GOLD MINING IN THE UNITED STATES . 177 



in gold mining, and as a direct result the great Australian gold fields 

 became known in 1851 and mining in the gold regions of the southern 

 states was greatly stimulated. With all these notable results, it is 

 pathetic to relate that Marshall, who discovered the California gold, 

 and his associate Sutter, both died poor and disappointed men, many- 

 years later. 



The first gold mining in California was done along the bars and 

 banks of rivers and creeks, while later the whole streams were turned 

 from their courses, and the gravel in their beds was washed for gold. 

 The American, Yuba, Feather, Stanislaus, Tuolumne and other rivers, 

 became famous as gold producers. The gravels in the dry ravines were 

 also washed, and these were called " dry diggings " in distinction from 

 the river, or " wet diggings." When the gravels in the lowlands began 

 to show signs of exhaustion, the miners sought others higher up in the 

 mountains, and there they found the old Tertiary deposits, known as 

 " high gravels." In the meantime the gold-bearing quartz veins were 

 discovered, and thus began the operation of many of the more lasting 

 mining districts of California, such as Angels Camp, Chinese Camp, 

 Amador City, Sonora, Grass Valley, Nevada City and many other places 

 which made the great Mother Lode and other quartz lodes of the Pacific 

 Coast famous. 



In the early mining operations, gold had been obtained by dig- 

 ging the gravel by hand and washing in pans or in the devices known 

 as cradles and sluices ; but when the richer deposits were exhausted and 

 lower grade gravels had to be worked, efforts were made to find means 

 to mine on a larger and cheaper scale. The result was the introduc- 

 tion of what became known as hydraulic mining, a process invented in 

 1852 by Mr. Matteson, from Connecticut. This consisted in throwing a 

 stream of water through an iron nozzle, called a monitor, under im- 

 mense pressure, against a gravel bank. The gravel was thus torn down 

 and washed through the sluices, where the gold was recovered. The 

 method was so much more rapid than the old devices, that it was ex- 

 tensively introduced, and whole hills were washed away. In the mean- 

 time, however, the farming interests of California had become im- 

 portant, and the immense quantities of gravel and sand washed into 

 the rivers by hydraulic mining filled the channels and caused floods, 

 which devastated the lands. This difficulty became so serious that in 

 later years a law was passed restricting hydraulic mining in places 

 where the debris interfered with farming lands below. Still more re- 

 cently the process of working gold-bearing gravels by dredging has 

 been extensively introduced and has considerably increased the pro- 

 duction. 



The most productive era in California gold mining was from 1850 

 to 1859, when the average annual output was about $55,000,000, while 



