RARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE II 6 BARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GALIFORN v OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN I RY 1 i MINING PACIFIC STATES NORTH AMERICA. BY JOHN S. HITTELL. SAN FRANCISCO: H. H. BANCROFT AND COMPANY. 1861. Entered according to Act of Congress, A. D. 1861, By H. H. BANCROFT & COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California. TOWNE & BACON, PRINTERS, 503 CLAY STREET, SAN FRANCISCO. PREFACE. THIS book is intended for the general reader, not for the special- ist. I do not' undertake to teach the quartz miner or the hydraulic miner anything new about his special branch of business, but I may tell something about the occupation of each to the other. My object has been to collect, arrange in a lucid manner, condense and set forth in a clear style, all the attainable information about the main points of our mining and mineral resources, so that the reader, who has never been in the mines, can easity form an intelligible idea of the chief industry of this coast. Specialists might desire more elab- orate treatment of their various branches, but a thorough technical handling of geology, chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics, law, history and trade, in so far as they are connected with mining in California, would have required an encyclopedia. Besides, accurate informa- tion on many points is not to be had, or can be obtained only by great expense. I am indebted for useful hints to Messrs. C. Heusch, C. S. Capp, Dr. J. A. Veatch, C. Trinius and C. Wennerhold. In the second chapter, I have expressed the opinion that Califor- nia never can produce her own coal, and this has been, until very recently, the opinion of all the geologists in the State ; but since that chapter w T as written, the coal mines on the slope of. Mount Diablo have been opened, and Professor Whitney, State Geologist, thinks they will k probably furnish good coal. I am not convinced, but dare not say much against such authority. The fifth chapter, in which Washoe is spoken of as part of Utah, was in type before we had news of the organization of Nevada Territory. JOHN S. HITTELL. SAN FRANCISCO, April 1st. 1861, INDEX TO CHAPTERS. CHAP. . \ PAGE. I. HISTORY OF MINING IN THE PACIFIC STATES 9 II. MINERALOGY OF GOLD 41 III. CHEMISTRY OF GOLD 49 IV. GEOLOGY OF GOLD 54 V. THE MINING DISTRICTS 68 VI. PROSPECTING 115 VII. ASSAYING 121 VIII. MODES OF PLACER MINING 127 IX. PROCESSES OF GOLD-QUARTZ MINING 154 X. PROCESSES OF SILVER MINING 168 XI. THE LAWS OF MINING IN CALIFORNIA 176 XII. MISCELLANY 204 APPENDIX 214 SEE PARTICULAR INDEX ON NEXT PAGE. PARTICULAR INDEX. CHAPTER I. HISTORY or MINING IN THE PACIFIC STATES, page 9. PAGE. 1. Discovery of CalifornianGold, 9 2. Drake's Report 9 3. Spanish Reports 10 4. Forbes and Maufras 10 5. Dana 10 6 Larkin 11 7. Marshall, the true discoverer 11 8. Another version 13 9. Mining becomes a business.. 14 10. New Placers found 15 11. Newspaper Reports 16 12. Rush to the Mines 17 13. Excitement in the States. ... 18 14. Excitement in Europe 14 15. Discovery of New Districts.. 20 16. Number of Miners 20 17. Wages of Miners 21 18. Character of Claims 21 19. Mining Implements. 22 PAGE. 20. Mining Excitements 22 21. The Greenwood Rush . 22 22. Gold Lake 23 23. Gold Bluff 23 24. Second Gold Lake 25 25. Australia 26 26. Peru 26 27. Small Rushes 27 28. Kern River 27 29. Sacramento and Oakland. ... 29 30. Fraser River 29 31. The Washoe Fever 35 3'2. Mining Inventions of Califor- nia 36 33. Exhaustion of the Mines.... 39 34. Various changes since '49. ... 38 85. New Almaden ,. 38 36. The Gold Yield 39 CHAPTER II. MINERALOGY OF GOLD page 41. 37. Metals obtained on the Coast 41 41. Forms of Quartz.... Gold... 43 38. NoOreofGold 42 42. GoldDust.... 44 " T1 - '<;* ..11 S 43. Forms of TMocpr Oolrt 44 VI PARTICULAR INDEX. CHAPTER III. CHEMISTRY OF GOLD page 49. 45. Chemical Fineness of Gold 49. CHAPTER IV. THE GEOLOGY OF GOLD page 54. 46. The formation of Gold 54 54. The Great Quartz Vein of 47. Quartz the Mother of Gold. . 54 California , 58 48. The Igneous Theory 54 55. Formation of the Placers.... 70 49. The Vapor Theory 55 56. Diluvial and Alluvial Placers 62 50. The Aqueous Theory 56 57. Ancient and Modern Streams 63 51, The Country of Gold 58 58. Blake's Classification 63 52 . Rules of Quartz Veins 57 59. Position of Pay Dirt 65 53. Quartz Veins poorer as they 60. Geological Character of Coast 65 descend 58 61. Volcanic Mountains 66 62. Hot Springs 66 CHAPTER V. THE MINING DISTRICTS page 68. 63. Orography of the Coast 68 76. Calaveras County 90 64. Metals of the Sierra Nevada 68 77. Tuolumne County 92 65. General List of Districts 69 78. Mariposa County 95 66. Climates 70 79. Shasta District 79 67. Sacramento District 71 80. Kern River District 99 68. Plumas County 72 81. Fraser District 100 69. Sierra County 72 82. RogueRiver 101 70. ButteCounty 78 83. Upper Columbia District.... 102 71. NevadaCounty 79 84. Washoe 105 72. Yuba County 81 85. Esmeralda 109 73. Placer County 84 86. Coso 110 74. El Dorado County 86 87. Arizona 110 75. Amador County 89 88. Quicksilver Districts Ill CHAPTER VI. PROSPECTING page 115. 89. Prospecting a River Bar 115 92. Prospecting a Flat 118 90. Prospecting in a Ravine 117 93. Prospecting for Quartz 118 91. Prospecting with a Knife .... 117 CHAPTER VII. ASSAYING page 121. 94. Kinds of Assays 120 100. Silver Assay with Testing 95. Means of Assaying 120 Tube 123 96. Gold Assay with a Spoon.. 120 101; Silver Assay by Smelting... 123 97. Assay of a Metallic Sub- 102. Assaying Gold Quartz by stance 122 weight- 124 98. Gold Assay by Smelting.... 122 103. Importance of fair Samples S V9. Presence of Copper Pyrites.. 123 In Assaying 125 PARTICULAR INDEX. CHAPTER VIII. MODES OF PLACER MINING page 127. 104. List of Modes 127 115. The Tail Sluice , . 140 105. Knife Mining 127 116. The Ground Sluice , 14R 106. Dry Diggings 127 117. The Sluice Tunnel 14?, 107. Dry Washing 127 118. The Under-current Sluice ..143 108. Panning 129 119. Hydraulic Mining ...144 109. The Rocker 129 120. Tunnel Miuing 146 110. The Puddling Box 132 121. Shaft Mining 148 111. The Long Tom 133 122. River Mining , ,..149 112. The Quicksilver Machine... 133 123. Beach Mining ..151 113. The Board Sluice . . , 134 124. Blasting 158 114. The Rock Sluice 134 125. Mining Ditches ...153 CHAPTER IX. PROCESSES OF QUARTZ MINING page 154. 126. Comparison of Quartz with 137. The Blanket , 159 Placer Mining 154 138. The Golden Fleece 159 127. Quarrying the Rock 155 139. The Sluice .,T59 128. Pulverizing the Quartz 155 140. Amalgamation , 159 129. Pulverizing with a stone 155 141. In the Battery ..159 130. The Arastra 155 142. Copper Slate , 160 131. The Chilean Mill 157 143. Amalgamating Basins.... ..160 132. The Square Stamp 157 144. General Remarks ..160 133. The Rotary Stamp 158 145. Sulphurets and Amalgama- 134. Horizontal Stones 158 tion .166 135. Separation of Gold ,15ft 146. Quartz Mining as a business. 166 136. Appliances for Separating. . 158 CHAPTER X. PROCESSES OF SILVER MINING page 168. 147. Comparison of Gold and Sil- ver Mining 168 148. Silver Ores of Pacific Coast . 168 149. The Reduction of Silver Ores 168 150. Silver Smelting 170 151. Salt Solution Process 170 152. Barrel Amalgamation 171 153. The Patio Process 172 154. The Eliquation Process 173 155. New Processes 173 CHAPTER XI. THE LAWS OF MINING IN CALIFORNIA, page 176. 161. Incorporated Mining Com- panies 182 162. Decisions of Supreme Court on Mining 183 163. Mining Law in Nevada 184 164. Mining on Pre-emption Claims 184 156. Public Mining Land open to all 176 157. Mineral Land owned in fee. 176 158. Foreign Miners 179 159. Authority of Miners' Regu- lations 180 160. Mode of taking up Claims. . 181 VIII PARTICULAR INDEX. 165. 166. 167. Limits of Claims downwards Fluming and tailing Claims. Conveyance of Mining Claims , (184 186 187 175. 176. 177. 168. 169. 170. 171. 172. 173. Water subject to claim Older claim has preference. Abandonment of Water Claims entitled to Water. . . Claim of water for a Ditch. , ,187 189 189 189 ,189 189 178. 179. 160. 174. Regulations of Columbia District... W, Regulations of Pilot Hill. ... 195 Regulations of Mush Flat... 195 Regulations of New Kanaka Camp 197 Quartz Regulations of Tuol- umne County 198 Silver Regulations of Vir- ginia District.... 199 Silver Regulations of Genoa District .. ... 200 CHAPTER XII. MISCELLANY page 204. 181. Value of Gold according to fineness 204 182. Gold Dust trade in Califor- nia 204 183. How Gold is carried 205 184. Private Coins of California.. 208 185. Gold Export oi California. . .208 186. Cheats in Mining. 208 187. How the Miners live 211 188. Cost of living 212 189. Mineral Lands should be sold 212 APPENDIX page 214 CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL SKETCH.. Discovery of Californian Gold. \ 1. The existence of rich and extensive gold mines in California was discovered by James W. Marshall, an American citizen and a native of New Jersey, on the nineteenth of January, 1848. Gold had, previous to that time, been found, but in places where the mines were not extensive ; their production was scarcely known to commerce, and their working, after long years, led to no important results. Marshall's discovery speedily and di- rectly exercised an influence that \vas felt throughout the world, and gave a new life to trade and industry in Europe and America. Drake's Report. 2. The first published report of gold in California, is in Hakluyt's account of Sir Francis Drake's visit to this coast in 1579. That voyager entered a bay, about latitude thirty-eight degrees, supposed to be the one now called " Drake's Bay," twenty miles north-westward from the mouth of San Francisco Bay. If not the former, it cer- tainly was the latter bay. The historian of the voyage says : '' There is no part of the earth here to be taken up* wherein there is not a reasonable quantity of gold or silver." There is no statement that any of Drake's men penetrated into the in- terior, or made any search for these metals, or obtained any specimens of them ; and since neither gold nor silver is found in the loose earth at either Drake's Bay or San Francisco Bay, we are justified in presuming the statement to be an impudent lie, written for the purposes of making the voyage appear im- portant, giving interest to the narrative, and imposing on the ignorant and credulous. 10 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. Spanish Reports. \ 3. The Spaniards and Mexicans who visited the coast at various times, by land and sea, and who were familiar with the indications of the precious metals and knew how to search for them, undoubtedly found gold at various places, particularly near the Colorado river ; but they found no placers rich enough to pay for the labor of working. The impression went abroad, however, that the country had great mineral wealth, and continued to prevail until the American conquest. It was only a vague rumor, and was published in several books, but it could not command the con- fidence of severe criticism. Forbes and Maufras. $ 4. It is reported that silver was discovered at Alizal, in Monterey county, as early as 1802, and gold was found at San Isidro, in San Diego county, in 1828, (Maufras, vol. 1, p. 335) ; but the former place never yielded any silver worthy of note, and the latter had not been heard of in 1835, by Alexander Forbes, the historian of Cali- fornia, who wrote : " No minerals of particular importance have yet been found in Upper California, nor any ores of metals." (P. 173.) In another place, (p. 143) referring to Hijar's migration to California in 1833, he says : " There were goldsmiths [in the party] proceeding to a country where no gold existed." The first mine to produce any noteworthy amount of precious metal was the gold placer in the Canon of San Francisquito, on the ranch of the same name, forty-five miles north-north-westward from Los Angeles. This placer was discovered about the year 1838, (Maufras, vol. 1, p. 137) and in 1842 the chief miner there was a Frenchman named Barec. This placer was wrought continuously from 1838 till 1848, when it was deserted for the richer diggings in the Sac- ramento basin. The total yield in ten years was probably not over $60,000, a yearly average of $6,000. Dana. 5. In 1842, James D. Dana, the geologist and mineralogist of Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, visited Cali- fornia, and traveled from the northern boundary through the Sacramento basin to the Bay of San Francisco, and soon after his return to the Eastern States in 1842 or 1843, he published a work on mineralogy, in which lie asserted the existence of fold in California. I have not been able to find a copy of the rst edition of his book, but a newspaper which has fallen into my hands gives the following quotations, presumed to be correct. HISTORY OP MINING. 11 Speaking of places where gold has been found, he mentioned " California, between the Sierra Nevada and Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers." (p. 251.) On page 252 he says : " The gold rocks and veins of quartz were observed by the author in 1842, near the Umpqua river, in Southern Oregon, and pebbles from similar rocks were met with along the shores of the Sac- ramento, in California, and the resemblance to other gold dis- tricts was remarked, but there was no opportunity of exploring the country at the time." Mr. Dana unquestionably discovered the existence of gold in California, either by direct vision or by inference, but it was a mere nominal discovery, creditable in a scientific point of view, but of no practical use. He did not find diggings that would pay, nor did his announcement set anybody to work to hunt for such diggings. His merit, in so far as California is concerned, may be compared to that of Murchison's similar discovery of auriferous rock, or rock indi- cating auriferous wealth, in Australia. It did no good, and nobody paid any attention to it, until the paying diggings were found by Hargraves, many years later. As Hargraves is the hero of the Australian, so is Marshall of the Californian gold discovery. Larkin. 6. Before giving the account of his discovery, however, I will quote the following passage from a letter, written on the fourth of May, 1846, by Thomas O. Larkiu, then U. S. Consul at Monterey, California, to James Bu- chanan, Secretary of State under President Polk : " There is said to be black lead in the country at San Fer- nando, near San Pedro, [now Los Angeles county]. By washing the sand in a plate, any person can obtain from $1 to $5 pqr day of gold that brings $17 per ounce in Boston ; the gold has been gathered for two or three years, though but few have the patience to look for it. On the southeast end of the Island of Catalina, there is a silver mine from which silver has been extracted. There is no doubt but that gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, lead, sulphur and coal mines, are to be found all over California, and it is equally doubtful whether, under their present owners, they will ever be worked." Marshall the true Discoverer. \ 7. James W. Marshall, in a letter dated January 28th, 1856, and addressed to Charles E. Pickett, gave the following account of the gold discovery : 12 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. " Towards the end of August, 1847, Capt. Sutter and I formed a copartnership to build and run a saw-mill upon a site selected by myself (since known as Coloma). We employed P. L. Weimer and family to remove from tne Fort [Sutler's Fort] to the mill site, to cook and labor for us. Nearly the first work done was the building of a double log cabin, about half a mile from the mill site. We commenced the mill about Christmas. Some of the mill hands wanted a cabin near the mill. This was built, and I went to the Fort to superintend the construction of the mill irons, leaving orders to cut a narrow ditch where the race was to be made. Upon my return, in January, 1848, I found the ditch cut as directed, and those who were working on the same were doing so at a great dis- advantage, expending their labor upon the head of the race instead of the foot. " I immediately changed the course of things, and upon the nineteenth of the same month of January, discovered the gold near the lower end of the race, about two hundred yards below the mill. William Scott was the second man to see the metal. He was at work at a carpenter's bench near the mill. I showed the gold to him. Alexander Stephens, James Brown, Henry Bigler and William Johnston were likewise working in front of the mill, framing the upper story. They were called up next, and, of course, saw the precious metal. P. L. Weimer and Charles Bennett were at the old double log cabin (where Hastings & Co. afterwards kept a store) and in my opinion, at least half a mile distant. " In the meantime we put in some wheat and peas, nearly five acres, across the river. In February the Captain [Captain Sutter] came to the mountains for the first time. Then we consummated a treaty with the Indians, which had been pre- viously negotiated. The tenor of this was that we were to pay them $200 yearly in goods, at Yerba Buena prices, for the joint possession and occupation of the land with them ; they agreeing not to kill our stock, viz. : horses, cattle, hogs or sheep, nor burn the grass within the limits fixed by the treaty. At the same time, Capt. Sutter, myself and Isaac Humphrey entered into a copartnership to dig gold. A short time after- wards P. L. Weimer moved away from the mill, and was away two or three months, when he returned. With all the events that subsequently occurred, you and the public are well in- formed." HISTORY OF MINING. 