Resources of the Pacific Slope

Front matter

s Oat tabi re a Pref earsreten Tor Wl aig Fle of!

Rites tbe it a oe whee i I] ec es ae ill 2S Hf eS

B é| ic =I ; ‘Bis | ip | ig Sy Sy) , see | ‘.

Section I. General Condition Of The Mining Interest

The information and statistics relative to the gold mines of California were collected between the 17th May and the 25th July, but some interesting changes have occurred since the tour of inquiry was made, and the facts, when ascertained, have been mentioned. Many of the figures and data could be obtained only from the mine owners, who may sometimes have misrepresented the character and yield of their claims in a favorable light for the purpose of selling,-or in an unfavorable light for the purpose of misleading the assessor and tax-collector. It is believed, however, that the statements as made are generally true, and it is hoped that, taken together, they will be found to be the fullest and most correct. collection of important facts ever made relative to gold mining.

The general condition of gold mining in California is that of decline. The amount of production becomes smaller every year, but the decrease is confined

chiefly to the placer yield. In quartz more work is being done; it is being done better than ever before, and there are more mines in successful operation. ‘The business is flourishing and improving, with a fair prospect of continuous increase ; and the success of many of the ‘mines is most brilliant.

In 1864 Professor Ashburner wrote a report on the Mariposa estate, and in it he made the following general remarks :

In 1858 there were upwards of 280 quartz mills in California, each one of which was supplied with quartz from one or more veins. The number of stamps in these mills was 2,610, and the total cost of the whole mill property of this nature in the State exceeded $3,000,000. In the summer of 1861, while I was attached to the geological survey, I made a careful and thorough examination of all the quartz mills and mines of the State, and could only find between 40 and 50 in successful operation, several of which were at that time leading a very precarious existence. ;

' Many of those old enterprises have not yet become, and never will become, profitable; but of the quartz mills built within the last four or five years, the successful proportion is much larger than before 1860. No business offers greater facilities to ignorance and folly for losmg money; and, unfortunately, most of those who engaged in it had no experience and were led by their presumption into gross blunders in both mining and milling.

The greatest common blunder in quartz mining, and the most common error in early times as well as in our own day, has been that of erecting a mill before the vein was well opened and its capacity to yield a large supply of good rock established. 'The commission of this blunder is proof conclusive of the utter incompetency of its author to have charge of any important mining enterprise. If there were any possibility that it should in some cases lead ‘to considerable profit, there might be an excuse for it, but there isnone, It never pays. All the chances, including that of utter failure, are against it.

The next blunder was that the difference between a pocket vein and a charge vein was not understood, and the existence of rich specimens was considered proof of the high value of a mine, whereas among experienced quartz miners it excites their suspicions and distrust. Nine-tenths of the lodes which yield rich specimens do not pay for milling. West Point, in Calaveras, and Bald Mountain, in Tuolumne, the richest pocket districts of the State, are not to be compared for yield with Sutter creek or the Sierra Buttes, where there is se: wreely a passable specimen ina thousand tons. 6 ; <j meio - The next error was that nothing was known of pay chimneys, and if ' £0 artz was found in one place, it was presumed that the whole mine was « some cases the pay chimney was near the end of a cl which it dipped not far from the surface, leaving the mill without rock. In other cases the miner had his pay chimney in his own claim, but he did not know enough to follow it, and he worked straight down into barren rock, while there was an_abundant supply of good quartz higher up.

Another error was that of ‘sinking when nothing was found at the surface; a policy that may do in mining for other metals , but is very risky in gold. If the croppings are barren along a considerable distance, deep | sinkings w ill rarely pay; but if the vein does not crop out, the only way to-examine it may be by a shaft.

Much rock has been crushed without examination and without any proper selection.

Tn the mortars it is a common mistake to use too much quicksilver and too much water.

Tt has not been customary to make assays regularly of the tailings, so as to

know what was passing off. _ The mine owners, in a large proportion of the cases, have not resided at the mines, and have not made a ‘study of the business; and no occupation requires personal supervision and thorough knowledge on the part of the owner more than minin

These blunders are gradually being corrected, and if they were not still quite common the quartz mines of California would yield nearly twice as much as they do. The business will never be established upon a proper basis until the superintendents as a class are well-educated chemists and mining and mechanical enginéers, and the mine owners frequent visitors, if not regular residents, at the mines.

