USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 46
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To the sluice and its coordinates are due the im- mense increase in the production of gold during the early mining period; for without their aid the industry
escaped tailings of other sluices. Tunnels are sometimes cut to obtain an outlet for washing, whence the term sluice tunnels. The ground sluice is used for rapid descents, and as it can cut its own channels it is often applied for opening railroad cuts, etc. Booming is to discharge an entire reservoir upon a mass of dirt. The grade of the ordinary sluice ranges from 2 to 20 inches for every 12 feet. The upper part may preferably be steeper to pro- mote the disintegration of débris; the lower part must be gentler in descent to prevent the fine gold from being washed away. The rock sluice not only saves more gold than board sluices, but it offers less facility for robbers, and requires less frequent cleanings up. Quicksilver is used in proportion to fine- ness of the gold, frequently in the cheaper connection of amalgamated copper plates. Nevada county claims the credit of first using the tom, grizzly (in connection with under-current sluices), and sluice. Nevada Co. Directory, 1867, 61-2. Pliny, in his Nat. History, Del Mar, Prec. Metals, 286, Ansted, Gold Seeker and Mining in Pac., 115, 129-33, show that sluices and hydraulic wash- ing were known to Romans, Brazilians, and others. Others point to board sluices in N. Carolina in 1840. W. Elwell constructed one at Nevada City in the spring of 1850; but some incline to credit Mr Eddy. Mr Eddy is credited with the accidental discovery of the sluice method in California, by using a trough to carry the dirt and water from his claim, across that of a quarrel- some neighbor, to the rocker below. The cleats or bars in the trough caught the gold, leaving none for his rocker to wash. Blake, Mining Machinery, 92 instances a tail sluice 5,500 feet long at Dutch Flat, which cost $55,000, and took 4 years to construct. The best account of sluices is given in Bowie's Hydraulic Mining, 218 et seq.
5 The water is turned by wing dams into flumes, which are usually cheaper than ditches, owing to the rocky character of the banks. The flume current supplies water for sluicing and power to pump the bed. Bowlders are lifted by derricks. At times the stream is confined to one half of the bed while the other is worked. The absence of heavy rains between May and December permit such operations. Placer Times, July 20, 1849, refers to several fluming enterprises on the American forks thus early; also Dean's Stat., MS., 4-5.
" The steam dredger Phoenix, of the Yuba Dredging Co., in Jan. 1851, was highly commended for its success. The buckets discharged the dirt into huge rocker riffles. Pac. News, Oct. 19, 1850; Sac. Transcript, Sept. 30, 1850; Feb. 1, 14, 1851; S. F. Picayune, Nov. 27, 1850; Moore, Pioneer, MS., 11-12, re- fers to success and failure in dredging; also Comstock, Fig., MS., 36.
412
MINING METHODS.
would have failed to provide remunerative employ- ment for more than a small proportion of the mining force, as shown by the rapid deviation of poorer labor- ers to other pursuits after 1852. The saving effected by the rocker, as compared with the pan, was about fourfold. The tom gained an equal advance upon the rocker, and the sluice was found to be three times cheaper than the tom,7 for about 35 cents per cubic yard of mining dirt. Even this price, however, was too heavy to permit the mining of the largest auriferous deposits, in the gravelly banks and hills, which had moreover to be removed before richer underlying strata could be profitably worked. The sluice process per- mitted them to be cheaply washed, so that in the ex- cavation or removal lay the chief cost. To this end was invented in 1853 the hydraulic process,8 to under-
" The calculations of Laur, Product. Métaux Cal., on a basis of 20 francs per day for wages, made the pan process cost 75 fr. per cubic metre of gravel; by the rocker 20 fr., by tom 5 fr., by sluice 1.71 fr., and by hydraulic process 0.28 fr.
