178 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



days' washing in most of the gulch and dry diggings — a thing that does 

 not usually occur so early in the season. Later in that month, and at 

 timely intervals since, rain enough has fallen to afford water enough for 

 working nearly everywhere, except in the more southern counties — a cir- 

 cumstance that was no doubt turned to good account, and large amounts 

 of dust taken out. 



Tunnel and hydraulic mining, largely engaged in throughout the cen- 

 tral and northern counties of the State, have turned out moderately well 

 during the past year, while some placer diggings, of considerable richness, 

 but limited extent, have been found in new localities. These tunnels, 

 though similar- in construction to those driven for exploitation of ore 

 lodes, are undertaken for a different purpose, the object being to reach 

 such deposits of free gold as are supposed to lie too far beneath the sur- 

 face to admit of the removal of the superincumbent earth, and generally 

 in the basin of a hill having a rim-rock that requires to be cut through 

 to secure drainage. Like the turning of the rivers, these tunnelling opera- 

 tions are apt to be expensive and uncertain, years of the most laborious 

 effort sometimes being consumed in carrying them on. The miner, if he 

 be without capital, performs this labor himself, the work often being 

 pushed day and night, by means of relays of hands, during all this time. 

 In some instances, heavy deposits of gold are found, amply rewarding 

 the adventurous and persevering miner for all his toils, while in others 

 the return is very meagre, or fails altogether. A large percentage of 

 these tunnel and river-bed claims are total failures, the owners frequently 

 losing several years of hard labor, and large sums of money besides. 

 But, with all their hardship and uncertainty, these can hardly be pro- 

 nounced different in this respect from every other branch of mining. 

 Hydraulic washing is constantly growing in favor, both because of its 

 greater certainty and frequent large returns ; but it can only be embark- 

 ed in by a considerable outlay in the first instance, and requires for its 

 successful prosecution, besides a large supply of water, a sufficient descent 

 to carry off the immense quantities of debris liberated by its operations. 

 It is not, therefore, by every class of miners, nor in every locality where 

 there may be rich deposits, that it can be carried on. Where the condi- 

 tions are favorable, this style of mining is sometimes attended with mu- 

 nificent results. The range of mining counties extending from Shasta to 

 El Dorado, is the seat of the principal hydraulic operations. In some of 

 these claims many thousand dollars are taken out at a single cleaning up, 

 and but few of them fail to pay their proprietors handsomely, after de- 

 fraying all expenses, though the latter, between hired labor and water 

 rents, are always heavy. It is in the working of these claims that the 

 immense blasts are in use, a single one exploding from two hundred to 

 five hundred kegs of powder. Their utility lies in the huge masses of 

 earth which they shatter and thus prepare for the ready action of water. 

 In preparing them, a drift is carried under the hill, upon which a face has 

 sometimes been worked more than a hundred feet high. Connecting 

 with this drift are chambers in which the powder is placed, after which 

 its mouth, for a long distance in, is thoroughly tamped with earth. The 

 firing is accomplished by means of a fuse, and many thousand tons of clay, 

 gravel, and cement, are often disturbed by a single blast. 



Early in the spring a large number left this State for Idaho Territory, 

 where rich placer diggings had been found the year before. The entire 

 number that had gathered into that country before the season closed, 

 about the first of November, was estimated at thirty thousand. The 

 mines, it would appear, are rich in spots, and though not very extensive, 