13 The above is the most precise, and is generally considered to be the most correct account of the gold discovery. Another Version. $ 8. Other versions of the story have been published, however, and the following, from an article published in the Coloma Argus, in the latter part of the year 1855, is one of them. The statement was evidently derived from Weimer, who lives at Coloma : " That James W. Marshall picked up the first piece of gold, is beyond doubt. Peter L. Wimmer, [Weimer] who resides in this place, states positively that Mr. Marshall picked up the gold in his presence ; they both saw it, and each spoke at the same time < What's that yellow stuff? ' Marshall being a step in advance, picked it up. This first piece of gold is now in the possession of Mrs. Wimmer, and weighs six penny- weights, eleven grains. The piece was given to her by Mar- shall himself. ' * * * The dam was finished early in January, the frame for the mill also erected, and the flume and bulkhead completed. It was at this time that Marshall and Wimmer adopted the plan of raising the gate during the night to wash out sand from the mill-race, closing it during the day, when work would be continued with shovels, etc. Early in February, the exact day is not remembered, in the morning, after shutting off the water, Marshall and Wimmer walked down the race together to see what the water had accomplished during the night. Having gone about twenty yards below the mill, they both saw the piece of gold before mentioned, and Marshall picked it up. After an examination, the gold was taken to the cabin of Wimmer, and Mrs. W. instructed to boil it in saleratus water ; but she being engaged in making soap, pitched the piece into the soap kettle, where it was boiled all day and all night. The following morning the strange piece of stuff was fished out of the soap, all the brighter for the boiling it had received. Discussion now commenced, and all expressed the opinion that perhaps the yellow substance might be gold. Little was said on the subject ; but every one each morning searched in the race for more, and every day found several small scales. The Indians also picked up many small thin pieces, and carried them always to Mrs. Wimmer. About three weeks alter the first piece was obtained, Marshall took the fine gold, amounting to between two and three ounces, and went below to have the strange metal tested. On his return, he informed Wimmer that the stuff was gold. All hands now 14 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. began to search for ' the root of all evil.' Shortly after, Cap- tain Sutter came to Ooloma, when he and Marshall assembled the Indians, and bought of them a large tract of country about Ooloma, in exchange for a lot of beads and a few cotton hand- kerchiefs. They, under color of this Indian title, required one- third of all the gold dug on their domain, and collected at this rate until the fall of 1848, when a mining party from Oregon declined paying * tithes,' as they called it. "During February. 1848, Marshall and \Vimmer went down the river to Mormon Island, and there found scales of gold on the rocks. Some weeks later they sent a Mr. Henderson, Sydney Willis and Mr. Fifield, Mormons, down there to dig, telling them that that place was better than Coloma. These were the first miners at Mormon Island." Mining becomes a Business. \ 9. Marshall was a man of an active, enthusiastic mind, and he at once attached great importance to his discovery. His ideas, however, were vague ; he knew nothing about gold mining ; he did not know how to take advantage of what he had found. Only an expe- rienced gold miner could understand the importance of the dis- covery, and make it of practical value to all the world. That gold miner, fortunately, was near at hand ; his name was Isaac Humphrey. He was residing in the town of San Francisco, in the month of February, when a Mr. Bennett, one of the party employed at Marshall's mill, went down to that place with some of the dust to have it tested ; for it was still a matter of doubt whether this yellow metal really was gold. Bennett told his errand to a friend whom he met in San Francisco, and this friend introduced him to Humphrey, who had been a gold miner in Georgia, and was therefore competent to pass an opin- ion upon the stuff. Humphrey looked at the dust, pronounced it gold at the first glance, and expressed a belief that the dig- gings must be rich. He made inquiries about the place where the gold was found, and subsequent inquiries about the trust- worthiness of Mr. Bennett, and on the seventh of March he was at the mill. He tried to induce several of his friends in San Francisco to FQ with him ; they all thought his expedition a foolish one, and he had to go alone. He found that there was some talk about the gold, and persons would occasionally go about looking for pieces of it ; but no one was engaged in mining, and the work of the mill was going on as usual. On HISTORY OP MINING. 15 the eighth he went out prospecting with a pan, and satisfied himself that the country in that vicinity was rich in gold. He then made a rocker and commenced the business of washing gold, and thus began the business of mining in California. Others saw how he did it, followed his example, found that the work was profitable, and abandoned all other occupations. The news of their success spread, people flocked to the place, learned how to use the rocker, discovered new diggings, and in the course of a few months, the country had been overturned by a social and industrial revolution. "New Placers found. \ 10. Mr. Humphrey had not been at work more than three or four days before a French- man, called Baptiste, who had been a gold miner in Mexico for many years, came to the mill, and he agreed with Humphrey that California was very rich in gold. He, too, went to work, and being an excellent prospecter, he was of great service in teaching the new-comers the principles of prospecting and min- ing for gold principles not abstruse, yet not likely to suggest themselves, at first thought, to men entirely ignorant of the business. Baptiste had been employed by Capt. Sutter to saw lumber with a whip-saw, and had been at work for two years at a place, since called Weber, about ten miles eastward from Coloma. When he saw the diggings at the latter place, he at once said there were rich mines where he had been sawing, and he expressed surprise that it had never occurred to him before, so experienced in gold mining as he was ; but afterwards he said it had been so ordered by Providence, that the gold might not be discovered until California should be in the hands of the Americans. About the middle of March, P. B. Eeading, an American, now a prominent and wealthy citizen of the State, then the owner of a large ranch on the western bank of the Sacramento river, near where it issues from the mountains, came to Coloma, and after looking about at the diggings, said that if similarity in the appearance of the country could be taken as a guide, there must be gold in the hills near his ranch ; and he went off, declaring his intention to go back and make an examination of them. John Bidwell, another American, now a wealthy and influential citizen, then residing on his ranch on the bank of Feather river, came to Coloma about a week later, and he said there must be gold near his ranch, and he went off with ex- 16 HAND-BOOK OP MINING. pressions similar to those used by Beading. In a few weeks, news came that Reading had found diggings near Clear creek, at the head of the Sacramento valley, and was at work there with his Indians ; and not long after, it was reported that Bid- well was at work with his Indians on a rich bar of Feather river, since called " Bidwell's Bar." Newspaper Reports. 11. Although Bennett had arrived at San Francisco in February with some of the dust, the editors of the town for two papers were published in the place at the time did not hear of the discovery till some weeks later. The first published notice of the gold was given in tke Californian, (published in San Francisco) on the fif- teenth of March, as follows : " GOLD MINE FOUND, In the newly made race-way of the saw mill recently erected by Captain S utter, on the American Fork, gold has been found in considerable quantities. One person brought thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia, gath- ered there in a short time. California, no doubt, is rich in mineral wealth ; great chances here for scientific capitalists. Cold has been found in almost every part of the country." Three days later, the California, Star, the rival paper, gave the following account of the discovery : " We were informed a few days since, that a very valuable silver mine was situated in the vicinity of this place, and again, that its locality was known. Mines of quicksilver are being found all over the country. Gold has been discovered in the northern Sacramento districts, about forty miles above Suiter's Fort. Rich mines of copper are said to exist north of these bays." Although these articles were written two months after the discovery, it is evident that the editors had heard only vague rumors, and attached little importance to them. The Star of the twenty-fifth of March, says : " So great is the quantity of gold taken from the new mine recently found at New Helvetia, that it has become an article of traffic in that vicinity." None of the gold had been seen in San Francisco ; but at Slitter's Fort, men had begun to buy and sell with it. The next number of the Star, bearing date April 1st, 1848, contained an article several columns long, written by Dr. V. J. Fourgeaud, on the resources of California. He devoted about HISTORY OP MINING. 17 a column to the minerals 1 , and in the course of his remarks, said : " It would be utterly impossible at present r to make a cor- rect estimate of the mineral wealth of California. Popular attention has been but lately directed to it. But the discover- ies that have already been made, will warrant us in the asser- tion that California is one of the richest mineral countries in the world. Gold, silver, quicksilver, iron, copper, lead, sulphur, saltpetre and other mines of great value have already been found. We saw a few days ago a beautiful specimen of .gold from the mine newly discovered on the American Fork. From all accounts the mine is immensely rich, and already we learn the gold from it, collected at random and without any trouble, has become an article of trade at the upper settlements. -This precious metal abounds in this country. We have heard of several other newly discovered mines of gold, but as these re- ports are not yet authenticated, we shall pass over them. How- ever, it is well known that there is a placero of gold a few miles from the ciudad de Los Angeles, and another on the San Joaquin." It was not until more than three months after Marshall's discovery, that the San Francisco papers stated that gold min- ing had become a regular and profitable business in the new placers. The Californian of April 26th, said : " GOLD MINES OF THE SACRAMENTO. From a gentleman just from the gold region, we learn that many new discoveries have very recently been made, and it is fully ascertained that a large extent of country abounds with that precious mineral. Seven men, with picks and spades, gather $1,600 worth in fif- teen days. Many persons are settling on the lands with the view of holding preemptions, but as yet every person takes the right to gather all they can, without any regard to claims. The largest piece yet found is worth six dollars." Rush to the Mines. 12. The news spread, men came from all the settled parts of the territory, and as they came they went to work mining, and gradually they moved further and further from Coloma, and before the rainy season had commenced (in December) miners were washing rich aurif erous dirt all along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, from the Feather to the Tuolumne river, a distance of one hun- dred and fifty miles, and also over a space of about fifteen 18 HAND-BOOK OP MINING. miles square, near the place now known as the town of Shasta, in the,^ Coast mountains, at the head of the Sacramento valley. The whole country had been turned topsy-turvy ; towns had been deserted, or left only to the women and children ; fields had been left unreaped ; herds of cattle went without any one to care for them. But gold mining, which had become the great interest of the country, was not neglected. The people learned rapidly and worked hard. In the latter part of 1848, adventurers began to arrive from Oregon, the Sandwich Islands and Mexico. The winter found the miners with very little preparation, but most of them were accustomed to a rough mode of life in the western wilds, and they considered their large profits an abundant compensation for their privations and hardships. The weather was so mild in December and Jan- uary, that they could work almost as well as in the summer, and the rain gave them facilities for washing such as they could not have in the dry season. Excitement in the States. 13. In September, 1848, the first rumors of the gold discovery began to reach New York ; in October they attracted attention ; in Novem- ber people looked with interest for new reports ; in December the news gained general credence and a great excitement arose. Preparations were made for a migration to California by some- body in nearly every town in the United States. The great body of the emigrants went either across tbe plains with ox or mule teams, or round Cape Horn in sailing vessels. A few took passage in the steamer by way of Panama. Not less .than one hundred thousand men, representing in their nativity every State in the Union, went to California that year. Of these, twenty thousand crossed the continent by way of the South Pass ; and nearly all of them started from the Missouri river between Independence and St. Joseph's, in the month of May. They formed an army ; in day time their trains filled up the road for miles, and at night their camp-fires glittered in every direction about the places blessed with grass and water. The excitement continued during '50, '51, '52 and '53 ; emi- grants continued to come by land and sea, from Europe and America, and in the last named year from China also. In 1854 the migration fell off, and since that time California has re- ceived the chief accessions to her white population by the Panama steamers. HISTORY OF MINING. 