Tuolumne County

History

A History of Tuolumne County, California - San Francisco, B.F. Alley, 1882.

GEOLOGY AND MINING

        Since the earliest explorations by miners, mach speculation has been rife, and uncounted theories have been set forth concerning the geological formation of these hills and valleys, and finally a vast deal of knowledge has been collected concerning them; and if this knowledge has not resulted as men have insisted it should, in rendering the discovery of gold certain and easy, it has at least been of benefit in a scientific way.

        Many men, with real or imagined scientific knowledge, have given their thoughts to the solution of the great questions which underlie the formation of mineral veins and ore bodies; and while thus far the discoveries in that direction have not proved the entire truth of what has been put forth as theories, still the progress of scientific research has been such as to inspire confidence in the future ability of men to demonstrate the truth.

        It is not the purpose of the writer of this hasty sketch to do aught more than to set forth simply the main truths concerning the geology of this county, as at present understood, leaving theory and hypothesis for discussion by those who feel themselves qualified for such a task.

        The eastern portion of the county belongs to the granite region — the rocks underlying and characterizing the locality being of that class. Westward we find a region which is as manifestly the slate region; the country rock being argillaceous, or silicious, or talcose, presenting mineralogically such differences that we may again divide the slate region into two divisions, viz: the clay slate belt, and the talcose slate belt; the latter lying parallel to, but west from the other.

        The prevailing character of certain of the upper sedimentary rocks stamps them as belonging to the Cretaceous epoch. Tertiary deposits occur, and will be referred to in their proper place. So, to simplify the geological view of the county, the surface may be regarded as being divided into three great belts, parallel to each other, and whose course is north and south. These are the granite, the clay slate, and the talcose slate belts.

        Limestone occurs abundantly, constituting a broad belt or deposit, hundreds of feet in thickness and several miles in width, penetrating from north to south, and nearly coincident with the central slates.     

        No richer field for scientific study exists in this State, and within the county the vicinity of Sonora possesses perhaps as many points of interest as any other locality. The town is situated in what was apparently the basin of an immense lake in far distant times. What was the size of this lake is impossible to approximate to. Viewed from the summit of Bald Mountain, its shores stand out in bold relief. Eight miles north by west they seem to consist of coarse sandstone, outlining the base of a conical volcanic peak. Northward still farther the eye catches the view of the same peculiar characters of table-capped summits at a distance of some fourteen miles. In other directions the appearance of shore-lines is hardly less clearly defined.

        While viewing these evidences, one cannot but be struck with admiration and wonder at the various changes that this portion of the country has undergone, and one cannot have even the slightest conception of the extent of that power by whose influence these changes have been wrought. Upon these hills one may sit, and in imagination picture to himself the smooth and unruffled surface of this lake, whose depth may have been four hundred or more feet, and whose breadth reached a score of miles, with a length of twice that, with animals far different from those which now inhabit its site, feeding upon its shores or basking in its waters. Where in this age the toilsome miner spent his years in exhuming from Mother Earth's bosom the treasures scattered abroad by Nature's forces and left in the deep cañons or in the clefts in the rugged limestone bowlders, once there trod strange animals feeding upon strange plants, or warring with and devouring each other. The mastodon, the giant of mammals, and the highest developed and strongest being of its remote age, roamed at will throughout this region, finally laying his bones to rest in the alluvium which was forming, and from whence they have been torn by the inquiring men of to-day, to be eagerly scanned by the scientist who adds another species or another genus to the sum of knowledge.

        The limestone deposits above referred to form one of the most curious formations ever remarked by science. Additional interest pertains to them on account of the fact that the earliest and most extensive placers ever worked were upon limestone. This belt runs through all the southern mining counties, and can be traced for one hundred miles, with variable width, the greatest extent of which is several miles—at Columbia. The overlying placer deposits were very extensive, but were in general shallow, not usually extending more than six feet beneath the surface; but in some instances the auriferous gravels were a hundred feet in depth, inclusive of the depth of the crevices into which the gold had penetrated. Throughout its whole extent the limestone bedrock has been carved into fantastic forms by the agency of water carrying carbonic acid, which has dissolved the more soluble portions, leaving projecting masses, irregular in outline, standing like gravestones to mark a prehistoric burial place of giants. This action of the water is not confined to the surface; below, and out of vision, the same agencies have been and still are at work, carving the limestone into formless shapes, wearing out small crevices and huge caverns, some accessible to man, but most of all secured from his gaze by many feet of stone.

        Several distinct strata of limestone exist, overlying each other, and one or more of these are said to contain fossil encrinites; but there is no distinct and indisputable evidence to show the place in geological history of this deposit. However, it is clear that it is of deep-sea, marine origin. It shows distinct stratification, and alternate layers of gray, blue and white. The stratification is nearly vertical.

        At a point near Columbia is the already well known "Crystal Palace Cave," a vast cavern in the solid limestone, excavated, as above indicated, by percolating waters charged with carbonic acid. Its extent is measured by miles, while acres of passages and chambers exist, ornamented by nature with stalactitic formations of the most gorgeous description.

        Many evidences of intense volcanic action exist in Tuolumne County. Streams of lava have in ancient times flowed downward across the land, and Table Mountain yet remains a memento of those epochs, while in the eastern part of the County fifty feet of breccia, a different lava deposit, cover the hills. No greater wonder exists than Table Mountain. Thirty miles long, and of surprising regularity, even on the summit, a stream of molten lava forced itself downward towards the plains, and hardened where it ran, attaining a width of from twelve to eighteen hundred feet, and being of an average thickness of one hundred and fifty feet.

        The space occupied by this wall-like mountain was once the channel of a river, having precipitous banks, down which the melted basalt ran from its source in a neighboring volcano. That an old river-bed lies beneath is proved by the fact that the underlying detrital matter is water­worn, and that deposits of gold-bearing gravel are contained therein, from which immense sums have been realized from their workings. Beneath the basalt comes a deposit of what by the miners is called "pipe clay," but which doubtless is but another form of volcanic matter which was poured out previous to the main overflow.

        Subsequently to this outpouring, and after the molten stream had cooled, the great process of erosion, continuing, has scooped out all the cañons and valleys as we now find them, and has lowered the bed of the Stanislaus two thousand feet. In this gigantic and long continued action of the great rivers which then flowed over this region, carving, destroying and denuding vast tracts, the configuration of the whole country was changed; and, as a well attested case in point, the earth and rocks hemming in the great lava stream were worn away, leaving the hard basaltic mass nearly intact, and surviving the destruction and removal of the softer rocks.

        It is difficult to conceive of any force capable of effecting such extensive degradation of strata as has occurred here, but that it has occurred there can be no doubt. Examining the cañon of the Stanislaus, it becomes apparent that the lava stream had crossed it near Abbey's Ferry, at a great bight above the present water level; and as the volcanic current had followed some other channel previously excavated by water, it is evident that the amount of denudation was much greater than the present depth of the existing cañon, say three or four thousand feet; figures that represent the erosion which has taken place within the comparatively late geological epoch succeeding the lava flow.

        Here arise some speculations as to the comparative ages of the different deposits found in the county. It is well known that the limestone underlies Table Mountain, thus proving its superior antiquity. Slate antedates limestone, as proved by the existence of the upturned edges of slate strata within the limestone belt, peculiar in that their extreme metamorphism produces a strong resemblance to trap, for which this slate is oftentimes mistaken by the local savants.

        That these slates, largely silicious, are older than the neighboring granite, appears from the existence of granitic dykes, forced upward through the slate and lying in contact therewith—a thing that could not result from the subsequent deposition of the sedimentary slate. An attendant circumstance is the extreme metamorphism of the contiguous slate, as caused by the influence of the highly heated granite, which it will need hardly be said was in a melted condition when it arrived at its present position.

        We can now state the comparative age of the four principal formations, as follows: First in point of age comes slate, then granite, and limestone, and finally the volcanic deposits of Table Mountain.

        Next we come to consider the later deposits.

        After the formation of Table Mountain, and after the intense volcanic action had ceased, it is considered by geologists that there occurred a period in which the rainfall was excessive, and in which all the streams flowing over this land were of corresponding magnitude. This supposition is put forward as the most likely means to account for the enormous denudation of land which has taken place.

        Herein lies the key to the deposition of gold-bearing gravels, both ancient and modern. The former gravel beds, found frequently on the tops of high elevations, resulted from the deposit from running water of particles of earth worn from the vicinity of quartz veins, and carrying along with them the gold disseminated throughout their mass. Originally so deposited, subsequent erosions by the modern streams, to which volcanic changes have given totally different channels and directions, have again moved the auriferous materials, winnowing out the gold and leaving a portion of it in the newer placers, which are the shallow deposits of the lower cañons of the present day. Herein is seen the connected fact of the great erosion of this part of the country, removing nearly all of the ancient gravels, but still leaving sufficient of the massy deposits to prove the truth of the theory.

        This supposition regards quartz as the principal or sole matrix of gold—indisputable in the absence of an atom of evidence to the contrary. But it is not to be supposed that the present insignificant known veins had anything important to do with it. We can not regard the quantity of gold which man has extracted, or which yet remains in the available gravel leads, as more than a tithe of the actual quantity which was originally set free by the wearing down of A MILE of sedimentary slates and other rocks intersected by quartz veins, perhaps more extensive than on the present slightly prospected surface. Were the vanished rocks no richer than those that remain, who can estimate the wealth contained in that mile of Tuolumne's rock-ribbed earth which lies at present nearest the surface? Doubtless, were it prospected, its "pockets" removed, its milling ore crushed, its sulphurets reduced, and its gravel washed, the resulting mass of gold might suffice to enrich the world.

        Truly, this is a vast subject. We have here the consideration of the existence of innumerable veins of quartz existing within the rocks to a countless depth, involving wealth beyond calculation, and geological power and age beyond human imaginings. What time in past eras has done, time in the succeeding epochs may do. Argonauts of the tremendous future may search the streams for the yellow dross a mile beneath us, as possibly others have done a mile above us in the hoary past. The gravel that underlies the valleys of the San Joaquin and the Sacramento came from the Sierra, and holds those minute particles of gold that were sustained by the waters in their passage; and that gold is lost to man. The gold is lost; but not so the lesson of the power and beneficence of the Creator who planed down these giant mountains, that man might gain by that which his puny strength could not otherwise reap.

