48 



belong, so far, at least, as their mineral products are concerned, for the deposit in 

 whatever portion of the State it may be found (except south of the San Bernar 

 dino Mountains) is highly valuable for its auriferous accompaniment which is gen 

 erally found throughout the whole of it in general distribution. 



The drift beds are found extensively dispersed through the northwest part of the 

 State, and are found much elevated on the flanks of the ridges as well as in the 

 depressions between them. I:i this particular they simulate with the extensive and 

 wide-spread placer ranges which traverse the mining districts from the County of 

 Plumas to that of Calaveras, and thence through Tuolumne and Mariposa. From 

 their general character, so far as they have been opened and examined, (which has 

 been but to a limited extent) they present all the physical and integral features 

 which have hitherto warranted our conclusion respecting gold deposits within our 

 borders, and which have guided to those practical proofs, by opening the mines, 

 which have developed to us the natural hiding places of the immense resources of 

 wealth which abound in our State. There is every reason to believe that those 

 drift beds situated in the northern coast mountains are equally as valuable, and 

 will, when worked, prove as abundantly supplied with gold as those of Sierra, 

 Nevada, Placer and El Dorado Counties. This opinion is based on the fact that 

 the deposits on the flanks of the hills in the coast chain are co-relative in age with 

 those of Minesota, Mameluke Hill and White Rock, in the Counties of Sierra and 

 El Dorado, their fossils being identical, and their elevation above the sea about the 

 same. 



The outlines of these beds begin first to show themselves as well defined forma 

 tions on the east and west banks of Clear Creek above Frenehtown, and also on 

 French Gulch, in the County of Shasta, and are distincly traceable from these 

 localities across all the rivers lying to the north and west of this creek as far west 

 as Salmon and Scott Rivers, and on the hills forming the sides of all the larger 

 basins lying between these points; the great Weaverville basin furnishes one of the 

 best examples of the kind in this part of the State, and is observable on what is 

 known as Musser's Flat to the northeast of the town. It is similar in all respects 

 to the localities in Nevada County, in the vicinity of Moore's, Orleans and Eureka 

 Flats, opposite to Minesota. 



LOCAL GEOLOGY. 



The local geology of the Northern Coast Mountains presents but little diversity 

 from the other mineral districts of the State, and as a general fact the rocks'rnain- 

 tain that uniformity of character which is found to exist in almost every locality 

 within any given area. 



The first locality that will claim our attention is that of the middle and northern 

 with the eastern part of Shasta County. Nearly as soon as we leave the valley, 

 and among the first foot-hills the slates are met with standing in nearly a vertical 

 position. This trait, however, extends but a short distance, and we are suddenly 

 introduced from the fossil clay slate into a district in which the latter is most com 

 pletely metamorphosed. This is found to occur within two miles of the point at 

 which these rocks maintain their true laminated character of the slates. In the 

 immediate vicinity of Shasta City, the changed condition of these rocks is noticable 

 and directly east of the town, the intrusion of the igneous is presented on an exten 

 sive scale. On the hill opposite to the City the intrusive rocks have broken through 

 each series that preceded them, and we find the slates in the immediate vicinity of 

 the trapean dikes, most completely changed into true jaspery rocks. To the east 

 and north of the hill we meet with the first beds of the serpentine rocks which have 



