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feet in length, cost $6,000; another, three thousand eight hundred feet long, having cost $112,000, The flume, seven miles long, runs for one and a half miles through a gallery worked into the side of a precipice of solid rock one hundred feet high-the cliff being so impending that the workmen had to be let down from the top to commence drilling and blasting, an expedient not at all uncommon in the construction of these works in other parts of the State. This main trunk is six feet wide and five feet deep, having capacity to carry eight thousand five hundred inches of water, miner's measurement. From this head ditch branches ramify, carrying water over an immense tract of country, supplying a vast number of mills, hydraulic and sluice claims. This company have thrown dams across the outlets of four lakes situated near the summit of the Sierra, using them as reserves for supplying their canals in the dry season. One of these dams, constructed of solid masonry, forty-two feet high and one thousand one hundred and fifty feet long, at the outlet of Meadow Lake, has increased its volume of water more than ten fold-this lake, formerly a mere pond, now being, when full, more than a mile and a quarter long by half a mile wide. This dam cost over $50,000—an equal sum having been expended in securing, in like manner, the waste flow from four other smaller lakes in the vicinity. The books of this company show that they have constructed and purchased about two hundred and seventy-five miles of these aqueducts at a prime cost of more than $1,000,000. During the twelve years ending in 1867 their expense account reached $1,130,000; receipts for the same time being $1,400,000.

The works of the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company consist of one grand trunk, commencing in four small lakes near the summit of the Sierra, and reaching to North San Juan, sixty-five miles, together with several side ditches purchased of other parties, the whole afterwards consolidated into one system. The principal source of water supply is Eureka lake, increased by damming from an area of one to two square miles, and a depth of sixty-five feet. The dam across its outlet, constructed of granite, is seventy feet high and two hundred and fifty feet long. The supply of water in this reservoir is estimated at nine hundred and thirty-three millions cubic feet, to which may be added a further store secured by damming the outlet of Lake Faucherie, and other smaller reservoirs, amounting to three hundred millions cubic feet. The main trunk, carrying the water from these reservoirs, is eight feet wide by three and a half deep, and has a fall of sixteen and a half feet to the mile, giving it a capacity of over three thousand inches.

The National and Magenta aqueducts, near Eureka, and which from their proximity, may be almost considered one work, exceed in magnitude and cost any other structure of the kind in the State. The former, resting on a scaffolding of immense timbers hewn from trees cut near by, is one thousand eight hundred feet long and sixty-five feet highthe latter, supported in like manner, has a length of one thousand four hundred feet, its greatest height being one hundred and twenty-six feet. This lofty and massive frame work, constructed of so many thousand enormous braces and beams, has been built in curves to give it strength to resist the winds that sometimes sweep with great force through the gorge that it crosses. The main canal, flumes and dams of this company, have cost very nearly one million dollars. The various canals and ditches, which, in December, 1865, became consolidated under the title now borne by this company, are the Eureka Lake canal, sixty-five miles long; Miners' ditch, twenty-five miles; Grizzly ditch, fourteen miles; the two Spring Creek ditches, each twelve miles long; and the Middle Yuba canal, forty miles long. In addition to these main canals there are many lateral and distributing branches, having a united length of over sixty miles, the whole making a total of two hundred and twentyeight miles, the actual cost of which exceeded $1,500,000.

The Middle Yuba canal, taking water from the middle fork of the Yuba, at a point a little above Bloody Run, carries it in a ditch seven feet wide by four and a half deep to Badger Hill, San Juan, Sebastopol, Sweetland, Birchville, and French Corral, a distance of forty miles. It has a capacity of one thousand five hundred inches, and cost originally $400,000. The sum of half a million dollars is estimated to have been spent on projects commenced in 1853 for conducting water from Poorman's creek to Orleans, Moore's and Woolsey's Flats, and for carrying the waters of the Middle Yuba into the adjacent diggings, a portion of which were failures. Of the many subordinate ditches in this county which we have not the space to more fully notice, a number are extensive and costly structures, the aggregate expenditure on the whole having been not less than $1,000,000.

PLACER COUNTY.

This county, so named from the Spanish term placer, signifying a place where gold is found mixed with the alluvial detritus, is bounded by Yuba and Nevada counties on the north, by the State of Nevada on the east, by El Dorado and Sacramento on the south, and by Sutter and Nevada counties on the west. In proportion to its length, it is the narrowest county in the State, being eighty miles long, east and west, and

having an average width of but fourteen miles-a conformation due, as in the case of many other counties lying against the western slope of the Sierra, to the peculiar topography of the country. The rivers flowing in nearly parallel channels down this water shed having divided it into long elevated ridges, it has been found convenient, in many instances, to form the counties out of one or two of these ridges, making their northerly and southerly boundaries the streams running between them. Thus, in the case of Placer, we find Bear river forming, for a long distance, the dividing line between it, Yuba and Nevada on the north, while the middle fork of the American separates it from El Dorado county on the south. With so great an easterly and westerly elongation, the upper portion of the county rests upon the rugged summits of the Sierra, while the lower falls almost to a level with tide water.

As elsewhere throughout this entire tier of mining counties, the winter climate of Placer varies with altitude; the weather being warm and spring-like in the western, and even, mild and pleasant in the central sections thereof, while the eastern are deeply buried beneath the accumulated snows-the tops of the mountains being enveloped in almost constant mists and clouds, and their sides swept by frequent storms.