        The basaltic lava deposits have been referred to the Pliocene era. The ancient gravel beds are of previous existence. In the detritus beneath Table Mountain the bones and teeth of animals, notably of the rhinoceros, of a species of horse, of the mammoth (elephas primigenius), of a species of camel, together with silicified wood, have been found, and possibly also relics of primeval man. According to Whitney, the remains of the mastodon, elephant, bison, tapir, the existing species of horse, and of prehistoric man's works, exist within the newer placer gravels; while buried within the deep, ancient placers, the mastodon, rhinoceros, an ally to the hippopotamus, an ally to the camel, and an extinct species of horse are found.

        Thus the animals of the deep gravel period partook of the Pliocene characters, and also, to a less degree, to those of the succeeding Quaternary. Hence, Whitney is of the opinion that the deep placers were formed in the later Pliocene time, and that the lava flow occurred at the termination of that epoch or at the beginning of the Quaternary; but Professor Le Conte, suggesting the probability of the Pliocene animal types lingering on into the succeeding epoch, deems it likely that the earlier Quaternary beheld the formation of the deep placers, while the newer placers were formed in the later portion of the same era; supporting this theory with the statement that the deep placer gravels are similar to the Quaternary gravels all over the world, excepting their cementation in some cases into grits and conglomerates, through the agency of alkali and soluble silica, derived from overlying lava.

        In the latter case, the formation of Table Mountain would necessarily have been of more recent origin, affording yet a grand illustration of the immensity of geologic time, inasmuch as the entire washing away of the thousands of feet of hard slate has been the work of the elements in time subsequent to the volcanic outbreak, which we may assume took place after a considerable lapse of Quaternary time.

        Several cases have been reported of the finding of human remains in the sub-lava detritus. These cases are not attested upon the authority of scientific men, but rest upon respectable evidence—insufficient, indeed, to prove an hypothesis, but highly deserving of consideration. Aside from the Calaveras skull mentioned by Whitney, and the Table Mountain skull reported by Winslow, there have been reports of mortars and pestles, of flint spearheads and arrow heads found. But while these rest on fair evidence, yet they seem to carry disproof within themselves. The idea that a race existed at a period tens of thousands of years in the past, who manufactured and used precisely the same utensils that the present Indians do, seems an absurdity. One might as well expect to find Roman swords or English cannon beneath the giant lava stream, for it is impossible in the light of science that any race of men could have continued to exist throughout such a space of time as separates the volcanic outbreak from the present. It is more likely that a score of successive races have inhabited the region, each separated from the others by the widest ethnological differences, than that one should have such a perpetuity, neither advancing nor retrograding in their arts, habits and manufactures and, that they did not advance would be evidenced by the continued use of the above mentioned utensils. Decidedly, we must admit a very high antiquity to the lava deposits. To assign an age of a thousand centuries would not seem extravagant, considering the denudation that has since taken place. These figures are not put forward as their approximate age, however, but merely as a show for argument. Let it be assumed, then, that Table Mountain has that age, and it follows that the Stone Age of the inhabitants commenced even earlier, for there is no opportunity of knowing how long the sub-lava deposits had been forming, within which these relics have accumulated. Considering that the people of that date, were there such, used precisely the same implements as those now in use among the Digger Indians, it is the inevitable conclusion that they must have been Diggers, and naught else. But this, as before remarked, is absurd; for there is not only no record or suspicion of any human race continuing for such a space of time, but it does not seem that any species of animals ever existed through such an extent of ages. The genus Homo may then have been in existence, but certainly not the species Sapiens.

        There is in. man a remarkable tendency to exaggeration of periods of time, a reverence for the antique, as it were, which, though most evident among the unscientific, yet "crops out" in the geological mind to some extent, and correspondingly weakens the statements of vast ages credited to different strata and to different organic remains. The writer does not wish to impress it upon the people of Tuolumne that their Table Mountain is one hundred thousand years old; those figures being assumed at will, one half the time would just as well have carried out the purposes of his argument, or, indeed, for that matter, one tenth. The chief point to be regarded is, that to the ordinary mind a cycle of geological time—the period in which whole lands have been submerged, or hundreds of feet of sedimentary strata have been formed—is meaningless ; while a generation, or a century, carries with it a solemn seriousness. So it is with alleged discoveries of fossil remains; most men would have little hesitancy in accepting a dog's skeleton as coming from ground which a geologist would have no difficulty in identifying as of Silurian or Carboniferous origin, while the same man would hardly mention a locomotive engine or a repeating rifle as having been in use in the Revolutionary War.  Yet the one is no more impossible than the other. Indeed, the former would be the easier to disprove; for of all scientific records, those which are most satisfactorily made out are those portions of geological science which the careful and advanced thinkers of to-day present to us for our study and reflection.

Origin of Gold.

        Many theories regarding the origin of mineral veins and the occurrence of metals therein have been advanced, and the important subject has been variously and ably treated. But as yet perhaps no theory has been advanced that seems by its inherent applicability to remove all doubt. The sublimation theory, with its modifications, seems inapplicable to the case of quartz veins, which are known to have been of aqueous origin. Electricity, it has been suggested, was the agent by which the deposition of veins was controlled; but this theory only seems to increase the difficulty, by assigning to an agent of which nothing is known results which it produced in some unimaginable way, so that the theory embroils us in more difficulties than at first. Some eminent scientists have given their adhesion to the hypothesis that the superincumbent sea water (known to contain traces of gold) parted with its auriferous store to the slates then in process of formation, and that afterwards the gold became collected in the later-formed quartz veins, through the agency of solution and chemical affinity.

        Professor Le Conte, in his new "Elements of Geology," gives the outline of the most probable theory yet advanced, from which these extracts are made:

The contents of mineral veins seem to have been deposited from hot alkaline solutions coming up through the fissures previously produced by movements of the earth's crust. Ribbon structure and interlocked crystals show this, and cavities are seen to be filled which could have been filled in no other way than by deposition from solutions. Fluid cavities exist in the quartz, which is the most common vein stuff. Quartz crystals only form thus.

        These solutions were hot. Deep fissures necessarily fill up with water, and this water from its contact with rocks at a great depth absorbs heat from them. The solvent power of hot water under pressure is extremely great. Scarcely any substance resists it. " The invariable association of metalliferous veins with metamorphism demonstrates the agency of heat."

        The solutions were alkaline, containing alkaline carbonates and sulphides—the only natural solvents of quartz. Such solutions still exist in California and Nevada, and still are depositing quartz.

        These facts show the almost certainty of alkaline liquids having deposited quartz in veins. As to the contained gold, the theory is sufficiently elastic to deal with that also. Professor LeConte informs us that metallic sulphides, i.e., iron pyrites ("sulphurets"), copper sulphurets, zinc blende, galena, silver glance, etc., are by far the commonest forms of ore, and other forms we know can be traced to sulphides, having become decomposed from their original form. But metallic sulphides are soluble in alkaline sulphides, such as sulphide of sodium, etc., and these waters containing them would deposit them, on cooling, in the fissures.

        It is a fact that at this very time there are veins of quartz containing the sulphides of lead, iron, mercury, copper and zinc, forming, in the State of Nevada, where the operation is visible to the eye of man; and. it is going on just in the way indicated above. This, it may be said, is evidence enough to support the theory cited.

        *  *  *  * * " Gold is known to be slightly soluble in the salts of iron. These salts, especially the sulphate and per-sulphate of iron, are the probable solvents of gold.  The silicate of gold. is slightly soluble also. * * * * *  In the auriferous veins of California * * * * * the gold exists as minute crystals and threads, enclosed in the sulphide of iron, and therefore must have been deposited from the same solution as the iron. It seems most probable that the gold was dissolved in a solution of the sulphate or per-sulphate of iron, and that the sulphate was deoxidized and became insoluble sulphide, and. was then precipitated, and that the gold thus set free from solution was entangled in the sulphide at the moment of the precipitation of the latter.

        * * * " Gold is sometimes found in pure quartz, without the sulphide of iron. In these cases it may have been in solution in alkaline water as silicate of gold, as suggested by Bischof.

        * * *" Although gold exists in the iron sulphide of the unchanged portion of the vein, only in minute, even microscopic, crystals and threads, yet in the changed upper portion of the vein it exists in visible particles, and often in large nuggets weighing several ounces, and rarely, of several pounds weight. This fact is additional evidence that sulphate of iron is the natural solvent of gold. There can be no doubt that these larger grains and nuggets result from a coalescence of all the minute particles contained in a mass of sulphide, into one or more larger masses. By meteoric agencies, the sulphide is oxidized into sulphate, and the gold redissolved.     From this solution it crystalizes into one mass, as the solution concentrates by losing its sulphuric acid and changing into peroxide. In the case of large nuggets, the gold is probably in some way deposited constantly at the same place, from a similar solution bringing gold for a long time."

        These brief extracts will serve to give an idea of the theory which the later developments of geology have made to prevail. It will be seen that these suppositions dispose of the difficulties existing with respect to the formation of mineral veins in granite and other rocks besides clay slate. We need not seek for explanation as to the power of conducting electricity which any given formation possesses. Neither do all veins necessarily have to lie in a due north and south direction to make this theory admissible. Nor is intense heat necessary, as in the sublimation or igneous theories. Finally, we easily account for the existing growth of veins, and for veins formed at very different periods of the world's history.

        Having said so much upon the formation of veins, we will now proceed to the discussion of the mines of this county, first taking up gold mining in quartz.

Quartz Mining.

        The first mention of quartz veins containing gold was made in the Sonora Herald of January 25, 1851. Therein it is stated that a very rich quartz vein had been opened at Jamestown by Turner & Co., several weeks previous. Also, that several other veins containing rich gold specimens had just been discovered nearer to Sonora; but that the discoverers would refrain from working them until Congress had made such laws as would secure them in their rights.

        Undoubtedly these veins were what are now known as "pocket" veins, in contradistinction to "charge" or " milling" veins; the difference being mainly in the dissemination of the metal.

        By the following September a considerable number of quartz "pocket" veins had been opened, in one of which very rich finds had been made by the "Tennessee Company." Just previously the famous " Ford Lead" had been found, and had yielded prodigiously. Mr. Linoberg, of Sonora, became owner of the chief portion upon the death of the discoverer, and the claim was afterwards known as the " Louisiana Mine." In the same issue of the Herald we learn that the quartz excitement was diminishing, the results not having equalled the anticipations.

