Year: 1859

of timber twenty to sixty feet over your
head. Some Of these fumes or open a.
queducts are carried across valleys each
a mile or more in width; | have seen two
of them thus crossing side by side. The
canals range from ten to sixty or eighty
miles in length, and are filled by dam
ming the streams wberefrom they are sew
orally fed. and taking out their water in
a wide trench, which runs along the side
of one bank, gradually gaining compara-
tive altitude as the stream ty its side falls
lower in its canon. until it is at length on
the crest Of the headlaDd or mountain
promontory which projects into the plain
and may be conducted down either side
Of it 10 any direction deemed desirable.
l think several OF these cauals have cost
nearly or quite half a million dollars each,
having been enlarged and improved from
year to year, as circumstances dictated
and means could be obtained. One of
them, originally constructed in defiance
OF sanguine prophecies of failure, return
ed to its owners the entire cost of its con-
struction within three months from the
date Off. completion. Then it as found
necessary to enlarge and every way to
improve it, and every dollar of net earn.
iDgs for the next four years was devoted
to It's perfection. In some instances, the
projectors exhausted their own means
and then resorted to borrowing on mort.
gage at California rates of interest; be-
lieve nearly or quite every such expert
ment resulted in absolute bankruptcy and
change of owners. Of late, the solve Mt
and prosperous companies have turned
their attention to dauming the outlets of
the little lakes which fl the hollows of
the Sierra, in order to hold back the su.
perabundant waters Of the Spring months
for use in Summer and Autumn. This
course is doubly beniiceDt. in that it di-
minishes the danger from foods to which
this city is specially subject, but which is
also serious in all the valleys or canons
OF the Mining region wherein there is any
thing that water can injure. Ijudge that
the cost aud present cash value of these
mining canals throughout California must
be many millions Of dollars, paying in
the average fair income, while their
supply of water is at this season, and from
July to November, utterly inadequate
Water is sold by them by the cubic inch
"a stream four inches deep and six wide,
for instance, being twenty four inches.
for which fifty cents per inch, twelve dol
lars per day must be paid by the taker.
A head of six inches-that is, six inches
depth of water in the fume above the top
OF the aperture through which the water
escapes into the miners private ditch OF
aume-is usually allowed. The price
per day ranges from twenty cents to one
dollar per inch, though l think it now
seldom reaches the higher figure, which
was once common. Were the supply
twice as copius as It's, presume it would
all be required; if the price we're some
what lowered by the increase, | am sure
it would be. Many works are now stan
ding idle solely for want of water.


THE MINES.


Go where you will in the Mining region,
you are seldom mile distataDt from
past or present "diggings." Speaking
generally, every ravine. gully. or water
conrse has been prospected; every one at
some point dug open to the "bed-rock," !"
and the everything earth or gravel run
through "rocker," "tom" or "sluice,"
in the hope of making it yield the shining
dust. Many of these water courses have
been deeply aud widely dug up for miles
in extent II any are left entirely undis-
turbed, the presumption is strong that the
subjaceut rock is SO near the surface that
gold has bad no chance to deposit itself
thereon. In some instances. basins or
depressions in the rock have been gradu-
ally filled up with earth--probably aurif-
erous-through thousands OF years, and
the gold which might otherwise have been
strewn down the valley for miles is here
collected, so that it would be sheer waste
to mine tbroug gbout these miles. But the
more general opinion seems to be that
gold is diffused throughout the soil of the
entire Mining region. especially ! upon and
just above the surface of the bed rock,
though only in certain localities is it suf-
6cieDtly abundant to justify efforts to ex
tract it. | find no one seeming to cher
ish any apPrebensions that California will
cease to produce gold abundan.y, at least
within the next quarter of century
On the contrary, the current belief seems
to be that the influx of population will in
time so reduce the wages of labor, or the
progress OF invention and discovery so
increase its efficiency. that extensive dis
tricts will ultimately be mined with prof
it which are now necessarily avoided. If
the amount OF available water were dou
bled. with a considerable reduction of
price. the Gold product of California
would thereupon be increased several mil
lions per annum. Atpre.ent. Mining en-
terprises of considerable promise and in
definite magnitude remain in abeyance,
simply because the price of labor, the rate
of interest, aud other elements of the cost
of Mining, are deemed too high to justify
their prosecution.


MODES OF MINING.


l.. Ill l.