The San Francisco call., 1899-04-16

irving to organize another attempt to
work the beach. 1t is likely that only
great plant capable of working 900 or 1OOs
cubic yards day will ever make the ope-
ration profitable.
The working of gold mines in the sand
hills is not a new thing. Mines were op-
Grated out there from thirty to forty-hVe
years ago.
In those days a mine must yield from
$50 to 500 ton in order to be good IN
vestment One man was known to Just
best yielding of any on the peninsula was
said to be 500, the smallest S..
Directly on the county line was Nlsl-
tacion mine, after the valley of the same
name where it was situated. Inc site
was an old Indian burying ground and
often in digging and blastlng grewsIiHnIe So IiII9
ing of the laborers. 1t proved to be not
worth while in those days, but the own
ers kept at it, until the output mlileo SzU
1t was then discarded as useless.
H n. Tilden, the commission merchant,
tells of a mine on the Flint tract which
he now owns This is situated half way
Seventeenth street hill and the Animated
Colleges. Mr.. Tilden says there is not
now and never. was any, gold found on me me
land. According to his statement the
first rock which was taken out of the
shaft was washed in pans that had pre-
viously had gold in them from Mexican
second test not trace of gold could De
found.
Others tell a different story. They say
there is an abundance of the yellow metal
there and that Mr.. Tilden has his rea-
sons for not making too much of 1t at
present
a national reputation as a mining expert,
died convinced of the presence OF gold in
ocean He was constantly digging shafts
and tunneling into the mountain. There
is now an open shaft on the wooded hill
which he leased to some MeXicans. They
20 down into the shaft by means of lad
ders and ropes and bring the rock up in
leather bags on their backs. Everything
is hard labor and they make comfort
able living by this means.
In the year 63 Edward Ewald, an old
time politician, got a few men together
and organized a company As he says.
on earth" They dug a shaft ninety-fve
feet deep on some land Of Mr.. Ewald's
perintendent; Mr.. Higgins was SO. op-
timistically inclined that they called the
mine Higgins Hope" but Hope produced
no more than SIS or 50 to the ton. Mr..
Ewald was seen a few days ago coming
down the hill from the old spot with two
meal sacks filled with rock-presumably
on his way to an assayer's.
Still further on there were two shafts
sunk by Mr.. Burns and Mr.. Robinson
respeetively Then e1,., comes on9 u, the mine
of which much has already been told and
still more remains for the earth to dis
close. This mine Is situated on the edge
of what old timers will remember as
Strawberry Island. At the present sea-
son, in the midst of the wastes of sand,
this spot is carpeted with the white bios
SONS and beautiful green leaves of the
strawberry vine. Mr.. Zammitt recently
discovered on his ground quartz in which
particles of gold were easily seen. It IS
further down in the same ledge that
he and Mr.. En~lish are now at work.
Mr.. Zammitt says 1t means millions,
and also asserts that he has another sur
prise on hand, the nature Of which he
will not divulge.
Right here is the last trace Of gold un-
til the ocean beach is reached, where
there is an immense deposit in the black
sand. It is lying idle, waiting for mod
ern machinery to separate it.