The north fork of the American river, running centrally through Placer, and the middle fork, cutting it on its southern border, have furrowed this county with terrific cañons, the gorges formed by these streams being from one thousand eight hundred to two thousand five hundred feet deep. In many places their sides have an average slope from top to bottom of more than thirty degrees. The narrowness of these chasms, only sufficiently wide, as a general thing, to give passage to the rivers flowing through them, accounts for the sudden and excessive rise that sometimes takes place in these streams, a stage of fifty or sixty feet above low water mark being reached in the course of a few hours. What further contributes towards these sudden rises, is the general steepness of the water shed about the sources of these rivers, which lies high against the precipitous declivities of the Sierra. With such a body of water rushing down a steeply inclined bed, some proper conception can be formed of the forces that have been operating to excavate these cañons; and when it is considered that a much greater quantity of rain fell on these mountains when the immense glaciers that once nearly covered them were melting away, we have forces supplied more than adequate to the production of these tremendous results. Even some of the tributary cañons to the main streams are very deep and narrow. Several of these, situated high up on the divide, meas

ured by the members of the State Geological Survey, were found to vary in depth from one thousand six hundred to two thousand feet. The precipitous character of these ravines is made apparent by the fact that the summits of their opposing banks are often less than three fourths of a mile asunder, giving to their walls an average slope of nearly forty-five degrees. Observations made by the Geological Survey in certain of these cañons, situated in the vicinity of Last Chance and Deadwood, showed that the auriferous slates, here exposing a vertical section one thousand five hundred feet deep, have, in their upper portions, extending downwards ten or twelve hundred feet, the usual easterly dip of the formation, while, below this point they gradually assume a perpendicular position, and finally curve to the west, establishing their true dip at great depth to be in that direction, and supplying a striking example of the manner in which the upper portions of these slates have been forced over by the gradual pressure of the Sierra from above.

As elsewhere in the more Alpine regions of the Sierra, snow and land slides are of frequent occurrence in the upper portions of this county-hardly a season passing without one-and sometimes several deaths happening from these causes. The track of the Central Pacific railroad, as well also as some of the wagon roads leading over the mountains, have frequently suffered temporary obstruction from land slideslarge patches, sometimes several acres of the steep mountain side, that have become saturated with water, slipping suddenly down and covering them to a depth of many feet, destroying the lives of men and animals overtaken by them. In some instances large sized trees, standing in their natural positions, are brought down on these detached masses, and continue growing as before. The snow slide, a similar phenomenon, is of more common occurrence than the land slide, being also more frequently destructive of life. In the month of March, 1867, a working party consisting of sixty men, employed on the Central Pacific railroad, at a point a little above Donner lake, on the confines of this county, were overwhelmed by a catastrophe of this kind, whereby seventeen of their number lost their lives, many of the survivors having been badly injured. In the same month, nine houses were destroyed, and a woman in one of them crushed to death, by an avalanche of snow, in the Kearsarge district, Inyo county. Near the scene of the first mentioned disaster, six stage horses were killed by a snow slide in January, 1868, while attached to a vehicle filled with passengers, all of whom escaped unhurt. In fact, scarcely a winter passes in which accidents of this kind, attended with fatal results, do not happen in some part of the

State their more frequent occurrence in this particular neighborhood being simply due to the fact that two great thoroughfares, the Central Pacific railroad and the Donner Lake wagon road, lead through it, causing larger numbers to be exposed to their destructive force. These snow slides are caused by a sudden slipping down of great bodies of snow, and not by an agglomeration of the latter rolling and accumulating as it descends, after the manner of the avalanches that occur in the Alps. Where the body of snow moved is heavy a clear path is swept, immense trees being snapped off like reeds, and huge boulders carried along before the descending mass.

The whole of this county is well timbered, except the western portion, which, sinking into the nearly treeless plains of the Sacramento, is without other timber than a few oaks, growing mostly along the water courses. The business of lumbering is carried on extensively in the central and eastern parts of the county, which contain thirty saw mills, each capable of cutting from two to thirty thousand feet of lumber daily, and costing from two to ten thousand dollars. About two thirds of these mills are driven by steam and the rest by water. As is the case generally throughout the mining counties, rough lumber, at the mills, sells at prices varying from fifteen to twenty dollars per thousand.

Placer contains a considerable amount of good agricultural land, its western part being wholly devoted to farming, sheep, hog and cattle raising. About seventy-five thousand acres of land were enclosed in 1867, of which nearly two thirds were under cultivation. Of these, about six thousand were planted to wheat, five thousand to barley, and three thousand to oats; a variety of other grains, with large quantities of butter, cheese, fruits and vegetables, being produced. In fact, Placer holds a conspicuous place among the mining counties for its orchards, vineyards and gardens, the number of vines and fruit trees planted being very large. There are three grist mills in the county— one, the Auburn City mill capable of grinding seventy-five barrels of flour daily—the others being of less capacity.

The present population of the county is estimated at twelve thousand, of whom one thousand two hundred are residents of Auburn, the county seat, once the center of a broad scope of rich placers, and in the vicinity of which a considerable amount of quartz mining is still being carried on. The votes cast in this county at the general election held in the fall of 1867 numbered two thousand six hundred and seventy.

Dutch Flat, an active mining town on the line of the Central Pacific railroad, thirty-two miles northeast of Auburn, contains a population

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