8 A Frenchman named Chabot, in April 1852, used a hose without nozzle upon his claim at Buckeye Hill, Nevada co., to sluice away the gravel which had been loosened by the pick. A similar method is said to have been used at Yankee Jim's in the same spring. The idea was applied a year later by E. E. Matteson, from Sterling, Conn., with improved pressure to wash down the bank itself, and so save the costly pick and shovel work. He soon found that the nozzled hose could do the work of a large force of men at small cost. Nevada Co. Directory, 1867, 32-3, 67; Hittell's Mining, 22, 144. Hydraulics first used at American Hill, Nevada City, says Hist. Nev. Co., 197. One of the best improvements on the pipe, etc., was suggested by Macy and others of the same county. Matteson's perishable canvas hose, strengthened by netting and rope, and with wooden nozzle, was speedily replaced by sheet-iron pipes, and these by wrought-iron pipes, with goose-neck and other nozzles. The wide application of the method without due proportion of plant to claims caused disappointment in many directions, with a consequent abatement of use, but with greater experience, combination, and improvements, the re- vival became extensive. The main effort was now to obtain a sufficient quan- tity of water, with pressure increased from 30 or 40 feet to 200 or 400. To this end special companies undertake to construct reservoirs, or to bring water from distant rivers. The fall ranged from 6 to 25 feet per mile, the best grade being 13 feet. Wooden flumes were in time largely replaced by the Iess fragile iron tubes, with inverted siphons and other saving appliances; yet ditches proved the most lasting, needing also less repair. The water is sold per inch; that is, the amount escaping through an opening one inch square, yet the volume varies with pressure. For detailed accounts of hy- draulic apparatus, methods, and cost, see the Report of the commissioner of mining statistics; Bowie's Hydraulic Mining: Blake's Mining Machinery, etc. Blasting assisted in loosening the more packed strata. Care had to be taken for obtaining a sufficient dumping-place for the vast debris, to which end tunnels and other outlets were at times required.
413
HYDRAULIC SYSTEM.
mine and wash down banks by directing against it a stream of water through a pipe, under great pressure. The same stream did the work of a host of pickmen and shovellers, and supplied the washing sluice; so that in course of time, with cheaper labor and machin- ery, the cost of extracting gold from a cubic yard of gravel was reduced as low as half a cent, while the cost under the old rocker system of 1848-9 is estimated at several dollars. After many checks from lack of experience the hydraulic system acquired here a greater expansion than in any other county, owing to the vast area of the gravel beds, and the natural drainage pro- vided by the Sierra Nevada slopes; but an immense preliminary outlay was required in bringing water through flumes, ditches,9 and tunnels, sometimes for
9 The official report for 1855 gives the following list of canal ditches and branches:
Counties.
No. of Canals.
No. of Miles.
Value.
Amador.
30
355
$446,000
Butte ..
16
287
347,000
Calaveras
17
325
497,500
El Dorado.
20
610
935,000
Humboldt.
60
60
100,000
Klamathı.
6
130
150,000
Mariposa
8
150
180,000
Nevada
44
682
1,123,000
Plumas.
2
65
100,000
Placer
29
49S
649,400
Sacramento.
4
29
54,800
Shasta.
5
S9
109,000
Siskiyou
1
SO
84,000
Sierra.
79
310
330,000
Trinity
10
278
228,500
Tuolumne
13
285
447,500
Yuba.
8
360
560,000
Total
303
4,493
$6,341,700
In year 1854
1,164
$2,294,000
Increase in one year. 3,429
$4,047,700
In addition to the above, 112 canals and ditches have been commenced, and will probably be completed within the next year. Amongst thein is the Sierra Nevada Mountain Canal-an immense work-ten feet at the bottom, fourteen at the top, and designed with branches, to extend over about 150 miles. The above report is not perfect, but better than that for 1856. Com- pare Cal. Jour. Ass., 1856, p. 26; Id., 1857, ap. 4, p. 28-32; Id., 1855, p. 41- 2, etc. Also preceding notes, and later account in my next vol.
The first noteworthy ditch is ascribed to Coyote Hill, from Mosquito Creek, Nev. co., in 1850, when two or three more were constructed in the same county, as already pointed out under this district. The claim is con- firmed in the main by Sac. Transcript, which on Feb. 14, 1851, points out
414
MINING METHODS.
several score of miles, through mountains, over deep ravines, and along precipitous cliffs, by means of lofty aqueducts hung sometimes by iron brackets; large reservoirs had also to be provided, and outlets and extensive places of deposit at a lower elevation for the washed débris.