19 Excitement in Europe. \ 14. The whole world felt a beneficent influence from the great gold yield of the Sacra- mento basin. Labor rose in value, and industry was stimu- lated from St. Louis to Constantinople. The news, however, was not welcome to all classes. Many of the capitalists feared that gold would soon be so abundant as to be worthless, and European statesmen feared the power to be gained by the arro- gant and turbulent democracy of the New World. The author of a book, entitled Notes on the Gold Districts, published in London in 1853, thus speaks of the fears excited in Europe on the first great influx of gold from the California!! mines : " Among the many extraordinary incidents connected with the Californian discoveries, was the alarm communicated to many classes, which was not confined to individuals, but in- vaded governments. The first announcement spread alarm ; but as the cargoes of gold rose from $100,000 to $1.000,000, bankers and financiers began seriously to prepare for an ex- pected crisis. In England and the United States the panic was confined to a few ; but on the continent of Europe every government, rich or poor, thought it needful to make provision against the threatened evils. An immediate alteration in prices was looked for ; money was to become so abundant that all ordinary commodities were to rise, but more especially the pro- portion between gold and silver was to be disturbed, some thinking that the latter might become the dearer metal. The governments of France, Holland and Russia, in particular, turned their attention to the monetary question, and in 1850 the government of Holland availed themselves of a law, which had not before been put in operation, to take immediate steps for selling off the gold in the Bank of Amsterdam, at what they supposed to be the then highest prices, and to stock them- selves with silver. Palladium, which is likewise a* superior white metal, was held more firmly, and expectations were entertained that it would become available for plating. The stock, however, is small. The silver operation was carried on concurrent with a supply of bullion to Eussia for a loan ; a demand for silver in Austria, and for shipment to India, and it did really produce an effect on the silver market, which many mistook for the influence of California. The particular way in which the Netherlands operations were carried on, was especially calculated to produce the greatest disturbance of 20 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. prices. The ten florin pieces were sent to Paris, coined there into Napoleons, and silver five franc pieces drawn out in their place. At Paris, the premium on gold, in a few months, fell from nearly two per cent, to a discount, and at Hamburg a like fall took place. In London, the great silver market, silver rose between the autumn and the new year, from five shillings per ounce to five shillings one and five-eighths pence per ounce, and Mexican dollars from four shillings ten and one-halfpence to four shillings eleven and five-eighths pence per ounce ; nor did prices recover until towards the end of the year 1851, when the fall was as sudden as the rise." Discovery of New Districts. J 15. In the spring of 1849, Heading crossed the Coast Kange with a party of his Indians, and discovered rich diggings in the valley of the Trin- ity. In the summer of the same year, Col. Fremont discov- ered the mines on his ranch in the valley of the Mariposa. The next year, the diggings in the Klamath and Scott valleys were opened ; and since that time no rich and extensive gold bear- ing district has been discovered in the State, although paying diggings have been found in a number of places. In the fall of 1854, the diggings in the valley of Kern river were found, and h> 1857 those of Mono Lake, Walker's river and San Gabriel. Each of these places has a distinct mining district, where a few hundred miners are usually at work. The gold diggings in the valley of Rogue river, Oregon, where a large number of men are now employed, were found in 1852 ; the mines of Carson Valley, in Utah, in the same year ; those at Colville, in Washington territory, in 1853 ; those of the Yakima valley, on the eastern slope of the Cascade moun- tains in the same territory, in 1854 ; and those of Fraser river in 1858. The silver mines of Arizona had been known for more than a century before the Americans purchased that dis- trict. The business of mining there was commenced by Amer- ican companies in 1856. The silver mines of Washoe were discovered in 1859, and those of Esrneralda and Coso, further south, in 1860. Wumber of Miners. 16. At the end of the year 1848, there were probably five thousand miners at work in the gold diggings of California, a year later forty thousand, in the latter part of 1850 fifty thousand, and now there may be a HISTORY OF MINING. 21 hundred thousand. Besides the one hundred thousand miners in California" there are probably five thousand in Washoe, three thousand in Oregon, fifteen hundred in British Columbia, five hundred in Washington territory, five hundred in Esme- ralda and three hundred in Arizona. Wages of the Miners. 17. The diggings in the immediate vicinity of Coloma were not very rich as compared with those in many other places in California, but the miners made from twenty-five to thirty dollars a day each, with the rocker. Those who were the first to get to work on the rich bars of the North Fork of the American, Yuba, Feather, Stanislaus and Trinity rivers, and numerous brooks and gul- lies, often made from five hundred to five thousand dollars in a day, and an average of from three to .five hundred dollars a day for weeks at a time, was no rarity in '48 and '49. The aver- age amount, however, dug per day, could not safety be put at over twenty dollars at any time ; though prudent, industrious miners, who were content to make that much, usually averaged much more in ? 48. There were many places where the gold was evenly distributed, and in these the pay was regular but seldom large. In other places the distribution was irregular, and in those the miner might dig a hundred ounces-one day, and find nothing for a week after. The average amount ob- tained by miners in the gold mines of California, gradually decreased from twenty dollars per day in 1848 to five dollars in 1853, and three dollars in 1860. Character of Claims. 18. From the spring of 1848 until 1851, nearly all the mining was done in river bars, and in small ravines ; the former called " wet diggings," and the latter " dry diggings," which two classes included all the /nines then worked. In 1851, the miners began to work at the hills, flats and quartz veins. Gradually the river bars and ravines grew poorer, until now they do not supply more than one-sixth of the gold yield of the State, and the distinction between " wet" and " dry " diggings has been forgotten. At first all the dig- gings were shallow ; previous to 1852, it was rare to find any one mining more than ten feet below the surface of the earth ; now thousands are regularly employed in tunnels and shafts and hydraulic claims, a hundred ieet or more below the original surface of the earth. 22 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. Mining Implements. $19. In 1848 tlje miners be- gan to work with the pan and the rocker ; the next year they introduced the quicksilver machine, and in 1850 the torn. In this latter year also, they commenced to flume rivers and to make extensive ditches. In 1851 they invented the sluice, and the subsequent year used the hydraulic process of tearing down banks and hills. Nevada county has the credit of being the place where the torn was first used, and the sluice invented and where the ditch and hydraulic process were first introduced. The names of the individual originators of the sluice and ditch are not on record, so far as I know, but Edward E. Matteson, a native of Sterling, Connecticut, was the inventor of hy- draulic mining. Nineteen-twentieths of the placer gold now dug in California is obtained with the assistance of the torn, sluice, ditch and hydraulic ; and if our miners were now re- stricted to the instruments and processes used in 1849, they would not produce more than $5,000,000 instead of $50,000,- 000 per year. The Californian inventions in gold mining have not only been of immense importance to the development of the mineral wealth of this State, but must, in time, exert a strong influence elsewhere. We know that no district contain- ing extensive placer diggings, could ever be " worked out " without the assistance of such processes as these here invented ; and, therefore, many a placer heretofore deserted, because profit- less under the old modes of working, will hereafter be occupied again, and probably be made to pay better than ever before. Time and experience will prove the correctness of this view. Mining Excitements. 20. There have been a num- ber of excitements in California, about rich diggings reported to exist in places not previously occupied by miners. In some of these cases, the reports of auriferous wealth were entirely without foundation ; in others, there was some foundation in truth for the reports, but nothing to justify the great excite- ment. A historical sketch of mining in California, would not be complete without a mention of these mining excitements, and the " rushes " of the miners to these new El Dorados. The Greenwood Rush, g 21. The first rush of this kind, though but a small one as compared with those of sub- sequent years, took place in June, 1849, at the instigation of a mountaineer named Greenwood, who told the miners at HISTORY OP MINING. 23 Coloma that he had some years before seen an abundance of gold at Truckee Lake, though at the time he did not know what the substance was. Several hundred men went to get the precious metal which Greenwood had seen, but at the end of six or seven weeks they returned tattered and destitute, without any of the gold, though they had found the place where it was supposed to be. Gold Lake, {j 22. The next rush, and a very remark- able one, was made in May, 1850, to Gold Lake, where it was asserted that gold was very abundant. This lake is a beautiful little sheet of water north-eastward from the present site of Downieville. The origin of the excitement is accounted for in different ways, but the story which has most probabilities in its favor, is that a miner named Stoddard overheard a couple of others talking about a lake where gold was to be found by the ton lying loose on the bank. Stoddard, supposing the place to be Gold Lake, commenced the next day, to tell about it as if he had seen it, and as he believed it sincerely, and was making preparations to go, others believed too, and a rush fol- lowed. Thousands of miners deserted claims where they were making from twenty dollars to forty dollars per day. to go to this lake where they hoped to get, within a few weeks, all the gold they could want. After several months of searching, the Gold Lake prospectors returned without having found anything to reward their toils and sacrifices. Gold Bluff. I 23. In the beginning of January, 1851, a great excitement broke out in California about the gold mines on the ocean beach at Gold Bluff, in latitude 41 deg. 25 min., two hundred and seventy-five miles northward from San Francisco. The following extract from an editorial article in the Alta California of the ninth of January, '51, is a sample of the reports brought from those wonderful mines while the fever was at its height : "A NEW EL DORADO. * * * Twenty-seven miles beyond the Trinity there is a beach several miles in extent and bounded by a high bluff. The sands of this beach are mixed with gold to an extent almost beyond belief. * * The gold is mixed with the black sand in proportions of from ten cents to ten dollars the pound. * * * Mr. [John A.] Collins, the Sec- retary of the Pacific Mining Company, measured a patch of 24 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. gold and sand, and estimates it will yield to each member of the company the snug little sum of $43,000,000, and this esti- mate is formed upon a calculation that the sand holds out to be one-tenth as rich as observation warrants them in supposing. Mr. Collins saw a man who had accumulated 50,000 pounds, or 50,000 tons he did not recollect which of the richest kind of black sand. Gen. [John] Wilson says that thousands of men cannot exhaust this gold in thousands of years." The Alta of the next day (January 10th) gives a letter from M. C. Thompson to John A. Collins, in which the writer, dating " Trinity county, January 1st, 1851," says : " Some six months since, I saw large patches, the entire length of the beach, covered with black sand, literally yellow with small, thin flakes of gold." Mr. Thompson made affidavit of the truth of this statement before L. P. Gilky, Justice of the Peace, and C. W. Kinsey also deposed to its truth. The same paper also contains an extract from a letter writ- ten by E. A. Rowe, on the first of January, then a Constable in Trinity county, to J. A. Collins, as follows : " I have seen enough in one plat of sand, containing enough of gold to yield from three dollars to ten dollars per pound, to load a ship of the largest class. * * * I am now, how- ever, confident that with the proper arrangements for amalga- mating the gold, on a scale as extensive as your company is capable of doing, millions upon millions of dollars can be easily obtained every year, for more than a century to come." Mr. Eowe made affidavit before the same Justice Gilky to the truth of his statements in this letter. The Alfa of the succeeding day the eleventh of January contains the adver- tisements of eight vessels to sail for Eed Bluff. At that time, so little was known about the distribution of gold, and the metal was so abundant, and such marvellous fortunes were being made by so many people, that nobody knew what to believe or disbelieve about such stories. A wonderful fever rose ; everybody wanted to go to Gold Bluff; but, fortunately, the bubble bursted in a few days so soon, in fact, that few persons had time to get started for the new El Dorado. Since then, Gold Bluff has been one of our biggest gold humbugs. Yet Gold Bluff was not all humbug. There really was much gold in the sands of the beach, and many miners have done well in washing for it. The bluffs along the beach from Trin- HISTORY OP MINING. 25 idad to Port Orford, bear resemblance to the auriferous hills of Nevada county, which are now being washed away by the hydraulic process. Along the beach a natural hydraulic wash- ing has been in progress for thousands of years. Second Gold Lake. \ 24. In the summer of 1851, there was an excitement at Downieville about another Gold Lake, reported to be rich. The main witness to the auriferous wealth of this place was a Canadian named Deloreaux, who became the guide of a party. One of them, in an account of the expedition published in the San Andreas Independent, wrote thus : " The first difficulty that presented itself to our minds was how we should transport our gold from the diggings. It was finally settled that six of the party should take all the mules, packed with gold, and deposit the same with Uncle Sam, and, returning, bring us a fresh supply of grub. You smile, dear reader, at the magnificent folly of the conceit, but be assured that it is not exaggerated in this narrative. The common opinion of those times was that the great fountains of our golden wealth were hidden amid the crags and solitudes of the snow-belt, where, guarded by wild beasts and savage men, they were only to be reached by the most fearless and iron- souled adventurers. This was the fascinating theory that gilded the distant horizon of the forty-niner, lent a charm to the roughest life, and softened his rocky couch, as nightly he wrapped his tattered blankets around his shivering frame, and lay down to dream of the golden future. The stories of the Arabian Nights were to be divested of their romantic extrav- agance somewhere in the mountains of California, and every heart was nerved to boldness to be among those to share the fruits of first discovery. The physician forgot his* agonizing patient, the lawyer laid aside his brief, the minister forgot alike his God and his flock, to join in the hot pursuit of mammon. " Returning to our party. It was amusing to hear the argu- ments as to ' how many dollars a mule could pack ; ' and the offers of each to bet on his favorite. One of the party pro- posed to bet that his mule a little, short-backed institution, which was captured by one of Col. Donophan's boys at the battle of Sacramento, and then a quarter of a century old could pack $150,000 ! That bet was taken by this writer. It has not yet been decided. During the discussion of these 26 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. important matters, an overgrown chap from Maine suggested that we were counting our fish before they were caught. Audacious wretch ! He was forthwith voted a ' muggins and disorganize!' ' for entertaining any doubts upon the subject. We had more faith than it requires to save sinners at a camp meeting. We followed the trapper for eight days, over the roughest and wildest part of California, when, overcome with fatigue, we came to a halt and camped. The guide, after some time, informed us that we had taken the wrong ' divide,' but that we could right ourselves by crossing a very bad canon. Our suspicions w r ere aroused, and some of the less sanguine did not hesitate to murmur against the alleged treachery of Delo- reaux. We kept our secret, however, and putting on a willing face, readily consented to the proposition to try the canon. " Next day we recommenced our line of march ; but after travelling all day we found no canon. That night we had a ' talk ' with the trapper, who began to if and and about it, and plainly told us that we ' had better prospect the country around us.' Thereupon, some of the party gave vent to their rage, telling him that they would ' shoot the top of his head oft'' if he had deceived us ; but he swore to the truth of his first state- ment, and that he would take us to the lake in two days. We laid down that night with our spirits sadly vacillating between hope and fear. In the morning our gentle, candid Deloreaux 1 came up missing.' " Most of the party, after spending weeks in the mountains, returned to the mines in a very destitute condition, but others succeeded in finding the very rich diggings about the place now known as Forest City, in Sierra county. In August, 1853, there was some excitement about mines in Santa Cruz county on, the ranch of Don Pedro Sainsevain, and a great many persons went thither ; but they found little gold, and the place was soon deserted again. Australia. 