o # PRACTICAL TREATISE HYDRAULIC MINING CALIFORNIA. DESCRIPTION OF THE USE AND CONSTRUCTION OF Ditches. Flumes, Wrought-iron Pipes, and Dams ; FLOW OF WATER ON HEAVY GRADES, AND ITS APPLICABILITY, UNDER HIGH PRESSURE, TO MINING. AUG. J. BOWIE, Jr., Mining Engineer. FIFTH EDITION. ■ NEW YORK: Dc VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, 23 Murray and 27 Warren Street. 1^93- Copyright, 1^5, D. VAN NOSTRAND. THIS WORK IS DEDICATED RossiTBR W. Raymond, Ph.O^ THE .^JTHOR. 2052929 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. PAGE Liberia, Asia Minor, Italy, Spain, France, Africa, India, Asiatic Isl- ands, China, Japan, Russia (Table i. Yield of gold in Russia), Brazil, Chili, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, U. S. of Colombia, Mexico ; Australasia : Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, New Zealand ; Canada, British Columbia ; U. S. of America : New England, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, other States and Territories, ......•••• 15 CHAPTER II. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF PLACER-MINING IN CALIFORNIA. First Mention of California. Discovery of Lower California. Early Explorations First Mention of Gold. First Mission in Lower California. Fir.st Mission in Upper California. Early Dis- coveries of Placers. Marshall discovers Gold at Coloma. Other Gold Discoveries. First Publication of Gold Discoveries. First Attempt to build Ditches. First Use of the " Long Tom." Discovery of Gold-Quartz Veins. First Working of Deep De- posits. Sluicing. First Use of the Hydraulic Method. Canvas Hose. Iron Pipe. Inverted Siphons. Improved Nozzles. First Rifle. Deflector. First Drift-Mining. Table Mountain. Deep Tunnels, .......... 42 CHAPTER III. GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF CALIFORNIA. The three Great Belts of California. — Belt of the Coast Ranges: Topographical Limits. Mountain System. General Topographi cal Structure. General Geological Structure. Metamorphism. Cretaceous Formations. Coal and Cinnabar Deposits. Tertiary Strata. Asphaltum Deposits. Tin Ore. Pliocene Gravels. Gold, Silver, and Copper Veins. Eruptive Rocks. — Great Valley of California : General Topography. Drainage. Rain- fall. — Belt of t he Sierra Nevada : Topographical Structure. General Geolojicil Structure Granite. Auriferous Slate For- mation. Gold-(>aartz Veins. Carboniferous Limestones. Ma- rine Sedimentary Deposits. Lava. Sedimentary Volcanic Layers. Gravel Deposits. Deposits at La Grange, _ . . . . 53 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD IN DEPOSITS AND THE VALUE OF DIFFERENT STRATA. PAGE Top Gravel sometimes pays. Gold in the Grass-Roots. Pay Gravel sometimes high above Bed-Rjck. Pay Gravel generally near Bed-Rock. Tuolumne River Claims. Nevada County. Sand generally poorer than Gravel. Rich Pay in Undulations and De- pressions. — Examples of the Comparative Values of the Different Gravel Strata : North Bloomfield. Patricksville Light Claim. La Grange Light Claim. Polar Star Mine, .... 70 CHAPTER V. A.MOUNT OF WORKABLE GRAVEL REMAINING IN CALIFORNIA. Minimum Pay Yield, ......... 76 CHAPTER VL THE DllFERENT METHODS OF MLNL-VG GOLD-PLACERS. Miners' Classification of Deposits. Classification of Mining Opera- tions. — Surface - M ini ng : Dry- Washing. Beach-Mining. Bar and River Mining. Ground-Sluicing. Booming. — Deep-Min- ing : Drifting. Fig i. Sunny South Mine. Hydraulic Mining. Origin in California. Hydraulic vs. Drift Mining. Require- ments for Financial Success, ....... 78 CHAPTER VIL PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS. Indications. Explorations at Malakoff. Fig. 2. Section of Malakoff Shaft No. I, 87 CHAPTER Vin. RESERVOIRS AND DAMS. Storage Reservoirs : Sources of Water-Supply. Requirements for Sites. Elevation. Streams Rainfall. Snowfall. Absorption and Evaporation. Reservoir Gauge. Reservoir Statistics. Distributing Reservoirs. Table 2. Reservoirs on the Yuba, Bear, Feather, and American Rivers. — Dams : Foundation. Wooden Dams. Abutments. Masonry Dams. Fig. 3. Section of Dam. Earthen Dams. Puddle Walls. Shrinkage of Em- bankments Table 3. Angles of Repose and Friction of Em- bankment Materials. Fig. 4 Dry-Stone Dam. Dams in Cali- fornia. Table 4. Principal Dams in California. — Bowman Re servoir and Dam : Main Dam. Fig. 5. Bowman Main Dam Waste Dam. Fig 6. Bowman Waste Dam. Debris Dams Table 5. Rainfall at North Bloomfield and at the Bowman Dam Table 6. Rain and Snow Fall at Bowman Reservoir, ... 90 CONTEXTS. 9 CHAPTER IX. MEASUKF.MK.N "T OF FLOWINV; WAIER. PAGE Weirs. Orifices. Open Channels. Formula for Discharge over Weirs. Discharge through Triangular Notches. Fig. 7. Con- struction of Triangular Weirs. Table 7. Discharge of Water through a Right-angled Triangular Notch. Table S. Coefificients of Discharge through Rectangular Orifices — Miner s Inch : Smartsville Inch. Other Inches. Determination of the Inch ; Experiments at Columbia Hill. Fig. 8. Experiments on the Inch at Columbia Hill. Flow of Water in Open Channels. Kutter's Coefficients for Roughness. Ditches in California. Ex- amples of Value of Coefficient in Ditches, . . . 119 CHAPTER X. DITCHES AND FLUMES. Ditches: Location and Construction Principle-. Surveying a Ditch Line. Narrow and Deep vs. Broad and Shallow Ditches. Excavating the Ditch. Examples of Ditche-. North Bloomfield. Fig. 9. North Bloomfield Main Ditch. Milton Company. Fig. 10. Milton Diich. Eureka Lake. South Yuba Canal Com- pany. Smartsville Ditches. Spring Valley and Cherokee. Hen- dricks. La Grange Ditch. Fig. 11. La Grange Ditch. Fig 12. La Grange Wall Ditch. Fig. 13. La Grange Flume. — Flumes: Flumes vs. Ditches. Grades Fig. 14. Flume Construction. Planking. Sills and Posts. Curves. Waste-Gates. Precautions against Cold. Experience in the Black Hills. Fig. 15 Wyom- ing and Dakota Co.'s Flume and Ditch. Details of Construc- tion. Lunlier : Table 9. Table lo. Tible 11. Bracket Flume. Figs. 16 and 17. Miocene Co.'s Bracket Flume. Details and Costs of Mil on Ditch and Flumes. Table 12. Co-t of Milton Ditch. Fig. 18. Milton Flume. Table 13. Dimensions and Costs of Ditches (including Flumes), ..... 135 CHAPTER XI. PIPES AND NOZZLES. Wrought-Iron Pipes : Inverted Siphons. Thickness of Iron. T.i'.jle 14. Thickness and Weight of Iron for Pipe. Fig. 19. 'I'exas Creek Pipe. Table 15. Tensile Strain on Wrought-Iron Pipe. Table 16. Area and Weight of Wrought-Iron Pipe. Riveting. Table 17. Sizes of Rivets. Table iS. Details of Riveting a 22- inch Pipe. Joints. Fig. 20. Lead Joint. Fig. 21. Method of Tightening Leaky Joints. Fig. 22. Elbow for Short Curves. Fig. 23. Method of Strapping Elbows and Pipes. Fig. 24. .\ic- lO CONTENTS. Valve for Pipe. Fig. 25. Blow-off for Pipes. Fig. 26. Self- Acting Air- Valve. Preservation against Rust and Accidents. Filling Pipes. — Statistics of Pipe-Lines : La Grange Hydraulic Mining Company. Table 19. Cost of Iron Pipe at North Bloomfield. Spring Valley Water Co. Table 20. Details of Construction of Spring Valley Water Co 's Pipe. Virginia City Water- Works. Fig. 27. Profile of Pipe-Line of Virginia City Water Co. Spring Valley and Cherokee Hydraulic Mining Com- pany. Fig. 28. Profile of Pipe-Line of Spring Valley and Che- rokee Co. "s Pipe. Table 21. Detailsof Spring Valley and Chero- kee Pipe. Flow of Water through Pipes. Table 22. Flow of Water through Circular Pipes. Pressure Box : La Grange Pressure Box. Figs. 29, 30, 31. North Bloomfield Pressure Box. — Supply or FeeJ Pipes : Fig. 32. Distributing Gate. — Discharge Pipe or Nozzle : Fig. 33. Goose Neck. Fig. 34. Globe Monitor. Fig. 35. Hydraulic Chief. Dictator. Fig 36. Little Giant. Pig. 37. Little Giant Rifle. Fig. 38. Hydraulic Giant. Fig. 39. Monitor Hydraulic Machine. Deflector, ..... 15S CHAPTER Xn. VARIOUS MECHANICAL APPLIANCES. Derricks, Hurdy-Gurdy Wheels : Experiments at North Bloomfield. Table 23. Experiments with Hurdy-Gurdy Wheels at North Bloomfield. Figs. 40 and 41. Hurdy-Gurdy Wheel and Derrick Hoist. Figs. 42-43. Hurdy-Gurdy Wheel and Nozzles. Ex- periments at Empire Mill. Tests at the Idaho Mine. Fig. 44. Pelton Wheel. Tests at the University of California. Flat Buckets. Curved Buckets. Figs. 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52. Buckets for Hurdy-Gurdy Wheels. Fig. 53. Pelton Wheel. Figs. 54 and 55. Diagrams of Efificiency of Pelton Wheel. Fig. 56. Diagram of the Comparative Efificiency of Wheels. The Pan. The Batea. Fig. 57. The Rocker. Fig. 58. The Tom. Puddling Box. Amalgam Kettles, ...... 185 CHAPTER XIII. BLASTING GRAVEL BANKS. Blast at Smartsville. Fig. 59. Diagram of Powder Chambers. Blue Point Blast. Paragon Mine Blast. Fig. 60. Blast at Paragon Mine. Dardanelles Mine Blast. Blasting Powder. Methods of Blasting. Table 24. Bank Blasting at the Manzanita Mine. Firing by Electricity. Fig. 61. Arrangement of wire for firing by Electricity. Tamping, . . . . . . . 206- CONTEXTS. I I CHAPTER XIV. TUNNELS AND SLUICKS. PACE Tunnels : Shafts for Tunnels. Shaft Timbering. Second Shaft. First Washing. Size of Tunnel. I-ocation of Tunnels. — Sluices: Grade. General Grade adopted. Size of Sluice. Details of Construction. North Bloomfield Tunnel Sluice. Figs. 62. 63, 64. Tunnel Sluice Box at North Bloomfield. Bed-Rock Claim Sluice Boxes. La Grange Sluice Boxes. — Riffles : Block Riffles. Advantage of Block Riffles. Life of Blocks. Rock Riffles. Blocks and Rocks. Longitudinal Riffles. Bed-Rock Riffles. — Branch Sluices : Fig. 65. Turn-in Sluice, Patricksville. Turn out Sluice. Fig. 66. Box of Turn-out Sluice. — Underctinents : Figs. 67, 68, 69. Undercurrent at North Bloomfield. Table 25. Lengths and Grades of Tunnels at Smartsville, Yuba County, Cal. Table 26. Lengths, Grades, and Costs of Tunnels in Ne- vada County. Table 27. Cost of Construction of the French Corral Tunnel and Sluices. Table 28. Cost of Construction of the Manzanita Mine Tunnel and Sluices, .... 215 CHAPTER XV. TAILINGS AND DU.MP. Tailings : Composition of Tailings. Wear in Running Water. Ef- fects of Hydraulic Debris. Table 29, Hall's, and Table 30, Mendell's, Estimate of the Amount of Debris in certain Rivers in California. — Dump : Working on different Bed-Rock Levels with same Dump. Tailing into Streams. Experience at La Grange. Exceptional Cases, ......... 236 CHAPTER XVL WASHING, OR HYDRAULICKING. Charging the Sluices. Commencing W'ork. Caving Banks. High Banks. Light. Electric Light. Continuous Work. Cleaning up. Treating the Quicksilver and Amalgam. Retorting. Figs. 70 and 71. The Retort, ........ 244 CHAPTER XVIL THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD IN SLUICES. Distribution in Tail Sluices. Fig. 72. Tail Sluices and Undercurrents. Table 31. French Corral Undercurrents ; Yield of the Under- currents, etc., at the French Corral Mine. Table 32. Manzanita Mine Sluices. Table 33. Distribution of Gold in the Manzanita Mine Sluices. Table 34. Distribution of Gold in the French Corral Sluices. Table 35. Distribution of Ciold in the North Bloomfield Sluices, ......... 252 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. LOSS OF GOLD AND QUICKSILVER. l-AGK Loss of Quicksilver. La Grange. North Bloomfield. Table 36. Loss of Quicksilver and Yield of Bullion at North Bloomfield. Delaney and New Kelly Claims. Table 37. Run at the De- laney and New Kelly claims. Loss of Gold 263 CHAPTER XIX. THE DUTY OF THE MINER'S INCH. Table 38. Estimates of the Duty of the Inch, Mendell. Table 39. Estimates of the Duty of the Inch, Payson. Table 40. Esti- mates of the Duty of the Inch, State Engineer. Table 41 A and B. The Duty of the Inch at North Bloomfield and La Grange, . 268 CHAPTER XX. ST.VTISTICS OF THE COSTS OF WORKING AND THE YIELD OF GRAVEL. Table 42. Details of Working the French Hill Claim. Table 43. Details of Working the Light Claim, Patricksville. Table 44. Details of Working the Chesnau Claim. Table 45. Details of Working the Johnson Claim. Table 46. Details of Working the Sicard Claim. Table 47. Resume of Workings by the La Grange Co. Table 48. Details of Working No. 8 Claim, North Bloom- field. Table 49. Classification of Mines and Mining Expenses. Table 50. Yield of Important Hydraulic Claims in California. Table 51. Yield of Various Gravel Claims in California. Table 52. Yield of Gravel in Foreign Gold Fields 275 Appendix A, 281 Appendix B, 289 Index 293 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. ^'ig- 5- Fig. 6. Fig- 7 ■ Fig. 8. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. iq. Fig. 20. Fig. 21 Fig. 22. Fig. 23. Fig. 24. Fig. 25. Fig. 26. Fig. 27. Fig. 28. Figs. 29, Fig. 32. Fig. 33- Fig. 34. Fig. 35- Fig. 36- Fig. 37. Sunny South Mine, Placer Co., Cal , Shaft No. I, Malakoff, Rankine's Section of Dam, . Dry -Stone Dam, .... Bowman Main Dam, A and li (2), Bowman Waste Dam, A and B (2), Con>truction of Triangular Weirs, The Inch Gauge, North Bloomfield Main Ditch, Milton Ditch, La Grange Ditch, La Grange Wall Ditch, La Grange Flume, Flume Construciion, Profile of Wyoming a. id Dakota Co.n;):iny Flume Bracket Flume of Miocene Company, Method of Hanging Bracket Flume, Milton Flume, .... Profile of Texas Creek Pipe, Lead Joint, .... Method of 'I'ightening Leaky Joints, Elbow for Short Curves in Pipes, Method of Strapping Elbows and Pipes Air- Valve for Pipes, Blow-off for Pipes, Self-acting Air- Valve, Profi'e of Virginia and Gold Hill Water Co. Pipe-Lin Profile of the Spring Valley and Cherokee Co. P 30, 31. North Bloomfield Pre-sure Box, Distributing Gate, Goose Neck, Craig's Globe Monitor, The Hydraulic Chief, The Little Giant, The Little Giant Rifle, pe-L facin e, ine. facin 85 89 98 lOI 106-7 III 121 125 139 139 141 141 142 143 g 147 151 152 156 g 160 163 164 165 165 166 166 167 173 facini 179 iSo i8i 181 182 182 H LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Fig. 38. The Hydraulic Giant. 183 Fig. 39. Monitor Hydraulic Machine, ...... 184 Figs. 40, 41. Hurdy-Gurdy Wheel and Derrick-Hoist, . . . 186-7 Fig. 42. The Hurdy-Gurdy Wheel, 188 Fig. 43. Nozzles for Hurdy-Gurdy Wheels, ..... 189 Fig. 44. The Pelton Wheel, 193 Figs. 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52. Buckets for Hurdy-Gurdy Wheels, 194-7 Fig. 53. The Pelton Wheel, 198 Figs. 54-55. Diagrams showing the Eflficiency of the Pelton Wheel, 199-200 Fig. 56. Diagram showing the Comparative Efficiency of Wheels, . 201 Fig. 57. The Rocker 203 Fig. 58. The Tom, 204 Fig. 59. Diagram of Powder Chambers, Smartsville, . . . 207 Fig. 60. Powder Chambers, Paragon Mine, ..... 209 Fig. 61. Arrangement of Mines for Firing by Electricity, . . 213 Figs. 62, 63, and 64. Tunnel Sluice Box at North Bloomfield, . . 222 Fig. 65. Turn-in Sluice, Patricksville, ...... 228 Fig. 66. Turn-out Sluice-Box, ........ 230 Figs 67, 68, and 69. North Bloomfield Undercurrents, , . facing 231 Figs. 70 and 71. Retort, ........ 250 Fig. 72. Tail Sluices and Undercurrents, ...... 254-5 Hydraulic Mining in California. CHAPTER I. THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHIXG. The records of gold-washing have been traced al- most to the prehistoric period. If any reliance can be placed upon the traditions which have descended to us, the yield from the auriferous deposits of the ancient world must have been enormous. It is a well authenticated fact that the Greeks carried on from the earliest times an ex- tensive commercial intercourse with the people whcj lived north and east of the Euxine Sea, and thus drew large- ly on the gold-fields of Siberia, from which source the Gothic tribe of the Massaget^ also obtained their wealth. These gold deposits are supposed to have been situated in lat. 53° to 55° N., and are said to be identical with those worked by the Russians during the present cen- tury. Asia Minor. — The mountains and streams of Phrvgia and Lydia yielded gold in ancient times, and history has familiarized us with the wonders of the Pactolus.