The Tazewell,* S00 feet; the Donovan & Co.;* the McCann,* 600 feet; the Mooney & Co., 600 feet, has a four-stamp mill in profitable operation working the talcose vein; the Trio,* 2,316 feet, has a 10-stamp mill; the Harris, 1,000 feet, has no mill, but is being opened; the Williams & Brother, 1,000 feet, has no mill, but is being opened; the Reist, 1,000 feet, has a four-stamp mill, and is paying; the General Hooker,* 1,200 feet; the Rawhide Extension is doing nothing now, though there is a shaft 200 feet deep, which always contains water, sometimes to within 20 feet of the surface; in the Rawhide claim adjoining there is a working shaft 280 feet deep, and only 40 feet distant. The Rawhide, 1,650 feet, is owned by a New York company, and has a 20-stamp mill.

The Hensley & Co.,* 1,300 feet; the Faxon,* 1,000 feet; the Quinby, 1,000 feet, on the eastern talcose companion vein, has a four-stamp mill which has been idle for years; the Chaparral, 1,500 feet, has a five-stamp mill, but is not running; the Buckeye, 1,200 feet, is on a branch vein 200 feet west of the main mother lode, opposite to the Chaparral.

*

The Horsely, 1,500 feet, has sunk a shaft 20 feet deep; the Meader & Carrington,* 1,500 feet, has a four-stamp mill; the Hawkeye,* 1,000 feet; the Silver Hill,* 1,500 feet; the Gillis,* 1,200 feet; the Gillis No. 2,* 1,200 feet; the Seavers,* 1,000 feet; the Watt*; the Alsop & Co.,* reaches to the Stanislaus river.

The following claims are on an eastern branch or companion vein of the mother lode, commencing at the Rawhide, and running northward to the Stan

islaus river.

*

First is a piece of unclaimed ground where no lode has been found. The White Senior claim; the Tom White,* 1,200 feet; the Patterson, has a 10stamp mill, but only five are running; the Gillis, *1,200 feet; the Jackson; the Waters; the Rector,* 1,200 feet, has sunk a shaft 52 feet deep; the Watts, 1,000 feet, is now at work prospecting, about $15,000 have been taken from small veins at the surface; the Mt. Stanislaus,* 3,000 feet.

This brings us to the Stanislaus river, in the bed of which no large vein is discoverable. Here, as at Maxwell's creek, the lode is split up into a multitude of little branches.

CLAIMS IN CALAVERAS.-Immediately north of the Stanislaus river, on the line of the mother lode, Carson hill rises to an elevation of 1,600 feet above the river; and the lode in passing through the hill appears to split into three branches. On the eastern branch are the following, viz: the Virginia,* 1,000 feet; the Adjunction,* 800 feet; the Carson Hill, has done some work, but is not doing anything now; the South Carolina, 2,550 feet, has yielded $400,000, and is now closed; the Enterprise, 800 feet; the Reserve, 980 feet, is being reopened, but has no mill, the yield has been $130,000.

*

These are all the claims on the eastern branch. On the middle branch are the following, commencing at the river, and running northward: the Stanislaus,* 1,200 feet; the Mineral Mountain,* 3,000 feet; the Melones,* 1,200 feet.

On the western or Santa Cruz branch is the Santa Cruz mine, 3,000 feet; the Morgan, 500 feet, has no mill, but is at work, yielded $2,800,000 in 1850 and 1851; the Kentucky,* 220 feet; the Iron Rock, 1,300 feet, is doing nothing, though some very good rock was found in short tunnels and shafts; the Chaparral,* 3,031 feet; the Chaparral Hill, 3,200 feet, is now at work taking out rock,

but has no mill.

Here comes a space where the vein has not been found.

The Hanford, 900 feet;* the Hanford and Shears.*

Here comes an interval of a mile and three-quarters, before we reach the town of Angels.

The Stickles, 400 feet, has a 10-stamp mill at work; the Calaveras,* 1,100 feet, had a nine-stamp mill which was moved away; the Lightner, 400 feet,* had a 10-stamp mill, but it has been moved away; the Angel, 900 feet, has a 30-stamp

mill, now at work; the Hill, 412 feet, has produced $250,000, and has a 12stamp mill at work; the Bovee, 450 feet, has produced $600,000, and has a 10stamp mill at work; the Fritz,* 600 feet, had a 10-stamp mill, which was moved

away.

Here comes another space where the mother lode is not traceable on the surface, and has not been traced. The general opinion is that it crosses the Mokelumne river about three miles west of Mokelumne Hill.