In placer mining there is not room formuch improvement. All the processes are simpler, and the ‘work has generally been done well.

The southern mines—that is, in the counties of Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Mariposa—have nearly exhausted their placers. They had few deep gravel deposits, and in all four there has not been one large hydraulic claim such as abound north of El Dorado. Placer, Yuba, Nevada, Sierra, and Plumas are more prosperous than the counties further south , mainly because of their extensive beds of auriferous gravel more than a hundred feet deep.

Tue Act or JULY 26, 1866.—Few applications have been made for the purchase of quartz mines or of agricultural lands in the mineral districts, under the act of July 26, 1866, “ granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over

the ublic lands, and for other 7 purposes.”

e farmers of the mining districts have long been anxious to get titles, but he value of their possessions has decreased considerably of late, and many of them do not feel able to pay for the expense of a survey. They are required to pay not the survey of their respective farms alone, but for the survey of all the

agricultural land in the whole township in which they are situated, and in-some ¢ this expense may be $400. If several unite, the cost is less to each; but hole expense comes upon the first application, whether made by one or _ After the survey has once been made, applicants have no expense save rice of the land and a few small incidentals. Previous to the first of June ve farmers in Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties had expressed a desire

nts, and all would undoubtedly have taken them if the survey had

1 the hig 8 The public sentiment of the State is angaienentoly in favor — of arts 1 mines are not so expensive as thone of agricultural itis no aid the oot survey the whole township for a mine claim, ti the public s | eeepc the ciaims on public lands are not taxed, and that those which have been granted by the government are taxed, is a strong objection. The tax in the mining counties varies from three to four and a half per cent. annually, and that is a serious consideration with. many.

The revenue law of California says :

All property, of every kind and nature whatever, within this State shall be subject to taxation, except * mining claims. (Hittell’s General Laws, article 6298.)

A supplementary act says:

All provisions of law exempting mining claims from taxation are hereby repealed so far as they apply to lands or mines in the condition of private property, and granted as such by the Spanish or Mexican government,.or the government of the United States, or of this State. ( The same, article 6265. Instructions under the act of July 26, 1866.)

The instructions issued by the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the surveyor general of California, and by him to his deputies, are worthy of bein placed within their reach, and will be found in the appendix. __ |

Surveys.—Up to the 10th of October, 1867, eleven surveys, made under applications for patents of lode mines, have been received at the United States surveyor general’s office in San Francisco. These eleven are the Penon Blanco, Virginia, Jones, Potts, and Oakes & Reese, (these two last. adjoin, and may be considered as: parts of the same mine, though on different veins,) in Mariposa county; the Trio, McCann, Arbona, Hitchcock, and Grey Eagle, in Tuolumne county ; andthe Kelsey, in Eldorado county. Applications forsurveys for patents have been made in many other cases, probably fifty, at least, and notices of the applications have been advertised in the newspapers in the mining counties, but the surveys have not yet reached the surveyor general.

The State has been divided into nine districts, with a deputy surveyor in each. The following are the districts : |

First district —Del Norte, Klamath, and Humboldt counties.

Second district—Siskiyou, Shasta, and Trinity counties.

Third district-—Plumas, Butte, and Sierra.

Fourth district—Yuba and Nevada.

Fifth district—Placer, El Dorado, and Sacramento, .

Sixth district—Amador. 7

Seventh district.—Alpine, Mono, and Inyo.

Eighth district—Tuolumne, Mariposa, Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno, and Calaveras. . | |

Ninth district—Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kern, San Diego, and Tulare. |

Section II. The Mother Lode

The mother lode is in many respects the most remarkable metalliferous vein in the world. Others have produced and are producing more, but no other has been traced so far, has so many peculiar features, has exercised so much influence on the topography of the country about it, or has been worked with a profit in so _ many places. The great argentiferous lodes of Mexico and South America, the most productive of precious metal: of all known in history, can be followed not more than six or eight miles; while this Californian vein is distinctly traceable _ on the surface from Mariposa to the town of Amador, a distance of more URSE AN Dir.—The general course of the vein is very nearly nc rth be more precise it isnorth 40° west. If astraight

D

< jn ; sa on the map from Mariposa to Amador, the mother lode will be in several places two or three miles distant from the line, but usually within half a mile of it.

The dip is always to the eastward, and usually at an angle of 45° or 50° to - the horizon.

