The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-12-08

the Chinese, who are willing to work hare
and steadily for much less than will salts
fy the aspirations of Yankee. Their
are still rome creek beds that will pay il
Winter, when ater is abundant, that re
naia to be washed out; but, in the N ain
river-mining is at its last gasp. Very
few dams are being or have resently beer
constructed to turn rivers from their beds
and permit these beds to be sluiced out
aud doubt that this special dspar.me emf
of mining ever paid its aggregate cost
The expese is serious; the product otter
moderate, and subject to many contin-
gencies Hencefortb, dams will be CON
structed mainly to feed the canals or
"6itcbes" whereby water is supplied to
works that must otherwise be abandoned.
OF these bitches. the State Register for
1859 bas a list of several hundreds in
iu NUM- ber, am mounting in the aggregate to
5,726 miles of artificial water-courses con-
structed wholly for mining purposes, at q
total cost of 81 3,575, 400, or about twice
that of the original Erie Canal. The lar
gest of these bitches is that Of the Eure-
ka Csnal Company, leading water from
the North fork of the Cosumnes River to
Diamond Springs, 290 miles, at cost Of
$4,000; but there are many far more
expansive and important, being far lar.
ger, and carried over a more difficult
country. At the head Of these stand the
Mokelumno Hill Canalin Calsyeras eoan-
ty, only 60 miles long, but costing $780,
000, the columbia and Stanisiaus Tuo.
lumne county so miles long. which also cost
500. 900 and the South Yuoa Canal, Neya.
da county co ting $500, 600. Many larger
enterprises than even these haze been pro-
jected but not yetcarried out, because cap
italists cannot be found willing to supply
the needful cash Thus, in Mariposas
alone it has been estimated that an an.
nu al rental of ten millions of dollars would
be paid for water, could enough of it be
bad at living rates. | merely guess that
it could not be paid many years.
--Ol couse, | do not suppose that the
Gold Mines of California will ever be
thoroughly worked out--certainly not in
he next thousand years; yet Go not an
icipate any considerable increase in their
annual production, because deem $780,
300, geo per annum as much as can be
,sken out at profit under existing cir
The early miners of Califor-
lia reaped what Nature had been quietly
.owiDg through countless thousands of
gears. Through the action of frost and
ire, growth and decay, air aud water, she
lad been slowly wearing down the prim-
tive rocks in which the gold was origi
rally deposited, washing away the light
II matter. and concentrating the gold
bus cleaned from cubic miles Of stubborn
,uartz and granite in few cubic feet of
arth at the bottom of her water courses.
Many miner has thus taken out in a
lay gold which could not have been OK
racted from the rock where it first grew
q many weeks. Even the hills in which
t is now mainly found can be washed
Town at one dollar or less per cubic yard
y the best hydraulic appliances. But
hen the miner is brought face to face
Ttb the rough granite, which he must
rill aud blast and tunnel for all the gold
e gets, the case is bravely altered. He
nag make money here; be. sometimes
oes; but | au sure that, up to this hour,
lot one Quartz-mining enterprise in every
our has paid its bare expenses;a and though
here will be brilliant exceptions, am
onident that qnartz mining, as whole,
ot pay for many years to come. Either
abor must be cheaper, or the process of
Iuartz mining far more economical and
fficient, or the yield per .un much grea-
er, before one undeniably auiferous
in ten will pay the cost of
Vorking it. And, while presume i'm
will from time to time be made
hear doubungly the talk of sanguine in
nventors and operators of doubling the
roducs of gold by this or that new ANAL
am ato5 or other device. So many of
hese coDtrivances have proved futile or of
title worth, that | wait Chemical tests
rove that but a portion Of the gold aotu- !
lily contained in the vein-stone (especislly
a suIphuret)is now obtained by the crush
ng and washing process; but howsoon or
y what process this proportion may be es
entially increased do not know, who does
md until it shall be, | must consider
Quartz mining, with Labor at the present
ates. the poorest business now prosecuted
0 California. A few, who have struck
ockets rather than veins Of peculiarly
lch quartz, are making good thing OF
!, and their luck is in every one 8 mouths
ut of the hundreds who drive up long a.
its through dead rock, or sink costly
hafts to strike a vein at the best point,
I'D fud it, after all, too poor to pay for
rorkips, little is said or thought till they
rop into the gulf of acknowledged bank
uptcy and pass away. believe fewer
uartz veins are being worked to day than
Yere some years ago; | think fewer still
ill be worked year hence, and thence
orwaTd, until cheaper labor or more eff
sctive processes shall have rendered
uartz mining very different business.
md until such change is effected, ap.
rehend that the annualGold Product of /
,aliforDia will not he esse Dtiaily augnen.