early this morning, and as we proceeded up the road
we saw some persons, who, on approaching, we recognized as some of our companions of the
schooner San Juan.   We learned that, after we left her on the 11th of August, they put out
to sea, and in a gale were blown off the coast for about 300 miles, and that they were out of
provisions, having on board but about a peck of rice when they put into the bay of San
Simon, and they pointed her out to us a short distance up the coast. We had thus met after
a separation of 45 days. We boarded her, and procured some clothing and blankets; bidding
adieu to our companions, we travelled about 15 miles, and encamped on an extensive and dry
plain.
Saturday, September 22d.-Did not get a very early start, as some of the mules had
broken away and wandered off in search of food and water. After starting, some of us went
ahead, our guide telling us to go on till we came to water and remain till he came up.
Misunderstanding him, we passed the water some five miles, when, thinking that we might
not be on the right road, we went back and met him.   He intended to have remained at the
creek for a rest, and then move on to a ranch to pass the night; but we had disarranged his
plans, as there was no water for a long distance from the stream we had passed.  Night overtook us two leagues short of the ranch, where we encamped.  The country through which we
have passed to-day has been very sandy
Sunuday, September 23d.-" San Talmo Meto." Our mules broke away again, and it was
some time before we could get them. One had gone three miles in search of water. We
were not long in reaching this ranch after we got started.   The proprietor, Ignacio Arso, is
140 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
a fine-looking, portly old Spaniard-would make a good Falstaff. After breakfast we left,
and travelled over a mountainous country until seven o'clock, whenwe reached San Rafael,
which is a mere cabin. There are a few cattle here.
Monday, September 24th.-From  San Rafael we passed over an uneven but fair road for
four and a half leagues, when we arrived at the ranch E1 Salado, owned by a cousin of our
guide, Don Nicolas, and brother of our first guide from San Jose6 de Grace to San Ignacio —
Juan Jose-and we received a cordial welcome. At present the ranch is only for grazing,
but Sefior Marie, the proprietor, is now busy making adobes for a new house, and he intends
to bring in a stream of water for irrigation; this will enable him to raise all kinds of fruits
and vegetables. The valley is quite extensive, and the soil appears to be good. We spent
the entire day at El Salado, and we are to exchange two of our mules for two horses.
Tiesdaey, September 25th.-Did not get an early start, as our two horses did not come in
till about 12 o'clock. At two we started and rode to San Vicente, three and a half leagues,
an excellent ranch. The road and country are uneven and rough, but, as we are well mounted
and have no cares, we got along finely. Our guide is perfectly acquainted with every mile of
the road. At this ranch they raise corn and melons, but we find no fruit. We slept to-night
under a roof, which we found a great protection, as the heavy dews every night wet our blankets through.
WVednesday, September 26th.-Leaving San Vicente, we passed over a rolling country to
Guadalupe, one and a half leagues distant. The ranch is beautifully situated, with high mountains surrounding it. The amount of arable land is small but productive. The houses are much
better than any we have seen before. They have good beds and bedsteads, which are the first
we have met with, as in all other places the natives sleep upon a dry hide on the ground or
stretched on a frame. They are also supplied with tables and benches. At one o'clock we
were again in our saddles, travelling over a very mountainous road.  We  encamped at six
o'clock, when we found grass.
Thursday, September 27th.-Started this morning at six o'clock, and rode for two hours
over a very mountainous country to San Tomas. The church at this mission is nearly in
ruins.  The padre was not here when we arrived, so that I could not deliver my letter which
the padre at San Ignacio was so kind as to give me. This letter, which was open, was of considerable service to us on our way. We made but a short halt at San Tomas, and passed on
for two leagues to La Greuria, passing one very high mountain  on the way.   From La
Greuria we rode over a very good road, but through a rather barren country, for four hours,
and encamped on an extensive plain just at dark. No water here.
Friday, September 28th.-At an early hour we were ill our saddles and rode to Ensenado
or Todos Santos, passing, for most of the way, over dry plains and sandy hills. This ranch
is situated in an extensive yalley, and is owned by Seiior Francisco Gustalo, an elegant Spanish gentleman, who has many of the conveniences of civilized life about him.   We found here
clean tables, with table furniture. The first knives and forks we have seen in the country we
found here. Leaving Todos Santos at three o'clock, we passed over quite a level country,
encamping at dark under a large oak-tree, the branches of which cover an immense space.
Our guide told us that the Indians about here are "muy bravos," and cautioned us to have
our weapons ready, which we did.
Saturday, Septenmber 29th.-Started this morning at half-past six o'clock, and travelled over
a very mountainous road for four or five leagues to San Miguel. The mountain which we
descended on entering the valley is one of the worst we have encountered in our travels. It
is almost perpendicular, and the descent was very difficult. This valley is quite extensive, and
there appear to be several ranches farther up, where corn and melons are raised. We have
passed through immense fields of wild oats and mustard, where large numbers of horses and
cattle are grazing. The Indians about here are represented as being very troublesome. San
Miguel is one of the old missions, whose church buildings are now, like the others, in ruins.
Travelling over a very good road, we arrived at half-past seven o'clock at the mission of El
Descanso.
Sunday, September 30tlh.-Our mules are in such a condition that our guide says he can
go no farther to-day, and we shall be obliged to remain here until tomorrow morning.
This is very annoying, as we are now near San Diego, and are anxious to get forward.  The
old church at this mission is occupied as a sheep-pen, and a family live in a part of the establishment that has a roof remaining. The mountains about here have a barren appearance,
but the valleys produce grass for the cattle.
Moezdey, October lst.-Leaving E1 Descanso in the morning, we travelled over a very good
road, but through a very dry country, for four and a half leagues, to an Indian ranch, situated
in a pretty little valley, where we halted an hour, and, passing on, rode over a very good road
to a small valley which we entered just at dark, and encamped without any water for ourselves
or animals.
Tuesday, October 2d.-Were in our saddles at seven o'clock, travelling over a fine road
until eleven, when we came to the camp of the American and Mexican boundary commissioners.
Here I met A. B. Gray, Esq., of the American commission, whom I had known in New York,
and who extended every kindness to us. We receive here the first news from the United
States that we have heard for six months, and we literally devoured a copy of the New York
I
i
i
I
I
i
141
I
i
I
I
I
i
I
I
i
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
Tribune that we found in camp. From this we learn of the death of President Polk, Mrs. Madison, Mr. Ogden, and others; and that the cholera has been raging in the United States. This
camp is nine miles from San Diego.   Spending an hour at the camp, we rode on and arrived
in the afternoon at Stm Diego.  The carpenter of the surveying commission, as soon as we
arrived, invited us to his tent, giving free access' to every thing he had, and the name of Moses
M. Conner will always be remembered with peculiar satisfaction.
142 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA,
REPORT OF DR. JOHN A. VEATCII ON CERROS OR
CEDROS ISLAND.
CERROS OR CEDROS ISLAND.
LOOKING at a chart of the coast of Lower California, about midway betwixt Cape San Lucas
and San Diego, fronting the great bay of San Sebastian Viscaino, the island of Cerros, or
Cedros, will be observed, between the parallels of 28~ and 29~ N. (See Appendix K.) In
Lippincott's Gazetteer its position is given as in latitude 28~ 12' N. and longitude 115~ 29' W.
The point assumed is probably that of the well-known watering-place on the east side of the
island, about one-third its length from the southern end. It is correctly laid down on the
old Spanish charts, and was doubtless visited by the early explorers of the coast more than
250 years ago.  The remains of rude huts along the shore, and occasionally in the interior,
probably mark some of their temporary sojourning-places.
The bay was named after Don Sebastian Viscaino, who was sent by the Viceroy of Mexico,
Don Gaspar Zuniga, in the year 1602, to survey the coast of Lower California.   Cedros lies
immediately west of the bay, and forms, with the island of Natividad, a kind of enclosure for
the southern portion of it. It is about thirty miles in length, due north and south, cornmmencing in a narrow but lofty and precipitous headland at the north, and gradually expanding to a breadth of about eighteen miles at the southern extremity, with an average width of
ten miles.
From the extreme southeastern portion of the island, to Point San Eugenio cn the
mainland, is a distance of twenty miles. About midway lies the barren sandstone island of
Natividad, above namled, five miles in length, pointing east and west, and some half mile in
width. It is about six hundred feet in height. Its position serves as a barrier to the southern
winds and waves, thus aiding Cerros and Point San Eugenio to fence in, so to speak, the southern
part of the bay. This sheltered condition and the fresh water on Cerros attracting passing
vessels, may account for the early correct knowledge of this portion of the coast; while the
magnificent bay of Magldalena, much farther south, remained almost unknown, until Sir
Edward Belcher, in 1839, and Du Petit Thouars, about the same time, surveyed and published
charts of it. The eastern side of the island has long been a place of resort for whalers and
coasting-vessels as  a watering-place.   A more comfortable and convenient point for the
purpose could hardly be found. A spring of water, not exceeding thirty feet from the margin
of the sea, with an anchorage scarcely a cable's length away, protected from the prevailing
wilnds, with scarce a ripple on the surface, renders the filling and taking on board of casks an
easy task.
I spent the months of June, July, and August, in the year 1859, on this island. The
object was to search for minerals, especially copper ores. It was believed, from some cause
or other, that a very large vein of the latter ore, of great richness, existed somewhere on the
island.  No nearer designation of the locality than "somewhere on the island"  could be
obtained. The evidences were, however, sufficient to induce a few capitalists of San Francisco to fit out an expedition to find the coveted treasure.   I engaged to conduct the
exploration.  The following observations I gathered during my three months' labors:
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.
THE general appearance of the island is broken and rugged in the extreme. The sombre
and pensive grandeur of its barren peaks attracts in a forcible manner the attention of passing
voyagers. On a near approach to the eastern side, the naked granitic cliffs of the north,
and the broken, upheaved, and contorted slate strata of the south, present striking and
interesting features.  The whole island at a little distance presents the look as if a collection
of mnountain-peaks had been compressed together and planted by the Titans amid the restless
sea-waves.
On reaching the field of operations, I spent the first few days in examining the east side"
of the island ill a whale-boat, landing at practicable points, and clambering into the interior.
The topography was slowly developed, and a degree of order found in the seeming inextricable
confusion.  Three parallel mountain-ranges, in close proximity with each other, cross the
island diagonally from the southwest to the northeast.  Toward their centre, and thence to
their eastern terminus, the ranges culminate in several sharp peaks, and finally terminate in
abrupt precipices, descending perpendicularly into the waters of the bay. The most southerly:
.1
.1
' i
143
i
i
I
i
i
I
i
I
I
.1
i
i
I
I
I
i
I
i
I
I
I
i
I
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
of the series is the least elevated.  It commences at the south end of the island-about the
centre-and forms the east side of South Bay.  Its formation is of slate, shale, and sandstone,
portions of which are highly fossiliferous, and present an attractive field to the paleontologist.
The axis and western side of the range are highly metamorphosed-the fossils being found only
on the eastern side. Masses of serpentine, associated with chromic iron, are found at several
points on this range.
The second range commences at and forms the southwest extremity of the island as well
as the southwest side of South Bay.   It is a bold basaltic headland-a huge truncated cone,
regular as an artificial structure when seen from a distance, but rough and ragged in surface
on a closer view. It is about eight hundred feet high. In a short description of the island,
published soon after my return, I called this remarkable promontory "Mount Lent," after
William M. Lent, of San Francisco, of the firm of Lent, Sherwood & Co., under whose auspices
the expedition was mainly fitted out. From this origin the range proceeds northeasterly
with considerably less elevation, in a sharply-serrated ridge, a distance of some six miles, when
it ascends rapidly in height and forms the three peaks, the most southerly of the quintuple
group seen by passing ships.   The one nearest the northern termination of the range, viz.,
near the east side of the island, was found by barometric measurement to be about 3,600 feet
above the sea-level.   I named it "Mount Ayres," after Dr. William O. Ayres, Corresponding
Secretary of the California Academy of Natural Sciences.  It is the highest peak on the
island, except one in the northern range.   I give the height as an approximation.   The
observations I directed to be made with an aneroid at the station camp, near the sea-level,
during my examination of the peaks, were so far neglected as to give little or no aid in correcting my own observations.
This chain is mostly basaltic, with metamorphic slate and hornblende rock. Serpentine,
with heavy masses of chromic iron, is to be found at intervals along the whole range. I have
designated it as the middle or Mount Ayres Range.
The third or northern range rises on the west and runs in the same oblique direction to
the eastern side of the island. The axis of this range gradually assumes a more northern
direction, and finally terminates at, and forms the north end of the island-an enormous
precipice of probably two thousand feet in height.
There are three peaks on this range, one of which I estimated to be two hundred feet
higher than Mount Ayres.  The formation is granite, porphyry, and basalt.  Many  curious
and interesting features exist. In one place a group of basaltic pillars occurs. They are
mostly pentagonal, of from four to six inches on the side; they dip about 45~ to the south.
The base of the mountain at one point is a dark-colored porphyry, much' diked by a lightercolored rock of the same character.  Toward the summit the latter overspreads the first
entirely, and forms the crest of one of the peaks. The island partakes of the volcanic and
igneous character of the adjacent mainland.
The Mount Ayres and north ranges are separated by two ravines heading close together
near the centre of the island and running to opposite sides, one to the east and the other to
the west. These ravines form an easy passway across the island. That on the east expands
into a kind of valley, half a mile wide at the mouth. It is designated as Dearing's Gulch or
Valleyv-named for Captain R. N. Dearing, well known on the Pacific coast as a whaling commander. Up this valley or ravine and down the opposite gulch there is an easy passway from
one side to the other of the island.   The dividing ridge is about ],500 feet high.  A
good road might be made, with very little expense, up Dearing's Valley to the summit, the
grade being very regular and gradual. A grove of pines crowns the crest of the third range,
and almost overhangs the right side of the valley, about three and a half miles up it.  On the
left side opposite there are good springs of water. There is a fine landing-place, and the
schooner Odd Fellow, Captain Howes, lay at anchor near the shore during part of our stay.
There are several other landing-places between this and the north end of the island.
Wherever ravines have broken through the front wall, comfortable landings can be effected. A
large ravine, six miles north of Dearing's Valley, affords good water, less than a mile from
the shore. Indeed, springs occur in nearly every ravine; all about on the same level, say six
hundred or eight hundred feet above the sea.   Toward the north end these springs become
brackish, and farther on intensely salt. This is to be regretted, as at the extreme north there
:is probably a valuable lode of gold, if not several of them. Of this I shall have occasion to
speak further on.
GENERAL SURFACE.
THE terms "rough and broken" might be applied to the southern extremity, and convey
some idea of the actual condition; but the addition of "craggy and precipitous" would convey
but a faint notion of the confused jumbling of sharp ridges, deep ravines with perpendicular
walls, high peaks and beetling cliffs, of the northern portion of the island.
The southeasterly portion, flanking the first range, is far less rough and much more
accessible than any other part. By means of the ravines that open into the sea the summit
of the range can easily be reached. This is important, as the ravines have laid bare many
masses of chromic iron, which might be transported along their beds to the shore. This
144 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
condition of surface extends on the east side up to the ships' watering-place.   Beyond
that, north, especially above Dearing's Valley, is found the utter confusion above described.
The existence of numerous deep ravines excavated in the solid rock, and that cut and
score the mountain-sides from near their summits to the sea-shore, deepening and widening
as they descend, puzzled me greatly at first to account for their formation.   They were
evidently water-worn, and presented the appearance of the channels of our California rivers,
where they cut through the solid rocks of the slope of the Sierra Nevada. Such streams
certainly never existed on the island; how, then, were these ravines made? It soon became
apparent that the sea itself had formed them  as the island was gradually uplifted.   The
immense quantities of boulders and rounded pebbles of every size, hurled by each wave
against the face of the perpendicular cliffs, wear them irregularly, as they present a harder
or softer surface. A slight cavity once made has its floor covered with heavy pebbles at each
lift of the sea, which roll back as the wave retires, thus scouring and wearing with neverceasing action. As the shore is gradually upheaved, a ravine is the result. This excavating
process can be seen actually at work now in numerous spots on the east side. Some of the
ravines have just been commenced; others are a few yards in length, just lifting their heads
above the sea; while others again stretch away to near the summit; while tons of stones are
forever swept in and out with a growling, melancholy sound, deepening and widening their
mouths.
These ravines attest the gradual upheaval of the island. There are other sea-marks disconnected with any ravines, proving the same fact. On the side of Mount Ayres, two thousand feet high, a horizontal water-worn line is to be traced, once marking the water level. At
that period the peaks alone were above the surface, presenting a cluster of rocky islets.
There are proofs, too, of the alternations of depressions and upheavals. At one point
near the middle of the island the stratification of the slate stands perpendicular, but much
bent and contorted, rising out of the sea some fifty or one hundred feet in elevation. On that
is laid an immense mass of perfectly horizontal slates, many hundred feet in thickness. The
same thing occurs on the mainland at San Bartolome6 Bay, a little south of Point Eugenio.
BAYS AND HARBORS.
SOUTH BAY, in the southwest extremity of the island, is the only bay of importance. It
is formed, as before stated, by the projection of the first and second ranges at their southern
extremities into the sea, holding the bay betwixt them. It is a snug, quiet place, sheltered
from the prevailing winds, but open to southwest blows, which, however, I am informed do
not often occur. There are seven fathoms of water up close to the shore. The anchorage is
excellent.  There are a few rocks covered at high tide, rendering caution necessary in entering.  The shore is a shelving, sandy beach, and was, in the palmy days of sea-elephant hunting, a great slaughtering-ground.  Many interesting shells are found here.  The Chinese visit
the bay for the purpose of collecting abelone shells and preparing their flesh. From the number of stone huts on its margin, having, many of them, a very antiquated appearance, I judge
this bay to have been the recipient of protracted visits for many years back.
I observed head-boards marking the graves of several New Bedford seamen, I suppose from
whaling-ships. There are no bays or harbors of any kind on the west side of the island. The
northwest winds, and the waves they raise, beat forever against the rock-bound shore, fringing with a line of surf the entire length of the island.
The eastern side of the island is one great harbor its entire length. Sir Edward Belcher
speaks of the importance of Magdalena Bay as a point from which the coast of Mexico and
California could be observed in case of a war. Cerros Island and the bay of Viscaino would,
doubtless, be far more eligible for such a purpose, as the harbor would admit of ingress or
egress with any wind.
The anchorage is excellent everywhere, especially toward the south. The water is generally as smooth on the surface as a small lake.  There was no day during my stay that a
small boat might not have been sculled ashore by a single man from a vessel lying in the harbor, without risk or danger from the surf.
On the shore side of the bay of Viscaino, opposite Cerros, is the entrance to Scammon's
Lagoon.  The whaling-ground and the salt-fields to which it leads have rendered it a point
of no inconsiderable importance. I cannot do better than to introduce Captain Scammon's
notes on this as well as the Ballenas Lagoon, and on the coast of Lower California generally.
These notes were kindly placed at my disposal, together with the accompanying charts  and
sailing directions, not heretofore published. These notes and charts give the only reliable
information in detail of this part of the coast. Captain Scammon's observations are as follows:
"Scammon's Lagoon was first commercially and geographically known in the year 1855.
The entrance is wide enough to afford a beating channel for vessels of 200 or 300 tons,
that do not draw more than 12 feet. There are three fathoms at high water in ordinary tides on the bar, and the channel is so plainly marked by the line of breakers on the south
side, there is no difficulty in sailing in. After once entering the true channel, vessels of 400
145
.1 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
tons, drawing 15 feet, have passed the bar in safety going in, but have been obliged to wait a
fair wind out again.
"I have beat out over the bar twice in rough weather, without difficulty, in a ship of 300
tons, drawing 12 feet. Vessels now run regularly between San Francisco and this lagoon,
bringing return-cargoes of salt, which they procure at the head of the lagoon, from natural
salt-ponds-an almost inexhaustible uantity.
"Both Scammon's and Ballenas Lagoons are fronted by low sand-hills, and shoal water
extends a long way off shore. If bound for Scammon's Lagoon, the land should be approached
within two or three miles, in latitude about 28~ 41 N. Keep the coast aboard, if clear
weather, and run along the southward, where you will see'Lagoon-head.'  It makes like an
island; steer a course to pass a mile to the westward, and if near night you may anchor under
Lagoon-head, and await daylight, when, with the accompanying chart as a guide, there is no
difficulty in finding the entrance and passing the bar with a commanding breeze.
"Ballenas Lagoon is situated near the head of the open bay of Ballenas, in latitude 26~ 40'
N. and longitude 113~ 15' W.   This lagoon was first geographically known in the year 1860.
In the month of December, 1860, a fleet of four whaling-vessels, under my command, passed
the bar and entered the lagoon in safety.  We  entered by the North Channel, which is not
more than half a cable's length wide; and 12 feet of water is all that can be depended on in
crossing the bar at high water with average tides; but where the shoalest is, there is but little
or no swell.  In the South Channel there is 15 feet of water at high tide, but much  more
swell. The only safe way we found to pass the bar of this lagoon was, first to sound out the
channel and put buoys at convenient distances apart in mid-channel. South Channel is about
the same width as the North, and the distance across the bar is not more than a cable's
length.
"Neither of these channels would be of any practical use, if it were not for the certainty of
the strong land and sea breezes which make a fair wind to pass either in or out of the lagoon.
"In the months of December and January, and a part of February, north and northeast
winds prevail, which destroy the heavy ocean-swell that prevails at other seasons of the year.
During the smooth season there is but little difficulty in sounding the channel with boats, and
placing buoys as you please. Neither wood nor water can be procured at this place. A
'ranchero,' who lived eighteen miles inland, furnished the vessels with plenty of cattle to
kill for beef. The price was usually about sixteen dollars for a bullock. From the head of
this lagoon to the east coast of the peninsula-to the shore of the Gulf of California-is only
about 40 miles; and we frequently had people from Loreto and to visit the vessel for the
purpose of trade, bringing dried figs, dates, and the wild oranges of the country, to exchange
for bread, flour, and clothing."
NOTES ON THE COAST OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
"IN sailing along the coast of Lower California, I have always made it a rule to never run
a ship through thick kelp before sounding it.  By adopting this plan I avoided all hidden
dangers, for the space of eight years, which time I was almost constantly cruising close along
the shores and in the bays or lagoons adjacent.
"Formerly there was a great deal of kelp along the coast, but from some cause in 1861 it
almnost entirely disappeared, and up to the spring of 1863 had not grown again to any extent.
"Deeming the information might possibly be worth the reading, the following remarks are
made:
"From San Martin's Island to San Geronimo Island, which lie north and south, and south
of the port of San Quentin, there are many shoal places, and rocks, which are not laid down
on any charts of the present day. Off San Quentin, bearing about south by compass, distance
five or six miles, a rock or shoal exists that the sea breaks heavily upon in moderately rough
weather. Much foul ground is found between San Geronimo Island and the mainland. Rocks
exist in the passage betwixt the islands of Cerros and Natividad, but nothing that will bring
a ship up till near the shore on either side. The passage between Natividad and the main
should not be attempted by those unacquainted, as it is known that one ship has been seriously injured by striking a rock in going through in the night.
"At Cerros Island, at the east side, near the southeast end, there is a small stream of
water coming from the side of a mountain, near the base and running close to the beach.
From 1,200 to 1,500 gallons of water may be procured during 24 hours' time. The casks are
filled by rolling them to the upper side of the beach, and laying a spout from the stream to
the bung-hole of the cask. The water is difficult to find, and the only sure way of finding it
is to begin near the southeast point of the island, and search the shore carefully to the northward till it is found. Directly abreast of the watering-place it is deep water close to the
shore; 20 to 25 fathoms would not be more than two cables' length from the beach.
"About half a mile to the southward the land is quite low, close to the shore, and low
land extends back some distance. It is fronted by a gravel beach. Here good anchorage
may be had in 17 to 20 fathoms. There are no hidden dangers oli the east side of Cerros, and,
with the usually westerly winds, it is generally calm and smooth at the anchorage.  At times
when the winds get to the south of west, which is not often, heavy nillies blow from the mountains.
146 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
"Wood may be had at this place by following the gulch toward the interior.  It is small,
and being a mile or more from the shore, requires a good deal of labor to secure any considerable supply for a ship.  Although small, it is of excellent quality. We obtained four months'
supply for cooking-purposes, with a crew of 30 men, in three days, not making over eight
hours each day.
WINDS AND WEATHER ON THE COAST OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
"FROM San Diego to Cape San Lucas, northwest winds prevail throughout the year, following the bend of the land as you close in with the coast. During the months of December and
January the regular coast winds (northwest) are most likely to be interrupted by heavy'northers.' These winds blow from north to northeast, and last from one to three days. Southeast
gales of much strength seldom occur. From November to April, about the change of the
moon, light southeast gales mlay occur, with considerable rain.  About the breaking up of the
bad weather, when the wind hauls about southwest, it sometimes blows quite fresh for a few
hours; then the wind comes from the northwest, bringing fine weather again. About Cape
San Lucas these remarks do not apply so welt in the hurricaene season on the coast of Mexico
-as gales occurring on that coast sometimes reach the cape and extend as far north as Magdalena Bay-but one instance of this kind occurred, to my knowledge, during eight successive years.
(Signed)         "C. M. SCAMMON,
"Lieut. Commanding U. S. Revenue Steamer Shubrick."
It may not be inappropriate to add here that evidences exist of alternate northern and
southern currents. They are drawn from the fact of the conchology of the island presenting a
remarkable blending of northern and southern types-to be accounted for in no other way
than by the action of strong submarine currents up and down the coast.
The bay of San Bartolom6, just south of Point Eugenio, is another small, quiet, and perfectly-sheltered harbor.  Fresh water has been found by digging 30 feet, at a point at the foot
of a bluff on the northeast side of the bay. There is no wood. It is perhaps of little value,
unless it be for a point from which to communicate with the interior. The existence of fresh
water would give it an advantage in this regard over Scammon's or Ballenas Lagoon.
On the northeast side of the bay of Viscaino, about a mile from the main, is a barren rock,
about I of a mile in length by i of a mile in breadth, known as "Elide Island," on which was
formerly a valuable deposit of guano, now wholly removed. A small quantity of that valuable article is still to be found on the rocky islets outside of Cerros, and on like spots along
the mainland. Captain Howes, who is familiar with every point along this portion of the
coast, thinks guano might be collected in the aforenamed localities in quantities sufficient to
be worth attention.
I visited Elide Island and the adjacent mainland on my return from Cerros. There is a
good landing for boats on the mainland, a little northeast of the island, with but little surf, on a
sandy beach; I did not go far into the interior.  The general aspect of the country is that
of thirst and barrenness, producing only a few thorny shrubs and numerous  cactacea.  The
adjacent mountains are, doubtless, metalliferous. Captain R. N. Dearing, who had charge of
Elide, showed me some good samples of copper ore found at no great distance, as he was informed, in the interior. Silver is said to exist in the same locality. The specimens and information were obtained from the natives.
MINERALS-COPPER.
A VERY remarkable feature in the mineralogy of the island is the general diffusion of copper in various mineral forms throughout every formation, whether slates, shales, basalt, or
porphyry. Everywhere stains and spots of copper met the eye on the weathered surfaces of
the rocks.  Among  the slates, segregated masses of ore, of a few pounds  up to a ton in
weight, were frequently observed. They seemed to have no traceable connection with any
regular vein. Had careful excavation been made in and about such localities, valuable developments would probably have resulted. I was unfortunately deprived of the means of
efficiently performing a work so essential, and had to be content with a few very superficial
openings that gave no available information.  The ore consisted seemingly of an oxide, mingled with carbonate, sulphuret, and earthly impurities. It reduced readily into metallic copper
in an ordinary portable forge we had with us.  Traversing the slates were observed occasionally small seams, or very narrow veins of carbonate of lime, filled with metallic specks of copper in great abundance. These seams varied in width from + an inch to 3 inches.
It is more than probable the slates holding these veins and segregations might, in some
localities, be found rich enough to be worked. The whole formation is cupriferous in a greater
or less degree.  It would be well worth the examination to test the fact.  The practically inexhaustible quantity would admit of a low quality being made available.
This copper-bearing range seems to occupy the eastern side of the'island, nearly the
whole length. It first begins to show itself strongly near Mount Ayres, and thence north to
the end.  The seams of metallic copper were more abundant on  the northeastern spurs of
Mount  Ayres  than  elsewhere.   The elevation is about  1,500 feet above  the sea, and
I
147
I
I
i
I
i
i
i
I
I
i
I
I
.i
i
I
i
I
I
i
I
Ii
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
about two miles from the shore. The segregated masses have generally about the same elevation.
Toward the north, however, they descend, and are found within an elevation of 500 feet.
