elevation is so great that snow lies four or five months in the year, and the hotel, which is commodious and well-kept, does not open for visitors until May or June, according to the season. The grove contains 90 trees over 15 feet in diameter, and of these ten are 30 feet through just at the ground, though 10 or 15 feet above the diameter is considerably less. Five men spent 22 days in 1854, cutting down a tree which was 92 feet in circumference and 300 feet high. The stump has been taken as the foundation and floor of a house in which dancing parties are sometimes held. There is abundant room in it for a large quadrille The bark was taken from another tree to a height of 116 feet from the groundup to where the branches began-at the same time, and the tree did not begin to show signs of dying until two years afterwards, and some of its boughs were green six years later. It is estimated that one of the trees which had fallen long before the grove was discovered was 450 feet long and 40 feet in diameter. Prof. Whitney carefully counted the rings of the tree which was cut down and found that they numbered about 1,300. The big trees are scattered about in a forest of very large trees, many of which are as high, and some almost as large, as the smaller specimens of the sequoia gigantea, as the big tree is technically named. The number of visitors annually is about 2,000.

AGRICULTURE.-Agriculture in Calaveras county is not in a very flourishing condition. Water is not cheap enough to be used for irrigating grain or pasture land; fruit and wine will not pay the expense of transportation to Sacramento, and brandy will not pay with the present tax upon its production. There are a multitude of fine orchards and vineyards, but as many of them are unprofitable, so they are neglected. With cheap water and cheap transportation to market this county should be prominent in the production of wool, wine, and fruit.

At Douglas Flat, in the orchard of Mr. Hitchcock, the peach thrives better than any other tree fruit. The yield is very large and regular, and the quality good. Apricots do not thrive. The white winter Pearmain apple bears well and keeps well. The Porter apple bears well, and though rated as a fall fruit in the eastern States, keeps here till February. The Wine Sop keeps till June. The Newtown pippin is the best keeper, bears well, and has a fine flavor. The Belleflower, Northern Spy, and Peck's Pleasant are good at neither bearing nor keeping. The Vandevere bears tolerably, but does not keep. The Esopus Spitzenberg keeps well, but does not bear heavily. The Roxbury Russet bears very well, but does not keep. The same may be said of the Baldwin, except that it bears well only in alternate years. The Golden Russet is one of the best and most regular bearers and keeps till December.

At Murphys, although the distance is only two miles from Douglas flat, the fruit is two weeks later in ripening, and the more delicate kinds, such as figs will not ripen. The difference in elevation does not seem to be more than a couple of hundred feet. In the western part of the county figs are very pro

ductive.

METEOROLOGY.-The amount of rain in the rainy season of 1865 and 1866, at Murphys was 31 inches, and in 1866 and 1867 44 inches.

As much as 10 feet of snow has fallen at the Big Trees in one storm, but the depth is seldom more than five feet at any one time. As the ground does not freeze, there is no good sleighing.

SAN ANDREAS.-San Andreas is the present county seat, and is situated at a paint where San Andreas ravine intersects an ancient river channel. The county seat was formerly at Mokelumne Hill, on the northern limit of the county, and was removed after the people had voted at a special election for San Andreas. Great frauds were practiced in the election, especially at Mokelumne Hill, which then contested the election, and years elapsed before the courts and county offices were removed to San Andreas, which had spent $75,000 in the contest. The people of the new county town were much chagrined to find that there was scarcely any perceptible increase in the amount of business or in the value of property

after the change, and many of those who spent their cash would be glad to have it back, even if Mokelumne Hill were to have its former dignity. The monthly shipment of dust from San Andreas is $25,000, nearly all placer.

THE SAN ANDREAS OLD CHANNEL.-An ancient channel runs past San Andreas, and indeed it is to the rich deposits of the old river that the town owes its existence. This ancient channel has been traced a distance of eight miles from the head of Old Gulch, past San Andreas, and Gold Hill, to the south fork of the Calaveras. The general course is nearly west; the average width is 100 feet, and the depth under the surface is 150 feet, of which about 100 feet is volcanic sand. The richest pay stratum is a soft blue gravel, four feet deep, which yields seven-eighths of its gold at the first washing; but there is also a red cement, which sometimes usurps the place of the blue gravel on the bed rock; sometimes overlies it, and sometimes occupies half the channel, leaving the blue on the other side. This red cement is not so rich as the blue, nor is the gold so coarse, and it should be crushed in a mill, if more than one-third of its gold is to be got at the first washing. Some of the gold found in the blue gravel is quite black. It has been reported that a petrified turtle thirty inches long was found in one of the claims on this channel; but the report is mentioned here not to accredit it, but suggest it as a matter for investigation.