Deep, timbered shafts were not common in placer mining, for the pay dirt was seldom profitable enough to cover the expense, but for prospecting hills they proved of value in determining the advisability and direction of a tunnel, which by permitting easy drift- ing, and offering a slight incline for drainage and use of tramways, greatly reduced the cost of extracting dirt.10
This system became more identified with quartz operations, which already in 1849 began to be regarded as a future main branch of mining. Explorations soon justified the belief by revealing the mother vein, which with its breadth of easily worked pay rock promised stability, while the outlying parallel veins, in harder
that two canals of 9 and 6 miles were already bringing water at Nevada, the first of the 1,000 long-toms kept busy thereby paying $16 per day, and the last in order $1, for the muddy residue. On May 15, 1851, it adds that the 'first canal experiment' was made near Nevada by bringing Rock Creek waters; followed by a Deer Creek conduit, a third canal from Deer Creek, parallel to the first being nearly ready. Several other projects had been started. See also June 15, 1851. Grass Val. Directory, 1856, 10-12, alludes to the canal from Deer Creek to Rough and Ready, begun in Aug. 1850, as the first enterprise 'on a large scale.' Coloma's claim to the first ditch, of six miles, is supported in Hist. El Dorado Co., 177, and that of Yankee Jim's, in 1851, by Placer Co. Directory, 1861, 13, and by San Andreas Independent, which attributes it to 1850. Iowa Hill Patriot denies this, but Placerville Ob- server affirms. Some of these ditches could with the aid of natural channels, easy ground, etc., be constructed for as low a rate as $200 per mile, but as a rule the expense was not under $1,000 per mile, and often much more, espe- cially when bridges and tunnels were required. On the Yuba, water was pumped from the river by means of wheels attached to barges which were moored in the strongest current. S. F. Bulletin, June 13, 1856. The Eureka Lake Ditch was 75 miles long, with 190 miles of branches, costing nearly a million, and yielding a weekly revenue of $6,000. Sac. Union, of Nov. 15, 1854, speaks of a flume over 3,000 feet long on Feather River.
10 This method had its beginning in California in the 'coyote ' burrowing of the Mexicans, and in following gravel deposits under river banks. It did not assume the rank of a distinct branch until 1852, when ancient river chan- nels began to attract attention. Fully half of the early attempts resulted in failure, owing to miscalculations and insufficient adjuncts, but the experience proved of value. The first extensive drift mining was begun in 1852 at For- est Hill, Nev. J. McGillivray had however in 1851 drifted a claim at Brown Bar on the Middle Fork of the American.
415
FLUMING AND COYOTING.
casing, presented more hazardous prospects of speedy profits in their narrower and richer but also more unevenly distributed deposits. The first quartz vein was discovered in Mariposa in 1849,11 which was quickly followed by other developments along the gold belt, and in 1850 the first mill was planted at Grass Valley.12
Preoccupied with remunerative and ready placers few among the gold-seekers had so far taken an inter- est in the new branch; but now, with the organization
11 On Frémont's grant, the reddish samples yielding two ounces to every 25 pounds, as Taylor testifies in Eldorado, i. 110-11. Among those who became interested in the branch was G. W. Wright, who spent the summer of 1849 in exploring the gold region for quartz, 'and his experiments have proved so wonderful as almost to challenge credulity,' writes Buffum at the time in his Six Months, 109. Comparing the quality with Georgia ore, which paid well at 12} cents per bushel of rock, it was found that the California quartz would yield $75 per bushel; so that a mill might readily crush $100,000 daily. According to Bean, Nevada Directory, 1867, 48, the first quartz loca- tion is ascribed to Butte co., near Oroville. Pac. News, May 23, 1850, reports large quartz discoveries on Yuba and Feather rivers, yielding $14 to two ounces of quartz.