MANGANESE.
FRAGMEN.TS of this mineral were found in several places in ravines.   I observed no veins
nor masses, but toward the north the fragments were so frequent, that not much doubt
exists as to the probable abundance of the ore at certain points.
CHROMIC IRON.
MASSES of chromic iron ore, associated with serpentine rock, are found in every part of
the island, especially in the first and second ranges. In two places, one on the east of Mount
Ayres, and the other a short distance south of Dearing's Valley, there are seemingly regular
veins. The first-named vein is about three feet in width, the latter probably 20 feet-being
the largest mass of that ore I ever encountered. A good road can be made to within I of a
mile of the spot. Near it are several of the small seams, containing metallic copper, as above
described. This would be the most convenient point to obtain the ore for shipment, should
it ever be required.  In the event of vessels returning to Europe in ballast, a cargo of value
might be had here at little cost.
TITANIFEROUS IRON ORE-(APPENDIX J.)
A VEIN, of about 10 feet in width, of this ore, was found on the northern part of the island.
It outcropped boldly, and was traceable, according to my recollection, about 150 feet on the
surface.  As iron from this ore is of great value, and is coming into demand formanyimportant purposes, it may ultimately add much to the resources of the island. Other localities
will probably be found near good landing-places, though the above great mass is by no
means inaccessible.-(See Appendix.)
GOLD.
THE last portion of the island examined was the extreme north, by far the most interesting of all, from the widely-diffused indications of minerals.  Carbonate  and sulphide
of copper were found everywhere. The great vein, however, was not found. The inactive
portion of the expedition had become weary with idleness, and were clamorous for a return to San Francisco. Disgusted with the non-realization of their hopes, as to the concentrated wealth hidden somnewhere on the island, it became  necessary to  abandon  the
prosecution of further search.  But a few hours were therefore allowed for a hurried recolnnoissance of our last field of operations.
Samples were hastily gathered from a remarkable locality, showing abundantly the usual
metallic copper specks, as we supposed at the time. On closer examination in San Francisco,
after our arrival, we found these samples to be gold instead of copper. The specimens
were broken without discrimination from a large mass of similar rocks.  Should it prove
to be as extensive as it seemed, with the richness possessed by the samples brought away,
it is truly a valuable locality.
But as my information is so very slight, I simply give the facts for what they are
worth-stating, however, my favorable impression as to the existence of a valuable mine.
The locality is only about amile from shore. A road would have to be made over rather
difficult ground. A small, quiet bay, nearly in front of it, would make a good embarcadero
for shipping the ore. There is, unfortunately, no fresh water on that part of the island. Six
or eight miles south is the nearest.
None of the party save myself and two sons saw, or were near, the locality. From the
nature of the broken and intricate surface, the mine is not likely to be rediscovered soon.
SILVER.
A PIECE of ore was brought in from the interior of the island, in which I detected silver.
The examination was not followed up, as the trace of metal was very slight. I believe, now
that I have become familiar with the silver-mines of Nevada, that silver may be found in paying quantity on Cerros.
Should mines of any kind be opened on the island, so as to induce practical miners to re
side there, I should not doubt the ultimate bringing to light of valuable mineral resources in
no stinted abundance.
CLIMATE.
As far as temperature is concerned, I know of no spot so favored. My experience only
extends, however, to one-fourth of a year.  During my three months' sojourn, the thermometer did not vary over ten degrees between midnight and mid-day, on the eastern side of the
island.  The average temperature was 74~ Fahr. A more delightful climate could scarcely be
imagined for an invalid.  To the consumptive and rheumatic patient, no more genial temper.
aIture on the earth's surface could be offered. The atmosphere is dry, but not harsh. Rain,
I imagine, seldom occurs. Floods, at distant and irregular times, with intervening periods of
148 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
entire drought, as on the main shore in the same latitude, may, of course, be expected here.
There were two slight showers during my stay.
The prevailing winds are from the northwest.  There is a fair and interesting means of ob serving the thickness or depth of the wind(-stratum.  It is nearly exactly 1,000 feet from the surface of the ocean to the upper side of the moving mass of wind.  On this float the sea-mists,
which are hurled, as it were, against the mountains, and rebound in the form of slow-moving
grand, gigantic billows, which, viewed firom the peaks far above them, have a most weird and
fearfiil appearance.
Up to the elevation above named, the wind strikes with unabated force and persistency,
as at San Francisco.  Trees and shrubs-what few there are of them-are bent down  and
pressed as it were against the mountain-side. At and above this line commences a region of
peipeti,cal calm, which is about the depth of the region of perpetual agitation below it, viz., 1,000
feet. Within this zone of quiet, slender trees and shrubs stand perfectly erect, evidently
never disturbed by rude winds. The two groves of pines are in this belt. The clouds rest
here, and bathe the trees with perpetual moisture. The leaves are forever studded with drops
of' water, and the groves at any and all times stem to have just been subjected to a gentle
rain-shower.   The earth is sloppy, and a hole scooped out anywhere under the trees is
quickly filled with fresh water.
At a greater elevation, the wind again revels round the mountain-peaks, in irregular directions and with uncertain force.  Vegetation becomes  again scanty, as the air becomes dry
and untranquil.  A  few cedars (Jenziperas cerrosiana, Kellog) and manzanito-trees (Arctostaphylos       ) of a species I had not seen before, were the only arborescent representatives
above the cloud-zone.
In connection with the climate, I may mention certain singular markings on the surface
of the ground, resembling neatly-swept garden-walks, which must have had a meteoric origin.
One of these walks was about a mile in length, nearly due north and south. Commencing at
the south, it ran in nearly a straight line, continuing over hillocks, rocks, ravines, and obstiuctions of every kind; at the end of a mile, it curved very regularly, with a radius of about
200 feet, and returned nearly exactly parallel with its first course, at a distance of about
150 feet from it, and terminated about opposite to where it commenced. The breadth of the
track is six feet.
A little north of the above is a still more remarkable road. It is 30 feet in breadth,
and forms a complete circle of nearly 160 feet in diameter. It then passes off in a curve
towards the north, gradually bending to the east, with a radius of about 5,000 feet. It is
traceable a mile and a half.  The width of the road, on the long curve, is about three
feet. It is swept out, in some places, four or five inches in depth. It is lost, finally, in hard,
rough ground.  It presents the appearance as if a jet of water-such as issues from a huge
hydraulic pipe, used by the California miners-had  been impinged in a moving column
against the surface of the ground. It may h:ave been the result of a whirlwind charged
with the contents of a rain-cloud, the point just touching the earth, and delivering the
water it bore as if from a funnel. May not water-spouts be formed in this way?
FAUNA.
OF the animals, deer and rabbits are probably the only native quadrupeds.  The herds
of wild goats are, of course, the descendants of those introducedi-how many years ago is
unknown. The deer presents marked peculiarities, and, if not a new species, is at least a wellcharacterized variety, making the nearest approach to the black-tailed Cerves Columnbianus.
We found them abundant in the northern part of the island.  They seemed less timid than
the goats, andI have had them approach within ten paces of me, snuffing and stamping
with an air half-threatening, half-playful.
Amongst the introduced animals may be named those pestiferous rodents, rats and
mice.   The  Af~us decumanzus, the brown or Norway rat, with his little cousin, the  M.
musculuss, or house-mouse, follow commerce and establish colonies wherever ships touch land.
Thus the coast of California, and the adjacent islands, are by no means badly supplied
with representatives of these familiar pests.   To the list of native rodents I may  add a
small jumping-mouse (Jaculus          ).
The vicinity of Cerros Island is a favorite resort for that interesting animal, the sea-otter
(Eu7hydr-a marina). Formerly they existed in great abundance, and the value of their ftlir
caused them to be hunted with relentless energy. A man, skilled in the business, could
sometimes  realize a little fortune by a season's hunt.   I was  informed by  an old otter
hunter that numbers of the Northwest Indians were, for a long time, annually brought with
their canoes to Cerros, by coasting schooners, from whence they made extensive and successful excursions in the neighborhood of the Cerros and the adjacent islands.  At the present time the animal is comparatively scarce. It is still hunted, however, but with less
vigor than of yore.  The skins are worth from $25 to $50 each-one-fourth of their former
price. One of rare size and beauty occasionally brings $75. The sea-elephant (Jfacrorhin.us
proboscidius), one of the most gigantic of the seal family, resorted formerly in great numbers
to Cerros and the adjacent islets. They were much sought after for their oil. The species,
9
I
149 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
as Captain Scammon informs me, is now nearly extinct on this coast. Not so, however, with
the sea-lion (Otaria jubatae). He is more prolific, and there are fewer inducements for his de.
struction. He is, however, by no means beyond danger from the oil-man. At certain seasons,
when the lion chances to have a little fat on his bones, he is slaughtered most mercilessly.
Fortunately for him, his skin is nearly worthless, or there would be a double inducement for
his destruction. Toward the north end of the island there is a great breeding-place for these
animals.  It is a small bay, two or three miles in lenglth, and perhaps three-fourths of a mile
in breadth, surrounded on the land by a perpendicular cliff, and on the ocean-side by a belt
of kelp. It is thus protected both from winds and waves. It is bordered with a sandy beach,
some 200 paces in breadth. The access by land is exceedingly difficult, and can only be
gained by careful clambering down where breaks and fissures offer hand and foothold.  This
sequestered and quiet place is the comfortable and appropriate resort of the lionesses to bring
forth and rear their young. It is indeed a great seal-nursery. My first visit to this interesting locality was ill the latter part of the month of July.  Seals, in countless numbers, literally
covered the beach. They were of every conceivable size, from the young one, seemingly a
few days old, up to the fuill-grown animal. So unconscious of danger were the little ones, that
they scarce made an effort to get out of the way. I picked up many of them in my hands;
after a brief struggle, the little captive would yield, and seemed to fear no further harm.
Hundreds slept so soundly, that I rolled them over before they could be induced to open their
great baby-eyes. While thousands slept and basked on the shore, an equal number floated
lazily in the water, or dipped and dived about in sport.
The mother-seals were more timid than their young, but seemed less alarmed than surprised
at my approach.  The look of startled inquiry was so human  and feminine-nay, lady-like,
that I felt as an intruder on the privacy of the nursery.
I could not discover any individual claim set up by the mother for any particular little
lion, but, like a great socialistic community, maternal love seemed to be joint-stock property,
and each infant communist had a mother in every adult female.
The fathers of the great family appeared in point of numbers to be largely in the minority,
counting, as I judged, not the hundredth part of the adult animals. A few bearded, growling
old fellows, tumbled about in the water, yelling and howling in a most threatening manner at
me, and approaching within a few feet of where I stood. A pebble tossed at one of them, however, would be answered by a plunge beneath the surface and reappearance at a safer distance.
I witnessed an unexpected act of tenderness on the part of one of the hugest and most
boisterous old threateners for a little one that seemed to claim him for papa. He was blowing
and screaming at me fearfully, when a young one at my feet hustled into the water, glided off
to the old one, and, childlike, placed its mouth up to his.   The old savage ceased his noise,
returning the caress, and seemed, for several seconds, to forget his wrath at the unwelcome
intruder. This show of affection saved his life. I was at the moment, rifle in hand, waiting
a chance to dislocate his neck. I wanted the skull of an otaria for my collection, and his huge
size suggested him as an appropriate victim. I at once lost all murderous desire, and left him
to the further enjoyment of parental felicity.
The noise and uproar of the locality are scarcely to be imagined. A hundred thousand seals
grunting, coughing, and shrieking at the same instant, made a phocine pandemonium I shall
never forget. I will observe here that the male was fully four times as large as the female.
In giving the generic and specific names of the the sea-lion ( Otaria jubata), I have followed
the writers on the zoology of the Pacific. The skulls in the collection of the California
Academy of Natural Sciences are so labelled. Newberry calls it an Otaria, with a question as
to the species, in the sixth volume of R. R. Reports. It seems, however, according to Gray,
who has investigated the subject, that our sea-lion belongs to the genus Eumnatopias (E. Stellerii,
Gray). This is the name of the fur-seal of the north, which our sea-lion does not resemble,
at least in fur-producing qualities. Its identity with the E. Stellerii seems to be based upon
the evidences presented by two skulls sent to the Smithsonian Institute from the bay of
Monterey, California. This, it seems to me, would hardly be sufficient, without further investigation, to justify the placing of our hairy lion with the fur-coated Eumatopias.
There may be a doubt, on the other hand, if the California sea-lion, with his maneless neck,
can be identical with the southern Otariajubata, whose designation of "lion" is obtained from
the male having the leonine appendix of a mane.  It is not impossible-hardly improbablethat our sea-lion, like our gray whale, remains yet to be christened with a scientific name by
some zoological high-priest.
The sea-elephant, though usually bearing the name before given (-Vacrorhinus proboscidius)
is really Mf. Angtstirostrits-the former belonging to high northern parallels, and perhaps,
never reaching as far south as San Francisco; while the latter extends from Oregon to at
least as far as Cape San Lucas, where Captain Scammon informs me he has often seen them.
How much farther south they extend I am not informed.
Besides the foregoing, I only observed one other seal at Cerros. It was a beautifully
spotted animal-dark spots on a yellowish ground-known as the leopard-seal (Phoca?).
There are really several phocas on the California coast, and the question of identity remains
yet to be settled as to most of the Pinnipedes of our shores.
From seals the transition to the subject of whales is easy. But if doubt is applicable to
150
it 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
the naming of our seals, it is still increased when applied to the whales.   The "California
gray" is the familiar name of the whale that formerly resorted to Scammon's Lagoon in immense numbers to bring forth their young.   They had remained, probably for ages, unldisturbed by man in this hidden inland sea, until Captain Scammon disclosed their secret hidingplace in the year 1855.  The havoc made amongst them for the next few years was terrific,
and their numbers became rapidly reduced. They still frequent the lagoon, but no longer in
such astonishing numbers. They are yet hunted by whalers, but with diminished energy.
The destruction has been greatest amongst the females, as their size is at least double that
of the male, and the quantity of oil yielded is in proportion, viz., about forty barrels for the female and twenty for the male.
There are several whales besides the "gray," such as the "humpback," and "sulphurbottom," etc. The two latter are often encountered and taken for their oil, but do not, like
the first named, seem to pertain particularly to our coast, nor, like it, go and come at certain
fixed periods, nor seek the shelter of our shallow bays and lagoons to bring forth their young.
The gray is doubtless new to science, and remains, with several less important members of its
family on the Pacific coast, to be yet examined by competent scientific authority.
The habits of the animal have been carefully studied by Captain Scammon, of the United
States Revenue Service, whose extensive opportunities for observation have been improved
with untiring industry, and whose labors when given to the public will have conferred no small
benefit on science. He has made numerous accurate and excellent drawings of the gray as
well as of several other species of whale found on our coast, the proportions corrected from
actual measurements.*
HERPETOLOGY-BIRDS, INSECTS.
Is herpetology there was found a rattlesnake from 12 to 16 inches in length, of a dullbrown color, with rattles of an almost pure white. Its habits varied from that of its family
in its lack of combative qualities, being difficult to provoke it to battle; it but seldom used
its rattles and made a hissing or blowing sound, like an adder. Several species of lizards, one
with very bright hues, occur, but not abundantly.  A  single species of frog was abundant in
most of the fresh-water springs.
Birds were not abundant, save those of the ocean. Doves, wrens, crows, buzzards, flycatchers, and probably two species of hawk, were found in the mountains.
Insect life is not favored by appropriate natural conditions, and therefore not abundant.
I obtained not more than ten species, among them a brilliant wasp, and a large night-moth
that in flitting about was at first mistaken for a bat. I obtained but two specimens, and
they were unfortunately mutilated in packing my collection.
One hundred and fourteen species of marine shells were gathered in a few days. They
were examined by Dr. Newcomb, who found amongst them a remarkable comrnmingling of
northern and southern types, evidencing an alternation of northern and southern currents, as
is observed under the head of "currents" in another place.
Of the terrestrial air-breathing mollusks only a single snail was found (Helix Veatchiana,
Newcomb). It was rather abundant. The same species occurred in great numbers on the
main opposite Elide Island.
The abelone (Halilotis        ) is the only mollusk of economic value.  Its shell is valuable
for ornamental purposes in certain manufactures, and the flesh is often dried and sent to China.
The animal is abundant on the half-submerged rocks of the south end of the island.
FISHES.
FISHES are abundant along the shores of Cerros as well as in the bay of Viscaino everywhere. The lagoons swarm with them. The variety is very great. Of the small collection
I was able to secure, Dr. W. O. Ayres found nearly all to be specifically new. The great Jewfish (Stereolepas Gigas, Ayres)-which occasionally strays as far north as San Franciscoabounds here.   The great size to which it attains is remarkable, weighing from one hundred
to four hundred pounds. The flesh is exceedingly delicate as an article of food. If speedy
conveyance could be had to San Francisco the stereolepas would be a favorite of our fishmarket.
The shark family is well represented by several small species of that detestable group; they
abound in the shoal water, very close to the shore.
SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS.
I WISH I could say as much for the soil as for the climate. The earth is an alkaline clay,
harsh and barren, and I fear could not be coaxed to yield any of the products desirable to
the horticulturist. One of my party planted beans, lettuce, etc., where irrigation could be
employed; but nothing flourished. And yet the native flora is somewhat extensive. I collected some fiftv species of flowering plants. Two of them claimed the dignity of trees, viz.,
a pine and a cedar.   There are two groves of pines-of some  three hundred acres in
* In the Appendix will be found interesting details in every point of view.-(See Captain Scammon's
account in Appendix H.)
151 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
extent each (Appendix G).  They occupy the northwestern slope of the north mountain.
range. They commence on the crest, or backbone, and extend down the side perhaps the
fourth of a mile. They are within the calm zone, and seem never to have been shaken with
more than a breath of air. Some of the trees were from 60 to 70 feet in height. Exceedingly tall and slender saplings stood as erect as flag-poles.  (This pine is referred to in the
Appendix.)
The cedar grew more in the sheltered ravines. It had also braved the winds at points
within the windy zone, but its body lay almost flat against the side of the mountain.
A dwarf-oak, a mere tall shrub, was found on the north side of Mount Ayres.   An  arctostaphylon (manzanito) occurred near the summit. It attained a height of about 10 feet.
The botanical collection wag given to Mr. Bloomer, the curator of that department of the
Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kellog described and figured many of them. They proved to be
nearly all specifically and some generally new. For a more particular description of some of
the more interesting species, I refer to the Appendix.    The two interesting species of Rhus
(R. Lerntiana and R. V'eateliana) form marked features in the island flora, the former for the
delicious acid exudation of its fruit, and the latter for its strangely grotesque growth and the
picturesque effect of its profusion of pink flowers.
A shrub that rooted itself in crevices of the rocks in considerable abundance bore an excellent gland-like fruit, having much the appearance and size of a small acorn, and tasting
like a chestnut. The goats and deer fed both on the fruit and leaves. The genus is described
in the "Boundary Survey Report" as Simondsia, and the present species was named by Dr.
Kellag as the S. Pabulosa.
The grasses were few and sparse.   I lost those I collected.  The goats and deer could
derive but scanty sustenance from the grasses, and therefore the fine condition they were in
was, of course, drawn from some other class of food.
A beautiful yellow-flowered agave or aloe plant, about 12 feet in height, with a stem from
four to six inches in diameter at the base, branching and spreading at the top and terminating
in a profusion of golden blossoms, was tolerably abundant. The flower-cups were filled with
a fragrant, sweet liquid.
The cactus family was represented by some four or five species; among them a giant cereus
and a very minute species of Mcamalaria, with a disproportionately large flower, exceedingly
fragrant.
Of the Cryptogamia, I found one fern and some half-dozen lichens; one of them only was
abundant, on the rocks in one locality, toward the northern part of the island. It was two or
three inches in height, somewhat branched, of a grayish color, and resembled a slerocaulon.
The lichens have not yet been determined. The collection is in the herbarium of the Academy
of Sciences, and ere long will be reached by the indefatigable industry of Bolander and Kellag.
Of the marine Alge the giant kelp-weed (]acrocystus p/yritera) is the most important and
conspicuous. The singular fact of its disappearance in a great measure from certain portions
of the coast of Lower California is noticed in Captain Scammon's notes.   Captain S. informs
me that the same thing occurred at Pitcairn's Island some years ago-the kelp disappeared
and left certain portions of the shore exposed to the unbroken fury of the waves, which, ere
the decay of the Macrocystus, had been noted for calmness and quiet.   In the course of
five or six years, however, the kelp again sprang up and reoccupied its old field, and bade the
waves be still once more.
This disappearance of the great wave-soothing ocean-plant is probably to be accounted for
by its buoyancy-lifting the stones on which it is rooted, and floating off with the anchor that
could hold the younger, but not the mature plant, with its immense length, its great cysts of
air, and its broad, cellular floating leaves, impelled by storms and currents. It is to be hoped
this important sea-weed may again fringe the coast from which it has partially departed.
The Macrocystus is at present attracting attention as a source of iodine.   It is said to be,
along our coast, particularly rich in that valuable substance. It may be destined to add
another item to the list of California resources.
In illustration of the volcanic action existing along our coast, I append the following article.
A chain of submarine volcanoes lying parallel with our shore, and not greatly distant from
it, may account for the slight earthquakes that rather too frequently disturb us:
BORACIC ACID IN THE SEA-WATER OF THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA.
Front the ProceedinlTs of the California Academy of _atu'at Sciences, Janetary 17, 1859.
Dr. John A. Veatch read the following paper on the occurrence of boracic acid in the
sea-water of the Pacific:
"The existence of boracic acid in the sea-water of our coast was brought to my notice in
July, 1857. I had, in the month of January of the previous year, discovered borate of soda
and other borates in solution in the water of a mineral spring in Tehama County, near the
upper end of the Sacramento Valley. Prosecuting the research, I found traces of boracic
152 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
acid-in the form of borates-in nearly all the mineral springs with which the State of Cali
fornia abounds.
"This was especially the case in the coast mountains.  Borate of soda was so abundant in
one particular locality that enormous crystals of that salt were found at the bottom of a
shallow lake, or rather marsh, one or two hundred acres in extent.
"The crystals were hexahedral, with bevelled or replaced edges, and truncated angles;
attaining the size, in some cases, of four inches in length by two in diameter, forming splendid
and attractive specimens.*   In the same neighborhood  a cluster of small thermal springs
were observed holding free boracic acid in solution. A few hundred yards from these, a great
number of hot-springs, of a temperature of 212~, rose up through the fissures of a silicious
rock. These springs held a considerable quantity of borax, as well as free boracic acid.
Many other localities furnished similar indications, but in less extensive form.
"In progress of the examination, I found that the common salt (chloride of sodium) exposed for sale in the San Francisco market, and which, it was understood, came from certain
deposits of that article on the sea margin in the southern part of the State, also furnished
boracic acid. I was led to attribute it to the fact of mineral springs emptying into the lagoons furnishing the salt.
"It was, therefore, a matter of no small surprise, when, on a visit to the localities, I found
no trace of acid in any of the springs in the adjacent district. This led to an examination of
the sea-water, and a detection of an appreciable quantity of boracic acid therein.
"It was at Santa Barbara, where I first detected it, and subsequently at various points,
from San Diego to the Straits of Fuca.   It seems to be in the form of borate of soda, and
perhaps of lime.   The quantity diminishes toward the north.   It is barely perceptible in
specimens of water brought from beyond Oregon, and seems to meet its maximum near San
Diego.
"This peculiarity seems to extend no great distance seaward.   Water taken 30 or 40 miles
west of San Francisco gave no trace of acid. In 12 specimens, taken at various points betwixt
this port and the Sandwich Islands, furnished me by Mr. Gulick, of Honolulu, only that nearest
our coast gave boracic acid. In 10 specimens, kindly furnished me by Dr. W. O. Ayres, taken
up by Dr. J. D. B. Stillman, in a trip of one of the Pacific mail-steamers from Panama to this
place, no acid was discovered south of the Cortes Shoals.
"I hope in future to be able to make more accurate and extended examinations, unless
some one more capable of doing justice to the subject should take it in hand.   With this
view, I solicited the attention of Dr. J. S. Newberry to these facts while he was in this city,
on his way to join Lieutenant Ives's Colorado Exploring Expedition, hoping he might think it
worthy of investigation during his stay on this coast. With the same view, I now submit them
to the Academy."
APPENDIX (J).
TITANIFEROUS IRON ORE.
THE above species of ore, I believe, is not found in many localities in abundance.   The
superior value of the iron produced from it will doubtless produce a demand for the ore. The
following article, as bearing upon the subject, I clip from a December number of the Mining
and qcieoti,fic Press of San Francisco:
" TITANIUM  IRON.
"A valuable discovery is reported in the English papers, which consists of a cheap process
for smelting titanic iron ore, which has hitherto defied, or greatly perplexed, all ironmasters
and scientific men in the trade.   It is a well-known fact that iron made from titaniferous ore
is most valuable, on account of its hardness and tensile strength being five times greater than
ordinary iron; this iron will be admirably adopted for plating on iron-clads, and also for rails,
on account of its hardness and strength, and the discoverer will be prepared to test this iron
against any other iron hitherto discovered for these purposes, or for making steel. If the
discovery is one which can be cheaply introduced, or one by which titanium iron can be manufactured at about the cost of Bessemer steel, it will be a valuable one indeed.
"A company has recently been formed in England for the manufacture of titanic steel and
iron after the mode devised by Mr. Mushet, which, we believe, is nearly ready to go into
operation. We perceive from the London Mlining Journal, last received, that an extraordinary
general meeting of this company has been called, to take into consideration the agreement
entered into by the company with Messrs. Mushet & Clare, with a view to the modification
thereof. This may possibly have some reference to the new discovery above spoken of. At
all events, there is good reason to believe that the well-known and valuable properties of
titanium will soon be economically introduced into the manufacture of iron, in such a manner
as to work a most important improvement in this great agent of civilization and practical
mechanism."
* This is the well-known "Borax Lake," the property of the "California Borax Company."  It is
being extensively worked at present, and furnishes larg,e quantities of the best commercial borax known.
153
i
I
I
i
i
i
I
I
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
APPENDIX (K).
ERROR IN COAST CHARTS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
THE chart most in use is that of James Imray and Son, London. The entire coast, from a
short distance below San Diego to near Cape St. Lucas, is placed some 14 miles too far to the
west, as is established by numerous careful observations. The little guano island of Elide, in
the bay of San Sebastian, about a mile from the shore, is in latitude 28~ 87' N., and longitude
114~ 25' W., as determined by Captain R. N. Dearing. This position would place it far inland
on Imlay's chart. The peninsula is, therefore, several miles narrower than usually represented
on the maps, unless a corresponding errolr exists as to its eastern or gulf coast. As the pearlfishery drew early attention to the gulf, it is probable the prominent points on the shores were
pretty correctly established by the Spanish navigators. The position of Cape San Lucas was
early determined by the Abbe6 Chappe.
154 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
EXTRACTS FROM A HISTORY OF OLD OR LOWER
CALIFORNIA.
[A posthumous work, written originally in Spanish, by Padre FRANCISCO JAVIER CLAVIJERO, of the
Society of Jesus. Translated into Italian for publication. Venice, 1789. From Italian to Spanish,
again. by the priest NICOLAS GARCIA, de San Vicente; JUAN R. NAvARRO, editor. Mexico, 1852.
Translated from this edition into English, by A. G. RANDALL, Secretary and Translator of the Lower
California Company's Exploring Expedition.  San Francisco, M3ay, 1867.]
From Preface of the Editor.-" The publication of' Three Ages of Mexico,' by Father
Cavo, having been concluded in our'Library,' and being desirous of offering to our subscribers another national historical work, we could not hesitate in our choice, after seeing
the'History of California,' by the celebrated Vera Cruz Jesuit, Clavijero.
"The universal fame which this distinguished writer has acquired by his' Ancient History
of Mexico,' obviates the necessity of any panegyric on the work which we now offer our subscribers. It was left unpublished by the author at his death, but was subsequently published
in Venice in 1789, in two small volumes. The difficulties encountered by Clavijero to have
his great work published in Spanish, and which finally compelled him to abandon the printing of it in that tongue, without doubt induced him to also write the History of California
in Italian; and we have the satisfaction of being the first to present it, returned to its native
language.
" We have had in view two translations from which to select what would serve for our
text, one of which was made by the clergyman Nicolas Garcia, of San Vicente, well known
among us by his various elementary works; the other is by Don Diego Troncoso and Buenecino, also author of an unpublished translation of the'Ancient History of Mexico.'
"After a thorough examination of both, we have given preference to that of Father San
Vicente, as being generally more exact and of better style. Notwithstanding, a careful
revision has revealed some errors, inevitable in works of this nature, and we have made the
necessary corrections, at times making use of happier interpretations of Sefior Troncoso.
