188 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



is worked merely by a gold-saving process, bringing it under the denom- 

 ination of quartz mining. For example, the rock from some of the rich 

 claims at Gold Hill is not treated for silver at all. So, too, the boulders 

 of Avbich there was so much talk, found in the Mogul District a year ago, 

 and tbe equally rich lead of the Santa Eulalia Company, in tbe Alpine 

 District opposite, are simply worked as auriferous quartz. The same 

 may be said of most of the rock in Arizona, as also of tbat in tbe Owens 

 .River country, and other sections in California. 



At the present time there is not a county in the mining region of the 

 State but what bas witbin its limits several, some of them a lai'ge num- 

 ber, of quartz mills in constant operation. Many of these are expensive 

 and well appointed establishments, being driven by steam, and supplied 

 with every improvement and appliance known in the present advanced 

 stage of the business. In the wildest glens of the Sierra, all through 

 the foothills, on nearly every mountain stream, is to be found some sort 

 of a quartz-crushing establishment, ranging in capacity from the Mexican 

 arrastra to the forty stamp mill. In Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Yuba, Ne- 

 vada, Placer, Tuolumne, and Mariposa, the business is now very largely 

 and profitably carried on. The earnings of some of these mills are 

 enormous, running from five thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars a 

 month. Five thousand dollars, and even six thousand dollars and eigbt 

 thousand dollars at a single cleaning up,. is no unusual thing. At Gold 

 Hill, Nevada Territory, a single foot of ground often yields a clear profit 

 of one thousand dollars per month, and occasionally much more; Cali- 

 fornia not being without similar examples. Without particularizing fur- 

 ther, then, quartz mining as conducted at present may justly be classed 

 among the most extensive and lucrative branches of business now car- 

 ried on in Califotnia, and one that has, perhaps, as bright a future before 

 it as any other. 



COPPER. 



If the gold and silver mining interest on this coast seems to open a field 

 of illimitable wealth, copper points to one equally ricb, and to the poor 

 man, perhaps even more inviting, since a lode of this ore once struck, if 

 only of medium value, can by judicious management be made to defray 

 all the cost of its full development. The moment a ton of ore is on the 

 surface, it can, if it contain only as much as ten or fifteen per cent of 

 metal, and is tolerably accessible, be sold for cash ; or capitalists will ad- 

 vance upon it an amount approximating its value at the smelting works, 

 deducting freight, insurance, and use of money, leaving to the seller what- 

 ever more the ore, when smelted, will command in the market. Every 

 variety of this ore is to be found in California, that to be sought after as 

 a source of profit being tbe sulphurets, as most likely to exist in quanti- 

 ties and yield a paying per cent. 



It is only a little over two years since the attention of tbe mining pub- 

 lic of tbis State was directed to the subject of copper, a ledge carrying, 

 as was subsequently ascertained, a heavy body of tbis ore, having been 

 found about that time in Calaveras County, at a point since designated 

 Copperopolis. 



The Union mine, of the latter place, has been shipping ore with regu- 

 larity during the past year, averaging about three hundred tons monthly, 

 assaying twenty-two per cent. 



The Napoleon has been shipping, since July last Numbers One and Two 

 ore, averaging about one hundred tons per month. In addition to this, 