25. Well authenticated reports of the dis- covery of gold in Australia arrived in Calfornia, but they created little excitement ; and although during '52 and '58 a thousand persons or more left California for the colony of Vic- toria, their departure was so silent and gradual as scarcely to be noticed. Peru, g 26. In February, 1854, a great excitement arose about gold mines in Peru. The newspapers at Panama pub- HISTORY OF MINING.. 27 lished a number of articles and letters, to the effect that gold mines of unparalled richness had been opened on the head waters of the Amazon. It was said that many miners were at work there, and that they could dig twenty-five pounds a day to the man without difficulty. Such statements, repeated time after time, purporting to come from a number of different sources, and republished in the California and Australian papers, induced about 2,000 miners to go from California and Australia to Peru, where they found that nobody knew of any such gold mines in the country as had been spoken of by the Panama papers. Some of the adventurers went over to the head waters of the Amazon, and they found the " color," but that was all. Small Rushes. 27. About the same time with the excitement in regard to the gold mines in Peru, there was a report of rich diggings at Santa Anita, in Los Angeles county. Many persons went there, but soon left in disgust. In April, 1854, there was a rush to new mines on Russian river, in Sonoma county. About a thousand persons were April-fooled into a visit to that place. In May, of the same year, there was a rumor of a gold dis- covery on the side of Mount Diablo, in Contra Costa county, and many went to see. Kern River. $ 28. In February and March, 1855, the Kern river fever afflicted the State. Diggings, which paid pretty well in a few spots, had been found, and it was reported that they were very extensive and as rich as those of the Sac- ramento Valley in 1849. The towns of Stockton and Los Angeles were especially interested in having people to go to Kern river, because they had all the trade of that place ; and their newspapers accordingly were filled with glowing accounts of the richness of the mines. The following are extracts from published letters purporting to have been written at the mines : " Wherever the miner's pick has been struck, and good pros- pect made, gold has been discovered. In many places it is exceedingly rich, vieing well with the miraculous stories of '49, and yielding quite as liberally. The process of obtaining the gold, at present, is confined wholly to toms, for the want of lumber. Miners are making from sixteen dollars to sixty dol- lars a day by the use of the torn, and much larger amounts would be obtained, but for the want of water. There is no 28 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. question that the mines are very rich ; and these gentleman are of the opinion that they are much richer than any ever yet discovered in California. Great numbers from Mariposa county are flocking thither ; and many of the ranches in the San Joaquin valley arc being deserted, the owners of the same all bound to the new diggings. " I found on my arrival at Greenhorn Gulch, where the first discovery was made, all the miners were very busy at work on their claims, which were paying very well, ranging from eight to fifty dollars per day. Claims could not be bought unless at very extravagant prices. The day of my arrival, one party of two, at the head of the gulch, took out fifty dollars ; but as they had been making from two to three ounces daily since they commenced working their claim, to them it was but a common occurrence. Another party, lower down, on the same day, made an ounce to the man ; and a party at the mouth of the gulch, consisting of four men, took out one hundred dollars. , The entire gulch is already taken up, and by a few men only, each one being allowed two hundred feet. New comers go about fifteen miles higher up, where they are making from eight to sixteen dollars per day. It is reported at the gulch, and tirmly believed, that a party of five or six, about forty miles higher up in the mountains, have been making one hundred dollars a day to the man for the last month." A great excitement prevailed. Five thousand persons went to Kern river. The industry of the State was seriously dis- turbed. Farmers abandoned their homes, miners their claims, and mechanics their shops, hoping to make fortunes in a few months at Kern river. On reaching that place, they found that the mining district was a very small one ; that the rich claims had been exhausted in a few weeks, and that the best thing they could do would be to return home. Sacramento and Oakland. f 29. In June, 1855, some gold was found on the bank of the Sacramento river a few miles below Sacramento City, and some seven hundred dollars were washed out in a couple of days by four or five men. There was a great rush to stake off claims ; but the excitement died out in a few days more, in consequence of the discovery that all the gold in these diggings had come from a pair of trousers belonging to a miner who had lived there in 1849. HISTORY OF MINING. 29 In January, 1856, there was a rumor of rich diggings in the plain east of Oakland, and a multitude of claims were staked off and a few holes dug, but little or no gold was found, and the claims were soon deserted. The Fraser Fever. 30. In 1858 came the Fraser fever, the most serious ailment (of the kind) that ever afflicted California. In March of that year, news came of the discovery of rich gold diggings on the banks of Fraser river, in British Columbia, and the reports gradually became more and more favorable, until midsummer, when the belief was general among Californians that the valley of the Fraser was as rich in gold as was that of the Sacramento in 1849. In the course of four months, 18,000 persons left the State for British Columbia, about one in twenty of the whole white population. For a time nine ocean steamers were engaged in the conveyance of passengers between San Francisco and Victoria. Between the third and tenth of July, inclusive, 3.758 persons left San Francisco by sea, and the departures would have continued in the same proportion, if it had not been that very unfavorable news arrived in San Francisco, on the tenth of July, and sud- denly put an end to the fever. .During the continuance of the excitement, the business of the State was turned topsy turvy. A newspaper correspondent, writing from San Francisco under date of June 21st, said : " The rush to Fraser has made San Francisco very lively. At no time since '53, has the city presented such a busy ap- pearance as now ; nor has so much excitement pervaded the community at any time since 1849. Indeed, 1849 has come again. " On every side, at every turn, you hear of Fraser river. Every acquaintance you meet asks whether you are going to Fraser river, or tells how he is going, or would go if he could, and enumerates your acquaintances who are going. The newspapers are full of Fraser river. The goods exposed in the streets are marked * Fraser River,' ' Blankets for Fraser river,' ' Shirts for Fraser River,' t Beans for Fraser river,' ' Shovels for Fraser river,' etc. Here and there you will see fixed up in front of a store, some such sign as this : * Selling out at cost ; going to Fraser river, sure as you 're born.' Every few days the newsboys run through the streets shouting, ' 'Ere's the Extra Alta ! Later news from Fraser river ! Gold 30 HAND-BOOK OP MINING. by the bushel ! ' The hotels are full of people on their way to the new El Dorado, and they speak of nothing but Eraser river. Occasionally you will hear a snatch of an old song adapted to the times : ' Oh, I'm going to Caledonia that's the place for me; I'm going to Fraser river, with the washbowl on my knee.' " We had a revival of religion here, but Fraser river knocked it cold. People care less, apparently, just now, for salvation than gold. The Coroner of this city complains that the new diggings have put an end to the suicides. Really, Fraser river is turning California upside down ; it will be changed so that the old residents will scarcely know the place. Our present population is going, and strangers will take their places. " From some of the mining towns more than a fifth of the men have already gone to Fraser. Thus, 200 have already gone from Grass Valley, which cast 900 votes last autumn, and 75 have gone from Volcano, which cast 328 votes. These, however, are extreme cases. In many places extra stages have been put on", and the steamers from Sacramento to this city are loaded every day, even when extra boats are put on. One day last week, 39 passengers left Nevada on the Sacra- mento stages, and 37 of them were bound for Fraser river. In Sonora, 200 persons are waiting for their turn to come down on the stages ; and so it is all through the mines. Every mining camp is losing a portion of its population ; some one- tenth, some even one-half. Trade to the interior is at a stand- still ; the traders and boarding-house keepers, gardeners and farmers, of the mining districts, are losing their debtors and customers, and as they suffer, so their creditors will suffer. The newspapers of the interior are in spasms about the excite- ment ; they reason against it, they pray against, they ridicule it, and some of the editors would be willing to fight against it, if fighting could be of service. The depression of business in the interior is very great. Property is falling in value, and croakers are promising that grass shall next year grow in the streets of the largest mining towns. In Sacramento and Stockton there is no life, except at the stage offices, when the stages arrive, and about the steamboats when they go away. Farms and stores are offered for sale at great sacrifices ; money is rising in value, and labor likewise. Mechanics and miners are demanding higher wages; carpenters have raised their HISTORY OP MINING. 31 prices from four and five to six dollars per day ; masons, from six to seven dollars ; stevedores, from five to six dollars ; bod- men, from three to four dollars ; firemen on the steamboats, from sixty to eighty dollars per month ; and so on through all the branches of employment wherein men are hired by the day. The contractor of the Sacramento Valley Railroad has employed Chinamen, because of inability to get white men. Many of the quartz mills have stopped, and almost all will have to stop, if the present drain continues for two months more." The same correspondent, under date of July 5th, wrote thus : " The Eraser fever rages fiercely. Did I say ' fever ? ' I should have said ' mania.' Hundreds of miners come down from Sacramento and Stockton every day, and there is no abatement, but rather an increase in the furious flood. Not since '51 has the city been so full. The hotels are crowded ; the dealers in hardware, clothing and provisions, and the owners of ocean steamers are making their fortunes. The river steamers and the interior stages have raised their prices, and though extraordinary boats and stages are running, they still cannot carry all who would come. In one day twenty- eight stages and wagons, loaded down with emigrants for New Caledonia, came into Stockton. All the stages running to Sacramento come in every day filled up with Fraser -fever fellows. " Most of the emigrants, so far, have been miners, and every large mining camp has lost a considerable portion of its popu- lation. " The Downieville Democrat of the 27th ult, says : * Whole camps in the dry diggings are almost entirely deserted, and claims held a month ago at $1,000 are now offered for $100. Diggings that are paying an ounce a day are to besought for $100, or whatever sum may be offered/ " The North San Juan Star, of the same date, says : ' We heard of one claim yesterday, which two months ago was bought for $2,500, now offered for $600, and the owner goes about begging for an offer a claim which is worth more now than it ever was before. But this is only one of the many in- stances we hear of, in this vicinity as well as elsewhere.' " I could give you a multitude of such extracts, but these are enough. Empty cabins are to be seen on every side in the mining districts, and about many of them lie unclaimed cooking 32 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. utensils and mining tools. The exodus of the white miners is looked upon by the Chinamen, of whom 2,000 have arrived within the last month, as particularly fortunate for them, for they go right into possession of the deserted cabins, claims and tools. Of the Indians, the Columbia correspondent of the Alia writes as follows : " ' I am informed as a matter of fact, that the Indians in this vicinity, having been told that the whites were going away, came into town the other day, and agreed how they would divide the brick buildings among themselves after the pale faces should leave ; and other Indians went into Sonora and made a similar division there. They left the wooden build- ings out, not wanting them.' " A correspondent of the Alia, writing from Yallecito, says : ' Mining claims, paying from eight to ten dollars per day, are selling at from one hundred to one hundred and seventy-five dollars apiece by those infatuated with the Fraser river fever.' " It is impossible to know how many of her inhabitants Cali- fornia will lose in this stampede, or what is to be its ultimate influence on her wellfare. The total number of votes to be cast at the general election in the first week in September, will probably not exceed 50,000, whereas it was about 100,000 last year. Out of thirty policemen in this city, seven have gone, and 200 of 1,050 firemen. " Wages have risen considerably throughout the State. Sail- ors are getting seventy-five dollars per month, and men ser- vants on steamboats are getting the same price. The firemen on ocean steamers get one hundred and fifty dollars. " The price of real estate in the towns has fallen, particularly in the mining districts, where the depreciation is as much as twenty-five and fifty per cent. Sacramento, Marysville and Stockton are suffering severely. All their trade is killed. They are at the heads of steamboat navigation, whence exten- sive mines are supplied. But now there is no demand ; there are more goods in the mines than are wanted, and shipments of many articles are coming back to this city. The ominous sign ' To Let ' is alarmingly frequent in all the towns, but par- ticularly so in Sacramento and San Francisco ; for although this city has suffered less by the mania than any other place, and although many classes of business have been rendered exceedingly profitable here by it, yet other trades have been ruined. He who deals in goods needed by miners going to a HISTORY OF MINING. 