We also avail ourselves of an appendix inserted at the latter part which hle added to his
translation, in which he refers briefly to the progress of California, from the expulsion of the
Jesuits up to the year 1796.
e       *       *       *I       *        *       *       X        *       *
"We have not copied the original Italian map, as, being made in Europe, almost from
memory, after the death of the author, it does not merit confidence; instead of which we
shall give another, more modern, with greater probability of correctness.
"It only remains for us to express our gratitude to Sefior J. MI. Andrade, the proprietor of
the work nowv offered to our readers, who generously furnished it, solely for the pleasure of
contributing to our Library." (Biblioteca.)
'From Notice of the Translator.-" In relation to the map, the Venetian editors observe
that it was got up by Don Ramon Tarros, who had the use of the maps of Father Consag,
and which were published in the' Notices of California,' making use of the data furnished
by the author of that work, and some verbal information from missionaries resident in Venice. So far as distances are concerned, especially in the interior of the peninsula, they can't
be considered exact, as they are mostly furnished by persons who, although sincere, judged
from calculation or guess-work."
Front the Preface of the Author.-" Although' Old California,' from its discovery, began
to acquire celebrity for the pearls which abound in the neighboring waters, and, although its
coasts were scarcely known, and almost nothing of the customs of its inhabitants, no one
was found during the past two centuries to undertake writing its history. In the present century,,
after the Jesuits had made a reconnoissance of the greater portion of the peninsula, and had
established numerous missions, Father Miguel Venegas, a Mexican Jesuit-making use of let —
ters of the missionaries, and especially of those of Fathers Salvatierra, Piccolo, and Ugarte,
who were the oldest and most celebrated; of the manuscript history of Sonora, made up by'
the indefatigable Father Kino, from the diary of the Captain-Governor of California, Estevan
Rodriguez Lorenzo; of the written accounts of the erudite Father Segismundo Taraval, and"
of other original documents found in the archives of Mexico-wrote in a bulky volume its history. The manuscript of Venegas was forwarded to Madrid to Father Andres Marcos Burriel, an erudite and laborious Jesuit of the province of Toledo, and well known for his work
on the'Ancient Weights and Measures' of that city.  He, after having put this history inll
53
I
I
i
i
I
I
I
i
7
i
i
I
I.
.155
I
I
i
0
i
I
i
I
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
better shape, cutting it down here, adding to it there with new material, in part sent to
him from Mexico, and in part taken from the archives in Madrid, as well as that taken from
many authors, printed it at that court in the year 1757, dedicating it to the Catholic King Fernando VI., in the name of the Mexican province. The work came to light with the modest
title of'Notices of California,' inasmuch as that learned Spaniard did not believe that he
would have the material necessary for a history; but the English translator, afterward imitated by the Frenciman and Hollander, gave it for title,'A Natural and Civil History of California,' London, 1759. Notwithstanding, it contained nothing of natural history. Subsequently Padre Jacob Begert, an Italian Jesuit, who was for seventeen years a missionary in
California, having returned home from that country, wrote in German, and published in
Munich, in 1772, a new history of California, of which, although we know it was well received
there, we can't make use, as it has not reached us.
"In the Spanish edition, it not only lacks natural history, but also much essential information, and contains many errors, although unblamable. To these the Abbots Miguel del
Barco and Lucas Ventura, by their diligence, sought to apply a remedy, being practical
men in California, sincere and very correct. The Abbot del Barco was a missionary there
for the space of thirty years, and visited all the missions, and, although not a professional
naturalist, nor would the important duties of his ministry permit of his dedicating himself
to the study of nature, still, being of an observing turn of mind, and gifted with a good critical judgment, he could observe in the course of so many years, and afterward write sufficient
to give a correct idea of, the soil, climate, productions, and animals of Califotbrnia. The Abbot
Ventura was also eleven years missionary of Loreto, and solicitor for all the missions, by
virtue of which he was well informed in relation to all the business of the peninsula. These
persons corrected the Spanish edition, and added thereto the essay on natural history, and
the information lacking, continuing the narration up to 1768.
"Believing that I can render a service to the public, presenting to it a truthful and correct
history of California, I have availed myself of the said writings, omitting from the Spanish
history every thing which does not directly or indirectly have a bearing on that of said peninsula. Although I have made use of all the knowledge which I have acquired through my
studies and investigations, and have obtained verbal information from persons who have been
many years in California, yet, it being very easy for an author to commit errors in writing the
history of a country where he has not been, I have caused two persons of the most practical
of that country to revise this work, and my experience has shown that this step has not been
superfluous."
vote of A. G. R., paesen! Translator.-Here follows an extended criticism, by said author,
of all other historians who had written on Mexico and California, in which he handles them without gloves, demonstrating that they had written nothing reliable on the subject; this refers
particularly to Pau, Robertson, Lacroix, and Jos6 Joaquin de Mora, the last of whom he
accuses of misspelling nearly all the Mexican names, even that of Javier in the frontispiece of
the work, which was published in London in 1826.
BOOK FIRST.
SITUATION-SOIL-CLIMATE-MINERALS-PLANTS, AND ANIMALS OF CALIFORNIA.
OLD or Lower California is a peninsula of Septentrional America, which, being separated
from the continent of New Spain at the mouth of the Colorado River'it 33~ N. latitude, and
262~ longitude, terminates at Cape St. Lucas at 22~ 24' N. latitude, and 268~ longitude.*
This cape is the southern extremity of the peninsula; the Colorado River is the eastern
extremity, and the port of San Diego, situated in 33~ N. latitude, and about 256~ longitude,
may be considered the western boundary. To the north and northwest it borders on countries of barbarous nations, but little known on the coasts, and not at all in the interior; on
the west its shores are washed by the Pacific Ocean, and on the east by the Gulf of California, also called the Red Sea, from the reddish appearance of its waters; also the Sea of Cortes,
in honor of the famous conqueror of Mexico, who wais the means of its discovery, and navigated there. The length of the peninsula is 10 degrees; its width varies from 10 to 20 or
more leagues.
The name California was, in the first place, given to one part only, but afterward it was
extended over the whole peninsula; and some geographers have even taken the liberty to
comprise under this name New Mexico, the Apache country, and other regions north, very
* In relation to the geographical longitude of California, there is a variety of opinions among geographers.  I rely upon the observations made by the Spanish astronomer, Vicente Dos, of which mention
is made in the supplement to the Gazette of Pesaro, November 13, 1790, according to which there is a
difference of 7 hours ant1 28 minutes between the meridian of Paris and that of San Jose, near Cape
St. Lucas. from which difference it is deduced that the longitude of San Jos6, as well as Cape St. Lucas,
which is on the same meridian, is 268'.
156 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
distant from real California, and not connected with it. The etymology of the name is not
known, but it is believed that Cortez, who was versed in Latin, called the port where he
first arrived, calida forflax, in consequence of the extreme heat, and that this was afterward
changed into California.*
The occidental coast, washed by the Pacific, commencing at Cape St. Lucas, extends to
the northwest, and runs in the same direction above the peninsula, perhaps to the most westerly
extremity of America. The lands bordering on the shore of this part of California are as a
general thing dry, barren, and sandy, unpopulated, and destitute of all the necessaries of
life, even wood and water. Besides, there is hardly a port where vessels can find shelter
from the northwest winds which prevail there. Barks and other small craft cannot make
the coast without risk of being lost on the rocks, in consequence of the heavy sea prevailing.
The ports best known on that coast are those of E1 Marques or Santiago, Magdalena, Ado
Nuevo, San Juan, Nepomuceno, San Francisco, and San Diego, and, above the peninsula,
Monterey, in 37~ N. latitude. The capes are St. Lucas, which is the most notable, Morro
Hermoso, Engafio (false cape), Afio Nuevo, and del Rey. The coast up to 40~ constantly
inclines to the northwest; from here to the 42~ it breaks toward the north; and from 42~,
where Cape Mendocino is situated, it returns to the first direction. The discoveries made
by the Spaniards up to the year 1770, terminate at Cape Blanco of San Sebastian in latitude
43~. In this or the following year it is said that they advanced to 55~ and even 58~; but we,
not having seen any account of these voyages, cannot say any thing in relation to their discoveries.
The eastern coast, formed by the gulf, commences at Cape Porfia, distant more than ten
leagues from Cape St. Lucas, and runs in about the same direction as the other coast. Between these two capes is the port of San Bernabe, where ships from the Philippine Islands
usually put in. The ports on the gulf are Palmas, Cerralvo, La Paz, San Carlos, Loreto, San
Bruno, Comondu, La Concepcion, Los Angeles, San Luis, La Visitacion, and San Felipe de
Jesus. Between Cerralvo and La Paz there is a small peninsula, which extends toward the
north, and another between Comondu and La Concepcion.  The capes on this coast, commencing from the Porfia, are called Cerralvo, San Lorenzo, the Pulpit, San Marcos, the Virgins,
San Miguel, and San Gabriel.   From 31~ the coast breaks toward the north, and much more
from the 32~, which direction it follows up to the Colorado River, the terminus of the peninsula and the gulf.
Coming down from the mouth of this river toward the southeast, the shores of the
Pineria, Sonora, Ostimuri, Sinaloa, Culiacan, Chiametta, and Acaponeta, are found, all provinces of New Spain, until you arrive at Cape Corrientes, situated at 20~ 26' N. latitude, and
about 270~ W. longitude. This cape and that of St. Lucas form the mouth of the gulf, by which
communication is had with the Pacific Ocean.  Following down from Cape Corrientes, in
the same direction southeasterly along the dioceses of Nueva Galicia, Michoacan, and Mexico,
you arrive at Acapulco, where ships from the Philippine Islands go to discharge.
In both of the seas of California there are innumerable islands, but generally they are
small and uninhabited. The largest in the gulf are Cerralvo, Espiritu Santo, San Jose, Carmen, Angel Custodio, and Tiburon; and in the Pacific are Huamalgua, Cerros, La Ceniza,
Pajaros, and Santa Catalina, of which something will be said when the opportunity offers.
~ 2.-SOIL AND CLIMATE.
THE aspect of Lower California, generally speaking, is disagreeable and forbidding, and its
broken land is extremely rocky and sandy; it lacks water, and is covered with thorny plants,
where it is capable of producing vegetation, and, where not, it is covered with heaps of rocks
and sand. The air is hot and dry, and, on the waters, both sides, pernicious to navigators,
and when a certain latitude is reached causes a mortal scurvy.
The whirlwinds which sometimes occur are so furious that they uproot trees and overthrow the huts. The rains are so rare that, should two or three showers fall during the year,
the Californians consider themselves peculiarly blessed.
Springs are few and scarce. So far as rivers are concerned, there is not one on the whole
peninsula, although the rivulets of Mulege6 and San Jose6 del Cabo were dignified with that name.
The last runs through San Bernab6, and, after a course of scant two miles, empties into the
gulf at 27~. All the rest are brooks or torrents, which, being dry the whole year, when it
rains contain some water, and their current is so rapid that they turn every thing upside
down, and carry destruction to the few settlements which exist here.   The Colorado,
although a large river, as it is at its mouth, is separated from the peninsula by high
* The famous buccaneer, Drake, called it "New Albion," in honor of his country; the padre Scherer,
German Jesuit, and De Fer, a French geographer. called it Caroline Island, which name was being used
in the time of Carlos II. King of Spain, when the peninsula was believed to be an island, but these and
other names were soon forgotten, and that which Cortez gave prevailed. We will add here the opinion
of the ex-Jesuit, the learned Jose Campoi, as to the name California.  He thinks that it is composed of
the Spanish word' cala," a small bay, and the Latin'fornix," which signifies cavern, there being near
Cape St. Lucas, formed in the rocks, a grotto so perfect that it seems a work of art. From these circumstances it is very probable Cortez gave the name, half Spanish and half Latin, to that port. There is
another belief, that it may be derived from the two combinedala-fornax and cala-y-fornix.
I
i
I
i
I
i
I
151
I
I
i
I
I
i
I
i
I
I
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
mountains, and can scarcely be of any advantage to it.  This river  which rises in
unknown  parts in the north, is greatly augmented by the waters of the Gila, also a
large river, which empties into it at 35~, from whence it runs southeasterly to the
34th~, where it resumes its first course south to the mouth, which has a width of nearly
one league, but is interrupted by three small barren islands, which divide the course of the
waters. Large vessels cannot approach this portion of the gulf to the mouth of the river on
account of the shallowness, neither can small vessels pass it, through the strong current and
the drift-wood which comes down: thus this river cannot be useful to the commerce of California, with the people who inhabit its banks. Near the mouth of the river there ar'e two
lakes, the water of which is of a reddish cast (from which the river takes its name), and has
caustic properties to that extent that wherever it touches the body it immediately blisters,
creating a burning sensation, lasting several days.  It is probable that this effect is produced
by a certain bituminous mineral which is found in the bottom of said lakes, noticed by navigators on lifting their anchors. If the dews were frequent enough they might, as in Peru,
supply the lack of rain, but they are not.
Examining particularly the soil of the peninsula, a great difference is found in it. In the
southern part, from Cape St. Lucas to 24~, it is not so broken, neither are springs about the
hills so scarce, but the coasts are very arid, and the air along them very hot. The country of
the Guaicuras, situated between24~ and 26~, is the least mountainous, but at the same time the
driest and most sterile of all California. That of the Cochimies, which from 25~ extends in
part to 33~, is the most broken and rocky; but from 27~ up the air is milder. Toward the
30th~ cold commences to be felt and sometimes snow falls; but the land, although not so broken
or rocky, is very sterile and dry up to 32~. At the last parallel the natural aspect of the country
changes; here can be seen tracts of arable land well watered, and more adorned with vegetation.
Padre Kino, the celebrated missionary to Sonora, of whom we shall make frequent mention in this history, having forded the river Colorado between 34~ and 35~, found in the
country to the west of the river beautiful plains with abundance of water, good grass, and a
luxuriant growth of trees. The same was said of the Pacific coast, between 34~ and 43~, by
the Spaniards, who, at the beginning of the last century, made a reconnoissance by order of
the Catholic king, but, as they are not on the peninsula, it is not our province to treat of them.
~ 3.-MOUNTAINS, STONE, AND MINERALS.
THE mountains of California form two cordilleras, which extend the whole breadth of the
peninsula, leaving but little level land: that of the southern part is in the middle, at equal
distance from the sea on both sides, and stone is so scarce on the mountains that it is found
necessary to use bricks for building purposes; that of the northern part is longer than the
other, and approaches the gulf more than the Pacific, and its mountains are higher and more
rugged, and so stony that all who see them are struck with wonder, it seeming that, besides
the universal flood of water, there had been another on the peninsula of stones. Among these
mountains, at 28~, there is a volcano, to show that this unfortunate country is not exempt
from this calamity. This volcano was discovered by the missionaries in 1746, but since the
Spaniards have been there no eruption has occurred, nor earthquake felt.
From the structure of these mountains it is inferred that the peninsula was formerly
covered by the waters of the sea. Near Kadakaamang, situated inland at 28~, there is a
mountain of clayey earth, on which, at a perpendicular height of over 200 feet, a stratum of
marine shells is found which seem clammed into the clay. The thickness of this stratum is
over two feet, and is situated horizontally about half way up the ascent. At a distance of
some three leagues from this place there are large quantities of oysters found in the mountains, so disproportionable, that a missionary having taken one home, on weighing it,
without the cover or the dish, found its weight 23 lbs. Span., very compact, and nearly 18
inches long, and 9 in width, and 4 in thickness. In California, as in other places, very good
lime is made from the shells of these oysters. Near Mulege6, a place situated at 27~ north
latitude, and near the gulf shore, there is a high mountain of very hard stone, which they
use for building; and, whether it is taken from the foot or the top, shells are found embedded,
even in the inner portions, and cavities are seen which appear as though they had been occupied by marine bodies which had been consumed by the course of time-this proves that the
mountain was formed in the sea. Stone of this kind is very common on the whole gulf coast.
Three leagues from Loreto, a small capital of the peninsula, in a place surrounded by high
mountains, there is also a hillock formed of shells, and another similar near the mission of
San Luis, over 10 leagues from the sea.  If to these things are added the many vestiges
which are there found of volcanic eruptions, and the numerous islands with which California is surrounded, it would seem undoubted that great revolutions of Nature had transpired
there. Besides, it is manifest that the sea has receded on both shores of the peninsula. The
Jesuit missionaries of Loreto observed that the waters in less than 40 years had receded some
distance from the shore, and this decrease is more palpable on the west coast, as the whole
space between the sea and the hills is completely covered with beach sand, although some of
these are distant from the sea 10 leagues. It is certain that Lower California has a greater width
than formerly, and we can predict with certainty that this width will continue to increase in
the future, and perhaps some day that multitude of islands will be united to the peninsula.
158 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Among the stones of which the mountains of California are full, there are flint, pumice,
grindstone, crystals, gypsum, and others of little account.  It is believed that marble
exists in the northern part, but that has not been ascertained up to the present time.
Stone crystal is generally found in hexagonal pieces, about the mission of Santa Gertrudes,
below the 29th parallel. There are large quantities of pumice-stone around the volcano.
Common gypsum abounds in many places, but on the hill on the island of San Marco, in the
gulf, near Mulege6, a peculiar gypsum, crystallized in transparent pieces, of four or five inches
in length, about 18 inches in width, and two inches thick, is found, which, when powdered,
makes a very excellent, fine white. A missionary succeeded in making (vidrieras) show-cases,
or windows of it, the same as those made of alabaster. In various places in California there
are numerous quarries of tezontle, a stone highly appreciated in the capital of Mexico, a description of which we gave in the ancient history of that kingdom. The inhabitants of said
peninsula number among their stones the mficara and the rizo, two species of madrepore,
washed up on the beach by the water of the gulf, and which also make lime.
In sterile countries, sometimes, the barrenness of the soil is compensated by the richness
of its minerals, but in California it is not so. Up to the present time no ores have been found,
except gold and silver, and these in small quantities.   In the year 1748 a person in easy
circumstances,* having enriched himself in the pearl-fishery, commenced to work some
veins of silver which were discovered in the south, about 23~; this he continued for some years,
passing from mine to mine without materially increasing his capital. Gold has also been found
in some of the mountains, but little in one called Rosario, in about 281~. Mines of silver
were discovered, but would not pay to work them, from the lack of every thing required at
that place, including wood and water. There is also in the district of Mulege6 a mountain of
reddish clay, which contains gold, according to the opinion of intelligent persons. But let
this be as it may, one thing is certain: it would not be to the advantage of the Californians to
have any thing on their peninsula to attract bad people, generally the kind  who seek  the
precious metals from the bowels of the earth.
The other minerals of California entitled to mention are sulphur, vitriol, ochre, and chalk.
At the margin or brow of the volcano a large quantity of pure sulphur is found, which any
one can gather without trouble, it being on the surface of the ground; it also exists at 28~
on the beach of the Pacific. Places where it is found are known by the color of the ground,
it being distinct firom the rest; digging here, a little sulphur is found, although mixed with
earth, but it is probable that it might be found as pure as that of the volcano by going down
a sufficient depth.
Vitriol or copperas is found in small crusts, in some of the moist places in the district of
the mission of Guadalupe, and other places in the north. These crusts are formed, perhaps,
from the sediment of the water, which is saturated with copperas where it runs through the
deposits of it. In the same mountain of reddish clay, near Mulege6, where gold is supposed to
exist, numerous veins of yellow ochre have been observed, which was formerly used by the
Indians for painting their bodies. There is also found in this mountain chalk, or pipe-clay,
which is a species of ceruse, very white mineral earth, very much like white lead. They use
it in California for whitening buildings, but, as it makes such a brilliant white as to dazzle the
sight, they qualify it with glue. In Mexico it is used for polishing silver-ware.
As regards salts, there are common salt, saltpetre, and gema. California being almost entirely surrounded by water, there must be good salt-mines (salinas) found, and, in fact, there
are many; but there is none to be compared with that of Carman Island, situated in the gulf
at 26~, abreast of the port of Loreto, from which it is distant four leagues. This island, which
is 13 leagues in circumference, is all unoccupied, and nothing is supplied there, except rats
and a large number of serpents. On the west side there is a rugged mountain, but on the
east side the land is level and contains that salt-mine, which, without fear of contradiction, is
one of the best in the world; it commences at a distance of half a league from the sea, and
extends so far that the end cannot be seen, presenting the spectacle of an immense plain,
covered with snow.  The salt is the whitest, crystallized, and pure, without mixture of earth
or any foreign substance; although it is not as hard as stone, picks are required to break it
up, and in this way they divide it in square cakes of a size that each workman can carry one
on his back.  This work is performed during the morning and late in the afternoon, on account of the intense heat, and reflection of the sun's rays. Although all the fleets of Europe
might gather there to load salt from that deposit, theynever could exhaust it, not only on account of its great extent, but principally because salt is reproduced as soon as taken out.
Seven or eight days after taking out a sufficient quantity to load a vessel, the excavation is
filled with new salt. If this salt-mine were in any country in Europe it would produce enough
to the sovereign to make the income greater than that of the famous salt-mines of Williska, in
Poland, in whose horrid depths thousands of slaves are entombed to get out its salt; but this
of the gulf only serves to supply the few inhabitants of the peninsula. Yet in the region
where God placed it, if the industry of the Sinaloa and other parts of the coast could be ex cited, it would be more useful, because, fish there being abundant and excellent (as we shall
* Don Manuel de Ocio, formerly a soldier at the Presidio of Loreto. and who, being,, a licentiate of the
militia, engaged in the pearl-fishery, and had such good luck that he became almost the absolute owner
of this branch of commnerce. This has been the only rich man of California.
I
159
I
i
i
I
i
I
I
I
I
I
I
i
i
i
I
I 
SKETCH OF TtE SETTLEMENT AND
hereafter show), and having all the salt required, without cost, they might make a profitable
business of curing fish for the interior provinces of New Spain.
Two deposits of rock-salt (sal-gema) have been discovered on the peninsula, one on the
Pacific coast at 26~, and the other at 28~, on the plain adjacent to the San Ignacio mission.
The salt taken out of them is similar in whiteness and purity to that of Carman Island, but is
not so smooth and relucent.  In the mountain of Rosario there is pure nitre, and in various
places it is found mixed with earth. That called by Mexicans tequizquitl, and by the Spaniards of Mexico, tequizquite, is more the froth of nlitre, which they use in New Spain, as in
Egypt, for making lye, for whitening linen, and for cooking vegetables, which, by its use, are
made more mellow and palatable.
~ 4.-VEGETABLES AND THEIR DIVISION.
PERHAPS persons who are inclined to natural history will want us, in passing to the vegetable kingdom, to classify the plants of California according to some system adopted by modern
naturalists; but neither the vegetables of that peninsula are so numerous as to require such
a method, nor by following it would we do the subject justice, according to our notions; therefore we shall adopt the same division as in the History of Mexico, as more suitable for the
comprehension of all classes of persons.
~ 5.-NATIVE PLANTS OF CALIFORNIA WHICH ARE USEFUL  FOR  THEIR FRUIT.
AMONG the plants useful for their fruit, some  are indigenous,  and some are exotic.
Among the first, the pitahlaya,* as well for its singular form as because it supplies the miserable Californians with their principal food and the most delicious fruit. There are two species
of pitahayas, very different from each other, not only because one yields a sweet fruit and the
other tart, but also because the plants have different forms.
The pitahaya of the first species is very common in Mexico and other countries of America,
but in none are they so fine as in California. From its trunk, which scarcely grows a foot high,
spread out, 10, 12, or more feet high, branches as thick as a man's arm, arranged in rows,
parallel and straight their whole length, except when they first sprout, where the lateral have
a curve proportionate to their distance from the centre. These branches have a green bark,
tinged with yellow, with creases or flutings running their whole length in a straight line, about
an inch apart, instead of leaves, which they are entirely bare of; they have strong thorns arranged in the shape of stars, and are so prickly that no part of them can be touched without
getting pricked. Under the bark it has a small thickness of green pulp, very juicy, inside of
which is a wooden tube full of a white pith, which, when dry, burns well, and serves for light
instead of tapers; near the ends of the branches there is a very pretty flower-bloom, white,
tinged with bright red, but without fragrance, and is succeeded by the fruit called pitahayas
by Spaniards, and tammia, or dammia, by the Cochimies.  This fruit is round, of the size of a
large peach, and also has thorns; at first it is green, but when it ripens it turns red or yellowthat with a red skin has a pulp of a beautiful blood color, and that with yellow skin has a
pulp white, yellow, or golden.   The skin is rather thick, but soft and easily removed; the
pulp is sweet, pleasant, refreshing, and healthy. It is eaten, together with the seed, of which
it is full, and something like the seeds of figs, although smaller. The red pitahaya colors the
urine for which reason strangers, on eating it for the first time, have sometimes become
alarmed, thinking they had burst a blood-vessel.
In the southern part of the peninsula they commence gathering the sweet pitahaya in the
early part of June, and finish at the end of' August. In the north they commence later, and
its greatest abundance is in August; but when it rains a little more than common, the crop is
very small or entirely worthless, there being no plant which moisture harms so much as the
pitahaya. The Californians use in gathering them a pole or a cane, having on the end a thin
bone in the shape of a hook, to separate the fruit from the plant, and a net to catch them in.
They now get out the thorns with a little stick, this being easily done, when ripe; in this way
they go on gathering and eating until they gorge themselves, taking home any remaining.
During the harvest they travel all day in the woods and over plains, hunting ripe pitahayas,
and this is for them, as we shall hereafter refer to, the most joyous season.
The harvest of the sweet kind being over, they go after the other kind, called taj ua bythe
Cochimies, which last through September and October, and years when abundant they last
into November. The branches of this are also fluted, thorny, and without leaves, but the
fluting is not so fine, and the thorns larger, thicker, and stronger. They are also straight and
parallel, with like uniformity as those of the sweet kind, but they run in different directions,
without order or symmetry, and, lying on the ground, take root, forming new plants, which,
becoming entangled with each other, make a thicket disagreeable to the view and inaccessible
for animals. This plant is also different from the first in regard to where it grows: the first
thrives in any place, in the woods or on the plains, where it is arid and dry; the last is not
found anywhere except on level land near the coast, or if, by chance, it is found in the woods,
* The French call this plant the thorny candle (cierge epineux), but this name only applies to the first
kind, as will appear by its description.  We say the same of the name, 6rgauo, which in Mexico yields
abundantly.
160 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
it is sterile. The flower of the tajua is cardial, of white or red color, and six or seven inches
long; its fruit, even more highly esteemed than the sweet, is spherical, of the size of an orange,
also has thorns, and is red inside and out. When it is ripe it has a tart flavor, very agreeable,
and, like the sweet, turns the urine a blood-color. Ill Mexico there are tart pitahayas, but of
inferior flavor to those of California.
The gkakil, or garambuyo, as the Spaniards call it, is a fruit of another plant, with pulpous
branches, fluted, without leaves, thorny, and similar in shape to those of the pitahaya, but it
is smaller, its fluting is wider, and its thorns are smaller and fewer; the fruit, although similar
in figure to the pitahaya, is much smaller, of a deeper red, and inferior in flavor; it is earlier
than the pitahaya, and does not last so long.
The cardon of the peninsula, thus called by Spaniards, is a plant of gigantic proportions,
among the pulpous and grooved kind; its trunk is thick and the branches fluted, thorny, and
without leaves; they grow straight and parallel, like those of the pitahaya, but higher and
thicker; they grow 40 feet high and of a proportionate and uniform thickness the whole length;
its structure is similar to that of the branches of the pitahaya; its bark is of a prettier green,
and does not have so many thorns. On the extremity of the boughs the fruit grows, which is
shaped like the pear, with a yellow skin, and inside contains a viscous liquid of a bright-red color,
some spherical seeds, black, brilliant, and of the size of coriander-seeds.   These seeds are
the only benefit which the Californians derive from this great plant. In order to make them
eatable, they are are exposed to the heat of the sun and fire, which takes away the viscous
properties, after which they toast them to preserve them.   The missionaries found a way of
making the branches more useful: they would take a piece of the wood and pound it up, express the juice, and, boiling it, at the same time skimming, until boiled down to a certain degree, make of this a balsam good for wounds and ulcers.
