MiiSriNG. 269 



the exhaustion of most of the river-diggings in the state, have 

 ahnost put an end to river-mining in. Cahfornia. In a few 

 castas, extensive fluming enterprises have proved profitable; 

 but, as a general rule, river-mining in this state has cost more 

 than it has produced. A river is seldom flumed for less than 

 three hundred yards, and sometimes for a mile ; and the lum- 

 ber and labor required to make so long a flume, and one large 

 enough to hold all the water of a river, are very expensive. 

 The dam will always leak, and water will run into the bed 

 from the adjacent hills and mountains, and this water must be 

 lifted out by pumps driven by wheels placed in the flume. 

 The river-beds are full of large rocks, weighing from one to 

 ten tons, and these must be moved by machinery, to allow the 

 dirt to be taken out. 



River-mining is now never undertaken by an individual, but 

 always by large associations, generally called "fluming com- 

 pauies," sometimes composed of miners exclusively, sometimes 

 of miners and all the principal business-men living near the 

 place where the work is to be done. The lawyers, doctors, 

 and office-holders, pay their assessments in cash; the mer- 

 chants furnish provisions, the lumbermen supply lumber, and 

 the miners make the dam, and help the carpenters build the 

 flume. 



§200. Beach' Mining. — Beach-mining is the business of ' 

 v/ashing the sands of the ocean-beach. Between Point Men- 

 docino, in California, and the mouth of the Umpqua River, in 

 Oregon, the beach-sand contains gold, and in some places it is 

 very rich. The beach is narrow, and lies at the foot of a blufi* 

 bank of auriferous sand. In times of storm, the waves wash 

 'against this bank, undermine it, sweep away the pieces which 

 tumble down, leaving the gold on the beach. The gold is in 

 very fine particles, and it moves with the heavier sand, which 

 alters its position frequently under the influence of the waves 

 and surf One day, the beach will have six feet depth of sand ; 

 the next, there will be nothing save bare rocks. The sand 

 difiers greatly in richness at various times : one day, it will bo 



