above the level of the channel. The claim has been worked regularly since 1854, and still pays a little.

The Union claim,

feet, unopened.

The Palisade claim, 5,400 feet, is unopened.

Here we come to a place where the channel is lower than the country on each side of the mountain, so it is impossible to get any drainage or to do any work. The old Stanislaus Company has a claim 12,000 feet long on Table mountain, just above the point where the Stanislaus river cuts off. The channel where it opens on the bluff is 350 feet above the level of the present river, so there is abundant drainage down the channel, though the country on both sides of the mountain is higher than the old channel. The old Stanislaus Company spent a good deal of money trying to get in from the side before they discovered the outlet on the bluff. Some of the gravel paid $18 per ton. A mill was erected in 1859 to crush the cement, but it did not pay.

At Two Mile Bar (two miles east of Knight's ferry) the channel is SO feet below the level of the present Stanislaus river.

QUARTZ MINING IN TUOLUMNE.-Tuolumne county is very favorably situated for quartz mining, and so far as external indications and facilities may serve as guides, the presumptions are that it will be second to no other county in California in production of quartz gold. Wood and water are abundant; the roads generally are good, and the quartz veins large, numerous and easily traced. The mother lode and the companion talcose vein here have their largest and most regular development. The Golden Rule, the Reist, the Mooney, and the Heslep are all in the companion talcose vein, and have paid for a longer time than any other of their class in the State. The quartz veins in the granite about Soulsbyville are the most productive of their class in the State, and the cluster of pocket mines on Bald mountain is unsurpassed in the multitude and richness of pockets within a small area.

GOLDEN RULE.-The Golden Rule, 1,600 feet long, is on the mother lode, about three miles eastward from Jamestown. The claim includes both veins, the main mother lode, and the talcose slate branch or companion vein. At the surface they are 75 feet apart, and 87 feet below they are 40 feet apart. The main lode is 12 feet thick, exclusive of a horse, and the slate vein is eight feet. The latter is the one which is being worked. The vein is a black slate, bearing much resemblance to ordinary roofing slate, and is penetrated in every direction by seams of quartz, seldom more than two inches in thickness. The gold is found in the slate, seldom in the quartz. All the vein-stone is worked, though that near the foot wall is the richest. The rock is soft, and is easily extracted and crushed. The pulp from the battery is black like the slate. The walls are a hard magnesian rock. There is a slight dip to the east. The mill has 15 stamps, and is driven by water. The weight of the stamps is 750 pounds, their speed 50 blows per minute, and their drop from five to eight inches. There is sufficient power to drive 15 stamps more. The water is obtained from the Columbia Ditch Company. About 85 per cent. of the gold is caught in the mortar, and nearly five per cent. on the copper plates immediately below. The pulp runs over a shaking table, which has 120 jerks per minute, and is cleaned out twice in 24 hours, yielding about 400 pounds of sulphurets each time. The pulp also passes over blankets, which are washed once in an hour. There are 10 pounds of pure sulphurets to a ton, but the concentrated tailings as saved are about 40 pounds to a ton of ore, and there are $40 per ton in these tailings, which are worked in an arrastra, which pays six ounces a month. A Stetson amalgamator below the blankets pays only $1 per month.

The slate vein was brown and decomposed at the surface, and was washed in sluices by placer miners to a depth of 30 feet. In 1866 the present mill was finished, and in the year preceding the 1st of July, 1867, the number of tons crushed was 4,099; the average yield per ton, $8 94; the total yield, $36,653 ;

cost of labor, $16,500; cost of repairs, timber, lumber, charcoal, hauling, taxes, &c., $5,800; cost of supplies sent from San Francisco, $2,400; office expenses in San Francisco, including salaries of president and secretary, freight in bullion, travelling expenses, &c., $1,500; dividends, $7,500, and cash on hand, $2,953. The total expenses were $6 39, and the net profit $2 55 per pon. "The average number of days that the mill ran in a month was 23; the highest being 27, and the lowest 17. The average yield per ton was $5 71 in March, $6 79 in January, $6 97 in June, $7 72 in November, $15 54 in October, and $10 or $11 and odd cents in the other months. The number of men employed was 16, of whom 8 were miners, 2 carmen, 4 millmen, a blacksmith and a superintendent. The rock is extracted through a tunnel 400 feet long, 80 feet below the summit of the hill, and 500 feet above the level of Sullivan's creek, below which the mine cannot be drained by a tunnel.

APP.-The App mine is 1,000 feet long on the mother lode, near Jamestown. The vein there is nine feet wide on an average. The vein-stone is quartz, in places white, in others greenish, and others dark. The richest spots are near the walls. The vein dips about two feet and a half in ten. The hanging wall is magnesian rock, and the foot wall slate. At the surface there were three pay chimneys, 75, 100 and 125 feet in horizontal length respectively, separated by intervals of 60 and 35 feet, with a dip to the northwestward of 70° on the upper side, but widening out on the under side, and at 180 feet the three had united in one chimney 235 feet long horizontally. Horizontal sections of the chimneys would represent not rectangles but quadrangular parallellograms, with two very acute angles. The chimneys have not run out in any place, but in several places the walls have pinched close together, so that there were only seven inches of quartz. In these spots the chimneys were of the same richness to the ton as elsewhere. The distribution of gold in each chimney is very even in relation to the depth; but on any given level the most gold is found at the sharp ends, and the least in the middle of the chimney. Each chimney, however, has its peculiar quartz. One chimney has white quartz, another greenish, another bluish, and the last is the richest. The gold is fine, and seldom visible in the quartz. The present supply of rock is obtained at a depth of 300 feet, and the shaft is now being sunk deeper. The working level is 300 feet long, and the supply of pay quartz in sight will last two years for the present mill, which has ten stamps, and is driven by water. In 1866, 1,800 tons were worked, and the average yield was $14 55 per ton; from 1863 to 1866, inclusive, four years, 7,200 tons were worked, and the average yield was $15. The pulp as it comes from the battery is ground in charges of 400 or 500 pounds for three or four hours in various pans, without quicksilver, and two pan charges are amalgamated in a separator for the same length of time. The yield in the pan is about $6 per ton. The total expense per ton in this mine is about $8 per ton, and in the mine alone $4 50. The wall is in places as smooth as glass, and the gouge is thickest at the pay chimneys.

SILVER.-The Silver or Anthrax mine, 1,500 feet on the mother lode, is being opened in good style. There is a 10-stamp mill, which was idle in May and waiting for the complete opening of the mine. The companion talcose vein strikes the main lode 400 feet from the south end of the claim, runs with it, but as a distinct vein for some distance towards the north, then diverges again, and at the northern end of the claim the two are six feet apart. The companion vein, so far as examined, is barren here.

The pay

HESLEP. The Heslep mine, 1,650 feet on the companion talcose vein, has been worked 1,200 feet on the surface, and has paid all the way. matter is decomposed quartz and slate, of a tan color, and soft enough to be picked out, and in some places to be shovelled without picking. The cost of working is estimated at $2 50 per ton. The vein varies in width from 8 to 20 feet. The deepest workings are 90 feet down. The mill has ten stamps, which

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. 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 superintendent. 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 S0 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 3 feet long by 2 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.