up

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with an arrastra for six years, but there are now 500 tons of ore stacked the mouth of the tunnel, and preparations are being made for the erection of a ten-stamp mill. The quartz is taken out through a cross tunnel 175 feet long, and from that drifts have been run 225 feet on the vein, and a shaft has been sunk 50 feet. A horse is found in one part of the lode. The quartz is white, and much of it slakes when exposed to the air. The crushing has been done heretofore by two arrastras, and the total expense per ton has been less than $5. The cost of crushing and amalgamating in the arrastra is estimated at $3 50 per ton, and of extraction at $1.

out.

COWARD.-The Coward mine, 12 miles eastward from Coulterville, was located in 1858, and has been worked constantly since. The first owner, a Mr. Funk, fell from the wheel the day the mill started, and was killed by the fall. H. G. Coward is the present owner. The vein runs east and west, dips to the north at an angle of 45°, and is four feet wide in the middle of the pay chimneys, which become narrower gradually in each direction horizontally as they pinch These chimneys are two in number, each about 100 feet long, and they dip to the east at an angle of 40°. The width is very regular in going down with the dip. They had been worked to a depth of 170 feet. The walls are of smooth black slate, and there is a black putty gouge. Most of the gold is found near one wall or the other, and sometimes on both, but in places where a horse is found in the vein the gold is all confined to one side. The average yield is, and has been constantly, about $40 per ton. The quartz contains little pyrites, and the tailings have never been assayed. There is, or was in May, a five-stamp mill, which was to be abandoned, and a new ten-stamp mill was to be erected on the north fork of the Mercede, one mile from the mine. The dam and flume were to cost $600, and the wagon road $1,000. Ten or 12 men were employed. CALICO. The Calico mine, on the same lode as the Cherokee, has been opened by a tunnel 160 feet long, and a drift of 35 feet in pay rock estimated to yield $20 per ton. No mill has been erected, nor has any of the rock been crushed.

COMPROMISE. The Compromise mine, on a small vein near the Goodwin, was worked for two years with a loss.

MARBLE SPRING.-The Marble Spring mine, 16 miles eastward from Coulterville, was discovered in 1851, and a five-stamp mill was erected there. The first owner found it unprofitable, and he sold to a gentleman who kept it going for seven or eight years, part of the time at a profit, and he sold to others who spent $15,000 in experiments and lost money, though the rock yielded $25 per ton. The mine is now the property of H. G. Coward and others who have lately reopened it. The vein is three feet thick, runs northwest and southeast, and dips to the east. The pay chimney dips to the southeast. The lode contains pockets in which the gold is very coarse, and is distributed in beautiful threads through a compact bluish quartz, making together the finest material for "quartz jewelry" in the State. The main tunnel is 600 feet long. The old mill has been moved away. The mine is at a high elevation, near the summit of a mountain.

CHEROKEE.-The Cherokee mine, near the Goodwin, was discovered by a Cherokee named Rogers, in 1857, and was very rich at the surface. Some of the gold was coarse enough to be pounded out in a hand mortar. The rock worked in arrastras averaged $100 per ton. In 1859 a steam mill with eight stamps and two arrastras was erected, and the rock yielded $35 per ton for about a year, and then work stopped. The mill was sold at sheriff's sale and moved away, and nothing has been done at the place since. The deepest workings were through a tunnel 400 feet long, and another lower tunnel was commenced, but the mine was abandoned before it reached the lode. As the workmen who were employed have all left it is difficult to get any accurate information; but some miners in the neighborhood say that the mine was worked in a careless manner;

that the proprietors squandered their money, and that although there was a horse in the lowest workings, the completion of the lower tunnel would in all probability have struck the lode below the horse. The vein averages two feet wide, runs east and west and dips to the north. The pay chimneys dip to the east.