CLAIMS IN AMADOR.-North of that river, in Amador county, we have the following: the Tibbetts & Corliss; the Hayward, 1,800 feet, has 56 stamps at work, crushing 80 tons per day, and has been at work since 1852, the reputed yield is $27 per ton gross, and $22 net, or more than $600,000 net per year; the Loring Hill, 700 feet, has been worked for 10 years. Opposite to the Loring Hill, on a parallel vein, is the Railroad, 800 feet. This mine has yielded $70,000, and is now at work, but has no mill. The Wildman, 1,130 feet, is down 530 feet, and has drifted 200 feet, but the 12-stamp mill is employed in doing custom-work; the Mahoney has been working five years, with a 15-stamp mill; the Lincoln, 2,378 feet, has worked 10 or 12 years, but the 20-stamp mill is now engaged in custom-work; the Barnhart,** 1,000 feet; the Comet, 750 feet, has commenced prospecting; the Herbertville, 1,200 feet, had a 30-stamp mill, which never paid, and was burned down. No work is being done at the mine. The Keystone, has a 20-stamp mill, has worked steadily since 1851, and has produced about $700,000. Opposite to the Keystone, on a companion vein, is the Spring Hill, 1,200 feet, which has crushed 50,000 tons of quartz, but obtained little profit. It has a 30-stamp mill, which is idle, with the exception of five stamps engaged in custom-work. The Amador, 1,300 feet, was worked to a depth of 240 feet some years ago, but afterwards caved in, and has stood idle now, for some time; the Bunker Hill, 1.200 feet, is at work with an eight-stamp mill; the Mayflower,* 1,200 feet; the Hazard,* 800 feet, has an eight-stamp mill; the Pennsylvania,* 1,000 feet; the Loyal,* 600 feet, has a 20-stamp steam mill; the Italian, 340 feet, has a six-stamp mill, which has crushed about 2,000 tons; the Seaton, 1,200 feet, has a 40-stamp mill, and has worked about 10,000 tons of quarts, which averaged eight or nine dollars. The mill is not. running, but the mine is being opened. The McDonald,* 800 feet; the Potosi, 800 feet, is at work with a sixteen-stamp mill; the Webster,* 600 feet, had a mill, which was moved away; the Plymouth, 1,200 feet, is being worked with a 15-stamp mill; the Enterprise, is at work with a 10-stamp mill; the Challen,* 1,000 feet; the Green Aden,* 1,200 feet, has a shaft 100 feet deep; the Hooper,* 1,200 feet; the Noe,* 800 feet; the Richmond, 800 feet, has a 10-stamp mill, but the only work now being done is prospecting.

Here we reach the Cosumnes river, and north of this the lode has not been traced distinctly, although the Pacific lode at Placerville appears to have its characteristics.

SECTION III.

MARIPOSA COUNTY.

Mariposa county, the southernmost of the rich placer mining counties of the Sacramento basin, lies between parallels 37° and 38° of north latitude, and reaches from the summit of the Sierra Nevada to the low land of the San Jonquin valley. The northern boundary is the divide between the Tuolumne and Mercede rivers, and the southern is a line drawn northeastward from the point

The name of this county is derived from the Spanish Las Mariposas," The Butterflies.

where the Chowchilla river strikes the plain. The only permanent stream in the county is the Merced; the so-called Mariposa river is a little brook which can readily be stepped across in the summer season.

The distance of the town of Mariposa from Stockton is 90 miles, and the ordinary charge for freight in the summer is $25 per ton of 2,000 pounds. A stage runs to Bear Valley in a day from Stockton, and the fare is $10. Another stage line runs to Coulterville, and the fare there is $10, and the distance is made in one day. The county tax for the current fiscal year is $3 19 per $100 of taxable property. Coulterville lies north and Bear Valley south of the Mercede river, the banks of which, in that vicinity, are so steep and high that no wagon road has been made across it; and although the distance from one town to the other by the horse trail is only 10 miles, it is 45 by the wagon road.

Sectional area of Mariposa county, 1,884 square miles. Population in 1860, 6,243; estimated in 1866, 4,170. Assessed valuation of property in 1865, $1,237,370. Mr. Wm. S. Watson, constructing engineer of the projected Copperopolis and Stockton railroad says: "From the nature of the country and the pursuits of the inhabitants, Mariposa imports of merchandise 4,240 tons per annum, which, with an increase of population to the standard of Nevada county, and the consequent development of her vast resources, would be quadrupled in a very short time. The down freights from this county, consisting of copper ores, wool, hides, &c., amount to 920 tons annually. The principal points of shipping are Hornitas, Princetown, Agua Frie, Mariposa, Coulterville and Bear Valley. Total up and down freights, 5,160 tons."