* from whose famous golden sands Croesus is said to have de- rived his wealth. The sands of Asia Minor long since ceased to yield the precious metal. Italy. — From a passage in Strabo (book iv. ch. 6, sec. 12) it appears that imperial Rome was "inundated with a glut " of gold from her northern mountains, the Alps. Polybius says that in his times gold-mines were so rich about Aquileia . . . that if vmi dug but two feet * Herodotus, book v. c. loi ; Strabo, book xviii. l6 Till-: RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. below the surface you found gold, and that the diggings generally were not deeper than fifteen feet. . . . Italians aiding the barbarians in the working ior two months, gold became forthwith one-third cheaper over the whole of Italy.- Gold alluvia are known to exist in various localities in Upper Italy, but appear to be poor; and at the pre- sent time no gold-washing is carried on, except, perhaps, bv a lew individual workers. The sands of the Oreo, the Jassin, the Po, and the Serio are estimated to have yielded three hundred ounces of gold in i862.f Spain and France. — The Romans are stated to have washed the sands of st; eams along the base of the Pyrenees.:): The Phoenicians obtained gold from. the bed of the river Tagus i lOO B.C., and washings are reported along this stream as late as 1833 a.u. The Douro sands were worked for gold by the Arabs until 1147 a.d. Up to the close of the fifteenth century the deposits of the river Ariege vielded annually about one hundred pounds of the precious metal. As late as 1846 gold- washings are reported along the Rhine between Strassburg and Phil- ippsburg. Africa. — ^At the present time but little gold is fecund within the limits of Abyssinia and Nubia, though the an- cient Egyptians mined the precious metal in the latter country. The ancient mines described bv Lenant Bey are situated in a district called Attaki, or AUaki, between Berenice and Suakin, on the Red Sea, one hundred and twenty miles distant from Ras-Elba. They are spoken of bv Diodorus Siculus, and shown on one of the oldest topographical maps extant, preserved in Turin. * '■ SiUiria," foot-note, p. 449 ; also Pliny, book iii. c. 6, on the Great Value of the Mines of Italy. + " Report on Precious Metals," \V. P. Blake, Paris Universal Exposition, 1867. * Strabo, book iv. p. 290 ; Caesar, " De Bello Gallico," iii. 21 ; Jacob's " Inquiry into the Precious Metals," p. 53. § See ■■ Aeatharchiaes d*- Rubro Mari," in Diodorus, b. iii. c. 12-15; " Account of the Mines in N'ubia and Ethiopia" ; also Jacob's " Inquiry into the Precious Metals," ch. 11. THE RKC(JR1)S OF GOLD-WASHING. I7 The earliest record of the Egyptian mines dates Irom the twelfth dynasty. The principal mines of Kordofan are between Darfur and Abyssinia. These mines are mentioned by Herodotus. Nearly all the gold obtained in Africa has come from alluvial deposits. The country south of Sahara, from the mouth of the Senegal to Cape Palmas, contains numerous gold-bearing alluvions, which are worked by the negroes. The product of these mines is conveyed by caravans to Morocco, Fez, and Algiers, and forms a principal article of export from the Guinea coasts. Gold-dust is ob- tained also on the southeast coast, between lat. 25° and 22° S., opposite Madagascar, in the country of Sofala, by some writers identified with the region from which Solomon obtained his wealth. Recently alluvial de- posits have been worked in the Transvaal, Leydenburg district (lat. 25° S., long. 35° E.), where coarse nuggets of gold, weighing as much as eleven pounds, have been found. The approximate g<5ld export of all Africa from 1493 to 1875, according to Dr. Soetbeer, amounted to ;^io6,- 857,000. India. — In the Bombay Presidency gold-bearing de- posits are -reported to exist in the districts of Belgaum, Dharwar, and Kaladgi, in the southern Mahratta country, and the province of Kattywar. The sands in the streams arising from the Surtur series are auriferous, as are also those of the river Aji. The central provinces of India contain numerous small deposits of gold, but the nimiber of gold-washings reported is comparatively very limited. The gold-fields of Madras have recently attracted con- siderable attention. The ancient mines of these regions have latterly been rediscovered. The known accumu- lated wealth of the ruling dynasties of southern India is supposed to have been obtained originally from these sources and from Malabar. Brough Smyth, in his report on the Wynaad gold- 1 8 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHIXG. fields, 1879-80, States that the country is covered with tailings, an evidence of the industry of the Korumbas. In the province of Mysore alluvions (containing very little gold) are known to exist near Betmangla, and gold quartz is being mined at present in different parts of the province. A number of the rivers which have their sources on the borders of the Champaran district and Nepal, in the State of Travancore, contain auriferous sands, and gold- washing is carried on in these places at the commence- ment and termination of the rains. Auriferous sands oc- cur in the Kumaun and Garhwal rivers. The sands of the river Koh, near Naginah, in the Mai-adabad district, are said to contain considerable gold. In Punjab all the riv- ers are repoi'ted to contain auriferous sands. Gold-wash- ing has been practised in this district for many years, and was formerly a source of large revenue to the government. Asiatic Islands. — The sands of the streams of Cey- lon, Formosa, the Philippine Islands,'^ and some of the islands of the Indian Archipelago are known to contain gold ; at Borneo extensive mining operations are carried on by the Chinese and the natives, over thirty thousand of the former being now employed in the gold-fields. China. — In the beginning of the seventh century the celebrated Chinese traveller, Hiuen-thsang, describes the country north of the Kuen-Lun, towards the desert of Gobi, as an auriferous district. It is either here or in the Thir betan highlands, east of the Bolor chain, between the Himalaya and the Kuen-Lun, west of Iskardo, that Hum- boldt locates the land of gold sand spoken of by the Dara- das (Dardar, or Derder), mentioned in the Mahabharata, and in the fragments collected by Megasthenes.f According to Pumpelly :{: gold is found in fourteen out * See Jacob's " Inquiry into the Precious Metals," pp. 367-377. + Humboldt's " Cosmos," vol. ii. pp. 511-516 ; Jacob's " Inquiry into the Precious Metals," p. 25. + Extract "Geological Researches in China, Mongolia, and Japan," 1862-65. Raphael Pumpelly. Smithsonian Contrib., Washington, 1866. THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. I9 of eighteen provinces of the empire. The greatest num- ber of washings is in the province of Sze-Chuen (Se« Chuen) and along the branches of the Kuen-Lun moun- tain chain, which have an east and west trend, penetrat- ing into Central China between the Wei River and the Sze-Chuen boundary. Placers are numerous at the base of the water-shed between Kwei-Chow and Hu-Nan, and through the centre of Shantung, from southwest to north- east. Most of these placers furnish coarse gold. In the province of Shensi, on the northern frontiers at Hopoota and the Hala Mountains, much gold-dust is ob- tained annually. " Hundreds of thousands " of natives find employment in washing the sands of the river Kinsha- Kiang. On the banks of the Lou-tsze Kiang there are numerous gold-washings, and gold is reported to be found in almost all of the streams in the eastern portion of Shan- tung. Consul Adkins (1877), at Newchwang, reports rich diggings in the valley of Chia-t'i-kou thirty miles long, and about five or six days' journey east by south from Kirwin and Newchwang. Henry F. Holt's " Notes on Gold in China," published in Lock's work on " Gold," give very interesting infor- mation of the condition of gold-mining in this country, and Pumpelly furnishes a table of the placers. Japan. — Gold was first discovered in Japan in 749 A.D.,* and the art of mining is said to have been intro- duced from China about the close of the same century. The gold-fields of the Musa valley are reported to have been worked by miners from Chikusen A.D. 1205. Japan has always been represented as a country rich in precious metals. Marco Polo, in the thirteenth centurv, said of Zipangu : " They had gold in the greatest abundance, its sources being inexhaustible." " Great abundance " of gold was reported by Kaempfer in 1727. The export of precious metals, chiefly gold, from 1550 to 1639 by the * According to Dr. Geerts. 20 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. Portuguese was about $300,000,000, and from 1649 to 1671 the Dutch traders sent home $200,000,000, two-thirds of which was silver.* In the latter year the Japanese government forbade further export. The maximum gold production of this country was reached during the last half of the sixteenth century. Since that time the yield of gold has decreased steadily, and the product in 1874 is estimated bv J. H. Godfrey, Chief Engineer of the Min- ing Office, at 12,000 ounces Troy. The deposits from which this wealth was drawn were principal!}' shallow placers. Prof. Munroe says that the present gravel-beds in Japan are of fluviatile origin, shal- low, limited in extent, and uniformly poor. The richest deposits, near Yesso, contain less than seven cents per cubic yard, and the average of the best does not exceed five and one-half cents.f Hussia. — Russia possesses extensive gold-bearing de- posits. The principal mining districts are those of the Ural,:}: the Altai region in western Siberia, western Turk- istan, the northern and southern Yeniseisk fields, the cir- cuit of Atchinsk and Minusinsk, Kansk and Nijneudinsk in the government of Irkutsk, Verkneudinsk, Barguzinsk in Trans-Baikalia, Olekminsk, the basin of the Lena, the country along the Amur, and Nerchinsk. According to Lock (" Gold," p. 437) the total 3aeld of all the Russian gold- washings from 18 14 to i860 mclusive (forty-seven years) amounted to 35,487 poods, or 1,548,661 pounds Troy of alloyed gold.§ In the reports of the United States Commissioners to the Universal Exposition at Paris, 1878, vol. iv. p. 248, James D. Hague states the approximate total production * Griffis (" Mikado's Empire," p. 602) says that " Japan exported during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries £103,000,000 in precious metals." + See " Mineral Wealth of Japan," by Henry S. Munroe, E.M., Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng'rs., vol. v. t Gmelin's *' Journey through Siberia," 4 vols. Gottingen, 1751-2. § For production of gold in Russia see also Jacob's work, appendix pp. 414, 415 ; Report of the United States Monetary Commission, p. 571 ; Sir Hector Hay's " Parliamentary Re- port on Silver," 1876, App. 25. THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 21 of gold in Russia from 1753 to 1876 inclusive to be $730,- 000,000. He also gives the following table showing the yield of the auriferous deposits during eleven years : TABLE L Years. No. of Explora- tions. Quantity of sand and mineral washed. Poods. Quantity of gold ex- tracted. Poods, Approximate value of product. 1867 878 968,423,325 1,650 $17,958,600 1868 993 1,177,288,244 1,711 18,622,524 1869 1,129 1,054,570,392 2,007 21,844,188 1870 1,208 983.475-095 2.157 23,476,788 1871 978 1,081,518,424 2,400 26,121,600 1872 1.055 1,044,027,585 2.331 25,370,604 1873 1,018 954,648,764 2,025 22,040,700 1874 1,035 937,578,045 2,027 22,061,868 1875 1,092 1,007,293,492 1,996 21,724,464 1876 1,130 1,022,543,362 2,054 22,355,736 1877 2,430 26,448,120 The aggregate of the poods is about 184,000,000 tons of 2,000 pounds avoirdupois, and the corresponding pro- duct is valued at $221,576,472, assuming that the weight of gold given is pure metal. The Ural.— The gold-fields of the Ural extend from the sixty-first parallel northward about six hundred and ninety miles to the Arctic Ocean, and south into the Cos- sack and Baskir districts. The most valuable deposits have been found in the districts of Miask and Kashgar. At the former the largest nuggets have been obtained, and at the latter emeralds and pink topazes occur asso- ciated with the gold. Near Bogoslofsk is the celebrated mine of Peschanka. The ■ production of these districts has steadily fallen off since i860 — a fact attributable to the impoverishment of the placers, which, nevertheless, are calculated by Bogoliubsky to represent a value of $61,660,000, The Ekaterinburg group occupies the central Ural. The whole eastern slope of the Ural, north and south of 22 THE RECORDS OP^ GOLD-WASHING. Ekaterinburg, is auriferous. The principal mine of this district is the Beriozofka, which has produced largely. The first washings were commenced here in 1814, but up to 1 86 1 there was little or no improvement made in the method of working. In the southern Ural lies the celebrated region of Zlataust, lat. 55° 11' N., long, yf 26' E. The gold allu- vion is found along the lateral streams which feed the Miask. This river was remarkable for its minerals and precious stones. The Miask placers were the richest in the Ural, but of late years their product has been very small. The Altai. — Mining in the Altai is said to date from a very early period. The discovery of the alluvial de- posits along the Fomiha River in 1830 gave a new im- petus to gold-mining in Siberia, but richer fields have in later years attracted the miners, and the production of this district appears to have fallen to one-tenth of what it was twenty years ago. Tiirkistan. — The auriferous deposits in western Turkistan, along the course of the river Tentek, are said to have been worked by the Chinese. Kuznetsof, a pos- tal contractor, in 1868 tested some old Chinese diggings at Kizil-togoi, but from a summer's work at considerable expense obtained only one pound of gold. This has dis- couraged further mining. It is the opinion of many that the detritus of Turkistan is not at pixsent worth working. The Northern Yeniseisk. — The northern Yeniseisk fields were discovered in 1832. All the rivers partake of the character of mountain torrents. The most remunera- tive district was discovered in 1839, between the rivers Yenisei and Podkamenny Tungusska. The T^ya River is about one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet wide. The gold deposits along its banks have been explored and found too poor to work. On the river Noiba placers were worked in 1842. The country THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 23 was abandoned subsequently, but reopened in 1854. The auriferous stratum lies in the bed of the river, or close to it, and varies in width from one hiuidred to three hun- dred feet, with a depth of from one to eii^ht feet. These placers now produce annually a large amount of gold. In the Yenashimo valley the alluvions vary from two hundred to fourteen hundred feet in width, and do not exceed eight feet in depth. They were discovered in 185 1, and up to 1864 produced largely. As early as 1840 the attention of gold-hunters was at- tracted to the alluvions along the Kalami, a tributary of the Yenashimo, and two years later work was commenced in this valley. These placers were very productive, al- though the auriferous material averages only from two and a half to eight feet in thickness. The mines on the Savaglikon are said to have produced from 1843 to 1864 $2 5 ,000,000. In the valley of the Chirimba several deposits have been washed, and from the beds of the Aktolik a large amount of gold has been