APPENDIX. 



A. 



REPORT OF AN EXAMINATION OF PORTIONS OF THE GRAVEL MINING REGION 

 OF CALIFORNIA ; IN PLACER, NEVADA, YUBA, SIERRA, PLUMAS, AND BUTTE 

 COUNTIES : MADE IN 1879. 



By W. H. PETTEE. 



Section I, — Smartsville and Vicinity. 



This region is one that I visited in company with Mr. Bowman in 1870, and the substance of 

 the report which I made at that time has already been printed in the first part of this volume 

 (pages 191 to 196). The statements made on those pages, though far from being complete, do 

 not need any essential modification, unless it may be in respect to one on page 194, that the 

 gravels below Timbuctoo are of "no value. " I do not think that the gravel at Sicard Flat had 

 been worked at all in 1870 ; at least there is no reference to it in the printed portion of my 

 former report, and in Raymond's report for the year 1871, published in 1872, page 131, it is said 

 that a San Francisco company was then "engaged in opening valuable ground at Park's Bar." 

 The Sicard Flat mines are on the right bank of the Yuba River, about a mile and . a half below 

 Timbuctoo. They attracted my attention from the hills on the opposite side of the stream, and I 

 intended to visit them upon my return to Smartsville from the upper country later in the season. 

 I found myself, however, unable to carry out this intention. The Sicard Flat mines are at a lower 

 level than those at Smartsville, the bed-rock being apparently but little above the level of the tailings 

 in the river, which, opposite the mines, are about two hundred feet below the lowest bed-rock seen 

 in the mines at Timbuctoo. From the observation which I took to determine the altitude of the top 

 of the gravel at Sicard Flat, as seen from across the river, I can confirm the report that the banks 

 worked arc not far from one hundred feet in height. The gravel is said to be quite fine, 

 resembling the top gravel at Smartsville, and easily worked. Whether this deposit is a direct 

 continuation of that at Smartsville or not, is not easy to say. From my point of view the gravel 

 appeared to be confined to a hill lying between two small ravines, with higher spurs of bed-rock 

 rising both to the east and the west. This would not shut out, however, the possibility of a con- 

 nection between Timbuctoo and the Flat at some earlier period of time. The gold in the Sicard 

 Flat gravel is very fine in both senses of the term, being said to reach as high as .987. I have no 

 data as to the amount of gold taken from the gravel, but the property is said to be paying a very 

 good percentage upon the capital invested. The water for Sicard Flat is brought from Dry Creek, 

 at a point not far from Forbestown. 



The principal changes at Smartsville since 1870 are the completion of old and the construction 

 of new bed-rock tunnels ; the uncovering of bed-rock in the deepest part of the channel for nearly 

 the whole distance from Timbuctoo to the Blue Gravel claim (more than a mile) ; the extension of 

 the washings of the upper gravel beyond the Smartsville Consolidated ground into the ground 