The viznaga espinosa is another species of pulpous plant, fluted, without leaves, and
thorny; what is more singular is, that all the rest of this kind are not only bare of leaves,
but also of branches, and consist solely of a trunk or stalk, pulpous, juicy, green, very thick,
and from two to four feet high. Besides the small thorns with which it is covered, it has,
growing near the top, others very distinct, of an osseous substance, strong, about six inches
long, of a white and red color, and with a small curve at the end.   In New Spain some use
these thorns for cleaning the teeth,* and in some of the missions of California they were used,
instead of needles, for making stockings, straightening the point and reducing the size of the
thickest part. Amongst these thorns of the viznaga there grows a beautiful flower-blossom,
of white, red, and yellow color, to which its fruit succeeds, much smaller than that of the tammia, and full, like the cardon, of viscous liquid, and seeds which the Californians prepare and
eat, as they do the seeds of it.  In Mexico they make  a good sweetmeat of the juicy pulp of
this viznaga.
The nopal (cochineal fig-tree, or Indian prickly pear-tree), well known in Europe, differs
somewhat from the plants which we have described, because, although barren of leaves, its
branches have something the form of leaves, and this is the name vulgarly given to it.+  In
California there are many kinds ofnopales, but inferior to those of Mexico in size and quality
of fruit. Of the last the missionaries carried to the peninsula various kinds, that took root
and thrived well in that arid soil. Californians eat not only the pulp but also the inner skin
of the fruit, and here, as well as in Mexico, the tenderest pencas are eaten, boiled, and stewed.
The name which the Cochimies give to the fruit of the nopal is simply the letter A (sounded
ah). It is certainly wonderful that the plants which we have treated, and others which we
shall reach farther on, should have more juice in arid localities than other kinds in wet places;
but it is even more singular that they grow and thrive with only the little or no dews which fall,
although they may not get rain for ten months or more, as sometimes happens in California.
I believe that these plants are juicier, because they perspire less, through not having leaves, as
these, according to the well-founded belief of naturalists, are the principal organs of perspiration for vegetables, consequently we may well suppose that the Creator did not supply these
plants with leaves, as He destined them to live in dry countries.
The ciruelo (plum-tree of California) is very different from the real plum, and only received
this name from the Spaniards from the resemblance of the fruit. It is of medium height, its
leaves are dentated; the bark, both of trunk and branches, whitish, and project horizontally
farther than would seem to comport with the height of the tree. Its fruit, although similar in
color and shape to the brown plum, is smaller, rough to the taste, and,only agreeable to the
palate of those miserable Indians accustomed to eat every thing which is put before them;
but the kernel of the stone is very pleasing to the taste, and is esteemed even by the Spaniards. This tree is a native of the southern part, and is not found in any other part of the
peninsula.
Anaba is the name of a fruit similar to the fig, and of the tree which produces it. This is
large, the bark of trunk and branches whitish, like that of the fig, and its fruit similar in
color and shape to the early fig (breva), but smaller, not so juicy, and without the delicious
sweet flavor of our figs. Notwithstanding, the natives are so fond of it that when they hear
* The Spaniards did not call this plant viznaga. only on account of its thorns being used for toothpicks,
like the real viznaga; beyond this there is no similarity between them.
t In Mexico these broad flat branches are generally called pencas.
I
161
i
i
I
i
i
i
I
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
of ripe fruit on the anaba-tree thev will travel four or five leagues to find it and obtain a
supply. The wood of this tree is entirely worthless, and its roots are usually wider than they
are thick, because it generally grows among the rocks, and its roots either get in the cracks
or extend over the rocks. In Mexico, where it is known by the name of zalate, it grows better
and is more fruitfnl.
The medesa is a large fruit-tree which does not bear fruit every year, and, on eminences,
hardly ever; its bark is of a whitish green, its leaves are few and thin, and its fruit similar
to the bean, growing in small pods. This fruit is much liked by the Indians, who pick it and
toast it for consumption in winter; cattle relish eating the young branches of this tree, but its
wood is fit for nothing, except fuel. In Loreto the Indians call it dipna.
The asigandu is a leguminous shrub which grows near brooks and running streams; its
branches are thorny, its fruit a little larger than wheat, and enclosed in narrow pods about
six inches in length. As this fruit is the first to ripen, and as at this time great scarcity prevails, the Indians gather it, although really it is not eatable, but they toast it and pound it up
as they do other seeds.
The fetor which it throws out when being toasted is very disagreeable, as also is the breath
of those who eat it, which is insupportable, in that season when they gather in church or any
close place.
The huisache (a name taken from the Mexican "huatzaxin ") is a leguminous shrub, thorny,
and has narrow leaves, grows certain pods, which, although not fit to eat, are made use of
both in California and Mexico for making writing-ink, adding a quantity of copperas. Cattle
eat the tender branches, but it imparts a bad flavor to their meat.
The jojoba is one of the most excellent fruiits of California. The plant which produces it
is a shrub which grows on the arid brows of mountains where they slope into the valleys, and
their leaves are short, oblong, smooth, are of a grayish-green color, and about the size of roseleaves. The fruit is a berry, oblong, of the size of the kernel of the filbert, dark-red outside,
white inside, and of an oily flavor, not disagreeable.  This fruit has become celebrated for its
medicinal virtues, especially for the cure of suppression of urine, containing pituitous concretions which facilitate childbirth in females, and is adapted for healing wounds. The oil extracted from it is an excellent remedy for cancer, and, having a good flavor, some used it for
salads instead of olive-oil. This plant does not yield fruit every year, but only when, in the
winter, there is one shower at least.
The pimientilla, thus called from its shape and size, resembles the common pepper; it is
the seed produced inside of a certain berry, which grows on a small bush, whose stalks are
similar to the shoots of the wild olive, although smaller. The Indians eat them, but there are
not many of them.
When it rains more than common, there is an herb with many stalks which grows in some
parts of the peninsula, called tedda, which runs up about a foot, and yields ears containing
small seeds of' the size of anise-seed. The Indians gather this, taking care that it does not
become dry first, so that the seed may not fall and be lost; this they toast and grind for food.
The tedegna is a plant which grows in various places on the peninsula, principally in the
southern part, when it rains in summer.   Its stalk is about three-fourths of an inch thick,
and its leaves are large, somewhat similar to those of the mallow, but furnished, like those of
the nettle, with little prickles, which sting when touched, causing great heat and raising blisters
on the skin, for which reason the Spaniards of California call them nettles, although in other
respects it is very different from the real nettle. The fruit which it produces has a good
flavor, and is similar to the almond, although not so wide.
These are the principal plants useful for their fruits which California produced when her
inhabitants were all barbarians and savages; but the same missionaries who civilized them
introduced, jointly with the Christian religion and good customs, the cultivation of many foreign vegetables better than the native ones of the country.
~6.-FOREIGN PLANTS.
ALL the plants and fruit-trees taken to California from various parts of Mexico have not
isken root on the peninsula. In the few places where there is no lack of water, and theland
is suitable for the respective vegetation, the following trees and plants have taken root and
have grown, viz.: olives, lemons, oranges, peaches, pomegranates, figs, apples, guavas, yellow
sapotas, grape-vines, water-melons, musk-melons, gourds, palm-trees bearing dates, wheat,
Indian corn, rice; and various species of garden or table vegetables, as peas, lentils, beans,
which products have greatly alleviated the misery and want of those people.  Of all these
plants, none yield so well as the fig and grape. Dried and preserved figs have an exquisite
flavor, and the wine produced from the few vineyards which exist there is excellent. There
also were, and evenr. now are, found wild grape-vines, but all of a smaller size than the cultivated, and their bunches only have 8 or 10 grapes of a rough flavor, that never ripen.
Rice grows well in the southern part, where there is a supply of water, which this plant
requires.  Here and there agnacates are found, and in Loreto some cocoa-palms have done
well. These people are also supplied with capsicums, tomatoes, and gitomates-three kinds
of fruits much liked and used among the Americans. It has been observed that the climate
162 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
of the peninsula is much against the raising of apples, pears, pineapples, chirimoyas and
other delicate fruits of Mexico.
So far as wheat goes, there are certainly but few places where it can be raised; but in
these, the abundance of the crop is no less surprising than the singular method of cultivation. A piece of arable land is first sought, which is susceptible of irrigation, either from
a neighboring spring, or by rain-water, kept in some cistern. Before ploughing, it is watered,
and after ploughing in the ordinary way, not with straight furrows, but winding and undulating, in order that the water may rest longer and leave greater moisture.  The land generally
being very arid, it is now watered agailn, and, after letting it air a little, it is planted. To put
in the seed, two men are employed; one going ahead, making holes in the ground, rather
long and shallow.
The crops of Indian corn are not so abundant, in proportion, as wheat, because it needs
more water, which is very scarce in California, although it ordinarily yields from 200 to 400
per cent., and when it does not reach 100 per cent., it is considered a poor crop.
In view of what has been said, it is not strange that, notwithstanding the sparse population and the great multiplication of these grains, it is necessary to depend for a supply from
Sinaloa, and other States of New Spain; as the arable lands of the peninsula are limited in
quantity, water is scarce, and many obstacles have to be overcome in order to raise a crop.
~ 7.-PLANTS USEFUL FOR THEIR LEAVES AND BRANCHES.
THESE are few. Near the streams and cisterns sage abounds; also rushes, and estoques,
whose sprouts and roots are used as articles of food, and the leaves make mats. When
it rains, in summer, verdolayas abound, the seeds of which only are eaten by the Indians.
Mexican wormwood (estafiate) grows plentifully in ground under cultivation, but trefoil grows
among it and chokes it. The California wild marjoram does not seem like the genuine, except
a little in color. It is a shrub which grows on dry plains, about four feet high; its leaves are
small and of a handsome green, and is used for seasoning food. Tobacco grows spontaneously
in various parts of the peninsula, and the Indians use it for smoking. The Jesuits carried
there lettuce, cabbage, and other similar plants, which have thrived wherever cultivated.
~ 8.-PLANTS USEFUL FOR THEIR TRUNKS OR SHOOTS.
OF trees which furnish timber for building, etc., or at least for firewood, there are the pine,
oak, palm, m?zadroflo, poplar, guaribo, and a few others. Of those whose sprouts or shoots
serve for food or other useful purposes of life, there are the mescal, batamote, nombo, and
a few more. The guaribo, the largest tree of California, resembles the poplar so much, that
at first sight it can't be distinguished from it, but is very different in quality of wood, it being
good for beams, etc.  Unfortunately, it is only found in a few rough places, almost inaccessible, as is the case with the pine in the south.
The red-palm of the mountains is esteemed there for its strong, hard, reddish wood, but
it is onlv about six inches in diameter, so that in order to get out timber from it, the whole
trunk, bark and all, has to be taken; the bark of this, as of other palms, is of a grayish color.
Of these, besides the date-palm and cocoa-palm, there are two other species, one of white wood,
not so hard as the red, and easier worked; the other has scarcely an inch and a half of solid
wood, under the bark, inside of which is a soft, light core. Before the Spaniards entered California, there were many handsome palm-groves, as the Indians made no use of the tree, but,
after dealing with the people of Sinaloa, they learned to eat the shoots of the palm, and the
Spaniards commenced cutting it for building purposes-some of these groves were used up.
The sprouts are a delicious eatable for the Indians as well as for Spaniards, but at the same
time an extravagant one, as the trees dry up as soon as cut.
There are two species of acacia in the peninsula, of different dimensions, both tree and
fruit. That with bitter fruit is large and a native of California; that with sweet fruit is smaller
and foreign-the latter is eaten by the Indians; and the other, as well as the branches, by
horses, sheep, and goats.  Both kinds bear large pods; the trunk and limbs are crooked; their
wood is very hard and heavy, consequently adapted for knees of vessels-the sprouts, pounded up and applied to the eye, are considered a preventive against ophthalmia. This tree
bounds in the narrow plains between the mountains and coast on the gulf. The Spaniards
call it mesquit.
The palo chino, so called by the Spaniards, I don't know why, is a tree, native of the
southern part of the peninsula, large and straight; its leaves are small and of an ashy green
the bark is gray, the wood red, and easily worked; it loses its color when wet, as also by
age. In the northern part there is another tree, also called palo chino, which is of white
wood, easily worked, and has no fruit which is eatable.
The gkokio, called palo blanco by the Spaniards on account of the color of the bark
(white), is a tree of medium height, little foliage, and very few branches, and which grows
near running streams.  Its wood is also white at first, but, arriving at a certain age, the inside
part of the trunk becomes nearly black and hard. Of this the neophytes were in the habit of
making articles seemingly of ebony, curiously wrought, inlaid with pearl.
The ufia de gato (cat's-claw) is a leguminous tree, whose leaves are small and narrow, of a
light-green color, and bears fruit in its pods. Its branches are bristled up with curved thorns
i
i
I
i
II
163
I
i
i
I
I
I
II
i
I
i
I
i
i
I
i
I
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
resembling cats'-claws, and it is thus known throughout Mexico. The inner part of the trunk.
or its pith, also turns black, with yellow streaks, which beautify it, and although the other
part is hard and heavy, is easily worked; but if the tree stops growing until a certain age,
the pith is consumed and the tree becomes hollow.
The mangrove, although not a large tree, extends its branches horizontally to that extent
that sometimes they touch the ground; its leaves are small, and of a pretty light-green-its
wood is hard, and is used for oars. The mangrove grows near the coast, where the soil is not
sandy.
The cork (corcho) is a small tree which grows on level land, at the foot of the mountains,
where it is commonly found without leaves. Notwithstanding, it produces a bunch of flowers
of a bright-purple color, very beautiful. Its trunk, when dry, becomes as light and spongy
as the bark of the cork-tree, whence its name. With this the Indians form their rafts for fishing, and it answers even better than regular cork for stoppers for bottles, etc.
The nomb6 is a shrub with long shoots, straight  and flexible, with a whitish bark, and
generally bare. Only when it rains they are clothed with leaves, wider than they are long;
but scarcely a month passes, after the rain, when they become bare again.  There is no use
made of this plant in California, but its shoots might be rendered useful for making baskets as
well as for ink, containing a liquid of a blood-color, that dyes linen so indelibly that no washing will erase it. If this liquid were properly prepared, what might it not serve for?
There is another shrub (which the author does not recollect the name of) similar to the
nomb6 in the flexibility of its shoots and the scantiness of its leaves, but more useful to the
Indians, because they make certain utensils of them which are in common use, and of which we
shall speak hereafter.
The batamote shrub grows on the borders of some running streams. Its shoots are
straight, three or four feet in length, the' leaves long and sharp, but very delicate and of a
very fine green. This plant is efficacious for restoring power to crippled limbs, by bathing in
a decoction of its sprouts, or by rubbing the joints with the same, roasted, and afterward putting on a plaster of them.
In some parts there grows, near running streams, reed-grass, of the thickness of the little
finger, of which the natives pick the smallest for their dresses, which we shall hereafter speak
of. This little reed is the only plant in California in which manna is found; at the present
time there are large growths of this imported from abroad.
The plant most esteemed by the natives is the mescal, a plant of the aloe species, similar
to the maguey, in the manner in which its shoots and flowers grow; but smaller and more
thorny, and of an intense green-when allowed to grow, it produces, like the maguey, a
straight shoot, of the thickness of a man's arm, and from 10 to 15 feet high; in the tops it
blossoms with yellow flowers, and afterward bears fruit. The blossoms are full of a sweet
but disagreeable liquid, and it is so abundant that the Indians gather it in large quantities as
an article of food. The mescal which grows to this point is of no further use, except to multiply plants of its species, producing them either from the roots or from the seed scattered
around; but the Indians do not permit it to grow. As soon as the inside leaves commence
separating, they cut the stalk, when it is scarcely two feet high, and carry it home. Here
they make a hole in the ground, in which they kindle a fire, throwing in a few stones, and
when they are heated, the wood having been consumed, they throw among them cuts of mescal, then cover them with earth and leave them for from 24 to 36 hours. This mode of cooking mescal and other viands is called by the natives llaterna (in Mexico this style is much in
use, and called barbacoa). Our barbacue is probably derived from this (A. G. R.), and was in
use by the barbarous C/lic,imecas before they were subjugated by the Spaniards. Mescal, cooked
in this way, acquires a sweet and agreeable flavor, and was the principal aliment of the Californians from October to April, a period when other wild fruits which they were accustomed
to subsist on were very scarce. This is not the only utility derived from this plant. From
their prickly leaves they get a kind of thread with which they make a net, that answers as
a basket or pannier to carry whatever they wish on their backs.  Generally the mescal does not
grow except on the mountains and hills. There are various species-some have a bitter
juice, and others cause pain in the stomach. A missionary had mescal transplanted here
from New Galicia, which is larger and better than any other kind in California.  In some parts
of Mexico a spirit is extracted from mescal, which, although at first sight it looks like water, is
very strong; some take it to get drunk on, and others use it as a medicine, being considered
a diuretic, and good for the stomach.
~9.-PLANTS USEFUL FOR THEIR ROOTS.
THESE are very few in California. Those extant prior to the Spaniards going there were
the guacamote, jicama, and the mezquitillo.
The guacamote, or sweet yuca, is a plant full of vine-shoots, of a large, thick root, fibrous,
yellow on the outside and white inside.  This root is cooked and eaten, and has a good flavor.
The jicama is a leguminous plant, also with vine-shoots.  Its branches are large and
slender, its leaves arranged three by three, in form of a cross. The flowers, violet; the seed
like lentils, enclosed in black pods, and the root in shape and size of the onion, but in other
respects resembling the turnip. It is white, juicy, agreeable to the taste, refreshing, and is
164 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
eaten raw.' The jicama is common in Mexico-that of California, although smaller, in the
opinion of some is better.
The mezquitillo, or small acacia, is a small tree which has this name, as the form of its
branches and leaves resembles those of the acacia. Its roots are used in California to dye
deer-skins cinnamon color.
The missionaries have carried to the peninsula sweet-potatoes, onions, garlic, radishes, and
fennel; and all of these plants have flourished. The sweet-potato is an esculent esteemed in
New Spain, and of which we made mention in the ancient history of Mexico.
~ 10.-PLANTS USEFUL FOR THEIR JUICE OR GITM.
THE plants desirable for their rosin or gum, or for their juice or oil, are the copal, brasil,
pitch-tree, infernal fig-tree, indigo-plant, and sugar-cane.
The copal is the tree which produces the copal-gum, so well known in Europe.  It is found
all over California, except in stony and sandy localities.
The brasil, which in other countries is a tree of large growth, is only found in the southern
part, and is small.
The pitch-tree is also small, and the trunk is covered with excrescences of pitch,
which the tree distils, and adheres to the bark in the shape of little balls. The natives make
use of this to stick their arrows, and also mix it with tallow, to mend their earthen vessels.
Mariners pay their vessels' bottoms with it, but there is not enough to supply the demand.
The mode of gathering it is to streak the bark, which operation has to be performed before
it rains, because, if it rains hard, it carries it off with it.
The infernal fig-tree contains in its fruit a good article of oil for burning; it is also useful in
medicine, being a strong purgative, and even dangerous.
In some places in the southern part, the indigo-plant is found, but no use is made of it;
perhaps, because of its being of little consideration. In the same quarter sugar-cane is raised,
to the benefit of the Indians; this was transplanted here by the missionaries.
~ 11.-NOXIOUS AND IRREGULAR PLANTS.
AMONG the few plants of California there are some which are noxious, one of which is a
little tree called by the Spaniards of that country palo de flecha (arrow-tree), because the
Indians of the coast of Sonora get from it that terrible poison with which they dip their
arrows, to render wounds made by them mortal. The native Californians, although they know
of this property of the plant, have never abused the use of it.
In the southern part there is a plant with vine-shoots, the name of which we do not know,
whose branches are tender and fibrous, and have a strong, sour flavor. The Indians cut them
in pieces, three or four palms in length, and cook them in the ashes; this takes away the
sourness, after which they eat them. But it seems that this mode of cooking them is not
sufficient to take away their caustic quality, as they always cause a severe pain in the stomach,
and in the mouth and throat ulcers, which perhaps cause death.
The hiedra mnaliga (malignant ivy) is a plant which takes root in the mountains, and extends its running vines to the branches of neighboring trees, where they entwine. It well
deserves the name-malignant-as the bare touch of it will cause swellings, and cover the
body with sores; and, although this disease has a simple remedy, it would be fatal if it should
last long.
The gingil is a fruit produced by a shrub similar to the cherry-tree in color, although
smaller. The Indians eat it, notwithstanding its bad flavor, as it is produced in March and
April, when they have no other aliment except mescal. It has been observed that if the
women eat much of it when they are nursing, their children get sick and sometimes die.
In various places on the peninsula there is another shrub whose fruit is round, of the size
of a pea, and when ripe is black. The Indians abstain from eating it, as they know it is
very noxious; but as their little ones are ignorant of it, or fear no harm, they eat it when
hungry. The effect caused is to cripple them after the lapse of a few days, when other diseases set in, ending in death, for which reason the missionaries have endeavored to have it
rooted out. Notwithstanding, the Pericees eat the fruit, without its doing them harm; they first
take out the seed, which is said to contain all the bad properties. Here are also other plants,
curious and irregular, besides the pitahaya, etc., already spoken of.
The tasajo is a plant resembling the pitahaya in the inner arrangement of its branches,
which also are bare of leaves and thorny; although they are not so large and thick, nor of
one piece, like those of the pitahaya, but each one is composed of various pieces, of about two
inches in length, and united by certain stems, which separate during a high wind, or any thing
rudely touching them. These pieces, detached from the bush, keep green for many months,
although there may not be any moisture in the ground; and, if rain should fall before they are
gathered, they take root and form new plants.
The fruit of the tasajo is similar to the tuna (prickly pear), but never ripens, consequently is of no use, but on the contrary is a nuisance, as it blocks  the roads.  Only
in some places, where firewood is scarce, its branches answer for burning, as it kindles
readily, but consumes quickly.
165 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
Similar to this in the structure of the branches, and also without leaves, there is another
plant called cholla, which only grows about a hand's-breadth high.  Its branches are so interwoven that they hide the trunk, and so covered with thorns that its color does not show.  The
pieces of which it is composed, like those of the tasajo, are smaller, and not so long as the
little finger. When by accident any one steps on these branches the soles of the shoes are no
protection against the thorns piercing through, and they are very difficult to extract.
Much more curious is another tree, called by the Cochimies nmilapd, found frequently between 29~ and 31~, and had not been seen by the missionaries prior to the year 1751, because
they had not explored the interior; neither is it, in my judgment, known by naturalists up to
the present time. It grows perpendicularly to the height of 70 feet, its trunkl thick in proportion; it is not suitable for firewood, being soft and juicy, like the branches of the pitahayga
and the cardonz; its branches are a kind of slender twig, about 18 inches long, adorned with
small leaves, with thorns on the ends; the branches do not grow either upward or horizontally,
as is generally seen in other trees, but hang downward, like the beard on the face, to the foot
of the trunk, where they bear little bunches of flowers, but no fruit. This great tree is almost
useless, as even when dry it is not good to burn, although it is used for that purpose at the
mission of San Francisco de Borja, where firewood is scarce.
There is also another small tree, covered with large thorns and almost always without foliage;
for which reason the Spaniards called it the Adam-tree; when it rains, a few small leaves
appear, but in the course of a month they disappear, and it remains bare all the rest of the
year.
Thus the Spaniards call another little tree, iron-wood tree (palo hierro), on account of its
hardness, it seeming more like iron than wood, and besides is twisted as well in the trunk as
branches, which are full of thorns, and, growing horizontally, reach the ground; the hardness
and tortuosity of this wood make it absolutely useless.  Such are the plants worthy of mention, which the arid soil of California produces.
~ 12.-INSECTS.
PASSING now to the animal kingdom, commencing with the smallest animate beings, we find
the ant, spider, centipede (cie,itopies, hundred feet), scorpion, cricket, mosquitoes of various
kinds, the moth, locust, harvest-fly, glowworm, wasp, cockroach, and divers kinds of worms.
There are no bees, fleas, bed-bugs, or niguas (an insect which lodges between the skin and flesh).
Among the spiders are found those monsters which in Mexico are improperly called tardnt'tlas, but they never have done any harm in California, consequently it is probable that it is
only on account of their horrible looks that they have been considered poisonous.
Of mosquitoes there is on the beach at Loreto a species which in some parts of America
are named gnats, which are so small as to be scarcely visible, but their bite causes an intolerable burning sensation.
Of the moth there are three species, that which eats into linen clothes, that which eats into
woollen, and that which nibbles at books. The first is an insect of a whitish color, of the size
of a louse, but the head very large, in proportion to the body, and very active. Those
of this class live in colonies in little cells which they make in walls, and when they
eat clothing they make a little pouch, like other kinds of moths.   This kind, called comnejen,*
does not eat woollen, only linen clothing. The second and third species are well known in
Europe. The moth has multiplied but little in California, and it seems that neither species
is a native of the country, but has been taken there from Mexico.
There are two species of cockroaches, different in size and color, but similar in figure and
propensities. Both fly, although rarely; they have double wings, are rapid, nasty, and destructive in storerooms, where they eat and spoil all kinds of edibles which are not hard,
particularly if they are sweet, entering easily the smallest cracks, from their body being very
thin. Those of the larger kind are about an inch and a half long and three-quarters of an
inch broad, and were carried to California in the ships which went to Loreto from New Galicia where they abound. The others are natives of the peninsula, and are half the size of the
former, but are more active. Both species have multiplied greatly.
The wasps of California are, at the least, of three species. The first, which are the largest,
called by the Mexicans xicotli, are described in our History of Mexico.
They make a very sweet honey, but their sting is extremely painful. Those of the second
are what entomologists style Vespce ichneuntonzide, which (although they do not live in societies)
make their cells in the walls of buildings. To make them the wasp takes a little mud, mixes it,
and plasters it to the wall by means of a glutinous substance which it emits from its mouth, and
mn this way goes on until it finishes the work; when completed it lays an egg, then fills up
the remaining space with small spiders, which it catches for the purpose, then closes the ellntrance with mud; adjoining this it goes on building until four or five are made, each following
the same process as in the first. This mud becomes so hardened, and adheres to the wall so,
that a man cannot pull it off with his fingers. Echl one of these eggs, enclosed and fertilized
by the warmth of the weather, soon produces a grub, which in a few days is converted into a
chrysalis, and finally into a wasp, subsisting, in the mean time, on the spiders which the
* Comixen is the name which the Indians of the Spanish island gave to certain insects described by
Oviedo, which not only eat wood, but also the walls of buildings-hence its origin.
166 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
mother had provided. As soon as the young insects find their wings strong enough, they open
their cells and go out to fly about, and shortly to repeat the work before performed by the
mother.  In this manner they go on until three or four generations are produced between
May and October. Wasps of this species neither have a sting nor make honey. The third
class are of a reddish color, smaller, with a large sting, which causes inflammation and great
pain; and although they do not make honey they make combs, hanging from rocks, where sheltered from rain. The Californians are very fond of the little grub-woriis from these combs,
and sometimes they endanger their lives in gathering them from the cliffs.
These poor Indians subsist, in like manner, on two other species of worms, about the size
of the little finger, which are found in certain kinds of plants after it rains. To prepare them
for eating they take them in one hand and with the other squeeze out all the impurities from
the inside, then they roast them; those which they wish to keep they string up.
On some trees a white worm is found, an inch and a half long, armed with thorns, whose
touch causes an itching sensation which lasts some hours.
But the most notable insects of California are the locusts, not only for their formidable
numbers, but for the damage they cause. As this plague is not frequent in countries inhabited by naturalists, sufficient time has not been found by them to write a minute and detailed
account of these insects; so I will give here what a sincere and talented missionary observed
in relation to them, after a residence of 30 years, omitting the description of the anatomy of
these insects, which has been made by Bornare in a very interesting manner.
In California there are three species of locusts, similar in form, but distinct in size, in
color, and even in their mode of living. The first, known in almost all places, is small; it
flies and leaps a great distance.   The second is larger, and always of a grayish color.  Both
species are scarce, and so scattered that very little notice is taken of them. Those of the
third species are more noted and feared; their body is of the size of the little finger; they have
double wings like the others, although larger, their color varying according to their condition,
as will hereafter be shlown.
These locusts, of which all we are about to say refers, are similar to the silk-worm in their
mode of copulation. They copulate in the summer, and the female lays, the last of July or
the first of August, some small eggs, long and slender, of a reddish-yellow color; they are
joined together by a certain glutinous liquid in such a manner as to look at first sight like
a silk cord. These are placed in small holes in the ground, which they make with a certain
appendage that they have in their tail. Each female lays from 70 to 80 eggs, and even more.
Directly the locusts satisfy the desires of nature, they become emaciated and die, not one remaiming alive, but they leave in their eggs a very numerous posterity.
The birth of the new locusts has no fixed time, but depends on the rains, which happen
earlier or later, but they generally hatch in September or early in October, when, with the
light rains, some herbs spring up in the country. When first hatched they have no wings,
their legs are very long, they are about the size of mosquitoes, and are of a dark-gray color.