produced, the gravel having a depth of from seven to ten feet and varying in breadth from seven hundred to fourteen hundred feet. Mining operations in the northern Yeniseisk begin in May and continue until about the first week in September. The Soiitliern Yeniseisk. — In the southern Yeni- seisk gold-fields the rivers have heavy grades. In many districts a scarcity of water prevails during the summer months. Only three of the river basins are noted for their auriferous alluvions, the others holding a secondary rank. The most important valley is that of the Uderey, where extensive gold-placers have been worked since 1845, but are now nearlv exhausted. There are nume- rous placers along the river Murojnaia and its tributaries which flow^ into the southern Yeniseisk fields. The de- posits have been worked since 1841. The Great Pit River is the administrative boundary between the northern and southern systems. Its length is 24 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. about two hundred and thirty miles, and its valley is from two hundred and fifty to three thousand feet wide. The river in places is very narrow, forming rapids. On the Burunia and the Tujimo, feeders of the Gorbilka, a tribu- tary of the Pit, there were lormerly some washings. Below the Gorbilka the Pit is joined by the Penchenga, which, with its numerous feeders, especially the Greater Lower OUonokon, is auriferous. The pay alluvion along the last-named tributary is confined to a channel from fifty-six to one hundred and seventy-five feet wide, and is from eight to twelve feet deep. In general the valleys of the Penchenga are considered too poor to work, though on some ot the feeders washing has been carried on. On the Untuguna, a feeder of the Ayakta, gold has been washed, and almandmes, rubies (poor qualit}-), tour- malines, and an abundance of zircon have been found. Atcliiiisk unci Minusinsk Fields. — The Atchinsk and Minusinsk fields, which have contributed for many 3xars to the gold production of Siberia, have declined lately in importance. Ktuisk and Nijnendinsk. — Kansk and Nijneu- dinsk, in the governments of Yeniseisk and Irkutsk, for- merly produced a large amount ot gold annually, but of late 3'ears their \ield has been much reduced. Verkueudinsk. — The Verkneudinsk district, which is southeast of Lake Baikal, produced up to 1874 some 17,640 pounds of gold, but in 1877 its production was only 480 pounds. North of this field are the auriferous tracts in the basin of the Lena, which have been w^orked since 1867. Barguzinsk, Olekiuinsk. — The Barguzinsk dis- trict, in Tians-Baikalia, is imperfectl}' known. The Olek- minsk circuit is situated in the basins of the Vitim and Olekma, tributaries of the Lena, where extensive mining operations have been carried on. This district is one of the most promising centres of gold-mining in Siberia, al- though the climate is very severe and the ground is frozen during the entire year. THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 25 Amur. — 111 the Amur region the gold-mining indus- try has been developed successfully, especially along the Zehya, the Burehya, and the Amgun rivers, but its pro- gress has been checked by the scantiness of population. Two thousand men are said to be employed on the rivers Ura and Oldoi washing the alluvions, which are about seven feet thick. The placers of the Amur basin, in Trans-Baikalia, are a comparatively recent discovery. Gold is widely disseminated along the chief affluents of this river, and the deposits are easily worked. This basin is reported to have yielded, up to 1875, a profit of ;^3, 500,000. The auriferous deposits are esti- mated by Bogoliubsky to be one thousand miles long, three hundred and fiftv feet wide, and to average five feet in depth, containing i6|- grains per 3,600 pounds. Only one-half of the basin is as yet explored. Placers are found on the islands in the Sea of Japan, in Strelok Bay, and along the shore of the Okhotsk Sea. Nerchinsk. — The placers in the Nerchinsk district are generally frozen. Detritus which yields less than i pennyweight per 1,800 pounds has been found unprofit- able to work. Brazil. — In 1543 gold was known to exist in Brazil (Walsh, vol. ii. p. loi), deposited in the beds of streams. The Indians at that period are said to have used it to make fish-hooks. Humboldt (" New Spain," vol. iii. p. .401) says that gold-placers were first discovered in 1577. The greatest prosperity of the gold-washings was in the middle of the eighteenth centurv. The precious metal was first found in the Riberao. a tributary of the Rio das Mortes, or River of Death. This name commemorates a blood}' encounter which took place between the gold-hunters, who, it is said, met and " set upon each other like famished tigers, impelled by the auri sacra fames T * In the vicinity of the Riberao there is abundant evi- * Walsh, '■ Travels in Brazil," vol. i. p. 104. 26 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. dence of the extensive search made for gold. The banks are everywhere furrowed and the vegetable mould has been entirely removed. Nothing remains but the red dirt, cut into squares by channels divided by narrow ridges. These channels were used for washing gravel, and were cut on an inclined plane. The water was intro- duced at the head of them, the dirt was then thrown in, and the lighter particles of clay were washed away, while the gold remained behind.* The first placers in the country were called " cata." The surface dirt which contained gold was mined until the " cascalho," or cement-gravel, was reached. This was broken up by pickaxes, brought to the river, and washed. The first improvement introduced was to conduct the water to the ground and wash the gravel on the spot. These works were called " lavras," and hundreds of them were to be seen on the banks of the Rio das Mortes. A more improved method was practised subsequently. In some districts water-wheels were used to assist in the drainage of the excavations, but were found so un- manageable that they were thrown aside, and the negroes were employed to pack off the gravel and rubbish on their heads in small casks.f According to Dr. Soetbeer, from 1691 to 1875 (one hundred and eighty-five years) the gold production of Brazil amounted to 2,281,510 pounds Troy. By far the greater part was derived from alluvial deposits by river- washing. Hartt X is of the opinion that there are still extensive surface deposits which, with modern appliances, can be worked successfully on a large scale, and limited washings now occur in almost every province in the empire. Chili. — Chili contains numerous auriferous deposits, which, according to Schmidtmeyer, extend over most of the coast. The principal deposits are those near Copiapo, * Walsh, vol. ii. p. 105. t Ibid., pp. 112, 113. t " Geological and Physical Geography of Brazil." THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 2/ Guasco, La Ligua, Petorca, Coquimbo, Tiltil, Caren, and Talca. The washings of Aconcagua and La Ligua have been the most productive and extensive. Gold-bearing drift has been reported as existing throughout the south of ChiH, fifty miles back from the sea-coast, about the latitude of Coquimbo. Crosmer ( Blake's " Report on the Precious Metals," 1867) mentions that gold deposits, which do not appear to have been formed b)' the de- composition of regular veins, are found in decomposed granite and red clay near Valparaiso. Similar deposits occur along the flanks of the Andes, the most extensive being east of Chilian. During three hundred and thirt^'-one years, ending in 1875, the gold product of Chili approximated an annual average of $600,000, principall}' from the washings of river-beds. Recent attempts by American companies to work the deposits by the hydraulic process have not been attended with success, the yield of gold being much smaller than anticipated and the supply of water being too limited. Bolivia. — The statistics of Dr. Soetbeer show that from 1545 to 1875 Bolivia produced gold to the amount of 646.800 pounds, or ^"41, 01 3, 300, derived principally from the washings of river-beds and shallow placers, the works on the river Tipuani being the most celebrated. The deposits seem to be widely distributed throughout the country, but detailed information concerning them is unobtainable. Peru. — In Peru gold was gathered by the Incas in large amounts. Under the Spanish rule more than $33,000,000 are said to have been extracted from the mines and washings of Caravaya. The discovery of these placers was made in 1542, and the production of gold from this vicinity continued until 1767. when the town of San Gavan. containing four thousand families and a large treasure, was surprised and entirely destroyed by the Indians. 28 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. In 1849 the attention of miners was again attracted to Caravaya by reported discoveries of a great abundance of gold in the sands of one of the Caravaya rivers. Num- bers of adventurers visited the country, but returned un- successful. There are gold-washings on the Chaluma River and its tributaries. The region of San Juan del Oro was once famous for its yield. The sands of the tributaries of the Purus are said to contain gold, and those of the Piquitiri are known to be auriferous. Large deposits were worked with great proht up to 1S20 in the province of Parinacochas, department of Ayacucho, along the banks of the Huanca-huanca River. There are numerous auriferous deposits in the pro- vince of Sandia, department of Puno, some of which have been and still are being worked in a primitive style. The present condition of the gold regions of Peru is unknown to the world at large. The most definite data of the production of gold from this country are given by Dr. Soetbeer, who says that from 1533 to 1875 the output aggregated £22,SiS,-^S- P^^ Soldan's "Geo- graphical Dictionar}- of Peru " contains much late infor- mation. Venezuela. — At Caratal, State of Guayana, in Vene- zuela, small cjuantities of gold have been obtained from the alluvial depcjsits. This field has been described mi- nutely by Le Neve Foster, from whose explorations the latest information is obtained. The deposits are situated about a hundred and sixt}' miles E.S.E. of Ciudad Bolivar. In the valley of the Mocupia gold-washing was carried on as early as 1857. Large placers have been recently discovered about fifty miles northeast of Caratal. The gold product of the Caratal mines from 1866 to 1879 i"^- clusive is approximated at $14,000,000, and the mining re- gion of Guayana is reported to have produced since 1874 about $1,250,000 annuallv. The auriferous alluvions near the river Yuruari and along- the banks of the Rio de Santa Cruz have been THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASMIXG. 29 worked for years by the Indians, and at Tesorero placer- mining is still carried on. Expeditions from Europe in search of one of the many El Dorados have visited this country and sailed up the Orinoco. Humboldt ("Personal Narrative," vol. 3, pp. 23-44) gives an interesting account of this whole matter. U. S. of Colombia. — The annals of ijold-minino- in the United States of Colombia are replete with interest- ing information. The famous El Dorado visited bv Sir Walter Raleigh m 15 17, and by the buccaneers in the seventeenth century, is situated in the province of Cas- tilla del Oro. The Cana mines of this district, which were worked by slave labor, 3'ielded largely, accord- ing to tradition, during the seventeenth centurv. The mines of Choco, on the western side of the Andes, are classed by Schmidtmeyer among the most productive in the west of America. These mines (which contain gold and platinum) are located on affiuents of the river Atrato. The Spaniards in former da^-s carried on extensive mining operations near Malineca, on the river Tuvra. The Mina Real, in the Cerro del Espiritu Santo, at Santa Cruz de Cana, is said to have produced a large amount of gold. Late reports of this mine and mining district are verv un- favorable, and cast grave doubts upon the correctness of the statements of its former production. Auriferous alluvions occur in the vicinitv of Picde Cuesta, at the head of the river Lebrija, in the province of Parnpluna. All the rivers in Darien which How directlv into the Pacific are said to contain gold. Late reports (1881) state that the sands .of the river Dibulla and the Rio de Sevilla are highly auriferous. The rivers of Santiago, Concepcion, Berrera, Zapaterito, San Antonio, and San Bartolomo, which were noted formerly for their gold- washings, continue to the present time to yield remune- rative returns to the miner. Rich alluvions have been lately discovered below the Falls of San Jago, where ex- 30 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. tensive deposits are reported. Dr. Soetbeer states that the g-old production of New Granada from 1537 to 1875 was ;^ 169.422,750. 3Iexico.— Cortez's exploring parties in Mexico* ob- tained gold from the beds of rivers several hundred miles from the capital. Prescott says that gold, either cast into bars or in the form of dust, was part of the regular tribute of the southern provinces of the empire. f The gold product of Mexico at present is principally from quartz-mines, only a small amount being obtained by the ** gambusinos," or native prospectors, who wash with the batea in the placers scattered here and there through the country. There are rumors of large bonanzas in the beds of streams in certain localities, and several attempts have been made to reach this wealth by turning the rivers, but hitherto without success. The gold in the placers is sometimes distributed in the sands, in small quantities so far as known. In many dis- tricts the gambusinos obtain it, principally from crevices in the bed-rock, to reach which small shafts are sunk, often to a considerable depth. Avi.stralasia.