The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-18

AS great as is the output Of mineral
waters in California, the industry has
hardly begun its career. Fame like that
of Carlsbad awaits various mineral
springs in this State, and some that now
supply bottling works or bathtubs may be
forgotten. Another mineral spring enter
prise has been started by the lease OF
the Castle Rock mineral springs in Shasta
County for twenty years, the lessee to get
! cent a gallon for waters sold and cents
a dozen for quart bottles, the lessees to
do the rest. In 1896 the mineral water
output of the State was estimated at $685.
3S4 gallons. valued at 1891, 434
new slate quarry and company have
come to the front to help along the slow
development of the great slate resources
of the State. The Pacific Slate Company,
in which General Manager Moss of the
Valley road is interested, has incorporated
and will endeavor TO open a slate quarry
on the Muller ranch, below Hornitos,
Mariposa County.
Up at Bragdon, in Shasta County, two
placer miners have rugged up an arrange
ment to save the fine gold which always
goes over the rifles. The last sluicebox
has A-shaped SIDES, slanting together, and
blanket rifles made OF grain sacks In the
meshes of which some of the fine gold is
caught. The gold that escapes the RIFLES
falls through a fine screen with the fine
sand and is retained in a tub for ANAL
gamation. the coarser material going to
the dump.
Three miles of the bed of Slate Creek,
Plumas County, the placer property of
the Altusas Mining Company, is being
successfully worked by an interesting
process, that is unusual though not new.
The gravel is elevated to the sluiceboxes
by an impact wheel, to which is coupled
an endless chain arrangement bearing
gravel buckets. Men shovel the gravel
into these buckets as they pass, and it is
later dumped into the sluices 100 feet
q ~ nd q r
two elevators are employed, and in a sea-
son of six months 1000 feet of channel $50
feet, wide are worked. The material
on bedrock and pay dirt resulting
from the washing down of tailingS and
debris from mining districts above. which
have been worked for twenty years. The
company furnishes its employees cabins,
cooking utensils and tools and pays them
81 80 a day, the men boarding them
The Destelhorst-B Barton Dredger Com
pany, operating on the klamath River,
in StSkiyou County, has discovered rich
bar lying out of water that gives remark
able prospects in gold, says the Redding
Free Press. The ground cannot be worked
until after the fall rains have swollen the
directly over the bar. The gravel deposit
will then be worked by the usual method
lifted on to the boat with steam shovels
and run through quicksilvered sluices.
The find is at the mouth of Horse Creek
ScraperS have been used in taking off the
surface down to water level. This prelim-
lifting by steam vast quantities of we'll
washed debris.
The company of Yreka business men
interested in running a tunnel through
the Humbug range on the west side of
Yreka, as a prospecting venture, keeps
men steadily pegging away with picks,
in about 800 feet and has just tapped a
bunch of quartz about half the size of
the tunnel. 1t contains iron and SUI
phurets in large quantity, but is rather
low grade in gold, though ii may prove
better by further development, and pos
sibly lead TO a permanent ledge. The
tunnel will be continued right along, how
ever, to see if something better can be
found in the mountain, where so many
rich pockets and rich float quartz have
been discovered at various times-Yreka
Journal.
The first cleanup of rock from the
Oneida mine averaged low, but this is
readily accounted for as most of the run
was from a low grade bowlder vein The
second run is now being made of rock
from the 1900 level, and many estimate
that some of it will go $25 to $50 a ton
and average exceedingly well. The result
of the second run is anXiously looked for
ward to.-Amador Republican.
Of all the quartz mills in Tuolumne
County only six are in operation at pres
ent-four on the east belt and two On the
mother lode.
Several important improvements are
under way at the famous Brown Bear
mine at Deadwood Shasta County, &C
cording to the Shasta Courier. Work is
now being carried on on a four-foot ledge.