THE CHANNEL: NEAR NEVADA CITY. 



18* 



i 



Being alone, and having only one barometer, I was not able to make such a close measurement 

 of the differences of level between the bed-rock at the Manzanita Diggings and the Kansas shaft 

 as would have been possible under more favorable circumstances. But by repeating my observa- 

 tions on successive days, and by choosing my hours in such a way as to best correspond with the 

 observations at Colfax, I think I attained results sufficiently near to answer all practical purposes. 

 Concerning the difference between the Manzanita Diggings and the bed-rock at Peck's I have 

 already spoken. 



At the Manzanita Diggings the deepest bed-rock that has been exposed has been covered up 

 again by slides from the bank or washings from the sluices. I hung the barometer on the build- 

 ing in the mine near the centre of the channel, and had the authority of Messrs. Maltman and 

 Marcelus for saying that the barometer cistern was five feet above the bed-rock. The surface of 

 the loose material covering the bed-rock is very uneven, and this estimate as to its thickness at 

 this particular point may easily have been a foot or two out of the way. If there was any such 

 error, I think the correction would increase rather than diminish this estimate of live feet. At the 

 Kansas shaft (Allen's) I hung the barometer at the level of the top sill. The location of this 

 shaft was given on the spot as about 300 feet south of the line between Sections 6 and 31, and 

 about a third of a mile from the corner of Sections 5, 6, 31, and 32. The road meanderings of 

 Mr. Bradley corroborate this location quite closely. In regard to the depth of this shaft to bed- 

 rock the accounts were at variance with each other, — some giving 220 feet as the depth, and 

 others 228 feet. It seemed probable that the latter statement included a sump in the bed-rock. 

 J>ut allowing a depth of only five feet to bed-rock at the Manzanita Diggings, and giving to the 

 Kansas shaft the greatest depth claimed, I still make the Manzanita bed-rock to be fifteen feet 

 below the bottom of the Kansas shaft, — and by adopting the other suppositions I could easily 

 increase this number by ten feet at least. This is enough to allow a fair grade between the two 

 places, to say the least. I also attempted to get additional evidence by means of measurements at 

 the Live Oak (or White Oak, — I find the shaft referred to under both names in my notes) shaft 

 and at the Nebraska incline. The Live Oak shaft has been abandoned and covered up, so that I 

 could not tell with any degree of certainty where the proper point to measure from was, and there 

 was also uncertainty as to its depth, though Mr. Maltman said he believed it was 220 feet deep. 

 Ihe location of the Live Oak shaft is just above the present bank of the Manzanita Diggings, and 

 near Hitchcock's vineyard. The Nebraska incline is on the northern side of the ridge, and was 

 said to be 400 feet to bed-rock, the angle of slope being 34°. This would correspond to a ver- 

 tical depth of 224 feet. But in this case, also, the initial point of measurement was destroyed. 



he mouth of the incline had been allowed to cave in. The evidence obtained from these two 

 points will then have little or no real value ; but as far as it goes it seems to corroborate the idea 

 that the rock rises between the Manzanita Diggings and the bottom of the Kansas shaft. The 

 course of the channel between the Manzanita Diggings and the Kansas shaft I could not trace in 

 person, because the old drifts are not now accessible, I do not think that a continuous line of 



ed-rock lias been exposed between the two places, but I was assured that connection had been 



] nade through. According to Mr. Maltman, the centre of the channel follows a line running 



nearly due north from the building in the middle of the diggings, where I hung the barometer, for 



a distance of three or four hundred feet ; then it turns sharply to the east for about the same dis- 



ance, and then to the north again directly under the Live Oak shaft, and from there on towards 



e Kansas shaft. At the Live Oak shaft, however, the most of the gold was not found in the 



< ccpest part of the bed-rock, but on a plateau a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet to the west 



; ,u < about fifteen feet above the bottom of the shaft. From that point on I have only the general 



n ormation that the ground has been thoroughly prospected by drifting, so that there is no hesi- 



iicy m proceeding with the hydraulic washing of the whole bank. The information concerning 



e course of the channel which I obtained at the Kansas shaft is as follows : At a distance of 



about 600 feet and bearing S. 48° W. (magnetic) from the Kansas shaft (bringing us into the JSTorth- 



quarter of Section 6) is an old shaft which struck at a point a hundred feet to the southeast 