SHIMER.-The Shimer mine, 10 miles east of Coulterville, was discovered in 1858 by a miner who, while digging a ditch for placer mining, found some rich boulders of quartz, and on searching he found the lode. In a few days he took out enough gold to pay for several arrastras, with which the mine was worked for a year and a half, the rock yielding from $150 to $500 per ton. Rumor says that the total yield in this time was $200,000, three-fourths of it net profit. He then erected a steam mill, with two stamps and two arrastras; but the water became troublesome, and for five years the mine has been idle, and for two years before the work was irregular. The mine was opened by a cross tunnel, which, after running 400 feet, struck the lode 140 feet from the surface, and a shaft was sunk 40 feet below the tunnel. The failure of the mine is attributed by some persons in the neighborhood exclusively to bad management. It is said that the last rock crushed yielded $60 per ton, and there was more of it in sight. There were five partners, most of whom were spendthrifts, and shortly before their failure they took a trip to Sonora and spent $4,000 in one debauch. Those who had not squandered their money had sent it away, and when the water came in they could not afford to buy a pump nor to cut a deeper tunnel. It is said that there is a large deposit of good pay quartz, 40 feet deep and 80 feet long, under the drift, on a level with the tunnel.

The vein is from 8 inches to 24 feet in width, with slate walls. There are two pay chutes, which were worked to a depth of 160 feet and for a horizontal distance of 150 feet. One account says that the last workings were in a place where the vein split, and the miners were in the poorer branch. It is reported that a rich cross vein was found, but that the hired miner who found it concealed the fact in the hope that he would some day get possession. About $2,000 have been spent on roads to reach the mine and mill.

GOODWIN.-The Goodwin mine, 11 miles eastward from Coulterville, was discovered in 1856. It was worked with arrastras for three years, and then for three years more with an eight-stamp mill, which last paid $50,000 profit, some of the rock yielding $100 per ton. The mine and mill lay idle for four years, and under foreclosure of a mortgage passed into the hands of a creditor, who attempted in vain for several years to sell for $1,500, undertook to work the mine in despair, and almost immediately found a good supply of rock, averaging $50 per ton. The vein runs east and west, and dips to the south. The average thickness is three feet, but in places the lode pinches out. The quartz is a ribbon rock, and all of it pays for working. It is found in chimneys, which dip to the eastward, with an inclination of 70° to the horizon on the upper side, but on the lower side the dip is irregular, the chutes growing longer, horizontally, as they go down. Three pay chimneys have been worked so far, and one of them has pinched out in going down. Both walls are of slate, and there is a black putty gouge a foot thick. A cross tunnel 550 feet long strikes the vein 400 feet below the surface, and the lode might be struck 200 feet lower by a tunnel 600 feet long. The present proprietor is about to put in a pump and hoisting works. The mill has eight wooden-stem stamps, and is driven by water from the north fork of the Mercede. The flume is half a mile long, and, with the dam, cost $1,000. The mouth of the mine is two miles from the mill, to which the ore is hauled on sleds.

BELL & MCGREW.-The Bell & McGrew mine is a mile west of Coulterville, on the Malvina lode. Several pockets, yielding from $100 to $1,000, have been found, and a mill with five stamps was built on it, but it failed to pay, and is now idle.

MCKENZIE.-The McKenzie mine, adjoining, has produced some rock that yielded $20 per ton, but the miners were driven out by water, and the owners, finding they could do nothing without a steam pump, sold their five-stamp mill to Bell & McGrew and stopped work. Portion of the mine has caved in.

HIDELY & CUNNINGHAM.-The mine of Hidely & Cunningham, on the Malvina vein, two miles west of Coulterville, contains a deposit of auriferous talcose slate 15 feet wide, without walls, and some of it prospects very well. There is a four-stamp mill, which was running in May.

MARY HARRISON.-The Mary Harrison mine, about two miles southeastward from Coulterville, is situated on a spur from the mother lode. This spur vein is from 3 to 20 feet thick, and the quartz contains talcose slate seams which usually are parallel with the walls, and the seams, or sides of them, contain the most pay. The mine has been worked by an incline 240 feet deep, and a pay chimney 200 feet long, horizontally, has been worked out to a depth of 150 feet. There is no gouge, and the galleries are driven in the slate on the hanging wall side.

