The San Francisco call., 1899-09-18

Sierra IS gong TO DO the right thlng ny
the members of the American Institute
of Mining Engineers when they call on
that distinguished member of the Amer
lean Order of Gold Mining Districts
That, of course, is Grass Valley, where
| California quartz mining began, where
! phenomenal veins lure men downward,
and to which Nevada County largely owes
yet It's prfmacy among the gold pro-
duclng counties of the State. Leading
citizens met in the City Hall the other
evening to consider the entertainment of
the institute on its visit there next week
atter the annual meeting beginning in
san Francisco next Monday, and the
DAILY Morning Union of Grass Valley
says: The American Institute of Min
ing Engineers, when it visits Grass Val
ley icy, the latter part of the month, will re.
CelNe Such Whole-sOuled welcome that
,i aiLe members will vote it one OF the
pIeasantest features of their lives" After
speecheS and resolutions and provision
LOT various committees, a resolution OF
formal invitation was adopted Sue
ceeqihg the preamble, the resolution was;
vaI1a4 IK1esolyed, BY the citizens of Grass ass
ISth day Of September. that we extend
greeting to the Institute of Mining En-
gineers and invite them to visit our city
ti ana pledge them cordial reception py
tne C4uartZ-crOWned Empress OF the
SIERRA and a true miners welcome ana
entertainment
These proceedings are given here, maince
~ 10 Illustrate the spirit and method OF
the preparations for the occasion
throughout the State. OF course many
other communities are making similar
Grass Valleys neighbor, Nevada City.
Many organized parties have come TO
Canfornia before and have been entery
tanned and shown California resources by
local communities during junketing trips
about the State, but in the past these
visits nave always been to the prune ana
n pcl,. ~ fln
talieys, the flower gardens, etc NOW,
for the first time, comes an association
Of people who, though they like nice Cal
ifornia prunes as well as anybody, are
interested in what is under the ground
and in the raising of ores rather than
oranges. The hill tribes now, for once,
nave q chance to show off the noun
tains of California and their riches and
the Grass Valleyans are only prominent
among them.
A suit of exceptional interest to mining
men and involving a novel issue was de-
cided by Judge Bennett in the Superior
Court of Ell Dorado County last week. In
Northern Ell Dorado County is series of
peculiar formations usually of hornblend
slate, much deCompoSed near the sur
face, composing belts, in places several
hundred feet wide and being travePsed IN
all directions and at all angles by many
width and which carry gold and frequent
ly develop pockets. They are called
seam belts These deposits have been
worked since early days, and most eX-
tenSively north of Georgetown, near the
Georgia Slide, which is generally taken
as the northern terminus Of the mother
lode.
They have been worked good deal by
reducing everything in stamp mills ana as
pocket mines by tunneling along the
seams in the usual. way, but mainly by
the hydraulic process, which gave rise 10
the issue The states are soft and de-
composed, and with a shattering of the
formation it has been piped away through
sluices like a gravel deposit In the
Cranes Gulch mine, on the georgetown
seam belt, this plan was adopted IN carry
days, and when operations We're suspend
ed, in 1891, there was pit $50 feet long,
800 feet wide and 100 feet deep. This was
in the Cranes Gulch mine, which was pat
ented as a placer mine in 1872. The patent
was supposed, of course, to convey final
title. Under the law the patent to the
placer claim conveyed also all lodeS of
mineral deposits in place thereafter dis
covered, but excepted valuable lodes then
known TO exist.
A year or more ago Joseph Scherrer and
others located some of the exposed veins
in the patented property as lode CLAIMS,
on the theory that they were valuable
lodes, known to the ,patentee to be such
when patent was applied for. The Crane
Gulch Mining Company brought suit IN
ejectment. The question before the court
was Of course Were ; these les VEINS fber,1 or
'lodes'9 Was this a placer or lode
mine? The formation had been worked
in both ways in that region, II The la lawyers yer
sons Plaintiff argued the formation to
be geologically Joint seams" and stock
work" There was no reasonable cont1n-
uity of ore or accompanying mineral mat
ter occupying a well-defined main channel
of naturalization. The defendants argued
that the gold came from veins OF quartz
''in place; that 1t was not diffused
through the mass; that the law did not
designate the length of a lode or vein,
and that these veins We're lodeS within
the meaning of the statute.
The court took the PLAINTIFFS view that
this was placer mine and bore no lodes, S,
and gave judgment against the defend
ants, with costs. The case will be ap-
pealed.
Many old-timers will remember Benson
Vile, in early days a busy mining village
a half mile below what is now Columbia,
Tuolumne County. 1t disappeared, like
many other little mining towns have done,
burned, torn down and blown, away-dis-
appeared, all but one old cabin There
Matthew Burns, one of the pioneer gold
diggers, lived alone for forty years, max
ing enough from year to year by. washing
vide beans and, bacon for all that was
left Of Bensonville. He and his cabin
were familiar features % OF the 1 highway m
bought with the idea of reworking the
ground that yielded fortunes long ago.
According to the Mother Lode Magnet,
Gently and died from accidental injuries
Then another Old wornout miner moved
into the cabin to exc out a living as
Burns had done, but the owners wanted
all the gold there was left, and so tore
down the cabin. and the last of Benson
VILE has passed into history.
Mono County chips in with it's little
mining excitement. according to the
Bridgeport Chronicle-Union, which says:
''This week has been busy one for some
of our prospectors, and those anxious to
get rich in a hurry. The first of the week
Mr.. Page, who is at the Arnot NINE
came to town with some very rich speci-
mems from a new find on the extension
of the Arnot ledge on Green Creek and
created quite an excitement, and Wednes-
day number of our citizens quietly left
town and have been locating claims on
the extension and vicinity several hav-
ing been filed with the County Clerk. We
hear this morning that a body of rich
copper has been STRUCK in the Copper
Mountain mine at Jordan. Mono County
will soon be in the swim again."
The Alcatraz Asphalt Company, at its
Sisouoc mines, has been making rather
unusual developments in the Industrial
applications of electricity, says the Santa
Barbara Press. A novel use to which they
have lust put electricity is In operating
a regular naval searchlight for the illu-
minatfon of their asphalt mine at night
This mine, being an open cut in the moun-
eta