— The most important gold-fields of Aus- tralasia ■;{: are situated in the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales ; Queensland and South Australia like- wise contain gold alluvions. Victoria. — The gold product of Victoria, according to the mineral statistics for 1880, aggregated 529,129 ounces, of which amount 299,926 ounces came from the alluvial deposits. Although the old placers have l^een worked extensively, and exhausted in many cases, the ^•ield has been increased latterl}' by the opening up of new gold-producing areas and by improved methods of work. The total quantity of gold produced in Victoria from its discovery in 185 1 to the end of 1880 is placed officially at * See Helps, " Spanish Conquest of America" ; also Las Casas, " History of the Indies." + Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico," vol. i. p. 139. t See "Gold," by A. G. Lock, from which work the above notes on Australasia are condensed. THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 3I /■ 1 98, 1 96, 206, the mining operations extending over an area of twelve hundred and thirty-five square miles. Ararat district contains large deposits of the upper and newer pliocene, considered to be of marine origin, but no gold in workable quantities has been found in any of these beds. The workable placers occur in the lower newer pliocene, whose origin is clearlv a result of fluvia- tile agency. A fact worthy of mention is that in the neighborhood of Ararat, so far as yet explored, not a single well-defined quartz-vein has been found to contain pay gold. In the northern portion of the Ararat fields the de- posits attain a depth of from ninety to one hundred and fifty feet. In the Great Western mine the deposit, com- posed of older pliocene gravel-drift resting upon disinte- grated granite, has been mined for a length of two miles and a width which in places exceeds twelve hundred feet. From accumulations of saline waters, and from undula- tions both horizontally and laterally of the bed rock, it is considered that "the lead" is simply a depression in a former sea- bottom. In the Ballarat fields there are four clearly defined epochs of gold-drift, whose relative local positions are in- dicated by their names : " Oldest," " Older," " Recent," and '* Most Recent." The " Oldest " period includes a deposit antecedent to the time at which the channels were eroded to their present depth. The " Older " embraces the deposit intervening between the lava-flows. Deposits of "Recent" age are those following immediatelv the uppermost lava flow. " Most Recent " drifts are those in most recently eroded gullies. There are three great lead systems near Ballarat, called the " Southern," " Western," and " Eastern." The " Southern " has been explored ex- tensively ; the " Western " is looked upon by some as the future hope of Ballarat in alluvial mining ; the " Eastern " is but little known. The alluvial deposits in Beechworth district have been 32 THE RECORDS OF GO LU-W ASHING. derived from the Silurian strata, not from the granite. The mining operations practised are simply those of ground-sluicing on a large scale. Considerable work has been done on the placers in Dargo district. The thick- ness of the gravel is from thirty to forty feet. On Mitchell River the gold- workings are confined to the creeks and the older alluvions on the banks. The Wa- ranga fields, Sandhurst district, are among the oldest Vic- torian gold-fields, and have been worked since 1853. The most important of the workings are in the vicinity of Rushworth on a cement deposit, probably of the older pliocene. The gravel is shallow, the deepest shafts being only from thirty-five to fifty -five feet. This lead has yielded more than any other in the district. Nuggety Gully, Cemetery Lead, and Coy Diggings are also placers of note. New South Wales. — The auriferous districts of New South Wales are considered the richest and most extensive in x\ustralia. The gold-fields extend, with short intervals, the entire length of the colony, with a breadth of two hundred miles. Immense tracts in the in- terior still remain unprospected, and in time may prove to contain valuable gold-bearing deposits. Up to 1871 alluvial washings alone were carried on, gold- quartz min- ing being neglected. At this period sixteen thousand miners were at work. The product from 185 1 to 1871 inclusive is stated by Reid to have been ^^'26,45 7, 160. The gold regions are all easy of access and are within two days' journey of the capital. In Bathurst, Tambaroora, Turon, Lachlan, Mudgee, Southern, Peel, and Uralla districts water is scarce, and the discoveries of gold at Temora, Montreal, and Mount Browne have attracted a large number of miners from these places. Water is scarce at Temora also, but for- tunately a large amount of very coarse gold has been found. The Montreal placers are near the sea-coast. The deposits are said to occur in two terraces, and give evi- dence of having been washed back by the sea. THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 33 In 1880, of the 13,430 gold-miners in the colony of New South Wales 11,403 were engaged in alluvial mining. The Barrington field, on Back Creek, is about ten miles from the town of Gloucester. The principal gold deposits occur amid steep ranges, covered with thick forests and dense undergrowth. The creek has been worked for gold, but the results, though profitable, have not been remarkable. The water-supply is very uncer- tain, and in summer the creek ceases to flow. The Kiandra gold field, on the table-land of Maneero, is situated about five thousand feet above sea-level, close to the highest mountains in the colony, around which are extensive deposits of auriferous gravel. Near Mount Table-Top the alluvions have been covered with basalt, and up to the present time this main deposit has been worked only to a limited extent. The chief localities in which gold-mining has been carried on are those of Nine-Mile Diggings, New Chum Hill Diggings, Scotchman's Tunnel Claim, Bullock-Head '^reek, and the Eucumbene River ; also Township Hill- Diggings, Eight-Mile Diggings, and Fifteen-Mile Dig- gings. Recent survey's show that water can be brought on certain of the Kiandra diggings, and here h}draulic mining is possible on a ver}- limited scale. The rich placers developed by the sluicing operations toward Mount Table-Top have been compared by some writers to the gravel deposits near Placerville, California. Lach- lan district was partially developed in the rush of the first mining excitement, and it is believed that only an insig- nificant proportion of the ancient river deposits was worked by the early miners. Mount Werong is the site of one of the recent discov- eries. The auriferous alluvion is said to be widely scat- tered. The gold has a water-worn appearance, and it is supposed that an old channel or lead formerly existed here. But as 3'et the country is only partially explored. The Tallawang field contains one of the most ancient 34 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING auriferous alluvial deposits in the world ; the gold occurs in the tertiar)' alluvial deposits, and in conglomerates in the coal measures the precious metal has also been lound in paying quantities. xVt Clough's Gully the conglome- rate is being worked and yields from i to 15 penny- weights per ton, and nuggets of 5 ounces are occasionally lound. Queensland. — The colony of Queensland lies to the north of New South Wales. Here thirty-one hundred square miles of auriferous alluvial and quartz ground were worked upon in 1876. The gold-fields occur on both sides of the main dividing range which separates the eastern and western waters, and on the spurs of the range which forms the water-shed to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Charter's Towers fields are situated about the centre of the eastern portion of the colony. There are several small alluvial deposits, but the principal industry is that of gold-quartz mining. In the Gympie district extensive quartz-mining is carried on, and some alluvial gold has been found in the Marengo gullies. Gold quartz is mined in the Normanby region, but alluvial gold is sparsely distributed, the deposits not pay- ing the cost of labor. South Australia. — In South Australia gold is found in nearly every part of the colony, but the deposits are of very limited size. The bed of the river Torrens has yielded small quantities. The deposits of Barossa are said to resemble geologically and topographicall}' Ben- digo and other Victorian fields where the basaltic lava is absent. The principal deposit is probably of older plio- cene age. The main lead in Spike's Gully shows a drift varying from twenty to a hundred feet in depth. In this drift, which consists of qviartz pebbles, boulders, and ferruginous conglomerate, the gold is water- Avorn. The topography of the country is favorable for the construc- tion of reservoirs at small expense, and sluicing could be THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 35 introduced without difficulty. The Echunga fields were discovered in 1852, but gave employment to a small num- ber of gravel-miners only. Cement-crushing has been carried on in this district, but with little success. The Ulooloo gold-field contains some auriferous deposits com- posed of clay, sand, and shingle, forming banks of from six to twenty feet along the Ulooloo Creek. Water, however, is here very scarce. In the northern territory, which extends from the Sta- pleton to the Driffield rivers, the auriferous deposits have been explored for a distance of about one hundred miles in length by twenty miles in width. There are no drift deposits. The alluvial gold occurs in small gullies and ravines, and occasional rich pockets are found. New Zealand. — Gold was discovered in New Zea- land in 1842. The alluvial deposits occur chiefly in the South Island, in the districts of Otago, Westland, and Nelson, where mining operations are carried on over an area of almost twenty thousand square miles. The de- tritus is found in the beds of the rivers, in large deposits of gravel from three hundred to five hundred feet deep, and in the sands along the sea-shore. The gold-drifts in Otago rest on the denuded surface of the parent rock, while in the Westland district they lie on tertiary rocks of marine origin. Fullv two-thirds of the gold returned from this country is obtained from alluvial mining. The extent to which work is carried on may be judged from the fact that the miners have constructed over five thousand miles of water-races, with attendant tail-races and dams, at a cost approximating i^300,ooo ; this is in- dependent of the government water-races and dams, which have cost ^^450.000. Ground-sluicing is practised, and in some instances hydraulic mining has been introduced with heads of water from eighty to one hundred feet. The government has a tunnel eleven feet b}' seven feet, five thousand seven hun- dred and forty-four feet long, in course of construction. 36 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. having already built the open Sludge-channel, eight miles long, at Naseby. Besides these several tunnels have been built bv private individuals. At Gabriel Gully, Tuapeka, where the grade is very light, the hydraulic elevator is said to be working succes- fullv ; and in the river Clutha dredging machines are at work on the auriferous deposits. North of Charleston, on the coast-line, the beach sands which contain gold are worked by a colony of Shetlanders. Extensive sluicing operations are carried on along the banks of the Molyneux, Kawarau, and Shotover rivers. At Tinkers and Drybread Diggings forty sluice-heads of water, with one hundred and thirty feet head, conducted through forty-five hundred feet of iron piping, are used to hydraulic the gravel. The depth of the deposits on the so-called Maori bottom approximates thirty feet. The resources of the province in auriferous drift are very great. Ulrich considers part of the old Clutha Lake basin where Bendigo Creek enters, and along the foot of the range upon which Bendigo reef occurs, as especially worthy of the attention of the drift-miner. Miller's Flat, between Arrow and Queenstown, a supposed old river- channel, is also considered rich. The Thames field, on the east side of the Hauraki Gulf, is a narrow strip of land twenty-five miles long and from two to four miles wide. The gold in this district is obtained chiefly from quartz reefs. In Tapu district gold is found in considerable quantities in the decomposed soil on the slopes of the hills. It is usually flaky and not at all water-worn. In Westland district the mines are classed as cement and alluvial workings. The cement is from one to six feet in thickness, and consists of quartz gravels which are found in connection with the coal series. The gold oc- curs in the lower portion of these beds. Alluvial work- ings are met with in all gullies cut in the auriferous series, but the gold is generally coarse. In the con- THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 37 glomerate formation the gold is caught in the brown sandstone bottom over which the conglomerate lies. In the glacial drifts extensive claims have been worked and large quantities of gold have been obtained. These deposits are interesting, inasmuch as they derive their gold, in all probability, from the slates of which the glacial drifts are composed. The black-sand beaches are composed of crystals of magnetic iron ore, which are found disseminated through the chloritic schist. The gold which is associated with the sand is supposed to have been derived from the Maitai slates, brought down in immense quantities by glaciers. This district includes the gold-fields of Waka- marina, Queen Charlotte Sound, and Wairau valley. Extensive sluicing is going on at present in Waka- marina district. The ground is spotted and the gold is distributed unevenly. The Queen Chai-lotte Sound held is a quartz-mining district. The Wairau valley is an al- luvial deposit, and is a comparatively new district. Gold occurs in almost all the gullies on the north bank of the Wairau River. The gullies are all very narrow. Some of the claims have proved very rich. Canada. — In Canada gold is derived from the de- gradation of the upper Silurian and Devonian rocks. The Geological Commission, as early as 1852, determined the existence of auriferous alluvions extending over an area of more than ten thousand square miles. The prin- cipal deposits explored have been in the province of Quebec and in Nova Scotia. As notable may be men- tioned the workings along the Chaudiere River and its tributaries, the Du Loup and the Gilbert. Extensive deposits occur also to the southeast of the Notre Dame Mountains. Small local deposits of high value have been worked, giving rise to great expectations, but as a whole the re- sults have been unsatisfactor3^ British Columbia.— In British Columbia gold was 38 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. discovered in 1858011 the Frazer River, above New West- minster, causing a great excitement and a " rush " of pros- pectors. San Francisco was nearly depopulated by the exodus, and it is estimated that one-sixth of the voters of California moved to the new placers. Gold was traced three hundred miles up the river to Cariboo. On the Peace River, two hundred and fifty miles still further north, gold was found. In 1872 discoveries in Cassiar district, eight hundred miles north of Victoria, caused the " Stickeen River rush." The Frazer River deposits were remunerative only to a limited extent and were soon worked out. In all the localities in this country the workings have been principally confined to shallow placers and river-bars, which are soon exhausted ; but at Cariboo there are channels beneath the beds of the present water-courses. Shafts are sunk from the sur- face to the auriferous channels through a covering of clav and gravel. The bed of the ancient stream, when reached, is followed by drifts. While handsome returns have been occasionally made (in 1861 nearly a million of dollars were extracted), the expenses of working, there being much water to contend with, are so large that the operations have almost entirel}^ ceased. In the more northerly districts the climate presents great obstacles and work can be carried on onlj- during a few months of the 3"ear. In Vancouver Island, in the Leech River district, gold has been found in a small area some twenty miles from Victoria. Lock * estimates that from 1858 to 1880 (twent3'-two and a half years) gold of the value of $45,140,889 has been extracted from (principally) the alluvions of British Co- lumbia. United States of America. — Outside of California (which will be treated in the following chapter), up to the present time, the alluvial deposits worked have been prin- * " Gold," p. 38. THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 39 cipally shallow, and continued profitable development on a large scale is unknown. New EnglaiMl. — Gold has been found in Vermont and New Hampshire, and alluvial deposits of limited ex- tent have been exploited along the Green Mountains. But the production has been comparatively insignificant. Virginia.^AUuvial gold has been reported as found in Virginia in Montgomery and Floyd counties, along Brush Creek. In Goochland County the hydraulic pro- cess was tried in 1877. