1811.] AVERAGE YIELD. 437 



donbtedly be made to the number of persons operating in the 

 mining districts during the past year, the placeras will be so 

 much exhausted, that they cannot be profitably worked with- 

 out cheap labor and expensive machinery. Should other 

 deposits of the metal be found, however, equalling or nearly 

 approaching in richness, those which have been already dis- 

 closed, it would be idle to predict when these discoveries 

 will end. It is far better, nevertheless, that too sanguine 

 expectations should not be formed, for disappointment, come 

 when or how it may, needs nothing to heighten its poignancy. 

 It is computed that the value of the gold taken from the 

 mines during the first twelve months subsequent to the dis- 

 covery, was not far from thirty millions of dollars. Of this 

 amount only about six millions of dollars have readied the 

 Atlantic sea board ; some ten or twelve millions have been 

 carried to foreign countries ; and the balance still remains in 

 the territory. At first, many of the miners obtained an ounce 

 of gold per day, but the general average has not been five 

 dollars per day to each person while actually at work. Tak- 

 ing into consideration the enormous prices to be paid for every^. 

 article of necessity or luxury, this return is by no means 

 flattering; for there is a great portion of the year during 

 which the mining operations are for the most part suspended, 

 by the recurrence of the rainy season. While such prices 

 are maintained, the yield of gold should amount upon an 

 average to at least five dollars per day to every individual in 

 the territory, including as well those engaged in trade and 

 furnishing supplies, as those at work in the mines. Accord- 

 ing to the latest accounts from this auriferous region, the rich 

 washings on Feather river and some other streams have been 

 measurably exhausted, though with good machinery and In- 

 dian labor still yielding a fair remuneration.* In some in- 

 stances, the courses of the streams have been turned, or their 



* Individual miners have so far succeeded much better with a common tin 

 pan, or basin, for washing their gold, and it is full as popular at the placeras of 

 California as is the game! la at the washings of Brazil. Small parties still prefer 

 to adhere to the rocker or cradle. 



