are driven by an overshot wheel 30 feet in diameter and four feet wide. The power is furnished by 80 inches of water, which costs $50 per week, and is used over again by the Golden Rule mill, which pays half the water bill. The yield of the Heslep rock is $8 per ton.

TRIO.—The Trio mine, 2,316 feet long on the mother lode, on Whisky Hill, is doing nothing now. A ten-stamp mill was erected, and four shafts and two tunnels were begun, but the rock taken out paid only $4 75 per ton, and the mine and mill are now standing idle.

REIST.-The Reist mine, 1,000 feet in the talcose companion vein, is considered generally to be one of the best mines in Tuolumne county, though it has been worked on a very small scale and has never paid much profit. The pay rock is decomposed matter like that in the Mooney mine, but it pays better. MOONEY.-The Mooney mine, 600 feet on the mother lode, near Jamestown, is on the talcose vein, 40 feet east of the main lode. The material is a tan-colored ochrous earth, mixed with slate and quartz. It pays $4 75 per ton, and a stamp will crush about three tons per day. Much of it has been sluiced away. There are occasional rich pockets in it. A four-stamp mill is now at work, and the rock for it is obtained from an open cut 200 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 60 feet deep. There are no walls, apparently. At the bottom of this cut some hard quartz has been found.

RAW HIDE.—Raw Hide mine, 1,650 feet long on the mother lode, where it is 12 feet wide. A depth of 280 feet from the surface has been reached, and a level has been run 80 feet on the vein. The quartz is colored green with carbonate of copper, and it yields from $7 to $44 per ton. The mill, containing 20 stamps, a 40-horse power engine, and fine hoisting works, is considered one of the best in the southern mines. The rock is crushed to the size of a pigeon's egg or smaller in a Brodie's crusher before going to the stamps. There are 10 Wheeler's pans, and five 8-foot settlers. Thirty tons of quartz are crushed in 24 hours. The shaft is kept clear of water by hoisting it in tubs holding 160 gallons each. The hanging wall is slate, and the foot wall serpentine, with asbestos in it.

EAGLE.-The Eagle mine, on the mother lode, 1,000 feet long, has a 10stamp mill, and the yield is $18 per ton. The present supply of quartz is obtained 120 feet below the surface, through a tunnel. The mine was purchased several years ago by eastern capitalists for $300,000.

SHAROMUT.-The Sharomut, on the mother lode, has a 10-stamp mill, which

is idle.

CLIO.-The Clio, 2,000 feet, on the mother lode, has a 10-stamp mill and has been at work five or six years, but is now idle because the dam which supplied water to drive the mill was carried away by the flood of last winter.

MEADER AND CARRINGTON.-The Meader and Carrington mine, 1,500 feet, on the mother lode, has been opened to a depth of 140 feet, where the water became troublesome and work was stopped. Some good pay quartz was found. There is a four-stamp mill which was used for a time for custom work, but is now idle.

PATTERSON.-The Patterson mine, 1,950 feet, on a branch of the mother lode, near Tuttletown, has been worked for ten years. The vein is from 3 to 15 feet wide. The pay was very good for 75 feet from the surface, but not so good below the water level. The deepest workings are 100 feet down. The quartz is extracted through a tunnel. The rock contains large cubes of sulphuret of iron, some of them an inch and a half square, with free gold in the heart of the cubes. There is an old 10-stamp mill, driven by 40 inches of water on an overshot wheel. Only five of the stamps are now running.

About half a mile westward from the mother lode, near the Patterson mine, a pocket containing $10,000 was found in 1866 by an old man who had a conviction that there was a pocket in the neighborhood, and had spent seven years

hunting for it. When he found it he paid the friends upon whom he had been living, and went to the eastern States.

TOLEDO.-The Toledo mine, one mile west of Tuttletown, and half a mile west of the mother lode, has been opened by a shaft 160 feet deep, and drifts running 300 feet on the vein. There are two veins, one 2 feet thick and the other 15 feet, and the two 150 feet apart. Some of the quartz has assayed $300 per ton, but there is much arsenic in it. A 15-stamp mill erected on the mine did not pay, and it was sold and moved to the Golden Rule mine.