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. — The Appalachian gold-fields extend through the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Gold was first discovered in 1799, and in 1829 the discovery of pla- cers caused a great excitement. Two principal belts are known in North Carolina, one extending through Guilford, Davidson, Rowan, Cabarrus, and Mecklenburg counties ; another through McDowell, Burke, and Rutherford coun- ties ; the latter has been traced mto northern Georgia, where it forms the gold region in the vicinit}- of Dahlo- nega. The latter is the more western and more deviated, and contains richer placers. The formation of these gold deposits has been attri- buted rather to the action of atmospheric influence than to deposition by large streams. The best placers were exhausted at the time of the discovery of gold in Cali- fornia, and more recent attempts to work them on a large scale and by the hydraulic process have not met with success. Idaho. — Gold was first discovered in paying quan- tities near Pearce City, Idaho, in 18^0. The Territory of Idaho, then a part of Washington Tcrritorv, was organized in 1862. The principal placers were those in the Boise basin, which first attracted the attention of miners in 1862, and on the Snake and Salmon Rivers. In 1865 the production of gold, in the Territorv amounted to $8,023,680, but the yield gradually decreased from that 40 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. year, and the placers produced in 1880 only $879,644. The Boise basin has been nearly exhausted, and the lower Snake River bars, which are quite limited in extent, are practically deserted. Above Fort Hall work is still go- ing- on. Salmon River was abandoned to Chinese labor in 1870. Montaiiii. — Gold was found on Gold Creek, in Deer Lodge County, Montana, in 1852, but the developments did not attract much attention until 1862, when a rush of immigration took place. The yield of the district up to 1870 is estimated at $24,000,000. Extensive works are still being carried on in this county. In Lewis and Clarke County the gulches and foothills are known to be aurife- rous to a great extent; they have 3-ielded and are still 3'ielding large amounts of the precious metal. Alder Gulch, in Madison County, was discovered in June, 1863, and in three years is said to have produced $30,000,000 (Raymond's "Report," 1870). Work is prosecuted still in this county and also in Meagher County. Montana has contained some of the richest deposits known. Most of these have been worked as shallow pla- cers, and in many of the locations much trouble has been experienced in obtaining water. New Mexico. — Gold-placers are known to exist in New Mexico along the Rio Grande, from the Colorado line to the placers some forty miles south of Santa Fe, and also in the southwestern part of the Territory in the counties of Dona Ana and Grant. The latter have not been opened up to any great extent, although reports of exceedingl}^ rich placers have long been current. The de- posits along the Rio Grande have been described by Ray- mond ("Mineral Resources, 1874") and Prof. Silliman (" The Rio Grande Gold-Gravels "), who are authorities for the following statements. The auriferous gravels extend southerly from the Colo- rado line along the Rio Grande valley some one hundred Ind fifty miles, over a width of about forty miles, between THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING. 4I the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the east and the Con- tinental Divide on the west. The southern portion, say seventy-five miles ni lineal (northerly and southerly) ex- tent, has been extensively denuded. The more northerly area has been eroded more or less, and contains accumu- lations of gravel, varying from fifty to six hundred feet in depth. Overflows of volcanic rocks cover and protect or interstratify the gravels in very many instances. The gravel consists chiefly of quartz and quartzite, and, to a much less extent, of syenite, porphyry, granite, gneiss, and slate debris, and evidently has been carried to its present location from only a short distance, probably from the Archaean rocks ot the Sangre de Cristo and other souther- ly ranges of the Rocky Mountains. The gold is said to be diffused through the alluvions with great uniformity. South of Santa Fe large Mexican grants contain ex- tensive deposits of gravel, where gold was discovered in 1842, and whence in succeeding years large amounts of the precious metal are said to have been extracted. Ame- rican companies have been recently formed to work all these deposits along the Rio Grande, but thus far the ob- stacles to success seem to have been very great. Other States and Territories. — In various other States and Territories, as Colorado and Dakota, placer- mining has been carried on by small companies on a limit- ed scale. CHAPTER II. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF PLACER-MINING IN CALIFORNIA. From the auriferous deposits of the State of California $1,100,000,000 have been extracted during the last thirty- five 3-ears.* The magnitude of the mining operations required to produce this enormous yield is but little known to the general public. The continuous flow of gold bullion has, however, made the State famous and attracted the atten- tion of political economists everywhere. First Mention of California. — The first mention of the name "California" occurs in connection with a supposed great island where gold and precious stones were found in abundance, described in a romance called " Las Sergus de Esplandian," published in Spam a.d. 15 10. The followers of Cortez had chimerical ideas of some hidden El Dorado, and, strange to say, they applied the name California to that unknown country north of Mexico with which they associated the notion of a region of fabu- lous wealth. Discovery of Lower California. — The first expe- dition sent out by Cortez, in 1534, discovered what is now called Lower California. According to Father Venegas, this expedition, numbering some seven hundred souls, was fitted out at the port of Tehuantepfec in the year 1537, and sailed north to the head of the gulf of California, but never reached the line which marks the southern boun- dary of the State of California. Contemporaneously with the departure of this party " four persons, named Alvarez Nunez, Cabeza de Vaca, * Up to 1883. See Appendix A. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF PLACER-MINING. 43 Castillo, and Dormentes, with a negro named Estevancio," arrived at Culiacan, on the gulf of California, from the peninsula of Florida. These were the sole survivors of the three hundred Spaniards who in 1527 landed with Pamtilo Narvaez on the coast of Florida with the inten- tion of conquering that ctjuntrv- Nunez subsequently conducted the expedition which discovered the Rio de la Plata and effected the hrst conquest of Paraguay. Early Explorations — In 1542 Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, sent Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese, to sur- vey the west coast of California. He explored the coist, naming the numerous headlands, the most northerly of which, in lat. 40° N., he called Cape Mendocino. Thence he proceeded further north to lat. 44°, which he reached March 10, 1543. In 1578 Sir Francis Drake entered the Pacific and sailed north as high as lat. 48°. According to Hakluyt's account of the voyage, Drake spent five weeks in June and July, 1579, in a bay near lat. 38° N. First Mention of Gold. — The narrative says : " Our General called this country New Albion. . . . There is no part of the earth here to be taken up where- in there is not a reasonable quantitie of gold and silver." It is difficult to reconcile this statement with the facts as known at present, since in lat. 38° N. neither gold nor silver exists in " reasonable quantitie " near the ocean. This is, however, remarkable as the first mention of gold in California proper. In 1602 the Count de Monte Rev, Vicero}' of New Spain, by order of the king, sent Sebastian Viscayno on an exploring expedition. He sailed from Acapulco, May 5, 1602, with two vessels and a tender, with Admi- ral Gomez in command. The expedition, composed of a large number of men, was fully equipped for one year's voyage. Three barefooted Carmelites accompanied the party, and the several departments were entrusted to dis- tinguished officers, volunteers from Brittan}-. 44 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT After a struggle with northwest winds, on November 10, 1602, the fleet entered the harbor of San Diego* and, having spent a few days there, the expedition again sailed north. December 16, 1602, anchor was cast in Monterey Bay, which was named in honor of the viceroy. January 3, 1603, the fleet weighed anchor, and a period of one hundred and sixty-six years elapsed before this bay was revisited. January 12 the fleet passed the bay of San Francisco and anchored behind a point of land called "La Punta de los Reyes," but did not enter San Fran- cisco harbor. The voyage was subsequently continued as far as lat. 43° N., from which point the fleet returned to Acapulco. First Mission establislied in Lower California. — In 1697 the first permanent mission was established by the Jesuits at Loreto, Lower CaUfornia. " These people," says the historian, " with patient art and devoted zeal, accomplished that which had defied the energy of Cortez and baffled the efforts of the Spanish monarchy for gene- rations a.^ter wards." First Mission in Upper California. — In 1769 the Jesuits were banished from Lower California. On the 9th day of January, 1769, an expedition set sail from La Paz, in Lower California, to rediscover San Diego and Monterev. The vessels stopped at Cape St. Lucas, and left that point February 15 of the same year. On the 1st of July, 1769, a land expedition which had started shortly after the vessels had set sail from Cape St. Lucas, under the immediate charge of Padre Junipero Serra, reached San "Hiego and established the first Franciscan mission in Upper California. Notwithstanding the facts revealed by the many ex- peditions, the geographers of that day still persisted m describing California as an island extending from Cape St. Lucas, at the tropic of Cancer, to lat. 45° * An interesting account of this voyage is given by E. Randolph, Esq., " Memoirs of the Society of California Pioneers." OF PLACER-MINIXG IX CALIFORNIA. 45 N.,* and it was not until Father Begert's map was pub- lished at Maiheim, in 1771, that California was relieved of its insulai character. Early Discoveries of Placers.— At different times between 1775 and 1828 small deposits of placer gold were found by Mexicans near the Colorado River. In 1802 a mineral vein supposed to contain silver was found at Olizal, in the district of Monterey. In 1828 a small gold placer was discovered at San Isidro, in what is now known as San Diego County. Forbes, in his history of California, in 1835, says: " No minerals of particular importance have yet been found in Upper California, nor any appearance of metals." In 1838 the placers of San Francisquito, forty-five miles northwest from Los Angeles, were discovered. These deposits were neither rich nor extensive, but were worked steadily for twenty years. In 1 841 Wilkes' exploring expedition visited the coast, James D. Dana, mineralogist, accompanving the partv. In the following year, in his work on mineralogy, Dana mentions that gold was found in the Sacramento valley, and that rocks '' similar to those of the auriferous forma- tions " were observed in southern Oreofon. May 4, 1846, Thomas O. Larkin, United States Consul at Monterey, said, in an official letter to James Buchanan. Esq., then Secretary of State : " There is no doubt that gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, lead, sulphur, and coal mines are to be found all over California, and it is doubt- ful vvhether, under their present owners, thev will ever be worked." On the 7th of July, 1846; the American flag was hoisted at Monterey and the country taken possession of bv the United States. * See Ogilvy's "America: being the latest and most accurate Account of the Xew World," published in London in 1671. California is there laid down as an island, extending fiom Cape St. Lucas to lat. 45° N. See map by Capt. Shelvocke. R.N., "Voyage around the World by way of the South Sea," published in London in 1726. See map published in Venice in 1546, Independent Order of Odd Fellows' Hall, San Francisco. 46 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT Marshall discovers Gold at Coloma. — January 19, 1848, James W. Marshall, while engaged in digging a race for a saw-mill at Coloma (thirt3'-tive miles east from Sutter's Fort), found some pieces of yellow metal which he and the half-dozen men working with him at the mill supposed to be gold. " He felt confident that he had made a discover)' of great importance, but he knew nothing of either chemistry or gold-mining, and he could not pnjve the nature of the metal or tell how to obtain it in paving quantities. ... So Marshall's collection of specimens continued to accumulate, and his associates began to think there might be something in his gold-mine after all."* In the middle of February, Bennett, one of the party employed at the mill, went to San Francisco and returned with Isaac Humphreys, a man who had washed gold in Georgia, and who, after a few hours' work, declared the mines to be richer than those of his own State. By means of a rocker he obtained daily about one ounce of gold, and soon all the hands of the mill were rocking for the precious metal. The record of the discoverv of gold, as related by Parsons in his biography of Marshall, is somewhat dif- ferent from that published by Browne, and gives to Mar- shall alone the credit of the discovery. Other Gold Discoveries. — Pierson B. Redding, the owner of a large ranch at the head of the Sacramento vallev, visited the mining works at Coloma, and imme- diately resolved to commence washing on his own pro- perty, which he thought was in a similar formation, and in a few weeks he had begun mining on a bar on Clear Creek, nearh^ two hundred miles northwest from Coloma. This example was followed by John Bidwell, who, having seen Sutter's works, commenced prospecting on the bars of the Feather River, seventy-five miles northwest from Coloma. * See " Reports upon the Mineral Resources of the United States," by J. Ross Browne, 1867. OF PLACER-MINING IN CALIFORNIA. 47 In March, 1848, the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was made, and Mexico ceded California to the United States. By the end of the same year mines were opened at far- distant points. Miners were at work in every large stream on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, from Feather River to the Tuolumne, a distance of one hun- dred and fifty miles. First Pviblicatioii of Gold Discoveries. — The first printed notice of the discovery of gold appeared in the Calif orniaii (?), a newspaper published in San Fran- cisco, on March 15, 1848. On May 29 the same paper announced that its publication would bt> suspended, the whole population having betaken itself to the mines. In 1849 the placers of Trinity and Mariposa were opened, Xx. this period hired men were the exception, every man working for himself, and rocker claims were very abundant. In 1850 the deposits of Klamath and Scott's Valley were discovered. First Attempt to build Ditches. — The chief want of the placer-miner being water, the first noteworthy attempt at ditch-building was made in March, 1850, at Coyote Hill, Nevada County. In the spring of the same year gold was reported as lying in heaps on the banks of Gold Lake, near Downie- ville. This caused a tremendous excitement and a rush of miners to that locality. In a few weeks thousands re- turned from the lake poorer than when they started. On September 9, 1850, California was admitted into the Union as a State. The number of persons then en- gaged in mining was estimated at fifty thousand. River- mining at this period occupied a prominent place in the industries of the State. First Use of the "Long- Tom." — The winter of 1849-50 was very stormy and comparatively little work was done in the rivers or creeks, but in the spring of 1850 mining was resumed on those bars which were subject to overflow only at extreme high water. The pick, shovel. 