33 new country, is in a fair way to make a fortune ; he who does not, has a dull prospect before him, unless he goes with the tide, and this many are compelled to do who would be glad to remain if they could do any business in California. The boarding-house keepers, the merchants and the rum-sellers, of the interior, are compelled to shut up and follow their cus- tomers to the land of promise." In July the emigrants began to return, and before the end of October, most of them had got back to their old homes, poorer and wiser than they started. Only about 3,000 miners spent the winter in British Columbia. This Fraser fever was a remarkable feature in the history of the State, and I should dislike much to leave any false im- pression upon the minds of my readers in regard to it. Many persons believe and have said that all the persons who went to British Columbia, during the excitement, exhibited great folly ; but I never thought so. The bars on Fraser river were extremely rich, and they justified the belief that a large extent of country about the river was rich in gold. We had well authenticated accounts of gold having been found in bars for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles along the river, and it having been found in exceeding richness in some of the bars a richness which might well compare with that of the bars of the Yuba and Feather rivers in '49. This fact of the richness of these bars, established or taken for granted, there was a reasonable presumption in the minds of all acquainted with the mines of California, that there was a rich and extensive mining country above. The gold on Fraser river is very fine ; it must have been washed a considerable distance. There are there- fore dry diggings up the river. The river is a very large one, and since the bars are rich, the dry diggings above must be rich and extensive. This is the universal rule in California. It has been said that the Klamath is an exception, but the Klamath has rich and extensive dry diggings on the banks of its tributaries, the Scott and Shasta rivers. In California we do not find paying bars on our large rivers ; we find none on the Sacramento or San Joaquin within three hundred miles of the ocean ; and the smallest streams are, as a rule, the richest, in proportion to the amount of dust in their beds. Now Fraser river has a body of water five times perhaps ten times as great as that of the Sacramento, and yet Fraser river had rich bars within eighty miles of the ocean ; and these 34 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. facts led experienced miners to the inference that it must run through a large and rich auriferous district. The great error, and the cause of most of the evil which has resulted from the excitement, is in regard to the supposed time when the river would fall. It was well understood, before there was any migration of note, that not until the river should fall could there be much mining ; but the men familiar with the streams in Oregon and Washington Territory, supposed that of course Fraser river would rise and fall at the same time ' with the Columbia, and the tributaries of Puget sound, which rise in May and June, as the sun gets warm, and fall in June and July, usually getting down to a very low stage before the first of August. There seemed to be nothing unreasonable in this presumption, at first sight ; no fact inconsistent with it was known ; no allowance was made for the slower melting of the snows of the extreme north, at the head of Fraser river ; nobody knew, by actual observation, at what time the river would fall ; and so it was taken for granted by all, that the river would be low on the first of August, and would be at a fair stage for mining in the middle of July. The result proved that the river did not fall until late in September. Many of the Fraser river adventurers ought not to have gone, even had New Caledonia been a second California ; but they were no more unwise than a large portion of the Cali- fornians who habitually enter, as nearly all do, into indiscreet speculations. Many of the adventurers had become disgusted with California, had nothing to hope for here, and had nothing to lose ; and, of course, it was well enough for them to go. Others were men who had $200 to $1,000, with no one to care for (to-day or to-morrow) save themselves, cut off by the unwise land system of California from the hope of having homesteads in the land upon which they have worked ; and why should they not go ? Take it for granted that they should lose all their money ; they would see the country, and would run the chance of making a fortune, if the mines should prove as rich as those of California in '48. It was a bet of $1,000 against $20,000. Who can say that the chances were more than twenty to one against the river ? And the chance of living through such another excitement as that of California in '49 the fun would be worth a fortune almost. And then after the migration had taken place, after there was a strong presumption that a similar migration would take place from HISTORY OF MINING. , 35 New York, England, Canada and Australia, as from San Francisco, there was then reason for believing that even if the mines were not richer than those of Colville, they must still be worked by a large population. Considerations like these jus- tified a third class, such as storekeepers, boarding house keepers and mechanics, in starting. Reply may be made, that they ought to have waited till the gold should have come. I do not know this. To expect such conduct, would be to expect Californians to exercise more pru- dence in regard to Fraser river than they do in regard to other business transactions. They are a fast people ; they will at- tempt to outrun old Time himself, and if they succeed once, it pays them for a dozen failures. They may lament their mis- fortunes, and be loud in their wail about Fraser river, but if a new one were to turn up to-day, they would not wait to let anybody else get ahead of them. The cautious bump, which teaches men to wait for the gold to come before they go to new diggings, is small in the crania of Californians. The Washoe Fever. J31. The next great excitement among the miners of California was caused by the discovery of the silver mines at Washoe, as the argentiferous region in the basin of Carson river is called, although that name was previ- ously given to a small adjacent valley without mineral wealth. The gold placers of Carson valley were opened in 1852, and since that year there had been a few miners permanently set- tled there. After exhausting the placers they found rich aurif- erous quartz leads, the gold of which contained a large propor- tion of silver. It was not until the middle of 1859, that the argentiferous veins were found, and the reports commanded little faith for some months. In October, however, the news began to attract general attention, and before winter Closed up the roads across the Sierra Nevada, forty tons of ore, worth $5,000 per ton, had been sent to San Francisco, where it was smelted at a cost of four hundred and twelve dollars per ton. For four or five months, then, an excitement raged throughout California on the subject of Washoe. Many went thither, and others speculated in claims. All kinds of claims were in de- mand, and veins without a particle of silver or gold in them, were sold at prices varying from ten to one hundred dollars per foot. Fortunes were thus made and lost. The excitement affected the course of trade, and caused no little stringency in 36 HAND-BOOK OP MINING. the money market for a time. Towards midsummer, the fever abated ; worthless claims fell to their proper position, and the value of rich lodes was better understood. In August, the silver district of Esmeralda was discovered in the basin of Walker river, a hundred miles southward of Washoe, and a month later, the argentiferous veins of Coso, two hundred miles southward from Esmeralda, were found. Esmeralda and Coso have not created much excitement as yet, although several thousand persons have visited the former district. Mining Inventions of California. 32. The torn, the sluice, and the hydraulic process, are generally considered as Californian inventions, but they were previously known in other countries, though not so well made, or so effectively or generally used. The torn and the ground sluice had been tried in the placers of Georgia previous to 1848, but they were much improved when applied in the California placers. Ansted, in his Gold Seekers Manual, (pp. 85, 86, 87) pub- lished in London in 1849, says : " At the commencement of the mining system in the Brazils, the common method of proceeding was to open a square pit, till the workmen came to the cascalho ; [pay dirt] this they broke up with pick-axes, and placing it in a wooden vessel, broad at the top and narrow at the bottom, exposed it to the action of running water, shaking it from side to side, till the earth was washed away and the metallic particles had subsided. Lumps of gold were often found from two and a half to twelve ounces in weight, a few of which weighed twenty-five to thirty- eight ounces, and one, it is asserted, weighed thirteen pounds ; but these were isolated pieces, and the ground where they were discovered was not rich. In 1724 the method of mining had undergone considerable alteration, introduced by some natives of the northern country. Instead of opening the ground by hand, and carrying the cascalho thence to the water, the miners conducted water to the mining ground [ditches] and washing away the mould, [ground sluicing] broke up the cascalho in pits under a fall of water, [the principle of the hydraulic pro- cess] or exposed it to the same action in wooden troughs, [sluices] and thus a great expense of human labor was saved. At the commencement of the present century, there was a gen- eral complaint in Minas Geraes, that the ground was exhausted of its gold ; yet it was the opinion of many scientific men. that HISTORY OP MINING. '37 hitherto only the surface of the earth had been scratched, and that the veins were for the most part untouched. The mining was either in the beds of the streams, or in the mountains ; in process of time the rivers had changed their beds, and the miners discovered that the original beds [ancient river beds] were above the present level of the water and the banks of the streams, which formed as it were a second step, while the actual beds are the third and lowest. All these are mining grounds ; the first is easily worked, because little or no waters remain there ; the surface had only to be removed and then the cascalho was found. In the second, wheels were often required to draw off the water, while the present bed of the stream could only be worked by making a new cut, and diverting the stream." But an admission that the general , principles of all the important mining inventions of California were previously known in other countries, does not deprive the miners of the Sacramento basin of their right to high credit ; for although the general principles might have been elsewhere applied at an earlier time, it was here that the inventions were brought to their highest state of efficiency, that they were universally adopted, and that they were adapted to the peculiar circum- stances of every locality. It was only among a people so enterprising, so bold, so familiar with mechanics, and so dex- terous in all kinds of labor, that the higher mining inventions could find immediate favor, or come into general usage. Men might be found in other nations to make the inventions, but miners would scarcely be found in any other race than the Anglo-Saxon, to at once adopt them universally. A number of machines for washing dirt are now used in the placers of Siberia, but they are worthless when compared with our Oali- fornian mining machines, and I have not thought it. worth while to translate Zerrenner's description of them. (Zerren- ner's Anleitung, p. LI.) Exhaustion of Mines. 33. In 1849, it was pre- dicted that the mines would be exhausted within five years, and that the population of California would go as rapidly as they had come. This prophecy has proved untrue, but it was justified by the facts then kown to the public. The success of the large body of miners now at work in California is due to processes then unknown, and to the discovery of deposits of gold, such as nobody thought of then. If our miners had now 38 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. to depend altogether upon the pan, the cradle and the quick- silver machine, and knew nothing of quartz veins, the gold product would not be one-tenth of what it now is, and the population of the country would be correspondingly small. Various changes since '49. 34. The torn and the quicksilver machine are very rarely seen now in the mines ; in some counties, neither has been used for several years. The rocker is given up almost wholly to the Chinamen. In 1849, nine-tenths of the miners were employed in working in river claims ; now, such claims do not lurnish employment to one- tenth of the miners. Then, the miners worked separately, or in companies of two or three ; now they work in companies of five or ten. Then, it was rare to see a miner working as a hired laborer ; now, at least half of the miners are hired by others. Then, men were running about continually ; now, they are more permanent, because their claims are deeper, and much time must be spent in opening them. There are now in the State about six thousand miles of mining ditches, made at a cost of $15,000,000 ; three hundred quartz mills with three thousand stamps, costing $5,000,000, and five hundred and nineteen arastras, about one-half of which are used for amal- gamating in connection with stamps, and the others for both pulverizing and amalgamating. New Almaden. g 35. The New Almaden quicksilver mine has had a singular history. It had been known to the Indians the last century, and they went to it for the purpose of getting the decomposed cinnabar or crude vermilion as a paint. The Indians told of it to the Spanish Californians, who did riot know what the mineral was. In November, 1845, a captain in the Mexican army, named Andres Castillero, visited the place, discovered the nature of the ore, laid claim to the mine, formed a company, and commenced working it. He went to Mexico soon after, and while there, sold out, and Barren, Forbes & Co., British merchants in Tepic, became the leading- shareholders ; and James Alexander Forbes, British Vice Con- sul at Yerba Buena, (now San Francisco) was placed in charge of the mine. In 1851 it began to yield largely of quicksilver. The next year, in accordance with the requirements of an act of Congress, the owners of the mine filed their claim to it before the United States Land Commission, which tribunal HISTORY OF MINING. 39 confirmed their title. An appeal from this decision was taken on behalf of the United States, so the case was to be tried over again. In 1857, James Alexander Forbes, who had charge of the mine from '47 to '50, came forward to prove that the title was forged, and he produced a number of letters to prove the forgery. The United States Circuit Court, in October, 1858, issued an injunction to stop the working of the mine. The owners indignantly denied the charges of forgery, and solicited the Government to allow them to take testimony in Mexico. Their application, renewed in many different forms, was denied in all. Possessing great wealth, they chartered a steamer, sent one of their attorneys with her to San Bias ; he went into the city of Mexico, examined the archives of the government there, had a great number of documents copied, and returned with an ex-prime Minister, two professors of the Mining College, three persons who had been clerks in the min- istries when the title was issued in 1846, and several other wit- nesses. The examination of these witnesses occupied months. Finally, when the case came to be submitted, the testimony which had all been printed, occupied three thousand octavo pages ; the lawyers, among whom were two United States Senators, who had come from Washington for the express pur- pose of attending to this suit, occupied twenty days in argu- ment, and the opinions of the judges, when printed, covered two hundred and thirty octavo pages. The Court confirmed the claim, recognized the title papers as genuine, and fastened upon witnesses for the Government the crimes of perjury and forgery which had been charged upon the claimants. The Gold Yield. 36. The amount of gold produced by the mines of California has never been ascertained precisely, nor is it ascertainable. Large amounts, of which no e record was kept, are carried away by individuals, and the amounts were much larger previous to 1855 than they are at the present time. My estimate of the gold yield of the State is as follows : 1848 $10,000,000 1855 $55,000,000 1849 40,000,000 1856 55,000,000 1850 50,000,'00 1857 55.000,000 1851 55,000,000 1858.. 