        Quartz mining, as an industry, was soon after thoroughly established in Tuolumne, and the interest that attached to it has continued unabated to the present day. In spite of temporary discouragements, such as it met almost at the beginning, it has remained one of the leading interests, assisting more than any other to the well being of the county; and though the milling veins have not proved so rich as in other localities, that does not prove in any degree that the mining interests of the county are of small importance or unworthy of the attention which has been given them. Nor does it follow that because the quality and quantity of the rock so far extracted has not been such as to make the fortunes of more than a few, that the future will be of similar results. Speaking from experience, it is safe to say that there exists, untouched at present, deposits of gold ore which, when the time comes to work them, will produce results worthy of comparison with the yields of other favored localities.

        We find that as early as 1851, Messrs. Bell, Linoberg & Co. had established an office in Sonora known as the " Quartz Mines and Intelligence Office;" devoted to the spreading of information relating to quartz, and to the purchase and sale of mining property and mining machinery. Here quartz was tested for customers.

        The consideration of pocket mines having been relegated to another chapter, this article will contain only remarks upon the milling veins of the county, and these it is perhaps best to treat in detail, commencing with a description of the great Mother Lode, upon which most of the mines are situated.

        The Mother Lode is, in many respects, the most remarkable metalliferous vein in the known world. Its production of the precious metal has not been so great as other quartz bodies have afforded, but its peculiar features, its influence upon the topography of the country, and its well sustained average value, together make it as above denominated. Then its extent is most remarkable, as it is distinctly traced for more than sixty miles—a fact that is most extraordinary, considering that the great Comstock and sundry rich South American lodes, each of which have produced more wealth, cannot be traced for a tenth of that distance. The general course of the vein is forty degrees west of north. If a straight line were drawn connecting its two ends, the lode would be usually within a half mile of it; but in a few places two or three miles distant.

        The dip is eastern, and at an angle of forty-five or fifty degrees from the horizon.

        The lode is made up of an association of parallel veins, the main one of which varies greatly in width, in places reaching thirty feet. Branches or companion veins sometimes increase this to nearly one hundred feet. In some places the side veins are portions of the main vein, separated by " horses " at the surface, and uniting further down. In other cases they are totally different deposits, which do not unite even at the lowest workings. The most remarkable side veins are composed of talcose slate which carries gold and can be traced for miles, preserving a width of from two to twenty feet.

        The chief peculiarities of the lode are its great length and thickness, its uniform character as to quartz, and the character and richness of the large talcose companion veins.

        The mines upon the great lode have been extensively worked, producing an enormous sum in the aggregate, and still promise, perhaps more than any others, additional rewards to the energy which may be directed to their development. Although the vein has been extensively prospected, being pierced by their shafts at innumerable points, still it cannot be said that the wealth of the lode has been entirely brought to light ; on the contrary, miles of its out­croppings and its lower depths still remain to be examined. Much of the rock from this vein will pay a sum which is not quite sufficient for its present profitable working ; but in the future, when the work may be done at a cheaper rate, no doubt extensive mills will be constructed, which, devoted to working this ore, will produce fortunes.

        Among the mines upon the Mother Lode, the Quartz Mountain Gold Mining Company's property, at Quartz Mountain, formerly known as the Heslep mine, has been considered a good and lasting mine. It has been prospected to a depth of 500 feet, furnishing all the way a silicious slate deposit, characteristic of the Mother Lode, containing a tolerable content of gold. The contained sulphurets are not saved, though they have been considered promising sources of wealth. On the claim is a 25-stamp mill, with concentrating machinery, etc., the whole driven by a 45-foot overshot wheel.

        The App claim is located on a lode parallel to the main vein, and about 300 feet distant therefrom. It has a 25-stamp mill run by water power. The shaft is 800 feet in depth.

        The Alabama claim, located on the great lode, has within the past few years taken high rank. It has 12 feet or more of low grade ore, easily accessible and capable of being cheaply worked, as there is on the claim a magnificent 40-stamp mill, driven by water power, capable of crushing 50 tons daily. Under Mr. Harris' capable management, the mine has become the leading exponent of the system of working low grade ores successfully. Figures are wanting, but there is no doubt that the Alabama is capable of extracting and crushing quartz as cheaply as it can be done at any mine in the world. The Sierra Buttes mine, in Plumas County, is able to take out and crush rock at a cost of not over two dollars per ton, the mill containing 60 stamps, and amalgamating in battery. No doubt the Alabama can compete even with such work as this. It is well for Tuolumne county that there exists an institution in which those ores which, though of small value per ton, yet are of the utmost importance to the county, may be profitably treated. It is a safe assertion to say that there are unlimited quantities of such ores in the county which may and doubtless will prove the mainstay of a large and increasing population.

        The Rawhide Ranch Mine is also located on the Mother Lode. Discovered by Hodge and Williamson, it was, in 1876, after several years' prospecting, sold to a New York company for $75,000. The new owners set to work to develop it properly, quite a town (Rawhide) springing up in the vicinity. A first-class twenty-stamp mill was put up, and other expensive improvements were introduced at great cost. In two years they had sunk 320 feet on the vein, finding it 25 feet thick at that depth, and lying between slate and serpentine. Suspending operations at that time, nothing of importance has since been done, only one man being employed.

From this mine have come specimens of the so-called "telluride " ore, which is a compound of tellurium with gold, lead and possibly other metals, and which is very valuable, being worth many thousand dollars per ton. It is also found in other localities in this and adjoining counties.

        Two miles west of the Rawhide is situated the Chaparral, or Labetoure Mine. C. Labetoure Co. commenced developing the property in 1862, building a five-stamp mill, which was profitably operated for years, working their claim imprudently enough, withal. Pockets amounting to nearly a quarter of a million dollars were taken out of this company's ground, either from the main or neighboring veins. The course of this vein is at right angles to the Rawhide vein, and it shows well at a depth of 120 feet. The present 20-stamp mill has never been profitably run.

        (The subject of " Tellurium " ores has been investigated by chemists, in consequence of the discovery in Colorado of comparatively large quantities of these compounds. The tellurides with which miners are mostly concerned are two in number, one containing tellurium with gold principally, the other being composed of the elements tellurium, gold, lead and silver, associated with one or two other metals, which exist in it in less proportion. in order that these two tellurides may be easily identified by the miner and prospector, it may be remarked that these two compounds melt at a low temperature, and on cooling crystallize into hemihedral forms, which circumstance, together with the additional fact of their assuming a grayish color, is proof sufficient to establish their identity. By the use of the proper fluxes, gold may be made to appear to the naked eye, its reduction taking place without much difficulty. Placed in a crucible, with carbonate of soda, the reduction is complete, affording the full proportion of the precious metal on the application of heat. The process of reduction has been said to result in the loss of the contained gold; but this is not so, unless the heat be urged to an undue degree. However, there is no doubt but that the process of reduction of very rich telluride ores is to be best performed in those works which are specially fitted up for the purpose.)

        The Little Gem Mine, situated near Jamestown, and owned and operated by W. N. Harris, Esq., furnishes a good example of what prudence and business capacity may accomplish. The ten-stamp mill on this mine was erected in 1879, the expense being met by the proceeds of rich ore which was pounded out in a hand-mortar during that time.

        The vein is parallel to and 200 feet distant from the Mother Lode. The middle of the vein is the richest, affording many fine specimens, while the sides are of medium milling quality. The history of the Little Gem is a record of success.

        Commencing at the main fork of the Stanislaus, there are, between that stream and the south fork, the Tennessee Mine, discovered by Jones and Woodman in 1860, situated on Rose Creek Ridge; the Star Mine, a mile further up the creek, a property of some value, but whose ore was too base to admit of free milling; the Tiger Mine, adjoining the Star, and owned by the same proprietors, with a three-foot vein, first-rate prospect, and provided with a five-stamp mill; the U. S. Grant Mine, on which a quarter of a million dollars was said to have been spent in exploring, but which was then abandoned; the Riverside, located by Keltz and Keil in 1857, and which is being worked at various intervals, chiefly in exploration, but a very valuable property, something neglected. A twenty-stamp mill, well appointed, stands by, having done good service in working the rich rock of this vein.

        The above mines, together with several others of less prominence, are on the north side of the south fork. Crossing the fork, we come to the Keltz Mine, 1,500 feet above the river. This discovery was made by Keltz in 1862, and an offer of thirty thousand dollars was reported; but too conscious of having a good thing, he preferred to hold on. Under the conduct of Keltz, Brodigan and Sharwood, various shafts have been sunk, developments made and improvements introduced. The mine now has a twenty-stamp mill, an aerial railway, and a shaft 220 feet in depth showing a three-foot seam. But little is now being done at this mine, two or three men only being employed in extracting ore, which they do on tribute.

        A short distance south of the Keltz is the Hazel Dell, a contact vein between slate and granite—a feature that has been supposed to be of the greatest value, but whose promise is not fully carried out in this region. Located in 1863, the ore has run from eight to one hundred and fifty dollars per ton. The present owners are Boston men, who have abandoned the works temporarily or permanently.

        The Shanghai claim, east of Columbia, has supported the working of a ten-stamp mill for years, but of late the machinery has been removed.

        About Tuttletown there are a large number of mines that have some time held permanent places in mining affairs. The pocket lodes have proved very rich indeed, the deposits found in particular instances reaching thirty thousand and even fifty thousand dollars. The leads are in slate, neighboring the limestone range.

        The Patterson Mine has been worked with favorable results at odd times for about twenty-five years. It is now owned by D. T. Hughes & Co., who recently purchased the property for the sum of $9,500 and other valuable considerations. There is an old twenty-stamp mill on the ground, with other appurtenances. The veinstone consists mostly of a magnesian limestone (dolomitic, perhaps), carrying a considerable percentage of sulphurets, whose richness is very variable.

        It has been an axiom with metallurgists that cubic sulphurets were nearly worthless; but this dictum must give way before the evidence of the discoveries at Tuttletown. There, pyrites, fair cubes of large size, exist, which are thoroughly permeated or interlaced with filaments and sheets of gold; and these rich sulphurets exist to some extent in the Patterson and Eames Mines. But the fact should not be lost sight of that they have not been found to exist largely. Mr. Eames was led into his extravagant outlay of his own and other men's money and labor through a trifling "find " of rich pyritous matter; and no doubt other conceited " scientists " will follow his example, to the injury of the mines and people of Tuolumne.

