288 KESOUECES OF C A L I F O K N I A . 



and the largest piece of either ever found was^ less than an 

 ounce and a half. They cannot be separated from the gold by 

 washing, but they do not unite with quicksilver, and therefore 

 they are separated from the more precious metal by amalga- 

 mation. They have no regular market in the state ; miners 

 never make them the chief object of search, and they have 

 not been studied, so it is not known to what extent they might 

 be obtained. 



§ 217. Del Korte and Klamath. — Del Norte county in the 

 northwestern corner of the state, is about forty miles long 

 from east to west by thirty from north to south. The mining 

 population in it is small. Most of the mining is done along the 

 banks of the Klamath River, which runs about twenty miles 

 through the southeastern portion of the county. There are 

 some miners on the head-waters of Althouse Creek, which runs 

 northward into Oregon. The county assessor, in his report for 

 1860, does not mention the existence of any quartz-mill or 

 minmg-ditch in the county. The mining districts are very 

 mountainous and difficult of access. They obtain most of their 

 supi^lies from Crescent City. The mining is chiefly in shallow 

 placers, in deej) and narrow ravines, and on bars of the Kla- 

 math River. 



Klamath county lies immediately south of Del Norte, and is 

 about the same size. It is almost exclusively a mining county, 

 and has a population of about eighteen hundred. The diggings 

 are placers in the bars and banks of the Klamath River and 

 its tributaries, the Trinity and Salmon Rivers, and many small 

 creeks. The principal mining places are Orleans Bar, bullion's 

 Bar, Negro Flat, Cecilville, Weitspeck, and Red Cap. The 

 whole county is very rugged and mountainous, and much of it 

 is covered with heavy timber. The diggings are so difficult 

 of access, and are so protected by mountains against ditches, 

 that they will last for many years. There is probably no part 

 of the state where the single miner, without capital, has a 

 better chance to dig gold with a profit- Nearly the whole 

 beach of the county is auriferous. 