48 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT rocker, and wheelbarrow were the only implements then in use. Towards the end of 1850 the "Long Tom" was introduced. Discovery of Gold-Quartz Veins. — Extensive pros- pecting at this period for the sources of these gravel de- posits led to the discover}^ of gold-quartz veins, the most noted of which was the Allison Ranch mine in Nevada County. In 1851 came the rush to Gold Bluff, lat. 41° N. The work on dry bars gradually led to mining the river bottoms, which was first undertaken b}' means of wing dams. Later the more venturous miners turned entire streams from their courses by means of flumes or ditches. First Working of Deep Deposits. — Simultane- ously the miners " pushed back " from the shallow placers to deep deposits which were worked b)^ means of the tom, and with the advent of sluices in 1851 the low hill gravels were attacked and successfully mined. Coincident with the introduction of the sluice and washing of hill gravels came the employment of hired men in placer diggings. Sluicing. — The deep deposits of auriferous gravel were relatively poorer than the shallow placers, and open cuts, preparatory to sluicing, were requisite ; a large sup- ply of water was a sine qua non, ditches became a neces- sit)% labor was in demand, but without capital nothing could be accomplished. The sluice revolutionized gold-washing. With the ex- haustion of the surface diggings the river towns fell into decay, and those mountain districts where the deep auri- ferous beds were found soon became the prosperous coun- ties of the State. First Use of the Hydraulic Method. — It was evident that the sluices ran dirt faster than the shovellers could supply it ; labor was expensive — men receiving from $6 to $8 per diem — and the claims were poor com- pared with the washings of 1849-50. In 1852 Edward E. Mattison, of Connecticut, with a view to economizing OF PLACER-MINING IN CALIFORNIA. 49 labor, used a stream of water under pressure. For this purpose water was conveyed to the claim in rawhide hose and discharged through a wooden nozzle against a bank. Torn by the water, the earth was carried into the sluices and shovelling was thus avoided. A large saving in the cost of mining was effected, a greater amount of material being washed in a shorter time. This was the first step in hydraulic mining. Canvas Hose. — Mattison's experiments were imme- diately appreciated and his method adopted. Hose made of canvas was widely used, the canvas being strengthened by netting and bound with rope. Iron Pipe. — Towards the end of 1853 pipes made of light sheet iron were introduced as a substitute for canvas hose. The first iron pipe was used by R. R. Craig, on American Hill, Nevada County. It consisted of about one hundred feet of stove-pipe. In 1856 a firm in San Francisco commenced the manufacture of wrought iron pipes for hydraulic mining, and during the 3-ears 1856 and 1857 a large sheet-iron pipe forty inches in diameter was laid for a water-conduit across a depression at Timbuctoo, in Yuba County. Inverted Siphons. — In 1869 a wire suspension bridge across the Trinity River, near McGillivray's, was constructed by Joseph INIcGillivray. This bridge sup- ported a fifteen-inch wrought-iron pipe which conducted water from a ditch situated at an elevation of about two hundred and forty feet above the bridge. The length of the pipe was nineteen hundred and eight}' feet, and the outlet was one hundred and thirtv-three feet below the level of the inlet. In the fall of 1870 the Spring Valley Company, of Cherokee, Butte Countv, laid the first large " inverted siphon " in the mining regions. The siphon was made of wrought iron, riveted. It was thirty inches in diameter and fourteen thousand feet long, crossing a de- pression of nearly one thousand feet. Improved Nozzles. — With the substitution of sheet- 50 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT iron pipe for canvas it was found necessary to retain a short piece of canvas hose in order to obtain a flexible dis- charge piece. This was inconvenient and troublesome. The ingenuity of miners was aroused, and the result was the introduction of a nozzle called the Goose Neck, which was a flexible iron joint formed by two elbows working one over the other. The first Kifle. — The radius-plate, or rifle, was pat- ented by C. F. Macy in 1863, and was subsequently intro- duced and used in all metallic jointed discharge pipes which had elbows. The next improved hydraulic nozzle was invented by the Messrs. R. R. & J. Craig, of Nevada County. It was called Craig's Globe Monitor. This nozzle proved a suc- cess and was adopted at once by the miners. Subsequent- ly the Hydraulic Knuckle-joint and Nozzle was invented by H. Fisher, of Nevada County, and took the place of the Craig machine. In 1870 Mr. Richard Hoskins ob- tained a patent for his Dictator, a one-jointed machine, having an elastic packing in the joints instead of the metal- lic faces. A few months later Hoskins patented the noz- zle called the Little Giant, which was an improvement on the Dictator, and has to a great extent superseded the older inventions. Deflector. — The next advance in hydraulic discharge machines was an attachment .to the nozzle called the "deflector," the invention of Mr. H. C. Perkins, and pat- ented Ma)', 1876. This is a short piece of pipe, about an inch larger in diameter than the nozzle, attached to the latter by a gimbal joint and operated with a lever. This improvement has been followed by the invention of the Hoskins Deflector. This latter is a flexible semi-ball joint between the end of the discharge pipe and the nozzle. It is operated by a lever. In 1852 and 1853 placer-mining was at the height of its prosperity. Labor was well paid, and employment was easily obtained by all who sought it. At this period OF PLACER-MINING IN CALIFORNIA. 5 1 there still remained a few of the rich surface deposits which had formerly been so numerous. First Drift-Mining. — The first extensive drift-min- ing in the old river channels was commenced in 1852 at Forest Hill, Placer County; though in 1851 a surface claim at Brown's Bar, on the Middle Fork of the Ameri- can River, was drifted out by Joseph McGillivray. In 1854, in consequence of the reported discovery of gold-diggings in Kern County, California, numbers of miners flocked to the southern part of the State, only to find there poor deposits of a very limited area. Table Mountain. — Some miners engaged in sinking a shaft near Jamestown, Tuolumne County, where the gravel had been washed away, discovered gold at Table Mountain. Simultaneously other miners traced a seam of gravel containing gold along its sides, and it was found that this seam ran into a deep, rocky channel lymg under the mountain. The presence of water in great quantity frustrated all attempts to work this deposit. Deep Tunnels. — Further explorations developed the existence of channels running under this ridge, which were found to have a westerly course and to pitch deeper as work advanced. After several ineffectual attempts to drain the deposit, the gravel, which proved later to be exceedingly rich, was finally bottomed by a deep tunnel. " Ten square feet, superficial measurement, yielded $100,- 000, and a pint of gravel not unfrequently contained a pound of gold." * An impetus to deep gravel mining or drifting was given by these developments, and extensive explorations of a similar character were undertaken subsequently in other parts of the State. During the years 1856 and 1857 river, bar, and gulch mining were less productive, but quartz and ditch inte- rests became more valuable. The Frazer River excitement of 1853 caused a stam- * See Ross Browne, " Reports on the Mineral Resources of the United States," 1867. 52 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF PEACER-MINING. pede of miners and speculators to British Columbia. The subsequent developments of these gravel helds occasioned loss to those who had been attracted thither by the desire of gain. In 1859-60 came the exodus to the Comstock, and in 1862 the rush to Idaho followed. Hydrauhc mining gained ground steadily from 1852 to 1865. As the river bars and surface diggings one after another were exhausted, the working of the old river de- posits by the hydraulic process became a necessity. At the present time it is by this modern method of mining that the bulk of the gold of this State is produced, and in this business nearly $100,000,000 of capital are invested. The hydraulic process is now carried on upon such a gigantic scale and to so vast an extent as to require the assistance of the science of hydraulics and engineering. Heretofore, apart from the construction of ditches and tunnels necessary for washing the gold-bearing dirt, en- gineers have had but little to do with the management of hydraulic claims. The primitive placer-mining of 1852 to 1865 has passed into history. Forty-inch wrought-iron pipes have been substituted for canvas hose and stove-pipe, and with the replacing of one-inch streams by a mass of water dis- charged through nine-inch nozzles under 450-foot pres- sure the last remnants of the early methods disappeared. CHAPTER III. GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF CALIFORNIA." The topographical features of central California, as demonstrated by the explorations of the State Geological Survey, are found to be exceedingly simple. Four equi- distant parallel lines can be used in conveying a general idea of the ph)'sical geography of the State. The Three great Belts of California.— A " main axial line," whose course would be N. 31° W., passing through the culminating peaks of the Sierra Nevada for a distance of nearly five hundred miles, can be assumed as the eastern boundary of the gold region. A second parallel, drawn fifty miles west of the " main axial line," will skirt the west base of the Sierra Nevada, along the edge of the foot-hills, from Red Bluff to Visalia. A third parallel, run equi-distant from the second, will follow very closely the eastern edge of the Coast Ranges from the neighborhood of Clear Lake to that of Kern Lake, a dis- tance of over three hundred miles. A fourth equi-distant parallel will represent, as nearly as possible, the coast line of the Pacific, the western base of the Coast Ranges. These parallels divide the central portion of the State be- tween Red Bluff (about lat. 40° N.) and Fort Tejon (about lat. 35° N.) into three belts — viz., the Sierra, the Great Valley of California, and the Coast Ranges. This arrangement of the ph3'sical features holds good for a length of four hundred miles in the direction of the "main axial line." This division of California is the largest and by far the most important, embracing almost * See vol. i., " Geological Survey of California," and Whitney's " Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California," which are the principal authorities for this chapter. 53 54 TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY the whole of the agricultural and the greater part of the mining districts. These lines divide the State geologically as well as physically. The Great Valley is the belt of recent allu- vial deposits ; the Sierra is the belt of intrusive granite, of strata principally of triassic and Jurassic age, with im- portant pliocene river deposits, of ante-cretaceous eleva- tion, and of metamorphism induced by heat and pressure and resulting in a hard and crystalline condition of the rocks ; the Coast Ranges form the belt of strata chiefly of cretaceous and tertiary age, of post-cretaceous elevation and of chemical metamorphism. The Sierra is the belt of the precious metal, with some iron and copper ; the Coast Ranges, principally of quick- silver and carbonaceous materials. The Sierra is the region of lofty heights, the Coast Ranges of moderate elevations, and the Great Valley of nearly dead level. In the Sierra volcanic activity has ceased, but in the Coast Ranges solfataric action is still apparent. This parallelism does not exist in the northern and southern parts of California. North of lat. 40° N. the Sierra and Coast Ranges approach one another and finally connect, the distinction between them being not yet defi- nitely settled. In the south the Sierra swings to the west and joins, physically at least, with the Coast Ranges, which here, following the coast line, trend to the east. Thus the Great Valley is closed in its upper and lower extremities. The northern and the southern portions of the State have not been thoroughly examined, and the present knowledge of their topograph}- and geology is very limited. The map accompanying this work shows the mountain ranges where the auriferous gravels exist and also the streams draining the hydraulic mining districts.'^ * The map was compiled from the latest official surveys by William Hammond Hall, State Engineer of California, For the purposes of this work certain additions have been made by the author. OF THE COAST RANGE BELT. 55 THE BELT OF THE COAST RANGES. Topographical L-iiiiits.