The Morse quartz, near Tuttletown, is running and has six stamps. SOULSBY.-The Soulsby mine, 2,400 feet long, eight miles east of Sonora, is on a lode which runs with the meridian, and dips to the east at an angle of 60° at the north end, and 90° at the south. The thickness is from 4 to 9 inches at the surface; 8 inches at 100 feet, and 18 inches in the deepest workings, 400 feet below the surface. The walls are syenite, and there is a white gouge of clay or slate, seldom more than three-quarters of an inch in thickness. The quartz is bluish, and is heavily charged with blue sulphurets, lead, antimony, arsenic, and zinc; so that the ore bears little resemblance to the auriferous quartz found on the mother lode, and in other gold veins generally. The lode has been worked along a horizontal length of 1,800 feet, and in that distance five pay chimneys have been found, the longest horizontally being 200, and the shortest 15 feet. Most of them dip north at an angle of 60°; and they run to a featheredge in every direction. direction. In some cases there is a connection of pay between the chutes, and in others there is none. There is very little barren quartz; between the pay chimneys the walls come together, except in a few spots where white quartz or a horse porphyritic rock appears. The vein is marked by slides and cross-courses, which run east, northeast, and southwest, and all, save one, dip to the northwest. These throw the vein to the left, and the one which dips to the southeast throws it to the right. The cross-courses, and the breaks which they have occasioned in the lode, have been, among the chief difficulties in working the mine, and its present success is probably owing chiefly to the careful study given by Mr. Inch to the nature of the formation. In a mine of this kind the most important quality in a superintendent is the capacity to find the pay chutes, and as the cross-courses throw them from five to ten feet out of the line, in a very hard granitic rock, the search is slow and expensive. There are dikes of trap cutting through the country, and the miners regard them as good indications, and expect to find pay near where they cross the quartz. Mr. Inch remarked that perhaps they were supporters or feeders of the electro-magnetic or other influences under which the gold was deposited. The mill has 20 stamps, and is driven by water while water can be obtained, and has a steam engine to furnish power in the dry season. The stamps weigh 500 pounds, make 60 blows per minute, and drop from 8 to 12 inches. About 90 per cent. of the gold is caught in the mortar, and 95 per cent. of the remainder on the first copper plate below the screen. The blanket tailings are worked in a chill mill and a Ball's amalgamator; and below these there are other blankets, the tailings of which must go through the same process.

About 50 men are employed at the mine and mill, but nearly all the work is done by contract. Sealed proposals are invited at the beginning of each month to sink a certain shaft a certain number of feet, or to run a drift, or to break down the quartz in a certain slope. With strangers, written contracts are made; with old hands, oral contracts are considered sufficient. There is never any trouble about the contracts. The miners sometimes make bad bargains, but they must keep them or leave the place. The best hands like this system, because it enables them to make more than they could make otherwise. Sometimes they make $150 a month; sometimes not more than $30. Under this system there is no shirking on the part of the men, and no favoritism on the part of the superintendént. Mr. Inch says that, if he had undertaken to pay his men by the day,

the mine would have been a failure; that is, when he commenced his work; but now it is probably in a condition to leave a profit, even if the expenses were 50 per cent. greater than they are.*

The Soulsby mine was discovered in 1858, and between May of that year and March of the next, yielded $80,383 gross, and after the erection of a twentystamp mill, $54,416 remained net. It is said that the total yield was $500,000 in the first three years, and that the present monthly yield is from $10,000 to $12,000.

PLATT.-The Platt mine, 1,200 feet, lies 1,500 feet south of the Soulsby, and is supposed to be on the same lode; but the ground is intersected by more slides and cross-courses, and the mine, after producing $50,000, was abandoned in consequence of the inability of the superintendent to find the vein at the breaks. Lately, Mr. Inch, superintendent of the Soulsby, has gone to work, hoping, with his experience in the latter, to find the pay in the Platt. Five pay chimneys have been worked. There was a mill on the claim, but it was moved to the State of Nevada during the silver excitement.

STARR KING.-The Starr King, 15 miles east-southeast of Sonora, is on a north-and-south vein, which dips 40° east, and has a thickness of six inches at the surface, and 18 inches 120 feet down. It cuts across the dip and the cleavage of the slate, and the walls are a very hard slate. The walls and the quartz resemble those of the Rocky Bar mine, in Nevada county. There are two chutes, which run down almost vertically. The rock yields from $15 to $150 per ton. The mill has five stamps, and the mode of amalgamation is the same as at the Soulsby mill.

OLD GILSON.-The Old Gilson mine, 1,200 feet long, adjoining the Platt on the south, was opened to a depth of 125 feet, and to a length on the vein of 250 feet. The rock yields $50, and there was a pay chimney 80 feet long horizontally, but it dipped northwards into the Platt. The mine is now standing idle, and the 10-stamp steam mill is running on custom-work.