12 The first, a 'periphery' from the eastern states, is ascribed to Witten- bach, who after working vainly on mica, on American River in 1849, set it up at Grass Valley in the following year for Wright. Rush, 1-2; Cal. Misc. Hist. Pap., doc. 34. Bean agrees with this. The second was an 8-stamp 'Stockton ' mill, with an engine of 16-horse power, brought across the Isth- mus, and also erected by Wittenbach for Wright of Phil. Rush had 10 tons crushed at a cost of $40 per ton, while the yield was only $397. Ib. Hist. Nevada Co., 187, calls this the first, and dates the erection early in 1851. Hawley, Stat., MS., 9, calls King the first builder of quartz-mills, first erected at Grass Valley, and his testimony is good, for he owned a mill in Mariposa late in 1850. Mariposa Gaz., Jan. 17, 1873, claims the first mills for its county, and states that J. Duff, residing there in 1873, erected the first quartz-mill, including a small engine, in August 1849, close to Mariposa. It was known as the Palmer, Cook, & Co.'s mill. Another was erected in June 1850 on Stockton Creek, for Com. Stockton. A third, brought out by Capt. Howard, dates about the same time. J. F. Johnson put up two mills in 1850. Sac. Transcript, June 29, 1850, refers to Brockway going east to ob- tain machinery. Alta Cal., Feb. 13, 1869, refers the above Palmer & Cook mill from Phil. erected by C. Walker, to Sept. 1850, while still calling it the first; the second is ascribed to E. F. Beale, later U. S. surveyor-gen. Marip. Gaz., Feb. 26, 1869; National, March 28, 1868. Pac. News, Aug. 27, 1850, alludes to a party leaving Stockton with machinery for a quartz vein. This may be for the mill either of Wittenbach or Palmer, Cook, & Co. 'Till now the pulver- izing of quartz has been confined almost exclusively to the southern diggings,' says Sac. Transcript, Nov. 14, 1850. Matthewson, Stat., MS., 8-9, writes of of his own fruitless efforts with mills; and so does Hawley, Stat., MS., 8-9, who erected a mill on Saxton Creek, Mariposa, end of 1850, and crushed ore at $150 per ton, so that the rich yield of over $100 per ton failed to pay. Cal. Courier, Aug. 26, 1850. By Feb. 1851 there were three companies at Nevada operating quartz machinery. Sac. Transcript, Feb. 1, 14, 28, March 14, 1851. Placer Times, Oct. 25, 1851, gives a list of mills.
416
MINING METHODS.
of companies,13 the air became filled with wild rumors. Assay upon assay demonstrated that California ore was ten to a hundred fold richer than well-paying lodes abroad, and exploration revealed that auriferous rock existed throughout the state. Here, then, lay an inexhaustible wealth, and one which eclipsed the famed placers. Owners of ledges regarded their for- tunes as assured, and reluctantly yielded a share to the clamoring mass of buyers, chiefly to obtain funds for machinery, vast sums being spent upon plants. When the practical test came, it was found that rock assaying 20 or 30 cents to the pound would yield two or three cents only, and that the reduction cost from $40 to $150 per ton, when it should have been effected for $6 to $15.
The chief trouble was inexperience in saving the gold, and in the deceptive nature of the ore; for the rich pockets which had led to the erection of costly mills were found to be contained in the least promis- ing veins. Hundreds were ruined. A reaction set in. Quartz mining fell into disrepute, and mills were left to decay.14 A few prudent men, and those with very rich ledges, persevered, however, aided by arastras and other simple, inexpensive machinery. Their suc- cess spread valuable lessons, which with 1853 led to a revival of confidence, and two years later saw three- score mills in operation, producing over $4,000,000.15
13 The first regular quartz mining co. was the Merced, including J. C. Palmer, prest, Moffat, the assayer, Butler King, and others. Mariposa Gaz., Jan. 17, 1873. The Los Angeles Mining Co. organized about the same time to tear asunder the bowels of a gold mount. 200 miles s. E. of Los Angeles. Its shares were offered at auction Aug. 27, 1850, which was probably the first public sale of mining stock in Cal. Some 10 or 12 sets of machinery had been ordered by different cos. in Grass Valley before the spring of 1851. Sac. Transcript, March 14, 1851. Companies were forming in London. Eve. Jour., May 25, 1852. The first incorporated mining company of Cal. was the Bos- ton Bar Co. of 1850. Hist. El Dorado Co., 35.
14 The erection of machinery ere the vein had been sufficiently opened and tested was a mistake oft repeated. Others sank costly shafts without due surface indication, or drifted from 'chimneys' into barren ground, or trusted to unskilled superintendents.
