es and brooks, the water-worn gravel, the remains of fresh-water molflat stones pointing down stream, the heaps of gravel formed by eddrift-wood, and the deposit of coarse gold in the centre and deep places annel-unmistakable evidences of a stream that had existed for cenere all distinctly recognizable.

e ancient rivers the gold was distributed in the same manner as in the present geological era, but in greater abundance and usually in rticles, as though it had not been subjected to so much wear. imeval streams were intersected in places by water courses of our own these latter were usually richer just below the points of intersection ny other places.

rgest and most noted of the ancient river beds yet discovered in Calilled the Blue lead, runs nearly through the middle of Sierra and Nenties, has a width varying from a hundred to three hundred yards, and traced nearly forty miles.

rse is at right angles to that of the present streams in the same neighThe amount of gold taken from its bed has never been ascertained, not be less than $25,000,000, and perhaps twice as much.

25.-THE TUOLUMNE TABLE MOUNTAIN.

aveller in the mining districts frequently sees "table mountains ;" that ocky elevations, with flat surfaces and steep sides. They are evidently of lava floods, from which the earth, by which they were once surhas been washed away, leaving the basalt towering above the adjatry.

ost remarkable of these table mountains is in Tuolumne county, through ns the Stanislaus river, and with the same general course.

gth, with its bends, is about thirty-five miles, its height from three hunone thousand feet above the clay and gravel near it, and its width from to half a mile. The smoothness of its surface, the gradual inclinahe westward, the basaltic nature of the rock, its proximity to a centre volcanic activity, and various other circumstances which cannot be ere in detail, leave no room for doubt that this table mountain is a solidof lava.

miners, sinking a shaft at a place where the lava had been carried aving the sandstone or gravel under it bare, found gold, and some ners, working along the side of the mountain, found a rich streak of which ran down in a deep rocky channel obliquely under the mounhey attempted to follow it, but they soon met a body of water, which ld neither avoid nor pump out. This put them on nettles. Further tion showed that there were other little channels running under the n and on both sides, and all going deeper as they went further in, and Il tending westward, with a course oblique to that of the mountain, and ining more or less gold.

must, then, be an ancient river bed under the mountain. This opinion, d by a few men without education, who wished to induce wealthy men to ke the exploration of the mo ntain by tunnels, was met by incredulity cule. Nevertheless, the projectors of the scheme had got the idea fixed minds, and they were determined to see what the mountain was made e storekeepers, in accordance with the general custom of assisting in ng the resources of their own neighborhood, willingly trusted them for ns, tools, and clothes, while they were cutting a tunnel to reach the bed upposed ancient river.

commenced their work at some distance from the basalt, and after cutough clay and gravel reached a slate rock, which seemed to have been the an

cient bank, and then they came to a bed of gravel of such character tl theory of the primeval river was fully established. But the tunnel w deep enough.

It was far above the bed rock, and the water stood, as before, betwe miner and the gold. Months of labor had been lost, and it was uncertai ther the next tunnel would strike the right level, nor could it be known w the bed would be rich enough to pay. Nevertheless, hope and confiden chief divinities of the miner, and he is happy in their smiles even when tion is his companion and when experience tells him that no gold fortun store, continued to sustain him.

The Table mountain prospectors, however, had reason and experience, as hope and confidence, to cheer them, and the second tunnel was unde with the encouragement of many men who had sneered at the first. Th elevation had been struck this time, the bottom of the river bed was r and was drained by the tunnel, and the gravel was found to be extremel Ten feet square of superficial area yielded $100,000. A pint of grav unfrequently contained a pound of gold. The whole mountain wa

claimed.

the ea

The State echoed with the discovery. A stream of lava had filled bed of an ancient river for thirty miles, and in the course of ages slate that once formed the banks were washed away, leaving the basalt t the position of the golden treasure. Other similar deposits were four where, and other explorations, as bold in their conception but less succes less important in their results, were undertaken in nearly every county.

26. THE FRASER FEVER.

The years 1856 and 1857 were marked by no peculiar excitement or change. The working of the gullies and river bars and beds was gradu coming less profitable and productive, the quartz and ditch interests co to grow larger, wages kept their downward tendency, and the number laborers increased.

In 1858 the State received a shock that was felt in every fibre of her and industrial organization. Rich diggings were found in the spring of Fraser river, and it was asserted and presumed that there were large excellent placers in the upper basin of the stream. The presumption without its foundation in experience and reason, but after all it was bu sumption.

The miners, however, were not disposed to listen to any doubts; th ready to sacrifice everything in the hope of finding and being the first another virgin gold field like that of California.

In the course of four months, 18,000 men, nearly one-sixth of all th in the State went to Fraser river, and many thousands of others were p for an early start. The confident belief prevailed that "the good old ti '49 were to come again.

Servants threw up their positions, farmers and miners left their valual erty, wages rose, houses and land fell in value, and many persons belie California would soon be left without a tenth part of her population.

