List of mining claims in

mining district, Shasta County, California, on the 1st day of July, 1869, reported by Samuel Cooper.

CHAPTER XVI.

DEL NORTE COUNTY.

Under this head I insert part of an interesting account of the gold coast of California and Oregon, by Mr. Solomon Johnson, published in the Overland Monthly for June, 1869:

That the beach sands of the upper coast counties of California and the lower coast counties of Oregon are auriferous is well known. The sands contain gold and platinum in minute scales or particles, and a large percentage of magnetic iron or iron sand, commonly called black sand, which is mixed or blended with the common beach sand, the bulk of which is composed of quartz-crystal and gray blende. These sands carry sufficient gold to make mining for it remunerative in localities that occur along the coast for a distance of three or four hundred miles. Gold mining at certain points has been carried on to a considerable extent for the last seventeen years. Beach mining, as it is called, differs widely from placer mining or any other kind of gold mining. The mode generally adopted by the miners is to avail themselves of the aid of natural laws governing the winds, tides, and surf, which act as a great natural separator, separating the lighter and useless from the heavier and precious particles. The force of the wind drives heavy swells upon the beach at high tide, and with them a body of sand more or less in quantity, according to the height of the winds and tide, and upon the receding or ebb of the tide the surf lashes the beach and carries back with the undertow the lighter portions of the sands, leaving a portion of the iron sands, gold, and platinum, whose specific gravity causes them to be precipitated to the bottom and thus left behind. At low water the miners go down upon the beach and scrape up the iron sand, (which is generally left by the tide in thin layers,) and pack it back out of the reach of the surf, when it is washed, separating the gold from the matrix iron sand. The usual mode of washing is with a small stream of water in a sluice, terminating on an apron or tom, with turned-up sides and ends, the bottom perforated with small holes, under which is a wooden box set slightly sloping, the bottom of which is cov ered with amalgamated sheet copper. The sands containing the small particles of gold are washed upon the apron, and passing through the small holes, strike vertically upon the copper below, the gold adhering to the copper, while the sands pass off through an opening in the lower end of the box. This primitive contrivance (although stationary) is called a "machine." Such a mode of working is necessarily imperfect, as all the gold that does not instantly adhere to the copper is washed off and lost. Miners are aware that rusty or coated gold has no affinity for quicksilver, and therefore will not adhere to amalgamated copper. Again, the great specific gravity of the iron sand renders it much more difficult to separate than light earth, as in placer mining. Within the last three years a new and heretofore unknown field or source of mining has been discovered, i. e., old deposits of iron sand containing gold. These deposits lie back of the present beach and above high-water mark, and consist of extensive layers of iron sand, from a few inches to three and four feet in thickness. Thus far but three of these ancient deposits have been discovered: one at Crescent City, in Del Norte County, one at Randolph, in Curry County, Oregon, and one, recently, in Klamath County, five miles below Trinidad. At Randolph the stratum of iron sand lies two hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the ocean level and three miles back from the present beach. Above this stratum of iron sand are sixty feet of common beach sand, and on top of it a forest of immense cedar trees.

As before stated, the existence of auriferous sands upon the coast is generally known. but the existence of beach sands at a high elevation above the present ocean level is not generally known; in fact, it is a sealed book to most Californians, and even to many people living upon it. My attention was first attracted to it by seeing layers of beach sand and gravel on the top of the bluff at Trinidad, in Klamath County, and upon inquiry and investigation I found that the beach sand extended back from the coast for fifteen or twenty miles, and in some places at an elevation of twelve hundred feet.

At Trinidad and elsewhere along the coast there are cone-shaped conglomerate rocks, whose heads are raised up out of the ocean. These rocks are made up of beach sand, pebbles, shells, &c., and must have been formed above the water-line; at the same time, the bluffs above the ocean level (where exposed, and where ravines are cut through the upper strata of beach sands and gravel) reveal primitive rock. At Gold Bluffs, below the mouth of the Klamath River, the "bluffs" attain a perpendicular altitude of four hundred feet, and are composed of layers of beach sand, gravel, and washed boulders cemented together, underneath which are the trunks of immense redwood trees, lying horizontally, and stumps of trees standing in place below the present ocean level. The position of these trees and the conglomerate rocks, and the great depth and high altitude of the deposit of sand lying in regular strata, with the same gradual formation as with the present ocean beach, will disprove the theory of this extensive tract of country being caused by any sudden upheaval, and show, on the contrary, that what

ever changes have taken place have been gradual, extending through a great period of time. There must have been a gradual depression, and afterward a gradual elevation, and subsequently a partial depression again, or else the ocean has not always remained at its present level. The same phenomena exist in New Zealand and in Australia, where the same peculiar auriferous sands, lying in regular strata far above the ocean level, are met with the same as here. There the miners drift in on the face of the bluffs, following the “pay” strata, which they call "terrace mining,” and beach mining is carried on in the same way as here. Here, as in New Zealand and Australia, the auriferous sands extend far out in the ocean. Opposite Crescent City, ten miles out to sea, gold was found by sinking a lead, with tallow on the lower end-fine particles of gold adhering to the tallow. The beach sands as far down as San Francisco contain gold, but in such small quantities that it will not pay for working. The same may be said of the beach sands as far up as Puget Sound; the "paying" belt being within the boundaries above

described.

