in the form of impalpably fine metallic powder. The solution is permitted to stand for some time, usually over night, in order to afford time for the precipitated gold to settle completely. The water is then carefully drawn off, the precipitated gold collected upon a large paper filter, carefully dried, and then melted and run into bars. The gold bars thus obtained, when the work is properly conducted, are .999 fine. In practice, this process requires careful attention in all its various details, both in the roasting and in the subsequent chloridizing and precipitation of the gold. The presence of silver in any considerable proportion requires, morec ver, important modifications of the process. But where only gold is present in the sulphurets, there is little difficulty -none but what can be readily managed by any one who has a fair comprehension of the general principles of the chemistry involved.

As stated, almost the only means yet adopted in California for pulverizing auriferous quartz, is the stamp, employed in the manner already described. Various other modes of crushing have been devised, but none of them have ever been extensively adopted, and it is difficult to foresee by what implement or mode the stamp is to be hereafter superseded, if any. In this connection it may be observed that the style of the California stamp and battery arrangement is in advance of that of any other country; while the means here employed in the best mills, to extract and save the gold, compares favorably with those anywhere in use. But many of the mills in California are still very imperfect in their gold saving appliances, the loss of the finer portions of the metal in the tailings being large.

In the treatment of sulphurets the same is true, though perhaps in a less marked degree; and it may be anticipated that the chlorination process, as it comes to be more widely known and better appreciated, will contribute largely to induce the employment of better and more systematic methods of concentration, the whole securing such economy in saving the precious metal, that a much lower grade of ore will soon be profitably worked than is practicable at present.

In view of the many novel experiments being made, and the new inventions seeking recognition by the mining public, it may be said that the employment of new modes and machinery promises, perhaps, less certain success than an adherence to the old, if only it be used with the requisite degree of intelligence and care.

36

CHAPTER X.

MINES AND MINING.

Rapid Exploration of the Placers-Overestimate of Earnings-Chances Still Good-Improved Conditions-Northwestern Counties-Character of Mines-Gold Beaches, etc.-The Central Districts-Various Branches of Placer Mining-Quartz Mining-Number of Locations-Early Efforts-Present Results-Mining at Grass Valley-A Representative Mine-Butte, Sierra, and Plumas Counties-Gold Bearing Slates and GossansAuriferous Cement and Gravel Beds-Openings for Enterprise, Labor, and CapitalSilver-Iron-Quicksilver-The New Almaden Mine-Mineralogy of the Pacific Coast.

As the discovery of gold was the cause that led to the rapid populating and permanent settlement of California, so has the business of mining for that metal since formed the leading pursuit of its inhabitants. For six or eight years after that event, this occupation, in which more than three fourths of the adult population of the State were engaged, was prosecuted almost solely on the bars and along the banks, or in the beds of the rivers and gulches, and upon the alluvial flats that constituted the more superficial placers. During that period this branch of mining advanced from a very crude and imperfect, to the highly efficient and somewhat complicated system now in vogue; and which, in most localities, renders the exercise of some little skill, and the employment of at least a small amount of capital, essential to

success.

Of the various improvements thus from time to time introduced, it may be observed, that they were less the result of a provident foresight than of a steadily increasing necessity growing out of the gradual impoverishment of the richer and more accessible placers, whereby the employment by the miner of labor-saving machinery and processes became imperative, if he intended to maintain anything like his former rate of earnings. These new modes and devices, thus necessitated, multiplied in the ratio that the more superficia! diggings became exhausted, compelling the washing of larger quantities of auriferous

earth, or the reaching of the more deeply seated deposits with the smallest possible expenditure of time and money.

The various gold washing implements and methods now in use do not by any means embrace all the styles and contrivances that have at different times marked the history of mining invention in California. The present perfection, as exhibited in these appliances and machines, was not reached, as some may suppose, by regular and direct advances from the use of the pan and batea to that of the cradle, tom, and sluice, culminating in the employment of the hydraulic apparatus and the cement mill, without any other modes having been meantime devised and tested. Many different plans were essayed, and scores of machines were invented and tried, to result almost wholly in failure and rejection; the period most prolific in these experiments being that which marked the transition from the use of the pan to the introduction of the hydraulic mode of washing. During its continuance a multitude of gold saving machines were invented and proved; some of them being costly, ingenious, and more or less serviceable, while a much larger proportion were not only useless, but absurdly defective, many wholly failing to separate the precious metal from the gravel and sand, while a few possessed the still less desirable property of saving the refuse and rejecting the gold.

For several years after the discovery of gold, the banks of the rivers, and even the roads leading to the mines, were lined with the remains of these crude and worthless machines; while in San Francisco the warehouses and wharves, and often even the vacant lots, were encumbered with them to a vexatious extent; their more speedy disappearance from these localities being due to the fact that the erection of forges and foundries created there an earlier demand for old iron.

