GOLD MINES AND MINING IN CALIFORNIA A NEW GOLD ERA DAWNING ON THE STATE PROGRESS and IMPROVEMENTS MADE IN THE BUSINESS PERFECTED METHODS, PROCESSES AND MACHINERY VAST EXTENT OF AURIFEROUS TERRITORY; RICH AND VARIED CHARACTER OF GRAND FIELD FOR THE PROFITABLE INVESTMENT OF THE WORLD'S SURPLUS CAPITAL PUBLISHED BY GEORGE SPAULDING & CO., GENERAL BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS SAN FRANCISCO 1885 PREFACE. California has produced to date nearly a billion and a quarter dollars worth of gold; more, probably, than has ever been produced by any other country. Her gold fields have a linear extent of 600 miles, and cover an area of 8,000,000 acres. Within this territory the auriferous deposits are numerous, extensive and diversified, comprising overy form and kind met with elsewhere in the world, and even some that may be considered peculiar to this country. Along our main mineral range occur thousands of gold bearing quartz lodes, immense banks of hydraulic gravel, hundreds of miles of ancient and modern river beds, still nearly virgin, with a vast area of bar, gulch and dry diggings, only partially exhausted. Here, in the cañons and other outletting channels, are lodged millions of tons of tailings that will pay for rewashing, while at intervals along the sea-coast occur, for hundreds of miles, gold bluffs and beaches, the former remaining almost untouched, and the latter, with the proper appliances, still capable of giving profitable employment to many workmen. Because the bullion product of California has fallen to a comparatively low figure, it is generally supposed that her mineral resources have been depleted to a corresponding extent, and that they are now about exhausted. But this is true only of her superficial placers, such as the modern river bars, the gulches, shallow flats, and certain portions of the beach sands, river beds and drift diggings, all of which being easily reached and opened, were first attacked, and being worked by such crowds of energetic men, are now pretty well exhausted. That they proved so remunerative while they lasted, was due to the fact that the gold had, so to speak, been already mined by natural agencies, and brought within the easy reach of those who came to gather it. It is a stretch of courtesy to call this set of men who, coming here first, looted our gold fields and left, miners at all, the term digger, sometimes applied to them, being much more appropriate. These pioneers having so skinned the surface of its rich and easily obtained treasures, it requires now very different means and methods to utilize the more deep-lying, but vastly more extensive and lasting deposits, that still remain to be opened up. For successful gold mining in California on anything like a large scale, skill, capital and good business management are now indispensable. Costly, complicated and ponderous machinery for extracting and reducing the ores, has now to be provided. Without these, not much, save in exceptional cases can be done. With these supplied, however, the auriferous deposits of this State open the best field for the investment of capital on the face of the globe. As remarked in the prospectus issued by the publishers of this book, we have at length so perfected the business of gold mining in California, both as regards the methods, machinery and processes in use, that material of very low grade, whether quartz or gravel, can be handled with profit. Latterly very few failures have occurred in this business; fewer, perhaps, than in any other of our leading industries, nor are many likely to occur hereafter. As now conducted, it is, in fact, fully as safe as farming, manufacturing, or merchandising, paying, at the same time far better than any of these. It is the opinion of those most competent to judge, that California could, with a little well directed effort, and the aid of a moderate amount of capital, be restored, in the course of a few years, almost to her former supremacy as a gold producing country; that is, instead of producing, as at present, not more than fourteen or fifteen million dollars per annum, she could easily be made to produce thirty-five or forty millions, and that three times as many men as are now engaged in our gold fields, could then find profitable employment there. What such a production would do for our other interests and industries, now depressed and languishing, it is easy to foresee. With it would come a multiplication of manufactures, an extension of trade, increased demands for the products of agriculture, higher prices for labor, and better times for all. It would regenerate California, and restore to her something of her ancient greatness-something of the glories of pioneer times; a consummation for which every true Californian, it may reasonably be expected, will labor and hope. We offer no apology for inserting in these pages, notices of such machinery, methods and appliances as seem best adapted for economical and efficient ore reduction; the objects of this book being to describe, first, the mines and mining localities, and second, the best means, so far as ascertained, for treating the ores. While making no invidious comparisons between different mechanisms and processes, we have not hesitated to recommend such as have established by practical tests their excellence, if not, also, their superiority. This being a book of a thoroughly practical kind we have not scrupled to appropriate such matter as seemed best adapted to our purpose, wherever the same could be found. Hence we have, as will be seen, drawn freely on the columns of the Mining and Scientific Press, and on the several reports of the State Mineralogist of California; some drafts having also been made on the newspaper press of both the city and State at large. As in making such new use of this matter a good deal of it has required more or less alteration at our hands, we have dispensed with quotation marks, believing that this statement will be deemed a sufficient acknowledgment of our obligations on this score. |