GRIZZLY.-The Grizzly mine, 1,800 feet long, 10 miles eastward from Sonora, near the north fork of the Tuolumne river, is on a vein from 6 to 12 feet wide. The hanging wall is granite; the foot wall slate. There are numerous horses in the lode. The pay is disseminated pretty evenly through the rock,, which yields about $20 per ton.

There is a twenty-stamp mill, which commenced work in 1859, and in two years took out $125,000, if rumor be true. The flood of 1862 carried off part of the mill, and stopped work a while, but the mill is now running. In this mill the crushing is dry, and a blower is used to keep the dust from troubling the laborers. The amalgamation is done in 10 Hungarian cast-iron barrels, each 34 feet long by 24 wide. The charge for each is 500 or 600 pounds, and enough water is added to make a pulp so thick that in ten minutes after the barrel has started to revolve, small particles of quicksilver will be found in the pulp, which adheres to the finger thrust into the mass. About 50 pounds of quicksilver are put in at a charge. The barrel revolves horizontally with a speed of eight or ten revolutions per minute. After running for seven hours, water is added to thin the pulp, so much that the quicksilver will all settle, and after another hour of revolution the thin pulp is drawn off, and another charge is put in. All the amalgamation at the Grizzly mill is done in these barrels. There are two iron

*The London Mining Journal refers to the contract system as an essential element of success in the mines of Cornwall. It has also worked admirably in the St. John del Rey mine, in Brazil. The average cost of raising the ore from this mine in 1865, under per diem wages, was $7 87. In 1866, under the contract system, it was only $6_29—an immense saving, considering the vast amount of ore raised. The contract system has been adopted to a considerable extent in the New Almaden quicksilver mine. It cannot of course be made of universal application, so much depends upon local circumstances; but experience has demonstrated that whenever it can be applied, the result has been a great saving in the expense of mining.

cylindrical rollers, each three inches in diameter and as long as the barrel inside, and these turn and assist in the amalgamation during the revolutions of the barrels. The barrels are cleaned up once in two weeks. Amalgamation proceeds more readily if hot water is used. Mr. Philip S. McDonald, who was superintendent of the Grizzly mill for a time, and has the repute of being a very competent man, prefers the system of dry crushing and amalgamating in close barrels. By the ordinary modes of crushing and amalgamation much of the fine gold is carried off by the water. In dry crushing, however, it is necessary to protect the laborers from the dust, which has been known to cause death in thrèe months, where no precaution was used.

The Bonita mine, adjoining the Grizzly on the south, is idle, and so is its 10-stamp mill, which was built before the mine was opened.

The Consuela and its ten-stamp mill are doing nothing.

The Martin mine, two miles south of the Grizzly, is being worked with

arrastras.

The Invincible mine, 2,000 feet on Sugar Pine creek, 22 miles eastward from Sonora, has produced some good quartz, but the mine and its mill are standing idle now.

The Excelsior mine, at Sugar Pine, has yielded $300,000, of which two-thirds was profit.

MOUNT VERNON.-The Mount Vernon mine, 2,100 feet long, 18 miles northeast of Sonora, is on a vein which runs northeast and southwest, dips 45° to the southeast, and is about two feet wide on an average between granite walls. Only one pay chimney has been found, and that dips about 45° to the southwest. It was 60 feet long horizontally, near the surface, and 300 feet down it is more than 100 feet long, the end not having been found in the drift now being run. The rock is worked in the Monitor mill, which is very near on the north fork of the Tuolumne river. The rock pays $96 per ton, and in 1866 500 tons were worked.

SNELL.-The Snell mine, 1,800 feet long, 15 miles northeast of Columbia, is on a vein which runs northeast and southwest, is nearly vertical, and has an average width of one foot. A pay chimney was found, and it paid $50 per ton, but it pinched ont. A mill is going up now.

MONITOR.-The Monitor, 2,100 feet long, 18 miles east of Columbia, in Sugar Pine district, is 15 inches wide, and dips at an angle of 45° to the east between granite walls. There is an incline down 60 feet, and drifts have been run 90 feet on the vein. Some of the rock has paid as much as $300 to the ton, but the mine and mill are both idle now. The mill has five stamps.

HAZEL DELL.-The Hazel Dell mine, 1,550 feet long, at Five-mile creek, on a vein that averages about two feet in thickness. The walls are rotten granite. The rock averages $25 to $30, but at present the extraction of quartz is interrupted by water. The lowest workings are seventy feet below the surface. A tunnel is now being cut for the purpose of drainage. There is a five-stamp mill which has been leased.

