The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-11-24
GRAVEL MINING KEvIv1NG.

Stories of rich gold finds are often like fish
stories; tley may be chestnuts of the most
chestnutty flavor, the narrator having
little stock for sale which he will let his
listener have at bargain. For all this. it
is well to keep an eye on the slow but
steady progress which the explorers OF the
Sierra are making in unearthng the buried
treasure of that wonderful region. For
over thirty years river-bt d mining has oeen
prosecuted on the Feather and Its forks,
and very large quantities of gold are known
to have been taken out The ancient river,
which was long ago filed up with debris,
and whose Office in discl arging the Sierra
waters is now filed by the Feat er and its
forks, must have been a very Pactolus, roll
ing over sands of gold. Year after year,
hundreds of miners even now make snug
income by panning the gravel which is
found in its bed now from twenty to thirty
feet below the rich soil ON which grow the
famous oranges of Butte. In the present
north fork of the Feather rich gravel is
found in places rather difficult to reach,
sometimes averaging as rich as dollar to
the pan. Last summer the miners had
nearly constructed f1ume to divert the
water of the stream at q point few miles
north of Oroville, when the heavy rains
which fell about thirteen months ago washed
away their works. They have now been re-
constructed and the river-bed exposed In
several places. The results are said TO be
so satisfactory that many OF the people OF
Butte County who had about made up their
minds that their destiny was to grow fruit
are once more returning to their first love
gold mining.
All things are possible, and new era OF
gravel mining in this State is among the
things which may happen in the future
The gold which came from the veta madre
of the Sierra, and which was washed down
in the valleys in the numerous ana coplous
streams of the prehistoric age, was probably
al stributed not evenly but widely There is
very little gravel i'll those old gravel river
bottoms which does not contain some gold,
and all Of them have been pretty well
worked out. as far as was practicable by the
pioneer methods OF mining. But in spots
gold appears to be abundant aud can be
reached by improved methods. 1t is difficult
to obtain accurate information of the value
of the gravel now remaining in particular
localities. But it seems to be generally be-
lieyed in Butte County that the gravel
Miners on the Feather River and its forks
will clear up round sum for their work
Gravel mining in the streams which take
their rise in the Sierra may, perhaps, be en-
tering upon its third stage. Tie first was
the stage when the river beds were found 10
be full of coarse gold, and everybody who
had a rocker and pan could clean up ten or
twenty dollars between sunrise and sun
down. The second was the stage when the
surface gravel had all been worked out, and
II, las oIa ,1,-ar of ks
by Little Giants was arrested by the order
of court, which decided that farmers had
rights as well as miners, and that it was not
allowable for the latter TO bury wheat fields
rnder two feet of debris. If a third stage is
impending, success will be attained by the
adoption of scientific methods for searching
out gold-bearing gravel, deeply hidden under
the beds of rivers, or in strata extending
under hills and mountains, which shall be
worked by processes that will cause no in
jury to any other interest of the State.