190 



THE AUEIFEROUS GEAVELS OF THE SIEEEA NEVADA. 



unexpectedly found the rock pitching the other way, and on that inclined surface the gold 

 appeared in surprisingly large quantities. On the other side of the ridge — Shelby (or Selby) 



Hat the prospecters worked up in the same way until they found the rock pitching away from 



them, and then stopped. The Coyote Diggings were said to have been the richest diggings in this 

 immediate neighborhood, and it is a pity that no accurate record of the amount taken out was 

 kept. Not knowing the yield per year nor the amount of bank washed away per year, of course I 

 can make no estimate as to the amount of gold found in each cubic yard of gravel. 



The petrified and charred trunks of trees which have been found in the Manzanita channel may 

 just be noticed. Some of them have been as much as five or six feet in diameter, — sometimes so 

 much petrified on the inside as to require blasting to remove them, while the outside is easily 

 broken and cut away. I could not hear of any instance where the position of the tree-trunks 

 would serve as a key to the course of the channel. 



There are several isolated patches of gravel, sometimes covered by a volcanic 

 capping, and sometimes uncovered, to the west of Nevada City, along on the 

 divide between Deer Creek and the South Yuba. The first of these is Connor 

 Hill, which is on the divide between Rush and Deer creeks and about four 

 miles west of Nevada City. There is a considerable amount of gravel, made 

 up of rounded quartz pebbles, on the northern end of this hill. It had not, 

 however, been attacked, in 1870, on account of the difficulty of getting 

 water to so high and isolated a locality. According to the single baromet- 

 rical observation taken at this point, the top of Connor Hill is several feet 

 higher than the office of the South Yuba Water Company, at Nevada City. 

 Where this gravel came from, or what the direction followed here by the 

 channel, is, at present, only a matter of conjecture. To the east and north- 

 east is the valley of Rush Creek, and it is possible that the original channel 

 of this hill was once as high as the present top of Connor Hill. That it 

 could have crossed from Cement Hill seems, according to Professor Pettee, 

 hardly probable. To the northwest and west lies Illinois Ravine, once the 

 scene of rich shallow placer diggings. This ravine heads near Newtown, 

 and follows a nearly north course to its junction with Rush Creek, where it 

 contracts to a narrow gorge. The gold of this ravine had evidently the 

 same origin as that on Connor Hill. 



In attempting to solve the question of the probable continuation of the 

 lava flow of Cement Hill, the valley of Rush Creek was examined in consid- 

 erable detail. No indications were observed of a probable passage of the 



channel in that direction. 



At the Empire Shaft, which was sunk at the western end of Cement Hill, 

 the thickness of the detrital formation is about 140 feet; of this seventy five 

 feet was lava cement, then a stratum of pipe-clay, and under it gravel. From 

 a point not far from the bottom of the shaft, the bed-rock, which here is 