15 The official returns not quite complete mention 59 mills, crushing 222, - 000 tons and yielding $1,082,100. Cal. Jour. Ass., 1856, p. 26; Id., 1857, ap. 4, p. 28 et seq., less complete. Over a dozen more mills were begun before the close of 1855. This compares well with 1853-4, but not with that of
417
QUARTZ CRUSHING.
Machinery was now turned to better use, and Cali- fornia added several new processes and improvements with which to advance the industry. 16
Quartz mining belongs less to the present period than the exploitation of placers, in which progress has been as rapid and extensive as the transformation of the Pacific wilderness into a populous and flourishing state, and the progress is due, not alone to the vastness
1852. U. S. Census, 1850, p. 985, which enumerates 108 mills, and a capital of $5,876,000 invested in quartz mining, mostly wasted. Sac. Union, March 6, 1855, gives a list of 53 quartz companies. Puffing began again, Nevada, Jour., Feb. 29, 1856, as it had been in 1850-1. Pac. News, Oct. 24, Nov. 15, 1850. In 1857 a quartz convention met, which did good service in promoting the branch. S. F. Bulletin, June 17, 1857, etc. See, further, Cal. Courier, Nov. 25, 1850; Borthwick's Cal., 189, 244, 324; Hunt's Mag., xxvii. 382-3, 445-50; Alta Cal., Aug. 25, Oct. 28, 1852; June 16, 1853; Aug. 16, 1854; July 16, 1855; Feb. 9-24, 1856, etc .; Grass Val. Tidings, March-May, 1879; Sac. Union, 1854-6; S. F. Bulletin, 1855-6, passim.
16 As will be more fully related in my next vol., stamping and milling was in the Hayward mine reduced to 66 cents per ton. Cronise, Cal., 424. Cali- fornia has borrowed quartz machinery from different nations, from the slow yet effective Mexican arastra, described in Hist. Mex., iii., vi., chapters on mining, this series; the Chilian mill, in which the drag-stone of the arastra is replaced by one or two large wheels to turn on a pivot in the ore-crushing bed; to the square stamp with its vertical fall, which has been the favorite. The mechanical and chemical processes for separating the gold are numerous; for the Californian is ever ready to try the latest and best. A few early local inventions are referred to in Sac. Union, Aug. 18, Oct. 22, Dec. 20, 1855; Feb. 12, Dec. 30, 1856; Alta Cal., May 19, Oct. 27, 1856; the latter with fre- quent special and general reports of mining operations throughont the state since 1848. See also S. F. Herald, and after 1854 and 1855, Sac. Union and S. F. Bulletin; Hayes' Mining, i .- ii., passim. More scattering and incidental are the accounts in Carson's Recol., 10; Woods' Sixteen Mo., 50-4; Crosby's Events, MS., 20-1; Sherman's Mem., i. 52; Capron's Cal., 229; Schlagintweit, Cal., 216 et seq .; Watson's Life, MS., 7; Moore's Exper., MS., 11-12; Bur- nett's Rec., 304, etc .; Coleman's Vig., MS., 146; Tyler's Bidwell's Bar, MS., 2; Thomas' Mining Remin., MS., 1 et seq .; Nouv. Annales Voy., cxxviii. 325- 41; cxxix. 109-20, 353-73; Harper's Mag., xx. 598-616; Overland, xiii. 273, etc .; Hinton's Ariz., 88-99; Roswag, Métaux, 24-53; Miner's Own Book, 1-32; Thompson's Golden Res., 1-91; Simonin, Vie Souter, 494, etc .; Balch's Mines, passim; Hittell's Mining, 22, etc., Id., MS., 4-12; Phillips' Mining, 129 et seq .; Blake's Mining Machinery, passim; Gold Mining in Cal., 53 et seq .; Bowie's Hydraulic Mining, 47, etc .; Silliman's Deep Placers, 15-42; the last few books containing more or less comprehensive reviews. Among curious appliances may be mentioned the Norwegian telescope for examining river bottoms; a dirt-boiling apparatus, in Hunt's Mag., xxvi. 513, and the gold magnet and divining-rod superstitions; the former a tiny affair two or three inches square carried over the heart by the prospector, and supposed to give a shock when passing over gold; the rod, a fresh-cut fork of hazel held horizontally by both hands; the point in front tips over ore bodies when carried by appropriately constituted person. Reichenback seeks to explain the principle in his Odic- Magnetic Letters, and many intelligent miners vouch for it. They do not seem to consider that nature is always true to herself, and that if these tests are ever true they are always true. For mining terms, see Hinton's Ariz., ap., 62-7; Wright's Big Bonanza, 567-9; Balch's Mines, 729 et seq.
