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THE AUBIFEEOTJS GKAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA 



At Liberty Hill there is a bank of thirty feet in height of bluish gravel, covered by about the 

 same thickness of red quartz gravel. The boulders are very large and not much worn, as if they 

 were lying near the head of a stream, and had neither been carried far, nor had much gravel 

 washed over them. On account of the size of the boulders, it has not been very profitable to 



work the gravel at Liberty Hill. 



The gold product of the Gold Bun district has passed largely through the banking-house of 

 Messrs. Moore & Miner, at Gold Bun, who kindly prepared for me a statement of their gold 

 purchases from March, 1865, to October, 1870, from which the following summary has been pre- 

 pared : 



Year. ' Weight. Value. 



oz. dwt. 



1865 (March to December) .... 7,554 19 ... $140,182.05 



1866 12,723 .... 237,900.62 



1867 ' . 16,542 13 ... . 311,812.(55 



1868 .'.".' 13,587 10 . . . . 259,208.05 



1869 189,968.73 



1870 (January to September) . 183,384.8(5 



From Church Co., in addition, 02, 814.60 



Total, ' • $1,385,280.56 



The gold from some of the claims south of the railroad never got into Moore & Miner's hands, 

 and occasionally small lots from other claims would be sent directly to San Francisco, or sold at 

 Dutch Flat. On the other hand, only a small portion of what they did buy came from claims 

 other than those between the railroad and Indiana Hill. They were thus justified in saying that 

 their statement comprises certainly two thirds, and probably three quarters, of the total production 

 of the district. The quantity taken out at Gold Kun previous to March, 1865, would not be suffi- 

 cient to vary the grand total materially. In round numbers, then, we can assume two million 

 dollars as the amount of gold saved from the Gold Run gravel banks. The amount of gravel washed 

 away, in the same district, has been previously fixed at 43,000,000 cubic yards.* This makes the 

 average amount of gold per cubic yard only four and three quarter cents. I have examined the data 

 carefully on which this calculation is based and can find no material source of error, although the 

 amount of gold per cubic yard falls much below the estimates of miners and claim owners. 



At Dutch Flat it was not possible to get statistics similar to those at Gold Pain. It would seem 

 from Mr. Browne's report of the shipments of bullion from Dutch Flat, for the first six months of 

 1867, as compared with the statement of Messrs. Moore & Miner for the same period, that the 

 Dutch Flat production was considerably greater than that of Gold Run ; but it must be noticed that 

 a large part of the gold shipped from Dutch Flat is brought in from other districts, namely, Little 

 York, You Bet, and other places, even from Gold Eun itself, and no one can tell now just what 

 amount was saved from the 21,000,000 cubic yards of gravel washed away in the immediate neigh- 

 borhood of the town. I am convinced that most of the estimates of the yield per cubic yard have 

 been too high ; but investigations similar to those made at Gold Run should be carried on in other 

 districts, before any decided opinion could be given as to the amount of such over-estimates. If, 

 as I believe, my calculations are free from material error, it appears that a poorer gravel can be 

 worked with profit than has hitherto seemed possible. 



The Nary Red Mine lies about half a mile east and a little south of Elmore Hill, and it has all 

 the appearance of being a tributary to the main Dutch Flat channel. Between Elmore and the 

 Nary Bed there seems never to have been any gravel connection ; and, indeed, the remains of a 

 pur of slate, which may have separated the two localities, are still to be seen. A similar remark 

 may be made concerning Nary Red and Gray's Hill. If we take the Elmore Hill and Dutch 

 Flat channel as the representative of the original Bear River, the Nary Red stands, with equal 



1 



* See ante, p. 147. 



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