Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-03-13

have a tall OF ~, and perhaps IOU feet TO the
mile. a freshet with such fall makes q
rapid destruction of dump.
CAPITAL INVESTED IN MINING.
This rapid and cheap handling OF earth or
gravel is made possible only by large invest
ments of capital These investments are
made to bring water FROM higher attitudes, 50
that it can be used under the necessary press
ure. The water is brought in bitches forty
miles, more or less, long, built III country
which, for vertical dimensions and steep
slopes, is almost unequaled. These canals
are bold in the extreme. Inasmuch the
streams do not furnish sufficient water at all
seasons, it becomes necessary for the miner
to store water from the melting SHOWS, which
he does in large reservoirs, which are also ad-
Inirable specimens If their kind. These res
ervoirs are well up towards the summit OF
the Sierra Nevada. Several are shown on
the map, as the Fcrdyee. the Bowman, the
English and the Meadow Lake
The construction of the canals, reservoirs
and sluices from the mines tn the dump,
which is often through tunnel some thou
sand feet in length, are all preliminary to the
actual operations of mining. These con-
structiOns have, il some cases required sew
eral years tine. and in the case of the North
uomdeld required the expenditure of about
two millions of money. In these circum-
stances lies one OF the main appeals of the
miners. In many cases the principal has
not been returned, and cannot be returned
unless the system is allowed to continue.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACCUMULATION OF DEBRIS.
Although the hydraulic miner is now un-
questionahly responsible for the continual &C.
cretions that raise the levels of the beds OF
the water courses year by year, yet the his
tory of these deposits show that he is not re-
spousible for all that is past. Hydraulic
mining, in the effective form it now presents,
is of quite modern growth. The earlier min
ing done from 1918 TO 1850 was done by
manual labor Water was used to work out
the gold, but was not used to excavate to any
great extent. The water was not used under
pressure During these years, and especially
during the first FIVE or six years, continuing
from 1S4S many thousands of men were EN-
ployed IN placer mining all through the gold
districts During all these years there was
no great food. The winter Of 1862 was the
occasion OF the severest food California has
ever known since 1913. This food found all
the little gulches and the beds of larger
streams stored with the material resulting
from ten years mining This freshet brought
the sand and gravel down in immense guam
titles. Whatever filling of the channel may
have taken place. previous TO this time, 1t APP
pears TO have escaped notice. The winter Of
1865, which gave high water, increased the
evil. The placer mining had been nearly, if
not entirely, exhausted by this time. Each
successive food has made things worse and
worse.
It has been said that profit can be made
out of earth that contains few cents of gold
to cubic yard, but in order to accomplish
this large investment of capital must be
made in procuring a sufficient supply OF
water under an adequate pressure.
1t will now be understood that in order to
return a good interest on large investments
larger quantities of earth must be handled.
WHAT WATER Is REQUIRED TO Do-oUANTITY
USED.
The quantity of water that mine uses is
generally pretty well known, at least approx
mately. The quantity of earth that is moved
has not generally been a subject of interest
to the miners, and for that reason our infor-
nation on this subject is not as full as is to
be desired. In few cases the amount of ex-
cavation has been measured, and some at
tempts have been made to obtain general
results as to the amount Of excavation that
can be made with a given quantity of water
This amount varies with the character of the
material, with the slope of the hill and with
the pressure of the water. 1t is not here pro-
posed to go into detail on this point but it
seems desirable to convey some sort of an adj
equate idea of the results Of this kind OF exca-
walton.
An inch of wster running for q hours is
taken to be $3.50 cubic feet. On the San
Juan ridge, between the South and Middle
Yuba, the State Engineer reports that in the
year beginning November, 1873, 2,S19, 317
inches of water were used, while the quantity
ascertained to have been used during the
same time in the drainage basin of the Yuba
is 5,S93, 962 inches An inch of water
will excavate at all rates from 1 to or 8
cubic yards of earth The Spring Valley
mines at Cherokee lave been excavated to
the extent of %, coo, coo cubic yards in
years, with an average quantity of 2, $50
inches. Allowing 80 days to the year, the
daily excavation for an inch of water is about
yards. The material here is very light,
mostly sand. fine gravel and clay in cliffs 400
feet high. The grades of the sluice is perhaps
an average, being one foot in "a.
QUANTITY OF EARTH DEPOSITED IN THE STREAMS
BY THE MINES.
It would perhaps be an excessive allowance
to apply this rate of excavation to the Yubas.
It is, however within the probable limits of
truth to place the amount of material exca-
waited in the basin f the Yuba at q yards to
the inch. This allowance makes the yearly
amount placed in the stream and its tributa-
ries at IA, 900, 600 or u, 1000, 600 cubic yards.
On the other mining streams, the Feather,
Bear and American, there is no reliable in
formation as to the amount excavated and
deposited in the streams.
The attempt has been made to estimate the
quantity of material in the Yuba and Bear
rivers that have not yet reached the naviga-
tion lines, but which lies in the path of the
floods, and is therefore liable to be washed
further and further, in greater or less de-
gree, by every freshet. These deposits are
the result of past mining. If no more were
added, they are yet capable of doing great
injury to the water-courses below.
The amount lying in the bed of the main
Yuba and its branches, above the Yuba mill,
is 40, 263, 200 cubic yards. The amount below
the Yuba mill, as far as Marysville, 14,600
acres covered, average depth assumed to be
feet, is "a, 2SS 664. Total 143, 551, S64.
On the Bear river the estimate is 14S, 24S,-
600, of which 62,0SS, 900 lies in the plains,
and sc, 160, 600 cubic yards are in the bed of
the stream above the foothills. This estimate
makes the total amount in the two streams to
be 291, 799, 1874 cubic yards. 1t is not pre-
tended that this estimate is accurate. 1t
could not be so without boring the deposits
in thousands of places. 1t is made from the
best information available. Its use, in its
imperfect accuracy, is to convey to. those
who have not the opportunity of seeing it
some conception of the enormous dimensions
of the phenomenon.
The character of this deposit has already
been defined. 1t is sand, gravel, slickens and
stones. The part that has reached the plains
to this time is sand, gravel and slickens. The
layer of gravel and cobbles remain, as yet in
the foothills There is some coarse gravel in
the Yuba, four or FIVE miles below the Yuba
mills
The Yuba having been filed 125 feet at
and perhaps Is feet at Marys-
vile, the slope of the river between these
points, distance of Is miles, has been in
creased Ito feet, which is about six feet per
mile. This about doubles the original slope.
This tendency to increase the slope of this
part of the river brings the gravel lower and
lower. This is counteracted, to some extent,
by the great breadth of the stream in the
plains at high water. Small gravel is, how
ever, found now in small quantities within
three or four miles of Marysville. With the
of slope under the influence of fresh
A. IL