50,000,000 1852 60,000,000 1859 50.000,000 1853 65,000,000 1860 45,000,000 1854 60,000,000 Total $650,000,000 In regard to the future gold yield of the State we can only 40 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. guess. I expect that it will decrease gradually and slowly to about $30,000,000, at which figure it will stand still for many years ; and the silver yield of the coast will gradually increase ; but our knowledge about our silver lodes is so indefinite, that I must not even guess at the amount of their produce. CHAPTER II. MINERALOGY OF GOLD. Metals obtained on the Coast. $ 37. Gold, silver and quicksilver are the only metals of" which mines are regu- larly wrought in the Pacific States of North America. Pla- tinum, iridium and osmium are found with the gold of the placers, but they are rarely bought or sold in California. A tin mine, reported to be valuable, has been found in San Ber- nardino county, but no metal has yet been obtained from it. There is a rich mine of antimony twenty miles west of the Tejon Pass, but it cannot be wrought at California.!! rates of labor. Rich copper mines are found in many parts of the State. No rich mines of lead, iron or zinc are known in Cal- ifornia. There have been reports of the finding of small dia- monds. The itacolumite or quartzose sandstone, however, which usually accompanies diamonds, is not found on the coast, so far as I have heard. Some other gems have been found in the placers, but none of value sufficient to pay for mining for them. It is reported that opals and rubies have been found in Table mountain, Tuolmnne county ; but if so, they have been few and of little value. Coal is found at Coose Bay in Oregon, at Bellingham Bay, Washington Territory, and at various places on the shores of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. There have been numerous reports of the discovery of coal veins in various counties in California, and many thousands of dollars have been spent in opening them ; yet they furnish little coal for the market, nor is it likely they ever will furnish much. The geological formation of the State renders it probable that California will always import coal. We have little or nothing of the second- ary formation which bears the valuable coal deposits. The 3 42 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. coal of Oregon, Washington and the British Colonies is ter- tiary, and is far inferior to the secondary coal of England and the Eastern States. California now imports nearly all her coal from New York and England. Sulphur lies in deep and extensive beds about Clear Lake, in Napa and Sonoma counties, and in Santa Barbara county. Borax is found at Borax Lake, in Napa county. Asphaltum is obtained in many counties along the southern coast of California, but it is dug up from the suri'ace, without any labor that deserves the name of mining. The asphaltum is formed by the drying or hardening of a mineral oil that rises from numerous springs. "No Ore of Gold. 38. Gold is the only yellow metal. It is always found in nature in a metallic state, never as an ore. Webster says an ore is " the compound of a metal and some other substance, as oxygen, sulphur or carbon, called its * inin- eralizer,' by which its properties are disguised or lost." I would define an ore to be " a natural compound, containing a metal (from which it differs in appearance) in chemical union with one or more non-metallic substances." Gold is found in a state of nature combined with other substances mechanically, not chemically. Gold mines are of two kinds, placer and quartz. Placer Mines. \ 39. In placer mines, gold is found in earthy matter, where it has been deposited among clay, sand and gravel under the influence of water. The word " placer " is Spanish, and in its first signification means pleasure. I apply the name to all diggings where gold is found in diluvium or alluvium, without regard to their depth. In 1849, the term as used by Californians signified diggings on the surface of the ground, or within a few feet of the surface, because deep dig- gings were then unknown. All placers, even if but a few inches deep on the surface of the ground, are called " mines ;" though that word, as used by those engaged in searching for other minerals, implies deep digging into the earth. Quartz Mines. 40. In quartz mines, gold is found in stony veins. These veins are usually quartz, though sometimes the metal is found in granite, limestone, talcose slate, green- stone, serpentine, porphyry, trachyte and trap. It is supposed. MINERALOGY OF GOLD. 43 however, that these rocks are auriferous only where they have come, while fused, into contact with auriferous quartz. Much auriferous metamorphic limestone and granite has been found in California, but nobody ever speaks of " limestone mining," or " granite mining ;" all persons who get their living by min- ing for gold, are either "quartz " or "placer " miners. Forms of Quartz Gold. $ 41. Gold has many dif- ferent forms in quartz. In some lodes, the particles are all so small as to be barely perceptible to the naked eye ; in others, they are flat and small ; again, they may be lumpish, varying in size from a pin-head to a pea ; elsewhere, in smooth sheets, as thin as paper and smooth as glass, though enclosed between rough rock on both sides ; here, like fern leaves ; there, in threads ; in this vein, dendritic, resembling a tree or coral, with a multitude of branches shooting out from a common center, and every part made of a little golden octahedral crystal ; in that vein every particle of gold is independent of its neighbor ; in another, all the particles are connected together, as though when the quartz had been in a state of fusion, the gold had been poured in and stirred about a little, (but not enough to break the connection) until the rock had solidified. Some very beautiful specimens of quartz gold, resembling fern leaves, have been found near Shingle Springs, in Eldorado county. Elegant samples of dendritic gold have been obtained near Coulterville, Mariposa county. " The most beautiful speci- mens of crystalline gold," says Blake, (U. S. Pacific Railroad Report, vol. v, p. 300) " are those in which the crystals are combined with an arborescent or dendritic growth of the metal, like the leaves of ferns or foliage of the arbor- vitae. Specimens of this character are not found among the rudely transported drift, but can be obtained only from their original bed in the solid rocks. Some of the most remarkable and beautiful specimens ever seen were taken out of the cavities of a quartz vein at Irish Creek, about three miles from Coloma. They presented various and complicated combinations, being arborescent, in broad, paper-like sheets, studded with brilliant crystals, and in solid octahedrons. These were combined together in the most interesting manner, giving an effect beyond the reach of art. A very fine specimen of this charac- ter, in my collection, has the form of a leaf; one side is abor- escent and very brilliant, and the other is studded with about 44 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. twenty-five perfect octahedral crystals. They are geometri- cally arranged, all the similar edges being parallel. This is believed to be the most beautiful and curious specimen known. Its weight is seventeen pennyweights and ten grains ; length, two and a quarter inches ; width, one and a half. One of the largest specimens of this arborescent and foliated gold, from Irish Creek, was about twelve inches long by twelve broad. A part of the specimen was a plate three or four inches long, covered with triangular marks ; the remainder was arbores- cent, and the whole appeared to have grown from one end. Another specimen, slightly different in character, and prob- ably from another locality in the vicinity, was ten inches long, three broad, and about half an inch thick. It weighed thirty- one ounces, and was free from quartz forming a most beauti- ful mass, of a rich yellow color, and a delicately marked sur- face, consisting of a network of fibers. It appeared like a bundle of fern leaves, closely matted together. With one exception, all the crystals which have come under my observa- tion are octahedrons ; not a single cube has been seen. The exception is a large, crystal, a pentagonal dodecahedron, upon one of the broad plates of gold." Yery few auriferous quartz veins in the State furnish rock hard enough for quartz jewelry. In most lodes, the rock, especially in the richest places, has little fissures and cavities, and is ready to crumble to pieces at any slight blow. The Marble Spring lode, in Mariposa, has furnished more rich quartz, suitable for jewelry, than any other vein in the State. The solid lumps of gold found in quartz, never, as far as I have heard, weigh more than two ounces, and, indeed, a compact mass of gold, weighing an ounce, is more rare in quartz, than lumps weighing ten pounds are in the placers. Gold Dust. $ 42. Placer gold is usually called " gold dust ;" but the word dust, without explanation, conveys an erroneous idea. .Gold dust is not a fine powder, but ordinarily consists of pieces larger than a pin : head, very often with lumps varying from a pennyweight to an ounce ; and, even if the lumps weigh ounces or pounds, it is none the less " gold dust." Forms of Placer Gold, g 43. The first general division of placer gold, or gold dust, relates to the size of the particles, and is denominated "fine" and " coarse." Fine gold MINERALOGY OF GOLD. 45 dust is that whereof the particles are smaller than pigeon-shot ; in coarse gold, the particles are larger. Fine gold is often found without any admixture of coarse ; but the latter is rarely found without containing many small particles. Coarse gold is usually made up of pieces very irregular in size and shape. " Fine gold " may be divided into " flour," " grain," " shot," " fine shot," " scale," " thread," and " spangle." " Flour gold," is as fine as wheaten flour. " Grain gold," is that whereof the particles are not larger than the grains of gunpowder. " Fine shot," is that whereof the particles are of a roundish shape, and not larger than the smallest shot. Fine shot gold was found in Secret Ravine, Placer county. " Shot " differs from " fine shot " .only in size, being a little larger. The particles of u scale gold " are flat, like little scales. They usually have a shape approaching the circular, and are not more than an eighth of an inch in diameter. In many places the scales are remarkably uniform in size and shape. Thus, the gold dug on the bars of the Yuba and Feather rivers, in '48, '49 and '50, was most of it in scales, nearly cir- cular, about a tenth of an inch in diameter, and a thirteenth of an inch in thickness. Similar scale gold has been ftfund in ravines in nearly every auriferous county of California. " Thread gold " has the shape of threads, about as thick as a large pin, and from a quarter of an inch fo an inch in length. Sometimes the longer pieces are found knotted up very curi- ously and inexplicably. Thread gold is found in Fine Gold Gulch, Mariposa county, and also in sewal gullies near Camptonville and Yreka. In some places the threads have a groove running through them, so that they are semicylinders ; in other places the threads are fluted ; and the same general character is usually observed- in all the threads obtained from one gully. In silver mines it is not unusual to find little bunches of threads of native silver, all tangled together. These bunches suggest the idea that probably the gold threads were all in similar bunches. Thread gold is usually of a very low fineness that is, it contains a large proportion of silver. " Spangle gold " borders on the coarse ; in fact, there are " fine spangle " and " coarse spangle." " Spangle gold "^has shapes similar to those which are taken by lead when it is poured in a melted condition from a hight of four or five feet, 46 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. aiid allowed to fall into water or upon damp ground. The particles are of many fantastic shapes. There is a " Spangle Gold Gulch," near the head of the San Joaqnin river. Coarse gold may be divided into " crystalline," " coarse shot," "pea," "bean," "cucumber seed," "pumpkin seed," " moccasin," and " miscellaneous coarse." " Crystalline gold," in octahedral crystals, is very rarely found in placers and not often in quartz. " Coarse shot gold," is that whereof many or most of the particles are roundish in shape, and larger than pigeon-shot in size. " Pea gold " is made up of roundish lumps, about the size of a pea. Pea gold was found in several ravines, emptying into Cottonwood Creek, in Shasta county. " Bean gold " has smooth lumps, resembling a bean in size and shape. Samples of it were found near Horsetown. " Cucumber seed gold " resembles cucumber seeds, and sometimes the resemblance of the lumps to the seeds, and the uniformity of size and shape, is very wonderful. Cucumber seed gold was found in various canons of Clear Creek, and on some bars of the Mokelumne river. " Pumpkin seed gold " resembles pumpkin seeds. " M"6ccasin gold " is in lumps, shaped like a moccasin or low shoe, and about half an inch in length. Moccasin gold is found in Coarse Gold gulch, in Fresno county. The " miscellaneous coarse gold " makes up almost the entire amount of coarse gold taken from the mines. It is com- posed of particles of irregular size, usually flattish in shape, and smooth. The other kinds of coarse gold and the fine thread were not abundant in 1849, at the time when the placers had just been fairly opened ; but now they are very rarely found. I know of no satisfactory explanation for the fact that the particles of gold in auriferous quartz never approach in size the nuggets found in adjacent placers. There are only two theories. One, that the aurifer'ous quartz was much richer and had the gold in larger masses in those parts of the veins that have been worn down, than in those that still preserve their original form. The other theory is, that the numerous small particles of gold lying near each other in the placers, are collected together by some chemical or electrical influence and united into one mass. (Gangstudien, vol. 3, p. 464.) MINERALOGY OF GOLD. 47 Large Nuggets. J 44. There is some doubt about the size of the largest lump or nugget of native gold. According to a legend current in Peru, a nugget weighing 400 pounds was found at the mine of San Juan de Oro, on the headwaters of the Amazon river, in the time of Charles the Fifth, and was sent as a gift to that monarch, who rewarded the donors by elevating them all to nobility. I have not been able, how- ever, to find any trustworthy authority for this legend. The largest nugget of which we have an unquestioned ac- count is the " Welcome nugget," weighing 184 pounds Troy, and worth $42,000, found at Ballaarat, Australia, on the ninth of June, 1858. It was found 190 feet below the surface of the earth, in a claim from which many other nuggets, weighing from ten to forty-five ounces had previously been taken. The Melbourne Herald of the eighteenth of June, de- scribed it thus : " A large, misshapen, irregular lump of gold, water-worn and rounded upon each of the numerous edges presented by a surface completely and more or less deeply honeycombed. Its total length is about twenty inches, its greatest breadth about twelve inches, and its greatest depth about eight inches." The second nugget in size was found in Oalaveras county, California, in November, 1854. It weighed 161 pounds avoir- dupois, and was supposed to contain twenty pounds of quartz, and was valued at $29,000. The value was less in proportion to the weight than that of the Welcome nugget, because the latter was free from quartz and dirt, and because the Aus- tralian gold has less silver than the Californian. The third nugget in size was found at Korong, Australia, in the summer of 1857. It was called the " Blanche Barkly nugget/' weighed 145 pounds, and was estimated to be worth about $35,000. A newspaper described it as " a solid mass of virgin gold, two feet, four inches long, ten inches broad, and from one to two inches thich." It is reported that a nugget weighing ninety-three pounds was found in 1842, in the Valley of Taschku-Targanka, in Siberia. A nugget of eighty pojunds was found in Cabarras county, North Carolina, in 1842." (Gangstudien, vol. 3, p. 468.) Many boulders of rich auriferous quartz, varying from 100 to 500 pounds, have been found, but these do not deserve to be classed among the nuggets. 48 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. Probably not less than a thousand nuggets, weighing a pound or more each, have been found in California. There have been not less than fifty weighing over twenty pounds each. The number of those weighing from one to six ounces, would be almost innumerable. The richest place in California for nuggets, was the vicinity of Sonora, in Tuolumne county. The following is an incomplete list of the nuggets found there from 1850 to 1858, inclusive. The dates up to March, 1854, refer to the daily Alta California newspaper, in which the nugget is mentioned ; the subsequent dates mentioned, merely the month in which the lump was found. In some cases the weight, in others the estimated value is given : 1850. 23 Ibs. Wood's Diggings. ..February 20 10 Bis. 11 ozs. Sonora May 14 5 Bis. near Sonora March 6 18 Bis. Sonora June 7 51 ozs. Sonora April 2 4B>s. 4J ozs. Jamestown August 11 23 Bis. 2 ozs. Sonora May 14 13 Ibs. Sonora October 14 1851. October5i23 B>s. 6 ozs. near Sonora.... October 5 October 5 1 69J ozs. Wood's Creek December 1 1852. $90, Sonora January 5 $80, Sonora January 10 12 ozs. Sonora ...January 5 '26 ozs. Shaw's Flat August 55 SI, 100, Sonora January 10 116 ozs. Shaw's Flat November 23 {$900, Sonora January 10 1853. 29 ozs. near Sonora January 18) 15 ozs. Columbia May 13 20 Ibs. 7 ozs. near Sonora.. February 19 11 ozs. Columbia May 13 $1,500, near Sonora February 21 9 His. Indian Gulch May ^6 9 ozs. near Sonora February 24 7 Bis. 8 ozs. Indian Gulch May 16 7 Bis. near Sonora Februarj' 25 36 ozs. Yankee Hill June 5 69 ozs. near Columbia February 26 12 ozs. Shaw's Flat June 12 7 ozs. near Sonora March 4 4J ozs. Shaw's Flat June 13 116 ozs. Columbia Maj- 2 30 ozs. Sonora June 29 24 ozs Columbia May 271 ozs. Sonora June 29 18 ozs. Columbia May 131 1854. 