STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 329 



sand dollars, its eai'nings for the month of December last alone having 

 been more than forty-three thousand dollars. The aggrega^.e amount of 

 gold taken from the quartz mines within the limits of the Grass Yalley 

 District since eighteen hundred and fifty-two — thirteen years — has been 

 at least twenty million dollars. 



In corroboration of the substantial correctness of this statement, we 

 find, after a very careful examination of all the records and other data 

 at our disposal, that the aggregate yield of Grass Valley during tlie past 

 thirteen years has been about twenty-eight million dollars, including all 

 the receipts from surface mining claims in that region. From these latter 

 sources the most reliable statistics show that about eight million dollars 

 has been obtained, leaving twenty million dollars as the probable product 

 of the quartz mines since eighteen hundred and tifty-two. This is believed 

 b}' many well informed parties to be too small an estimate, but wishing 

 to be within bounds, we conform to the above figures. During the past 

 year the quartz mines of Grass Valley have yielded about three million 

 three hundred thousand dollars, or an average of two hundred and sev- 

 enty-five thousand dollars per month, and the coming year is likely to 

 show a product of more than four million dollars. The Soulsby Mill, 

 Tuolumne County, turned out at the rate of fifty thousand dollars per 

 month when it first started, and although it did not keep up that yield, 

 has earned vast sums most of the time since. A large number of mills 

 of ordinary capacity might be mentioned that for years have steadily 

 earned from ten thousand to twenty thousand dollars per month. Most 

 of these mills run night and day. Immense sums have heretofore been 

 and are still being lost in the working of quartz from inability to sep- 

 arate the gold b}' the ordinary modes of treatment from the sulphurets 

 of iron and copper with which it ia combined. Many efforts are being 

 made to meet this difficulty, some of which have been partially success- 

 ful, and there is reason to hope that the desideratum will be supplied at 

 an early day. About two thirds of the mills in California are propelled 

 by steam, and the balance b}' water, the latter generallj', being those of 

 inferior capacitj^. The most of them run night and day, stopping only 

 for repairs or on Sunday. 



The business of quartz mining upon this coast is not confined to Cal- 

 ifornia, there being a great number of ledges in Nevada, Idaho, and in 

 fact throughout all parts of our Pacific possessions, that are now being, 

 or will hereafter be worked by a simple gold-saving process. The bullion 

 obtained from this class of ledges is worth from six to fourteen dollars 

 per ounce. The rich claims at Gold Hill, the ledges not long since found 

 near Walker Lake, and those of supj)Osed great value situate in the des- 

 ert country covering the southern part of Nevada, as well as many others 

 in various parts of that State, are almost exclusively gold-bearing, and 

 will require to be worked as such. 



SILVER MINES AND MINING. 



While California has within her borders a considerable number of what 

 may pro])erly be termed silver-bearing lodes, she has as yet produced but 

 little of this metal — the bulk of it having come from the mines about 

 Virginia City, and other localities in the State of Nevada, where the 

 business of mining for it is extensively engaged in. The yield of that 

 State for the past year amounted, in round numbers, to sixteen million 



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