462 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



more particularly to the deposits of the benches and hillsides — 

 <!Oupled with a more definite method of conducting extensive opera- 

 tions on a comparatively economic basis, has given fresh impetus to 

 the work of mine holders, and made largely remunerative that 

 which had promised to be little profitable. A more just adminis- 

 tration of the mining laws has helped to a considerate feeling 

 among the miners, and reduced very materially the grievances 

 which formerly fell with thick force upon the ofiaces of the Re- 

 corder and Gold Commissioner. Access is now easily had to the 

 records of claims, and individual " cases " receive an early and 

 proper hearing. Electric plants have been introduced on some 

 of the claims, so that there need be no interruption in work for the 

 full twenty-four hours of the day. 



Apart from the discovery of rich pay-dirt on creeks and gulches, 

 such as Last Chance (tributary to Hunker), Gold Bottom (tribu- 

 tary to Sulphur), and American, Magnet, and Adams (tributary 

 to the Bonanza), concerning which much skepticism was expressed 

 last year, the filling in of assumed barren gaps in the general line 

 of creeks has done much to inspire the feeling that more of the 

 broad area is gold-bearing than the first surveys and explorations 

 " indicated " — a feeling to which particular confidence has been 

 given by the surprising wealth which has been washed out from 

 the hillsides. For a nearly continuous four miles of the " loft 

 limit " of the Bonan.za, extending northward from Gold Hill at 

 the confluence of the Eldorado to the " forties below discovery," 

 the crests of the hills at an elevation of some one hundred and 

 eighty to two hundred feet above the creek are laid bare with the 

 work of the shovel, pick, and drill, and the same or a correspond- 

 ing stratigraphical height is pierced elsewhere along the stream. 

 Gold Hill (and French Hill, on the Eldorado side), Skookum, 

 Adams, Magnet, and American Hills, and Monte Cristo, all have 

 their summits capped by what is now familiarly known as the 

 " white layer " — a feature in the landscape as interesting to the 

 casual tourist as the construction is important to the more fortu- 

 nate claim holders who are located here. 



Up to this time no quartz locations determined to be of posi- 

 tive value have been located, although a goodly number of " quartz 

 reefs," " lodes," and kidney masses have been staked, restaked, and 

 recorded. Some of these have shown gold in small quantity, but 

 in by far the greater number of cases they have proved absolutely 

 barren, and are without promise of yielding anything. The antici- 

 pation of many, naturally fostered by individual wish and hope, 

 that an originating or " mother " lode must be present and found 

 somewhere rests without any geological support so far as evidence 