The Mary Harrison Company have a claim on the Malvina vein, a mile and a half distant, and they have worked it to a depth of 440 feet from the croppings, and have run 330 feet on the lode. Access is obtained through a cross tunnel. There is black talcose slate on both sides of the vein, which is parallel with the mother lode, and has been traced 4 miles. The gold-bearing portion of the rock is a hard ribbon quartz, near the walls; while in the middle there is soft, shelly, white, barren quartz. The pay chute is 150 feet long, horizontally, and it dips 60° to the southeast on the upper side; the lower side being less regular. There are two mills; one of 35 stamps, the other 15, and the former was about to start at the end of May.

CROWN LEAD.-Immediately north of the Mercede river, in the line of the Mother lode, is the claim of the Crown Lead Company, which, 10,500 feet in all, is on the Mother, Adelaide, and Medas veins. The Adelaide vein has supplied 1,800 tons, yielding $7 per ton, and this ought to have yielded a profit; but it did not, and the work stopped. The general opinion in the neighborhood is that the mine has an immense quantity of good pay rock, but that it has not been properly managed. The claim extends from the river over a steep hill 2,000 feet high, so that by means of tunnels all the rock could be run out to that depth vithout hoisting.

The mill on the bank of the Mercede has 20 stamps, and was built in 1864, at an expense of $35,000. The dam cost $30,000, but was bought by the Crown Lead Company for $12,000. It is now in excellent condition. The roads on the claim cost $9,000. Both mine and mill are idle. The mill is provided with Hepburn & Peterson's pans.

Adjoining the claim of the Crown Lead, or on the same ground, is a claim taken up for a copper mine by the Tone Company, which spent $22,000 there and got no return.

HITES COVE.-Hites Cove mine is 30 miles northeast from Mariposa, on a vein which runs northwest and southeast, and is very irregular in thickness, the thickest part being eight feet. The quartz is a ribbon rock, with seams of black matter, which sticks in the skin, so that the workmen in the mine get a very sooty look. All the quartz pays very evenly, and no specimens are found. The average yield is about $150 per ton. The mine has been worked five years steadily, and the present supply of quartz is obtained from a depth of 300 feet. Connected with the mine is a 10-stamp water mill, and all the sands, after passing over copper-plate, are run through arrastras.

BRIDGEPORT.-The Bridgeport mine, just outside of the line of the Mariposa grant, has produced some good ore; but the thickness of the vein (from six inches to four feet) is very irregular, and so is the quality of the rock. The walls are granite; the mill has eight stamps. Both mine and mill are idle.

PENON BLANCo.-The Peñon Blanco mine, 6,000 feet long, two miles northward from Coulterville, takes in nearly the whole of the prominent Peñon Blanco hill. It is being explored by a tunnel which, entering the hill on the south side, strikes the lode 175 feet from the mouth and 100 feet below the croppings. Another tunnel entering the hill on the northwest side is in 285 feet, but has not reached the vein. Two shafts are also being sunk 2,000 feet apart. The south shaft is 25 feet deep in a pay chimney, which yields rock four feet in thickness, averaging $10 per ton. The horizontal length of this chimney is not ascertained, but open cuts on the croppings 200 feet distant are in the same kind of rock, and probably in the same chimney. The north shaft has not struck the vein, but the croppings near this shaft contain about two feet of rock that yields $12 per ton. The first application for a patent under the act of 1866 was made for this mine.

SECTION IV.

TUOLUMNE COUNTY.

Tuolumne county extends from the Stanislaus river on the north to the divide between the Tuolumne and Mercede on the south, and from the summit of the Sierra to the low foot hills near the plains. Nearly all the mines and population are in the western half of the county, below the level of 2,000 feet above the sea. The placer mines have nearly all been quite shallow, and they are now exhausted in many places. There never have been any large and profitable hydraulic claims in the county, although there are some gravel ridges above Big Oak Flat, and others near Cherokee that may prove valuable for hydraulic mining. One of the chief mining features is table mountain, which follows the Stanislaus river from Columbia to Knight's Ferry, and covers a rich auriferous channel that is worked through tunnels.

