THE GOLD: ITS SIZE AND CHARACTER 



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Company, which is said never to have paid much, with the exception of a certain portion on the 

 northeastern or concave rim. The channel is well-defined, and the bar and the two curves are 

 excellent illustration of the formation of bars and the accumulation of the gold in the channel on 

 the concave side of the bends, just as has taken place so often in the more modern streams. 



At the New Jersey Mine, near Forest Hill, the "great pay » came from immediately but entirely 

 back of the highest rim-rock of the great channel. 



At Smith's Point, between First and Second Brushy canons, the pay-streak on the bed-rock has 

 been found, at some points, to rise from the surface of the rock, and run nearly horizontally 

 through the gravel, across the little basins and depressions in the rock. 



At Yankee Jim's the best pay over the whole surface washed has been invariably found on the 

 southwest slope of the bed-rock. The latter is not very uneven in the channel, yet there are, of 

 course, some irregularities ; and wherever the rock pitched off a little to the west or southwest, there 

 it was rich. ; while wherever the slope was in the opposite direction, there it was very poor. At 

 one locality near the central part of the ground worked there is a narrow depression cut some 

 twelve or fifteen feet deeper than the average of the broad portion of the channel, and where the 

 rock first pitched off into this depression, it was so rich that about $ 20,000 was taken from an 

 area only twenty or twenty-five feet square. The true " pot-holes " were generally barren. In 

 the upper or (-...stern portion of the Dig Channel the richest pay was on the bed-rock"; but towards 

 the lower imd, that is, near the head of Yankee Jim's Canon, much of the bed-rock was not so 

 rich, and the upper gravel paid much better. The rock here, too, was more uneven, and contained 

 several large basins, which, however, are said to have been comparatively poor, the pay-gravel 

 running nearly horizontally over them. The head of Yankee Jim's Gulch is said to have been 

 enormously rich, single men having repeatedly taken out thousands of dollars in a day. At 

 Georgia Hill the rim-rock was richer even than the spot at the head of Yankee Jim's Canon. 



In front of the Paragon and Kough Gold claims, at Bath, some parties, it is said, took out, chiefly 

 from a thin streak in the gravel, not far above the bed-rock, and only an inch or two thick the 

 sum of $ 52,000. 



The Roanoke Channel, near Bottle Hill, which was followed for about a mile with a width vary- 

 ing from twelve to a hundred feet, yielded over $ 500,000. 



At Mora's Mine, west of Volcanovillc, the lower portion of the gravel near the bed-rock is said 

 to be tolerably rich, and occasionally very rich spots are found in it. One hundred dollars to the 

 pan have been scraped up. The upper portion of the gravel is much poorer, and is said to pay no 

 more than two dollars per day to the hand in drifting. 



At the Slab Claim, on the trail three quarters of a mile below Last Chance, the pay was found 

 almost exclusively on the bed-rock, the layer of gravel being very thin, and overlain by a stratum 

 of chocolate cement ; this again was covered by a bed of gravel about twelve feet thick, but con- 

 taining very little gold. 



13. The Gold; its Size and Character. 



At Wiessler's Claim, Iowa Hill, the gold near and upon the bed-rock is coarse and worn into 

 elongated and flattened grains ; it is said to be worth $ 18 per ounce. That from the upper part 

 of the bank is scaly and exceedingly fine, or "flour gold," and is generally worth from fifty to 

 seventy-live cents per ounce more than the coarse gold on the bed-rock. 



At the Lebanon Tunnel the channel lias proved rich in coarse and rather scraggy gold. One 

 lump is said to have weighed ten ounces, and another forty-two. 



At Nahor's Claim, in Green Valley Gorge, the gold is rather coarse and smooth, and it seems 

 generally to grow coarser as we travel up the ridge from Iowa Hill. 



■The gold from the tunnels about the head of Indian Canon was usually very coarse. Some of 

 the claims paid well, and occasional spots were found that were very rich. 



The gold in Grizzly Canon is said to be coarse and generally rather smooth, although some of it 

 Was quite " scraggy." 



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