Mr. Marshall says he found in the pay dirt in the claim of Marshall and Showalter an Indian mortar, and this is perhaps one of the best authenticated cases of human handiwork found in an ancient stream.

In that claim, starting from the surface, the shaft passed through 5 feet of coarse gravel; then sand and gravel 100 feet; then a thin bed of fine brownish gravel; then 4 feet of cemented sand; then 15 feet of blueish volcanic sand; then 6 feet of pay dirt, and finally slate-bed rock, one foot of which is rich.

The following is the form of a notice used in locating a claim on this channel: NOTICE. The undersigned claims this ground for mining purposes, known as the Robert McCall & Co.'s claim, being a deep or shaft claim, and being bounded on the northwest by the Gilchrist and Cornwell claim, and on the southeast by the Plug Ugly claim, 1,000 feet more or less, and he intends to work it according to the laws of the San Andreas mining district.

JOHN SHOWALTER, Recorder.
August 18, 1862.

WILLIAM IRVINE.

The first notable claim on the channel commencing at the highest point that has been worked is that of Foster, Frazier & Co., 800 feet long on the channel, where the depth is 100 feet. It has been worked 10 years, and paid about $7 per day to the hand. The pay is obtained by drifting, and is taken to the surface through a shaft and tunnel.

After an interval in which the channel has not been found, we come to the claim of McLaughlin and Dore, who have been at work 10 years, and have averaged about $5 per day. Three or four men are now employed on the claim.

After another space in which the channel was not found, is the claim of George Barnhardt & Co., situated on the hill between Old Gulch and French Gulch. It has been worked six or seven years, and four or five men are now employed in it. It is a hydraulic claim, and the bank is 75 feet deep.

The next claim, that of Young & Co., is on the hill, south of upper Caleveritas, and has paid well for 10 years. It has been worked both by hydraulic and by tunnel. Three or four men are employed.

Knight, Simpson & Co., work their claim by the hydraulic process, with four men. It has paid well for six or seven years.

The railroad claim on Railroad Hill, one mile below the previous claim, has never paid, but has broken several parties who took hold of it. It is now idle. The channel was never found in it.

Wade, Johnson & Co., between Yaqui Gulch and lower Calaveritas, employ

four men in their claim, which they work by drifting, and have obtained moderate pay.

Hedrick, Wilcox & Co., are working with three men, and getting very moderate pay. They erected a cement mill, but the gravel was not rich enough, and the mill was moved to a quartz mine at Fairplay.

The Plug Ugly claim, 800 feet long has yielded $1,100 in one day, and still contains rich ground, Contention among the shareholders has prevented work for two years.

Irvines claim, 1,000 feet long, has been worked for two years, and has paid well. The gravel is so tough that after being slaked for a while it will yield ten times as much in the sluice as it will if washed immediately after coming out of the drift. The proprietor is now erecting a water-mill to hoist and crush the

cement.

The claim of Patrick Gilchrist, 180 feet long, paid well for a short time, but is closed now as if worked out, though some good miners think it still valuable. Marshall and Showalter have 600 feet, and have been at work for 13 years, usually employing six or eight men. Their claim has been very rich, and it yielded nine pounds in one forenoon. The dirt is hoisted by a whim.

The Marlette claim, 600 feet long, was opened about 1857, and work was stopped in 1861, for want of drainage.

The McFall claim, 600 feet long, has been worked for 10 years, and has paid about $10 per day to three men. The proprietor of this claim cut a long drain at considerable expense and solicited some contribution from the claim owners above, but they refused, so he left 20 feet at the head of his claim standing, and this served as a wall to back the water on the Marlette, Marshall, Plug, and Irvine claims, and stopped work in parts of them for five years. Lately they have paid $1,000. The drain has been opened and they have resumed work.

