Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-01-06
DEBRIS.
THIRTY-YoURra DAY OF THE sLIcKENs
CASE IL COURT.
What Two Lawyers, Niles searls, Of Nevada
and C. C. Blanchard. Of FL Dorado,
Know of Mining and Debris

The Gold Run case opened at $50 a. NJ.
yesterday. Judge Temple presiding.
Cross-examination of Judge Niles Searls
continued tby George Cadwalader)-l was at
the Yuba dam in the month of October,
1880. have been used to measuring water
by the eye. 1 can Judge very closely the
amount of water in a stream by thus observ-
ing it. The Merchy. Mccormick, Hirsch-
man, Mauzanita and SCOTS Flat mines tail
times uses 1000 inches of water. The early
mining on Deer creek was done with rockers,
long-toms and short sluices. Afterwards
goose-necks were introduced, and they have
don't know of any hydraulic mines that
have been changed into drift mines, but do
know of several drift mines that have been
changed into hydraulic mines. Witness
mentioned the following mines: Blue Tent,
Sailor Flat, Omega, Alpha, Milton at French
Corral, hilton at Sweetland, Yuba Tunnel,
Badger Hill, Lord, Farral, Consolidated,
North Bloomfield, Boston, Blue Bank, ILL
nois, China, Snow Point, Relief Hill, Scott S
Flat, and great many others. Those mines
are all hydraulic, aid employ upwards CT
l, 900 men. They would all be thrown out of
employment If those mines were
stopped. Witness described the manner
of early locations, recording, etc
The rules and regulations of the different
mining districts varied. Litigation between
miners in those early days was very frequent.
The claims in the raVines were crowded with
the tailings from the mines that dumped into
them. have had the Cslfernia reports in
my, office all the time dsafng my practice.
and am quite familiar with them. decided
the celebrated Chew case, and the Supreme
Court reversed my decision. The case of
Logan against DriscolI also tried, and my
Judgment was affirmed by the higher Court.
Those were both Nevada county cases. |
am quite familiar with all the cases that the
Bear River Company have ever had in Court.
Miners were not compelled by the laws of the
mining districts to work their claims in any
particular manner. OF late years the hydrau.
lie mines have long tail fumes and under
currents, 10 order to save their gold.
The mining done in the hydraulic mines is by
washing with water, and that is the same
process employed since 1S4S. The monitors
and giants were first used in 1865. Powder
was used in shattering gravel banks as early as
1865. In quartz mining it was applied as
early as 1858. About one-half of the mining
done on the Yuba is done by the Milton,
Eureka Lake and Bloomfield mines. They
own about three-foarths of all the water
brought in by artificial means. There ara
immense heads of water used on the Yuba
divides that no record is kept of, and of which
no statement was ever given to the Assessor.
There are some mines in the neighborhood of
Laporte that tail into the Yuba. Some of
the mines have rich deposits in the bottom,
others are rich in spots.
Question-You were here during the food of
1S49 and 1850. Did not business proceed as
usual during that flood?
Answer-If drinking whisky and wreckipg
was the usual business, it did. The first rain
in 1S49 observed was nsthe 18th of October.
Along the LIST of November it rained very
hard for a couple of weeks. 1t commenced
raining again on the 18Th Of December, and
rained for thirty days or more.
Redirect examination (by j. X. Byrne)-
the Eureka Lake Company sells consider
able water. Sometimes they sell one-half
pany sells all Of its water. The
Yuba Tunnel, Blue Tent, Manzanita,
Moore's Flat, Snow Point, Relief Hill and
Sweetland Creek mines buy their water from
the canal companies l have mentioned. If
the mines were stopped 1000 men would be
thrown out of employment. They are gem
orally married men, and have settled and per-
manent homes. The mining rules of the diff
fereut mining districts, in the main, were
alike. l am familiar with all the mining de.
cisions of this State. The elevation of the
lakes and reservoirs at the head of the canals
spoken of is about 1000 feet.
GEORGE. C. BLANCHARD
Sworn. Direct examination (by A. B. DID
ble)-l arrived at Placerville on the 4th of
August, 1850. I settled mostly at Placer
vile. 1t has been my residence constantly
since 1864. Prior to that my residence WAS at
Mud Springs. [ came to Sacramento first
about the 26th of August, 1850 It at that
time was trading center to supply miners.
first mined in August, 1850, on Live Oak
Bar, about three miles above Coloma. I was
an active miner until about 1853 and have
been engaged in it and have been since 1850
up to and including the present time.
My first mining ON Live Oak Bar was bank
mining. The early mining in Ell Dorado
county was for bank and ravine mining. Ia
1850 it was conducted by rockers. 1 mined
at Gold Run from September II, 1850, to the
LIST of April, 1851. The lighter displacement
of the river mining was carried down the
stream. The first thing to be considered in
the location of a mine is that of securing
good and sufficient dump. l saw all the
forks of the American river during the years
1851, 1852 and 1858. The waters of those
streams were then muddy from mining.
Their banks were lined with miners. Ishould
Judge that on the American river and
its forks, from 1850 to 1854, there
were $4,000 men engaged in mining
They would displace from 10 to 16 cubic
yards of earth to the man. They would werk
about 800 days in the year. During the same
years, outside of river mining in Ell Dorado
county, there were perhaps 10000 perhaps
$4,000 men engaged in mining ravines,
creeks, fats and gulches. They all dumped
their taiIings into the most convenient
ravines and streams. They displaced from
10 to Is cubic yards per day to the
man, and worked on an average 800 days in
the year. The great floods since that time
have washed down into the rivers great
portion of those tailings. In 1851 l Wis
led portions of Placer county. and
1 should Judge at that time there
were in that county from 1900 to 10000
miners at work there. In 1858 and 1854 the
gings on the Forest Hill and Iowa Hill divides
had deep earthly mold, and think the dis
placement to the man would be about fifteen
cubic yards. Mici igan Bluffs and Forest
Hill mining tailed into the Middle Fork
Iowa Hill mines tailed into the North Fork.
Prior to 1862 the mining in Ell Dorado county
was surface or placer mining. Since that
date the mining has been hill diggings
quartz, deep ground and fiat mining. In
1861 there were from $4,000 to IS coo, in 1870
about Il 900, and now about 10 0O0inhab:tants
in Ell Dorado county dependant on mining.
There was more than fifty times as much
material washed in the mines of Ell Dorado
county prior to 1862 than since. There was
more than $50 times as much material washed
I'll o5e mires between 1S4S and 1870 than has
been moved since. Nine tenths of the material
Of the shallow mining done in early days was
very light. and would be carried away in sus-
pension. 1 do not think that 10 per cent. of
the material from the hydraulic mines will
ever reach point in the stream thirty miles
distant from the dump. Five per cent. will
never reach point forty miles distant. Sac
ramento city il by river about seventy miles
distant from Placerville. There are about
2C0 stamps used in crushing quartz and gravel
in Ell Dorado county. The wash of the
agricultural lands. perhaps IA 1000 acres,
amounts to a great deal. The wash
from a plowed hillside is marvellous.
There is great deal of wash occasioned By
the denudipg of the hills OF timber. The
tramping over the hill sides by immense herds
of sheep, goats and cattle causes very large
amount of wash There is also great num-