The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-01-14

low er anre OF the Sierra Nevada ia California; The val,
eys coyreed with excellent ia great abundance
the entire year. the moisture the and the
occasional during the dry season being nvara-
bly, quite Sufficient prevent the country becoming
psrcheo The proprietor Of cattle estate estimates the
the not the number of acres il consists
o. but BY the number Of cattle upon it The present
which district Santa Clara Is situated is six doas per
head. This price always includes the dwelling house
estate, any improvementsthat may have been
the ground and such chatteis
the business Ct cattle raising.
During my stay at santa Clara we heard Of silver
mine the estate bat upon full in @ury found IL had
been opened and that il would be useless TO visit
1T. Some specimens OF ore, however taken from the
two miles distant from Don JuAn's house. exhibited
traces Of silver but not in much quantities.
Juiaalpa bringing with him sufficient number of
mails for and in half an hour we we're on the
road Jugapa was to be our stopping place that night
and pushed diligently, arriving about dark The
road from Santa Clara to Juigalpa is over an uneven
country the hills being chiefly great masses of scors or
tua varied by occasional outcroppings H granite and
sometimes slate Of the tacose sort There are, how
ever, fine valleys OF agricultural land between these
hills, nearly all Of which have cattle grazing them
but not enough to keep down the grass The grazing
estates OF San Eusava and San Nicolas the only ones
the route worthy Of notice. On each of these there
some thousands OF CATTLE The distance from Santa
Glars to Jugalpa is about fifteen miles, and the road Is
merely bride path In some places very bad and diff
sSa b e as s goGc road
cost.
Leaving Jaigara early in the morning we proceeded
on our course TO berad and for several miles passed
over beautiful and fertile plain upon aich cattle
grazing when we began to ascend the foot hills OF the
grea, chani of mountains that through Chontates
and which be regarded the border Of hs mineral
country. As we assembled found the country 70 be
bare OF underwood and the hills covered with grass to
their tops here began to look for indications OF
goe though we were at least ten miles distant
is known as the gold region and at observed the
red earth and small angular pieces Of quartz &C., which
are held to be sure indications of gold In California
proceeded onward rising at every step, these and
Other god signs continually presented themselves to
oven gold country though there were no appear
OF prospecting" having been done there ana not
region was much farther onward very much re-
GREETED my inability to make thorough examination
Of some Of the ravines in thus vicinity but night
coming on, were wet to the skin by driving rain,
had no tools TO work with, animals very
much atisued with the days travel and we had fully
could hope find shelter. We therefore continued on
to Iberrad whore arrived short time before dark
spa to IS hs
bridepath, generally pretty good but waich could be
much improved by little in the selection of
which should not lead SO Immediately over the tops OF
hills as the present does and which is not at all
cessary, either account Of distance any other
count
gion Of Ch0ntaes and here remained from the 18th
til the 10Th OF December making such observations from
time to time as circumstances would permit As it raned
nearly all the time during stay it with great
difficulty that could procure guides to point out to
some OF the localtie which most desired to visit
ht wever fortunately made the acquaintance OF Don Ra
Toero who of the party that first discovered
the gold mines of Chonaies and to him indebted for
n information concerning them These mines were
discovered by Don Ramon and panions, about
seven years ago, and were worked with success down
to the time OF the breaking out Of the late revolution
military service During the revolution but little
done at mining and 1t is only lately that operations
have again been commenced Each mine, +" consists of
excavation made in the earth the vein of au
ferrous quartz and in several instances these excavations
are quite insufficient to lay enough Of vein bare to e
hbit the quality Of the ead with any considerable
talnty Ali the geld is very fine, and it has been found
that quite equally distributed throughout the rock
is usual case with fine gold quartz vens This fact
is important one inasmuch it is proof to the
experienced miner that he invest money the work
pg Of such vein with the certainty that it will yield an
All the golo. mines of Chontales yet opened are en-
braced in an area Of not moro than five miles, and
ches Of the Bewfelds river. These rivers afford
abundance Of water power. and upon them are sit
the DISTRICT These s are al orara ne
tubs Of about ten feet in diameter, with bottoms
paved with stone upon which sometimes two and some
times four stones OF three four hundred pounds
weight each, caused to revolve somewhat in the
manner OF the upper mill stone. Into the Irregularities
readily amsigsmates with gold whenever in contact with
it, and into the tub is thrown the ORE after being
broken into fragments the size Of hens egg under
about five tons ct the ore daily There abou: half
Of these arastras at work in Cnontaes pro-
p0ueu Dy wafer power ana Ill Mtu2t0 on one or tn9
other Of the above named One belonging Padre
sosa Of oaco the BEST and this is BY no means per-
feet machine.
It would Be useless to name all the mines that have
been denounced" in the neighborhood Of Libertad
description Of one will answer very well for all They
quartz VEINS of six inches TO four feet In thickness
very SOFT beng much decayed and more friable than
most of the quartz rock Of California, North CaroIina
or Georgia This is quite apparent not only from
appearance Of the rock ITSELF but from the fact
9 single arastrs can puiverize Ave tons daily The
veins Of ore at bertad are not wrought in the most
venient economical manner All opened by shaft
ing from the top Of the vein and all the has
quent to be raised the surface at the highest point
The custom to break ont much with iron bar
man carry in leAthern bag, his head, up
nOtched log set end to the surace, and then
pack it mule to the ardSrd, Tor reduction
powcer this slow process Ia done oil the quartz
great pains ascertain the amount Of gold usu-
ally produced from given quantity of rock, and in
swer 10 my inquiries on this point sometimes amused
with most avagsnt stories of the immense richness Of
this that carefully noted all the information
gathered from series Of dgen inquiries, and deem it
ruby safe to set down the amount of gold to the
ton Of ore, at least two desire it to be
deistood that believe the rock by proper WORKING will
yield more than two to the ton and fully
WINGED that the above named Is about
obtained from all the mines that under operation
neceisai lily wastefui.
Having found the quartz mines to fully sustain the
inquiries for surface mining. gentleman who had been
trader ut Iiberad, informed me that years ago
he purchased several Of placer go which
Bcla river some miles below the town. Another person
bad heard Of placer diggngs the river above
the town. but neither could inform Of the precise
caes in which surface gold had been found The river
was too high to admit Of prospect" was satisfied
from what had OF the quartz that there
surface gold in the negnborhood and that the reports
COZ corning placers the Boa not wi hout foun
dation yet it impossible 70 produce any further
proofs than these reports, and set about exsmn-
Tr dry ravines. Having selected spot where
d. I'd it advisable to 'sink hole " began search for
pr tools to work WITH but could not procure Of her
pick, shovel, spade or washing pan in al the town
OF ibertad and an addition to these annoying cir
cumstances tbs inhabitants insisted that gold would
be found where l desired to dig. l however sue
ceeded in procuring pointed iron bar ana horn
spoon that would contain about pint Of EARTH and with
these went to work in spot where the bed rock could
be more easily reached than elsewhere Scraping up
spoonful Of earth from the iedge washed it, the
suit about three cents worth Of fine gold 'pros
Pect sufficiently rich to satisfy me that the ravines of
Lbertad can be wrought to good advantage any
acquainted with placer mining will at once see from the
result Of my experiment.
The district OF Chontales Is not only gold country
In mlnoH If ailvar tha 0old