The Dunning claim, 400 feet long, was opened in 1854, and was worked out in five years, during which time it paid about $20 per day to six men. One pan yielded 12 pounds, and in one week $10,000 was taken out.

Here the channel strikes San Andreas gulch, and below this point the old channel is six feet or more below the level of the present stream, in some places 35 feet deeper. For 1,500 feet the channel is under the gulch, and there, bocause of the shallowness of the ground, the diggings were very profitable when first worked. After leaving the bed of the gulch the old channel runs 1,000 yards to Gold Hill, where a remarkable fault is found, the channel having been here broken off and raised up 100 feet perpendicularly by some convulsion of nature. The bed rock, the size, course, and grade of the channel, and the character of the gold and of the strata, all indicate that the Gold Hill diggings belong to the ancient river of San Andreas. The Gold Hill claims paid well, but are now all worked out.

MOKELUMNE HILL.-Mokelumne Hill was for a long time the largest town in the southern mines, and it is now one of the most populous. It is situated on the south bank of the Mokelumne river, but about 800 feet above its level, at a point where an ancient channel has been cut through, leaving a convenient pass for travel from north to south and exposing rich deposits of gold near the surface. The town, instead of being on the summit of a hill, as might be inferred from its name, is rather in a flat or basin, with hills several hundred feet higher both east and west. There are a number of very pretty gardens in the suburbs. Many of the business houses are built of a light lava or tufa, which is found abundantly in the neighborhood. Houses in the town are sold for about onefifth their cost. Mokelumne Hill is a stage centre from which lines run to Stockton, (45 miles,) to Sonora, (50 miles,) through San Andreas, Angels, Vallecito, and Columbia, to Latrobe, (38 miles,) through Jackson, Sutter, and Dry Town, and to West Point, (16 miles.) There is also a horse mail to Campo Seco, 12 miles distant.

In the spring of 1851 three Frenchmen found an extremely rich old channel high up on the side of French Hill, northeast of the town of Mokelumne Hill, and in a few days took out $180,000. They attempted to keep their wealth a secret, but in vain, and some Americans found it out and went into the claim at night and stole from it. One night they dag out a piece weighing 11 pounds, but as it was dirty they did not discover its character in the dark, and threw it aside. The Frenchmen found this piece the next morning, and a piece of candle which had been left behind; so the next night they watched their claim in arms. The robbers, finding themselves foiled, laid claim to the mine, and threatened to take it by force, and the Frenchmen of the neighborhood assembled to defend their countrymen, since, if the claim of one Frenchman could be taken, there would be no security for the others. There was much animosity at the time against foreigners, and the report that the Frenchmen were arming gave great offence, and soon there were two armies ready for the fight. The French viceconsul at Mokelumne Hill acted as mediator, and succeeded in making a compromise, by the terms of which a committee of American miners were placed in possession of the claim to work it until they had taken out enough to pay the expense of the military organization of the Americans, and then to return it to the French owners. The committee worked at the claim for months and worked it out, and the entire sum that they paid from it towards the expenses of the military organization was $1,100, a sum less than the Frenchmen had been in the habit of getting nearly every day. Thus ended the French war, in which many French cabins were burned but nobody was killed; though attempts were made to assassinate several Frenchmen, and one American who, having been appointed to consult with the French consul, took sides with the Frenchmen. Before the compromise was effected the Frenchmen fortified themselves on Corral Hill, but they fled when they saw the enemy coming to storm their works. This discretion saved much bloodshed, for the assailants outnumbered the entrenched party, and they had laid their plans so that the French would be exposed at the time of assault to the fire of an enemy occupying a commanding position in the rear. MOKELUMNE HILL OLD CHANNEL.-The Mokelumne Hill old channel begins or is found at its highest point about a mile cast of the town of that name, near the residence of J. Tynan, and runs thence under Corral Flat, striking Stockton Hill, (at a point between the Stockton Hill upper diggings and the Water Company's claim,) thence passing in a southwardly direction under the Stockton Hill ridge, about 330 feet below the surface, until it strikes Chile gulch, under the Innes & Co. claim, which gulch it then follows down on one side or the other to its intersection with the old San Andreas channel, where the two unite. This channel has been worked to great profit in some of its parts, and others, though opened very thoroughly at great expense, have proved entirely barren. The largest yield has been obtained east of the point where the old channel first strikes Chile gulch, but further down there is a place called Junction, where a number of claims have proved very rich.

