228 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 
water washes it, as it comes from the stamp-heads. 
Some of the most productive gold deposits in 
California were discovered in and about this 
quaint little place. I descend a shaft 240 feet 
deep. ‘The gold is distributed through the mud 
and silt of what was clearly an ancient river- 
bed. 
March 28th.—Ride on horseback to Nevada 
and Hunt’s Hill. Nevada is a clean pretty city, 
with gay shops, brightly-painted houses, and 
planked streets. Near it are the famed hydraulic 
washings. The gold is disseminated through 
terraces of shingle conglomerates, often three 
hundred feet in thickness. These terraces are 
actually washed entirely off the face of the 
country, by propelling jets of water against 
them, forced under great pressure through a 
nozzle. ‘To accomplish this, the water is brought 
in canals, tunnels, and wooden aqueducts, often 
forty miles away from the drift. This supply 
of water the miners rent. 
As we near the washing-spot, in every direction 
immense hose, made of galvanized iron, and canvas 
tubes six feet round, coil in all directions over 
the ground, like gigantic serpents, converging 
towards a gap, where they disappear. On reach- 
ing this gap, I look down into a basin, or dry 