CHARACTER OF THE GOLD.—The gold is generally in fine particles, and is distributed evenly through a large portion of the lode in the pay chimneys, and there is very little of the rock entirely without gold. The sulphurets are not very ‘abundant nor very rich, and when found they consist almost exclusively of pyrites of iron and copper, without those mixtures of lead, arsenic, antimony, and zine which interfere with amalgamation seriously in some other lodes. The quartz of the mother lode is usually hard and white; and in most of the pay chutes near one wall or the other, ribbon rock, or rock with numereus black seams lying parallel with the wall, is found. In some mines , especially at the Raw Hide, the quartz is colored green with carbonate of copper ; and the same color, thongh not so strong, is observed in portions of the Princeton mine.

Wrotne.—tThe width varies from a foot to thirty feet; that is, the main vein as worked ; but it is accompanied by branches or companion veins, so that the total width of vein matter is sometimes nearly a hundred feet. In some places these side veins are known to be branches separated at the surface from the main vein by “horses ;” in others they are different in material and do not unite at the deepest workings. ‘The most remarkable side veins are those of talcose slate, which in some places can be traced for miles. ‘They are from two to twenty feet wide, and are rich in gold. We do not find, in our books, mention of any similar auriferous deposit in other countries; but in California a number of them have been found, remote from the mother lode as well as near it.

_ South of Maxwell’s creek is a parallel talcose vein, on the west side of the main mother lode, known as the Adelaide, which name was given to it by Mr. J... Johnson. The same name has been given by mistake in Tuolumne county to a companion talcose vein on the east side of the main lode. There is no reason that the two are the same vein, or fur extending the name of one to the other.

_ Pay Cummeys.—The pay chimneys are usually lar ee and ioulas, and are either vertical or have a slight dip to the north.

In the companion taleose veins the pay chimneys are not distinctly marked, nor are the character and limit of the lode well defined.

HILts anD Hottows.—The streams seem to have made their beds in places where the mother lode is split up into a number of branches, as at the Mercede, Maxwell’s creek, ‘Tuolumne, Stanislaus, and Mokelumne rivers; while in those ane where the lode is wide and solid there are high hills, as at Penon Blanco,

Tree, Whiskey Hill, Quartz Mountain, and Carson Hill. The richest part of the vein was on the top. of Carson Hill, and next to that in richness was Pine Tree Hill. The Hayward, the Oneida, and the Keystone are in valleys. The

Golden Rule and the mines at Angels are neither on hill nor in hollow, and are

* Nous rich. v

or class of quartz mines in California is so poor in specimens as those r lode, nor, with two or three exceptions, are there any others in d is so regularly distributed through the pay chutes. $ OF THE Lopr.—The chief peculiarities of the mother lode are great thickness, its uniform character, the near proximity of , of which at least one is usually talcose, and the richness iT aay to questions about the chief distinguishing fone the miners engaged in working various mines gave v it wa oa

Wish. .

ere boulder branch. The former is usually on the west side; the latter has the most curves. ‘Ihe lode is richest where the two meet. Another says the mother lode is a series of branches, sometimes a dozen in number, covering a width that varies from 500 to 3,000 feet, with a greenstone porphyry wall on the east, and dioritic porphyry wall on the west.

Isir X 'issurE Vetn?—The question whether the mother lode is a gash or a fissure vein has little practical importance. Such an inquiry isserviceablein regard to deposits the character of which is doubtful ; but we already know that in regard: to length, uniformity of veinstone, continuity in depth, and number of pay chutes, few fissure veins exceed this. Professor Ashburner, in a report made on the Pine Tree and Josephine mines, in May, 1864, expressed an opinion that the “ great majority” of the auriferous quartz lodes of California are gash veins; and he implies that the Pine Tree, which is a part of the mother lode, belongs to that class. Whitney, in his “ Metallic Wealth of the United States,” says:

True fissure veins are continuous in depth, and their metalliferous contents have not been found to be exhausted or to have sensibly and permanently decreased at any depth which has yet been obtained by mining.

