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178 



THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



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stream having a nearly north and south course, from its junction with Steep 

 Hollow nearly to its source. This stream heads in the lava ridge which lies 

 to the west and northwest of Remington Hill, and the other adjacent mining 

 claims described in the preceding sub-section. From these diggings Profes- 

 sor Pettee descended on the divide between Greenhorn and Deer creeks to 

 Quaker Hill, the principal mining camp of the district, now to be described 

 from his notes. This description may be prefaced by some remarks as to the 

 character of the Mount Oro Ridge and the country traversed in descending to 

 Quaker Hill : — 



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The main features of the head waters of Greenhorn, as observed on this hasty ride down the 

 ridge and subsequently from the top of Quaker Hill are, then, summarily as follows : After de- 

 scending the steep hill to the north of Mount Oro, my road followed what is known as the Quaker 

 Hill ridge between De|r Creek and the North Fork of Greenhorn nearly to Osborn Eavine ; the 

 junction of the North Fork with the main creek being only a quarter or a half a mile above the outlet 

 of the ravine. A half or three quarters of a mile above the junction of the North Fork, Greenhorn 

 forks again into a Middle and South Fork, of which the Middle is the longer. The whole of the 

 high bluff between the North and Middle forks is known as Mount Oro. From this elevation two 

 prominent spurs appear to diverge ; the more northerly running to the North Fork and the more 

 southerly — called Jossy Point (or Yossi Point, the correct orthography I cannot be sure of) 

 extending to the Middle Fork above its junction with the South Fork. Between these two spurs 

 the country is rather flat and cut up irregularly with ravines. Above Jossy Point the Middle Fork 

 appears to wind around Mount Oro and to have near its head two main branches, the hill between 

 them (which is plainly visible from the top of Quaker Hill up the canon to the south of Mount 

 Oro) being Kilbury Point. The Buckeye Hill Kidge, below the South Fork, shows a couple of 

 prominent ravines, to which no names have been given and in which no mining has been done to 



amount to anything. 



The flat top of the ridge is lava throughout. Upon Mount Oro I was told that shafts had been 

 sunk to a depth of 200 feet and that gravel had been found under that depth of lava, but there 

 was no one at work at the time of my visit, and I could get no details of value. The first slate on 

 the road, that I have noted in my book, was at the beginning of the long curve which swings 

 around the head of Osborn Eavine. From that point down to Quaker Hill the road follows not 

 far from the line between lava and slate. As well as I could judge from the top of Quaker Hill, 

 the top of the Buckeye Hill Eidge is also capped with lava. I have heard of the existence of 

 slate-rock ridges and slate-rock country of some considerable extent above Buckeye Hill and Chalk 

 Bluffs, but my track did not lead me positively in sight of any. Whether all the country at the 

 base of Mount Oro and around the heads of Greenhorn is covered with lava or not I cannot tell, 

 but think it probable that it is. 



The hasty sketches that I made of the mines at and near Quaker Hill in the intervals between 

 the rains have been transferred to the map. As I only had the aid of a pocket compass and was 

 obliged to estimate a great many distances by the eye, it is very likely that more or less errors of 

 detail will be found in them, if there is ever an accurate survey made ; though, judging from the 

 close agreements of the result of my meanderings of Greenhorn with the sketchings from the banks 

 of the mines, I feel confident that the main features will be found essentially correct. I was 

 not able, either, to make a thorough examination of all the important points near Quaker Hill an 

 regards course of channel, dip of bed-rock, thickness of gravel, and possibility of outlet in different 

 directions ; the notes which I took are necessarily incomplete and imperfect, but I will arrange 

 them in as clear a form as I can. 





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