394 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



mines in Calaveras County," published a few years since, which represents the 

 whole region in question as literally covered for miles with highy colored 

 " locations " or " copper claims," the whole of which, with few exceptions — and 

 these due not to copper but to gold — have served no further end than that of 

 rendering their locators and owners sadder and wiser men. At one locality, 

 indeed, viz, the " Napoleon Mine," a body of copper ore was found which in 

 many countries would have been remunerative, and was worked to a considera- 

 ble extent ; but the working here was attended only with loss, and was some 

 time since entirely discontinued. It should be remembered, however, in speak- 

 ing of the copper mines of California, that not only have they had to contend 

 with the general ignorance of copper mining, and especially of copper metal- 

 lurgy which has existed throughout the State, and with extremely high prices 

 for labor and transportation ; but also that, for a year or two past, the largely 

 increased supply of ore from the mines of Chili in South America, and else- 

 where — together with the diminished demand and consequent low price for 

 metallic copper, reacting with increased effect upon the value of the ore— have 

 told with crushing weight even upon the best mines. There are certainly not 

 more than one or two, perhaps not even a single deposit of copper ore in the 

 known world, which surpasses or equals, in magnitude and intrinsic richness 

 combined, that of the " Union" Mine of Copperopolis ; and yet it is said that 

 even the " Union" itself, which is the only mine now active at Copperopolis, is 

 hardly more than paying expenses at present rates. So far then as my obser- 

 vations extend, there is simply nothing whatever in this "second copper belt" 

 which ean for some time to come justify the expenditure of money in searching 

 for copper here ; though it is not impossible that, besides the " Napoleon * 

 Mine, other deposits of ore may exist within the belt, which at some future 

 time, and under more favorable circumstances of labor, fuel, and transportation, 

 may become of value for the copper which they contain. 



It has been already remarked that the zone or belt of surface decomposition 

 in which the " Quail Hill " and other similar mines occur, may be traced with 

 considerable constancy for at least fifteen or eighteen miles, and that it is not 

 improbable that it is much longer than this. We cannot, however, infer from 

 our present knowledge that the decomposed or " calico " rock is continuous 

 throughout the belt, or even for any considerable portion of its length. On the 

 contrary, its distribution within the belt appears capricious and local, i.e., it 

 seems to occur in more or less detached and isolated masses, which vary largely 

 in form and size, and are irregular and indefinite in outline ; so that little more 

 can be predicated of their occurrence in general, than that they are mostly 

 confined within a comparatively narrow belt, and that their longest dimension 

 exhibits a general tendency to approximate parallelism with the axis of the 

 belt, and the stratification of the inclosing country. Sometimes, as for instance, 

 along the northeastern side of the Quail Hill formation, this tendency is so 

 strongly developed, and the passage from the decomposed to the undecomposed 

 rock is so rapid, as to form for some little distance a tolerably straight and well 

 defined " wall " or line of demarcation, parallel, or nearly so, with the strati6ca- 

 tion of the country. But the change or passage from the decomposed or " calico " 



