294 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



§ 221 . Yiiha and Butte. — West of Sierra county, and drained 

 by the same streams, is Yuba, which reaches to the Sacramento 

 River, lyino: half in the mountains and half in the plain, the 

 mining district being in the former half. The principal min- 

 ing tovv^ns are Camptonville, Timbuctoo, Foster's Bar, Texas 

 Bar, and Long's Bar. In 1859 there were nine quartz-mills in 

 the county, three at Brown's valley, and one each at Camp- 

 tonville, Dobbin's Ranch, Dry Creek, Honcut, Indiana Creek, 

 and Robbin's Creek. The assessor in 18G0 reported only two 

 quartz-mills in the county. There are twenty-two ditches 

 in the county, with an aggregate length of nine hundred and 

 fifty-two miles, an average of forty-three miles each. The most 

 important ditch, called "Bovyer's," supplies Timbuctoo with 

 five thousand inches of water in the winter, less in the summer. 

 The diggings at Timbuctoo are in a deep hill, which is washed 

 aM'ay by the hydraulic process. 



West of Yuba and Plumas counties lies Butte, which is 

 drained by the Feather River. The principal mining towns 

 are Oroville, BidweU's Bar, Forbestown, Natchez, and White- 

 rock. In 1859 there were seventeen quartz-mills in the county, 

 of which four were at Oregon Gulch, at Columbiaville and 

 Hansonville three each, two at Yankee Hill, and at Evansville, 

 Gold Run, Long Bar, Xesbitt's Flat, and Spring valley, one 

 each. The assessor reports for 1860, twenty-nine quartz- 

 mills, worth fifty thousand dollars, and crushing in the aggre- 

 gate one hundred and sixty-two and a half tons per day. 

 There are sixty-four mining-ditches, with an aggregate length 

 of five hundred and eighty-three miles. The bars and beds of 

 Feather River were once very rich, and some of the most ex- 

 tensive enterprises of river mining in the state have beeri 

 undertaken within the limits of Butte county. The greatest 

 flume ever built in California was that of the Cape Claim 

 Company, near Oroville, in 1857. It was three-quarters of a 

 mile long and twenty feet wide, and furnished employment for 

 two hundred and fifty men from May till November. The 

 expenditures during that period were $176,985, and the re- 