All this excitement was made before any gold had been received in Sa cisco, and before there was any direct and trustworthy evidence of the e of paying diggings beyond the limits of a few bars, which could not gi pation to more than a hundred men.

Suddenly, and with no material addition to the evidence, the convicti on the people that Fraser river would not pay, and five-sixths of th miners had returned before the end of the year.

* 27.-DISCOVERY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE.

y of emigrants discovered placer diggings on Gold cañon, a little of Carson river, east of the Sierra Nevada, in 1849, and a permanent imp was established there in 1852.

observed that the gold contained a large proportion of silver, in some arly one-half in value, but this fact was not without precedent in the ? California, and was regarded simply as a misfortune for the miner, who eceive more than $10 or $12 an ounce for his dust, while that obtained stern slope of the Sierra usually sold for $17 or $18.

old cañon diggings had been worked for seven years, and gave employbout fifty men, when, in the spring of 1859, the miners, following up a k of placer gold, came upon a quartz lode in the place now known as

I.

le of months later, some miners, in following up a placer lead in which was mixed with about an equal weight of silver, came on the lode from e metal had been washed down.†

were working here in a rude way, with no idea of the value of their en James Walsh, an intelligent quartz miner from Grass valley, passed

edit of this discovery has been claimed by so many parties, and the testimony is so that I am induced to give at least two of the popular versions. Substantially upon the main points. (See section 4, Resources of Nevada.)

arlette, surveyor general of Nevada, in his annual report for 1865, gives the foltory of the discovery of the Comstock lode :

2, H. B. and E. A. Grosch or Grosh, sons of A. B. Grosh, a Universalist clergyman rable note, and editor of a Universalist paper at Utica, New York, educated mecame to the then Territory, and the same or the following year engaged in plain Gold cañon near the site of Silver City, and continued there until 1857, when, can learn, they first discovered silver ore, which was found in a quartz vein, e one now owned by the Kossuth Gold and Silver Mining Company, on which rothers had a location.

y after the discovery, in the same year, one of the brothers accidentally wounded th a pick, from the effects of which he soon died, and the other brother went to where he died early in 1858, which probably prevented the valuable nature of their rom becoming known. In the mean time placer mining was carried on to considnt in various localities, principally in Gold cañon.

7, Joe Kirby and others commenced placer mining in Six Mile cañon, about half w where the Ophir works now are, and worked at intervals with indifferent suc$59. On the 22d day of February, 1858, the first quartz claim was located in ining district, on the Virginia croppings, by James Finney, generally known as ia, from whom the city of Virginia and the cropping have taken their name. he considered the first location of the Comstock lode, unless we consider the aim as upon one branch of the Comstock, which may not be impossible in case he one lode system, for the lode is about one hundred feet in thickness, and its ld take it to the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, as explorations prove, as I have ed, the Virginia croppings to be the outcrop of the western portion of the Com

scovery of rich deposits of silver ore was not made until June, 1859, when Peter and Patrick McLaughlin, while engaged in gold washing on what is now the the Ophir Mining Company, and near the south line of the Mexican Company's overed a rich vein of sulphuret of silver in an excavation made for the purpose g water to use in their rockers in washing for gold. This discovery being on ground the time by Kirby and others, Comstock was employed to purchase their claim, omstock's name has been given to this great lode, by which those entitled to the s discovery have been defrauded-a transaction, to compare small things with iscreditable as that by which Americus Vespucius bestowed his name upon the ntinent, an honor due alone to the great Columbus.

this discovery resulted the marvellous growth of Nevada. Immediately the lode ed for miles; an unparalleled excitement followed, and miners and capitalists cat numbers to reap a share of the reported wealth. The few hardy prospectors he mountains for hidden wealth soon counted their neighbors by thousands; ed along miles of busy streets, called into existence by the throng of adventurers, he prospectors were ransacking almost every part of the (at present) State of Nerch of silver lodes."

1

their place and examined their mine. His attention was attracted by th gray stone which he suspected was silver ore, and as an assay of it he ton and a half of it to San Francisco, where it was sold for $3,000 p He and some friends then bought out four of the five partners, paying $ for four-fifths of 1,800 feet, or at the rate of $14 per foot.

Some shafts sunk on the vein showed that the gray stone, a rich sulpl silver, could be obtained in large quantities. The lode was soon claime as it could be traced, and the market value of the shares rose so rapid before the end of the year $1,000 a foot had been offered for a portion lode.

28.-THE WASHOE EXCITEMENT.

The excitement about the silver mines spread throughout California spring of 1860, and thousands of miners crossed the mountains to work newly-discovered mines or to seek for others.

In every town companies were formed to equip and send out prospect the work was continued on a large scale for three years. Thousands of miles, never before visited by white men, were explored and examin many thousands of metalliferous lodes were found and claimed.

It was in 1860 that the silver districts of Esmeralda, Bodie, Potos and Humboldt were discovered, besides many others of less note. T silver mining town grew up at the Comstock lode, and was soon the ho large and excited population. Every man owned thousands of feet of erous lodes, and considered himself either possessed of a fortune or of soon acquiring one.