Segregated and gash veins, aud the irregular deposits of ore not included under the head of veins, and not occurring in masses as part of the formation, cannot be depended upon as persistent, and they generally thin ont and disappear at a not inconsiderable depth; at the same time they are often richer for a certain distance, and contain larger accumulations of ore than true veins, so that they may be worked for a considerable time with greater profit than these, although not to be considered as of the same permanent value. fhe

In a report on the Princeton mine made by Professor Blake, in December, 1864, he said:

The identification of the Princeton as a fissure vein leads us to the question whether all

the gold veins of the Sierra Nevada and other gold districts of similar formation are not also of fissure origin, rather than formed by metamorphism from materials pre-existing in the strata. It certainly is not essential to a fissure vein that it should cut across the strata of a country. In a region of regularly stratified slates, the line of least resistance to a breaking force is certainly the line or plane rather of the stratification. In that line or plane the rocky crust may be most readily split, and hence it is, I believe, that most of our veins are found conforming to the stratification. Professor Tuomey, in his report on the geology of South Carolina, describing the gold-bearing veins of that State, mentions several that for a part of their course follow the bedding of the rocks, and in other places cut across the bedding. I have observed similar conditions at various places in California, and I am daily more and more inclined to the view that gold veins are the results of emanations from great depths below, which, ascending through rifts and fissures of the rocks; were condensed or deposited upon the walls. ;

Cras 1x Marreosa.—The following is a list of the claims on the mother lode, beginning at the mother lode and going northward: |

The Crown Lead, 4,500 feet on the mother lode, besides claims on two parallel lodes. Not at work. Noticed elsewhere.

The Virginia, 2,500 fect, crops out largely. A tunnel 160 feet long strikes the vein at a depth of 100 feet. Several shallow shafts have been sunk. Some good quartz has been found, but no work is being done now. ‘There is no mill.

~The Pyles, 1,200 feet; no work done. — | | _ The Mary Harrison has a mill, and is at work. |

The Clayton, 3,000 feet. ogee .

The Louisa, 3,000 feet, is being opened and explored. One shaft is down 130 © feet, and another is being sunk to the same depth, and a third, commenced on alower level, is down 90 feet. A tunnel started near the level of Maxwell’s _ creck, strikes the bottom of the 90 foot shaft. About 2,000 tons of ore have been taken out, and have been crushed at the mill of the Maxwell Creek Mining Company, yielding $8 or $9 per ton. The mother is split up here into On the Margaret, 3,000 feet, no work has been done. In this clai ode lit: a number of narrow branches, at least at and nea:

“up into : Ww br parates it from the Louisa

WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. tt,

The Pumpkin, 3,000 feet, is not doing anything. Several shafts have been sunk, and some rock taken from it seven or eight years ago yielded $40 per ton.

The Nonsuch, 1,400 feet, is lying idle. |

Parallel with and ‘opposite to the Nonsuch, 300 feet distant to the eastward, on a talcose slate vein, is the Hidely and Cunningham mine. A four-stamp mill commenced running last spring.

On the King Solomon, 3,000 feet, no work is doing.

The Yosemite, 3,000 feet, has a tunnel of exploration, bué no mill, and is not at work.

The Peiion Blanco, 6,000 feet long, is being explored by a tunnel running . 285 feet on the vein from the northwest side of the hill, and by a cross-tunnel * from the east side of the hill. Eight men are at work, and $6,000 or $8,000 have been spent on the claim. The name is Spanish, means “ large white rock,” and was suggested by the immense croppings of white quartz on “the top of the 4 high hill, which is one of the most prominent land-marks in the western part of Mariposa county.

The Murphy, feet, has done nothing.

‘The McAlpin, 1,200 feet, was worked 10 years, first with an arrastra, and afterwards with an cight-stamp. The lode is here 25 feet wide. A tunnel strikes the vein 400 feet below the surface, and a shaft rans down 160 feet from the tunnel. McAlpin sold out in 1864, and left the State, taking with him, if rumor is right, $75,000 obtained net from the mine. Since he left the mine has not paid, and the mill is now standing idle. Ten or 15 feet eastward from the main lode, and parallel with it, is a companion vein, which has been worked to -some extent, and is supposed by some miners to be richer than the main lode. The mill is driven by water supplied by the Golden Rock Water Company.

CLAiMs IN TvotumNe.—The following claims are now lying idle or only partially worked. ‘Those marked * are idle; those upon which work is being done are noticed:

The King Philip*; the Newhall,* 3,000 feet; the Rhodes,* 3,000 feet; Woodworth,* 3,000 feet; Wheeler,* 7,500 feet; Munn*; Wotcott and Rocco*; the Culbertson,* extending across the Tuolumne river; here comes a tract* of 1,200 feet in dispute; the Kelly,* 4,000 feet; the Clio, 2 000 feet, has a 10-stamp mill, not at work now; the Scorpion*; the Northern Light; ih 000 feet; the J ohinson, the Yuma,* 3,150 fect, and the Hector, are on the Talcose companion vein in "this neighborhood. The Shawmut is on the main lode and has a mill. The Eagle also has a mill.