— Exactly where the Coast Ranges begin and where they end is still an open ques- tion, and to decide this point satisfactoril}' more geological research is required. For the present general purpose, and until more exact data are furnished, it may be assumed that the belt of the Coast Ranges commences on the north at, or about, the mouth of the Klamath River. Its east- erly boundary will run southeasterly to the head of the Sacramento valley, in the neighborhood of Shasta, and thence continue to Fort Tejon. From this point it passes to the east of the San Gabriel range, through Cajon Pass, to the east of the Temescal range and to the south of the Sierra de Santa Ana, striking the ocean in the vicinity of San Luis Rey, or perhaps including a narrow strip of territory along the shore south to the Mexican boundary. Mountain System. — In this belt the mountains are not grouped in any one dominant range, but form nume- rous chains, much broken, and often running into one another, and all nearly parallel wnth the coast lines. These chains are separated by more or less distinct valleys, the system being broken through completely in only one place — namely, where the united waters of the Sacra- mento and San Joaquin rivers, which drain an area of fifty-seven thousand two hundred square miles, escape through Suisun, San Pablo, and San Francisco bays and the Golden Gate. Compared with the Sierra Nevada, the Coast Ranges attain but inferior elevations. The dominant peaks of the several chains vary in height from thirty-five hun- dred to six thousand feet, few exceeding this limit. In the Sierra, on the other hand, there are numerous points over fourteen thousand feet above sea level, and for a large part of the range the passes have an elevation of more than nine thousand feet. 56 TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY General TopogTaphical Strvicture. — In the ex- treme northwestern part of the State the general struc- ture of the Sierra Nevada prevails — an axial mass of granite associated with hard, crystalline rocks forming a high range. Coming south, and into the northern part of the Coast Range belt (west of Trinity and Kla- math rivers), the structure is modified, the granite disap- pears, the old crystalline rocks are replaced b}' newer and softer strata, the elevations decrease, and the ranges become more numerous and indistinct, although as far as Clear Lake there is still one dominating range, quite well defined and parallel with the coast line. South of Clear Lake the ranges are very much inter- mixed, the hills are lower and more rolling, and the val- leys are wider. The average elevation decreases steadily to the vicinity of San Francisco Bay, the point of maxi- mum depression. Further south, to the bay of Monterey, there are two distinct ranges, that of Mount Diablo on the east and the Santa Cruz mountains on the west, with the southern part of the bay of San Francisco and the important valley of Santa Clara between. South of the bay of INIonterey, as far as San Luis Obispo County, the country becomes more mountainous and confused. The general elevation increases and the valleys become narrow and small. There can be dis- tinguished, however, three equally plain S3^stems : the continuation of the Mount Diablo range, east of the San Benito River; the Gavilan range (connecting with the last at its southern extremity), between the San Benito and Salinas rivers ; and the Palo Escrito hills and Santa Lucia range on the west. From the northern boundary of the belt to the south of this region the ranges have, in general, a sufficiently well marked northwest and southeast direction, as seen by the courses of the principal streams. Here, however, a change occurs, the coast line, and with it the mountain OF THE COAST RANGE BELT. 57 chains, making a sudden turn nearly east and west, or almost at a right angle. The Sierra Nevada also bends around towards the west and meets the Coast Rangres, and hence I'esults a confusion of topographical structure and of geological formation. The highest elevation of the belt, that of Mount San Antonio in the San Gabriel range, is here attained. South of Los Angeles the coast line returns nearly to its former northwest and southeast course, and the ranges appear to come into general conformity with it; but there is apparently much irregularity in the details, of which, in fact, but little information is extant. Creiieral Geological Structure. — As a general rule the rocks of the belt of the Coast Ranges are altered and unaltered sandstones, shales and slates of cretaceous and tertiary formations, with more or less limestone. The sedimentary beds have been metamorphosed over wide areas, crushed and folded to form the various ranges. In some regions volcanic rocks appear in large quantities. Granite occurs here and there, but almost always in small masses, except where the Sierra Nevada makes its influ- ence felt. It forms an important feature, however, in some of the chains south of Monterey Bay, and forms the axis of the Santa Monica range, which differs in this re- spect from the other Coast Ranges. Other rocks are almost unknown, except where the Coast Ranges and the Sierra come into close contact. Metaniorphisni.— The metamorphism of the rocks is principally chemical, and is very prevalent throughout the belt, often to such an extent that it is extremelv diffi- cult, if not impossible, to' distinguish between rocks of the most opposite nature, such as the eruptive and the sedimentary. Especially noticeable is the enormous ex- tent of change of slates into serpentine, in connection with which broken jaspery rocks, also a product of the alteration of slates, ver}- commonly occur. Tliese combi- nations of serpentines and jaspers are important to the 58 TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY miner, as being the carriers of the quicksilver ores so ex- tensively worked. Cretaceous Formations. — The cretaceous forma- tions are geologically very important, especially from a mining point of view. In the sandstones of the upper part of this formation occur all the workable beds of coal yet discovered. Coal and Cinnabar Deposits. — Cinnabar deposits have been found in California in man}' localities and in rocks of nearly every age — in the Sierra Nevada and in the southern part of the State, in the triassic strata ; in the Coast Ranges, also in the tertiary. But, so far as known, no valuable bodies of this mineral have been met with, except in the cretaceous, in which position it is known, in small quantities at least, in very numerous places, extending in a line with the metamorphic cre- taceous from across the Oregon line in the north to the vicinity of Santa Barbara in the south. The cretaceous formation, principall}^ slates, jaspers, serpentine, and coarse sandstones, is almost the exclusive one north of Clear Lake ; and south from there to San Francisco, in which region limestone occurs quite fre- quentl}', it still predominates. South of San Francisco Bay it forms the central and prevailing mass of the Mount Diablo range, extending as far as the north end of Tulare Lake, and gradually yielding to the tertiary. It also constitutes the crest and eastern side of the Santa Cruz range. In both these chains the cretaceous rocks are chiefl}- slates and sandstones, often highly altered, with limestone in smaller amounts ; and serpentine and jaspers, " which have been traced unmistakabl}' to their origin as cretaceous shales," are abundant. South of Tulare Lake the cretaceous formation is local and comparatively unimportant. Tertiary Strata. — The tertiary strata are principally miocene, of marine origin, and for the most part are not much metamorphosed. They are hardly known north of OF THE COAST RANGE BELT. 59 Clear Lake, although the great bituminous slate forma- tion has been traced from Cape Mendocino through the country south to Los Angeles. South of the bay of San Francisco the strata of this slate formation are everywhere turned up at a high angle, while north of the bay they are less disturbed. The ter- tiary, which is so limited north of San Francisco Bay, in- creases in importance going south. It flanks the cre- taceous on both sides of the Mount Diablo range, and gradually limits it. The western and larger portion of the Santa Cruz range (the geology of which is somewhat complicated by the presence of intrusive granite rocks in various places; is said to be miocene. In the Gavilan and Santa Lucia system of ranges the tertiar}- is continued, and granite and highly metamorphosed rocks occur in considerable quantity ; but the region is dry and very rough, and has been but little explored. Asphaltum Deposits. — The different ranges in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are made up chiefly of miocene rocks, consisting principally of a coarse-grained sandstone below, and over this a fine-grained slate or shale, often highly bituminous and generally ver}' much contorted and tilted nearly vertical. In Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles counties, where the tertiary bituminous slate predominates, the principal deposits of superficial asphaltum have been found, and here attempts have been made to strike flowing petroleum wells. As one approaches the Sierra Nevada to the east of this region, and also in going south, granite becomes more frequent and the sedimentary rocks get harder and more crystalline. There is' a granitic belt formmg a con- tinuation of the San Gabriel range, and connecting at Tejon Pass with the metamorphic and granitic masses of the Sierra, the crystalline rocks being apparently con- tinuous, but the disturbance of the tertiary and cretaceous formations not being visible east of Tejon Pass. The granite forming the divide between the branches of the 6o TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY Santa Clara River and the Mojave Desert is overlaid on the edge next the plain with stratified beds of recent vol- canic material. Tin Ore. — South of Los Angeles the ranges are of mixed character, and are very often considered as not belonging to the Coast Ranges proper. The Sierra de Santa Ana is composed on the south of granite, trap- pean and metamorphic rocks, while on the north coarse miocene sandstone and conglomerates prevail. The Te- mescal range consists principally of granite, porphyry, and metamorphic sandstone, partly cretaceous and partly tertiary. Here is the only known locality on the coast north of Mexico where tin ore has been found. Still further south toward the Mexican boundary there is, along the ocean shore, a narrow strip of unaltered cre- taceous and tertiary rocks. Pliocene Gravels. — Pliocene gravels occur in vari- ous places in the Coast Ranges, sometimes in large de- posits. These are in many cases the work of disinte- grating adjacent formations. Gold has been found in some places, but seldom in paying quantities. North of Clear Lake, at the bottom of the canons which have been cut out chiefly by running water, are sometimes small deposits of gravel of pliocene age. These, especially at the north, carry gold. Between Clear Lake and San Francisco the only large gravel bed is the extensive one east of, and not far from. Clear Lake. This bed is covered in part by lava. There are several localities in which deposits of gravel, probably pliocene, occur in the miocene strata of the Mount Diablo range, as south of the Livermore val- ley, but these contain no gold so far as known. Similar deposits are also found on the eastern edge of the Santa Cruz range, as on the east slope of the Mount Bache ridge, where considerable ground has been washed for gold, but without profit. Between the Gavilan and Mount Diablo ranges, south of Tres Pinos, there is an OF THE COAST RANGE BELT. 6 1 immense mass of pliocene gravel, apparently non-auri- ferous, made up of pebbles of granite, red and green jas- pers, silicious slates, and other metamorphic material. In the Santa Lucia range, near the Mission San Antonio, placers have been worked to some extent, and gold has been found in small quantities in several places. The miocene strata of the ranges in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are covered unconformably in places by nearly horizontal and slightly disturbed plio- cene beds. In various places south of the junction, near Fort Tejon, of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges, plio- cene gravels occur over small areas. At San Francisco canon these gravels have been washed and more or less gold obtained at various times since 1841 according to some authorities, and since 1838 according to Father Venegas. Along the San Gabriel range gold-washing has been carried on intermittently with more or less profit. At the base of the Sierra de Santa Ana are immense accu- mulations of gravel made up of the wash of disintegrated tertiary strata. Gold, Silver, and Copper Veins. — Veins of gold, silver, and copper have been reported at different locali- ties along the Coast Ranges. Eruptive Rocks. — A belt of eruptive rocks, of which Mount St. Helena is the culminating point, extends from near Napa to Clear Lake down to Suisun Bav, and large areas in this region are covered bv lava, obsidian, pumice, and volcanic ashes. Especially in the vicinity of Clear Lake modern volcanic formations abound, and hot springs, sulphur beds, and other evidences of modern igneous action are common ; but to the north of Clear Lake no volcanic phenomena of the kind are known, and south of San Francisco volcanic rocks are not found in any large quantities. Hot and sul- phur springs are, however, quite common in the Coast Ranges. 62 TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY THE GREAT VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA. General Topography. — The valleys of the Sacra- mento and the San Joaquin rivers form in the centre of California a large plain, nearly elliptical in shape, extend- ing from near Shasta, in lat. 40° 40' N., to Fort Tejon, in lat. 34° 50' N., an extreme length of four hundred and fifty miles, with an average width of forty miles, and an area of eighteen thousand square miles. This plain is comparatively level. The Sacramento River, between Shasta and its mouth, has an average fall of 2.8 feet per mile. The San Joaquin River, from Kern Lake to its outlet, has an average inclination of i.i feet per mile. The valley of the Sacramento is narrower than that of the San Joaquin. The southern portion of the latter is ver}' level and contains several shallow lakes of considerable area. The evaporation here about equals the water suppl}'. Drainage. — By far the larger part of the water com- ing into the Great Valley is derived from the Sierra Ne- vada. There is hardly a stream which furnishes water throughout the year on the east slope of the Coast Ranges, certainly not one in the San Joaquin division. The fact that many rivers, passing chiefly through the mining regions, flow down the west slope of the Sierra and empty into the Sacramento or San Joaquin, makes the whole drainage system worthy of attention. Rainfall.— The rainfall of the Great Valley is com- paratively small, especially in the southern parts. On the east slope of the Coast Ranges the amount of water de- rived from rain is small. On the west slope of the Sierra there is considerable precipitation, chiefly in win- ter, and in great part in the shape of snow. In the spring and early summer the flow of water down the last men- tioned slope is greater than at other seasons, so much so that every year freshets occur. Heavy storms often cause destructive floods here, and if the theories of many OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 63 who have written on the subject of forests are correct, these floods will increase in magnitude with the destruc- tion of timber in the Sierra. THE BELT OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. Topographical Structure. — The Sierra Nevada is a well-dehned range of mountains situated on the edge of a high plateau, its eastern base being about four thou- sand feet high, while its western side slopes nearl\- to the sea-level. Its eastern flank is comparatively short and steep ; its western, long and with a gradual descent, aver- aging in the central part of the State about one hundred feet per mile. This west side is broken by steep canons in which the present rivers flow, running at about right angles with the axis of the ridge, so that an elevation of three thousand to four thousand feet above the sea-level the divide between any two streams is from several hun- dred to two thousand feet, or more, above the bottoms of the canons on either side. In the northern part of the State the range is outlined indistinctly, consisting of broken ridges with several pro- minent peaks. The general elevation may be assumed to be seven thousand or eight thousand feet. Mount Shasta, the highest point of this section, rises to a height of four- teen thousand four hundred and forty feet, dominating over all the others. South of this, from Lassen's Peak (lat. 40° 40' N.) to near Tejon Pass (lat. 35° N.), the Sierra Nevada forms one clearly defined crest, gradually in- ■ creasing in height toward the south. Along the head- waters of the Feather River, in Plumas and Sierra coun- ties, the elevation of the prominent peaks is about nine thousand feet, and of the passes from five thousand to six thousand feet. Lassen's Peak rises ten thousand five hun- dred feet above the sea-level. The western slope here has a total width of some eighty-five miles. Around the head-waters of the American River, in Nevada, Placer, and El Dorado counties, the main crest is 64 TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY