Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-09-14
0Nortcster 1ailp Spp.
GREELEYs OVERLAND JOURNEY
CALIFORNIA MINES AND MINING.
SACRAMENTO, Aug. 7. 1859.


and Nevada Counties, in the heart of the gold
producing region, There may be richer dig
glngs north or south, but believe no other
three counties lying together have yielded in
the aggregate, or are now producing, so much
gold as those | have named. OF course,
have not even been within sight of more than
fraction OF the mines or placers of these
counties, while | have not carefully studied
even one Of them and yet the little informal
ton | have been able to CLEAN, in the intervals
OF travelling, friendly greeting, and occasional
speech-making, may have some value for those
whose ignorance on the subject is even more
dense than mine
The CANALs.-The canals are a striking
characteristic of the entire mining region. AS
you traverse wild and broken district, per-
haps miles from any human habitation or sign
of present husbandry, they intersect your
dusty, Indifferent road, or are carried in fumes
supported by framework of timber twenty
to sixty feet over your head. Some of these
fumes or open aqueducts are carried across
valleys each mile or more in width | have
seen two Of them thus crossing side by side
The canals range from ten to sixty or eighty
miles in length, and are filled by damming the
streams wheretrom they are severaly fed, and
taking out their water in a wide trench, which
runs along the side of one bank, gradually
gaining comparative altitude as the stream by
its side falls lower and lower in its canon, until
1t is at length on the crest of the headland or
mountain promOntory which projects into the
plain, and may be conducted down either side
of it in any direction deemed desirable.
think several Of these canals have cost nearly
or quite half a million dollars each, having
been enlarged and improved from year to year,
as circumstances dictated and means could be
obtained. One of them, originally constructed
in defiance OF sangune prophecies of failure
NfA If itS
construction within three months from the date
OF its completion. Then it was found neces-
sary to enlarge and every way improve it, and
every dollar of its net earnings for the next
four years was devoted to its perfection. In
some instances, the projectors exhausted their
own means and then resorted to borrowing on
mortgage at California rates of interest; | be-
heVe nearly or quite every such experiment
resulted in absolute bankruptcy and change
of owners. OF late, the solvent and prosper
GUS companies have turned their attention to
dammng the outlets of the little lakes which
ill the h0llows of the Sierra, in order to hold
back the superintendent waters Of the spring
months for use i'll summer and autumn This
course is doubly benefcent, in thatit diminish
es the danger from floods to which this city is
specially subject, but which is also serious in
all the valleys or canons of the mining region
wherein there is anything that water can
ent cash value of these mining canals
throughout California must be many mil
lions OF dollars, paying i'll the average fair
income, while their supply of water is at this
season, and from July to November utterly
inadequate. Water is sold by them by the Gu
bic incf-a stream four inches deep and six
Wide for instance, being twenty four inches,
for which, at fifty cents per inch, twelve dol
lars per day must be paid by the taker
of civ tlnti 81 nh
OF water in the iume above the top of the aper-
ture, through which the water escapes into the
miners private ditch or fiume-is usually al
lowed The price per day ranges from twenty
cents to dollar per inch, though | think it
now seldom reaches the higher figure, which
was once common. Were the supply twice as
copious as it is, presume it would all be re-
quired; if the price were somewhat lowered
by the increase, Lam sure it would be. Many
works are now standing idle solely for want Of
water
MODES OF MINING.--In the course of
weeks travel through portion Of the mining
dis trict, | did not see single miner engaged
with pick and pan in prospecting. Nor do l
remember having seen white men, save, per-
haps, in single instance, engaged in digging
and washing the gravel or earth in the bed of
any water-course, whether river, creek, or dry
gulch. But Chinese bands of six to twelve
digging and washing, with rocker, sluice, and
a sort of wheeland-fume arrangement, which
did not get the hang of.
The Chinese are hardly used here. In the
first place, they are taxed four dollars each per
month for the naked privilege of mining at all.
Next they are not allowed to mine anywhere
but in diggings which white men have worked
out and abandoned, or which no white man
considers worth working. Thirdly, if these
ho,,1 dc
prove better than their reputation, and to be-
gin yielding literally, a mob Of white sover-
egns soon drives the Chinese out of them,
neck and heels. "John" does not seem to be
a very bad fellow, but he is treated worse than
though he were. He is not malignant nor san
culinary, and seldom harms any but his own
tribe. But he is thoroughly sensual, intent on
the fullest qualification of his carnal appetites,
and on nothing else. He eats and drinks the
best he can get, and as much as he can hold
but he is never so devoid of selfrespect as to
be seen drunk in a public place even for an
opium debauch, he secludes himself where
none but friendly eye can reach him. His
particular vanity" in the eating line is rice,
whereof he will have the best only if the best
is to be had he likes fat chicken also, and
will pay his last dollar for one rather than go
without. Lacking the dollar, it is charged
that he will rob hen-roosts at all events, hen
to bear the blame. He is popularity held to
spend nothing, but carry all his gains out of
country and home to his native land-a charge
dsproved by the fact that he is an inveterate
gambler an opium-smoker, habitual rum
drinker, and a devotee of every sensual vice.
But he is weak in body and not allowed to
vote, so it is safe to trample on him; he does
not write English and so cannot tell the story
of his wrongs ; he has no family here 1.-THE few
Chinese women brought to this country being
utterly shameless and abandoned so that he
forms no domestic ties and enjoys no social
standing Even the wretched Indians of Cal
ifornia repel with scorn the suggestion that
there is any kinship between their race and
the Chinese. "John" has traits which | can
neither praise nor justify yet suspect that,
if other mems faults were punished as severe
ly as his, good many Californans would be
less comfortable than they are
AS to quartz-minng, judge that the time
has not even yet arrived for its profitable pros
ecution There are conspicuous instances Of
its success, that of the concern known as "Alll'
sons Rancho" in Grass Valley, for example
but am confident that fully three out OF every
four quarH-mining enterprises have proved
failures, or have at best achieved no positive
success. The current estimates of the yield of
gold by quartz rock are grossly exaggerated
AT $40 per ton of vein-stOne, quartz mining
might pay but where one vein yields $40 per
ton, there are many which yield less than $40
! think the most popular form of mining at
present is that of sinking or drifting into hills
which have stratum OF gravel ut or near their
base, directly everything the bed rock Many
of these hills seem to have been piled in some
farof antediluvian period, upon a bed OF basin