Year: 1874

try.


The Congress of the United States and


the Legislature of California have done


much by passing wise laws for the protec.


tion and encouragement of mining interests


and 1t is TO be hoped that further protection


and facilities will be granted where Justice


and good sense recommend them. How


necessary more legislation to protect the


great hydraulic mining interests will be mus,


become evident when the unavoidable cor.


sequences of hydraulic mining are duly con.


sidered. The whole process of hydraulic


mining tends to remove mountains of aurif.


erous gravel deposits from their natural po-


siton and to transfer their bulks to the val


leys below. Where water-courses. like the


Yuba, Feather river, American river, and


other large tributaries of the Sacramento


river are the first recipients of the debris and


tailings produced by hydraulic mining, the
danger of a serious blockade of the flow of


tallngs is, to great extent, removed by


the floods, which generally occur every
Winter season, and eliminate, as experience


has shown, at least once in ten years, in an
immense rush of waters,


These floods clear the rivers to great
extent, and wash the accumulation Of tail
ings into the bay of San Francisco, and per-
haps into the Pacific ocean. But where
such water courses are entirely inaccessible,
and where only small streamlets generally
known in California under the name of
dry creeks carrying great volumes of
water during the rainy season, but aitogeth-
er dry in Summer and Fall) are the natural
outlets If 'whefe even these streamets are
wanting and artificial outlets have to be
made, serious questions about the deposit
and accumulation OF taings arise and
threaten TO cripple one of the most important
branches of that industry, to which Califor-
MIA owes her rapid rise AMI wonderful pros
peri,y. ,


Since the lands Ct the Uni'ed States were
thrown into market, farming locations have
been made in closest proximity to the mines !;
IN fact along side of these or those "natural
outlets" which had been used many years
prior as the recipients of tailings, aud un-
fortunate rivalry has arisen between the
mining and farming interests of the State;
some of the most influential newspapers of
the country unqnaliledly pleaded the cause
of the agr;cul,ursts, and the miner was
represented as a mere defactf and DESTROYER
OF the face of nature When it il consider.
ed how lmmen sc is the area Of agricultural
land and how limited, comparatively, the
extent Of the mineral land it seems surpris-
ing that such antagonism should arise, or
that all legitimate means are not used TO
remove the causes of irritation.


1t is evident hydraulic mining necessarily
creates All immense flow of debris or tailings,
and, therefore, this modus of mining re-
quires not only the introduction of great
quantities of water, through long and costly
di'ches, or the boring of long tunnels, equally
expensive, but also facilities for the depos-
ton of the debris or tailings in whatever nat
ural or artificial outlet and place of deposit is
offered. If, therefore, this place of deposit
for the tailngs is denied, hydraulic mining
is at an end. On the other hand, whenever
the farmer receives his patent from the
United States he is sole master of his quar-
ter-se se,ton, and can and must protest against
any respass upon bis property. Should his
property cover the only outlet to the richest
mining region in California, and even should
this outlet have been used for twenty years
as the recipient of talings, the farmers
rights would not yield to any priority, and
the only way to dispossess him of his farm
would be to buy him out at his own price


1t might not deserve the name of hard
ship If the miner were called upon, in few
isolated cases, to secure the legitimate pur-
suit of working his mines by paying enor-
nous prices for land thus necessary TO him;
but when whole townships would have to be
acquired in this way, and when farming To-
cations were made more for speculative
than for agricultural purposes. such proceed
lngs would become tbes most offensive tyr
amy.


The proximity of these lands to some of
the great gravel channels Of the country has
enriched them more or less with fine gold, in
a way that the question whether they are
truly mineral or agricultural may arise, and
at the same time impoversh them by thick
layers of volcanic debris, sand and other un-
fertile materials Common sense declares
uyat such lands, as a whole, are not fit for
agriculture. Where exceptions occar let
them have their full weight; but even it
most be borne in mind that certain port ons
of the lowlands fanking the great gravel
streams of California are as necessary to
hydraulic mining operations as water to
deep placers themselves.


The General Land Office has Withdrawn
some of the lands in question from the mar
ket, an act of justice which deserves the
highest pr.ise; but, nevertheless, these lands
may be thrown open to entry again, and
then the question will arise


The miner pleads that the lands are nec-
essary to him as place of deposit for his