a little over nine thousand feet high, and the passes seven thousand to eight thousand feet ; Donner Pass, through which the Central Pacific Railroad is built, being seven thousand feet high. The range here divides into two crests between which lies Lake Tahoe, a body of water twenty miles long, eight to twelve miles wide, and a lit- tle over six thousand feet above sea-level. At the head-waters of the Merced and Tuolumne rivers, in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties, the main peaks are twelve thousand to thirteen thousand feet high, and the passes nine thousand to ten thousand feet. The width of the Avestern slope is fully eighty miles. The highest Sierra is between lat. 37° 31' N. and lat. 36° N., in the region of the head-waters of the Kern, King's, and San Joaquin rivers. Here the main crest is twelve thousand to thirteen thousand feet high, with numerous points exceeding fourteen thousand feet, Mount Whitney being the culminating peak. The west slope is some fifty miles wide, with an average descent of two hundred and fifty feet to the mile. Still further south the range turns to the west, and from this point is less marked in its character. In the southern part of the State is a mass of high, broken ranges (the San Bernardino range being the most ex- tensive) allied in their general structure and formation to the main Sierra Nevada, but as yet insufficiently ex- plored. General Geological Strvicture — The Sierra Ne- vada is made up of : (i) a central intrusive core of granite, flanked by (2) metamorphic slates of triassic and Jurassic age (the so-called auriferous slate formation), over which lies (3) a covering of cretaceous, tertiary, and post-tertiary deposits, which are either {a) the river deposits which form the material which is washed, either by hydraulic or drift process, to extract the gold contained therein ; or OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 65 {8) sedimentary volcanic la3ers ; or {c) lava ; or finally, in some places, {d) marine formations. Granite. — The granite occurs in the extreme north- western part of the State, disappearing in the northeast- _ ern under the extensive lava beds, reappearing in Butte and Plumas counties, and continuing to increase in amount of exposure toward the south, until in Fresno and Tulare counties it forms territorially by far the greater part of the belt, extending from the crest almost down to the plain. Auriferous Sltite Foriuation. — The auriferous slate formation, consisting chiefly of metamorphic, cr^'s- talline, argillaceous, chloritic and talcose slates, appears with, but subordinate to, the granite in the northwest. It appears again in Plumas and Butte counties, increasing in importance as the overlying lava decreases. North of the American River it occupies nearly the whole \yidth of the western slope of the Sierra, with occasional areas of granite enclosed in it. Going south, it gradually con- tracts in width, being of but little importance south of jVIariposa County. In the extreme south, at the junction of the Sierra and the Coast Ranges, it reappears and con- tinues in San Bernardino and San Diego counties in con- nection with the granite. The strata of this formation are elevated very con- siderably, often in a nearly vertical position. Speaking in very general terms, it may be said that the strike of the slates is usually parallel with the axis of the range and the dip in the southern portion of the belt is generally to the east. Gold Quartz Veins. — In this formation occur al- most exclusively the veins of quartz which carry gold in amounts which pay for working. While such veins occur also in the granite, and likewise, as has been mentioned, in some of the Coast Range formations, the paying gold quartz is rarely found outside of the auriferous slate formation. Some of these veins are of very great size, 66 TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY notably the " great quartz vein," which has been traced from near the centre of Amador County through Cala- veras and Tuolumne into Mariposa to the Mariposa Es- tate, a distance of eighty miles. The vein attains a width, in places, of several hundred feet. Carboiiiferovis Limestones. — There are certain limestones in Shasta and Butte counties which are car- boniferous, the oldest formation known in the State, and which are possibly the same as those found here and there throughout the gold-mining region. Marine Sedimentary Deposits. — The marine sedi- mentary deposits of cretaceous and tertiary age occur in the foothills all along the eastern margin of the Great Valley, lying unconformably on the upturned edges of the auriferous slates. Their greatest development is in Kern County, between Kern and White rivers. The rock is lor the most part a soft sandstone, made up chiefly of granite debris. Lava. — The chief lava country is in Plumas and Butte and the region north of these counties, and east of Trinity and Klamath rivers. Here is a series of volcanic cones, of which Lassen's Peak and Mount Shasta are the most pro- minent, fnnn which flowed, in the later tertiary or still more recent times, the streams of lava which now cover many thousands of square miles of northern California and southern Oregon. The limitation of the auriferous belt at the north, in Plumas and Butte covmties, is due not to the thinning out of the gold-bearing formation, but to its being covered by this volcanic mass. Along the crest of the Sierra, to the south, are nume- rous volcanic vents and here and there are areas of lava, but these are comparatively small.* Sedimentary Volcanic Layers. — Very frequent, and associated with the gravel deposits, are the sedimen- tary volcanic layers, consisting of fragments of lava which * As to the Tuolumne Table Mountain see J. Ross Browne, "Mineral Resources of the U. S.," 1867, page 25. OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 6/ have been carried to a distance by water and deposited as breccia or conglomerate of volcanic ashes or lapilli. These layers stratified, often in alternation with gravel or clay, generally cover the gravel deposits. Gravel Deposits. — The gravel deposits occur in every variety of texture, from very fine pipe clay, through sands and gravels, to rolled pebbles and boul- ders sometimes weighing tons. It is now generally ac- cepted that they have been laid down by the action of a system of tertiary rivers, which had the same general course (nearly) as the present streams on the west slope of the Sierra, but whose channels were wider and slopes greater. The waters of these rivers, eroding the auri- ferous slates with the included quartz veins, concentrated the precious metals in deposits often three hundred and fifty to four hundred feet wide at the bottom and some- times several thousand feet wide on top. Their depth now varies from a few inches to six or seven hundred feet. Volcanic eruptions have in places covered these deposits with lava and tufa hundreds of feet deep. Denudation and erosion ensued and the products of volcanic activ- ity have sometimes been covered in turn with gold-bear- ing detritus. Quantities of fossil wood and numerous re- mains of land and water animals have been found in the deposits and are being constantly unearthed as the mines are being worked.* The deep canons of the rivers of the extreme northern counties, especially the Klamath and its branches, contain * In reference to the occurrence of g6ld the following note, taken from the Enginetring and Mining yournal, February lo, 1877, relative to the discovery of pay gold in the New South Wales coal measures, will be found interesting. Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, F.R.S., writes from the Geological Survey Office, Geelong, under date of November 25, to the Mining De- partment, as follows : " During my examination of the Tallawang Gold Field Reserve I observed the important fact that the gold found in tertiary alluvial deposits at the old Tallawang and Clough's Gully diggings has been chiefly derived from conglomerates in the coal measures. These conglo- merates are associated with beds of sandstone and shales containing the fossil plant of our coal measures, ihe g-iosso/>teris. . . . This is the first time that gold has been noticed to occur in payable quantity in the coal measures in the colony, and it is not unworthy of remark that we here possess one of the most ancient alluvial deposits in the world." 68 TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY large amounts of gravel which have been washed quite extensively. These gravels are, however, thought to be ordinary river deposits on a large scale. In the southern part of the State, in Santa Barbara and San Diego coun- ties, gold-washing has been carried on to some extent, but under unfavorable conditions and apparently without much profit. Deposits at La Grange. — The deposits at La Grange, Stanislaus County, in a distance of one and a half miles in a northerly and southerly direction, cross four distinct and widely varying formations (see annexed topographical and geological section), which, enumerated in accordance with their relative ages, are : argillaceous slates, occurring north of the Tuolumne River, probably Jurassic ; diorite ; a thin stratum of basaltic tufa ; and post- pliocene auriferous deposits of sand and gravel. The slates have a general strike northwesterly and southeasterly, parallel to the general trend of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and dip at an angle of about sixty de- grees. The diorite is occasionally porphyritic, changing into aphanite and serpentine in places which, so far as ob- served, are not on the direct line of the section. It some- times contains quartz, and must be classed as syenitic. Where overlaid by basaltic tufa or gravel it is very much decomposed, presenting the appearance of clay shale, showing thick-bedded stratification, a water- worn and un- dulating surface, with numerous pot-holes similar to a river bed. The basaltic tufa, from two to six feet thick, occurs in more or less isolated patches, having been washed away in places and cut up b}- streams previous to or during the deposition of the gravel. It is generally of a light green- ish or yellowish color, occasionally pink or of a rusty iron tinge, and frequently contains angular quartz pebbles and rounded masses of flint-like rock. The auriferous deposits of sand and gravel rest upon the tufa, and are not capped by any volcanic flow. Bones OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 69 and teeth of the elephant have been found imbedded in them. The gravel is composed of such rocks only as are found to the eastward in the foothills and the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, and consequently must have come from that general direction. A section of the gravel occurring in the New Kelly claim shows the deposit to consist of : I, Top soil (red sand) 1.7 feet. II. Coarse red gravel with sand (the gravel is chietly granite) 6.1 " III. Red cement hard-pan 6.0 " IV. White sandy clay o. S " V. Red cement hard-pan 3.3 " VI. Sand and pebbles 6.5 " VII. Loose yellowish sand 7.4 " VIII. Dark-colored gravel of granite, slate, porphyry, greenstone, aphanite, serpentine, quartzite, diorite, etc 13.2 " Total 45 o " Quartz gravel of large size is of rare occurrence. Boulders of diorite, several tons in weight, are common in some of the deeper holes of the bed-rock. The greater part of the gold is confined to the lower stratum of gravel, next to the bed-rock, and is associated with magnetic iron and platinum. CHAPTER IV. THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD IN DEPOSITS AND THE VALUE OF DIFFERENT STRATA. No absolutely satisfactory explanation has yet been given of the distribution of gold in deposits. * The opinion is held by some that the precious metal is uniformly disseminated throughout the beds. But this is the case only in very exceptional instances, and the un- equal distribution of the gold f is so general as to have given rise in California to the expression "pay dirt," which means the stratum or strata containing gold in amounts which render work profitable. Top Gravel sometimes pays. — In a few instances the gold occurs in comparatively large amounts in thin streaks of cemented gravel scattered here and there in the alluvions, and in some shallow banks X it is quite generally disseminated. Even in high banks the upper portion or " top gravel," when consisting of fine light quartz-wash with no boulders or pipe-clay, and where the cost of hydraulicking is very small (owing to the facilities of a heavy grade, sufficient dump, and cheap water), has been washed at a profit, though carrying an insignificant amount of gold per cubic yard. For this reason the miner always tests the whole of the deposit. * See " The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California," p. 516. By J. D. Whitney. t On the subject of the relative position of gold in deposits see Report of Mr. Stutchbury, Government Geologist of New South Wales ; Quarterly Jour. Geol. Sac. 1858, p. 583, M. A. Selwin ; " Gold-Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria," pp. 81, 82, 87, 131, 173, R. Brough Smythe ; Cotta's " Lehre v. d. Erzlagerstatten," vol. i. p. loi, and vol. ii. p. 556 ; Murchison's " Russia and the Ural Mts.," vol. i. pp. 482-487, and " Siluria," p. 456 ; Whitney's " Auri- ferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada," p. 361 ; J. Grimm's " Lagerst3tten d. Nutzbaren Mine- ralien," p. 26 ; Hartt's " Geol. and Phys. Geog. of Brazil," pp. 50, 51, 159, 160 ; Mawe's Tra- vels, pp. 222-227 ; Munroe's " Mineral Wealth of Japan," Trans. Amer. Inst, of Mining Engi- neers, vol. V. p. 236 ; " Gold Deposits of Jaragua," Ann. d. Mines^ 1817, vol. ii. p. 202. X See " Gold-Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria," p. 84. 70 DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD IN GRAVEL. "Jl The top gravel of the channel which passes through Columbia Hill, Nevada County, has in several instances been successfully washed. This is especially remarkable on account of the great depth of this deposit, which, from the explorations on Badger Hill and Grizzly Hill, is in- ferred to be from six hundred to six hundred and twenty feet deep. Gold ill the Grass-Roots. — Not unfrequently a fine lamina gold is found in the grass-roots. This last men- tioned circumstance is in no way localized, the same fact having been noted in other countries. Mawe called atten- tion to the existence of gold in the grass-roots on Mount San x\ntonio,* in Brazil ; and Walsh states that gold was first discovered in the deposits between San Jose and San Joao, Brazil, by Paulistas, who, pulling tufts of grass, " found numerous particles of gold entangled in the roots." t Pay Gravel soniet lines high above Becl-Rock, —At the Polar Star Mine, Indiana Hill, Placer County, the best pay was found from six to eighty feet above bed- rock. At diggings near Forest Hill, Placer Count}^ the gravel twenty to sixty feet above the bed-rock has yielded profits. At Bath a stratum one hundred feet above bed- rock was drifted profitably and the top dirt h^'draulicked subsequently. Pay Gravel generally near Bed-Rock. — But ex- perience has proved that, as an almost universal rule, the top gravel of deep alluvions is not rich enough to warrant large investments of capital. Also that the " pay " is ob- tained, not from the washings of the entire bank, but chiefly from that stratum or those strata which are in most cases within eight or ten feet of the bed-rock. Where this is of slate upturned on its edges the gold frequently permeates it one or two feet.:|: * Mawe'