Their earliest movement is to jump on the first herbs they find; when travelling the whole flock
hatched by the same mother keep together. After having consumed the leaves of one plant,
they pass on to another, and gradually they become of a lighter color, and commence copulating
in different families. When they are about half grown they shed their skin like snakes, and
become perfectly green, and as at this time their legs have become stronger, they travel with
longer leaps, forming numerous armies, and desolating the country wherever they pass
through. In a few days they shed their coat again, and then display their four wings, which
had been confined beneath it, and change from a green color to dark-gray. At the age of three
months they arrive at maturity, and again change their color from gray to red, with black
spots, which, notwithstanding their unfortunate shape, gives them some beauty. This color
lasts until summer, when it turns yellow and lasts until death. Their whole life is ten months,
in which time they shed their coat twice and change color five times.
Toward the beginning of January, when they have attained their growth, and their wings
get strong, they fly like birds, and commence the work of desolation in all parts. Their flying
armies are so numerous that they cloud the sky, shutting out the light of the sun and darken
the atmosphere. They unite in masses of 10,000 to 12,000, always following their leaders,
flying in a straight course, sometimes swerving a little to the right or left, but never retrograding, and there is no power in the world to compel them to. Wherever the guides wish to halt,
the whole army stops; if this happens to be in a wood, they occupy the same space as they did in
the air, observing the same order and same distances but if they alight on a growing crop, as
they all want to eat, they contract and occupy a smaller space.
They digest very quickly, and for this reason devour much more than you would believe
from their size. When they attack a wood, field, or crop, they do nothing but devour and
evacuate, thus in a moment they destroy everything within their reach; even should they
leave any thing, it is not long before it is entirely consumed by a new army, they are so
abundant, although one is sufficient to desolate many places. These locusts neither eat nor fly at
night; but they rest, piling up one on top of another in such numbers that, notwithstanding their
diminutive size, their weight bends the branches of trees, and sometimes they break them down.
This is a deplorable plague in fertile countries, and much more so in that miserable peninsula, where the fields and woods become desolated, the herbs consumed, trees stripped of
167 
SKETCH OF THiE SETTLEMENT AND
their foliage, and sometimes their bark taken off; hence arises mortality among the cattle for
lack of pasturage, and hunger and sickness among the people, because whole multitudes of
these voracious insects dying at one time infest the air with their corruption.
There are some plants which are respected by the locusts, such as melons and watermelons,
on account of the roughness of their leaves. Pitahayas are naturally defended by their thorns,
but their flowers, if they have any, are attacked bv these insects, as also the fruit when it
ripens and falls. Of. the mescal they only eat the ends of the leaves, without touching the
stalk, which serves the Indians for food.
If California were more populated, the inhabitants might check these destructive insects
and prevent their ravages, either by destroying their eggs or killing them before they have
wings, particularly if every year some hundreds of men would scatter themselves among the
mountains in the south at a certain season, this being the real home of these pests. So far as
smoking them, shouting at them, or any other course ordinarly pursued, is concerned, they are
ineffectual in stopping their ravages. In the winter, locusts being in a torpid state from the cold,
and not being able to fly in the morning until warmed up by the sun, the Indians come and shake
the branches of the trees, causing them to fall to the ground, and then kill many of them by
stamping on them. A missionary having offered a bounty to any one of the neophytes who
would bring him a certain quantity of locusts, they gathered 70 to 80 bags full daily; but no
matter how many were killed, it did no good, in consequence of their infinite numbers.*
Notwithstanding, a small crop may be freed from a great part of the damage if many are occupied in driving them away all the time when the insects are passing.
From the year 1697, in which the Jesuits commenced the work of converting the Californians, there were no locusts in that country until 1722, when they appeared, disappearing
shortly afterward, and reappearing in 1746, and in the three years following without interruption, after which they did not return until 1753-'54, and finally in 1765-'66-'67. This unfortunate peninsula could never recover its losses if the increase of locusts were not checked by
various causes. Frequently their eggs do not hatch, drying up for lack of rain, and the birds
eat large quantities of them. Besides which, an incredible number die in the spring of the
year, caused by certain little wormsawhich breed in their bellies and devour them; and for this
reason, in other years than those referred to, they have not existed, or at least have not been
in sufficient numbers to cause any serious damage.
Formerly the Californians were in the habit of frequently eating locusts, toasted and pulverized, after having removed the contents of their bellies; but the good counsels of the
missionaries and the experience acquired in 1722, when after eating them to excess they were
attacked by a violent sickness, have caused the most of them to stop eating them. Notwithstanding, some continue to eat them, considering it a pity not to do so, they being abundant
and other food scarce.
~ 13.-REPTILES.
IN California there are but few species of reptiles, viz., lizards, frogs, toads, turtles, and
snakes. Among the species of lizards we do not know of any which are venomous; the frogs
are very rare, and toads are plentiful when it rains, but disappear altogether when the land
becomes dry again. Among the turtles, besides the common land-turtle, and those of fresh
water, there are two other species of large marine turtles, one of which is that with a shell,
called tortoise. The Californians catch them easily by jumping overboard and swimming after
them. When they lay hold of them, they turn them over so that they cannot move, then push
them along until they reach their boat or raft again, when they throw them aboard; but it
requires caution in taking them, as they bite very hard.
Of snakes there are two kinds, those with rattles and those without; the last are smaller
than the other, but their poison is more active.
At the end of this volume we will give some particulars of the observations and dangerous
experiments made with snakes by an intelligent missionary.
~ 14.-FISHES.
PASSING to aquatic animals whose peculiarities resemble those of reptiles, we find in the
waters of California among the cetacea, whales, dolphins, sharks, sword-fish, and sea (seal)
calves. Among the real veritable fishes there are found the pampano, two species (resembling
bream), pargo, also two species of palometas, vobalos, skate, halibut, flying-fish, saw-fish, giltpoll, bagres, sun-fish, prawn, curvina, herrings, sardines, manta, dor6e, sole, dog-fish, plaice,
pike, needle-fish, seal, horse-mackerel, cornudas, morenas, puercos, shad, snoring-fish, picudos,
botelos, cinpas, bonitos, esparallones, and many others. Of the cetacea, there are lobsters and
various species of crabs.   Of the testacea or shell-fish there are the muscle, mufrices, mother
of pearl, and many other species of snails, oysters, etc.  Finally, there are also different kinds
* In order to form some idea of the prodigious increase of locusts, see,the account given by Bomare of
those in the territory of Arles, Bocaria, and Tarascon, in the year 1613, of which a large portion having
been devoured by starlings those which survived laid so many e,gs that the country people, stimulated
by the government  gathered over three thousand quintals, part of which were buried and part thrown
into the R6dano; having calculated the number of locusts hatched from them in the following year it was
found to be rising 550,000,000.
168 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
of zoophytes, corals, milepores, and cuttle-fishes.  Some of the list above given of aquatic living
things are very well known by Europeans; others have been described in our History of
Mexico, or in other histories of America, consequently we will only touch now on how knowl edge of this branch of natural history may be improved upon.
The large number of whales which have been observed by navigators in the narrow space
between the mainland and the island "del Angel Custodio" (probably what is now called Mar garita Island, A. G. R.), gave origin to its being called Whale Strait (Canal de las Ballenas), but
as no fish have been taken, we do not know to what species they belong; notwithstanding
what is said of them, I believe they are of the species called by Linnous physalus.
The sword-fish of California seems to be the same that Pliny called xiphias or gladius,* at
the least no other can be found which answers to the description of that given by this
ancient naturalist. A few years ago one of these fishes inserted his sword in the sides of a
launch, anchored in the port of Loreto, and in trying to get it out in vain, although he nearly
capsized the vessel, broke it off, and retired crestfallen, without his arm.
The palometa, as we have already said in the History of Mexico, is a most delicate fish, of
fine flavor; it is well known for its four or five blue stripes which it has crossing its back,
from which the natives give it the name of cozamalomichin, or rainbow-fish.   Doctor Hernandez thinks it is the glaucus of the ancients.
The dorce is thus named, because in the water he seems to be all gold; he is very different from the dorea of the Mediterranean. That of California is larger, more delicate, and the
meat has a superior flavor. It is very common in Mexican waters, and well known for the fury
with which it pursues the flying-fish.
The bagre of California and Mexico, very distinct from that which Linneus gave the name
to, and classified among the sheat-fish, is without scales, with two large hairs pendent from the
under lip, the tail split, and has six fins, among which is one large dorsal fin, two on the breast,
two under the belly, and one near the tail. The back is black, and the belly white, with
straight lines which separate the colors. Its meat is white and delicate; the length of the
body is from one to three feet.
The puerco marino of California is like that of the Mexican waters, is also different from
those which Linnaeus, Bomare, and others describe. The Californian is thin in figure, and almost
cylindrical in form, the tail is moon-shaped, with round head, contracted on the back. It has
two long fins, which reach from the centre of the body to the tail. Its meat is healthy and
agreeable.
In California waters, as in the seas and rivers of Mexico, there are two species of sparus,
called moharras in that country, for the reason that in its figure it resembles somewhat certain
daggers of the same name.  The white moharra, which in the ancient language of Mexico is
called papalomichin, or butterfly-fish, is broad, about 11 inches long, scaly, thorny, and good
eating. Its tail is lunated, has seven fins, two near the gills, two on the belly, one near the
tail, another small one on the back, and another which extends from head to tail.  The black
moharra, which, in the same language is called cacalomichin, signifying curved fish, is black
all over, is twice as large as the other, with a curly tail; it has six fins, two at the gills, two
under the belly, a large one on the back, and a small one near the tail. Its upper part is
covered with scales, and is thorny; its meat, like the white kind, is delicious.
The roncador (snorer), thus named, as when out of water he snores as if asleep. Dr. Hernandez is of the opinion that this is the exoceetus of Pliny; at the least, what he says about it
applies more to the roncador than to the flying-fish, which Linnneus and Bomare give the name
exocoetus to.
The manta, a formidable creature, mentioned in the History of Mexico, may be considered
as a species of sun-fish, and it seems to me it was what Father Labat called the prodigious
sun-fish, and originated in the island of Guadalupe, in the West Indies.  Its breadth was 12
feet; its length from snout to root of tail, nine and a half feet, and its thickness in the middle
of the body, two feet; its tail was 15 feet long, and its sklain thicker than that of an ox; it had
sharp bones like claws.
In the Gulf of California the ojon has been caught.  This singular flat-fish, which we described in the History of Mexico, has in the middle of the highest part of the back an
eye of the size as that of an ox. This fish should, with more propriety, be called boeps (oxeye), than that which Linnaeus designates by this name in the genus sparus.
The fish called mulier,t deserves special mention, found on the Pacific coast, and thus
named for its resemblance, from the middle up, to a woman. It has the breasts, neck, and
eyes, very white, and the rest of the body covered with scales as other fishes, the tail split.
* Xiphiam id est Gladium rostro mucronat,o esse; ab hoc, naves perfossas mergi in Oceano. etc.-Pliny,
Histor. Natur., lib. 32, c. 2.  Bomare gives this name to the king-fish of thie Greenland seas. but this does
not have his sword in the mandibulum superior, like the sword-fish, but in the rear or posterior part of the
body; neither is it nakled as the other is, but is carried in a sheath, consequently less likely to wouiid.
The same author adds that the king-fish seems to use his sword more to steer with and to increase his
extreme speed, than for a weapon of offence or defence.
t M. de la Harpe (Comp. of the History of.Voyages) makes mention of a fish of this name, and also
of the name donyon, found in the Philippine waters, which is said to be similar to woman in its breasts
and sex, and its meat is like pork. At the mouth of the Loire there is another called the same. (M. de
Bomar, vide Muller.)
169
I
I 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
The missionary, Father Arn6es, at the time of founding the last mission of Santa MIaria, saw a
man who had been killed by one of this species, on the beach of the above-named coast, but
as it was in a state of decay, lie could not ascertain how it happened. The length of those
which we have any account of does not exceed two hand-breadths, and of a corresponding
width.
On the Pacific coast from 27~ to 31~ there is an incredible number of univalve shells,
which are considered the most beautiful in the world-they are tinged by a rich, lapis-lazuli
color, with a white (plated) silvery ground, with five small holes in one side.
There are also two particular species of shell-fish, which we can call pulpareos, as they
participate of the nature of shells; and the polypus, that is to say, if they are not of that kind
which modern naturalists call ceratofiti.   These have the name  hachas, being similar in
shape to the wood-cutter's axe; they are bivalve shells, having many branches, by which
they adhere so firmly to the bottom that a man cannot take them off without first digging
around them.  They are found under the sand on the gulf coast, but always on the level with
the sea.
Those called burros are also bivalves, and are provided with branches, but more slender
and much more numerous, with which they stick so fast to the bottom that it is impossible to
gather them without the aid of some iron instrument.   It is said that divers employed in
the pearl fisheries incur risk of being caught by these creatures when on the bottom of the sea,
as they are liable to get their feet caught when the fish has its shell open, which it suddenly
closes, thus fastening him so that he cannot rise to the surface to breathe. Divers have three
terrible kinds of foes, the burros, sharks, and mantas, but all these drawbacks are overcome
by the aid of lucre.
Although the shell-fish of California are highly esteemed, no one up to the present time
has devoted attention to gathering them for their purpura (murex?) * as pearls have engrossed
all the interest of parties engaged in the fisheries. The abundance of these which have given
so much celebrity to the peninsula, outside of which it is so miserable and poor, have been
found in the gulf near the east coast and adjacent islands. Those taken, from Cape St. Lucas
to 27~, are generally white and clear, or, as dealers term it, orient.  Those found north of this
parallel are commonly discolored, consequently not so much in demand.
~ 15.-BIRDS.
WE have but little to say of the birds of California; although there are many different
species, they are most all known in Europe, in consequence of the historians of America having written extensively in relation to them, and also as they are common to both continents.
Ot' birds of rapine there are the vulture, hawk, crow, eagle, and buzzard, The last is very
abundant, but eagles are scarce and only found in the mountains in the south. There are also
many zopilotes (a species of buzzard), a bird which we described in our History of Mexico,
and which, although not properly a bird of rapine, approximates to that kind.   Of nocturnal birds there are several different species of owls, cuckoos, and others whose names and
peculiarities are not known to us. Of the aquatic, as well those that live in the water as those
that frequent it for food, there are many different kinds. The best known are ducks of various kinds, geese, pelicans, herons, fulicas, and tijeras (scissors). The last are called thus because, when flying, they form with their feet and wings a figure resembling a pair of scissors
when opened. What we said in the History of Mexico-in relation to the admirable providence
which guides the pelican in its efforts to sustain its species, which are incapacitated to sustain
themselves, and the industry of the natives in taking this bird-has been noticed by many
Spaniards in the island of San Roque, a short distance from the west coast of California. Of
birds which are sought after for the table, there are turtle-doves, wild pigeons, and partridges,
quails in abundanlce, besides many aquatic species.  The missionaries carried there from New
Spain, hens and chickens, turkeys, and tame pigeons. Among the birds of song there are the
nightingale, although few, the mocking-bird, bunting, sparrow, tigrillo, cardinal-bird, and
others, which, with their sweet and harmonious song, somewhat alleviate the tediousness of
travel through that arid, gloomy region.
Finally, there are various birds which are esteemed for their plumage; among others, besides the cardinal-bird, there is a colibri (a species of humming-bird).
~ 16.-QUADRUPEDS.
THE species of quadrupeds of California are, as far as known, only 26, viz., oxen, horses,
asses, sheep, goats, hogs, cats, and dogs, all conveyed thither from New Spain, by the energy
and attention of the missionary jesuits; lions, wild-cats, stags, taje6s, antelopes, coyotes, foxes,
hares, rabbits, otters, badgers, skunks, squirrels, tuzas, Swiss squirrels, ardillas palmistas, and
rats of two kinds. To these 26 kinds should be added that of a wild kind, similar in nature
and color to the American lion, although not so bulky, and is improperly named by the Spaniards of California onza (ounce or lynx).
* By A. G. R. Here, for a full and reliable account of pearl-fisheries. see pamphlet, " Historical Outline of Lower California," p. 14-a  translation made by me for C. D.  Poston, Esq., who at the time
was interested in a company in New York, who proposed to enter the business on a large scale, with
modern improvements. That account is preferable to any which has come to my notice.
170 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
The mountain-cat is larger, stronger, and fiercer, than the domesticated, and has a shorter
tail. It is very daring, and sometimes attacks animals larger than itself, and even men, when
they travel in obscure places, but this species is not numerous.
Not so, however, with regard to the chimbica, or Californian lion, because, not daring to
kill it, the natives, through fear of a popular superstition which existed before they were
Christianized, permitted it to continue multiplying, greatly to the detriment of the missions
which were subsequently founded, making such ravages on cattle, and perhaps on human
beings, that it was noticed particularly by the Jesuits in the later years of their occupation,
when a number of tragic events occurred.   They, after inducing their neophytes to overcome
their ignorant and silly fears, as we will hereafter refer to, encouraged the destroying of this
animal by giving them a bounty of a bull for each chimbica that they killed, which custom
prevailed always after, during the time that they had control of the missions. The chimbica'
is of the size of a large mastiff, has huge claws, and is of the same color of the African lion,
but has no mane. As soon as he attacks any animal he fastens his hold so strongly that he does
not let go, although mortally wounded. As soon as possible he cuts into its throat with its
teeth, drinks the blood, devours the neck, and covers the rest with dry leaves, to return from
time to time to eat when hungry, but he seldom preserves it, as hungry Indians or the buzzards generally prey on it.  When the Indians observe these birds hovering in flocks around
a place they infer that there is the carcass of some dead animal near, and directly proceed
to the spot, and if the meat is not entirely putrefied, they carry it home or make a fire there
and roast it. Notwithstanding the chimbica is so daring, he runs from dogs, and, when
closely pursued, jumps up a tree and looks with savage fierceness on his pursuers, but without daring to get down until they are gone; this is the best time to shoot them. This animal
is the same as the miztli of the Mexicans, the pagi of the Chilians, and the puma of Peru,
although it seems different in some respects.
The coyote is the quadruped that we described in the History of Mexico, and is a cross
between the wolf and fox, combining the cunning of the latter with the voracity of the
former.
The stag of California is only distinguished from the common European stag by its horns
not being erect, but inclining to the back.
The antelope or chamois is larger, more active, and swifter than the goat. Animals of
this kind go in herds or droves, leaping over the rocks with singular dexterity; some are black
and some white; their skin is appreciated, and their meat good to eat.
The taje of California is the ibex of Pliny, and the bouquetin of Buffon. What Pliny
says of the ibex (see Pliny's Natural History, lib. viii., c. 53), the natives tell of the taj6,
without having either read or heard mention made of that naturalist, which proves the description of Pliny, and the particular identity of these animals to be correct.   In form, color,
and size, the taje6 is the same as the bouquetin, and its meat is eatable.
The American skunk, called by so many different names in different parts of the New
World, is called by the Cochimies iiju. At the present time it is well known in Europe, but
as some missionaries of California improved the opportunity to frequently observe it in its
natural state, we can give a fuller account of it. California skunks are of that kind of small
animal which the Mexicans call conepatl. The size of its body, independent of the tail, does
not exceed eight inches in length; its head is also small; its color on its belly and feet is white;
its back, sides, and tail, black and white stripes, in some cases white and lion-colored. Its
tail has a handsome fringe at the end, which has a fine appearance when erect, running. It
subsists on beetles, centipedes, and other insects, but prefers to any thing blood and hen's
eggs, and for this reason are the scourge of hen-houses. They make their raids at night, entering by cracks or holes not so wide as their bodies; the hliens make a great disturbance
when they get in on them, but do not move from their places; the skunk then kills one or two
of them, sucks their blood, and eats some of their flesh. They live in little holes among the
rocks, and rarely show themselves except in autumn or the beginning of winter.
Dr. Hernandez says in his Natural History of Mexico that the dung and urine of skunks
have an intolerable smell, and this is generally believed, but by observations made in California it appears that they have never used either against their persecutors, no signs of the same
ever having been seen. The weapon they constantly make use of when in danger is the discharge from behind of that insupportable odor which so perceptibly condenses the air in the
vicinity, that, as a serious missionary expresses it, it seems as though it can be felt by the
touch. Every thing in the vicinity becomes infected in such a manner that, although exposed
to the fresh air, the offensive smell is retained for a long time, and even is transmitted a great
distance.  Dogs which have followed skunks become stupefied with the smell, which they
show, by their vain efforts to get free of it, by scratching their noses.
In the History of Mexico we described that curious quadruped called by Buffon suizo
and by the Mexicans tlalmototli, or ground squirrel, in contradistinctiou to the squirrel which
inhabits trees. This kind burrows in the ground, and does great damage to growing crops.
The same damage is made by tuzas, quadrupeds of the mole species, but larger, handsomer,,
with different eyes from the mole, as well as a difference in other particulars, as we stated in~
our history referred to. Another quadruped is common in California, which is similar in form
to the squirrel, although smaller, ts size being about that of a common rat, but twice as long; its
54
r
I
I
i
I
I
i
i
171
I
I
I
i
i
I
i
i
i
I
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT ANDI)
tail is bare, like that of the squirrel, and its back striped black and white: this is certainly the
palmista of Buffon, and the sicurus palmaium of Linnieus.
The rat of California, although similar in form, color, size, and mode of living, to the common rat, is nevertheless of a very different species from the common or any other known by
naturalists. It has under each ear a membrane, forming a kind of bag or pouch, which communicates with the mouth, and by this means it gathers what food it can to carry to its storehouse, and the damage which they cause in granaries is greater than would be supposed
from their size. When their pouches are empty they are scarcely visible, but if one is killed,
and air is blown into the mouth, their pouch becomes inflated, as though it had a pigeon's
egg in it, and the boys derive a great deal of fun from the ridiculous figure it makes.*
Although the climate of California is not prejudicial to animals taken there from New
Spain, the scarcity of food and abundance of lions retard their increase.   Pasturage being
poor, horses, cows, sheep, and goats, naturally scatter, seeking food in out-of-the-way places
where they find herbs or shrubbery of any kind; consequently, being out of sight of their
keepers, they fall an easy prey to the lions, who kill their colts and calves, and even at times
the mares and cows, and commit great ravages on sheep and goats. For this reason it has
been necessary every year to bring the stock required for the presidio. Dogs only seem to
have degenerated in California, as they do not appear to have the same liking for their masters, soon leaving them for new ones, but perhaps their poverty is what obliges these hungry
animals to seek their subsistence in other places.
EXTRACTS FROM "HISTORIA DE LA BAJA CALIFORNIA "-DECRETO DE MARZO.
Governors of Lower California during their Colonial Condition.
1697 to 1699 Luis de Torres y Tortolero.       1771 to 1776 Felipe Neve.
1699 " 1701 Anto. Garcia de Mendoza.           1776" 1777 F. Xr. de Rivera y Moncada.
1701 " 1744 Estevan Rodriguez Lorenzo.         1777" 1790 Joaquin Cafiete.
1744" 1750 Bernardo Rodriguez Lorenzo.         1790" 1804 Jos6 Joaquin de Arillaga.
1750" 1768 Fernando Xr. de Rivera y Mon-  1804" 1814 Felipe de Goicoechea.
cada.                          1814" 1815 Fernando de la Toba.
1768" 1771 Gaspar de Portala.                   1815 "1822 Jos6 Dario Arguello.
The whole cost of Lower California, from the first expedition of Cortez (1536) to 1857, as
per detail in the work referred to, $5,622,895.
At the last date, Lassepas, author of the above work, estimates the total value of every thing
in Lower California, real and personal, at $1,369,270.
The contract made between the house of Jecker, Torre y Ca. and the Mexican Government was concluded August 14, 1856.
J., T. & Co. were to survey and map all public lands and make a scientific report as to
climate, soil, agricultural and commercial resources, etc., within 30 months from date of contract, and receive, in compensation for the service, one-third of all the public land which
might be found.
California discovered by Cortez, 1534. Salvatierra, priest and missionary, landed at San
Bruno, north of Loreto, 1697; his government lasted 70 years, until 1768, when the Jesuits
were expelled.
Commenced working mines in the south, 1746.   Colonization law, August 18,1824.  Regulations, November 21, 1828.
* The two species of mole and rat may be added to the 52 others of American quadrupeds named in
the catalogue foiud in our History of Mexico, vol. iv.
172 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
REPORT ON FRUIT-TREES OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
SAN FRANCISCO, D)ecember 9, 1867.
J. F. JOHNSON, ESQ.,
DEAR SIR: At your suggestion I address you in relation to those lands on the peninsula
of Lower California in which you are interested as a stockholder in the Lower California
Company.
First, let me say to you that I have lived nearly three years at La Paz, Lower California,
as "United States Commercial Agent," during the administration of President Pierce, having
gone there with the express purpose of purchasing a grant of the peninsula in connection with
other parties; but, unfortunately for our plans, Comonfort was just then expelled, and our
effort was unsuccessful.
By reference to the office of the Secretary of State at Washington, you can see my last
report to Mr. Marcy. Of course, while on the peninsula, I made the climate, soil, and productions my study, and few, if any, are as well advised with regard to your lands as myself.
I am a surveyor and civil engineer, and have had several years' experience in the public land
surveys of Michigan and Wisconsin, previous to coming to this coast.   I have been here
twenty-one years, engaged in public and private land surveys in the southern counties of
this State and Lower California.
Throughout your territory are valleys, plains, table-lands, and tracts on the mountains,
that are first-class agricultural lands. Water is found in many places on the surface, and almost everywhere by digging a moderate depth, or by artesian boring, in much larger quantities
than superficial observers or persons not well acquainted with the country and climate would
suppose.
By artesian wells, or broad wells or pits, lifting the water by windmills, a large breadth of
the country can be cultivated in tropical and semi-tropical productions, as well as the wheat
and corn of a more northern climate.
The climate of the peninsula is undoubtedly one of the healthiest in the world, and, for
persons of consumptive habit, without a parallel. This fact is getting to be more and more
known on this coast; and were the facilities for purchasing lands such as to afford encouragement, numbers from the population of this coast would go there to make their homes.
The first requisite with the Anglo-Saxon is a good title, and the second to be able to see
the boundaries on the ground of the land you propose to sell to him.
The peizinsula of Lower California can be made the garden-spot of the world.-Among the
numerous products are the olive-tree-100 trees to the acre, begins to bear at three years,
giving one gallon of olives; at six years gives 16 gallons of fruit; four gallons of fruit make
one gallon of table-oil. From the residuum Castile soap is made.
The almond-tree-200 trees to the acre-begins bearing at three years, and at seven years
giving 80 pounds of nuts.
The date-tree-100 trees to the acre-two varieties. The black gives the best fruit, yield.
ing 300 pounds to the tree. The yellow gives 600 pounds to the tree.
The tamarind-tree-200 trees to the acre. This tree does not produce as prolifically
here as in the West Indian Islands; but the fruit has an aroma and quality unknown elsewhere
to commerce, giving it a far superior value. The yield per acre not known.
The lime-tree, the lemon-tree, and the orange-tree, produce abundantly.
The banana commences to bear at two years, and gives first-class fruit.
The pomegranate-200 trees to the acre-at 10 years will give over five hundred pounds
of fruit to the tree, and for its medicinal properties will soon be in great demand.
The guayaba-200 trees to the acre-begins to bear at three years, gives four hundred
pounds of fruit to the tree.
All other kinds of tropical fruits grow to great perfection.
The sugar-cane, first quality-Indian corn, three crops on the same piece of land in
one year. There is a variety of -cactus growing generally over the country, which, judging
from some crude experiments made, will make the best quality of paper, and in unlimited
quantities. Also a kind from the root of which a liquor is distilled, and having a fibre very
similar in character to that of Manilla hemp.
Respectfully yours,
THOMAS SPRAGUE.
II
i
i
I
II
i
i
I
I
173
I
I
i 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
A BEAUTIFUL PENINSULA-THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF LOWER CALIFORNIA   THE ELECTIONS-REVOLUTIONS-AMENDMENTS TO THE STATE CONSTITUTION   COTTON, SUGAR, COFFEE, WHEAT, OATS, BARLEY, AND ALL VEGATABLES RAISED
ON THE PENINSULA.
LA PAZ, LowER CALIFORNIA, December 22, 1867.
Si queeris peninsulam aneenanm, circunmspice. If thou seekest a beautiful peninsula, behold
it here.  One of the old poets so sang of Italy.  In after-days the statesmen of Michigan considered the motto worthy of State consecration.  In still later days may not our "special
correspondent," in the destiny of things, apply it to the wonderful peninsula of Lower California, and thus, when the country comes into our possession-" as it must some day or another"
(popular saying)-the TELEGRAMI will have  the honor of furnishing the Baja (Lower)
Californians with a singularly appropriate motto.   And surely, if cloudless skies and an atmosphere and climate unsurpassed even by that land in which sits the Eternal City make a
country beautiful, then indeed is Lower California beautiful.
