The San Francisco call., 1898-12-11
NEWS OF THE MINES,

healthy life in 1t and may be unlovely when dead.
 Ex-Secretary Sonntag said that at the recent convention the only counties thor 1ull dues in proportion to membership were Nevada, Placer, Shasta, Tuolumne, Fl Dorado, Santa Clara and San Francis co. He and other members of the ~>mmit- tee would gladly go to any county to help organize or stir up associations.
 President Neff observed pertinently tat in the past the association had been rath- CT regarded as the California Hydraulic Miners Association and this was why some mining counties had not been ready to take an active part They now saw that the association was working in the interest of the whole industry and now. thank God, they are willing to come in and help us out"
 The meeting gave an encouraging prom ise that the association would be greatly built up this year. Though the needs of the prostrated hydraulic industry called it into being seven years ago it has broad ened far beyond those limits, represents the general welfare of the whole industry, is the only agency which unites the min growth is sustained it may develop new features in the future.
 That matter of supreme and immediate importance, the Paris Exposition, deyel- as to the amount of money required, es- inmates ranging from $25 900 to $10O OOO. the chairman of the committee on this matter, B. N. shoecraft of Nevada, main. ta1ning that 1t was useless to attempt a mining exhibit with less than $10O 060 There will be much to say and much will be said as to how much Of whatever ap- propriation the Legislature makes should be allowed for the mining portion of the California exhibit at Paris, and strong in- fiuences will seek to keep the proportion small. The mining interests will most probably insist that it be large and ade- quate, and also that the expenditure of the money be in the hands of practical mining men, and not in the hands of a commission prejudiced in favor of other interests.
 The matter was left in the hands of the committee after resolution of w. w. Montague that one-third of the appro- priation be asked was adopted On the next evening the special committee met in the office of Secretary Benjamin and decided to ask for $100 900, and that a wig orous campaign to get it should be in. augurated by having petitions to that end signed by wholesale throughout the mining regions and generally through the State.
 The Mountain Copper Company, which has done so much for quartz mining in the region of it's smelters at Keswick, causing the working of many new prop critics, is not getting enough quartz ores for f1ux and is advertising for more low grade ores, offering 75 per cent of the gold value of ores running over s3 a ton It is also buying concentrates and tail. ings. These big copper operations. are thus greatly stimulating gold mining in that region.
 On the Feather River, south of Oro- vile. one of the big new river dredgers has worked its way y,a 1So yards away from and, according to the Oroville Register the roar of the rocks falling from it's eIe- vator could be heard a long distance '' Another big dredger nearly ready for ope- ration has half dozen big 'staterooms' for the men,
 The Bridgeport Chronicle Union reports a rich strike In claim in Little Antelope Valley, Mono County, in which editor A. B. Lennon of Santa Rosa is interested The old McCutchan hydraulic mine at