        A half mile or so from Tuttletown is the Atlas, formerly the Waters mine, now owned but not operated by a company of San Francisco speculators, calling themselves the Atlas Gold Mining Company. They have an immense deposit of lime and magnesia carbonate, carrying an infinitesimal amount of free gold contained in little stringers and threads of quartz, and having a large percentage of exceedingly poor sulphurets, worth probably twenty dollars per ton, or less. Owing to the extent of the deposit, the mine would be valuable if the vein matter had an average richness of two dollars and a half ; but this it does not seem to have. And, indeed, the concentrations will not pay for working in even the cheapest way. The Atlas is an example of a sulphuret mine—one of the many whose working has been attempted in Tuolumne, but never with success. The only way to realize profit from sulphurets is to gather them up from the concentrators and keep them for sale and shipment to San Francisco. The closest, best manager who ever operated in sulphurets in Tuolumne, failed to make it pay, even with the best appliances, a good mine and eight years' experience.

        The Atlas people had neither mind, experience nor skill, consequently they failed. They have, however, a beautiful mill, ornamental, if not useful, containing 10 stamps driven by steam, and having concentrators and other apparatus, making it the best mill in the county.

        Thus far the attempts made to utilize the sulphuret deposits at Tuttletown have been signal failures.

        The Golden Gate mine, a mile south of Sonora, on the bank of Woods' Creek, is the only milling vein that has been largely worked in that vicinity. Formerly the rock carried free gold in considerable quantity, but later the only supply of gold was contained within the iron pyrites ("sulphurets"), which exist to the extent of two to three per cent of the vein matter. Ledge four feet in thickness, ten-stamp mill rather well fitted up, with tramway, concentrators of divers sorts, and much experimental apparatus.

        Having only sulphurets to extract gold from, and they requiring roasting, Mr. H. G. Wetmore, the present Superintendent and part proprietor, erected an excellent reverberatory four-hearth furnace, with a soapstone bottom, and also put up chlorination works. But with all these accessories he found it impossible to make it pay; $70,000 were extracted, to get which $80,000 had to be expended. Last year the mine shut down, to begin again with greater advantages.

        Further down the creek, near Bell's mills, is a very curious deposit of steatite, white, semi-translucent, softening to the aspect of clay, when exposed to the slackening influences of air and moisture. It is several hundred feet wide and a good part of a mile long, and of large depth, having been sunk on to a depth of 80 or 90 feet. This queer deposit contains unlimited amounts of fine looking pyrites, cubic, and of light color and light specific gravity (absence of copper), the whole furnishing a subject of speculation to miners and experts for the last thirty years. At times it has been thought and stated that therein existed vast and inconceivable wealth. A drawback exists in the fact that these sulphurets only assay about two dollars per ton. Aside from this fact, it is truly a bonanza.

        The Hyde mine is an apparently valuable claim, lying upon the land of Moses Hyde, Esq., about six miles distant from Sonora. It is as yet but little improved, the explorations consisting of a tunnel some three hundred feet in length, striking the ledge at a depth of a hundred feet from the surface, and from which drifts have been run upon the vein about one hundred feet. Several holes have been sink upon the top of the vein, one in particular penetrating to the drifts mentioned. The vein is of an average thickness of six feet, and contains rock which assays in places $50 a ton, or more.  A one-stamp Kendall mill has been put up, and was run for awhile with fair results, but now both mine and mill are idle, though the rock put through has yielded, it is said, $35 per ton, without regarding the sulphurets.

Mr. Hyde informs the writer that the average rock in certain of the chutes will assay as high as $100 per ton.

        The best known of the mines at Soulsbyville are the Soulsby, the Platt, the Hobbs & Hall, the Pennsylvania, the Live Oak, the Draper, the Gilson, the Coles & Soulsby, the Wheal Perrin, and the Churchill mines. Of these but two—the Soulsby and Coles & Soulsby claims—are now being worked. Incomparably the greatest of them all, and a mine which would be of importance in any mining region in the world, is the great Soulsby Mine.

        Ben Soulsby, Jr., has the honor of having discovered this famous lead. It happened while the young man was engaged in sheep-herding and prospecting in that vicinity. Locating the lead, it was soon after that Mr. Soulsby disposed of an interest to C. L. Street, Esq., now of Sonora; and the firm of Street & Soulsby worked the mine with good success for a while. Such was the richness of the vein at the surface that in one week sixty-five pounds of gold was extracted. Later in its history it was purchased by B. Davidson, Esq., who sunk the north shaft. Still later, the property was transferred to the English Company which still retains it.

        The operations of the present owners have been conducted with the best judgment and a high degree of prudence. Under the former management of Mr. Richard Johns, a very large sum of money was expended for permanent improvements, everything being in shape for the easy and profitable extraction of ore. The several gentlemen connected with the management of the mine—R. Johns, W. Sharwood, and John Leechman—have evinced remarkable judgment and foresight in their work. Throughout its career the company has been extremely fortunate in its employes, all of whom have been eminent in their various departments.

        The ore from this vein is usually a purple-hued or white quartz, containing free gold to the extent of $100 per ton in some of the richer chutes; together with auriferous pyrites, also notably rich. The vein is nowhere of great thickness, its usual size being about a foot, and occasionally three times that. The country rock is granite; but singularly enough the vein is found inclosed in slate of a very compact texture below the depth of sixty feet.

        The underground works are very extensive, including as they do two shafts, the deeper of which is over 600 feet, and a system of levels for each succeeding hundred feet.

        Repeatedly it has been supposed that the mine was exhausted; but further judicious explorations discovered valuable deposits, and a " boom" again and again resulted. At present there is a report of rich discoveries having been made, and this, it is to be hoped, is true, for the good of Soulsbyville, whose almost sole dependence is this mine.

        The mine is equipped with the best and most complete hoisting works, pumping apparatus, etc., in use in this county. The two shafts, situated at a distance of several hundred feet apart, are each provided with hoisting works, and the pumps of the great size needed. Either steam or water power can be used, at pleasure, for running the various machinery, there being hurdy-gurdy wheels driven by water under a head of 300 feet or so, and in case of drought or accident, three powerful steam-engines stand ready to be attached to the stamps, the pumps, the hoisting reel, and the air compressor. Everything, therefore, is conducted and arranged in the most efficient manner. A great part of the work below ground is done by contract, that system proving the most profitable, both to the owners and the miners.

        As in the case of nearly all of the mining companies of this speculative age, it is impossible to secure the true statements of the yield of this mine. Such being the case, the figures given in most cases being unreliable, it has been deemed best to omit any estimate or guess at the production of nearly every claim. In this connection it is remarked that the total yield of the Soulsby Mine is variously stated at from $600,000 to $3,000,000.

        The Pennsylvania, the Hobbs & Hall, and the Platt mines, all lie to the southward of the Soulsby, and some of them upon the same vein. Although these mines are now idle, and have been so for years, it is represented that they are not exhausted by any means, but that work has ceased from various causes, particularly from the presence of water in quantities too great to be controlled without the erection of pumping apparatus of great cost. It is to be hoped, and expected too, that in time capital may be induced to assist in the work of extracting the decidedly rich rock which is thought to still exist in them, and in their neighbor, the Gilson or Raymond Mine.

        Both the Wheal Perrin and the Gilson claims deserve future attention, inasmuch as promising deposits of valuable sulphuretted ores have been discovered in both of them. In the latter a tunnel 700 feet long was run, years ago, with a shaft 125 feet deep in connection with it, exposing an ore chute eighteen inches thick, a continuation of the same vein on which the Soulsby, Johnson & Bradbury, Pennsylvania and Platt mines are situated. A ten-stamp mill was formerly in operation upon this mine, and it, in times past, has turned out considerable money. The same is true of the neighboring claims between it and the Soulsby.

        Southeast some half mile is the Live Oak mine, embracing 1,500 feet of a ledge of pretty good rock, which at a depth of 80 feet, is a yard wide, paying about $10 per ton in free gold, and in addition, containing a considerable percentage of sulphurets, which assay $440 per ton.

        A mile or so above Soulsbyville is the claim of Coles & Soulsby. Discovered many years ago, and located and relocated many times, it eventually fell into the hands of the present proprietors, Messrs. J. L. Coles and Ben Soulsby. These gentlemen have within a year or two sunk two shafts, connected them by drifts, and explored the mine sufficiently to demonstrate the existence of very valuable ore. The vein exists in pretty hard granite, and contains "horses" to a great extent, near the surface, it being in fact entirely split up and mingled with the country rock. The quartz is hard, of a purple cast, contains a very high proportion of sulphurets of the richest description, besides yielding free gold to an uncommon extent. Certain lots have been worked, which yielded $60 per ton by arastra process. These figures would have been immensely increased had the sulphurets been saved.

        There is no mill on the mine. The pumping and hoisting works, driven by water power, miracles of ingenuity in their way, were built upon the ground by Mr. Soulsby.

        Of the above mentioned claims, work is being done on but one, the Soulsby, where perhaps twenty men are employed, and semi-occasionally a little is done upon the Coles & Soulsby. To an unprejudiced observer it would seem as if a greater degree of activity should take place in that region, there being several claims of known value which are not being worked, besides a number the indications of which promise great wealth.

        Around Summersville little has been doing in quartz for many years, though at one time the village was the center of a considerable business in that line. In former days the Eureka mine was worked with success, its main shaft attaining a depth of 700 feet, but its mill has now fallen, the clang of the stamps has ceased, and with its decay the village too has suffered, until now the place is the acme of quietness.

        Cherokee, formerly celebrated for its rich placers, which supported a large population in the palmy days and later on assumed credit for its neighboring quartz veins, is now nearly deserted. A few Italians and Chinese only inhabit the place and no work is being done upon the veins.

        The Easton claim is situated at Arastraville, where the country rock is granite. There is a shaft 100 feet deep, with 80 feet. of stopes, exposing three distinct veins of first-rate rock, rich in gold-bearing sulphurets and free gold. Much of the mineral is said to assay $85 to $100 per ton. No machinery is in use except a horse-whim. This is the most promising mine in the vicinity, and may be the best new claim in the county. No efforts are being made to develop it, the desire being to sell out; $30,000 is said to have been offered, but $50,000 was demanded.

        The Confidence mine, three miles north of Soulsbyville, was discovered in 1853. Little work was done toward developing it until 1867, when it came into the possession of Holladay, the stage man, who instituted a thriving order of things. The present 40-stamp mill, driven by an engine of sufficient size, was built, with hoisting works complete, and an air compressor for the Burleigh drills. A year was spent in these improvements, when the mine commenced yielding largely, paying the owner half a million dollars net, from a gross yield of $800,000 or so. Thus the Confidence came to occupy the front rank in the list of Tuolumne's quartz mines, being equalled only by the Soulsby in extent and income.

