Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-05-09

Pros. Of salt Lake, made assays of the Big Yank
ledge in Southern Oregon, finding II 10 carry
free gold, but refused 10 purchase it San Fran
cisco experts have been examining it for the
past two weeks and returned TO Portland this
afternoon. They say there are millions Of tons
i'll sight which assay SO per ton, easily worked
They pronounce it one OF the biggest mines il
the world.
l can only say that il affords striking
illustration of the truth Of the familiar
quotation that
Distance lends enchanhment to the view,
And clothes the mountains in an azure hue
From tie days of Jason and his argo
nauts to the present the mind of the gold
seeker has always connected some difficult
and inaccessible locality with the idea O
fabulous wealth. In the early ages of mar
the existence Of gnomes and monsters o
the mine called grifins was not doubted
and it was believed regarding the latter
that their retreats were on the highest
mountain peaks and in the midst of burn.
ing deserts far removed from the approach
of man. and that these inaccessible places
were the storehouses of gold and silver anG
precious stones. This myth has left its in,
fluence upon the human mind and is
doubtless the reason Of the strange belief
existing in every miners head that there
are rich diggings at another place, remote
and far from his own theater of operations
Otherwise, how can his restless and no
made movements be explained? The Col
oradO miner reads of big strikes in CalifOr-
MIA, and becomes at once dissatisfied with
his surroundings, and wants to 90 to the
Golden State. The California miner, on
the other hand, is ready to start at any time
!, +,,1I 4 to
dav you will find him mining and pros
pecting at the two extremes of the world
Alaska and South Africa.
This tendency to pull up stakes and start
off for new camps is great factor in devel-
oping the wealth of new countries, and re-
garded in this light the restless, wandering
miner plays the part of a public benefactor.
bat at the same time ii cannot be denied
that in the mad rush to new localities really
good and meritOTious mines and mining dis
tricts at home areoverlooke ed and abandoned.
In our State, particularly, good mines have
been neglected in the insane and reckless
movement of the gold-seeking population
to distant fields. Shasta county is q good
case in point. Here, if anywhere, the
miner is surrounded with all the natural
advantages desired. The climate is good,
admitting of uninterrupted labor the year
through NOCi anu hlLtI III Z dbIllAlullt
and cheap, and quick transportation is fur
niShed by the railroad trayersing the en-
tire length of the county That the county
is rich in gold quartz must be admitted.
1t was one of the richest placer fields in the
State in the early gold-digging days. 1t
stands to reason that the sources of the i'm
mense yield of placer gold of the county
must lie concealed within our hills and
mountain system. Al who have studied or
observed placer gold deposits are satisfied
with the simple and obvious inference that
the gold has been derived from the erosions
or wearing away of the higher rocks and
breaking down of quartz veins the debris
being sorted by water according 10 its spe-
cifc gravity. We always find placers lying
adjacent to and below districts traversed by
auriferous veins, and nowhere else and the
placer gold itself, in the rounded and bat
tered shape, shows traces of having been
torn away from its parent ledge. The re
suits of quartz mining thus far in Shasta
county have shown that at the heads of the
rich gulches and creeks good veins of au-
riferous quartz exist in abundance. French
Gulch, Flat Creek, Spring Creek, Squaw
Creek and the Cottonwood all demonstrate
this fact.
On the south fork Of Squaw creek, one
of the tributaries Of the Sacramento river,
important discoveries have been made Of
gold and silver ores, and within the last
two wears considerable work of develop
ment has been accomplished The lead
ing mine is known as the Balaklala an
Indian word, meaning Chiefs mountain
an aboriginal leader having established his
on the spot dim ages ago. 1t
is a full claim of 800 feet in length, with
q width of COO feet. The vein is Of phe-
nOmenal extent. 1t seems TO cover the
whole 600 feet comprising the surface To-
cation of the mine. The workings made
this mass of ore have failed
thus far to show any signs of wall or in
closing rocks.
The prevailing formation is a porphyry
rock OF a whitish cast and close, compact
grain, evidently q member of the
feldspar group. This pOrphyry country
Of the claim in small pieces, and occa-
sionally in the lower workings il is found
IN deCompOsed streaks of kaolin and white
earth, but, as said before, no walls to the
vein have been so far encountered. The
entire surface of the mine is covered with
4 rusty, black, spongy mass Of iron "gos
san, through which the gold is dissemin-
ated in free metallic state.
There are also silver sulphurats found
n the shape of nodules in the mass, some
If them being true silver glance or argen-
lite, assaying into the thousands of dollars. |
Free silver derived from the decomposition |
If these sulphides, is also scattered through |
he mass. The gold deposit, however, is of
iuch magnitude, and is i'll such an easy |
shape for treatment, that the ground pre- |
'ents most promising field for a gold !
independent of the silver. |
The silver sulphurets when assayed, while |
living high results in silver, do not show |
he presence of gold. This latter metal |
5 found solely in association with the |
ron. The eruptive rocks of the |
district have created great assures, through |
which geyser springs have come to the |
urface the deposits from which have |
,eyser water has, besides gold, carried in |
oluton silica iron, alumina, etc, and the |
,old seems to have been precipitated |
hieiiy with the iron, which shows that the |
association of the two metals is not acct |
iental. The presence of the silver can be |
scribed to the nature of the country rock. |
The porphyry is the true vein porphyry, |
highly silicious and the theory of lateral |
ecretiOn,p that silver ores are deposited |
rom the decomposition and decay Of the |
writes diffused through the eruptiye rocks, |
eceives here good illustration.
We have then two agencies of nature at |
work in forming this remarkable mine |
he hot geyser on the one hand depositing |
,old and the decaying crystalline rocks |
living up their silicates rich in silver on |
he other. AS the two noble metals are |
Instinct and separate and not mingled to
ether, as in the Comstock and other |
mines, we are compelled to admit that diff |
erent agencies have formed each. As to |
he amount of ore, it is difficult to make |
n estimate, as the whole location seems to |
re one homogeneous mass. Workings by |
haft have established that the deposit |
ontinues down 80 feet, and at the bottom
# the shaft the ore is asNch as it is on
he surface Assuming this depth for the |
mass, and we have the astonishing result |
# 10000 tons, which have gold value
# So, 900 900, while the silver will swell |
he amount to double this figure.
These are large figures, but are simply |
iven to show the possibilities of the |
round, and to prove that lone Of the big
est mines in the world" to use the Ian
uage of the telegram quoted above, exists |
4 Shasta county. The facilities for work
II.