The confidence in the almost boundless wealth of the country was u but many were bothered to convert their ore into ready cash. en w sidered themselves millionaires had sometimes not enough money to pa dinner, and in their dress they looked like beggars.*

The following extract from a letter written at Virginia, in April, 1860, gives a ture of the condition of society there at that time:

"Of a certainty, right here, is Bedlam broke loose. One cannot help thinki passes through the streets, that all the insane geologists extant have been corral place. Most vehement is the excitement. I have never seen men act thus elsewh even in the earlier stages of the California gold movement were they so delirious. business of metalliferous discovery. Hundreds and thousands are now here, wh that they may never have another chance to make a speedy fortune, are resolved not pass unimproved. They act with all the concentrated energy of those having of life and death before them. They demean themselves not like rationa! beings Even the common modes of salutation are changed. Men, on meeting, do not in each other's health, but after their claims. They do not remark about the weather is, but about out-croppings, assays, sulphurets, &c. They do not extend their token of friendship on approaching, but pluck from their well filled pockets a bi and, presenting it, mutually inquire what they think of its looks. During the stand apart, talking in couples, pointing mysteriously hither and yon; and d night mutter in their sleep of claims and dips and strikes, showing that the thoughts are still occupied with the all-absorbing subject. I shall be able to conv readers some idea of the intensity of this mining mania, when I assure them that tion of the American people do not even ask after newspapers, nor engage in the of politics. Little care they whom you choose President; conventioas and elect and rumors of wars, are nothing to them. They have their own world here. Her by the Sierra and the mountains of Utah, spread over the foot-hills and the de theatre beyond which their thoughts are not permitted to roam; to this their aspir aims are all confined. Whatever of energy, ambition, and desire are elsewhere ex love, war, politics, and religion, are here all devoted to this single pursuit of fin ing, selling, and trading m mines of silver and gold. Everybody makes haste to and so great is the mental tension in this direction, that it may well be questione if a sweeping disappointment should overtake them, many will not be reduced to a of absolute lunacy. What guarantee this wildly-excited multitude have against t ing of this fearful contingency, I am not fully prepared to say, having, as yet, no

29.-THE BARREL AND YARD PROCESSES.

was much difficulty in extracting the metal even from the richest ore. ere no mills to crush the rock, no skilful metallurgists to reduce the ore, onfident opinion in regard to the best means of extraction. The simple used for reducing auriferous quartz would not suffice. The gold the metallic form, and so soon as the rock is pulverized can be obtained ing or amalgamation. But silver is in chemical combination with bstances, and must be separated from them by chemical influences before I will submit to unite with quicksilver, by which it must usually be

e silver produced in civilized countries was obtained by two processes, erg German barrel, and the Mexican yard or patio. In the German three hundred pounds of the ore, finely pulverized, are mixed with the thickness of cream, and after the addition of some salt, iron pyrites, f iron, and quicksilver are put into a strong barrel, and kept revolving for fourteen hours, at the end of which time the silver and quicksilver ted, and they can easily be separated from the mud by washing. The tre rapidly worn out, the amount of work done is little, and the labor is much. In the Mexican process the pulverized ore is mixed with alt, iron pyrites, and quicksilver, and left out in an open yard for three he mass being stirred or trodden with mules occasionally. This mode ing is very slow, and is unsuited to the cool climate of Nevada, in lati›, and at an elevation of 5,000 or 6,000 feet above the sea.

30. THE PAN PROCESS.

was a general belief that some mode of amalgamation better than either could and would be devised, so while one set of men were engaged in and opening mines, another set were busy in studying a mode for reThe ores. A satisfactory result was not reached for several years, but it last in the invention of the pan process, as distinguished from the barrel 1 processes.

an is of cast-iron, about five feet in diameter and eighteen inches deep. hundred or a thousand pounds of ore are put in with salt, iron pyrites, wer, and enough water to make a thin mud. A muller revolves on the of the pan, and serves to grind the matter, which is not fine enough, and gs all the particles of the ore into contact with the chemicals and the ver. Besides the motion of the muller, various devices are used to keep ular current, so that all portions of the mixture are successively brought ttom, and exposed to the action of the quicksilver. In some pans heat d. The American process extracts silver from the common sulphuret oroughly as any other process, with much more rapidity, and with less It is, therefore, in almost universal use in the American silver mines Pacific slope, and has been introduced into Mexico, where it will probtime supersede the yard process. While the metallurgists were worky at their pans, the miners generally were afraid to erect mills lest and machinery might be unsuited to the new modes of working. nills that were built charged $50 and $60 per ton for crushing and

e subject much examination since my return. To attempt eliciting information e now here, only tends to confuse and complicate what is already incomprehension talk with one man, he is only concerned lest the argentiferous metal be renthless by the superabundance here met with; while another, with equal opportu 1 perhaps better ability for forming a correct judgment, derides the idea of there silver apart from the Comstock vein, telling you that the whole thing is an inHamid, having that truly wonderful lead for a base."