        In 1878 Holladay sold out to Messrs. Davis, Baker and Hamilton, who, employing William Simons as Superintendent, continued work with good results. At present the mine is idle, but it is worked spasmodically, with probably indifferent success.

        The lode has a course N.W. and S.E., is variable in width, averaging may be three feet between the walls, but occasionally rising to fifteen feet. The ore is free milling, containing but little sulphurets, and is worked by the usual battery-and-sluice amalgamation process, with subsequent concentration of the sulphurets. Arastras have been in use to treat the tailings, but with what success has not been stated.

        The greatest depth attained is 800 feet. From the working incline rim six levels, from 400 to 1,800 feet each in length, furnishing the most extensive system of underground workings in the county. The gross output has been something over a million dollars, it is said.

        Up on the North Fork of the Tuolumne River, and in Spring Gulch, are situated a number of important mines. The chief of these are the New Albany, Grizzly, Bonito, Consuelo, Starr King, Spring Gulch, Buchanan, Hunter, and Lewis mines. Most of these have been and still are regarded as valuable. Some have been developed, the New Albany shaft reaching a depth of 800 feet. It has a good ten-stamp mill, and other corresponding improvements, but has never paid. The owners for eight years came up in the handsomest manner to the payment of assessments, but finally gave it up.

        The Grizzly also has a mill (20-stamps, water power), has got down 400 feet, and is said to have a good vein; but is now idle. So, too, are the Bonito and Consuelo; each of which have had a 20-stamp mill, and have expended some money in developing.

        The Starr King is now being worked by its owner, Mr. Leechman, of the Soulsby Mine. It has a five-stamp mill, and is regarded as a fine property. The Spring Gulch Mine, three miles from the New Albany, has been explored about 500 feet deep, the vein being ten feet wide in some places. It has a ten-stamp mill over a mile from the mine, run by water power.

        The Hunter Mine, for a long time owned by W. G. Long, Esq., recently was sold to an Eastern company, who commenced work thereon, but shortly after ceased. What their ultimate action will be is not known.

        The Lewis Brothers have a mine in the " Big Basin," which they have held on to for a long time, working it in a homeopathic sort of way occasionally. Their rock is good. The writer has seen average or under average lots of it that assayed $60 per ton; part of this fine gold, part in the galena and arsenical pyrites along with it. Although these gentlemen cannot be said to have exerted themselves much in improving their property, yet there comes the unavoidable reflection that their course of action has been as useful to the people of the county, and far more honorable in every way than the course which has been followed by Eastern and San Francisco "capitalists" (imaginary) who have so largely "invested" in Tuolumne's mines, but whose line of action has generally been to fleece all who are unwary enough to trust to their honesty. Hence we may conclude that it is better to trust to the sure enterprise of residents, who are honorable, if not wealthy, than to base fictitious hopes upon the promises of speculators whose record, as a usual thing, is that of scheming swindlers.

        Down at Groveland there are one or two locations that have been of note in the past, as well as some newer ones that have been known of late.

        The Mount Jefferson is a sulphuret lead, 20 feet wide between the walls (in places), which has been explored to a depth of 250 feet. It has a steam mill (ten-stamps) with a small chlorination works. It has been worked at various times for several years. Now , a new trial is to be made with a good prospect of success.

        The Mormon Mine has been worked for the last twenty years, and, like the others, is in the slate belt.

        Mr. Ben. Hunter has recently discovered a lead that promises to prove of value. From it he has extracted forty tons of rock which paid him twenty-two dollars per ton. In addition there are sulphurets to a large extent in it. Mr. H. is constructing hoisting works, etc., to properly explore his property.

        The Olsen Lode, lying nearly down to the San Joaquin Valley, possesses perhaps more points of interest than any other claim in this county It is not, by any means, a type of a class, as are the Soulsby, the Spring Gulch, and other mines, for it stands alone in its peculiarities.

        The lode proper is over one hundred feet wide, composed of quartz, talc, mica slate, and other matters. It contains both gold and silver. At a considerable depth a deposit of silver glance has been found. Numerous specimens of metallic silver in the form of wire, or leaf, are to be seen. Its existence has been a subject of wonder and of study. The processes in use at the mill, which is four miles from the mine, are, preliminary crushing, then working in pans, following closely the Comstock system. The mine had for a time the advantage of the scientific attainments and highly practical supervision of S. O. Brown, Esq., who acted as Superintendent, while Mr. J. Neale was Mine Foreman. Latterly the works have come under different management and not much is doing.

        The above short resume of the leading mines of Tuolumne will serve to give an approximate idea of their present standing. It may be said that the outlook at present is not flattering. The fact is that, though present production is small, nearly extinguished, in fact, still there are strong indications of a prospective revival in mining affairs. The speculative age having partly gone by, and mining settled down to the situation demanded by practical experience, the future may, and doubtless will, show increased production. The cheapened cost of labor and supplies will have something to do with the new order of things; new inventions and processes of working will have more. Many leads and veins might be named in this connection upon which great expectations for the coming time may be based; but the subject may be dismissed with the remark, that Tuolumne's future interests in quartz mining are sure to be of as great importance as are those of any similar locality in the State.

Pocket, or Deposit Mining.

        In the early days of mining, some fortunate adventurers, in the course of their prospecting, came at various times upon gold deposits in the hard quartz, which seemed so much at variance with their preconceived ideas, and with the general experience of gravel miners, that the matter was regarded as remarkable. These discoveries, with their workings, were the earliest quartz mines, properly so called, that this section of the country knew. Of course, with the rude machinery then in use, only the very richest quartz—that whose contained gold was estimated by hundreds of dollars per ton—could be extracted and crushed at a profit. Time elapsed, too, before the existence of perfectly barren streaks was recognized, often adjoining the greatest golden deposits. Other veins, it was remarked, were not so rich in any one spot, but the wealth was ascertained to be more thoroughly disseminated therein. After a series of years had elapsed, and after a great expenditure of toil, capital and perseverance had been made, it was clearly seen that the territory possessed two distinct classes of gold-bearing lodes, essentially different in many ways, and remarkably so in their disposition of their auriferous chutes and bodies. These diametrical features at once gave rise to the expressive classification into Milling and Pocket Lodes; the latter of which, from their present prominence and probable permanency, merit and demand description and comment.

        Their geographical location is embraced entirely within the so-called Eastern and Western Mineral Zones, and, therefore, extends from and beyond the Stanislaus River on the north, to and beyond the Tuolumne River on the south, and from the bisecting reef of limestone running northerly and southerly throughout the county, about a dozen miles east and west.

        The representative districts are the neighborhoods of Jamestown, Rawhide Ranch, Tuttletown, Jackass Hill and Robinson's Ferry, on the west, and Sonora, Bald Mountain, Yankee Hill, Five Mile Creek and the Stanislaus River, on the east. As a rule, they oblique across the country rock, which runs northerly and southerly; appear on the crests or ridges of mountains; dip to the northwest, at angles varying from 10° to 80º; are from 4 inches to 3 feet in thickness; have a variable specific gravity, tenacity, opacity and color, and are horizontally attended on either or both walls by a hard or soft material, of a white, yellow or red color, locally termed "dyke," which, in the absence of quartz, fills in the fissures, and thus preserves their forms and dimensions. The ore bodies do not possess regular line or extent, but appear and disappear along the fissures in the form of chimneys or chutes.

        The gold is flat, cubical and sometimes crystalline, and exceedingly free from refractory associations, which accounts for its superior fineness. Mining in its embryotic state was conducted simply as an occupation, without the benefit of experience. The gold on float rock, which, by the agency of the elements, had been deposited in ravines or gulches, was traced to its source, and a pocket was discovered. This was then extracted with zeal, the location abandoned with reluctance, and its conditions, in conjunction with the surroundings, dismissed from the mind. Rarely was the idea of its continuance or reproduction the subject of extended thought.

        It has been customary for the miners during the period of the existence of pocket mining to meet in conference, exchange experience, invite discussion, and ascend the higher planes of reason. And now the license of great results permits a submission of the following truths and visible causes of pockets. A pocket lode in its linear course has many distinct chutes, closely grouped or widely apart, the grand one showing it in its greatest strength and purity. The longer the intermediate space the larger the deposit, because of the superior formative resources. The various causes of deposits seem to be crossings, horses, elbows and splits. A crossing is a fissure filled with clay, dyke or quartz, having a perpendicular, or oblique direction across the lead. A horse is a short subdivision of the lead into alternate parallel strata of quartz and slate. An elbow is an angle, or arc of the lead, tending downward. A split is a complete and wide division of the lead into its matrix and quartz. Of these the first one is the most reliable and valuable, as the line of intersection is supposed by some to make a complete insulation of the electric currents, and, consequently, the deposits recur. This line is the general line of the prospect, and absolutely the one of development. Its direction depends on the dip and trend of the lead and crossing. The pockets form on the main lead at or near the crossing, on either or both sides. But in the latter instance only when the lead is intersected by the crossing. They commence on or near the surface of the lode with a precursory prospect of fine or coarse gold, continuing to or ceasing entirely before reaching them. They are four, eight, sixteen and forty feet apart, a greater depth between denoting a larger find.

        Besides the mineral character of the concomitants, the class of slates is all important. A fine-grained, light-blue slate accompanies a primary cause and a medium deposit, and a heavy, dark blue, metallic slate attends great bonanzas. The indications in the lead are a hardening and softening of the quartz, with a perceptible change of color, and a similar change of the ordinary prospects of the dyke, added to the presence of a vermillion streak of clay, or granulated material. Crystals are also evidence.

        Having done with the cardinal facts concerning crossings, it is well to state that a horse makes gold at one of the three points of its solidification, two of which are on the surface and the third one below. A split makes a pocket on the line of separation. An elbow throws gold below or after the angle or arc. A mine is worked from a shaft or tunnel. The shaft is sunk on and follows the line of prospect, and the tunnel answers a double purpose, in discovery and the hastening of work. A wide diversity of opinion exists respecting the continuance of a pocket or chute, but experience has proven that they depend solely on the continued strength and preservation of the crossing.  Of the different crossings, superiority must be accorded that of quartz. Numerous instances could be cited in both zones, where the chutes continued to considerable depth and gave evidence of permanency, and, therefore, the conclusion is reached that they will become identical with milling chutes. The most intelligent men are perfectly astounded at a view of the internal works of an old mine, so numerous and irregular are the galleries and shafts, and so closely do they fringe the location of the gold. Often has the dispirited and disconsolate miner, after bemoaning his fate, been directed to the pocket by a cave in the wall or roof, or by development of the only virgin ground.

