76 



suit, the principal of which, is the want of a sufficient supply of water to conduct 

 mining operations to that extent which the character of the country require. The 

 natural supply of this material seldom exceeds four months of the year, in amounts 

 that would be equivalent to subserve the above purposes, in the greater proportion 

 of the mining localities of this range, and this too at that season when labor is 

 nearly suspended from inclemency of the weather. In order therefore that an ex 

 tensive population should be found upon the unoccupied portions of this part of the 

 mineral district, the introduction of water by artificial means becomes an essential 

 requisite. 



An increase of our mining population in any district of the State, ha x no ten 

 dency whatever to excite any fear of the exhaustion of the mines of that local 

 ity to which they may chance to wend their way; for it is now admitted that 

 sufficient room for labor abounds in any of the mining settlements, for a much 

 greater number than those who now occupy them. The introduction of water 

 by canals through an unoccupied portion of the State, is as certain to bring in 

 an active population along its line, as the fact that such an agent is known to 

 exist, as it is well known that nearly the entire surface contains a sufficiency to 

 largely pay for labor in its extraction. 



So far as the middle placers have been opened, they have thus far proved 

 productive to an eminent degree, and the new placers which had been developed 

 within this range have, as far as known, proved fully equivalent to those which 

 have preceded them, and there is no good reason that can be advanced for the 

 untenable position that has been assumed, that the present theatre of operations 

 is the finale, any more than for a similar opinion which was entertained four 

 years since in relation to those localities at that time occupied, and which are 

 still yielding their annual quota nearly the same as before. 



YALLEY MINING. 



We come now to the consideration of the lower and most western districts in 

 which deposits of gold have been found, and which constitute the third and last 

 in the order of arrangement. 



The valley mines are those districts which are situated among the lower foot 

 hills of the mountains, and extend westward from thence into the eastern edge 

 of the plains of the San Joaquin and Sacramento to the extent of three 

 to five miles. These mines are distinctly traceable from Chico Creek in the 

 County of Butte on the north, nearly to Snelling's ranch on the Merced River 

 to the south, having a linear distance of about two hundred and fifty miles. 

 The position which they maintain, or whether they exist at any point north of 

 the first named boundary, and south of Fort Reading on Cow Creek, in the 

 County of Shasta, I am at present unable to state, not having passed over 

 that particular district during the past season. But the opinion may be safely 

 entertained, that they are continued through the latter district, and that the 

 placers of the Upper Sacramento Yalley alluded to in the preceding pages of 

 this report are but the northern termini ot this belt. The valley mines are 

 situated on what has been spoken of as constituting the higher terraces of the 

 plains, and are composed of alluvial drift mostly, which have been derived from 

 the lower hills adjacent to their borders. The gravel of the lower beds is usually 

 small and composed of the pebbles found in the conglomerates commingled 

 with the smaller stones which have been conveyed by the agency of water from 

 the approximate portions of the middle districts. The gravel is usually much 

 discolored by the ferruginous materials with which they are intimately commin- 



