The Empire County argus., 1854-07-22
Correspondence Of the Argus.
VoLCANoyILLE, July IL

Sandy Bar Grey Eagle--Horse Shoe Bend---Bos-
ton Tunnel and Rivsr mining
FRIEND ARoUs.-Among newspaper dggings the
region along the northern margin of Township No.
l. has had sundry upheavals-
''Wherc Midas might again his wish behold ..
In real paper or imagined gold"
In this way it has before attained its due promi-
nence and elevation and have now only time for
hurried and off-hand sketch of its present mining
and business advantages.
In the district Of Big Bar two companies are en-
gagged in fumng the river-one, with view to
mining in its bed, and the other preparatory to
draining, excavating and mining, parallel and
lower channel in the bar. They are large compa-
MES and ore engaged in corresponding enterprises
This district embraces, besides the bar with
breadth and debth of paying gravel not exceeded
by any on the river, two slides, heretofore mined
only by drifting. The whole has been divided up,
and registered by claimants, some of whom in the
use Of means already at hand are mining very sue
cessfully, but majority of whom impatiently await
the completion Of the Pilot Creek Canal Not many
days since for two days work. one man realized
% ounces Two establishments having the two
fold character Of store and boarding house, divide
the trade-patronage of the district which for all
legitimate purposes has inhabitants enough
The citizens of Volcano Bar, save one company.
propose nothing in the way of river mining They
prefer to developo the rich leads and deposits that
encased in the solid cement and overlad by the
hugh mountain rocks that characterize the district
in which, when this generation of miners shall have
broken half its bones with industry and been STRAIT
o1 wit ,;cl chova1a opd sla All boo1
another shall continue the aborious search for still
unapprcciatcd treasures The theory of inerhaus-
t5e gold deposits is none Of mine, but if it may be
truly predicted of any locality within my knowl-
edge, it may be of this. The distribution of gold
is SUCH that men work for months without realizing
current expenses, and finally find enough ina hands
breadth to pay for the whole time besides adding
a surplus of slugs to their nett incomes. This is
also in some measure true Of Green Horn Slide,
which is just above and is now being to extent
reopened by drifting The trade of this district du-
ring the summer of SO afforded lucrative support
to quite city of stores, but is now chiefly shared
between those of Goodwin s Co., and Mickey & Co.
Just above Green Horn is the celebrated Yankee
Slide. 1t is now claimed by well organized vol
uneer Company whose high-handed enterprise has
made the waters of Volcano Canon, in Placer coun-
ty tributary TO its objects by means of a wire-sus-
pension aqueduct spanning the river from hill to
hill at elevation Of $50 feet Thus supplied with
water, slnceng has been substituted for the old
method Of drifting and lO0 feet of the Slide alrea-
dy excayated nearly to pay-dirt. The energetic
beginning Of the enterprise gives earnest ofa golden
finale.
Near by a company of old and experienced mi
ncrs are auning the river in front Of Sandy Bar n
deep and otherwise inaccessible channel in the back
part of which they hope thereby to drain sufficient
ly for excavation and mining. Than this, over few
regions has Midas atrcwn his treasures with a les.
mserly hand, and few mining stocks present surer
indications of having received the transmitting
touch Of the generous god than those Of the Sandy
Bar Company. And it requires but final persever-
to convert them into glttering orc and trans
fer them to the safe-keepng of the old iron chest,
long fixture of the bar, together with which it
has been inherited by the Company. Could you
friend Argus, have looked upon the contents Of this
old chesr IN 50, all your hundred eyes would have
watered at the sight Though it may never again
be so nearly filled then, it may yet figure among
the golden revelations Of Sandy Bar
The next locality worthy ofnotce is Grey Eagle.
And Notwithstanding the condemnation of crazy
ana capGcious public opinion, that now fails to ap-
preciute what it once oyercstimated, it is of tho
most extensive, and prospectively one of the most
desirable gold fields the river. The distribution
of gold in its bars and bluffs is such, that of the
200 miners who will yet be seen laboring at the
same time to secure it, not one perhaps, will make
large sudden strike, but nearly all realize re-
munerating wages ranging from So. to Sc. per day.
The highest figure, think, very nearly approx
mates the average wages of those who are now mi
ming in the region of the old town. This, however,
like many of its neghboring localities, looks to the
food gates of the Pilot Creek Canal as te fo,ptatns
of its future prosperity.
At Horseshoe Bend, the hume of the Pleasant
Bar Co. is to connect with the Boston tunnel, by
means Of which, an extent of river will be drained
much exceeding the length of both the tunnel
being, if not short way to fortune, at least de-
cded cut off from the crcuitous course OF the river
In this neighborhood there are also good hill and
bar diggings, besides room for making yet other
discoveries
At several intermediate points between the Bend
and Junction Bar, there are small communities of
miners who generally, believe, prefer dry digging
ia ,pd This latter locality besiCes