200 KESOURCES OF CALlFORi^IA. 



southwestern part of the county. The diggings are mostly in 

 the basins of Clear Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Rock Creek, 

 and Salt Creek, all of which enter into the Sacramento. There 

 are four quartz-mills in the county, one at French Gulch, one 

 at Middle Creek, one at Muletown, and one at Old Diggings. 

 The county has twenty-seven raining ditches, with a joint length 

 of one hundred and forty-one miles, an average of five miles 

 each. The chief mining towns are Shasta, Horsetown, French 

 Gulch, Muletown, Briggsville, Whiskey, and Middletown. 



§ 220. Plumas and Sierra. — South of the eastern part of 

 Shasta county lies Plumas, which is about seventy miles square. 

 About one-third of the county, in the southwestern part of it, 

 comprising that portion drained by the head-waters of Feather 

 River, is auriferous. It Kes high above the level of the sea, 

 and the work of mining is interrupted during a considerable 

 portion of the winter, by cold, snow, and ice. Hydraulic and 

 tunnel claims in deep hills, furnish a large portion of the gold 

 yield of the county. There are five quartz-mills, one at Eiiza- 

 bethtown, one at Eureka Lake, and three at Jamison Creek. 

 The principal mining towns are Quincy, Jamison City, Indian 

 Bar, Xelson's Point, and Poorman's Creek. 



South of Plumas is Sierra county, which is fifty miles long 

 from east to west and twenty miles wide from north to south. 

 The North Fork of the Yuba* River runs through its cen- 

 tre, and the Middle Fork is its southern boundary. Though 

 small, it is one of the richest mining counties of the state, and 

 in proportion to the extent of its mining ground, is much 

 richer than any other county. All its territory is four thou- 

 sand feet above the sea-level, at the lowest. Most of the min- 

 ing is done in hydraulic and tunnel claims in deep hills. Near 

 the centre of the county is a mountain called the Downieville 

 Butte, or the Yuba Butte, eight thousand eight hundred and 

 forty-six feet high, on the sides of whicli are found some rich 

 quartz leads. In 1859 there were eleven quartz-mills in Sierra 

 county, of which seven are at the Butte, two at Downieville, 

 one at the Mountain House, and one at Sierra City. The 



