The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-30


gauism in perfect condition. Try them. IS cents
Prepared only hg g. :. Hood & en-. Lov-eU Mass
draulic mining Of the vein matter of these
mountains had sluiced and left in the
rock rifles of their beds.
The old cinders lay there beneath the
hard scoria of their waXy surface, and
these frothy eructatio having been emit
ted. there followed some substance of the
interior structure. There, like stark
tongues or else prOtruding yet hardened an
sin stand the eruptive GRANTEES Very
early they took on hoods of snow. which
they have been wearing ever since.
From their frozen sides there trickled and
gathered force the torrents which hunted
the old channels of the erstwhile streams,
but they sought in vain. for those chan
nels, which being closed by the oDdurate
dement's. shed the assailing waters and
turned them upon the adjacent rock, where
they have cut and cut until they have
chiseled out steep canyons thousands of
feet deep.
In the early stages of these missions
the new streams sometimes turned across
the surfaces Of the old lava-hlled chan
nels. and sometimes met the latter nearly
at right angles; they would sweep along
The opposite side for a while, then come
back and strike across the lava streak
again. When this serpentlne movement
became the set led conduct of the stream,
and it began to shape its bed in accord
ance with its eccenUricHy, it wore down
the rock upon which 1t rolled, and the
lavas and adjacent material were cut
through. So il is that we find these an
cient river beds nov high up upon sepa-
rate knobs or hills with great canOns be-
tween, the hills seemingly bearing no re-
latiou. and apparently never having been
united. But il was through this cross-cut-
ting action of the cretaceous or tertiary
streams that there We're dragged down
from their cOncealment and strewn along
the beds and bars below the gold particles
which gave the miners of 1852 their clews
as TO the source whence had come the
alluring object of their quest.
But there is one great channel which
seems TO parallel the Sierra Nevadas and
to run for a hundred miles along the
mountains in the same general course and
direction as the mother lode. This is
called by miners the blue lead, by reason
of the pigment which distinguishes its
gravels. For siXty-five miles, from Little
Grizzly in Sierra county, to Forest Hill
in Placer county. it may be distinctly trac-
ed at a. general elevation of about 500 feet
above the levels of the live rivers which
cross it. 1t is a great channel, possibly
a mile or more in width, filled with bould-
ers and gravel of quartz, the slate frag-
ments having long since disintegrated into
dust Ii is capped by basalt, by pipe-clay,
and the volcanic conglomerate, banks of
which rise from its bedrock 300 feet high.
In the changed relief of the region, the
gashed and hidden state of the ancient
courses, it is exceedingly difficult, even
for one trained in the field, to map their
several trends, and the very existence of
the blue lead, as a distinct and continu-
Gus channel of an ancient stream lying in
longitudinal line beside the mountains
was for a long time the subject of seriouA
dispute. 1t was recognized that many of
the old streams flowed in practically tn"
same course as the new ones. This fac.
is very apparent in the southern part of
the range where eruptions did not occur
and where it is plain that the new chan
nels are mercy a contraction of the old
streams cutting down the center of their
beds and p.oughing out deep canons, leav-
ing the ancient gravels high up on either
size.
The color which the blue lead gravels
bear Is not due TO an original hue of the
rock measures or deposits from which
these fiints were quarried, but is owing
to the action of chemical reagents operat-
ing within the laboratory of the channel.
The blue lead stones have been saturated
with a mordant of ferrous sulphate
which, dissolved by water and excluded
from air. would yield the blue which has
dyed the lower sediments Exposed to
the oXidizing influences of the air the
blue will turn red or vary to brown so
that we find the upper horizons of the
mass holding the latter tints, while the
lower and more protected parts are
stained with che pigment of smalt And
all along the trend of the lead as far as
it can be definitely located, there are tun-
nels. They strike in from the canyons,
and cut across the gravels, forming ave-
nues for the exploitation of god So
numerous are they that sometimes their
Eores coming from opposite sides, have
met, making continuous passages for
thousands Of feet. sometimes connecting
villages in different ravines Travellers
passing between Monticello and Excelsior
We're wont to traverse a mile of such ex-
cavatlon rather than climb the hill, and
proceed by a path two miles long
Every foot of this blue lead, therefore.
so far as it is at present known, has been
probed and explored, and what gold could
be gotten from it with the methods at
hand has been obtained. The finer parti-
cles of dust of gold are sifted through
the red gravels, and the blue is the bearer
of the coarser metal From 81 100000 to
100000 per mite is the estimated value of
the metallic contents of these channels at
the time they were first broken into Many
of them have been worked by the meth
Cd known as drifting" which is merely
tunneling under them and digging down
the gravels from above, carrying them
into the open and sluicing them in long
boxes by means of which the gold is
caught; others have been torn down by
hydraulic giants. and the gold secured
through sluices dug in the ground
But hydraulic methods are now prohib-
tied in this state, unless the miner i'm
pounds his taiiings. thing so expensive
TO do as usually 10 make the working Of
the remains OF these aurlferious deposits
Improbable. Including the blue lead. il
is estimated that there We're i'm the early
days" 400 miles of them, each mile worth
an average of 81 600 900, or 100000. 600 in an
They stil give employment 10 many men
and along with the activities on the mother
lode, comprise properly the mining indus
Try of The state
NINTH OHIO MUSTERED OUT.