SUMMIT PASS.-The Summit Pass mine No. 1, one mile from Columbia, 3,600 feet long, runs north and south, dips to the east at an angle of 70°, and is four feet wide. The walls are of slate, with an overlying stratum of limestone near the surface. The claim has been worked 500 feet along the surface, and paid well. The quartz is heavily charged with arsenical sulphurets. No work is being done now.

Summit Pass No. 2, 2,000 feet long, is on a spur from the preceding lode. The mine has been opened at several points.

QUARTZ NEAR COLUMBIA.-The Columbia mine, on the experimental lode at Summit Pass two miles northeast of Columbia, has limestone walls, runs northwest and southeast, dips to the northeast, and is from one foot to four feet in width. The average pay is $11 per ton. It is worked with a 15-stamp mill.

The Kimball mine, three miles northeast of Columbia, lies between limestone and green-stone, is, a foot wide, and is accompanied by a trap dike 8 or 10 feet wide. When first opened $6,000 were obtained from 600 pounds of rock. It is not worked now.

The Kimball extension, adjoining the Kimball, is similar in character, and is being worked now, the quartz being crushed in a custom mill. The yield is $10 per ton.

The Shanghae mine at Yankee Hill, two miles east of Columbia, in a vein which runs north and south, dips to the east at an angle of 65°, and is three feet wide. It is east of the limestone belt in slates highly metamorphosed. It was worked with arrastras in 1856, and yielded then $100 per ton; and it is now worked with a 10-stamp mill.

HUNTER, The Hunter mine; in Big Cañon, 14 miles southeast of Sonora, is on the side of a mountain that is at an angle of 45° from the north fork of the Tuolumne. The rock was very rich at the surface, and a tunnel run in 20 feet ran through quartz that yielded $300 to the ton. The owner was so delighted that he built a mill without delay and at great cost. The only way to get the timbers and castings to the site was to let them down with ropes from the top of the mountain. After $40,000 had been expended in the mill and in exploration, it was found that the pay chute was only 20 feet long, and more money would be required to work it than the owner could raise; so after $10,000 had been taken out no more work was done.

LEWIS.-The Lewis mine, 2,400 feet long, is 20 miles east-northeast of Sonora, on a vein of talcose slate 150 feet wide. The course is north and south, with a slight dip to the east. The slate is barren, but it encloses a number of veins of quartz which run in every direction, and all are rich. There are several chutes about 30 feet long horizontally, in which the quartz averages $25 to $30 per ton, while elsewhere the quartz yields $10 or $12. Most of the quartz is found near the hanging wall. The vein has been examined for a distance of 2,000 feet, and pay rock has been found at intervals along the whole distance. The quartz in places contains sulphurets of iron and lead, and crude sulphur is: found in the slate. Heretofore the quartz has been extracted by tunnels, but hereafter shafts are to be sunk. The eastern wall is granite and the western a hard black slate. The mine lies in the Big basin, which is surrounded by high ridges, on the north side of which the snow lies till May. The rock is crushed in a five-stamp mill, and is amalgamated in two large arrastras. The gold varies in fineness from 600 to 785, the highest fineness being obtained from those quartz veins which contain the coarsest particles of metal.

SELL AND MARTIN.-The Sell and Martin mine, 1,200 feet long, is situated one mile north of Sonora. It is two or three feet wide, and runs northwest and southeast, and dips 60° to the northeast. It is a remarkable pocket vein, and has produced not less than $150,000, of which one-fourth has been profit. It was first opened in 1850, and has been leased three or four times. For one year the lessee paid one-third, and for another one-fourth of the gross yield. About 2,000 tons of rock have been taken out in all, but most of the gold has been pounded out in a hand mortar. The walls are of slate, and the country is intersected by porphyritic dikes three or four feet thick, which occur at intervals of 100 or 150 feet along the 700 feet in which the pockets have been found. The vein is later in formation than the dikes and cuts across them, and on the lines of intersection most, if not all, of the pockets have been found. The quartz, except in the immediate neighborhood of the pockets, is barren. A 15-stamp mill was erected at the mine in 1863, but as no large quantity of ore could be obtained to yield more than 50 cents a ton, the mill has been standing idle. There are several men now at work in the mine hunting for pockets and taking out the gold in a hand mortar when they find them. The largest pocket found yielded $15,000.

.

7