The shipment of gold dust from Coulterville was $13,285 in July, 1866; $13,500 in August; $17,000 in September; $24,900. in October; $14,790 in November; $7,280 in December, $4,950 quartz and $9,484 placer in January, 1867; $11,050 placer and $14,800 in March; and $8,080 quartz and $3,660 placer in April.

The average monthly shipment of treasure from the town of Mariposa is $17,000 or $18,000.

There are two small ditches south of the Mercede river, and a branch of the Golden Rock ditch extending to Peñon Blanco, and these are the only ditches in the county. In proportion to the yield of gold, Mariposa has fewer ditches than any other county in the State.

PLACER MINING.-Many of the placer districts in the county have been very rich, but the diggings have in no place been deep, and they would long ago have been exhausted if there had been large ditches to supply water; but these were lacking, so washing has been conducted on a small scale, and for only a brief period each year. The richness of the ground and the coarseness of the gold has enabled the miners to make a profit sometimes by dry digging or scratching the gravel over with a butcher-knife. Maxwell's Creek, Blue Gulch, Bear Creek, White's Gulch, Peñon Blanco, the north fork of the Mercede, the banks of the main Mercede, and the vicinities of the towns of Mariposa and Hornitas were especially rich. In Maxwell's Creek, about 1852, the common yield was $15 or $20 per day to the man, and in 1863 two miners in two months washed out $16,000 at Peñon Blanco. In 1850 Horse Shoe Bend, on the Mercede, had a population of 400 miners. There are now a dozen small and shallow hydraulic claims there, which pay about $4 per day to the man. The population of the bend numbers 100, of whom half are Chinamen. On the top of Buckhorn mountain, east of Coulterville, at an elevation 1,500 feet above the Mercede river, there is a placer which pays well while it rains, but cannot be worked at any other time for want of water. Flyaway, in a gully by the side of Buckhorn mountain, is also rich, but there, too, no water can be got save during rains.

AGRICULTURE.There is no agriculturo in Mariposa county worthy of note. There is not one large orchard, vineyard, or grain farm. Only a small quantity of rain falls, and the soil appears to be of a very dry nature. A large portion

of the surface is occupied by steep hills, which prove their thirsty character by sustaining no vegetation save the chemisal. There are no ditches to sustain irrigation, and as the most populous part of the county was the Mariposa grant, the residents there having no title had no sufficient inducement to invest money in planting trees and vines. The western part of the county is made up chiefly of chemisal hills, with occasionally small dales with scattered oak trees. In the eastern part of the county there are some plains about 3,000 feet high, and these have a rich and moist soil and may some day become far more valuable than they are now. Still farther east, at an elevation of 5,000 feet or more, we come to large forests of good pine timber, with occasional groves of the big tree.

YOSEMITE. One of the resources of the county is the possession of the Yosemite valley, which is destined to be a favorite place of resort when access is cheaper and more comfortable than at present. The trip can now be made from San Francisco to the valley and back in eight days for $75, staying only a day in the valley, but the average amount spent on the trip by visitors is not less than $150. On the Coulterville trail there is a stretch of 39 miles to be made on horseback, with no house on the way; and on the Mariposa trail the nearest house to the valley is 25 miles off. Thus there is no mode of reaching the place except a hard ride over a very rugged road, and it is a severe trial to persons unaccustomed to riding horseback. A wagon road might be made, but some of the people on the route think it their policy to prevent the construction of a road. Near the Mariposa trail is a fine grove of the big trees. The number of visitors to Yosemite in 1864 was 240; in 1865, 360; and in 1866, 620. THE MARIPOSA ESTATE.-The Mariposa Estate, or Frémont Grant, as it is sometimes called, contains 44,380 acres, or about 70 square miles. It reaches 12 miles from east to west, and 12 miles from north to south. Its greatest length, from northwest to southeast, is about 17 miles, and its average width nearly 5 miles. Its northern line touches the Mercer river, the southern the town of Bridgeport. It includes the towns of Mariposa, Bridgeport, Guadalupe, Arkansas Flat, Lower Agua Fria, Upper Agua Fria, Princeton, Mount Ophir, and Bear Valley. The grant was made while California was under the dominion of Mexico, to Juan B. Alvarado, and it was purchased in 1847 by J. C. Frémont, who presented his claim for the land to the United States land commission, and it was finally confirmed to him, and the patent was issued February, 1856. The original grant was of land suitable for grazing purposes in the basin of the Mariposa river, but the boundaries were not fixed, and the grantee had the right of locating the claim on any land within a large area. When the grant was to be surveyed Frémont said he wanted a long strip of land in the low-land on both banks of the Mariposa river; but the United States surveyor told him the survey must be in a compact form. Then, instead of taking a compact area of grazing land and worthless mountain, he swung his grant round and covered the valuable Pine Tree and Josephine mines, near the Mercede river, besides a number of others which had been in the undisputed possession of miners, who had long been familiar with Fremont, and had never heard the least intimation from him that he would in any event lay claim to their works. Personal indignation thus came in to embitter a quarrel involving large pecuniary interests; but the patent did not necessarily give the gold of the grant to Frémont. Under the Mexican law the grantee had no right to the minerals, and the American law spoke of a confirmation, not an enlargement, of the Mexican title. Here then was another subject for litigation, and at last, in 1859, that matter was settled by a decision. that an American patent for land carries the minerals with it. The adverse claimants defied the off cers of the law; the mines were converted into fortifications; the mouths of the tunnels were barricaded; there were besiegers and besieged; several men were killed; but at last, in 1859, Frémont triumphed, and under his Mexican grant obtained land which the Mexican government did not intend to grant, and minerals which it systematically reserved.

