Amador ledger., 1900-03-09
MOTHER LODE GEOLOGY
Features of the Lode In Am
ador County.
LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION OF sTRNGERs
California Is In Great Need of Geo
logical Survey, Which Would
Add to Our Importance.
By JOHN A. FAULL.

Dy JOhN A. fAULL.
In speaking of the great lode system
in Amador county, there are features
most Interesting that do not appear to
be touched upon by the examiners in
the field for the Mining Bureau. We
have spoken of the Keystone mine at
Amador City; it has been generally
recognized as contact vein, or series
OF veins. This fissure is bounded on the
east by the so-called green-stone hang
ing wall-we have explained heretofore
what the real character of that wall is.
At the south end of this mining claim,
some two thousand feet south of the
main working shaft, there was a claim
known as the "Jones and Davis" now
known as the South Spring Hill or
Talisman; here the lode leaves the clay
states which course north and south,
and follow the fracture at an angle of
seventy-two degrees east, the lode hold
ing its contact form for 2SO feet east of
the clay slate line, when the entire
dyke became fractured, cracked and
seamed-the gold being found bunchy
and spangled, and instead of iron and
copper sulphurets being the controlling
factors in gold productions, arsenic be-
came the base with quartz and fiuor-
spar in which the gold was found. The
fracture, however, cut clear through
the great dyke and connected the black
clay slate on the west, known as tho
gouge states, with the east. How far
this fracture may effect the eastern vein
system along this belt, is question
for consideration. So far as now known,
no direct communication has been
traced in the gold current, that is to
say, in any absolute or demonstrated
form. Black slate has been found, but
not the black clay slate colored with
the oxide OF manganese filled with iron
and copper pyrites, such as exist on the
west side of the dyke. This condition
of things continues for quite a long dis
tance north and south. This current,
appears to re-enter the west fissure at
the old Eureka mine, about 800 feet
south OF Sutter Creek. Here again the
clay states are found pyritic with the
green-stone as the hanging wall, We
will here stop and consider the effect of
| the great glacial moraine which divided
Sutter creek from Jackson creek. The
so-called contact appears to be disar-
ranged, or rather, an absolute change
the Oneida, Kennedy and Argonaut
mines having their foot-walls, as it is
claimed, OF green-stOne. This is in fact,
| however amygdaloid. Here the states
are pyritic in the same manner as here
tofore described. AS matter of fact,
such breaks, divisions, concentrations
and separations occur along the line of
the lode system, not only in the county
of Amador, but in the adjoining counties
Calaveras and Tuolumne. Passing from
jackson on the west belt, following
what is known as Murphy's Ridge,
there are a. number of seems, veins and
threads of quartz and slate which carry
gold, but none have been traced to any
great depth. The veins of the ridge
and top of the hill were found to be ex-
ceedingly rich, but nothing of value
has been found at any great depth.
The gold current if l may use that
expression, appears to have left the
clay slate little north of the town of
jackson, and passed into the talcose
states in the Zeila mine, from which
point it again crossed into the clay
slate, but it does not show prominent
concentrated wealth until the Gwin
mine is reached, one mile south of the
MOkelumne river. In the veins of
quartz found on the west side of
Murphy's Ridge, the gold is in arsenical
sulphurets, what the miners call black
metal. This is repetition of that
spoken of between Amador City and
Sutter Greek; arsenical or mispickle
gold bearers were often found in the
Mahoney mine at Sutter Greek. These
changes had not been noted with that
care with which they should have been.
They are, however, OF interest to the
miner or would-be miner. Nature has
made a change, hence it Is time for
them to be looking to their CPS and
Q's" so as not to attempt the impos-
sible.
Unless nature has placed metal in the
vein, lode or ledge, men cannot get it
out. So far as known, this black metal
of which l speak ends at the Mokel-
| umne river, as l know of none being
found beyond that point. It is difficult
to account for this occurrence, yet it is
fact. Across the river there are found
mum Der of veins, but none of concen-
trated value until the Gwin mine is
reached. Here the black clay slate
(pyritic) associated with quartz, make
the pay shoot of this famous mine. The
deposit here is little less than 1900 feet
long-its depth is unknown. From
here the lode system splits into three
separate lines which do not appear to
form any deposit until reaching the
vicinity of San Andreas. Here, strange
to say, the great talcose states are found
to the west, while the gold belt with
the black clay states, containing pyritic
matter, may be found on the eastern
division of the lode, such as that at the
l