To even enumerate, much less describe all these inventions, would now be impossible, there being scarcely a model of any of them left, while but few persons remain who could at this distant day accurately describe them in all their details. It may be said of them, however, in a general way, that they consisted of washers of almost every conceivable size, shape and material, involving in their workings every known principle of mechanics, and every movement recognised by dynamical science. Some were propelled by hand, and others by steam or water power. One variety employed riffles, and another sieves or screens as separators. Some were simple, and others complex; some large and ponderous, while others were reduced to the smallest compass, being easily portable in the hand. The effective principle in one kind consisted of a vibratory; in another of a centri

fugal, or vertical action. In one case it was proposed to dredge the bottoms of the rivers with a series of endless buckets revolving on a cylinder, while again attempts were made to explore the deep still holes with sub-marine armor. Ingenious, eccentric and diversified, however, as were these contrivances, the fact that none of them ever attained to more than a temporary popularity—a few being too manifestly absurd to secure even a trial, sufficiently attests their general inutility.

The sums of money spent upon these vagaries, during the earlier days of placer mining, amounted to millions of dollars, or their equivalent in time, a great deal of which was wasted in fruitless endeavors to render these new methods and machines available. And yet it cannot, perhaps, be said that this money was all foolishly spent, or this time vainly wasted. Aided by the lights of present experience, it is easy to detect the practical errors then committed, and to point out the fallacious theories entertained; but it should be remembered that little was known at that day in regard to the origin of placer gold, the agencies by which its deposits were formed, or even the places where it was most likely to make lodgment; while the business of seeking after and gathering it was wholly new to our people, very few of whom had ever seen even the simplest gold washing implement, or knew anything about the manner of using them.

All these were problems to be solved and things to be learned; and to the extent of that, these efforts were undertaken in the furtherance of these objects; they were entirely legitimate and even commendable. Many of these theories were, no doubt, chimerical enough, and the most of these inventions abundantly absurd: still, as all this could only be verified by actual examination and trial, these endeavors, however abortive, fairly challenge not only respect, but sympathy and approval. Though so generally disastrous to those undertaking them, and of little value in their immediate results, they undoubtedly formed a necessary part of that extended system of experiments from which the present highly effective means and modes of operating have been eliminated.

These disappointments and losses, though numerous and severe, were but the sacrifices usually exacted of every great industry at the outset the crucial trials that many important interests in California, including those of quartz mining, manufacturing, and even farming, have been forced to go through; but which, like the pursuit we are considering, having survived these early trials, are now established on a permanent and prosperous basis.

RAPID EXPLORATION OF THE PLACERS-OVER-ESTIMATE OF THE

EARNINGS.

The exploration of the placer mines, which, during the year of their discovery had been extended to all the more central portions of the great metalliferous range, was pushed so vigorously on the arrival of the heavy immigration in 1849-50, that by the end of the latter year nearly every auriferous gulch and stream of importance in the State, except a few in its more northerly parts, had been discovered and partially worked. The adventurous miner, during this short interval, had, despite the want of trails, the hostility of Indians, and the many difficulties to be encountered, pushed up all the principal rivers and their branches; and there, constructing his rude camp, had worked over in a superficial and hasty manner, the bars of the streams and the beds of the gulches; some of their number taking out large, and a few, immense quantities of gold dust in a very short time. Still, the success of these pioneers was very unequal. If the miner happened to strike a rich deposit, he made large wages-sometimes, quite a fortune, in the course of a few weeks or months at the furthest. Failing in this, it was often as much as the most industrious and frugal could do to earn a livelihood, owing to the enormous cost of subsistence.

Still, these will ever be looked back to as the halcyon days of placer mining, during the earlier portion of which the traditionary ounce, being about a fair average of the miner's daily earnings, continued to be the standard of a day's wages. The current rate of wages was not, to be sure, the exact measure of what could be earned in the diggings, inasmuch as the self-employed miners were, as a class, more robust and energetic than those who hired out their labor; yet they indicate with sufficient accuracy the average earnings of the miner at different periods, showing their rapid decline at first and more gradual depreciation thereafter until they finally reached present rates. From twenty dollars per day in '48, and sixteen in '49, daily wages had fallen to eight dollars two years thereafter, and to less than four dollars by the end of 1858, since which time they have undergone a further decline of about thirty per cent.

From the above it will be seen that the average reward of the miner was comparatively moderate, even while the placers were virgin and uncrowded; it being doubtful if their individual earnings ranged at any time above twenty or twenty-five dollars per day at the utmost. As usually happens, however, in every pursuit where a few meet with marked success, these exceptional cases, often exaggerated far beyond