MARIPOSA MILLS.-The Benton mills, built to work the quartz from the Pine Tree and Josephine mines, stands in a deep cañon on the Mercer river, by the water of which they were driven; but the dam which supplied the water was carried off by a flood, and the mills have been standing idle. The number of stamps is 64.

The Bear Valley mill has 12 stamps. At this mill the Lundgren pulverizer and the Ryerson amalgamator are now being used.

The Lundgren pulverizer is a barrel five feet in diameter and three feet in length, made of boiler iron three-eighths of an inch thick, heavily riveted. Inside, the barrel is shod with iron shoes an inch thick. A door a foot wide and two feet long is placed lengthwise on the side of the barrel. There are two of these barrels at the Bear Valley mill, and the cost of the two with their gearing was $2,300; but if many were demanded they could no doubt be made for $1,000 each. The barrels revolve horizontally, making 24 revolutions per minute, and requiring a six-horse power engine for two of them. A charge is 800 pounds of quartz and 2,400 pounds of ounce musket balls made of chilled iron. The quartz, previous to going into the barrel, is crushed to about the size of grains of wheat, and after being in the barrel one hour comes out an impalpable powder, as fine as the finest flour. The powder is so fine that if it were pounded dry in the open air much of it would float away. The thoroughness of the pulverization is claimed to be the great advantage of this machine.

The quartz powder is transferred from the barrel into the Ryerson amalgamator, an upright barrel, made of strong boiler iron, with a bottom shaped like an inverted cone, round which winds a pipe pierced with a number of little holes. The barrel being charged and closed, superheated steam is thrown in and then. quicksilver, which is converted into vapor and made to pervade, the whole mass. A cold bath condenses the quicksilver, and the charge is discharged into a shaking table or settler.

The amount worked daily by these processes is nine tons of Josephine ore, and the yield varies from $39 to $173 per ton, with an average of $45, at an expense of $6 50 per ton. The rock thus worked is taken without selection from the pay chimney, and the body of ore now in sight, and presumed to be of the same quality, is 280 feet high, 45 feet wide longitudinally on the same vein, and 3 feet thickan amount equivalent to 940 tons. It is presumed that the body of the quartz of that quality is much more extensive, both horizontally and vertically, than the present shafts have gone.

The mills of the Mariposa estate are the Benton, 64 stamps; the Mariposa, 28 stamps; the Mount Ophir, 28 stamps; the Princeton, 24 stamps, and the Bear valley, 12 stamps-making 156 stamps in all.

The yield of the estate was $474,000 in 1860; $642,000 in 1861; $522,000 in 1862; $385,000 (with $50,000 net per month) in the first five months of 1863; $481,832 in 1864; and $230,000 in 1865. During the first half of 1867 the mines and mills all stood idle; but of late a little work has been done with the Ryerson and Lundgren processes.

The Stockton creek mill, used by Mr. Barnett for working the quartz of the Mariposa mine while he was lessee, contains ten stamps, with square wooden stems and wooden collars, driven by water and a wooden wheel. There was & self-feeder or hopper to supply the batteries with quartz, and the pulp, after leav ing the mortar, was ground in an arrastra. The mill is a mile east of Mariposa, and has been idle for two years.

HUNTER'S VALLEY, Oaks and Reese.-The Oaks and Reese mine, called also the Potts, is 3,000 feet long, in Hunter's valley, 16 miles northwest of the county seat. The claim includes two veins, 1,200 feet on one which runs northeast and southwest and dips to the southeast at an angle of 65°, and 1,600 feet on another which runs northeast and southwest. The former is one of a series of parallel veins; the latter is known as the Blue Lead, and it is remarkable,

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because the numerous cross leads running at right angles are found only south of it, and appear to be cut off by it. The Blue Lead is nearly vertical, from 12 to 30 inches wide, yields $45 to the ton, and has been opened to a depth of 165 feet and a length of 150 feet. The other vein is six feet wide, yields $20 to the ton, has been opened to a depth of 165 feet, and to a length of 50 feet. The mine has been worked with a four-stamp mill, but a new twelve-stamp mill has been erected, and it began to run on the 7th of October. The copper aprons below the battery are plated with silver, with which mercury forms an amalgam more readily than with copper, and the apron will be in the highest state of efficiency immediately, whereas several weeks' time would be required if the surface were of copper. The plating is done by galvanism and cost $5 per square foot. Baux and Guiod's pans are used for grinding. The mill is driven by steam, and also the hoisting apparatus. The quartz is let down from the mouth of the mine to the mill in a tramway, and the loaded cars as they go down pull up the empty ones. The transportation does not cost more than $1 50 per day. The yield of the mine has been $30,000. A patent has been applied for. The Floyd mine on one of the southern spurs of the Blue Lead has paid well, but now produces nothing.

The same remark applies to the Carson mine, which has a five-stamp mill standing idle.

EPPERSON.—The Epperson mine on Bear creek, six miles east is on a vein which runs east and west and dips to the north. 60 feet deep, and a drift 20 feet long has been run on the lode. have been worked, and the yield was from $9 to $13 per ton. stamp mill which, with the mine, is standing idle.

of Coulterville, There is a shaft About 200 tons There is a nine

BLACK.—The Black mine is sixteen miles eastward from Coulterville, on the Blue Lead, which runs east and west and dips to the south. The hanging wall is mountain limestone and the foot wall yellow slate, and the vein stone contains marble. The average yield is about $40 per ton, or was for all the work done. The mine has been standing idle now for several years on account of the water, which at times has risen nearly to the surface. A shaft was sunk to a depth of 170 feet. There is no mill; all the crushing was done with an arrastra.

FERGUSON. The Ferguson mine, 25 miles eastward from Coulterville, has been worked five or six years. The ore yields from $25 to $100 per ton, and is worked in a ten-stamp mill driven by water.

LOUISIANA. The Louisiana mine, ten miles eastward from Coulterville, is 3,600 feet long, on a vein that runs northwest and southeast, dips to the northeast, and has a width varying from 2 to 16 feet. The quartz contains sulphurets of iron, zinc and lead. The free gold amounts to $6 or $8 per ton. The vein has been opened to a depth of 140 feet and a length of 130 feet by drifts from the bottom of the main shaft; but there are a number of shafts 15 or 20 feet deep, and gold has been found in all of them. The ore is easily extracted, but the slate walls require much timber to support them. Along the foot wall there is a streak of soft yellow sandstone six or eight inches thick. The mine makes much water, and at the first of June the pump hoisted 37,000 gallons daily. There is a 10-stamp mill which has lain idle for several years, but has lately commenced to run again.

FLANNIGAN.—The Flannigan mine, 10 miles eastward from Coulterville, was discovered in July, 1861, near the summit of a ridge, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet above the sea. A miner working a placer claim in a gulley found a rich spot, where he picked up, among other pieces, a nugget that weighed an ounce and a boulder as large as a man's head containing $87. He searched for a quartz vein and found this one. It runs north and south, cuts across the slates, dips to the west, and is five feet wide. There are smooth slate walls on both sides, and there is a putty gouge three inches thick. All the rock so far found is rich enough to pay, and the average yield is $35. The mine has been worked

with an arrastra for six years, but there are now 500 tons of ore stacked up at 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.

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 out. 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 cast and west, and dips to the south. The average thickness is three feet, but in places the lode pinches out. ribbon rock, and all of it pays for working. It is found in chimneys, which dipThe quartz is a 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.