11J ozs. Sonora February Hi 2 Bis. near Columbia June 27 tts. Columbia March 23 1 16 Bis. Sonora July 1 B3. Jamestown June ~j7'2 BJS. near Columbia September $400, Springfield Jnne - ! 17 Ibs. Sonora November 1855. 30 BJS. near Sonora January 28B)S. 4 ozs. Sonora. 24 Ibs. Sonora 41 ozs. Columbia May 13 ozs. Columbia May 1 1 ozs. Saw Mill Flat Mny 47 ozs. Columbia July -I 15 ozs. Columbia September - 33 tlis. Columbia September - 33 ozs. Columbia September- CHAPTEK III CHEMISTKY OF GOLD. Chemical Fineness of Gold. \ 45. Having con- sidered gold mineral ogically, that is, in regard to the shapes in which it is found, we now come to consider it chemically. When pure, it is of a bright yellow color, nineteen times heavier than water of the same bulk, heavier than any other metal in common use, and fusible at about 2800 deg. of Fah- renheit's thermometer. Gold, as found in nature, is never pure ; it is always mixed with silver, frequently with copper, and sometimes with other metals. We do not know why it is always found in combination with silver. The proportion of silver varies greatly, from almost pure gold with a little silver in it, to almost pure silver with a little gold in it. The silver and other metals in native gold are called u alloy." The pro- portion of pure gold in native gold is designated by the word " fineness ; " the greater the proportion of pure gold, the higher the fineness. The word " fine," as applied to gold dust, has, therefore, two distinct significations one mechanical, referring to the size of the particles ; the other chemical, referring to their chemical composition. Jewellers usually estimate the fineness of gold in carats, of which twenty-four make an ounce ; and perfectly pure gold is said to be twenty-four carats fine ; whereas, if there be two carats of alloy in an ounce of the metal, it is twenty-two carats fine ; or if there be three carats of alloy, then it is twenty-one carats fine, and so on. But at the Mint, and in the common usage of California, the fineness of gold is described in thousandths. If fifty parts in a thou- sand are alloy, then the metal is said to be nine hundred and fifty fine. Our standard coin contains ninety parts of copper, .ten of silver in a thousand, making one hundred parts of alloy 50 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. altogether, and, therefore, it is nine hundred fine. Pure gold is a thousand fine. The gold of the Californian placers varies from five hundred to nine hundred and ninety-five fine, but the latter fineness is extremely rare. A reasonable approx- imation to the fineness of gold can ordinarily be made by its color, which varies according to the amount of silver, the usual alloy. Our gold coin is redder than pure gold, because it is nearly one-tenth copper ; the placer gold of California has a lighter color than pure gold, because it ' has about one-tenth or more of silver. Mr. Molitor, in an essay on gold published in the Alta Cali- fornia, said : "About 1853, a gold specimen, of the size of a man's hand, found somewhere in the neighborhood of Downieville, (accord- ing to the statement of the depositor) was assayed in the labora- tory of the late firm of Wass, Molitor & Co., and found to be nine hundred and ninty-two fine. This was an unique case ; but gold of above nine hundred and seventy fineness has been frequently assayed in San Francisco. On the other hand, the gold from the Kern river mines contains such a large propor- tion of silver, as to be almost identical with the Electrum of the ancients, or the Zoroche of the Mexicans, which means, a metal consisting of about half and half, silver and gold. Between these two extremes all degrees of mixture of the two metals have been found in this country. The experience of several years shows, however, that eight hundred and fifty-five would be about the average fineness of California gold, to which it must be added, that by far the greater part of the whole gold produce seems to group itself, in w regard to fineness, close around this average figure. On tlie virtue of this statement we may say, therefore, that the greatest part of the gold of this country ranges, as a rule, between eight hundred and forty and nine hundred and thirty, and that all cases exceeding these limits may be regarded as exceptions of the general rule. " It is impossible, even to the most practised eye, to determine the quality of an unknown sort of gold dust by merely looking at it ; and even in judging a well known description of dust, the purchaser may deceive himself very easily, to his own dam- age. The gold may, for instance, by some natural .accident, possegg a richer color than entitled to by its quality ; or it may be taken for a superior kind of gold, on account of the shape of its grains, which may be similar to some known dust of CHEMISTRY OF GOLD. 51 good quality ; or it may be mixed with some inferior gold, either with or without an intention to defraud the buyer ; or adulterated in some way or another, and so on. " Even the knowledge of the region, or gold field, from where a certain description of gold originated, is not a sure evidence of its quality. Nobody can depend on it, that the gold taken out of one and the same flat, hill, bar, or even from the same claim, or quartz lead, will always be exactly the same. Very often the most astonishing differences in this regard are found within comparatively short distances. Thus, there are quartz leads with very low gold, surrounded by placers famous for the fineness of their metal ; and on the contrary, veins with very rich metal in the vicinity of diggings not renowned for the superior quality of their metal. ' ; There is, in fact, one sure method to determine the fineness, and consequently the exact value of the precious metal, and that is the regular metallurgic process of assaying, after the previous melting of the dust into a bar or ingot. " 1 Gold coming from British Columbia, or the Fraser river mines, generally ranges between eight hundred and forty and eight hundred and sixty fine. In some cases it was found as low as eight hundred and twenty ; in others, above eight hundred and sixty ; but these may be considered as exceptions to the rule. It mostly appears in our market as coarse lumps of amalgam gold, and suffers an average loss of ten per cent, by melting. "2. The average fineness of dust from the Gold Beach, above and below Port Orford, (Oregon) is eight hundred and eighty. The gold dust appears throughout in fine scales, and is extracted from the sand and accompanying minerals, includ- ing Iridio-Platinum, chiefly by amalgamation. " 3. The gold which finds its way to San Francisco prin- cipally by Crescent City, and, therefore, has been worked chiefly on the Klamath river and its tributaries, seldom exceeds eight hundred and eighty fine, and seldom descends below eight hun- dred and fifty. Its average fineness is eight hundred and sixty- five. In this district, we include the counties of Del Norte, Klamath and Siskiyou, and the adjoining southern border-tract of Oregon. This gold mostly appears in coarse and heavy grains, and sometimes contains a considerable admixture of Indium. " 4. The placers on Trinity river, and on the western tribu- taries of the upper Sacramento, belonging to Trinity and Shasta 52 HAND-BOOK OP MINING. counties, seem in general to yield a better quantity, and we may safely put the average ten thousandths higher than under the previous number. Some dust from the neighborhood of Weaverville shows the fineness of above nine hundred. " 5. Feather river gold shows an average fineness of eight hundred and ninety, and most frequently occurs in very regu- larly shaped and almost uniform grains or scales. " 6. Gold on the north forks of the Yuba is generally much finer than the above, in many cases going up as high as nine hundred and fifty, and seldom below nine hundred ; average about nine hundred and twenty. The dust is also mostly of a scaly description, and a great deal of it appears in the market as amalgam gold. " 7. On the south fork of the Yuba, the general fineness seems again to decrease. Around Nevada, placer gold seldom shows more than eight hundred and eighty. The quartz gold from the various veins of Grass Valley ranges between eight hundred and eight hundred and fifty, and may be put down at eight hundred and twenty, average fineness. " 8. On the north and middle forks of the American river, gold is again rising in fineness, especially in the diggings about Auburn, approaching here the figure of nine hundred. " 9. On the south fork of the same river, in the vicinity of the towns of Coloma and Placerville, the fineness of the dust varies very much. Coloma gold seldom ranges above eight hundred and ninety, and generally conies nearer to eight hun- dred and seventy. But in the neighborhood of Placerville the gold rises, in most cases, up to nine hundred, and in some places thereabout much higher still. At Coon Hollow, a pecu- liar kind of dust of a dark, rusty appearance is found, which is over nine hundred and forty fine. " 10. In Amador county, around Dry town, Jackson and Volcano, the fineness of gold is rather below the general aver- age. " 11. In Calaveras county, great varieties occur in this respect, Mokelumne Hill gold is seldom above eight hundred and ninety ; San Andres averages eight hundred and ninety ; Campo Seco, nine hundred and five ; Vallecito rises up to nine hundred and ten to nine hundred and twenty. " 12. Tuolumne is the county most renowned for the fineness of its gold. Sonora and Columbia dust seldom falls below nine hundred, and often rises above nine hundred and fifty. CHEMISTRY OF GOLD. 53 The average may be marked down at nine hundred and thirty. This gold is generally rough amj coarse grained, and of a very rich color. " 13. In the adjoining county, Mariposa, the fineness of the precious metal decreases very sensibly ; the average can scarcely be put higher than eight hundred and fifty. " 14. Still farther south, on the upper San Joaquin and its first tributaries, the rivers Chowchilla and Fresno, the fineness of the gold falls below eight hundred, and sometimes even as low as seven hundred. This dust consists generally of diminu- tive spangles, of a treacherously rich appearance, intermixed with curiously elongated, almost needle-shaped grains. "15. The lowest degree of fineness of gold in this State is found in the most southern parts, on the diggings of Kern river and its numerous branches. This gold seldom reaches above seven hundred, and often falls down to near six hundred. Its average fineness may be fixed at six hundred and sixty. " 16. Carson Valley dust, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, although beautiful to the eye, is also exceedingly low generally below eight hundred. u 1 7. Gila and Columbia river gold is of a very small descrip- tion, with grains similar to Australian gold. Some parcels of it have shown the fineness of above nine hundred and sev- enty ; others fell below nine hundred and twenty." CHAPTER IV. THE GEOLOGY OF GOLD. The Formation of Gold. 46. It has already been stated, that all the placer gold came from quartz veins which have been broken up or disintegrated. We do not know how the gold got into the quartz, but we have surmises. Our ig- norance is not so gross as that of the miners of California, as a body, in 1849, who supposed the precious metal had been thrown out by a volcano or some mysterious source, and that some lucky individual would find the " fountain head " of the gold, and get enough of the metal to load a dozen ships. This erroneous impression led many an enterprising miner to give credit to wild stories, and to desert diggings that paid from twenty to fifty dollars per day, in the hope" of finding the " fountain head." Although our present knowledge lacks com- pleteness, yet we know enough now to perceive the absurdity of those ideas of 1849. Quartz the Mother of Gold. | 47. According to common language, " quartz is the mother of gold ; " in other words, all native gold is or was encased in quartz. The gold of the placers lias been set free by the breaking up of quartz ; the gold found in granite, serpentine, limestone, or other rock, is supposed to have been communicated from adjacent quartz, when both were in a state of fusion. We do not know why gold is found originally only in quartz, nor how it got there. There is no theory known to me about the why ; there are several about the how. The Igneous Theory. 48. The first theory to ex- plain the manner in which the gold in auriferous quartz veins got into the rock is, that quartz was forced up in a liquid state THE GEOLOGY OF GOLD. 55 from the molten center of the earth, and then contained the gold now found there. In favor of this theory it is argued, that quartz is igneous in its whole character ; that it is never found lying flat like aqueous rocks generally ; that it has none of the stratification, peculiar crystallization, or petrifactions, found in rocks deposited in water ; that it is formed in deep, narrow veins, like eruptive rocks generally ; that if it be ig- neous, that fact would almost, of itself, prove the truth of this theory ; that auriferous quartz is sometimes so compact and hard that the gold could not have been introduced into it in any other manner than when both were in a state of fusion ; that sometimes two veins of quartz have been observed to cross each other, one auriferous, and the other barren in its general character ; the latter is usually auriferous, too, for some distance on one side of the intersection, as though the barren stream had flowed through the rich one when both were in a state of fusion ; that where auriferous quartz veins dip, as they usually do, the lode is richest on the lower side, next the foot wall, as though the heavier metal had settled down ; .that in those places in the lode where this streak is richest, quartz over it is the poorest ; and, finally, that no other theory has so much evidence in its favor. On the other side it is argued, that the heat necessary to melt quartz would drive gold off in a vapor ; that if it were not volatilized, being eight times heavier than quartz, it would necessarily sink to the bottom of the fused quartz ; whereas, it is never found collected in large masses, but often in small particles, very evenly distributed through the rock ; that the quartz being the first to harden, would shoot its crystals through the gold, which in fact it never has done, whereas the gold not unfrequently shoots its crystals through the interstices of the quartz ; that compact quartz is almost invariably poor in gold ; and that rich quartz usually contains, about the gold, much sulphurets of iron and copper, which appear to have been deposited there at the same time with the gold, and yet could not have been there under any high heat, which would decompose them and drive them off. The Vapor Theory. 49. The second theory is, that the gold was precipitated from a vapor under electrical or chemical influences. As evidences for this theory are, that rich auriferous rock is usually full of crevices and fissures, so that vapors could pass through it ; that the sulphurets accom- 56 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. panying gold must have been deposited from vapors, which might also have deposited the gold ; and that auriferous quartz is always richest near the surface, as though the metal had not been deposited by the vapor until it approached the air and coolness. Another evidence of this theory is found in an as- sertion that a hole drilled into auriferous quartz in the Ural, and intended to be used for blasting, but never so used, was examined forty years after it was made, and found to be full of fine crystals of gold. Nearly every argument against the first theory is used in favor of this, and nearly every argument for that is used against this. The Aqueous Theory. 