MINING. 295 



ceipts $251,426, showing a clear profit of $74,441. The next 

 year, after the water had fallen, the company commenced its 

 labors again ; spent $160,000 and received $115,000, and thus 

 lost $45,000. North of Oroville is a " table-mountain" with 

 a top of basalt, covering a rich deposit of auriferous clay. 



§ 222. Nevada and Placer. — South of Yuba and Butte is 

 Nevada, the richest mining county of the state. Within its 

 limits the tom, sluice, under-current sluice, and crinoline hose 

 were invented, and the ditch and hydraulic power were first 

 applied to placer-mining ; and quartz-mining was first under- 

 taken extensively. In 1859 there were thirty-two quartz-mills 

 in the county, and twenty-eight mining-ditches, with an aggre- 

 gate length of three hundred and ninety-four miles. No part 

 of the mineral region of the state is better supplied with water 

 than Nevada county. The richest quartz district is in the 

 vicinity of Nevada City, which has fifteen mills, and Grass 

 Valley, five miles distant, has seventeen. The great Allison 

 mine, which has the richest lode in the state, is in Grass 

 Valley. 



The quartz mines here are much troubled with water, 

 and during the winter of 1860-'61 many of the mills were 

 compelled to stop for weeks until the shafts could be drained 

 by steam-engines, after having been filled by a long and heavy 

 rain. The annual gold yield of Grass Valley has been estimated 

 at four millions of dollars. North San Juan has the finest hy- 

 draulic claims, and Sweetland the largest tail-sluices. The 

 Eureka Lake Ditch Company has more ditching and water 

 than any other company in the state. Their main ditch is 

 seventy-five miles long, and there are one hundred and ninety 

 miles of branches, making a total of two hundred and sixty- 

 five miles, which have cost nine hundred thousand dollars. 

 The daily sale of water is six thousand inches, with a weekly 

 income of six thousand dollars. The principal mining towns 

 arc Nevada, Grass Valley, North San Juan, Rough and Ready, 

 Orleans Flat, Moore's Flat, and Humbug City. 



Placer county lies next to Nevada going southward. Tbo 



