ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 393 



The finding of "■ copper indications," i.e., of small and isolated bodies of ore, 

 distributed with some constancy through a narrow belt of country, for no mat- 

 ter how many miles in length, is anything but conclusive evidence of the exist- 

 ence beneath of a regular vein of corresponding length (which, by the way, if 

 it existed, would be an anomaly in the mining world) — especially when all the 

 developments of the most extensive workings hitherto made point so decidedly 

 and strongly to the opinion that there is no true vein at all. Such " indica- 

 tions" are however evidences, so far as they go (and they go a good way in this 

 direction) of the probable existence of other large bodies of ore distributed 

 here and there along the belt in question. It is not improbable that such may 

 be found in the future, and it would not be strange even if some of them should 

 surpass in magnitude and value the great deposit of the " Union," which has 

 already yielded such enormous quantities of copper, and is yet far from being 

 worked out. 



A description of the auriferous deposit of Quail Hill, in the Gopher Range, 

 together with a similar one at Whisky Hill (called also the " Harpending 

 Mine") in Placer County, by Prof. B. Silliman, was read before the California 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, at their meeting of April loth, 1867, and will 

 be found in their published " Proceedings," Vol. Ill, pp. 349-351. This paper 

 describes well the particular deposits in question, as well as the general appear- 

 ance and character of the formation in which they occur. Such deposits, how- 

 ever, are not confined to one or two localities ; but there are other points in 

 Calaveras County at which gold is known to exist in considerable quantity, and 

 with similar mode of occurrence. Among these 1 may mention Quail Hill No. 

 t, near the Napoleon Copper Mine, two or three miles southeast of Quail Hill 

 No. 1, and the " Plymouth Rock," or " Austin and Hathaway" claim, at Rich 

 Gulch, near the Calaveras Eiver. Moreover, the geological causes and the 

 peculiar chemical decomposition of the rock, which have been involved in the 

 formation of the deposits in question, are by no means confined to the localities 

 where gold is known to occur. On the contrary, they may be traced with con- 

 siderable constancy through a narrow belt of country along the southwest flank 

 of the Gopher Hills, and stretching from the Calaveras River southeast for a 

 distance of at least fifteen miles, and perhaps farther. Towards the northwest, 

 the same belt crosses the Calaveras ; but how much farther it extends in this 

 direction I have no present means of knowing. It is not unlikely that a similar 

 formation may be found to exist, here and there at least, in the same general 

 line of strike, nearly parallel with the stratification of the country, through 

 Amador and El Dorado Counties to Placer, and perhaps beyond. The possi- 

 bility of this at least is worth remembering. Throughout this belt, in the 

 Gopher Range, surface cuts and shafts, of greater or less depth, made and sunk 

 in prospecting for copper, are of frequent occurrence. In fact, this is the same 

 belt that has been so often mentioned as " the second important copper-bearing 

 belt of Calaveras County," and located some six or seven miles southwest of 

 the main copper belt of Copperopolis. The " importance" of this belt, o» 

 account of the copper ores which it contains, has been most grossly exaggerated. 

 An amusing illustration of this fact is to be seen in a " map of the copper 



proc. cal. acad. vol. in. *& May, 1868. 



