The hydraulic press., 1859-04-30
THE MINES

nies are washing but ew have cleaned up
since our last issue. The Ohio Company
have taken out SI,3s6 SO, and Winham
Brothers, from the small piece of ground
adjoining the Golden Gate claims, realized
$1,000. On Friday morning, last week,
Moore & Readshaw exploded a novel bank
blast in their claims. They first sunk shaft
thirty feet deep, sixty feet back from the face
of the bank; from the bottom of that ran a
small drift for some twelve feet and
at right angle from this
drift another one only eight or ten feet
long, placing at the terminus of the latter
three hundred pounds of powder. After
laying safety fuse, which was drawn through
lead pipe from the powder up through the
shaft to the surface so as to be waterproof,
the drifts were filled with dirt, tightly packed
and the shaft was filled with water, which of
course is more dense and ponderous than
earth would be. The fuse was then fred
When the charge was reached and exploded,
it made noise like the heavy roar of artil-
lery and shook the hill from end to end, a
distance of at least half mile, jarring sem
sibly all the houses in town. The water in
the shaft accompanied by earth and stones,
was thrown into the air in a straight col
umn two hundred feet high emptying the
shaft completely. The earth around the
mouth of the shaft cracked just as rock does
abouta drill hOle and the entire bank which
isvery hard was cracked through and through,
so that it will yield quite readily to the ap-
plication of water. This is considered the
best mode of bank blasting yet hit upon
When drifts are run in from the face of the
bank they cannot be tamped tight enough,
and great deal of the expansive force of
the explosion is lost through them. Messrs.
Moore Il Readshaw are running a deep TIM
mel so as to wash their dirt from the bed
rock, and are making progress at the rate of
twenty feet week.
SwEETLAND.- -Winham Brothers have sold
their interest, which was one-third, in the
Sweetland Creek Tail Sluice, for $4,000.
This property is represented as paying very
well.
WILLOW CREEK.-The Chinese miners on
this stream lately sold lGO ounces of gold
dust, worth about $4,000.
MANzANITA HILL.-The mines at this place
are steadily improving. The Manzanita
Company took out, last week, from five days
washing, $3.50; the New York Company, in
| six days, $3.50. The water strike at Column
bia Hill does not extend to this vicinity.
COLUMBIA HnL.-The strike at this and
adjoining districts continues, not head of
water being run except to few companies
who are cleaning up. From what we can
learn it is not possible now that work can be
resumed for at least twelve months. 1t is re-
ported that the Ditch Company have sold all
their water to Pollard & &C., of the Shady
Creek Ditch, at the rate of thirty cents an
inch for each twenty-four hours during the
next year. This arrangement, if it has real
ly been made, will prove good thing for
French Corral and vicinity, but disastrous
to the miners at Columbia, Kennebec and
Chimney Hills. The business men of those
places will suffer as much as the miners, if
not more, and they already feel the baneful
effects of the strike. The miners still con-
tend that they were forced to strike by the
poverty of the diggings. One of them over
the signature of "Bloomer," writes to us as
follows:
"There was no choice for US. We gave it
a trial of years, and it has been with loss
upon loss that majority have struggled
through. The Ditch Company has promised
from time to time that when they got out Of
debt the price of water should be reduced.
This encouraged the miners to open the dig
gings, and led them to believe that ultimate
ly they would be able to get little some
thing for their toll and expense. They have
thus labored along in hope until they have
paid for two bitches, and now that the third
one has been brought in they are still told
the same story. Hope deferred hath made
the hearts of the miners sick, and they have
now struck with will, determined not to
work until the price of water is such that il
will afford them fair remuneration for theiI
labor and investments. If the Ditch Compa-
ny can sell their water at twenty-five cents
per inch, of course we don't expect they will
reduce it. We look for no such magnani-
nous conduct On their part; but we are
prepared to wait until some other motive
shall influence them to give us water at such
prices as suit us. Some of the miners have
already laid their ground over under the new
law of the district, and have gone to Other
diggings. Others are preparing to do thesame
while others are getting ready to work river
claims, so that if the strike continues long
our population will become quite sparse"
MOONEY YEXULTs-ThomaS MoOney. the gal.