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118 



THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



* 



In the Franklin Claim, near Michigan Bluff, from a triangular piece of ground about eighty feet 

 long and forty wide, or say 2,000 square feet, $ 37,000 was taken out. 



The Express Agent at Forest Hill, Mr. K. B. Soule, stated that the shipments of gold through 

 the Express Office at that place in 1871, ranged a little over $ 30,000 per month ; this comprised 

 the yield of the Forest Hill, Brushy Canon, and Yankee Jim claims. Mr. Soule considered that 

 the shipments from Michigan Bluff were a little greater in amount than those from Forest Hill, and 

 that the total yield from the country between the North and Middle Forks of the American 

 amounted (in 1871) to something like $ 1,500,000 per annum. 



At Smith's Point, between First and Second Brushy canons, a strip of ground some 2,000 feet 

 long and having an average width of 200 feet approximately, has been washed off, with an average 

 depth of fifty feet. It is estimated that more than a million of dollars has been taken from tins 

 ground. This was first drifted over, however, to a considerable extent and afterwards " hydrau- 

 licked," and a portion of the gold was obtained from drifts running from 200 to 600 feet beyond 



the present faces of the banks. 



Mr. K. B. Soule, Express Agent at Forest Hill, stated that the total yield of the Paragon Mine, 

 at Bath, had been, up to 1871, certainly over $ 750,000; and that during five years from 1865 to 

 1870 its regular product was $ 100,000 per annum, no two years differing from each other by so 



much as $ 5,000, during that time. 



The area which has been hydraulicked off at Todd's Valley is probably about a mile long with 

 an average width of a quarter of a mile. The ground washed off here was in the form of a ridge, 

 which along the middle line was some sixty to seventy-five feet in depth, and the average depth 

 was about thirty-five feet. This gives a total amount of 9,000,000 cubic yards nearly, and the 

 estimated yield from this ground is $4,000,000, or about forty-four cents per cubic yard. The 

 estimate of the yield of this ground was given by Mr. Pond, who has lived at Todd's Valley since 

 1849, and is and has been largely interested in mining operations at that place. 



A piece of ground in Pond's Claim, of the yield of which precise record had been kept by Mr. 

 Pond, and which was hydraulicked in the five years beginning with 1866, was surveyed by Mr. 

 Goodyear. It was found to contain 138,206 square feet, or 3.1728 acres, equal to 15,356 square 

 yards. If the pay gravel averaged thirty-five feet deep, as estimated, this will give 179,153 cubic 

 yards of auriferous gravel, and the total estimated depth of fifty feet will give 255,933 cubic yards, 

 in all, washed away from this ground. Its total yield was $91,828.30. Considering, therefore, 

 the auriferous gravel alone, the yield would average 51.257 cents per cubic yard; while, consider- 

 ing all the bank moved, it would be 35.88 cents per cubic yard. Since the water bill for the same 

 time was $29,003.42, it also appears that the water cost about 11.332 cents per cubic yard of earth 

 moved. The price of the water was ten cents per " inch " for ten hours, or one cent per " inch " 

 per hour. But the method of measuring the water was an unusual one. The opening in the 

 measuring box through which the water issued was ten inches high, its bottom being level with 

 the bottom of the box, and the water standing four inches above the top of the opening, or four- 

 teen inches deep. The amount of the discharge was regulated by a sliding gate which varied the 

 horizontal length of the opening according to the quantity of water required. For example, if 

 400 " inches " were required, the gate was set to leave the opening forty inches long. 



The former Express Agent at Georgetown, Mr. Murphy, stated that Mameluke Hill had yielded 



not less than two millions of dollars. 



The Boanoke Channel at Bottle Hill, near Georgetown, was found to pay well wherever there 

 was any gravel, and many spots were extremely rich. From a single candle-box full of dirt as 

 much as seventy ounces are said to have been taken. The total yield of the channel has been, it 

 is thought, not less than a million of dollars. Almost all the ground has been worked over three 

 times, and a part of it four times, each time paying satisfactorily. In the first spur reached by 

 the channel after crossing Boanoke Gulch, a spot about a hundred feet long, in the Buffalo Claim, 

 yielded, it is stated, about $60,000. In the Bottle Hill Claim, immediately below the last bend 

 in the channel, before it passes out of the hill, there was a spot about 200 feet long, where the 