_ The Chickenhawk has two shafts, and is at work with a hoisting engine, but ithout a mill. The Dickson & Co.,* 1,500 feet; the Durgan & Co. ,* 500 or feet; the Golden Rule*; the Simmons & Co. * 800 feet; the Miller, Waller 450 feet; the Heslep & Co.,* 900 feet; the Simon Whitford & Co.,* t; the Rowe & Co.,* 350 feet; the Golden Rule, 1,600 feet, has a 15- 1 in profitable operation on the eastern vein; the Waller & App,* 780 a shaft 60 feet deep; the Hitchcock,* 500 feet. ‘The Nyman, 550 feet, 1el 150 feet long, and a shaft 40 feet deep; another tunnel is now being ‘the mein. There is no mill.

‘Stuart,* 530 feet, has a shaft 78 feet deep; the App; 1,000 feet, has Se 3 seven years with a 10-stamp mill. Opposite to the > vein, is the Heslep, 1,650 feet, which has been at ‘1 -stamp mill. This claim extends beyond the App my vill Dut in May al the work was 500 feet, ha 3 a five-s hee ill, but

The Tazewell,* 800 feet; the Donovan & Co.;* the McCann,* 600 feet; the Mooney & Co., 600 feet, has a four- -stamp mill i in profitable operation working the talcose vein; the Trio, * 2,316 feet, has a 10-stamp mill; the Harris, 1, 000 feet, has no mill, but is being opened; the Williams & Brother, 1,000 feet, has no mill, but is being opened; the Reist, 1,000 feet, has a four- stamp mill, and is ‘paying; the General Hooker,* 1,200 feet; the Rawhide Extension is doing nothing now, though there is a shaft 200 feet deep, which always contains water, sometimes to within 20 fect of the surface; in the Rawhide claim adjoining there is a. working shaft 280 feet deep, and only 40 feet distant. The Rawhide, 1,650 feet, is owned by a New York company, and has a 20-stamp mill.

The Hensley & Co.,* 1,300 feet; the Faxon,* 1,000 feet; the Quinby, 1,000 feet, on the eastern talcose companion vein, has a four-stamp mill which has been idle for years; the Chaparral, 1,500 feet, has a five-stamp mill, but is not running; the Buckeye, 1,200 feet, is on a branch vein 200 feet west of the main mother

lode, opposite to the Chaparral.

~The Horsely,* 1,500 feet, has sunk a shaft 20 feet deep; the Meader & Carrington,* 1,500 feet, has a four-stamp mill; the Hawkeye,* 1,000 feet; the Silver Hill, i, 500 feet; the Gillis,* 1,200 feet; the Gillis No. OH 2; 200 feet; the Seavers,* 1,000 ieet; the Watt"; the Alsop & Co.,* reaches to the Stanislaus river.

The following claims are on an eastern branch or companion vein of the mother lode, commencing at the Rawhide, and running northward to the Stanislaus river.

First is a piece of unclaimed ground where no lode has been found. Tho White Senior* claim; the Tom White,* 1,200 feet; the Patterson, has a 10- stamp null, but only five are running ; the Gillis, * 1,200 feet; the Jackson ;* the Waters;* the Rector,* 1,200 feet, has sunk a shaft 52 fect deep; the Watts, 1,000 feet, is now at work prospecting, about $15,000 have been taken from small veins at the surface; the Mt. Stanislaus,* 3,000 feet.

This brings us to the Stanislaus river, in the bed of which no large vein is discoverable. Here, as at Maxwell’s creek, the lode is split up into a multitude of little branches. }

CLAIMS IN CALAVERAS.—Immediately north of the Stanislaus river, on the — line of the mother lode, Carson hill rises to an elevation of 1,600 feet above the river; and the lode in passing through the hill appears to split into three branches.

On the eastern branch are the following, viz: the Virginia,* 1,000 feet; the Adjunction,* 800 feet; the Carson Hill, has done some work, but is not doing anything now; the South Carolina, 2,550 fect, has yielded $400,000, and is now closed; the Enterpriso,* 800 feet ; the Reserve, 980 feet, is being reopened, but has no mill, the yield has been $130, 000.