        Nowhere in this State, at the present time, is this kind of mining so fully appreciated as in this county. Nearly all of the old pocket mines thought to be of value are the scenes of vigorous operation, some of the most prominent mines merit especial mention. The Watts Mine, at Robinson's Ferry, is composed of stringers dipping westward towards the mother lode, and cutting the slate, and has yielded largely. On Jackass Hill is located the Boyer, Watts & Madison Mine, which has been worked to a depth of 200 feet, and for ten years contributed handsomely. The Carrington Mine, owned by James Gillis and William Waters, in the same locality, was worked for fifteen years, to a depth of 100 feet. It is from 4 to 6 inches in width, and has yielded $100,000. The Means Mine, adjacent thereto, is a vein from 4 inches to 1 foot in width, has been worked to a depth of 70 feet, and has aggregated $50,000.

        Tuttletown, the Cardinal Mine runs with the slate, is crossed by threads of quartz accompanied by the indicative slate, is developed to a depth of 80 feet, and is from 6 to 24 inches in thickness. Its pockets on the same chute were from 4 to 8 feet from each other, and produced a total of $175,000. The Valparaiso Mine, one mile and a half from Tuttletown, on Jackson's Flat, was operated for a series of years, successfully. Large deposits were taken out, and it still ranks well. The Neubaumer is a branch of the above mine, and has been very rich in free gold and arsenical sulphurets. The Brown & Preston Mine, below Jamestown, has yielded immensely. John H. Neale's mine, at Woods' Crossing, was discovered in 1862, by Mexicans. One pocket amounted to $30,000. It is now being worked.         Saratoga Hill, near Shaw's Flat, contains a number of valuable lodes. Three of these, comprised in a transverse space of 300 feet, and running parallel, in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction, crossed by red and blue clays, are owned by M. B. Harriman, and are now being operated. The deposits have ranged from $3,000 to $30,000. The Carpenter lode, adjoining, owned by F. P. Williams and W. J. Van Ausdall, stands nearly vertical, is being reopened, and has credited large accounts to the Hill.

        Excepting the mines on this hill, the crossings consisted of black metallic slate, quartz and dyke. The Bonanza Mine, owned by Messrs. Divoll and. Bray, is located on Piety Hill, in the City of Sonora. It cuts the slate, and runs northeasterly and southwesterly. It was located in the year 1851, by Chilians, and worked by them in company with Van Praag. Since then it has been worked by various parties, until purchased by the present owners for the sum of $50, in the year 1878. This mine, by virtue of its bold features and. sterling merit, justly stands alone in the world, the grandest representative of its class. It has yielded upwards of a half million dollars, and seems to defy exhaustion, but the company, for prudential reasons, decline to make any statement of its production.

        On the same lode, and also within the city limits, is located the Big Nugget claim, discovered in 1868, by Sexton, and subsequently worked by an English company with great profit. It was relocated in 1871, by Messrs. Divoll and Bray, and in '78 changed hands and became the property of Alonzo Colby. A year ago an enormous pocket was found, and in order to expedite the work, a tunnel was run in from a point below Main street, in Sonora, which now taps the lode at a depth from the surface of 300 feet. The crossings are dyke. It has been operated day and night for over a year, by a large force of men, and its owner anticipates splendid results. The deposits taken out amount to about $13,000. The Keizer Mine, owned by Messrs. Harriman & Keil, on Bald Mountain Range, is a half mile north of Sonora, and east of Wood's Creek. It was discovered in 1854, by Mexicans; was worked to a depth of 90 feet, and the last flour-sack of material taken from the bottom turned out $200. It is from 6 inches to 24 inches in width, has a northerly and southerly course, has large reserves of undeveloped ground, has yielded wonderfully, and promises future great results. In close proximity to this is the Sell Mine, running two points east of north, and cutting the ridge diagonally. It is the property of William Sell, and since its location, in 1850, up to this date, has given forth $200,000. A tunnel taps the mine about 255 feet from the surface, and extends into the hill and along the lead nearly 265 feet, and has exposed 8 different chutes, whose respective pockets have been from $10,000 to $15,000. Its crossings consist of dyke, from 3 feet to 5 feet across, and having a southerly trend. The pockets are found on the north side of these. The quartz contains small quantities of sulphurets of lead and iron. This is a fine property, and is being constantly worked. The Suckerman Lode, a little north and east of these mines, was located in the year 1851. It was worked by Peruvians, on the north side of the ridge, with great success, but was abandoned for a while, and relocated in '63, with Charles Sell as the Superintendent, under the name of " The Sophia." A tunnel strikes it 300 feet under ground, but lacks considerable of being reached by the shafts above. The prospects are good, but the linear exploration has been very meager. It has granite and. dyke crossings, and is thought to have yielded $150,000. It is being worked by J. H. Neale, the present owner. On Bald Mountain proper, 3 miles northeast of Sonora, are situated the Paterson and Turner, Austrian, and Ford lodes. The Paterson and Turner, which is a flat lead, is located and owned by Messrs. E. A. Garrett, Paul Bauli, Antone Violitch and Blass Radovich. These locations yielded collectively about $100,000. The Austrian has a number of chutes, has been worked extensively, and has footed up $80,000. The Ford has two chutes, is opened by shafts to a depth of 150 feet, and has yielded $150,000. Still further northward we find the Fox, Ham and Jersey, Nathaniel Arnold, and Reed mines, all of which are working, and are properties of the first order. In both zones there are hundreds of mines which have thrown pockets of from $200 to $4,000.

Gravel, or Placer Mining.

        The history of gravel mining in Tuolumne is, for its earlier years, the history of the county. Almost the only pursuit of the early inhabitants, all the interest necessarily attaches to that pursuit. Nearly every individual who came into the Southern Mines during the first decade after the discovery of gold came to mine with pan and rocker; each one, whatever may have been his previous condition in life, entering upon the work with the same advantages and chances of success. Nearly every man in this State who came prior to 1860, and many who arrived later, have delved in the placer mines; and many individuals of prominence point back with unmistakeable pride to their share in the labors which gave to California her proud pre-eminence as a land of gold mines, and the celebrity that reaches the world over.

        The placers gave to California a population and a history. Directly upon the dissemination of the welcome news of the finding of gold at Sutter's Fort, the tide of immigration set at once to the foothills of the Sierra, and Tuolumne, among other regions, was entered and prospected.

        It has been seen in the body of this work how scantily these first corners were provided with the means of subsistence; and they were not less ill provided with the means for carrying on even the simple work of separating the gold from the dirt. All such articles as shovels, pans, pick­axes, etc., from an excessive demand, reached an exorbitant price. Many men, unable to procure tools, extemporized the necessary articles from such materials as came to their hands. Milk pans and other dishes were made to serve in place of the present gold pan of pressed iron, seamless and durable. Knives were made to serve instead of picks and shovels, and the ex-soldiers of a mounted regiment who discovered Dragoon Gulch used, it is said, their sabres for the purpose of digging.

        Nevertheless, such was the abundance of the gold, that men, without any of the apparatus which is now considered essential for gravel mining, extracted with ease sums amounting to thousands of dollars in short spaces of time. A discovery of a fortune in a day or a week was of not uncommon occurrence, and innumerable instances are on record where fortunate men took out enough in a few months to make their future lives free from care.

        It would be useless to multiply examples of this sort. The fact seems certain that early in the " fifties " fortunes were at the command of those who would work steadily for them, while it is equally as certain that success depended a great deal on knowing where to work.

        Placer mining has never required the exercise of great skill or previous knowledge, nor the introduction of costly machinery; hence, as a pursuit it has been within the reach of everybody. Still, there is room for the exercise of judgment and the teachings of experience. Much time was spent before the existence of placers, in ground other than the beds of watercourses, was suspected, and when gold was found in elevated places, even the tops of lofty hills, its occurrence could not be accounted for, though subsequent researches have settled that and similar questions.

        It was mentioned that rudely extemporized tools were at first in use in gravel mining. Of course, the inventive genius of the American people could not rest until labor­saving devices had been introduced by means of which a much greater quantity of dirt could be washed. The first efforts of ingenuity gave rise to the cradle, or rocker, a machine which still survives, finding limited use in prospecting, etc. By means of the rocker two men, one shoveling the auriferous dirt, the other sitting beside it and giving it motion with one hand while he poured water upon the fresh dirt from a dipper held in the other, could wash out as much gold as a score of men could do with the former device, the pan. As might be expected from the scarcity of lumber and all other materials, the earliest constructed rockers were somewhat costly objects. Accordingly, we find a certain miner paying one hundred and fifty dollars for one which a Mexican had constructed by hollowing out a section of a tree, and which weighed as many pounds as the purchaser gave dollars for it. Later, when whip-saws were introduced, and a little lumber was produced, these indispensable articles became less costly and difficult to procure.

        The next prominent invention for washing the dirt was the Tom, which consists essentially of a box for the reception of the dirt, from which a short sluice leads away. The necessary water being introduced from a running stream obviates the labor of pouring it upon the dirt from a dipper, and the motion sideways is obviated by providing the sluice down which the gravel is carried, and which admits of the gold settling to the bottom in its passage, where it is retained by riffles, made by inserting strips of wood crosswise of the current.

        Here again was a great saving in labor, the scope of a man's energies, by the aid of the new apparatus, being enlarged several fold. Toms, representing the second great step in gravel mining, remained in use until the great invention of sluices. Until the ditches brought large and constant streams of water, sluices were not practicable, and we have seen at a previous page how and when the great ditches to which the country owes so much, came to be constructed.

