74 



there are four additional counties through which their placers are found, the 

 estimate of one thousand square miles will not be considered as excessive. 



To those who are acquainted with the section alluded to, I have no hesitancy 

 of submitting the above figures, tor there is no object to be attained in present 

 ing a fancy sketch of our available resources. We may draw upon facts for 

 many years to come in regard to matters of this character, for the mining dis 

 tricts are possessed of an ample fund for that purpose. 



It must not be understood that the " deep diggings " of this district are the 

 only resources obtainable, or that they constitute the only deposits of gold in 

 the range, for it is far otherwise. The entire surfaces of this range are produc 

 tive of this metal; it was from the surface washings of portions belonging to 

 this district of the State that a large proportion of the gold was obtained dur 

 ing the earlier periods of mining. These placers still continue to yield profitable 

 returns for labor, though long since they were among the old workings which 

 were considerrd exhausted. The returns from these old placers at the present 

 time are attributable to the improved methods of mining that have been intro 

 duced subsequent to their first becoming abandoned, and the greater care which 

 is now bestowed in washing the earth. 



The placer miner of the present day will not exhaust the same quantity of 

 ground that he would have done in 1850 or 1851, and at the same time obtain 

 an equal and, in some instances, a greater amount of gold from one of these ex 

 hausted placers. We may, therefore, regard the surface deposits of these sec 

 tions as prolific sources of wealth for years to come. This conclusion is based 

 on the facts which past experiment has demonstrated, and which are acknowl 

 edged throughout the State by those who have given any attention to the sub 

 ject. 



In selecting the Counties of Placer and El Dorado as illustrative of the char 

 acter of the eastern range of deposits, I would not be understood as expressing 

 any preferences, of productive capacity or of a better defined range of these 

 deposits; they were selected from the fact that they held a more central position 

 in relation to the above than for any other purpose, and they do not, to my 

 knowledge, afford any better illustration of the characteristics of this district, 

 than the Counties of Sierra, on the North, or that of Amador or Calaveras on 

 the South; in fact, this range is much better exemplified in the County of Sierra 

 than at any point south of the latter. 



MIDDLE PLACERS. 



By this term is expressed that range of country which is situated at an aver 

 age distance of about twenty miles from the line of the higher foothills, or hav 

 ing its western border within about lour miles of the edge of the plains, compris 

 ing a district of country of twenty miles in width and three hundred in length, 

 having a trend parallel with that of the mountain chain in which it is situated; 

 it covers an area equal to about six thousand square miles. 



On this range is situated what is denominated the surface workings, although 

 there are some instances in which the deposits of drift containing gold lie nearly 

 as deep as those alluded to in the preceding article. This, however, is not the 

 general fact relative to these districts, and the labor and expense of extracting 

 the metal, consequently, is not as heavy. The ordinary depth of the placer 

 drift in this district, ranges between twelve and forty feet ; it is composed of a 

 more heterogeuous collection of stones than the deposits of the higher range ; in 

 the latter the pebbles and boulders have but few varieties, while those of the 