The peninsula has a population of fourteen thousand, about one thousand of which are
Americans, Germans, and other foreigners. Of the thirteen thousand five thousand are Indians,
the remaining eight thousand being Mexicans and crossed blood. It is divided into eight municipalities, each of which is represented in the Legislature by a single representative. The
representatives are elected by delegates assembled in convention by the popular vote. Heretofore the Legislature or Assembly had only one House, the members of which elected the
Governor. In cases where the municipalities are not represented in full in the Legislature,
even one being non-represented, the president of that body becomes Governor by virtue of his
office. Two of the municipalities having failed to send representatives, the office of Governor
devolves upon an old and influential resident of San Francisco, Judge C. F. Galan, president
of the Legislative Assembly.
The present Executive, Governor Antonio Pedrin, was appointed by President Juarez in
May, 1866. Since then there has been a revolution, and Pedrin was dispossessed and driven
out by armed forces under Navarete, who filled the office some four months. In his exile in
Upper California, Governor Pedrin accumulated a little army of his own and laid plans for the
annihilation of his dispossessor. Returning from California he moved upon the enemy, succeeded in ousting Navarete, and again assumed the sceptre of power.    Navarete is now
exiled from the State, and at last accounts was a follower of that adroit chieftain, General
Martinez. Governor Pedrin, Sefior Navarro, Sefior Villarino, and Sefior Castio were the principal candidates for the office of Governor before the present Legislature.
At the late election the people voted for important amendments to the constitution, and it
is in part the trust of this Legislature to carry out the will of the people. The amendments
consist of having the Legislature represented by two Houses, a Senate and Assembly; the
Governor is to have the veto power, a Lieutenant-Governor is to be elected, all reports from the
Assembly to the Governor, and vice versa, are to be in writing (heretofore they were verbal),
the Legislature is to have the power by a two-third vote of amending the statutes, besides
some lesser amendments. When Governor Galan takes his seat it is understood that he will
urge the necessity of keeping the state papers and all public documents in print and in duplicate. Up to the present time all official records of Lower California have been preserved in
manuscript.
The executive head of the Government under the old system was represented by the Governor, his Secretary and his Prefect of the Frontier, who resided at Santo Tomas, near the
boundary line. The proposed amendments to the constitution, if carried out, will materially
change the executive power and give it greater influence.   The judiciary is composed of a
Judge of the First Instance (District Judge) and justices of the peace.  There is a superior
tribunal, consisting of a Chief Justice and two Associate Justices, each, however, having dis.
tinct duties assigned them. The rulings of this court are not held valid, as the Chief Justice
residing at Mazatlan, claims, under some old law, the right to exercise supreme judiciary
functions in Lower California.
The only officers here representing the national Government are the Gefe de Hacienda (sort
of public Comptroller) and the collector of the port. Here as elsewhere the State authorities
frequently find the financial treasury so meagre that many of the revenues intended for the
General Government are borrowed by local officials, for worthy purposes, as a matter of consequence.
There is no doubt of the fact that Lower California is more than self-sustaining. The idea
that nothing can be raised here without irrigation is fast being driven to the wall. An
American gentleman, Captain C. B. Smith, who owns a large ranch at the Martires, sixty
miles distant, last year produced the very finest qualities of wheat, barley, and oats without irrigation. Some of the single grains produced fifteen to thirty stalks. At the present timne
Captain Smith has as fine fields of wheat growing as could be found in the famous regions of
Odessa. There are thousands upon thousands of acres of just such land as produce these
crops, pronounced worthless by the natives, who, deriving many of their ideas from the Aztecs
and old Spaniards, still cling to old prejudices and never ask for experiments.
Cotton is indigenous to the soil. The writer saw a wild tree growing immediately in
174 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
front of the office door of the American consul which was laden with bolls and pods-the
cotton being fine and silky. This ttee sprang up naturally years ago, and has never received
the least care or attention, yet is very thrifty and vigorous. The cultivated cotton (upland)
is of a remarkably fine, soft, and silken texture. Its productiveness is enormous, and it will
grow almost anywhere without irrigation. Mazatlan is the only market, where it brings at
present prices but five cents per pound in general. This is owing to the productiveness of
the crop and the monopoly at Mazatlan. The seed is planted in July and matures in December. The picking season continues until the planting season again arrives.
Vines thrive here equal to any part of the world, and produce a quality of wine in taste
and color but little inferior to Madeira. If proper pains were taken in its manufacture, the
very best quality of wine might be made from the grapes grown on this peninsula. ~ Olives,
dates, oranges, lemons, figs and all other fruit of a like nature grow in profusion. All kinds
of garden vegetables are abundantly grown, and potatoes are particularly good, the sweet
qualities growing to a large size and in great quantities.
There is no disputing the existence of extensive mineral beds in this peninsula. This fact
is so well and so extensively known to those most particularly interested that we merely mention
it for the benefit of those who may be ignorant on the subject, and who desire to know where
fortunes can be made.
The following is a list of the silver-mines owned by American companies in Lower California and now being worked:
The Triunfo mine, district of San Antonio, owned by a Philadelphia and San Francisco
company. This company have a twenty-four-stamp mill, sixteen of which are working. Ore
averages $50 to $70 to the ton.
San Alberto mine, district of San Antonio, owned by George Cole, Esq., has a four-stamp
mill. The ore is said to be very rich.
San Narcissus mine, district of San Antonio, owned by De Witt C. Morgan. This mine
yields from $800 to $1,000 per month. The smelting process is by the old Mexican furnace.
The Tosora mine, district of Cacuchilla, owned by a San Francisco company. The ore
taken out of the mine is shipped direct to San Francisco.
Neither of the above mines is extensively worked, the Triunfo being the only one in which
any thing like improvements and enterprise are being manifested.'She others, and indeed all,
are waiting to "see how things are coming out "-which invariably means waiting for the
peninsula to be annexed to the United States Government.
Among the mines owned by Americans now lying idle, the owners waiting to "see how
things are coming out," are the San Jose6, San Joaquin, Gobernador, Rancheria, Alemania,
Comstock, Ophir, Minarica del Norte, Marronana, Maria, Franco-Americana. The same company owning the latter also owns the Nacimiento, Ocota, and Gusava. Besides this large list of
mines owned by Americans, it is safe to say that an equal number remains unnamed. From
the foregoing statements and those which follow, it is apparent that American interests predominate on this peninsula, and that we are very rapidly becoming Americanized, whether we
like it or not.
This seems to be a favorite land for colonization schemes. Two American companies are already in possession of the larger and better portions of the peninsula. Whether these companies
shall prove benefits and blessings to humanity, or whether they shall prove huge monopolies
and establish legal systems of slavery and peonage, remains to- be seen. First comes the Lower
California Colonization Company. The extent of territory now owned by this company is
46,800 square miles-almost the entire peninsula. The price to be paid in gold was $260,000.
Of this sum $200,000 is paid in.  It is the intention of the company to colonize this territory
with negroes and Chinamen, and thus procure cheap labor for the production and manufacture
of those important articles of commerce to which we have already alluded. No companies and no
combination of companies can colonize and control the free will of the Anglo-Saxon, the Celtic,
and the Latin races. If men of such blood and lineage come to this country they will come of
their own free will-their own complete masters. As a consequence, then, since the charter or
purchase right of the company exacts that at least two hundred families shall be colonized
within a certain period, it is most likely that such families must belong to the African or China
races. Whether this planting of uncongenial and foreign seed on American soil be not sowing
material for a whirlwind, political and revolutionary, at some day in the future, we leave to the
profound study of that profound thinker, Professor Draper. Among the capitalists prominent
in the company are Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts; Ben Holladay, of New York; Sam
Brannan, of San Francisco; Caleb Cushing, Wells, Fargo & Co., and numerous others.  The
next American enterprise is the Peninsula Plantation and Homestead Association. This com pany own a vast tract of land lying along Mulege6 Bay, north of Concepcion Bay, in the Gulf
of California. The point at which their chief city is to be located is about seventy miles south west of Guaymas, across the gulf. It is about midway between Cape St. Lucas and the mouth
of the Colorado. The greater portion of this company's land is said to be fertile and
productive, and extends for one hundred miles up the coast a perfect level. The president
of the company, A. Lamott, a well-known and influential citizen of San Francisco, considers
that this is the Paradise of Lower California; and the energetic agent and superintendent of
the company, 0. F. Gehricke, is enthusiastic as to the beauties and perfections of the para
I
175
I
i
I
I
i
I
I
II
Ii 
SKETCH OF THE SETTLEMENT AND
disiacal region about Mlulege6 Bay. That it is a most favored spot, there seems to be no doubt.
The Mulege6 mining districts are said to contain gold, silver, and alabaster.  Pearl-beds  the
most celebrated in the Gulf of California, are found in the bay. There is no end to the qualities
and quantities of fish living in the waters here and elsewhere. Game is plentiful, from the
wild goose to the wild deer. One of the chief things for which this region is already famous
is its wine, known as Muleg6e wine, resembling heavy claret and port.  The Association, in
populating their purchased territory, propose to divide the land among actual settlers, who
become stockholders in the company by purchasing one or a hundred shares of the thirty
thousand into which the stock is divided. Settlers are thus to have an interest in the affairs
of the Association according to the capital invested. To men with $500 or $1,000 to invest,
at $16 per share, it offers inducements that may or may not pay, according to the success of
the enterprise. Under existing circumstances it is impossible that any monopolies or associations can import free labor and pay its price. The fact is, that cheap labor is so tempting
a bait for capital, that it underlies all these great undertakings.
The copper-mine near Loreto, owned by the celebrated Mrs. Burdell Cunningham, is now
being worked by her son-in-law, Mr. John T. Boyd.
The gold-placer diggings in the vicinity of San Antonio, and also those farther up the
peninsula at Gertrudes, have been very little prospected, owing to a want of water.  Quartz
has been discovered in the vicinity of the latter place, but that district is so remote from the
settlements that nothing has been done to develop thle variety or extent of the mineral wealth.
Over 700,000 lbs. of pearl-shell are here now, awaiting shipment to European markets.  Here
they are valued at $21,000, in Europe they are worth $48,000. Something over 80,000 pounds
of cheese were made in and exported from the muncipality of La Paz alone within the past
year. This amount might be easily doubled and trebled if there were a market.
Mescal-native whiskey-sufficient to supply home demand, is manufactured here, and sold
at'5 cents per gallon.
Though it is the Sabbath day, every one is working, because it is "steamer day."
Taking a view of La Paz from the promenade deck of a steamboat, and making a personal
tour of the city on sole leather, changes the prospect materially. The former is very pleasing,
as many of the streets are planted with trees, which in the distance give it a picturesque
appearance. That strange-looking vegetable, the cocoa-nut tree, grows to a great height, and
lends a charming feature to many of the gardens.   The principal street is Calle de Comercio
(Commercial Street), which has much more poetry than commerce about it.  This thoroughfare contains the principal stores and business houses, is short and winding, and on either
side are two rows of beautiful shade-trees.   Outside of this street there is but little order
or beauty. Cleanliness alone is the attraction. Like all Mexican cities, La Paz, from the
streets to the suburbs, is swept daily or semi-weekly.   In the portions of the town occupied
by the lower classes the most absolute negligence is apparent in almost every thing.  The
houses, made of cane or clay bricks, put loosely together, have neither doors nor windows.
The poor live on little or nothing, and the atmosphere, always mild and warm, calls for the
least possible quantity of clothing. Among other nations, American or European, the classes
living like the people we find here, would have the characteristics of brutes, would breed thieves,
robbers, garroters, and murderers.   Politeness and courtesy would be unknown to them,
and for a traveller to mix with them night after night, or seek to learn their lives, would be
at the risk of his own. If he did not die murdered, in all probability he would be
robbed. Yet among the Mexican people the poorer classes are remarkably courteous and
polite; life is perfectly secure among them at all hours of the day and night, and wherever
you go a pleasant look and a courteous bow await you. Such is the experience of the writer.
It is true that others have written very cruel and malicious accounts of these poor people;
that the American reading public have been educated to look upon the poor in Mexico as destitute of any redeeming qualities; but said public may rest assured that the dens of vice and
the lives of the masses of the poor in their own country far outnumber and are far more
degrading than in Mexico.   Truth may not be relishable at all times, but an occasional dish
should be served up lest the palate satiate itself with fulsome flattery.
La Paz is the capital of Lower California, has a population of 2,500, and is the
principal commercial city. It contains three schools, a church, and a few fine residences. The
most of the commercial trade is in the hands of foreigners-American citizens, Germans, and
French. Mr. J. P. Hale, an American citizen, residing at San Antonio, is one of the largest importers in the State. This gentleman, with Mr. John Vivas and a few other American merchants, pays more into the national and local treasuries than all the other merehants combined.
Yet we are credibly informed that the American merchants suffer greater delays in customhouse matters, and are compelled to pay many burdens, not imposed on others.   If these
facts be true, they should be laid before the Department of State, and Admiral Thatcher, commanding the North Pacific fleet, would in all probability see that American citizens had equal
protection before the law.
There is only one newspaper published on the peninsula-La Baja California of La Paz.
This is a small weekly, printed and edited by Judge Galan, of whom we have made mention
already in connection with the governorship. La Baja Califoraia (The Lower California) is
a plain, out-spoken journal, full of new ideas and vitality. It especially advocates the interests
176
i
I 
EXPLORATION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA.
of American trade in opposition to the European monopolies now shackling and enslaving the
Mexican  people.   Ill a very recent issue it tells its readers plainly that the present
tyranny of European monopolies, to the great loss of American commerce, cannot be long continued. We were highly pleased to make the acquaintance of the editor, who speaks excellent
English, and is a finished gentleman. Judge Galan takes his seat as Governor in February.
There are those who argue that he should not fill the position of editor and Governor at the
same time, but the Judge is determined that he shall have the honor of being printer and
editor rather than Governor. When we called upon him on two occasions, we found him, after
true Western editorial life, engaged in correcting proof and working press-a press, by the
way, manufactured in the year 1, or, as the Judge remarked, "long before that time." Upon
the old worm-eaten wood-work were the mottoes in Spanish-" The Press is the Power of Intelligence," and "The Press and Liberty."
Your correspondent received a most cordial welcome from the American Consul resident
here, Colonel F. B. Elmer.   Colonel E. served his country during the early part of the rebellion, and is active in the interests of the Government. Through his influence a coaling depot
for the North Pacific fleet has been established at the splendid harbor of Pichilingue, nine
miles down the coast, near the entrance to the harbor of La Paz. Pichilingue is the only coaling depot between San Francisco and Panama.
To the American residents here, and to citizens Pablo Hidalgo, Jesus Mendoza, and Jos4
Peliaz, we are indebted for many courtesies. May we not also be permitted to return our
most grateful acknowledgments to the fair and accomplished Mexican ladies, whose society
was so congenial during our stay, and whose memories shall live green in our hearts?
It is proper to suggest, on behalf of American commerce and American citizens in Mexico,
that the United-States Government cannot too soon inquire into the manner in which its
commerce is almost effectually shut out of Mexico by the action of the State governments in
admitting English and other foreign ships of merchandise to enter their ports at a reduction
of duties notoriously below those charged Americans. Our trade with Mexico through this
system is almost paralyzed, and the friends of Mexico are treated as enemies, while their en emies are treated as friends. The nations now petted by Mexico insulted Mexican liberty
by recognizing Maximilian's usurpation. Through American intervention the French were
driven out of Mexico. Through Mexican intervention American commerce is almost driven
out of Mexico.
I
f
177
I
i
I 
WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
WASIIINGTON TERRITORY.
HISTORICAL MEMOIR.
[1592.]-THE first record of any voyage by Europeans to the coasts or seas
of the region now denominated Washington Territory, is that attributed to Juan
de Fuca, in the summer of 1592. Before that, Spanish navigators had actively
engaged in expeditions from Mexico up the Pacific coast, but Cape Mendocino
was the ultimna thule of their discoveries. Juan de Fuca, it is'averred, sailed from
San Blas, Mexico, in search of the "Strait of Ancain," an imaginary channel con necting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The belief in the existence of such
strait was based upon the reported voyage of Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese
navigator, who claimed that, about the year 1500, he had sailed from the Atlantic
Ocean into the South Sea, in latitude 58~ north.  De Fuca's claim is the asser tion that he entred a broad inlet or sea, near the 48th parallel'of north latitude,
in which he sai:d eastward over twenty days, but, being unable to resist the force
of savages, hlie returned to Acapulco that fall.
[1775.] —A Spanish expedition was fitted out from Sau Blas, under the com mand of Heeta, consisting of the corvette Santiago and schooner Sonora, the
latter under the command of Bodega y Quadra.  Early in July, they made the
land in 48~ S7' north.  Thence they coasted southward inshore, seeking the entrance of the strait of Fuca (laid down on Bellin's chart as between 47~ and 48~).
Disappointed, they anchored (47~ 20'), and sent a boat ashore with seven men, all
of whom were murdered by the natives.  Bode,ga called the spot Punta de Martires, the Point Grenville of modern geography.  The  crew of the Sonora were
then attacked with scurvy, and other discouragements followed. Hence the
name of Isla de Dolores by Bodega.  This is the Destruction Island of modern
charts, a name ascribed to it by Captain Berkely, of the Austrian East Indiaman
Imperial Eagle, in 1787, in memory of the sad fate of several of his crew, who
went ashore abreast of it, and were murdered by the natives.  The Santiago and
Sonora having parted company, Quadra sailed northward; Hieceta followed down
the coast, and on the 15th August arrived abreast of an opening (46~ 17'), from
which rushed so strong a current, that he was unable to effect an entrance. To
this opening he gave the name of Enseniada de Asuncion. The charts published
in Mexico, in honor of.Heceta, designated this entrance Enseniada de Hieceta,
marking it as the mouth of the Rio de San Roque.
[1776.]-On the 22d July, the illustrious but ill-fated Captain James Cook
made Point Martinez of the Spanish charts, to which he gave its present name
of Cape Flattery. Not finding the strait of Fuca between the 47th and 48th
parallels, he denied its existence, and continued his voyage to the northwest,
without attempting any further examination.
[1 87.]-Captain Berkely, an English navigator, sailing in the Austrian East
India Company's service, in the Imperial Eagle, descried the entrance, and satisfied hi,self of the existence of the strait, in his long-boat, but made no further
attempt at entrance. At Macao, the following winter, hlie communicated the fact
to Lieutenant John Meares, R. N.,, then about to sail to Northwest America, under
the Portuguese flag.
[1788.]-On the 29th June, Meares, in the  Felice, entered the strait,
and  made  a limited  reconnoissance.   In  his  narrative, he  says.  "The
I.
178. 
-1
SKETCH OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
strongest curiosity impelled me to enter this strait, which we will call by the
name of its original discoverer, John De Fuca." Meares then sailed southward
to examine the mouth of the Rio de San Roque. On the 5th July, he discovered
and named Shoalwater Bay, calling the two capes, bounding the entrance, Cape
Shoalwater (now Toke Point) and Low Point (now Leadbetter's Point). After
a fruitless effort in the vicinity of the location of the river San Roque, as indicated by the Spanish charts, he thus gives his conclusion: "We  can now with
safety assert that no such river as that of St. Roe exists, as laid down on
the Spanish charts."  his chagrin gave oecasion for the name Cape Disappointment, the southwest promontory of Washington Territory, on which now is
erected a light aiding mariners to make safe entrance into the mouth of that vast
river, which Meares did not find. Still further to contemn the pretensions of
tIeceta, as he regarded them, he changed the name of Enseniada de Heceta to
Deception Bay.
In the fall of this year, the ship Columbia, Captain John Kendrick, and the
sloop Washington; Captain Robert Gray, from Boston, arrived on the northwest
coast. This being the first commercial enterprise embarked in by the citizens
of the then new Republic, the United States of America, a brief notice must be
permitted. In 1787, Joseph Barrell, a prominent merchant of Boston, projected
a voyage of commerce and discovery to the northwest coast of America, associating with him Charles Bulfinch, Samuel Brown, John Derby, Crowell Hatch,
and Johni M. Pintard.  Under the auspices of this association, the said two vessels sailed from Boston, October, 1787, arriving at Nootka Sound in the fall of
1788, as above stated.
[1789.]-In a summer voyage from Nootka down the coast, Captain Gray,
in the Washington, entered the strait of Fuca, and "sailed through it 50 miles,
in an east-southeast direction, and found the passage five leagues wide." In returning to Nootka, he met the ship Columbia, bound for China.  Gray took command of the Columbia, and Kendrick, transferred to the Washington, sailed
through the strait, and, steering northward through some eight degrees of latitude, passed between the continent and the islands of Vancouver and Queen
Charlotte, and came out into the Pacific Ocean, north of latitude 55~ north.
The Columbia having exchanged her furs for a cargo of tea (at Canton), sailed,
via Cape of Good Hope, for Boston, where she arrived August 10, 1790. This
was the first voyage around the globe by a vessel carrying the national ensign
of the United States of America.
[1789-1792.]-Spanish Explorations  of the Strait of Fuca and adjacent
Coasts, etc.-During these four years as many expeditions were fitted out by the
Spanish commandant at Nootka, to expire the strait of Juan de Fuca and the
Gulfof Georgia.  That under Quimper, in 1790, thoroughly examined the southern shore of the strait, naming Neah Bay, Puerto Nunez Gaona, Port Discovery,
and Puerto Quadra. He also discovered the entrance to Admiralty Inlet, which
he called Canal de Camaano. This was the southern limit of Spanish exploration.
In 1792 the Sutil and Mexicana, commanded by Galiano and Valdez, met Vancouver at Port Discovery, and, in company with him, that season concluded a
thorough exploration of the Canal de Haro, Rosario Straits, and Gulf of Georgia.
In the summer of this year, Fidalgo commnanded a Spanish expedition, which
commenced a settlement and the erection of fortifications at Neah Bay, under
the name of Nunez Gaona. Remains of masonry are still being exhumed in that
locality. Old Indians state that the building was a large one-story brick house,
with a shingle roof, surrounded with a stockade.  Shortly after the Spaniards
retired, the Indians destroyed it by fire, and buried the parts they could not
consume. It is very doubtful whether any building was erected. Materials
were landed, however, portions of which, such ashbricks, etc., are still being found.
[1792.] —Contemporaneous with these Spanish operations, other navigators
were actively at work in this vicinity. In the spring and summer of this year,
I
I
179
I
. I
i
II
I
I
i
I
I
I
i
i
I
I
i 
SKETCH OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
Captain George Vancouver, the illustrious British navigator, was engaged in the
exploration of the islands, bays, harbors, inlets, etc., of the great inland waters
of Washington Territory. From this famous voyage arose the names of Admi ralty Inlet, Gulf of Georgia, Hood's Canal, Puget Sound, and other Eaglish
names, so many of which are still preserved. Captain Robert Gray, in the good
ship Columbia, had again reappeared on the coast, and was to add lustre to the
American name in the field of discovery. Early in May he entered the bay
called by him Bulfinch's Harbor, but which the world have denominated after its
discoverer, Gray's Harbor.  Shortly after (May 11th), he successfully entered
the great river of the West, to which he gave the name, after his noble ship, the
Columbia.  Lieutenant Broughton, R. N., second in command of the Vancouver
expedition, shortly after entered the river in the Chatham, and ascended in an
open boat to the point upon which is now erected the city of Vancouver.
[1805.]-The expedition of Lewis and Clarke, fitted out by President Jefferson, having explored and followed the Columbia River from its head-waters in the
Rocky Mountains, arrived at Cape Disappointment on the 15th November. They
shortly crossed the river to Clatsop Beach, erected a blockhouse, and remained
there till March, 1806.
[1810.]-In June, Captain Nathaniel Winship, in the ship Albatross, from
Boston, attempted the first American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains,
at Oak Point, a low alluvial bottom, on the Oregon side of the Columbia River,
nearly opposite Oak-Point Mills in this Territory, and which now really wears
that distinctive name as a settlement. The Albatross sailed July 6, 1809, via
Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands, arriving at the mouth of the Columbia
May 25th.  After cruising some ten davs in the river, Oak Point was selected as
the site of the establishment. Land was cleared, seeds planted, and the erection
of a trading and dwelling house commenced. The annual fireshet of the Columbia soon after inundated the garden, floodei the storehouse, and caused the
abandonment of the enterprise. It must be borne in mind that Oregon originaily embraced Washington Territory, and that the Columbia River is the common boundary, its development and history being common to each.
[1811.] —Although Astoria is not in the Territory, yet its location and connected posts, establishments, and operations, are inseparably blended with the
subsequent history and development of this whole region. Indeed, early after
its establishment, Astoria became but an incident of those events, the theatre of
which was almost entirely north of the Columbia River, hence within the limits
of this Territory.  In 1810 John Jacob Astor formed the Pacific Fur Company.
His plan embraced a principal settlement at the mouth of the Columbia as a
headquarters and depot for trading-establishments, and parties to be distributed
through the interior, with a line of posts on the Columbia and Missouri Rivers.
The ship Tonquin, Captain Thorne, U.S. Navy, on furlough, conveyed a party
via Cape Horn; and Wilson P. Hunt simultaneously led an expedition across the
Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia. In March, 1811, the Tonquin
arrived, and on the 12th April, the erection of the fort and warehouses was commnenced at Astoria. The (British) Northwest Company of Canada (several of
whose members Mr. Astor had taken into his enterprise) determined to baffle
Mr. Astor's scheme. To avoid the impressment of Canadian employes as British subjects, Mr. Astor secured the convoy by the U.S. frigate Constitution, well
off the United States coast. Simultaneous with his sailing, the Northwest Compiny sent a party overland, under command of David Thompson, who was expected to reach the mouth of the Columbia River before the arrival of the Tonquin.  Snow in the Rocky Mountains checked the progress of MIr. Thompson.
lie arrived at the mouth of the Spokane River and established a post, about the
time the settlement at Astoria was commenced. Along his route he distributed
British flags to the Indians, and took possession of the country for the Northwest Company.   In June the Tonquin sailed up the coast, and at Clyoquot
iso 
SKETCH OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, was taken by the Indians, and all
her crew murdered, except the Indian interpreter. A large number of natives, while
robbing the ship next day, were killed by the explosion of the magazine, a just
retribution for their perfidy. During the same summer Mr. Stuart, of Astor's
company, established Fort Okanagane. On the 12th December, 1813, the British sloop-of-war Raccoon, 26 guns, Captain Black, appeared before Astoria. The
American flag was hauled down, the British standard raised, and the name of
Astoria was changed to Fort George.
A short time previous, the agent employed by Mr. Astor had sold him, as
well as the business of the Pacific Fur Company, to the rival Northwest Company
for the merely nominal sum of $40,000. By this pretended purchase of the interests of the Pacific Fur Company, the Northwest Company enjoyed a sole occupancy of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, to the line of the Rus
sian settlements.
In 1817 the United-States Goverrnment sent to the mouth of the Columbia
the sloop-of-war Ontario, Captain James Biddle, carrying the Hlon. J. B. Prevost, United-States commissioner, to receiye the return, to the United States,
of Astoria as an American settlement captured during the war, the treaty of
Ghent providing for such surrenders by both nations. She arrived at Astoria,
August 19, 1818, when Captain Biddle again raised the American flag at Astoria, it reassuming the name of its distinguished founder. The formal surrenderi
of the property by the British commissioner and the agent of the Northwest
Company was made October 6, 1818.
October 20, 1818, a convention was entered into for ten years, between
Great Britain and the United States, permitting a joint occupancy, by citizens
and subjects of both nations, of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains. In
March, 1821, the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies, who for many years
had carried on such fierce opposition to each other that hostilities ensued, entered into a partnership. With their combined influence, favorable legislation
was secured from the British Parliament, extending the jurisdiction of the courts
of Canada to the Pacific Ocean (notwithstanding the existence of the foregoing
treaty by which non-occupancy by the English Government was agreed to).  December 26, 1821, the two companies, as a partnership, obtained from the British Government an exclusive license of trade in said territory for 21 years.  In
1824 the Hudson's Bay Company swallowed up the Northwest Company, and
became sole owners of said license of trade, and successors to all the property
and establishments of their former rivals the Northwest Company.
In 1824 and 1825, respectively, the United States and Great Britain, by
treaties with Russia, recognized 54~ 40' north latitude as the southern line of
Russian America. In 1827 the treaty between the United States and Great
Britain continued indefinitely the provision of joint occupancy in the treaty
of 1818, until either party should give twelve months' notice of desire to abrogate.