        Simultaneously with the introduction of improved labor­saving devices for working placer ground, came the extinction of these rich placers from which the fabulous early yields had been obtained. The rich creek bottoms had been first worked out and then abandoned, to be again and again worked over, until with each succeeding re-working the returns became so scanty as to not repay the labor expended, even at the diminished prices that prevailed. Mormon Creek, whose dirt paid at an average rate of one thousand dollars to each claim of ten feet square, the size fixed upon by the Miners' Union of these diggings, paid nearly half that amount at its second working. And this, in consequence not only of the improved methods of working, was also partly due to the more careful examination of the seams and crevices in the bedrock. Succeeding years have made such examinations of the underlying stratum more and more necessary, until now, when the process of exploring the upper surface of the slate or other rock upon which the gravels rest is carried to the most extreme nicety, and a spot of ground is not now supposed to be exhausted of its store of wealth until every means short of microscopical examinations is brought into use for discovering the infinitesimal remains of the precious metal. But more and more careful working has not kept up the production of gold to its original hight. The permanent falling off of the gold production began, by 1859, to be an assured fact. The placers of Tuolumne had begun to be exhausted, and with the exhaustion of the known beds no new discoveries, extensive enough to replace the worn out placers, were made. None of the known placers have been of great depth; the deepest workings of which mention has been made do not much exceed one hundred feet. Lying exposed to the surface, it is no wonder that their extinction was a matter of a short time. Now the process of placer mining has passed away from Tuolumne. Only a few, mostly Chinese and others content with the meagre results that keep body and soul together, remain laboring in the gravel beds.

        The history of the rich strikes of the past years reads like an Arabian fairy tale. In every issue of the early papers the columns teem with accounts of sudden wealth achieved in this way. Thus we read that a claim at Pine Log paid four hundred dollars to the pan, but, as might be expected, the golden stream did not flow long. In 1853 twenty-eight pounds of gold, mainly in one chunk, were taken out of a claim in Sonora, in one day. This claim, which was owned by eight partners, was situated on Sonora Creek, opposite the printing office. A month later a lucky Mexican found a specimen of the value of two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, at Martinez. H. A. Stearns and partner, near Columbia, tried to sell their claim for thirty dollars, but failing, they continued to work it, taking out, next day, fifty-five ounces of gold. As late as 1854, Messrs. Hopkins and Meek took out from fifty to seventy-five dollars daily to each hand employed, and this continued for months. Their claim was at Campbell's Flat. The " Maine Boys," at Columbia, took out from their claim from ten to twenty ounces each, daily. An Italian at Pine Gulch labored for weeks without making anything, at the end of that time securing a lump of memorable size and value, the largest, perhaps, that was found during that year (1854). It weighed twenty-three pounds eight ounces, and sold for four thousand eight hundred dollars. Nearly at the same time Captain Bradford found a three-pound chunk it his claim at Bensonville. A. twenty-five pound lump, of which fourteen pounds were gold, was taken out in Sonora shortly after; value, about three thousand dollars. At Caldwell's Garden, near Shaw's Flat, four men took out of the Table Mountain lead twenty ounces daily, for a long time. A cart-load of their dirt was worth twenty-five ounces. In December, 1855, some Frenchmen near Garrote secured in one day three thousand five hundred dollars, from two hundred pans of dirt taken from the bed of the river. In the same mouth an immense nugget was taken from the ground directly in front of the present County Hospital in Sonora. It was described as being fourteen inches long and eight or nine inches wide and thick, and its value was set at about thirteen hundred dollars. It was evidently not entirely composed of gold. About this time Strain, of Columbia, found an enormous nugget, whose size was twelve, by ten, by six inches, and whose weight was sixty-six pounds avoirdupois ! The value of the find was estimated at eight thousand dollars, and the lucky possessor sold it for seven thousand four hundred and thirty-eight dollars, after breaking off chunks to give to his friends as presents. In 1858 Robinson & Co., at American Camp, found a two thousand-dollar nugget. One year later, Virgin & Co., near Columbia, found a lump of pure gold, which weighed four hundred and fifty-one ounces and sold for six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars.

        These brief notes will show to some extent the munificent rewards that miners have met in these mines, which are now so worn out and exhausted. Nothing like an accurate account of the great finds can be attempted, however, for probably not one-half of the notable finds were ever reported at all, for obvious reasons.

        Here follows an announcement of some of the more notable finds made previous to 1860. It is copied from Bancroft's Mining Handbook, and is not in any way complete, being gathered from the files of the Alta California for the years denoted. As far as it goes, it may be presumed to be reliable. It will be seen to make no mention of the gigantic mass of quartz and gold which was found at Holden's Gardens in 1850, and which yielded thirty thousand dollars, and the truth of the report of which rests upon the editor of the Sonora Herald.

1850.

23 lbs., Woods' Diggings          February 20th

5 lbs., near Sonora                   March 6th

51 oz., Sonora                         April 2d

23 lbs. 2 oz., Sonora                May 14th

10 lbs. 11 oz., Sonora              May 14th

18 lbs., Sonora                        June 7th

4 lbs. 4 oz., Jamestown.           April 11th

13 lbs., Sonora.                       October 14th

1851.

28 lbs. 4 oz., Sonora               October 5th

24 lbs., Sonora.                      October 5th

23 lbs. 6 oz., near Sonora       October 5th

69 oz., Wood's Creek            December 1st

1852.

$90, Sonora                            January 6th

12 oz., Sonora                        January 6th

$1100, Sonora                        January 10th

$900, Sonora                         January 10th

$80, Sonora                           January 10th

26 oz., Shaw's Flat                 August 15th

116 oz., Shaw's Flat.              November 23d

1853.

29 oz., near Sonora                January 18th

20 lbs. 7 oz., near Sonora       February 19th

$1500, near Sonora                February 21st

9 oz., near Sonora                  February 24th

7 lbs., near Sonora                 February 25th

69 oz., near Columbia            February 26th

7 oz., near Sonora                 March 4th

116 oz., Columbia                 May 2d

24 oz., Columbia                   May 2d

18 oz., Columbia                   May 13th

15 oz., Columbia                   May 13th

11 oz., Columbia                   May 13th

9 lbs., Indian Gulch                May 16th

36 oz., Yankee Hill                June 5th

12 oz., Shaw's Flat                June 12th

4 oz., Shaw's Flat                  June 13th

30 oz., Sonora                      June 29th

71 oz., Sonora                      June 29th

7 lbs. 8 oz., Indian Gulch       --------  

1854.

11½ oz., Sonora           February 11th

27 lbs., Columbia         March 23d

1 lb., Jamestown          June  —

$400, Springfield          June ―

2 lbs , near Columbia   June ―

16½ lbs., Sonora.        July ―

72 lbs., near Columbia  September ―

17 lbs., Sonora             November ―

1855.

30 lbs., near Sonora     January ―
 

1858.

41 oz., Columbia          May ―

13 oz., Columbia          May ―

11 oz., Saw Mill Flat    May ―

47 oz., Columbia          July ―

15 oz., Columbia         September ―

33½ lbs., Columbia     September ―

33 oz., Columbia         September ―

        In the portion of this article which treats of the origin of gold, it has been said that originally it was contained in the veins of quartz which intersected the slate which has now vanished, worn away by the action of the running streams. This statement deserves more extended treatment than has been accorded to it.

        To trace the descent of a piece of gold from the time of its formation, or the aggregation of its different molecules, down to the time when it was found in this age by the hardy miner, is an extremely interesting topic, and one which it may be said has never been dealt with in its fullest details in the light of the latest discoveries in geological science. Let us then, since the topic is in a fair way to be satisfactorily settled, be among the first to adopt (for the time) the theories regarding, first, the origin and dispensation of gold in the slate crust of the earth, and second, those well-attested geological facts which relate to the gradual wearing away of thousands of feet of those slates with their contained quartz veins, and see if a reasonable cause may not be found for the existence of placer gold within the sands of the streams, as well as that which is found upon high elevations.

        We may accept as a fact the sometime existence of a plain, where now the Sierra rises and where the foothills cluster about the mountains' base. At that time thousands of feet of slate strata lay horizontally upon each other, all doubtless containing numerous veins of quartz, probably some barren, but many containing gold which was brought to them, at the time of their formation, by the agencies of chemical affinity, solution and heat. We can imagine nothing less than that after these slate deposits were formed numerous fissures of greater or less depth were formed in them, much as cracks are formed in clay soils on the water drying out. These fissures, we may further imagine, were filled in the course of time with liquids of various sorts, which contained chemical compounds, and which were excessively hot—perhaps far hotter than boiling water, for it is well known that, under pressure, water can be heated even red-hot. These conditions make it possible, as we see from the extracts from Professor Le Conte's book, for quartz veins to be so formed; and indeed they could hardly help forming if all these conditions, or even part of them, were complied with. So, we may agree, the quartz veins came to exist. Returning now to the time when the slates began to wear away, we can easily imagine that as this wearing process went on, the rivers that then existed would carry the fragments (mostly small and rounded) to the lower lands and deposit them there. This they did; for there is the evidence of many localities to prove the existence of gold-bearing gravels, hundreds of feet in thickness, containing skeletons of animals, and fossil plants, which were swept down the river at the time when the gravel, also, was being carried downward. These rivers evidently ran into lakes, for we find the particles of gravel sized by the settling action of the still waters. Consequently we may regard the slates, which were originally deposited from water, as being for the second time so deposited, but in a modified form.

        We have now got as far as the lake deposits of gold-bearing gravel. These deposits were, as might be expected, comparatively poor in gold, because the winnowing action of the water had not been such as to remove the vast bulk of gravel, which consequently served to dilute the mass, so to speak, and render it less rich than those portions of gravel which in other periods of the earth's history have passed down irregular and rapid streams, leaving a portion of the worthless rock, together with the heaviest of the gold particles, settled into crevices and hollows in the bed of the stream.

        In the deposits, all vastly ancient, of gravels of this description in lakes, not many are left in Tuolumne; but in Nevada and Butte Counties, with their neighbors to the north of us, miles and miles still remain, and give rise to the enormous hydraulic mining interest, with its attendant " slickens " evil. Those gravels are not rich; a dozen cents from each cubic yard usually pays the miner, because by the powerful streams of water which are directed against the high banks, a vast amount of earth can be washed. A dollar per yard, or perhaps two dollars, is about the richest yield of such gravels. In former days a considerable amount of hydraulic mining was done at Saw Mill Flat, near Columbia, and even at this day a few known banks still exist to be worked, and quite probably other deposits may yet be found, even where their existence is at present entirely unsuspected.

        The formation of these beds, which are the most ancient placers, of course preceded the formation of the late river beds. At the time that they were forming, and for a long time subsequent, the country presented an aspect far different to that which it bears at present. The rivers ran courses entirely distinct from those at present, and lakes existed whose extent is not known, but must have been very great.

