San Andreas independent., 1857-10-10
To Prospectors-Quartz.

Inc time mas arrived when it should be the
object of every miner to obtain lasting claim
Persons cannot now, as some years ago, when
Claim Is worked out, find another in a few
days; nor are they in the habit of migrating
from place to place as formerly, but prepare
themselves to remain in some locality where
they may become acquainted with the mines,
build themselves comfortable cabins and sur
round themselves with such conveniences to
| live as circumstances will permit. When thus
located how important it is that they should
cndeavor to find lasting claims. Yet it is a
notable fact that one-third of the miners spend
the summer and autumn, when there is no
water, in prospecting and frctting, in hunting
up surface or gulch claims, that will at best
last them but four or five months after they
obtain water, after which they are in the same
situation, prepared to spend another summer
in almost fruitless prospecting. They appear
to lose sight of the important fact that there
is a species of mining, that, comparatively
has scarcely been prospected, and which, in a
-~'' J>~'S3 VII " thS PSii uIlulIlR Vi
the country, and claim once obtained will
last for several years, with chance of its
lasting for ages. Miners who climb over hills.
travel up and down gulches, prospect flats and
hill-sides, spending months in search of win
ter claim, are terrified at the thought of sink
ing shaft twenty feet deep on a quartz vein.
while they know that gold-bearing quartz
vein once opened, is almost a certain means
of obtaining IA fortune. But they falter when
it comes to searching for them on the ground
of uncertainty, yet know that prospecting for
gold is an uncertain business at best and ad-
NIT that mining is but lottery, while those
who work the hardest and persevere the long
est, stand the best chance of drawing prize
Then why will not those who spend five or
six months every year in prospecting, search
for something that will be valuable when it is
found.
The country lying along the foot of the
hills, north of town, and extending from the
vicinity east of five pound gulch, on in north
westerly direction to the Bay State ranch on
the Caayeras, contains veins of gold-bearing
quartz, of which every practical miner who is
acquainted with the section, is well convinced
from the fact that all the gulches and ravines
running through that section have been rich
and the gold is of a rough ragged nature,
showing that it has been carried but a short
distance since being separated from the rock
in which it originated. Every one expresses
the opinion that there is quartz in this vicin-
ity as rich as any that has been found at
Angels Camp, and without doubt quite as ex-
tensive, and all that is necessary is a thorough
prospecting, to prove the hidden riches that lie
in our neighborhood, and which, when prop
erly developed, are calculated to make this one
of the most permanent and prosperous camps
in the southern mines.
With a very few exceptions, no efforts have
been made to discover auriferous quartz in
this vicinity. As early as 1912, some
shafts were sunk, by Frenchmen, upon the
large, ,eh1e quartz lodes, and finding nothing
no further trials worth mentioning were made
till very recently. Last summer R. Mccall &
Co. found a prospect near FIVE pound gulch,
which promised at the time to be rich, but
soon run out, or the lead was
lost. This should discourage no one, for at
Angels Camp prospects were obtained in
'5l-'52-'53, which appeared to be immensely
rich, but after working a short time ran out
and the claims were abandoned as worthless.
Yet some of those same places arc now being
worked and are found to be very rich The
celebrated Cherokee Claim, one of the richest
now open in the southern mines, and out of
which as much as sixty ounces has been taken
at single pan, is one of the abandoned claims,
the proprictors thinking the lead had run out.
We would therefore say to prospectors,
pitch into quartz lodes, and while you are
prospecting search for something that will be
an object when you find it, and always bear
in mind that success ,rW crown the efforts of
those who persevcre
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