From 1824 down to 1836 the Hudson's Bay Company were almost exclusive possessors of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, with here and
there an occasional trading-party, hunter, or trapper, attempting to enjoy their
doubtful and dangerouls avocation.  The latter were generally employed by the
enterprising Fur Companies of St. Louis, and but seldom extended their operations as far west and north as what is now Washington Territory.  The area of
the present Territory of Washington may be regarded during this period, and
even down to 1845, as under the control and jurisdiction of the H-udson's Bay
Company. Within its boundaries they had established forts at Vancouver,
Walla Walla, Okanagane, Colville, Nisqually, Cowlitz River, andl just after the
abrupt termination of the negotiations between Messrs. Buchanan and Sir Richard
Pakenham in 1845, by instructions from London, a claim at Cape Disappointment
was secured. This admirable distribution of posts was not only calculated to
181
I 
SKETCH OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
secure the trade of the country, but to hold the native tribes in subjection; in
short, to hold possession of the country.
In 1834, the missionary settlements from the United States commenced,
and shortly afterward the American population slowly found their way into
Oregon, confining for several years their settlements south of the Columbia.
True, two of the three missionary stations, established under the auspices of the
American Board of Foreign Missions, viz., Whitman's at Waiilkttpu and that
of Messrs. Eels and Walker, near the Spokane River, had been located in what
is now comprised in this Territory.  In 1841 the United-States Exploring Expedition (Captain Charles Wilkes) surveyed the coasts, bays, harbors, and rivers
of this Territory.  In 1843 Lieutenant Fremont, U.S. A., on his second expedition, reached Vancouver, thereby connectingo his first reconnoissance, which had
only extended to the South Pass, with the eastern terminus of Captain Wilkes's
exploration.
In October, 1845, Colonel M. T. Simmons, with his own and several other
families, who had crossed the plains in 1844, settled near the head of Puget
Sound, at Tumwater, the mouth of the Deschutes River. This marks the commencement of American settlement in what now constitutes Washington Territory.  The Oregon provisional government, formed July 5, 1843, had created
the District of Vancouver, embracing all the present Territory of Washington.
Shortly subsequent Lewis County was cut off, and the name of Vancouver
changed to Clark.
On the 15th June, 1846, the treaty of limits between the United States and
Great Britain made the 49th parallel, and the middle of the channel separating
the continent from Vancouver Island, the northern boundary of the American
Oregon.  In November, 1847, within the limits of the present Nashiington,
while yet a part of Oregon, an atrocious massacre was perpetrated at Whitman's missionary station (Waiilatpu) not far distant from the site of the present
city of Walla Walla. Dr. Whitman and wife and nine others (Americans)
were murdered in cold blood by a band of Cayuse Indians. This led to the
Cayuse war, in which the provisional government of Oregon inflicted upon those
perfidious wretches a chastisement most richly deserved, but hardly commensurate with their guilt.
August 14, 1848, Congress organized the Territory west of the Rocky
Mountains, naming it Oregon. The region north of the Columbia River having
attained sufficient population (March 2, 1853), was set apart as a separate Territory, and denominated Washington Territory. The act of Congress establishing this Territory ascribed the following boundaries: north, by the treaty line
of 1846, separating it from the British possessions; cast, by the Rocky Mountains; south, by the 46th parallel to its intersection with the Columbia River,
and thence by the channel of that river to its mouth; and west, by the Pacific
Ocean.
[1853.]-The survey of the Northern Pacific Railroad route from the headwaters of the Mississippi to Puget Sound by the late Governor Isaac J. Stevens,
the then and first governor of Washington Territory, occupied the whole summer and fall of this year. September 29th, proclamation of Governor Stevens
of his entrance into the Territory and assumption of executive duties, dated at St.
Mary's village. November 28th, executive proclamation, fixing time of election, defining judicial districts, and apportionment of districts for election of
members of Legislative Assembly.  A census of the white population was taken
this year by J. Patton Anderson, first United States marshal, which exhibited
3,965 inhabitants, and 1,682 voters.
[1855.]-Gold having been discovered on several of the tributaries of the
Columbia, in the vicinity of Fort Colville, miners from Oregon and Puget Sound
rushed to the "new diggings."  The latter, mostly unarmed  (for treaties had
been concluded the spring before which seemed to be a guaranty of the peace
182 
SKETCH OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
able disposition of the Indians), crossed the Cascade Mountains, and passed
through the Yakeini country. Several were surprised and murdered. UnitedStates Indian agent Bolon was killed, and he and his horse consumed by fire.
Simultaneously, outrages of similar character were committed by Indians in
various regions, from the boundary of California to the north boundary of this
Territory, indicating concert of action among the Indian tribes. The Indian
war of 1855-'56 ensued as a necessary consequence in Oregon and Washington,
which was long maintained, almost exclusively by the people of those Territories. At its conclusion, General Wool, of the United-States Army, then in
command of this military division, was as hostile to the authorities and population of this Territory as the Indians had been when it commenced, and much
more than he had been against the Indians during any of his campaigns.
[1859.]-February 14th, Congress admitted Oregon into the Union as a
State, annexing to Washington Territory all that portion of Oregon Territory
lying east of the present east boundary of Oregon, extending the south and
southeastern limits of this Territory to the  42d parallel, continued eastward to the Rocky Mountains, and embracing within it the SOUTH  PAss, that
great gateway of American immigration to the Pacific States and Territories.
This summer is also notable for the San Juan Island enweute, which terminated
peaceably by General Winfield Scott entering into a temporary agreement, consenting to the joint occupancy of that island by detachments of troops of the
United States and Great Britain. This humiliating condition of things yet
continues, and the laws of Washington Territory are suspended in that portion
of its limits.
[1863.]-March 30th, the act of Congress, establishing the Territory of
Idaho, curtailed its huge proportions, and reduced the Territory to its present
boundaries. A reference to the map will show that this Territory embraced at
one time great portions of the Territories of Idaho and Montana (as at present
constituted), including those miningi regions, the richness and apparently inexhaustible yield of which have attracted so much interest.
The present limits of Washing(tont Territory are suggestive of and associated
with matters of historic moment, intensely  interesting in a political and
national point of view.   It embraces the identical territory the struggle for
which prolonged that memorable controversy between Great Britain and the
United States known as the Oregon question-a contest continued at intervals
from 1807 until June 15, 1846. While it is true that both nations asserted
claim to the whole of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, up to the farfamed 54~ 40', yet the gist of the controversy, the real bone of contention, the
turning-point upon which the matter finally hinged, was the territory south of
the 49th parallel, west and north of the Columbia River. The United States
had offered on several occasions, as a compromise, the 49th parallel westward
to the Pacific Ocean. Great Britain had likewise offered the 49th parallel
westward of the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia, thence down that river to
the Pacific. Great Britain coveted the region north and west of that river, with
its free navigation, and exclusive ownership of the Puget Sound Basin. The
negotiations develop this fact, and its open avowal by Sir R. Pakenham-in
September, 1844, in reply to the able establishment of the American claim to the
whole territory by Mr. Calhoun, that "he," Sir R. Pakenham, "did not feel
authorized to enter into discussion respecting the territory north of the 49th
parallel, which was understood by the British Government to form the basis of
negotiation on the side of the United States, as the line of the Columbia formed
that on the side of Great Britain I-at least attests the fact that the value of this
interesting region was appreciated by the British negotiator.
But the treaty of 1846 has not settled the controversy, the boundary
between the two nations, and now we do not know the northwest boundary of
the Territory of Washington.  The title to San Juan Island and the Archi
183 
SKETCH OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
pelago de Haro is still in dispute.  A second treaty (July 1, 1863) has been
found necessary to ascertain the rights possessed, and the value of the benefit
conferred, by the Hudson's Bay Company in enjoying its exclusive trade and
occupancy from 1824 down to 1846. The immense claim now being urged
under the latter treaty, $5,000,000 (a trifling proportion of which is for establishments outside of Washington Territory), together with the dispute as to the
sovereignty of San Juan and other islands, which so nearly provoked collision
in 1359, between the British fleet and the camp of the United-States Army on
San Juan Island, justify the statement that at no time, since first pressed bv
the foot of white men, has its Territory been exempt from a conflict between
rival nations as to rights of sovereignty or exclusive possession. That Janus
faced treaty of 1846 is among its most notable features of history.  It aimed to
settle the boundary, but left the seeds of future controversy by its uncertainty.
Twenty-one years have elapsed, and the boundary ofthe United States is still undetermined. A portion of Washington Territory is subjected to that anomaly of
two nationalities holding armed occupation as evidence of adverse claims. That
treaty also denied the claim of the British Government, as such, south of the
49th parallel, yet resolved that great nation into individuals, and conferred
upon such individuals, or combinations of them, the privilege of absorbing as
much territory as they saw fit to claim as possessory rights, which the UnitedStates Government bound itself to respect.
184 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEVADA, INCLUJDING BOUNDARIES,
POPULATION, ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS, EARLY SETTLE   MENTS, &C.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND AREA OF THE STATE.
THE State of Nevada reaches from the 37th to the 43d meridian west from
Washington (114~ to 120~ west from Greenwich), and, from the point where it
adjoins Arizona (near the 35th), to the 42d decree of north latitude, being
bounded by Oregon and Idaho on the north, by Utah and Arizona on the east,
by Arizona on the south, and by California on the southwest and west. Prior
to 1866 the State extended no farther east than the 38th meridian, and no farther south than the 37th degree of north latitude, Congress that year having
taken from Utah and added to Nevada one degree of longitude.  A tract of
irregular shape, covering an area of some 12,000 square miles, lying between
California and the Colorado River, and bounded on the north by the 37th
degree of north latitude, was at the same time taken from Arizona and given to
this State, which, with these additions, has now an area of about 112,190 square
miles, or 71,800,000 acres, from  which about 1,600 square  miles may be
deducted for the area covered by the water surface of various small lakes within
its borders. In the organic act creating the Territory of Nevada, Congress
designated the dividing ridge of the Sierra Nevada for the western boundary
thereof, contingent on the consent of California, which by this arrangement
would be required to surrender a considerable strip of country lying within her
limits east of the Sierra, which, notwithstanding much importunity on the part
of her neighbor, she declined to do. In the absence of any survey establishing
the boundary between these two countries (a fixed geographic line), much
uncertainty prevailed as to its precise location, a circumstance that afterward
led to a conflict of jurisdiction, threatening to end in serious results. With a
view to settling this question and preventing further difficulties, the Legislature
of California passed a law in 1863, providing for a joint survey to ascertain and
adjust this boundary; which, having afterward been done, set the matter at
rest by giving to that State the greater part of the territory in dispute. The
term Nevada, signitfying in Spanish a heavy fall of snow, was adopted as a State
cognomen, because of the immense bodies of snow that fall on the Sierra
Nevada range of mountains lying partly within its limits, and bordering it for a
long distance on the west, as well as upon many of the mountain-chains in the
interior of the State. Nevada is subdivided into twelve counties, nine of which
were created at the time of its first organization and three since. These counties are of very unequal dimensions; the more western, owing to their being the
site of the principal mineral discoveries, their proximity to California, and other
favoring circumstances, being, as a general thing, more populous, and consequently smaller than those situated farther in the interior.
POPULATION.
THE number of inhabitants in the State, exclusive of Indians, amounts to
about 35,000, being somewhat less than it was three or four years ago, when
the population was much swollen by speculators, adventurers, and other tran
185
II
i 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
sient persons, attracted to the country by curiosity, or the hope of speedy gain.
This decrease of inhabitants is attributable chiefly to the diminution of this
class, and a considerable drain caused by emigration to the adjacent Territories
of Idaho and Montana, much of which is now making its way back to this
State.  That it did not largely consist of the working population is shown by
the advance of improvements, and the steady and marked increase in the prod uct of bullion, as well as in the other staples of the country ever since; the
large quantity of land taken up, and the number of permanent settlenment3 made
thereon, also pointing to a similar conclusion. Of the population accounted
civilized, about three per cent. consists of Chinese, mostly confined to the cities
and larger towns.  The people of Afiiean lineage amount to two or three hundred in the State, some of them being among its earliest residents, and nearly
all distinguished for industry and thrift.  Anterior to the summer of 1859 the
number of white inhabitants in the region included within the present limits of
Nevada did not exceed 1,000, which, according to the census taken in August,
1861, had then been increased to 16,367, the most of whom were confined to
the western marginl of the State. As nearly as can be estimated the present
population is distributed as follows: Douglas  County 2,000, Ornsby  3,500,
Washoe 1,500, Storey 14,000, Lyon 2,500, Churchill 500, Roop 500, Humboldt
1,500, Lander 6,000, Nye 2,000, Lincoln 500, and Esmeralda 2,500.
Society here, as in California, being gathered from every quarter of the
globe,  bears  a somewhat  cosmopolitan  impress.    Owing  to  the frequent
stoppage of overland immigrants, a rather larger proportion of the inhabitants than usual are native born and originally from the West.   The Chinese
reside mostlv in the towns, the self-eimployed being chiefly engaged as woodgatherers, laundry-men, artisans, or traders with their own people-gambling
being the sole occupation of a considerable number. Those in the service of the
Caucasians are generally employed in the more menial capacities, workling for
about one-half the wages paid white men. Nearly the entire female portion of
the population are debased to the last degree.  So universal is the moral degradation of this class, that it is doubtful whether, of the four or five hundred Asiatic
women in the State, a single one could be found of unquestioned virtue; the men
also being, for the most part, much addicted to lasciviousness and the gratification
of other low desires.  Though quiet and industrious, showing but little inclination to mingle with the whites, or participate in the management of public aflairs,
there is a prejudice entertained against this people amounting to a positive aversion
on the part of almost every other race; this repugnance  being so deep-seated
and universal as to place them in many respects under the ban of public sentiment, shutting them out not only from certain conventional but sometimes from
even graver privileges-the Asiatic often being denied immunities freely extended
to the Negro and Indian.  These discriminations are not confined to social life,
but affect business relations as we'll, the testimony of these people not being
admitted in legal evidence as against the whites.  In many of the mining districts of'Nevada the Chinese are prohibited by the local laws from holding claims,
a privilege never wvithheld from any other race or class of people.
ABORIGINES.
THE aboriginal races residing within this State consist of four principal tribes,
or nations, to wit, the Washoes, Pah-Ultahs, Shoshones, and Bannocks, all marked
by strong similarities in their physical appearance; modes of life, social polity,
religious notions, etc.  Something like a division of territory, however,  exists
among them, the Washoes inhabiting a strip of country along the western margin
of the state, the Pah-Utahs the balance of the western and the southern, while
the Shoshones occupy the eastern, and the Bannocks the extreme northern
portion of the State. The latter, made up in good part of outcasts and renegades
from the tribes about them, are generally accounted more bloodthirsty and
186 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
treacherous than their neighbors, a reputation that, judging from their persistent hostilities and recent outrages, seems well deserved. Considering the extent
of country over which they are scattered, these tribes are not numerous; and
although it is difficult to estimate their precise number, it does not, perhaps,
exceed ten or twelve thousand in the State-a portion of the territory inhabited
by them, or over which they roam, lying outside its limits. The Washoes, as a
family, are the fewest; while the Pah-Utahs are the most numerous of these
tribes, which are sometimes further subdivided into bands or families, those
occupying a particular section of country being distinguished by local names, as
the Toquimas, Monos, etc. As compared with many barbarous nations on the
continent, these Indians are not remarkably ferocious or warlike, or otherwise
excessively addicted to the vices characteristic of savage life, having, with the
exception of the Bannocks, offered no concerted opposition to the settlement of
their country by the whites, and but rarely attacking in force immigrant parties
passing through it. Yet, like all savages, they are easily tempted to depredate
on their civilized neighbors, sometimes destroying property and even life in the
most wanton and cruel manner, the losses sustained from these attacks being in
the aggregate quite large.   Formerly intertribal difficulties were common with
these people, bloody wars being often waged between them, resulting in a sensible reduction of their numbers.   Dissensions and feuds between the minor
subdivisions of the several nations were also of frequent occurrence. The stealing
of the squaws of one class by another, encroachments upon neighboring territory,
etc., being the chief causes of these troubles. Male captives taken in war are
killed, women and children reduced to slavery. Since the advent of the whites
into their country these internal animosities seem to have been suppressed, or, at
least, have but rarely manifested themselves in a flagrant manner. The large
and sudden influx of whites, caused by the discovery of silver, so thoroughly
satisfied these tribes of the futility of attempting to prevent their settlement in
the country that they never combined to oppose it, contenting themselves with
a few protests against the destruction of their pine-nut forests, the seeds of which
form with them a staple comestible, and with an occasional act of individual retaliation. The Indians, though wandering much and shifting from place to place
for the purpose of fishing, hunting, or obtaining other means of subsistence, have
still their favorite places of abode, these being generally near the lakes and streams,
or along the mountain-dells, where wood and water are of easy procurement and
more ready shelter is gained from the winds and storms. In these and similar
localities the winter is usually passed, the balance of the year being mostly spent
in thie mountains, where, during the autumn, they gather the pine-nut, or in the
valley and on the plains, where they obtain a great variety of food. With the
exception of a little corn and barley, and a few melons raised by some of the
more southeastern tribes, these Indians cultivate no lands, though sometimes
irrigating a species of natural clover upon which, when young and tender, they
love to feed. The culture of barley, but recently practised, and confined to a;
few small patches, is the result of accident, this grain having first sprung up from,
some seed scattered by the whites in the Pahranagat region. The habit of grow —
img melons and corn was derived, no doubt, from the natives farther south.
Being thus almost solely dependent upon the natural products of the country
for sustenance, these people, though rejecting nothing, however coarse or unpal —
atable, that will support life, are sometimes sorely pinched from want of food.
The articles upon which they mainly rely for subsistence are pine-nuts, game, fish,
grass-seed, and various kinds of roots, berries, and tender vegetation, there being
scarcely any thing that grows out of the ground or creeps upon its surface that
they are too dainty to eat. Insects, bugs, vermin, and reptiles of every description,
with the exception of a certain species of lizard, are by them esteemed wholesome
and devoured with satisfaction. When the crop of pine-nuts is abundant,* which:
does not happen every season, the Indian in this region is secure against famines
t
I
i
187 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
This nut, having a thin tender shell, and being similar in shape to a small-sized
pea-nut, is obtained from the cone of the pinon, a scrubby species of pitch-pine,
found in scattered groves on many of the mountains of Nevada. Its meat is oily,
tasting something like that of the hickory-nut, with a slightly terebinthine flavor.
They are, however, palatable and nutritious, being relished alike by the white
and the red man. They are gathered by the squaws, who, in the fall of the year,
provided with long, slender poles, beat the cones from the limbs, after which
they are thrown in a heap and the outside charred with fire, causing the lobes
to open, when the seeds are easily extracted, and after drying are put away for
future use.  Hares and rabbits are the only kind of game that are plentiful in
this part of the Great Basin. The mountain-goat inhabits a few localities, and
antelope are occasionally seen; the bear rarely or never. The sage-hen is the only
bird, except water-fowl, upon which the Indian can rely for game. Geese, ducks,
cranes. and pelicans, are numerous about the lakes and sloughs at certain seasons
of the year, many of them being taken at these times by the natives. The implements and devices employed by these people for capturing their prey consist
of fire-arms, the bow and arrow, with a variety of nets, traps, etc. Salmon and
the larger kinds of fish are speared, or, like the smaller, caught in weirs, or with
the hook and line. draining the streams and other artifices sometimes being resorted to for this purpose. The habitation of the Nevada Indian is of the most
rude and temporary kind; his "wick-ee-up" or wigwam consisting, at best, of
nothing more than a few willows bent into a conical shape and covered with
grass or barkl. Oftener the only shelter of himself and family is composed of a
little brush, piled to the windward of his camp-fire, or such protection as a cliff or
tree may be able to afford. His dress is equally comfortless and scanty, being
made up in his native state of a blanket-like robe, constructed by sewing together
the skins of hares and rabbits, with moccasins made from deer-skins or such other
material as he may be able to obtain. Recently such as have most intercourse
with the whites are beginning to adopt the costume of the latter, attiring themselves in cast-off clothing, or purchasing new when they have the means for doing
so. The women are shy, and in their primitive state disposed to be chaste, any
violation of the conjugal tie on their part formerly subjecting them to the penalty
of death, and, although the rigor of this law has of late been much relaxed, it is
still sometimes enforced against offenders.  Both the men and women are, as a
general thing, deep-chested and well built, with the exception of their limbs,
which, both arms and legs, are usually small. The adult males have an average
height of about five and a half feet, the females being from six to eight inches shorter. The latter, as among the most savage races, are the drudges of all work, having to perform most of the labor requisite to procure a living both for themselves
and their children, as well as for the men. Both sexes are filthy in their persons,
and, as they grow old, sometimes become extremely ugly-this being especially
the ease with the women. These people, without having any creed or elaborate
system of religion, believe in a Supreme Being, the immortality of the soul, and
different conditions of happiness hereafter, dependent on man's actions in this
state of existence.  They have neither priests nor "medicine-men," or at least
no class set apart for the exclusive practice of these callings. Feasts, or pow-wows,
partaking apparently of both a religious and convivial character, are common, eating, dancing, and a variety of ceremonies being practised on these occasions. In
disposing of the dead, both cremation and burial are resorted to, the latter being
most in vogue. On the death of relatives, the women set up a dismal wail, in
which the children and men sometimes join, the same being continued for days
and nights together. Nothing can exceed the apparent anguish experienced by
these poor creatures, or surpass in plaintive tenderness the cries uttered on these
occasions of sorrow. These tribes have chiefs both for war and council, these
offices being in part hereditary and in part conferred as the rewards of personal
merit Being without property or any complicated system of government, they
iss 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
have few laws, all questions of moment being settled by the chiefs or the people
in council. Gross offenders are tabooed or put to death by a general decree of
the tribe to which they belong. Polygamy, without being common, is tolerated
and occasionally practised by the leading men, none of whom, however, are apt
to have more than two wives.  The marriage rite is a simple affair, consisting of
a mere agreement between the parties, and not considered particularly binding
on the part of the husband, who is at liberty to dissolve the alliance when he
chooses.  The women are not fruitful, their progeny rarely exceeding five or six
in number.  The only domestic animal owned by these Indians is the horse or
the dog. Of the former they have but few, while the latter are numerous, and of a
very worthless species, being apparently a cross between some degenerate
species of the canine race and the coyote. Hiow these wretched curs manage to
keep life in them is a mystery. But the dog, like his master, is not at all dainty,
devouring such garbage as the latter may refuse, and in extremities prolonging
life by feeding upon any fecal matter he may come across. When nothing better
offers, the squaws grind up the seed of the artemisia and give it to these animals,
for which, miserable and useless as they are, they cherish a great affection.
The Indian's horse fares no better than his dog, being always backsore, over burdened, and starved to the point of emaciation. These animals are not used
for draught-only for riding and packing, the latter being a service they are
obliged to share in common with the women.
Mlany of the Nevada Indians residing in the vicinity of mining-camps and
the larger settlements are beginning to be employed by the whites, their services
in a variety of capacities being found very useful. Where a suitable opportunity
offers they are not unwilling to work, many of them performing certain kinds
of unskilled labor nearly as well as the whites. In the towns the men find employment wheeling and shovelling dirt, chopping wood, carrying water, etc.; the
younger and more intelligent of the squaws making fair wages at washing,
while both sexes engage in packing in fuel on their backs, for which they always
find a ready market. As a prospector the Indian is very expert, the miners often
securing his aid when going out on a tour of exploration; some of the most
valuable mineral discoveries in southeastern Nevada having been made by Indians
in the service of the whites. They are also adroit assorters of ore, having a
quick eye to detect the differences inl quality, for which reason some of them are
employed by the mill-men for this purpose. Upon the farms also, especially in
the harvest-fields, many of them prove acceptable hands; their wages in these
several callings averaging about one-third those paid white laborers.   The
natural improvidence of the Indian prevents his laying up money or accumulating
property, while he is prone to abandon work on the most trivial pretext. The
acquisition of a few dollars fills him with a sense of independence, besides being
apt to awaken his natural passion for gambling, a vice to which he is much addicted(l, and in the gratification of which he will sometimes stake his last remnant
of clothing.  Latterly cards are his chief implements, though not without native
devices for conducting these games of hazard. Toward the Chinese the Indians
on this coast everywhere manifest a supreme contempt, regarding them as destitute of the virtues peculiar to either the white or the red man, and often, in inferior
numbers, despoiling these pusillanimous people with impunity. There is, however,
an additional reason for this enmity-the Chinaman, who seeks the same callings
with the Indian, often underworking the latter, and thus becoming his keenest
competitor in an industrial point of view.
Since mixing with the whites, these Indians, contracting the diseases incident
to such intercourse, have rapidly diminished in numbers, indicating the near al)proach of the time when, as a race, they must suffer final extinction. The only
thing that could long postpone this inevitable result would be their collection
upon reservations, there to be trained to habits of industry and instructed in the
arts of civilized life. Their more thorough domestication might even tend to
i
i
I
I
189.
i
i
i
i
I
II
i
i
i
I
i
i
i
I 
0  SKETCH OF NEVADA.
ameliorate their condition and delay the period of their extermination as a people. Two extensive reservations, well adapted to the purpose, have already
been set apart in this State for their use-the one being at the mouth of the
WAalker River, and the other on the Tucker, at the point where it debouches into
Pyramid Lake. These places have been made the resort of large bands of Pah
Utahs, but, owing to a want of sufficient means, no efficient and systematic measures have yet been adopted for supplying them with implements, or instructing
them in the cultivation of the soil; and since a small appropriation, properly
administered, would suffice for this purpose, it might be good policy for the General Government to provide accordingly.  With a little aid at the outset these
reservations, now useless, would soon become the homes of a large and self-sustaining population, inasmuch as these Indians, besides having a natural aptitude
for the business of farming, will appreciate the advantages that would be likely
to acncrue to them from possessing these lands and earning their own livelihood.
At present all the tribes in this State, except the Bannocks, are peacefully inclined,
and even anxious for more intimate and friendly relations with the whites-a
disposition that might be availed of to the benefit of both races, improving the
moral and physical condition of the Indian, and nourishing a much-needed element of cheap labor in the country.   The Bannocks, always a thieving and
vindictive tribe, killing immigrants, and causing northern miners and settlers a
great deal of trouble, have of late manifested their murderous propensities in a
manner that has aroused general indignation, and impressed the popular mind
with the necessity for their utter destruction. Owing to the determined and
persistent hostilities of these savages, Government has been compelled to keep a
considerable force, composed of small detachments of troops, stationed at different points along the northwestern frontier of the State, for the double purpose of
protecting the settlers in that region, and parties passingo through it to southern
Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. In numerous conflicts had between the regular
and volunteer soldiery and these Indians, many of the latter have been slain,
without sensibly diminishing their numbers or at all abating their animosity,
rendering the adoption of a more rigorous policy toward them necessary.
EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT OF NEVADA.
AT the time the territory now constituting the State of Nevada was acquired
from Mexico, there were no white inhabitants within its limits; the sole occupants of this region prior to that event consisting of the aboriginal races, among
whom even the Jesuit fathers, with all their zeal and self-denying toil, appear
never to have extended their labors. Not a mission had then by them been
planted so far north at any point east of the Snowy Mountains. A few trappers
and Indian traders had pursued their vocations along the streams or about the
sinks and sloughs, some small companies of immigrants had passed over, and
several exploring parties in the service of the Government had flitted across these
solitary wastes, but not even the most adventurous and hardy white man had
ever presumed to take up his abode within their gloomy precincts. Anterior to
the acquisition of this region by our Government, Fremont had penetrated various parts of it, this indefatigable explorer, in connection with Stanbury, Beckwith, Simpson, and others, having afterward crossed it by different routes while
prosecuting their surveys for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific
Ocean; and although the labors of these men, chiefly directed by observations
on the topography and other physical features of the country, shed much light
upon these points, they failed to impart any great amount of knowledge as to its
mineral wealth or general fitness for the abode of enlightened man. Of the hardships, losses, and sufferings of the immigrants who crossed the great interior
basin of Utah at an early day-of their struggles with the elements, and contests
with the Indians-their hunger, thirst, and toil-but little has been recorded.
190 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
Planting no settlements and leaving no monuments behind them, the sacrifices
and labors of this vanguard of a better civilization on the shores of the Pacific
have failed to be fully appreciated, because not generally understood. The most
of them, however, having attained the objects of their enterprise in crossing the
continent, feel too well satisfied with their subsequent good fortune to repine at
the public forgetfulness of the services they rendered their country and the world.
