between four and five months, but varies with the length of the winter and the amount of snow that falls in the upper drainage area of the river. The wages paid for common white laborers is $2 50 per day; the Chinese laborers, who generally constitute half the number employed, receive $1 25 per day. The payroll has amounted to $1,200 a week, a large proportion of which is spent in Oroville; hence, the importance to the town of the success of these works.

OTHER PROPERTIES.

Lying back of the Golden Feather Company's ground is the old Miocene Hydraulic Mine, at present enjoined from work. It is located near Thomson Flat, at the foot of the basaltic table-land known as South Table Mountain, and covers valuable gravel deposits, which crop out under the lava in Morris Ravine. This ravine, which makes down to Feather River near the junction of the flume and canal, has been worked at different times through its entire length, and has paid well; it divides the South Table Mountain from the North Table Mountain. Two large hydraulic mines, the Hendricks and the Wagner, situated in this ravine, are under injunction of the law, but are trying to open out their properties by the drifting method. These basaltic rocks form the banks of the Feather River up to where the North Fork enters, when slates take their place.

Passing up the main Feather River, on the west bank, is the Banner Mine, which is being handled by Col. F. McLaughlin; also the old Brown or Armstrong Mine, which is being developed by its owners, who are driving ahead in their tunnels. The quartz taken out is worked up in a Hinkle crusher and a 10-foot arrastra.

THE GOLDEN BANNER MINE.

This property is situated about 4 miles from Oroville, on the east side of Table Mountain. The vein shows itself at the head of Gregory Gulch, which proved rich when worked up to where the vein crossed. The vein courses from here 10° east of south toward the Feather River. The property, with the extension, includes 6,000 feet on the vein, with a width of 200 feet. The ground is patented.

On the surface near the present works three veins present themselves, running parallel with one another. The veins are designated, commencing on the west side, the Little Banner, the Big Banner, and the Amoskeag.

The Little Banner is incased in slate with diabase on the foot wall side, called, locally, "conglomerate." Sixty feet to the east is the Big Banner, in slate. Beyond this, 750 feet to the east, is the Amoskeag, in altered slate. Between the last two is a dike of diabase.

The Little Banner is about 18 inches wide and pitches to the northeast. The Big Banner ranges from 2 to 4 feet, pitching to the southwest and coming together with the former at a depth of 200 feet. The Little Banner has a pitch of 7 feet in 100 feet, while the Big Banner pitches 10 feet in the same distance. Most of the former workings of this mine, which has been idle for a number of years, were on the Little Banner, which, down to a depth of 200 feet, has a recorded yield of $600,000. A perpendicular shaft has been sunk 325 feet to the east of