The Water Company's claim, 1,800 feet long, in Stockton Hill, southwest of Mokelumne Hill, has been worked by several long tunnels, and has yielded, according to rumor, $110,000.

The Water Company's cement mill, on Chile gulch, near Mokelumne Hill, has 10 stamps, and is driven by 40 inches of water forced under 100 feet head upon a hurdygurdy wheel.

The Paul claim, 2,600 feet long, has been worked continuously for ten years, and has paid well, the net yield, as stated by common report, being $160,000.

The Calaveras Tunnel Company worked from 1857 till 1866, and did remarkably well at first, but afterwards spent much money in hunting for the channel, and made but little gain as the total result of their labors.

The Allen claim, 1,000 feet long, was worked from 1859 to 1865, and was not profitable.

The Innes claim, 1,100 feet long, was worked from 1856 to 1864 by a tunnel 1,400 feet long, which passed over the deep channel, and by four shafts from 45 to 110 feet deep. The result was the loss of nearly all the money invested. The Cubberly claim has yielded some very rich pay gravel.

The Amherst claim, 1,400 feet long, has proved extremely rich. The channel here crosses a streak of soft rock called "rotten granite" by the miners, and this has caught the gold which has slidden over the harder rock. The claim

has been worked for 10 years, paying all the time. For 5 years, 10 or 12 men were employed; now there are 4. It is reported that a partner who had owned half the claim went to the east in 1862 with $28,000. The work was done by drifting for some years, but the tunnels have caved in and now the hydraulic process is used.

The Shaw claim has been worked 10 years, most of the time with large profit. An attempt was made lately to pipe away the dirt through a shaft and tunnel, but the shaft caved in, and it is now necessary to pipe away the dirt from the outside of the hill.

This completes the list of the claims in Stockton Hill, commencing at Mokelumne Hill and running down stream. Mention has been made of but one old channel running under this hill, but really there are two, the smaller one being from 90 to 120 feet above the level of the main old channel. About a mile and a quarter below Mokelumne Hill the upper channel breaks off and seems to fall 90 feet into the lower channel, and it does not appear again below that point.

OPALS.-In the north end of Stockton Hill, almost within the limits of the town of Mokelumne Hill, is an opal-bearing stratum about 60 feet below the surface of the hill. This stratum is a rough gravel enclosed in a tough reddish clay, from six to eighteen inches deep, lying between two layers of volcanic sand. In 1865 three claims were worked for opals, which were obtained in great abundance, but they were of very common quality and did not pay. None of the fire opals were found. The dirt, when taken out, was allowed to dry, and was then broken up with wooden mallets, and the opals, which were from a quarter of an inch to two inches in diameter and white in color on the outside, were picked out by hand. The longest opal tunnel ran 190 feet into the hill.

On one occasion there was much excitement at Mokelumne Hill on account of the rumored discovery of a mine of emeralds and sapphires, and men went out at night with lanterns and staked off a large district in claims. Afterwards they investigated the nature of the first discovery, and came to the conclusion that the supposed precious stones were only pieces of colored glass which had been in the gizzard of a turkey.

CAMPS NEAR MOKELUMNE HILL.-Tunnel Ridge, one mile southeast of Mokelumne Hill, is three miles long, has a cap of volcanic rock, beneath which in places is found a stratum or lead of auriferous gravel, most of which has been worked through tunnels.

Buckeye, two miles east of Mokelumne Hill, has several hydraulic claims, which have been worked for six years. One of them is now paying well.

Buena Vista Hill, four miles northeast of Mokelumne Hill, has four hydraulic claims, which have been worked for ten years with much profit. The ground is very rich, but the water cannot be taken to the top of the hill, and therefore the expenses are great.

Rich Gulch, six miles east of Mokolumne Hill, had very rich surface claims in early days, and still yields well in a few spots.

DOUGLAS FLAT.-Douglas Flat is situated on the limestone belt, which is here a mile wide. The deepest workings are at a depth of 150 feet; and in those places the pay began 125 feet from the surface, and was covered with three strata of volcanic ash, with intervening strata of coarse gravel. The deep claims were worked through shafts, with pumps and hoisting apparatus driven by ditch water. The town has been more permanent than most mining camps because