In a short time after the title was satisfactorily settled the yield of gold from the quartz mines of the estate became very large. The monthly production in 1860 averaged $39,500; in 1861, $53,500; in 1862, the year of the great flood, which injured the mills, flooded mines, and broke up roads, $43,500; and in the first five months of 1863, $77,000. In March, 1863, the yield was $94,000; in April, $92,000; and in May, $101,000. The production seemed to have reached the figure of $100,000 per month, with a fair prospect of still further increase. It was at this time that the estate was sold to an incorporated company in New York city, and the stock put upon the market in the midst of the San Francisco mining stock fever, which extended its influence across the continent. The prospectus of the company presented a very attractive picture to speculators. The average monthly yield for three years and a half had been $50,000, and for half a year the net profits had equalled that sum. The reports of various mining engineers indicated that the results of future workings would be still better. Messrs. Wakelee and Garnett, who spoke with great caution, and expressed doubts about the value of the Mariposa, the Pine Tree, and Josephine mines, still thought that the monthly productions of the estate could soon be raised to $220,000, at an expense of not more than $50,000, leaving $170,000 net monthly income. Dr. J. Adelberg, speaking of the Pine Tree and Josephine mines, said:

In regard to the value of the veins, I can say no more than that their yield in precious metal is limited only by the amount of work done in them; but I recollect Mr. Frémont once commissioning me to make an estimate as to their endurance in the limits of the longitudinal extent now opened. I found by calculation that they would yield for 383 years 100 tous daily, without the requisition of pumps. I mean down to the water level.

Mr. Timothy C. Allyn made a report on the property in December, 1862, and expressed the opinion that the yield could be increased $100,000 per month, gross, and $50,000 net. A report equally favorable by Mr. Claudet was also published. Professor Whitney, a most careful, conscientious, and competent authority, had said:

The quantity of material which can be mined may, without exaggeration, be termed inexhaustible. I can hardly see a limit to the amount of gold which the property is capable of producing, except in the time, space, and capital required to erect the necessary mills, build roads to them, and open mines, so as to keep them supplied with ore.

With these opinions and facts, large quantities of the stock were purchased, and there were large quantities of it to be purchased, for the paper capital of the company was $10,000,000.

The company was organized by Frémont's creditors, who had become owners of the property; but instead of cancelling the debt and taking stock for it, they took a mortgage for $15,000,000, payable in gold, and issued the stock subject to that debt, which was supposed to be the only incumbrance on the property; at least that was the supposition of many who bought the stock. It soon appeared, however, that there were $480,000 in gold due, besides $300,000 on the garrison lien, $50,000 on the Clark mortgage, and $130,000 to workmen and others in California. The new company selected Mr. F. L. Olmsted for their manager, and he took charge of the estate on the 14th November, 1864. He found everything in confusion. The production had fallen off very suddenly after the sale. It seemed as if every nerve had been strained to make the yield of May as large as possible, and that as soon as the sale was made the production decreased more than 50 per cent. The yield for the first five months of 1863 before the sale was $385,000, and during the last six after the sale was $186,993. In the former period there was a net profit of $50,000 per month; in the latter a net loss of $80,000.

In May, 1864, Professor Silliman made a report on the estate, in which he said:

A person accustomed to view mines must be deeply impressed on the first view of this estate, not more with the great extent and vigor of the former workings-evidence of which