Along the coast on this sand belt, in the counties of Humboldt, Klamath, and Del Norte, the finest forests of redwood, fir, spruce, and Oregon pine cover this immense tract from the beach back to the foot-hills. In Oregon, the redwood gives place to the cedar; except a thin layer of vegetable mold, there seems to be no soil. The roots of most trees and shrubs spread out upon the top of the ground, and seem to take their nourishment from the atmosphere, which is always kept moist by the dense fogs that almost perpetually hang over the coast. This seeming sterility of the common beach sand is more apparent than real, as the sands contain a multitude of minute sea-shells, which are almost wholly composed of carbonate and phosphate of lime, the strongest and best of fertilizers, and account for the great fertility of clean beach sand. Between the tall trees, which stand very thick, is an undergrowth of brush and vines, so thick that a man cannot travel through it without cutting a trail. Ferns grow from ten to twelve feet high; salmonberries, huckleberries, strawberries, and many other kinds of wild fruit, grow in great profusion and excellence. Except a few trails leading to important points, this sand country north of Humboldt Bay is a terra incognita, and will probably remain so until the country is opened with railroads. The coast is dangerous to commerce.

As the discovery of most of the gold-fields has been the result of accident, so also was the existence of gold in the beach sands, which was unexpectedly found by Mr. Eugene du Bertram, in 1850. With a party of prospecting miners, he was toilsomely proceeding down the coast in quest of provisions. They, were obliged to follow the beach, it being impossible to strike through the country, on account of the impenetrable jungle or underbrush. In passing along the beach at the upper Gold Bluffs in Klamath County, they were surprised to see the sands presenting the appearance of one vast sheet of gold. So clean had the great natural separator, surf and tide, done its work, that the surface of the beach was nearly covered with gold, and it was some time before the astonished party could realize the fact that what to them glittered was in reality gold, and not an optical illusion. As they became satisfied that it was no illusion, their natural cupidity began to show itself; here to them was untold wealth, and how to profit by the discovery and keep others from coming in and reaping the harvest they considered theirs by right of discovery, was to them the all-important question. They had no time to waste in idle speculations, as the demands of hunger compelled them to pursue their journey to Trinidad, thirty miles distant, without delay, where there was a small settlement and a rancheria, and where they could replenish their empty larder. Scraping up a few handfuls of the golden sands, with light hearts and empty stomachs they tramped on, keeping to themselves the secret of their discovery. At San Francisco they exhibited their sands (which proved nearly one-half gold) to a few influential and favored parties, who speedily formed a company and embarked on a revenue cutter to take formal possession of the fabled Ophir. In order to keep the secret from the people of Trinidad, (the nearest landing-place,) they lay off the Gold Bluffs, where an attempt was made to land through the surf in a small boat. The consequence was that the boat capsized and out of the six men who embarked five were drowned, and the sixth, which proved to be Mr. Bertram, was hauled out of the surf in an exhausted condition by an Indian who happened to be watching the movement. The remainder of the party, deeming it unwise to make any further attempt to land. set sail for Trinidad and from thence proceeded on foot up the coast to the bluffs. But alas for human hopes and expectations! Where they expected to find the beach covered with gold, no gold was to be seen. They had made no calculation and had no thought of the many changes that had taken place at each successive tide since the first discovery. Disappointed, heart-sick, tired, and foot-sore, they retraced their weary steps to Trinidad, and there embarked for San Francisco, leaving behind the glittering castles that their feverish imaginations had built high up in those faithless sands. Mr. Bertram and one or two others were still sanguine that what they had once seen a propitions tide would reveal again. The result has been that the beach has been worked, when the surf and tides were favorable, with not fabulous, but moderate profits to the favored owners from that to the present time, and bids fair to last for long time in the future. Thus began and ended the Gold Bluffs bubble.

SECTION II.-NEVADA.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE COMSTOCK LODE.

This chapter, prepared with the assistance of Mr. C. A. Luckhardt, and based chiefly on his notes and observations, is a continuation of the description given in my report for 1868, which is thus brought down to July, 1869, and in some cases to a later date. For facility of description, I will again divide the 19,000 feet of explored ground on the Comstock into three parts, viz:

1. The northern portion, extending from the Utah to the Chollar Potosi mine, a distance of 12,170 linear feet.

2. The middle portion, extending from the Chollar to the Imperial North, a distance of 1,794 linear feet; and

3. The southern portion, extending from the Imperial North to the South Overman, a distance of 4,775 linear feet.

There are further locations, both north of the Utah and south of the Overman, to which I will afterwards refer.

I. Northern portion of the vein.-My last report showed the existence of four distinctly separate ore bodies, on all of which work has been carried on up to date, while neither of them has as yet been exhausted of all its ores.

1. Commencing on the north, I described the first body, very irregular in its form, 140 to 150 feet in depth, and about 250 feet in length, lying principally in the Sierra Nevada Company's ground. During the latter portion of the year ending July 1, 1869, it has been very vigorously attacked by the Sierra Nevada Company, yielding them ore, carrying principally free gold, of the net mill value of five to ten dollars per ton. Local circumstances, such as the erection of a mill at the mine, the working of it through tunnels, &c., permitted the extraction of this low grade of ores, leaving the company a small profit per ton. There are yet thousands of tons of ore, varying from three to ten dollars per ton, in sight in this body. The company have explored the ground partially for six hundred feet below this ore body, but finding the vein barren of ore, have decided to dispense with further explorations in depth for the present.

2. South of the above we have 1,600 to 1,700 feet of ground which never has been productive. We then come upon the second ore body, extending from the North Ophir for over six hundred feet horizontally into part of the California ground. This body extended for 650 to 700 feet vertically below the surface, and yielded in former times immense quantities of rich ores. It is practically exhausted, excepting some low grade ores, for the profitable treatment of which even the present reduced rates of milling are still too high. Its great width in many places caused the leaving of pillars of fair ores at the time it was worked; and these pillars have been attacked by individual contractors within the past year. These parties have often been successful where it was impossible for the