50. The third theory is, that auriferous quartz was formed under aqueous influences, and that the gold was deposited or precipitated at the same time with the quartz. It is known that quartz can be dissolved in water heated to a high heat, under a heavy pressure. These are the theories, but neither one commands the con- fident belief of geologists. Overman says : ( Treatise on Metallurgy, p. 50) " all the veins and masses which do not run parallel with the strata of rock, it may be assumed, are filled rents. With regard to the manner in which the rent has been filled, different forces have been acting, and the nature of the deposit assumes, accordingly, a different aspect. Lodes which are wide at the top, with smooth walls of the same material on both sides, we are justified in as- suming to be wedge-shaped, thinning gradually in the converg- ence of their walls. The mineral and foreign matters having been introduced from the surface of the ground, have been carried along by a current of water. Are the walls of a vein rough, and do they show signs of having been under the in- fluence of a higher heat than the surrounding rock generally ? we are warranted to conclude that the rent has been caused and filled by an expansive force from below. In the latter case, we expect an increase of mineral with the depth ; and in the first, a decrease of it. Since the bulk of mineral veins is com- posed of sulph.urets, and these are volatile, we conclude that all fissures, pockets and cavities, which are filled by sulphurets, have been so filled by the vapors of those metals deposited in the cavities. The lead ores of Missouri and Arkansas owe iheir origin to this cause ; also the gold ores of the Southern States, and, in fact, most of the pyriteous ores of the Eastern States." THE GEOLOGY OF GOLD. 57 The "Country" of Gold. J 51. Auriferous quartz is always found near granite and slate. It is useless to seek for gold in places where the fundamental granite or " bed-rock " of the earth is covered, thousands of feet deep, with aqueous rocks, such as the coal beds of Pennsylvania or the blue lime- stone of south-western Ohio. But where quartz, slate and granite are found together, there gold will probably be also. The Sierra Nevada mountains are chiefly of granite, with some slate, trap ; trachyte, serpentine and metamorphic limestone, in the gold region ; and near the level of the Sacramento basin, some sandstone. Rules of Quartz Veins. $ 52. Auriferous quartz veins, in California, have usually a direction from north-north- west to south-southeast, and a steep dip to the eastward. The thickness varies from a line to fifty feet. The quartz is gen- erally white, or blueish-white in color, with rusty streaks or spots, caused by the decomposition of iron pyrites. The gold is never equally diffused through the rock ; some parts of the vein are always richer than others. Quartz containing two ounces of gold to a pound of rock is very rich, and is a rarity, or at least a subject of admiration among all quartz miners, and in every district. The richest parts of a vein are in streaks. There is almost invariably a rich streak along the foot-wall, or in the lower side of the lode, and this is often the only part of a vein that will pay for working. All the gold of a lode has a uniform character ; that is, the particles bear a general resemblance to each other, in size, and in chemical fineness. There are exceptions, however. Sometimes a lode will have several rich streaks, one of coarse particles, another of fine, and of different chemical fineness. Lodes ate found, too, in which the rich streaks are nq parallel with each other, nor with the plane of the vein. Nearly all rocks have some kind of a grain, cleavage or stratification, and metalliferous veins run with or across the direction of this cleavage. It is a general rule that the most extensive veins are those which run across the cleavage of the " country," or " bed-rock." The veins which follow the plane of cleavage of the " bed-rock " are often small deposits, which, though they may be richer than the transverse lodes, are yet soon exhausted. Another general rule is, that metalliferous lodes are richest where several branches of the vein, after having spread out, 58 HAND-BOOK OP MINING. unite again, and are compressed within a narrow space. A third rule is, that lodes are usually rich where they cross from one rock to another, and where they have one kind of rock for the hanging-wall and another kind for the foot-wall. Marcou (Geology of North America, p. 82) says the richest quartz veins of California are found where sienitic granite and trap meet. Quartz Veins Poorer as they Descend. \ 53. It is the general opinion of the quartz miners of California, that auriferous quartz leads become poorer as they leave the surface. This, also, is the opinion of miners and mineralogists who know something of gold mining in other countries. (Zer- renner Anleitung, p. 10; Zerrenner Russlands Bergwerk's Production, p. 18 ; Oscar Lieber, Gangstudien, vol. in, p. 506.) The last-named authority states that in one lead in North Carolina, the gold near the surface was of a higher chemical fineness than that deep down ; and that the line divid- ing the rich from the poor metal could be distinctly traced with the naked eye, by the difference between the color of the metal above and . below. It has been asserted, too, that the gold obtained from certain quartz claims in California is not worth so much per ounce, as gold taken from the same claims eight years ago, and nearer the surface. There are numerous rich lodes of auriferous quartz in Washoe, and the opinion is frequently expressed, that, after going down two or three hun- dred feet, the gold will probably disappear, and its place will be supplied by silver. Veins of auriferous quartz are often wider below the ground than at the surface, and some persons say that in such cases, a square yard cut across the vein, near the top, will contain as much gold as a square yard cut across deep down, where thTvein is twice as wide, and where, conse- quently, the amount of rock is twice as great. I do not con- sider these ideas, however, to be proved, fully. Some persons who have seen much of quartz mining, express the opinion that quartz leads are as rich, deep in the ground, as near the surface. The Great Quartz Vein of California. 54. Mr. S. V. Blakeslee has written thus of the auriferous quartz of the Sierra Nevada : " To appearance, no order or system prevails in the distri- THE GEOLOGY OF GOLD. 59 bution of the gold-bearing veins scattered here and there through all parts of the mining regions; but, evidently, a thorough geological survey of the State might reduce them to a fair system of trunks and branches. Yet, a little observa- tion of their localities will reveal one great leading vein, taking precedence of all others, running along the Sierra Nevada, lying about an average distance of sixty miles west of their sum- mits ; and although broken at intervals, and irregular, yet extending along a good portion of the length of the State. Vast quartz mining operations are already going on at differ- ent points, and we do not doubt that this vein will in time yield more gold than the present circulating currency of the world. It deserves a distinctive name, as much so as the great rivers, seas, and mountains of the earth ; but at present we can refer to it only as the Great Gold-bearing Quartz Yein of California. " In thickness, it varies from two to twelve or sixteen feet'; yet in a few places it deepens to many rods. On each side are commonly numberless accompanying smaller veins, diminishing in thickness to a mere line. The great vein is generally desti- tute of more than a trace of gold, while side veins, only a few rods from it, may be immensely rich, supported by the great vein as the fruit-bearing branches of a tree are supported by the trunk. The great vein is generally composed of solid, white, crystalized quartz ; while the side veins are of every variety of feature, varying to a light porous ore of iron, or soft, red, clay-like material. This, on being carefully washed, will often yield a large amount of the brightest, finest, and most beautiful dust of gold, while in other instances, the gold appears left by the disintegrated vein as a pure, porous mass of spangles, balls, and shapeless forms, just adhering to each othef where they touch. Yet this last is very uncommon, as the interstices between the particles are generally filled with quartz. " We have personally visited this vein, only from Coulter- ville, Mariposa county, thence north through Tuolumne, Cala- veras, Amador, El Dorado, Placer, Nevada, and Butte coun- ties ; yet to the south, at least, we know it extends indefinitely. The vein is not always evident above ground. In some places it disappears for miles under the surface, and again appears ; in other places it is lost for only a few rods. It especially appears at ravines, or other depressions in the sur- face. It descends under the ravines, but appears capping 60 HAND-BOOK OF MINING. hills and mountains, towering in sharp points, at some places five hundred and a thousand feet high. Thus, just north of Cpulterville, this vein can be seen from higher elevations, whitening the scene with peaked elevations for ten miles to the north. It then disappears under the Tuolumne river canon. In three miles it again appears at Algerine ; again disappear- ing under Sullivan Creek, it reappears at Poverty Hill, pass- ing through and capping a mountain four hundred feet in hight ; then continues near seven miles by Jamestown. It next descends under the canon of Stanislaus, and suddenly rises on the north, capping Carson Hill twelve hundred feet high; then continues by Albany Flat and Angel's Camp. From here it seems to disappear for a number of miles, oc- casionally exhibiting traces of itself by Mokelumne Hill, to the north side of the cafion of the Mokelumne river, where it again appears in distinct form at Butte City, Jackson, S utter Creek, Amador and Dryto.wn. Beyond this, it cannot as yet be so easily and distinctly traced ; but we are confident that, ultimately, the rich veins in the region of Placerville, El Do- rado county, a few near Auburn, Placer county, those of Grass Valley, Nevada county, and Frenchtown, Butte county, will all be found to belong to this same great vein, appearing and disappearing at different places, but really continuous under ground." Formation of the Placers. 55. It is supposed that at some period, extremely remote in the past, the whole surface of the earth was rock, which was worn away by the action of the air and water, and became loam, clay, sand, gravel and so forth, which were deposited under water, and then in places raised by subterranean forces into the open air, and worn into their present shapes of hills, valleys, ravines and gullies by the action of other waters. We see, for instance, that many of the hills and mountains along the eastern side of the Sacra- mento basin, are made up of gravel evidently worn round in * water, by long rubbing against other pieces of gravel, sand and clay, all lying in layers, evidently deposited regularly, at the same time and in the same manner, over a large extent of country. There were once no valleys between these hills ; the present irregularity of surface has all been caused by streams of water, which have carried away large portions of the earth and gravel previously deposited there. In the gold region, the THE GEOLOGY OF GOLD. 6.1 auriferous quartz was broken up and worn away like other rock ; the light material of the quartz was carried far away by the water ; the heavy gold did not move far from the original position of its original quartz vein. It did move, however ; it was carried down steep hill-sides into the beds of gullies, ravines, brooks and rivers. The pieces of gold were rough and irregular in shape when they were freed from the quartz ; but as they were carried along by the water and rubbed against rolling stones and gravel, the angles were rounded off; and those carried very far were smashed up and broken into little pieces, and converted into flakes, scales or grains. Coarse gold is never found far from the place of its maternal quartz ; the gold on the bars of large streams is usually fine, and sometimes fine gold is found in very short ravines. In 1849, Californian miners divided the gold dust into the two general divisions of " river " and " gulch." " River gold " is usually fine and smooth ; " gulch gold " coarse and rough. The particles of gold in auriferous quartz are irregular in shape, rough, and full of sharp angles ; after they are liberated from the rock, and washed down the gullies by water, they are smashed flat, broken into pieces, and worn smooth. The differ- ent forms of placer gold often appear within very short dis- tances of each other. Thus, I have known two short gullies, parallel with each other, and not more than one hundred yards apart, to have different kinds of dust one coarse, the other fine. Near Prairie City, in El Dorado county, there is a hill sev- eral miles long, on one side of which all the gold is round and shot-like, and on the other side it is all in scales. Persons experienced in buying gold dust, can often tell by the size and shape of the particles or could six or eigty years ago, when most of the gold was from the placers whence it came. Knowing the place, they could determine the value, knowing what gold from the same place had previously assayed. The color of dust depends much on the material in which it has been imbedded, and this color often decieves inexperienced gold buyers. A jeweler can guess very near the fineness of golden jewelry by its color ; but there is much more danger of error in examining gold dust. After it is melted, more reliance can be placed upon the color. Near the Tuolumne river, there is a " black lead," from which all the gold was coarse, and covered with a black cover- ing resembling enamel, which adhered to the metal very stub- 62 HAND-BOOK OP MINING. bornly. It was removed by heat, rubbing and washing in strong lye. Diluvial and Alluvial Placers. g 56. Placer gold diggings may be divided into two classes, the " diluvial " and the " alluvial." I call those diggings diluvial where the aurif- erous dirt was deposited in a large body of standing water, and simultaneously over a large district, as is the case with many of the hills and flats in the State. It is evident that the great body of the auriferous dirt in some of the largest counties, was deposited at one time in a sea or large lake. I call all these deposits diluvial, as if made under the influence of a deluge. That these deposits were made in a very remote age, is evident from many facts. The bones of mastodons and other gigantic animals of species long extinct, are often found in them. The deposits are found spread with similar strata over large dis- tricts, and in positions where they could not have been placed by the present streams of the country. " Alluvial " applies to the deposits made under the influence of rivers ; " diluvial " to deposits made when the whole country was under water. The alluvial placers have been formed where streams of water have run through these diluvial deposits after they were raised to the air, have swept away much of the dirt, and have changed the position of the gold. The diluvial diggings usually lie deep, and are buried under many different strata. The strata oi auriferous dirt differ greatly in thickness and composition ; they may be only six inches thick or a hundred feet ; they may be of clay, sand, fine or coarse gravel, but usually they are of strong clay, containing gravel and water-worn stones from the size of an egg to that of a bushel basket. Sometimes differ- ent layers of auriferous dirt will be found, containing gold of different characters. For instance : there may be a hill two hun- dred feet deep ; at the bottom may be a stratum of blue clay two feet thick, containing much coarse gold ; then a stratum of barren gravel three feet thick ; then a stratum of yellow clay six inches thick, with fine scale gold ; then a stratum of barren sand three feet thick ; then a stratum of gray, gravelly clay eighteen inches thick, with coarse shot-gold ; and finally, one hundred and ninety feet of red gravelly clay, containing fine gold scattered all through it. It is expected, as a general rule, that the richest dirt will be found next the bed rock ; but some- times rich strata have been found fifteen or twenty feet above THE GEOLOGY OF GOLD. 63 the bed rock, and nothing farther down. The diluvial diggings are seldom rich, as compared with the stream placers ; they will rarely pay, unless when worked with the sluice. Ancient and Modern Streams. \ 57. The alluvial placers may be divided into ancient and modern. The ancient are those formed by streams which no longer exist, or have found new channels. Two very remarkable examples of the ancient stream placers are found in California ; one called the Blue Lead of Sierra county, the other Table Mountain in Tuolumne county. It is supposed that the Blue Lead was once the bed of a large river, about fifty miles eastward of the pres- ent position of Sacramento river, and parallel with its course. Table Mountain is a pile of basalt, standing on what was, in the remote past, the bed of a river nearly parallel with the Stanislaus. These ancient and deserted channels are not rare, and are found from a very small to a very large