These aro all the claims on ‘the eastern branch. On the middle branch are ye following, commencing at the river, and pray northward: the Stanislaus,* 1,200 feet; the Mineral Mountain,* 3,000 feet; the Melones,* 1,200 feet.

On the western or Santa Cruz branch is the Santa Craz* 1 mine, 3,000 feet; the — Morgan, 500 fect, has no mill, but is at work, yielded $2,800,000 in 1850 and 1851; the Kentucky,* 220 feet; the Iron Rock, 1,300 feet, i is doing nothing though some very good rock was found in short tunnels and shafts ; the Chaparral,* 3,031 feet; the Chaparral Hill, 3,200 feet, i is now at work taking out eh

but has no mill. ; ie

Here comes a space where the vein has, not been ree a nae

The Hanford, 900 feet ;* the Hanford and Shears.* _ | pees a

eee: comes an interval of a mile and ‘three-quarters, before we reach t 16 tow angels.

re 400 ue has” a 10-stamp mill at work ; ‘Se Calay sta i which was moved away ; the Lightner, 4 een, la rie ; the Angel, 900 aii:

fd

6 sede i a mill, now at work; the Hill, 412 feet, has produced $250,000, and has a 12- stamp mill at work; the Bovee, 450 feet, has produced $600,000, and has a 10- stamp mill at work; the Fritz,* 600 feet, had a10-stamp mill, which was moved awa

ie comes another space where the mother lode is not traceable on the surface, and has not been traced. ‘The general opinion is that it crosses the Mokelumne. river about three miles west of Mokelumne Hill.

CLAIMS IN AMADOR.—North of ‘that river, in Amador county, we have the following: the Tibbetts & Corliss ;* the Hayward, 1,800 feet, has 56 stamps at work, crushing. 80 tons per day, and has been at work since 1852,

_ the reputed yield is $27 per ton gross, and $22 net, or more than $600, 000 net per year; the Loring Hill, 700 fect, has been worked for 10 years. Opposite to the Loring Hill, on a parallel ‘vein, is the Railroad, 800 feet. ‘This mine has yielded $70,000, and is now at work, but has no mill. The Wildman, 1,130 feet, is down 530 feet, and has drifted 200 feet, but the 12-stamp mili is “employed i in doing eustom-work ; the Mahoney has been w orking five — years, with a 15-stamp mill; the Lincoln, 2,378 feet, has worked 10 or 12 years, but the 20-stamp mill is now engaged in caktéi. -work; the Barnhart,* 1,000 feet; the Comet, 750 feet, has commenced prospecting : the Herbertville, 1 200: feet, had a 30-stamp mill, which never paid, and was burned down. No work is being done at the mine. The Keystone, has a 20-stamp mill, has worked steadily since 1851, and has produced about $700,000. Opposite to the Keystone, on a companion vein, is the Spring Hill, 1, 200 feet, which has crushed 50,000 tons of quartz, but obtained little profit. It has a 30-stamp mill, whieh is idle, with the exception of five stamps engaged in custom-work. The Amador, 1,300 feet, was worked to a depth of 240 feet some years ago, but afterwards caved i in, and has stood idle now, for some time; the Bunker Hill, 1,200 feet, is at work with an eight-stamp mill ; the May flower,* 1,200 feet ; the Hazard, * 800 feet, has an eight-stamp mill; the Pennsylvania, %: 1 ,000 feet ' the Loyal,* 600 feet, has a 20-stamp steam mill; the Italian, 340 feet, has a six-stamp mill, which has crushed about 2,000 tons; the Seaton, 1,200 feet, has a 40-stamp mill, and has worked about 10, 000 tons of quarts, which averaged ight or nine dollars. The mill is not running, but the mine is being opened. e McDonald,* 800 feet; the Potosi, S00 feet, is at work with a sixteen- -stamp * a. the Webster, * 600 feet, had a mill, which was moved away; the Plymouth, 1,200 feet, is being worked with a 15- -stamp mill; the Enterprise, is at work with a 10-stamp mill; the Challen,* 1,000 feet ; the Green Aden,* 1,200 feet, has a shaft 100 feet deep ; the Hooper,* 1,200 feet ; the Noe,* 800 feet; the Richmond, 800 feet, has a 10-stamp mill, but the only work now being done | 1s _ Here we reach the Cosumnes river, and north of this the lode has not been ace eae although the Pacific lode at Placerville appears to have its