Of all the suffering endured by these pioneers of the Far West the most signal
and appalling were those encountered by a company of immigrants known as the
Donner party, who, coming mostly from Illinois and Missouri, crossed the plains
in the summer of 1846. Ignorant of the country, and attempting to reach California by a near route, they were so retarded that they failed to arrive at the
foot of the Sierra Nevada until late in November. There, while encamped at a
considerable elevation on the eastern slope of the mountains, they were overtaken by a premature and terrible storm, the snow falling in the course of a few
days to the depth of 10 or 12 feet, burying up not only themselves and wagons,
but also their stock, which they had inconsiderately suffered to stray awav —a
fatal oversight, inasmuch as it cut off the only means left for the prolongation of
their lives.  The scanty stock of provisions brought with them being soon exhausted, these most unfortunate beings had no resource left but to feed upon the
bodies of such of their companions as had died-two of their Indian guides having previously been slain and devoured. After a time, some of the stronger and
more resolute of the party, taking advantage of a return of pleasant weather,
pushed their way over the mountains, and, arriving at Sutter's Fort, made known
the deplorable situation of their companions, to whose aid a relief party was at
once dispatched.  On their reaching the tragic spot, since known as "Starvation Camp," a scene of indescribable horror presented itself to their view. Of
the eighty persons who originally composed the company, thirty-six-twentyeight males and eight females-had perished, their bones and such fragments of
their bodies as had not been devoured being scattered around. The survivors,
lean and ghastly, appeared ferocious or idiotic, according as their sufferings had
severally affected them. Some were overcome with emotions of gratitude andjoy,
while others, gloomy and taciturn, rejected the food that was brought them,
ghoul-like, preferring the cannibalistic fare upon which they subsisted so long.
All of them, however, with the exception of three, were removed, the most of
them reaching California in safety. Of those left behind, two, Jacob Donner
and Louis Keisbury, were too weak to travel; while the third, Mrs. Donner,
though strong, and able to make the journey, remained from choice, preferring
death to the abandoning ofher husband while vet alive. No remonstrance could
shake her purpose, wherefore this heroic woman, having taken a sad farewell of
her children, of whom she had several, resigned herself to her fate, while the
relief party, unable to tarry, as the threatening storms were again gathering on
the Sierra, having left what little provisions they could spare, hastened away.
About the middle of April, nearly two months later, another expedition, having
been sent out from California to ascertain the fate of the miserable beings left
behind, found Keisbury still alive, he having preserved his existence by feeding
upon the bodies of his two less fortunate companions. Donner had died soon
after the departure of the first relief party, and his wife, famished and exhausted,
a few days later.  Keisburv was suspected of having put an end to the woman
for the purpose of securing her flesh before it became emaciated by famine. He
was, however, on a subsequent trial, acquitted of this charge. Although the occurrences here related did not take place within the actual limits of Nevada, the
locality is very near its western boundary, and, being wholly on the eastern side
of the Sierra, may justly be considered as belonging to the history of this State.
The earliest permanent settlers in western Utah were Mormons, who, during the year 1848, first located in Carson Valley at Genoa, which place from this
circumstance continued for some time thereafter to be known as the Mormon
I
I
191
I
i 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
Station.  The following, and for three or four successive years, further settle
ments were made by these people, several families locating in Eagle and
Washoe Valleys, some of them on the present sites of Carson City and Frank town. Their number afterward gradually increased to two or three hundred,
some of them having been induced, while on their way to California, to settle
here by the beauty and excellence of the valleys; and others coming in pursu ance of instructions from their superiors at Salt Lake, whose policy it was to
secure and colonize as speedily as possible all the choice spots within the rim
of the Great Basin, with a view to prevent their settlement by Gentiles, as they
impudently styled all opponents of their creed. The rapid population of the
Pacific coast, by reason of the California gold discovery in 1848, threatening to
thwart the colonization schemes of the Mormons, exposing the adherents of that
faith to annoyance and contempt, they held themselves aloof from the Gentile
world and, leading to their religious demoralization where they failed to do so,
caused the controlling powers to issue an edict in 1855, commanding their followers in these distant precincts to forsake the same and repair to Salt Lake.
In obedience to this mandate, most of those who had built for themselves pleasant and comfortable homes in the fertile and secluded valleys of western Utah,
sacrificing their property and possessions for a mere pittance, or abandoning
them altogether, departed with such trifling effects as they could carry on their
wagons for the central settlement, more than 600 miles distant over the mountains and deserts. Finding upon their arrival there how much they had been
deceived, and disgusted with the impositions afterward practised upon them, a
portion of these people, dispirited and impoverished, returned after a few years
to Carson Valley, some building new and others reoccupying their former habitations. In the summer of 1849 a party of immigrants journeying toward California, having discovered an auriferous bar on the flat at the mouth of Gold
Canion, near where the town of Dayton now stands, were induced to stop here
and engage in gold-washing, the diggings paying from  10 to 15 dollars per
day to the hand, very nearly what was then considered California wages. To
their number others coming overland were added every year thereafter, which,
with some traders, adventurers, and miners drawn from California, served to
swell the population of "the Eastern Slope," as this section of Utah was then
called, to something over a thousand souls at the period of the silver discovery,
made in the summer of 1859. Of this number one-fourth, perhaps, were
engaged in mining, the balance being farmers, traders, herdsmen, etc.  But
little land was at that time enclosed or cultivated, the most done in the way of
farming being hay-cutting, and the raising of a few vegetables, the population
depending on California chiefly for their flour, and other staples of provision, as
well as for clothing, hardware, etc., except in so far as these supplies could be
obtained from the overland immigration. For the business of procuring and
raising stock "the Eastern Slope" afforded many advantages and facilities.
The valleys abounded in good water and g'ass, and the climate was sufficiently
mild to enable animals to get through the winter without fodder or shelter,
while the immigrants arriving across the plains with their working horses and
cattle, and often even their loose stock, worn out and impoverished, were ready
to dispose of the same on easy terms to the herders and traders, selling  them for
a trifle, or exchanging them for fresh animals, to enable them to continue their
journey, or for provisions and such other commodities as they stood in need of.
Some seasons a great deal of stock, together with wagons and other property,
was abandoned by the immigrants in Carson Valley, or mnore frequently on the
deserts beyond, the owners being unable to get it any farther. In such cases
this property would be appropriated by the settlers, traders, and others, who
made a business of gathering it up, going sometimes far out upon the desert for
this purpose. The stock so collected, having under careful treatment recuperated, was either taken to California for a market, or kept to swell the herds of
192 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
the early settler, which often became numerous, and in some cases very large.
From the year 1850 to 1860 parties were in the habit of leaving California
every summer, and crossing the Sierra with small pack-trains loaded with flour,
bacon, and other provisions, for the purpose of selling the same to the incoming immigrants, or bartering them for stock, which, consisting mainly of choice
American horses, cows, and oxen, was in great demand in California, selling
there readily, however thin in flesh, for high prices. It was the habit of these
traders to proceed to Carson Valley, or points still farther east, and, meeting there
the westward-bound immigrants, themselves often out of provisions, and their
stock reduced to skeletons, obtain the pick of their flocks and teams on almost
anv terms they might see fit to propose.  Apart from the political incidents
hereinafter related, but little of an eventful character transpired in connection
with the early history of this region.  The Mormons, who from  the first had
been a disturbing element in the community, continued to be a source of ceaseless disquietude, until western Utah was created into  a separate Territory,
whereby they were deprived of further political power. With the usurpations
and outrages complained of bv the Gentile population, the resident Mormons
had little to do, they being themselves, for the most part, in bad standing with
the ruling priesthood at Salt Lake, because of their contumacy in refusing to
tarry at that place, and for their persistence in rejecting polygamy and other
dogmas of the prelacy. Still they continued to be objects of aversion and distrust among their neighbors, who could neither forgive them for the acts of
their rulers nor vwholly suppress the prejudice excited by the very name they
bore. Prior to the separation mentioned, the Mormons had entire political
control of the country, making all laws and electing or appointing all subordinate public officers-a condition of things that naturally chafed their opponents
a good deal, and sometimes furnished just grounds of complaint.  Laws,
obscure, partial, and unjust, often in contravention of the organic act and
obnoxious to the moral sense of the community, were passed. Franchises were
granted to the adherents of the church, while withheld from other and equally
worthy applicants. Judicial and other offices were filled by persons illy qualified for the position, and unlimited jurisdiction was conferred upon inferior
courts. Petty officials were sometimes invested with almost absolute power;
trial by jury was virtually abolished; and, as if bent on entirely defeating the
administration of justice, and destroying the very machinery of municipal government, the county of Carson, covering nearly the whole of western Ultah, was
for the second tiine'dismembered, and its records removedto Salt Lake.  These
proceedings, as may well be supposed, greatly exasperated the anti-Mormon
party, who, in denouncing the oligarchy at headquarters, abated nothing of
their enmity toward such of their followers as resided among them.
Meantime certain local matters had led to dissensions among the Gentile
portion of the settlers themselves, whereby the Mormons, or " Saints," as they
styled themselves, from sympathizing with the weaker party, became still further the objects of popular dislike-a feeling that did not cease to influence local
affairs. until the large influx of population incident to the discovery of the silvermines occurred. The following extract from a sketch of this region, published
in 1862, illustrates the nature and causes of the disagreements above alluded to:
"For a long time Carson Valley had served as a refuge and hiding-place for
certain disreputable parties engaged in running off strayed and stolen stock
from California.  Owing to its remote and at that day almost inaccessible situ ation, it afforded a safe retreat to these depredators, the owners of the property
scarcely ever making pursuit. After resting and feeding for a few days, this
stock was driven thence to Salt Lake, generally by obscure routes well known
to the Mormons, who frequently took a hand in this business, or, being herded
for a time in some of the valleys about Carson, it was afterward disposed of to
the traders coming in, or driven into California at remote points and sold.
193
iI
i
I
I
I
i
i
i 
SKETCHl OP NEVADA.
This same class did not scruple in like manner to prey upon the overland immi  grants, picking up such cattle as had strayed from camp, or through weakness
fallen behind, or, where opportunity offered, stealing them outright. These
dishonest practices were not engaged in by the actnal residents of the valley,
,who sought as far as possible to suppress and discourage them, being, as a gen  eneral thing, an honest and honorable class of men, though not remarkable for
industry and thrift. To this latter remark, however, there were exceptions, a
considerable number of these people being hard-working, enterprising, and well
to do' in the world.
"For years these outrages had been going on with impunity, to the great scan dal of thile old settlers, when at length they culminated in one of unusual atrocity,
and which, being attended by circumstances of both pillage and murder, aroused
the entire community and brought down upon the perpetrators deserved and
summary punishment."
This punishment consisted in the trial and execution of two of these supposed
offenders by a "Vigilance Committee," and the banishment of others suspected
of crimes from the country, a movement that, failing to secure the approval of
the entire body of the people, led to bickerings and factions that kept them in a
constant turmoil, resulting sometimes in personal collisions and bloody strifes.
Prior to the discovery of the Comstock mines, there were but few mechanical
and no manufacturing establishments in western Utah; three saw and two flour
mills, with about an equal number of blacksmith and wagon shops, comprising
every thing ranking in this line of industry.  These mills were all driven by
water, and were mostly of limited capacity. Up to this time no roads or bridges
had been built, as indeed scarcely any were needed, the country being nearly
everywhere easily traversed with wagons, and the streams mostly fordable, except a few at high stages of water. Of public edifices it can hardly be said there
were any, some two or three small school-houses affording all needed accomnmodation for educational and religious purposes. The wealth of the inhabitants,
consisting chiefly of their horses and cattle, was not larige; and, as most of them
graduated their wants by their means, they were enabled to subsist almost wholly
on the product of their flocks and the small tracts of lands they cultivated. Before the year 1859 no systematic or extended effort had been made toward
building or improving a wagon-road over the Sierra Nevada lying between Utah
and California.  That year a road starting fiom  Placerville was surveyed, and
partly built up the South Fork of the American River, under an appropriation
made by the Legislature of California, aided by contributions from the counties
of Sacramento and Eldorado. The improved portion of this road, however,
and that but partially completed, extended no farther than the base of the main
Sierra, the point where the greatest difficulties began in crossing that range of
mountains. The next year several wagon-roads leading from different points in
California were begun, the most of which, having afterward been completed,
afford easy transit for loaded teams across the Sierra. Over two of these thoroughfares, the one known as the Placerville and the other as the Donner Lake
route, daily lines of stages are now running, while tri- and semi-weekly lines pass
over several others. Some of these roads, after crossing the main mountain-ridge
by a principal trunk, have numerous branches diverging on either side, affording
ample facilities for communicating with the adjacent country. The aggregate
cost of these improvements has amounted to considerably over a million of
dollars, the sums expended on the Placerville route alone making a total of more
than half that amount. They are nearly all the work of private enterprise, having
been built and still being maintained as toll-roads. Several of them have proved
sources of great profit to the proprietors, while others have been financial failures,
their revenues being insufficient or barely enough to keep them in repair. Yet
even the building of these has in some cases conferred much benefit upon the
public at large.
194 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
Before the inauguration of the silver-mining era, in 1859, there were no
towns of magnitude in this part of Utah Territory-Genoa, the largest place, not
containing over two hundred inhabitants, while Carson City, the next in size,
had a still smaller number.  Besides these, Chinatown, Johnstown, and Gold
Hill, mining-camps, and Mottsville and Franktown, agricultural hamlets, were
the only places deserving even the name of villages.   Tpon the discovery of the
silver-mines, population rapidly increased, and a great number of towns were
laid out, a few of which were speedily built up, Virginia City taking the lead,
while Carson, also a place of quick growth, followed up at a slower pace. After
these, and during the next three or four years, Silver City, Gold Hill, Aurora,
Dayton, Ophir, Austin, Genoa, Empire, and Washoe Cities, gradually expanded
into active towns; several camps in the Humboldt region and elsewhere having
meantime grown into considerable villages, the most of them to experience a
short-lived prosperity and afterward decline. Many other towns were projected
in different parts of the country, but being too far in advance of mineral development, few of them ever attained to any size.   The  winter of 1859-'60 being
unusually ri.orous, the pioneer settlers in Washoe (as the country, upon the discovery of silver, came to be called) suffered many deprivations and discomforts,
provisions being scarce, and their habitations, hastily constructed of the most
rude and flimsy material, affording them but inadequate protection against the
inclement weather.  There was also such an insufficiency of fodder that more
than one-third of the stock in the country perished from starvation and cold
before the month of May of the latter year, the little hay gathered the preceding
summer being early consumed by the demand that had so suddenly sprung up.
Many of the farmers and herdsmen suffered severely from this cause, losing not
only their young stock and that intended for the shambles, but also many cows,
horses, and work-cattle.
Early in the month of May, 1860, four white men, stopping at Williams
Station, on the lower Carson River, were murdered, while asleep, by a small party
of Indians. This bloody act, though provoked by gross outrages previously committed against the savages by the proprietors of the place, all but one of whom
were absent and escaped massacre, called for speedy punishment. Instead, however, of pursuing the individual murderers and bringing them to justice, an indiscriminate war was undertaken against the entire tribe of Pah-Utahs, to whom
this band belonged. A company of one hundred and fifty men, well armed and
mounted, having collected at Carson, took their departure, under Major Ormsby,
an early settler on "the Eastern Slope," for Pyramid Lake, intending to attack
the Indians gathered at that place. The latter, however, apprised of their purpose, left their camp at the lake, and, proceeding up the Tucker River a few miles
to a narrow pass, there concealed themselves, to the number of several hundred,
on either side of the stream. The banks of the defile selected by them were
covered with rocks, affording them perfect protection, and through it their foes
were obliged to pass.  When the latter, ignorant of danger, were well advanced
into this gorge, and within musket-range, the savages opened fire upon them,
shooting down their leaders and throwing the main body into temporary disorder. The whites, however, recovering from the shock, rallied, and manfully standing their ground, picked off such Indians as appeared in sight; but with so little
show of effectual resistance, that they were finally obliged to abandon the unequal
combat, some twenty of their number having been killed, besides many wounded.
Amongst those who fell was Ormsby, the leader of the expedition, Captain Storey,
Richard Snowden, and several other well-known and much-esteemned citizens.
Apprehensive that the savages, encouraged by their success, would advance upon
the frontier settlements, much consternation for a time prevailed in Virginia City
and other exposed localities. Application was made to California for aid, from
which place arms and troops were at once dispatched, and an additional force
having meantime been raised in Utah, the whole took up their line of march
i
I
I
i
I
I
i
i
II
I
.1.-.
I
. I
195
I
II
I
I 
SKETCH  )F NEVADA.
toward the scene of this lamentable repulse, hoping that the Indians, by remaining in that vicinity, would afford them an opportunity to avenge the death of those
who had already fallen. But the enemy, too wise to await the arrival of this
more formidable body, decamped, and, fleeing into the northern deserts, placed
themselves beyond the reach of their pursuers.   After a useless chase and some
skirmishing between small parties, in which a few Indians were killed, the troops
were withdrawn from the field, and finally disbanded, leaving the savages unsubdued, and, in fact, more hostile and dangerous than before-a condition of
things that tended much to discouragoe immigration and retard the exploration
of the country, inasmuch as travellers and prospecting parties could not, for
some time after, proceed to any distance from the more populous settlements without danger.  Considered in its immediate and more remote results, it may safely
be calculated that these Indian difficulties set the whole country back at least one
year.
Prior to the month of June, 1860, all the ore taken from the Comstock
ledge, with the exception of trifling quantities worked in arrastras, and at a small
water-mill on Carson River, had been sent to San Francisco for sale or reduction.
In August of that year the first quartz-mills erected in the Territory were
completed, that built under the superintendence of Almorin B. Paul, known
as the Washoe Mill, situate at Devil's Gate, being the first of these establishments started.   The same day (August 13, 1860), Coover's mill at Gold Hill
got up steam, being but an hour or two behind the other in commencing operations.   Once entered upon, the building of quartz-mills progressed so rapidly
that, in less than two years from the completion of the first, there were over
eighty of these works, carrying twelve thousand stamps, in operation, the aggregate cost of which was nearly four million dollars; the development of the mines,
the building of roads, and other improvements, having kept even pace with the
construction of quartz-mills.  During these two years the town of Virginia, from
a small village, grew into a city of eight or ten thousand inhabitants; Carson,
Gold Hill, Dayton, and Aurora, increased to considerable towns, while a number
of populous centres were established elsewhere in the mining, lumbering, or
agricultural districts. A flood occurring in the fall of 1861, followed by one
still more serious the ensuing spring, caused great destruction to the roads, mills,
dams, ditches, and similar property, throughout the Territory, interrupting for a
time the progress of work, and diminishing the product of bullion. The aggregate of losses caused by these floods and the accompanying storms, including those
arisinog from interrupted labor, amounted to over two million dollars. For a
more detailed account of individual enterprises and branches of business, local
improvements, etc., the chapters descriptive of the several counties in the State
may be consulted.
Having thus glanced at the leading facts connected with the early settlement
of Nevada, it may be expedient, before proceeding to speak in detail of its mineral wealth and industrial progress, to present a brief narrative of its political
history, following the same with some account of the topography, physical features, and natural productions of the country.
POLITICAL HISTORY OF NEVADA.
THE territory comprised within the limits of this State originally belonged
to Mexico, being a part of that purchased by our Government under the treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, consummnated in 1848. Prior to its alienation by the
Republic of Mexico, it was included in the department of "Alta Cali.fornia."
After its acquisition by the United States it formed a part of the Territory of
Utah, constituting the western portion thereof, from which it was separated by
act of Congress, approved March 2, 1861, and erected into the Territorv of
Nevada.  Anterior to this event, an attempt was made by the then residents of
196 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
this region to sever it from Utah and form it into a separate Territory, which
also it was proposed should be named Nevada. Chafing under the rule of the
Mormons, as already related, they began agitating this measure as early as 1857,
consummating it two years thereafter-that is, so far as the adoption of a constitution, and the election of Territorial officers and a delegate to Congress, could
effect that object; the national legislature, when it came to be submitted to
them, declining to indorse their action, James M. Crane was chosen delegate
to represent these people at Washington, whither he proceeded in 1858, urging
their claims in a very intelligent and energetic manner. Returning to his constituents in 1859, Crane dying suddenly in the fall of that year, John J. Musser
was elected his successor. Musser also went to Washington, where he spent a
year without accomplishing or materially advancing the object of his mission.
In the mean time, events transpired that led the people to abandon the effort at
establishing a separate government, and determined them to reorganize the
county of Carson, as being the only procedure that promised to bring them pres.
ent relief. The discovery of the mines at Virginia had brought in a large population, and, by advancing the prices of property, stimulating trade, and creating
a new and more potential industry, rendered the adoption of some plan for insuring an administration of law necessary.  No attempt at setting the machinery
of this provisional government in motion had as yet been made; wherefore, when
the Territorial Legislature convened at Genoa, the capital, on the 15th day of
December, 1859, Governor Roop, in  the message transmtitted to them, having recounted the causes that had first led to the inauguration of this movement and
the changed circumstances under which they now found themselves placed, adjourned the Assembly to the month of January following-this, the first, proving
to be the final adjournment of that body. In the spring of 1860, John Cradlebaugh, appointed one of the United States District Judges for Utah, arrived in
Carson Valley, having been assigned to this portion of the Territory. As an
officer, he discharged his duties to the satisfaction of the people, but as all proceedings had to be taken and all cases adjudicated under the statutes of Utah,
popular dissatisfaction failed to be allayed, and but little judicial business was
done; nor did the restoration of Carson County, containing'all the white population in the western part of the Territory, secure the good results anticipated.
Confusion and insecurity continued to prevail, rendering the titles to property
uncertain, keeping out capital, and greatly impeding the industrial progress of
the country, until Congress, by an act approved March 2, 1861, erected this
part of Utah into the Territory of Nevada, a measure that soon brought order and
security, relieving the community of a condition of things bordering on anarchy.
In the month of July following, Jamnes W. Nye, who had been appointed Governor, and most of the other Federal officials, arrived in the Territory, and at
once entered upon the vigorous performance of their duties.  On the 31st dav
of August an election was held in accordance  with a proclamation of the Governor, whereat members of the Legislature and a delegate to Congress were
chosen, Judge Cradlebaugh being selected for the latter position. The Legislature at their first session, commencing on the first of October, enacted a very
excellent code of laws, modelled after those of California. The Territorial org,anization thus effected continued to be maintained until the 19th day of January,
1864, when it was superseded by the present State constitution, then adopted
under an enabling act of Congress. A similar instrument, framed by a convention duly chosen, had, on being submitted to the people, been by them rejected the
previous year. Nevada was, on proclamation of the President, admitted into the
Union, forming the thirty-sixth State, on the last day of October, 1864, being barely
in time to allow the people to cast a vote for presidential electors that year.
The constitution of this State declares in its Bill of Rights that the paramount
allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government, and that no power
exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve
i
i
I
191
4
i
i.i
i
I
I
I
I
I
i
i
I
II
I
I 
SKETCH OF NEVADA.
their connection therewith, or to perform any other act tending to impair, subs
vert, or resist the supreme authority of the Government of the United States, alnd
asserting the right of the latter to maintain the Union, and compel obedience
to its laws by the employment of whatever force is necessary to that end-Nevada having been the first State to engraft this doctrine of Federal supremacy
on its fundamental law. In her acceptance of the provision contained in the
enabling act of Congress, requiring that she should, by an ordinance forever
irrevocable, without the consent of the United States, prohibit slavery within
her limits, Nevada has entitled herself to the further distinction of being the first
State to surrender all power over this institution, by a condition precedent to
the framing of her primary law. The entire vote polled in the State at the Novembe relection in 1864, was 16,420, of which 9,826 were cast for Lincoln and
6,594 for McClellan electors.  On this occasion H. G. Blasdel was chosen Governor, in opposition to David E. Buel, and Henry G. Worthington was elected
member of the Ilouse of Representatives.   The  Legislature, at its first session
under the new constitution, elected William M. Stewart and James W. Nye United
States Senators, the latter having been reelected to this position in January,
1 867.  Delos R. Ashley, chosen representative to Congress  in 1864, was reelected in the fall of 1866 at which time also H. G. Blasdel was reelected Governor of the State.  At its session commencing on the first Monday of January, 1867, the Legislature of this State ratified the proposed amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery in all parts of the Republic,
there being but a single negative vote cast in each branch of that body.
198 
DISCOVERY OF GOLD, ETC.
THiE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.*
Translated from the " Coleccion de documentos relativos at departmento de  Catifornias, por
mfanuel Castanares."
"MEXICO, 1844.
' THE deposit of gold discovered in the course of last year has attracted great
attention. It extends itself nearly thirty leagues. The good quality of this
metal is made manifest by the certificate of its assay, which was made by the
bank of this capital, the original of which is in the possession of your Excellency.
In order to bring to light the elements of the great riches in which the Californias abound, it is necessary to dictate the means of a very thorough examination.
I shall have the honor within a few days to present to your Excellency an account
of what those detailed elements consist, and the means of unfolding them with
very few sacrifices.
" MANUEL CASTANARES."
Extract of letter to the Minister of Foreign Relations and Government concerning the resources of the State.
" MIN I N G.
"THis branch ought to be considered less worthy of attracting attention than
agriculture. It is nevertheless of great importance, and I have the satisfaction
otf assuring you that it forms in Califorma one of the most valuable resources
which that department contains. Besides the mines of silver which have been
found and which have been proved by the extraction of some metal, the placer
of gold in particular is worthy of all attention, which, with nearly thirty leagues
of extension, was discovered lately, and the coal-mines. It is painful for me to have
to confess that this branch is in a worse state than that of agriculture, that it is in
its infancy-this, it can be said, is not yet born, notwithstanding that, according
to the approximate calculation of reliable people of Los Angeles, on my departure
from that town in December, 1863, there were in circulation about two thousand
ounces of gold which had been taken out of the above-mentioned mine, the
greater part of which was destined to the United States. This metal has some
alloy-according to the certificate of its assay by the bank of this capital, which
was in the possession of the government at the beginning of this year-twentytwo carats' two and a half grains of gold and fifteen grains of silver."
ALTITUDES OF THE PRINCIPAL POINTS ON THE
PACIFIC SLOPE. f
THE COAST RANGE,
In the middle part of California, has an average height of 2,000 or 3,000 feet,
with no peaks as high as 4,000 feet. To the north and south its average height
is about 5,000 feet. To the west of this range the temperature is greatly modified
by the ocean, making the range of the thermometer very small.  To the east, as
in Sacramento Valley, the temperature varies much more, because much of the
moisture from the sea cannot reach it.
t Fatmrnished by Lieutenant-Colonel Williamson, U. S. A.
199
i
i
I
I
i
i
i
I
I
i
I
I
I
I
I
ii
I
i
* Translated by Charles Yale. 
ALTITUDES OF THE PACIFIC  SLOPE.
THE SIERRA NEVADA
Is the highest range of mountains in the United States.   Its passes are from
5,000 to 8,000 feet high, with peaks to the north and south occasionally reaching over 14,000 feet.  The central part is of less altitude.  The climate of the
western slope is very dry, compared with that of the coast, with a considerable
monthly and daily range of the thermometer.
THE GREAT BASIN.
EAST of the Sierra the climate is exceedingly dry, the difference of the wet
and dry bulbs of the psychrometer occasionally reaching 40~ F. Sometimes the
thermometer will read 80~ F. at two P. M., and below the freezing point in the
coldest part of the following night.  This so-called "Great Basin " is bounded
on the east by the Rocky Mountains, on the south by the Colorado River, etc.,
and has an average height of 4,000 feet, with peaks and ranges sometimes reaching 10,000 feet. It contains a valley 30 miles in length (" Death Valley," the
sink of the Amargosa River), which is 175 feet below the level of the sea.
The Colorado Desert has a climate very much like that of the Great Basin,
though it is much nearer the level of the sea.  The temperature occasionally
reaches 120~ F. in the shade. On the Pacific coast the barometer seldom changes
in the warmest month more than 3  of an inch, and in the coldest month more
than j  of an inch.
THERMOMETER.
MOUTAINS, ETC.             Altitude in       Barometer,        Av
feet.       yearly mean. Average of    Average of
coldest month. warmest month
Mount Shasta, California,           14,440......
Mount Hood, Oregon,                 11,225......
Mount Diablo, California,             3,855..
Aurora, Nevada,                       7,441..                 36~            78~
Austin,    "                         6,451......
Virginia City,"                       6,300..
Carson City,  "                      4,720..                31              71
Placerville, California,              1,965..                45              76
Yosemite Valley,"                     3,935......
Death Valley,      "                   175..
Astoria, Oregon,                near sea-level.       30.028              43             63
San Francisco, California,..              30.067              50             61
Sacramento,        "..              29.981              46              72
San Diego,         "....                                51              68
Sitka,Aliaska,....                                30              55