This mountain has yielded about $2,000,000, but at a cost of $3,000,000 Another remarkable feature of the county is the limestone belt, which crosses the country, through Garrote No. 2, Kincaid Flat, Shaw's Flat, Springfield, and Columbia. This limestone, instead of having a smooth solid surface, appears to be broken into water-worn boulders, and rich auriferous gravel is found down to a great depth in the narrow crevices between them. In this county, too, the mother lode is more strongly marked; more distinctly traceable for a considerable distance, and worked in more mines than in any other county. Columbia is notable for having produced more large nuggets than any other district in the State, and also for the high fineness of its dust. Bald mountain, near Sonora, has had an unsurpassed cluster of rich pocket lodes, and the Soulsby district has some of the richest granite mines of the State. The county has further extensive and valuable beds of plumbago and some fine white marble suitable for statuary, but its extent is not yet proved.

Much work is being done in prospecting quartz veins, but the advance in lode mining is not equivalent to the decline in placers, and the county has lost about 200 voters annually for six or eight years.

The State and county taxes together are $4 88 on every hundred dollars, or nearly five per cent., and in addition to that there is in Sonora a city tax of one per cent.

The placer mining portion of the county is in a district of hills, neither very high nor very steep, and consequently it is pretty well suited, so far as grade is concerned, for roads and for tillage; but the soil is not strong and water is dear. Grain does not yield large crops, and the supply of fruit far exceeds the home demand, but transportation is so dear that it cannot be taken away fresh with a profit. Large quantities are dried, and in 1866 300 tons of dried peaches

were shipped from Tuolumne. Casks and freight are so dear that wine making yields no profit, and the brandy tax prevents the conversion of the grapes into brandy, and many of the vineyards and orchards are not cultivated, and no new vineyards are being planted. The general appearance of the ranches does not indicate prosperity.*

During the first half of 1867 not less than a thousand Chinamen left the county, more than 300 having gone from Columbia and vicinity, and as many more from Chinese Camp.

According to observations made by Doctor Snell in the rainy season of 1861-62, 121 inches of rain fell at Sonora; in that of 1864-'65, 20 inches; in that of 1865-'66, 35 inches; and in that of 1866-67, 50 inches.

The following mean thermometrical observations are also taken from his books, the degrees being Fahrenheit's:

COLUMBIA.-Columbia, situated where the Table Mountain channel crossed the limestone belt, and where the volcanic material had been deroded, having the rich auriferous deposit near the surface, was for a long time the largest and the busiest town in the southern mines. The site was in a beautiful vale, and the town was built up in very neat style, but the placers of the vicinity are approaching exhaustion, business has declined, and many of the lots have been mined out, leaving the large limestone boulders lying naked, barren and cheerless. As the population has declined, houses have lost their value, and dwellings can be purchased for one-tenth their cost. In many cases miners have purchased houses, even brick stores, for the purpose of tearing them down and washing away the dirt of the lots; and this system is still in progress, continually reducing the number of houses, and the area of soil and level ground suitable for occupation. Most of the rich placer claims are in a basin, which has never been drained, and consequently there is a large mass of auriferous dirt that may be worked in the future if drainage is supplied. The Stanislaus river is two miles off, and by starting from a ravine that puts into the river a tunnel could be run 400 feet under the town with the length of a mile and a half. The expense, however, would be very great, and the profit uncertain, so nobody speaks seriously of the project. At the deeper claims in Columbia, the dirt is hoisted from the bottom to a dump box placed so high that there is fall enough from it to carry away the refuse dirt

*NOTE.-Referring to the advantages to be derived from the construction of the proposed Stockton and Copperopolis railroad, and the impetus that would be given to the industry of the interior counties by this enterprise, Mr. William S. Watson, the intelligent engineer,

says:

The proposed road will not touch Tuolumne county, but for all practical purposes will command its trade and travel, Copperopolis being 15 miles from Sonora, and from Knight's Ferry it is about two miles to the west line of the county. The sectional area of Tuolumne is 1,430 square miles. The character of the country is of course mountainous, forming spurs of the main ridges of the Sierra Nevada, descending into the valley to the west. The population in 1860 was 16,229; assessed valuation in 1865, $1,536,258. The present freights are principally up, amounting to 6,000 tons per year, chiefly supplies; estimated freights to Big Oak Flat, Chinese Camp, Don Pedro's Bar, and the Garrotes, 950; total up freights through Tuolumne county, 6,950 tons; and of down freights, consisting of building materials, lumber, and ores, not less than 1,320; total, 8,270 tons."