HIST. CAL., VOL. VI. 27
418
MINING METHODS.
of the deposits and the favorable configuration of the country, but to the ingenuity and enterprise of the men who invented and perfected means for exploita- tion, and knew how to organize their strength for great undertakings. A striking feature in this con- nection is the number of such operations by miners who possessed few or no resources for them save pluck. Each successive improvement of method by tom, sluice, or hydraulic process, increasing as it did the extent of claims and work connected with each opera- tion, demanded more cooperation, and augmented the number of companies at the expense of individual laborers, whose diminution corresponded to the de- crease of rich surface placers and the advent of scien- tific mining. The massing of forces eliminated the weaker members of the fold, partly under the pressure of lower wages, and drove them to other pursuits for which they were more fitted. The industry acquired further stability in the abatement of nomadic habits, by the growing magnitude of operations which de- manded a prolonged stay at one place. Concentrated and improved efforts, not only resulted in a rapid swell- ing of the gold yield after 1849, but in sustaining the production for years at a high rate, largely from ground which elsewhere, under less favorable configu- ration and skill, had been rejected as utterly worth- less.
California placer gold, tinged in some parts by copper, reveals in the more general paleness the wide-spread admixture of silver, which is especially marked beyond the summit of the Sierra and in the south. In Kern the fineness ranges as low as 600 or 700 thousandths, but increases rapidly northward, until on the Stanislaus it reaches over 900. After another decline to somewhat below this figure, it rises again above it on the Yuba and Feather rivers, that of Butte coming at times within ten thousandths of absolute purity. Beyond this county there is another
419
FINENESS OF GOLD.
abatement to below 900. The average fineness for the state being placed by Dana and King at 880 or 883, which is a fraction above the average for the United States. 17
Many spots are remarkable for the uniformity of shape in their deposits, of scales, pellets, grains, or threads, and in quartz are frequently found the most beautiful arborescent specimens.18 It is strange that lumps above an ounce in weight should be so rare in
17 The lowest quality, whitened by silver admixture, lies on the east side of the Sierra, and in the southern part of San Joaquin Valley. In Kern it falls nearly to 600 thousandths, the other 400 being mostly silver. The aver- age fineness is about 660. In Fresno it rises about 100, reaching in Mariposa an average considerably over 800, and in Tuolumne as high as 950, the aver- age being nearer this figure than 900. King found 920 for Stanislaus county assays, and 850 to 960 for Calaveras. U. S. Geol. Rept, 1880-1, 379. The grade declines again until it touches below 900 for the Mokelumne. This applies also for El Dorado, although there the quality varies greatly. On the Yuba it ascends again, several spots reported by Whitney, Auriferous Gruvels, giving from 910 to 950, with a few also below 900. Several examinations by King in Placer yield 784 to 960, in Plumas 846 to 936, and in Butte 900 to 970; for the latter Whitney has 925 to 950 and for Butte 958 to 980. In Sierra the figure varies greatly, although the average is over 900. Butte county stands preeminent for its fine gold, which has assayed even above 990, and brought $20.40 per ounce. Northward it falls again somewhat. Trinity ranges between 875 and 927, Del Norte 875 to 950, Siskiyou 749 to 950, and samples from Humboldt and Shasta 726 to 940 and 885. The gold bluffs yield about 880. Hittell, Mining, 49-50, placed the California average at 855; Dana, Mineralogy, raised it to 880; and King, Geol. Survey, 1880-1, p. 382, to 883.6, with an average for the United States of 876, Idaho being 780.6, Colorado 820.5, Oregon 872.7, Montana 895.1, Georgia 922.8, Dakota 923.5. See also Bowie's Hydraulics, 289-91; Whitney's Auriferous Gravel; Phillips' Mining, 3; Balch's Mines, etc .; Sayward's Stat., MS., 12-13, by an early gold broker.
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