The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-19

city is now engaged in opening up by the
hydraulic process an immense body of dis
integrated quartz lying about one mile
north OF Ashland. This deposit covers
some sixty acres and is very rich.
Placer mining is carried on extensively
on the Rogue River and the Apologize.
Hundreds of men are at work with rockers
and sluice boxes up and down both of these
streams. going over the same ground that
was gone over nearly half century ago,
and frequently one sees the irresistible
monitor at work belching forth against the
gravelly banks immense quantities of water,
washing away tons upon tons OF material
to the sluices below, a single man in at
tendance thus doing the work of at least a
hundred men under the old system with
pick and shovel.
An extensive plant has Just been COM
pleted near Gold Hill, on the Rogue River,
to work the back channel of the rich bar at
that place; great pumps are employed to
raise the water to a considerable height to
obtain sufficient pressure for hydraulicking.
4 company of Seattle and Portland CAPT.
talists have recently acquired large tract
of rich gravel deposits on Falls Creek and
already have large force of men at work
and are meeting with marked success.
Sardine Greek, a tributary of the Rogue
River, is literally lined with miners and all
are making good wages.
JACKSON county HAS pIOOuCSu lIOIu It's
placers over 1900, 900 in the past, and
bids fair to far pass that mark in the near
future from the deep grayel-beds that here
tofore have been but merely probed.
Quartz pocket mining has been prolific
source of revenue to the prospector in the
vicinity OF Gold Hill ever since 1853, when
attention was called to this branch of min
ing by the discovery of the famous Gold
Hill pocket that yielded upward of $500, 600
from a space 20 feet long by Is feet deep,
the ledge being only about IS inches thick.
Thousands of dollars were spent In the
vain search for continuous ledge of pay
ing ore, and after years of labor the mine
was allowed to lie idle until this spring,
when Mr.. Oliver, the noted pocket-miner
of Shasta County, took up the scent and is
now in hot chase for a pocket that he says
should be below, and expresses a deter
mination to find it If he must go a thou
sand feet to do so.
The pocket hunter must be a man of in
dustry, patience and good Judgment to
enable him TO succeed at his business. A
pick, shovel and prospecting pan are the
only tools required. Thus equipped the
prospector starts on his trip of discovery.
From each hillside encountered he takes a
shovelful of earth every few feet, carries
it to the nearest water and pans it out.
When a color is found another pan is
made from or near the same place for con-
firmation; if colors are again found, then
commences the real art of the hunter. de
pans the earth each direction from the
point of discovery parallel with the con-
tour of the hill until he reaches the limit
of the auriferous deposits, and this he
makes his base line. He will now advance
up the hill probably twenty feet and run
another line in the same manner parallel
with the base line, which will be found to
be somewhat shorter. This process is con-
tinued until the apex of the triangle is de-
termined. To reach this point it is often
necessary to take from 500 TO 1000 test sam
pies, all of which must be carried to water,
sometimes miles away, and months are
consumed upon a single trace.
The apex being located, the hunter
makes careful examination of the forma-
ton of the hill in the immediate vicinity
noting the character of the country rock,
the existence of dikes, the trend and pitch
of same, and being guided by former ex-
perience, starts q tunnel into the hill in
accordance with the result of such exami-
nation, and if he has calculated carefully,
the pocket is found in a short distance,
and his well-earned reward is at hand
Pocket quartz is always of a distinctive
character, easily distinguished from that
of assure veins in its peculiar crystalhZa-
ton and CLASSY appearance. The Ham
mersley quartz property, consisting OF the
Little Daisy, Coxey and Dorritt claims,
is now being worked by Mr.. Morton
Lindley of Gold Hill, and bids fair to con-
tinue for long time good dividend pay
ing property. Mr.. Lindley is also operating
successfully two other properties in this
vicinity, known as the Red Oak and Rita
quartz mines. A rich strike of quartz
is reported from Battle Mountain, made
memorable by the sanguinary decisive
fl ght in 1853 between Fighting Joe" Lane
and the Rogue River Indians. Fully a
dozen strikes are reported from
Baker County, and three ten-stamp
mills have already been ordered
for that section. The Bohemia district is
attracting a great deal of attention this
spring. Withal Oregon seems to be enter
never before equaled in the history Of the
State.