        Following the deposition of the first auriferous gravels came a time when great changes took place. Extensive upheavals and subsidences took place, rivers ran with full banks across or at right angles to the former channels, and the rains became excessive—all these changes leading to the washing away, in part, of the previously formed gravel beds, and the diffusion of their constituents over other areas, perhaps far removed from their former sites. The rivers that did this work ran over irregular beds, which they wore away piecemeal, dropping into their cavities in limestone or in slate, the heavier particles which they had removed from their resting places in the higher altitudes. These particles, mostly broken from the slate, but some of it common quartz sand, held among it a portion of gold in greater or less quantity, which also became entangled in the crevices, or lost in the sand or pebbles of the bottom of the stream, there to remain until succeeding freshets

had removed it again and again from its place, or until the tireless miner's hand had plucked it up.

        It is not likely that more than an extremely small percentage of all the gold staid upon the bottom of the river in the immediate vicinity of the beds from which it was washed. Probably not one hundredth part of the entire wealth of the veins which had been worn down ever remained at points now accessible to man.         Doubtless the vastly greater portion, in particles of exceedingly small size, passed downward as "float" gold, only finding a resting place in the comparatively level reaches in the lower course of the stream, or perhaps reaching the ocean itself. By far the greater portion of the gold as it exists in most quartz veins (milling veins) is in particles too small to be seen by the naked eye, and which float in water under ordinary circumstances. This fact, coupled with the additional one of the vast preponderance of milling veins over those in which the gold is in comparatively large pieces, shows conclusively that by far the greater part of the metal must have escaped. Undoubtedly all of the placer gold, properly so called, came from pocket veins. Milling veins could have had no part in the supply of the modern placers, though they probably supplied a large part of the gold in the ancient beds. This winnowing and sizing action of the water, then, we may conclude, has cost to mankind the whole of the minute particles of gold contained in the enormous slate strata which formerly rested. upon what is now the surface of Tuolumne.

        The consideration relating to the dispersion of the finer particles of gold will probably be accepted without question. At any rate it does not affect the present race of men whether the gold be buried beneath many feet of strata in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, or whether it has found some other abiding place. In any case, nothing short of great geological changes can ever bring it to light again, though it is by no means certain that such changes will not take place, upheaving great sections of rock, which, if in an elevated situation, will be again washed away by the water, and again the gold may be winnowed out to appear in future placers, to be utilized by the exertions of future races of gold-seekers.

        This topic, though interesting, must give way to the more practical one of what placers still remain. As remarked, the washing away of the surface to a great depth has been so general in Tuolumne that it is useless to look for the existence of ancient gravels in situations which would have rendered them exposed to the running streams. But it happens that portions of the surface of this region have been so circumstanced as to be entirely protected from the tearing down influences of the water. These portions are covered by volcanic products. These products—basaltic lava in one case, a light pumice stone or breccia in the other cases—overlie a portion of the country, and obviously have preserved the ground on which they rest. In the eastern portion of the county, about Soulsbyville and other places, these breccia deposits appear on the crests of hills, or often crop out at the sides of hills, presenting a palisaded appearance. This arises from the very large tracts having been covered by the outflow, which, after being deposited, (presumably upon auriferous gravels, as there is no evidence that the matters beneath were of any but slaty origin), was worn away in places, valleys and cañons being formed and the lava upon the hills which remained being left intact.

        It is in the gravels underlying the breccia that future discoveries of gold-bearing matters may be expected. In times past such discoveries have been hinted at; but, excepting near Soulsbyville, no systematic attempt has been made to explore the ground. Probably in no case will those deposits be found very rich unless some riverbed be met with, which itself is not very probable.

        From a cursory view of the circumstances, it would appear that the only probability of the existence of large deposits of gold-bearing gravel is, as pointed out above, beneath the lava deposits; and those may well be worth exploring in the localities mentioned, while the utmost certainty exists that there is gold in the ancient river channels beneath Table Mountain, which we will now proceed to discuss.

        The existence of river gravel beneath the basaltic lava was unsuspected until the year 1855, when it was discovered at the bottom of a shaft which was being sunk at Caldwell's Garden, near Shaw's Flat. At this point, the lava which had formerly covered it had been denuded and its traces lost, but the underlying gravel had remained, and was found to yield gold in immense quantities. Miners at once set to work to follow the course of the newly found lead, which ran under the basaltic formation further to the west. Great interest was felt in the new discoveries; all the available ground was staked off, and many shafts were sunk, at a place which was given the name of " Whim Town," from the large number of whims there set up to facilitate working those shafts. The lead first found is known to have been one of the richest deposits of gold-bearing gravel ever found in California. First raising the golden sands to the surface, spending in that manner the Summer months, the fortunate finders, when water became plenty in the ensuing Autumn, washed their great piles of rich dirt, taking thence gold to the amount of five, ten or more pounds daily, the aggregate yield of the several claims being sixty or seventy pounds each day.

        Mr. Caldwell took out of his claim, it is supposed, over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and after its sale to other parties, a like sum was realized. The Aiken claim was scarcely less rich, producing two hundred and seventeen thousand. The Sidewiper produced sixty or seventy thousand, and the Baxter hardly less, while the Jackson and Columbia claims produced immensely, also.

        The gold was in every case found imbedded in the sand and gravel, as evenly distributed as happens in the modern rivers; and indeed presents a striking likeness in every respect to those rivers which have yielded largely, as the Tuolumne, Stanislaus, etc. The richest gravel was, as might be expected, found near the bedrock, which generally consists of slate. Rich spots were found in cavities, which yielded many pounds of gold.

        In the course of years many tunnels and inclines were run to tap the channels, which were soon found to exist in great length. For several miles on either side of the mountain these tunnels recur at short intervals. A gigantic amount of labor has been expended on the work, but with disproportionately small results. Although some of the companies who have operated therein have reaped a plentiful harvest, more there were who got nothing for their pains. The chief reason seems to have been the little understanding that men had at the beginning, of the direction which the gravel leads took; the small means possessed. by the individuals who composed those companies, there often being but two or three, whose work was necessarily long and expensive. Added to these facts, the influx of water from the highly permeable stratum of gravel was so great as to effectually check further operations in many claims. Gradually work was given up all along the line, until now very few are occupied in developments, the numerous works falling to decay.

        It is not to be inferred that they are permanently abandoned, however; within a few years a noticeable revival in interest concerning the leads has taken place, and although little progress has as yet been made beyond the formation of new companies and the issuing of prospectuses, there is a bright prospect for future work, which is almost sure to pay. Arrangements have been made to consolidate the old claims into properties which can be more conveniently handled and worked. The old tunnels low down on the lead are to be utilized to drain the ground, and work is to be carried on systematically. Among the great difficulties that have been met with was the difficulty of supporting the immense mass of superincumbent sandstone, "pipe­clay " and basalt, which, mostly loose in texture, threatened to crush the supports of the roofs of galleries and immense vacant spaces from which the gravel has been removed; and, in fact, serious accidents have occurred, causing death in several instances. These drawbacks are expected to be met in an efficient manner.

        Among the new companies which propose to themselves the working of these concealed placers, the Tuolumne Table Mountain Gold Mining Company attracts the largest share of attention, controlling, as it does, the ground upon which the best known of the older claims were situated. For one hundred thousand dollars these four mines, the Empire, Hidden Treasure, Bedrock Blue Gravel and Caldwell, have been purchased. The old locations combined in these are the American, Obar, Lager Beer, Independent, Virginia, Nelson, Gold Hunter, Jim Fair, Aiken, Baxter, Captain Mann, Peck & Davis, Fillmore and others, many of which have produced large sums in former years, and from which greater results may be expected. Possessing every facility for working, such as draining tunnels at various points, a permanent water supply from the ditch of the Tuolumne County Water Company, the new organization confidently expect rich results.

        In addition to the proposed workings in Table Mountain proper, the company propose to drain the basin of Shaw's Flat, and enable certain untouched ground that still remains therein to be worked. This project appears very feasible, as it is well remembered that the locality was one of the richest in all the Southern Mines, but which, for want of drainage, could not be fully prospected and worked. Several miles, they say, could be thus reworked with profit, as the new system of drainage would enable explorations to go on at a depth of several hundred feet.

        As has often been said, a great length of these auriferous channels exists in Tuolumne, the extent of them having been estimated by some at one hundred miles, of which not more than a tenth have so far been prospected. There seems to be no reason why the vicinity of Shaw's Flat should afford richer placers than any other section of the concealed river beds; and the probability certainly is that it is not richer there than at other points, it only happening that its riches were more easily available. A. portion of the work of the next century will doubtless be in unearthing such deposits and in realizing the wealth which is stored within them. This can be done more easily at present than in the past, inasmuch as the diminished prices of labor and materials permit tunnels to be run and other necessary works to be carried to completion at half the cost which attended them in former times, and the future years will doubtless see a still further proportionate elimination of expense in such works.

        Much remains to be written concerning the placer mining of Tuolumne, but the narrow limits to which this article can extend forbid further mention of the sources from which further wealth may be expected to be derived. Certainly it is not right to regard the mining interest of the section as exhausted. No intelligent observer can so conclude. On the contrary, much work will yet be done upon the placer claims, with good results. A plan to drain the limestone plateau between Columbia and Shaw's Flat has been mooted, but whether it will be carried out remains for the future to determine. The probabilities are that in case a tunnel were run from a low point on the Stanislaus River, beneath the limestone; so as to intercept the sources of the water which is so abundant beneath the surface of the flat, not sufficient gold could be extracted to repay the necessarily enormous expenses of such a work, for although the metal has been abundant in the crevices at the top, yet it must be remembered that as it was deposited therein by waters flowing over the surface, but small chance exists of its having penetrated to a depth much greater than at present explored. It may happen, however, that some localities in the limestone, small in extent and situated in considerable depressions, may yet be found where the gold exists in quantities almost unheard of. Such a discovery becomes more probable as the lower depths are reached.

        The above observations on the geology and mining of Tuolumne embrace all that it is deemed advisable to include within the present work. Most of the facts stated are matters of common knowledge, but the generalizations and deductions therefrom have not before been in print. It has not been the object of the writer to do more than to give utterance to a few pregnant facts which would seem to him to be of some value to whoever may have interest in mining affairs in Tuolumne; and if anything therein sets the sagacious mind to thinking and produces good results, the exertions of the compiler will be abundantly repaid.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler