ECONOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



: i 7 1 



* 



gravel which could by any possibility be handled by the hydraulic process 

 without loss ; and in this case it must be remembered that, in all probability, 

 there was no account had of interest of capital invested in the dams and 

 ditches. It is by no means to be understood that a company having no 

 gravel richer than 2.6 cents per cubic yard could carry on their work with- 

 out loss. 



The average yield per cubic yard of the gravel washed by the North 



Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company from Jan. 1 to Oct. 14, 1875, was four 

 cents ; that of old washings of surface gravel near Malakoff, from 1870 to 

 1874, was approximately 2.9 cents. That in these instances the expense 

 was met by the yield of gold is not likely. At least, Mr. Hamilton Smith, 

 Jr., engineer of the Company, states the cost of working the gravel by that 

 Company to have been, in 1877, 5.5 cents per cubic yard. 



The statistics relating to the yield per cubic yard of the gravel at Gold 

 Run, obtained with so much labor by Professor Pettee,t are of great interest, 

 but they do not throw the desired light on the question whether the opera- 

 tions were, on the whole, profitable. It is likely, however, that there may 

 have been in this case some profit, if not a large one. Since the statistics 

 extend over a period of five years and include so large an amount of gravel 

 moved (43,000,000 cubic yards), it seems proper to assume that the work 

 was done on the whole, with at least a small profit. If this be so, we should 

 be able to say that, under the most favorable circumstances, gravel may be 

 washed by the hydraulic method when it contains only 4.75 cents worth of 



gold to the cubic yard.t 



Here some more special definition of the term " favorable circumstances " 

 is desirable. In the first place, abundance and cheapness of water are all- 

 important. To show this, it will only be necessary to refer to a few fact 

 illustrating the amount of water consumed in washing by the hydraulic 

 method. 



* This statement occurs in a printed report of the evidence given in the case of "James II. Keyes w, Little 

 York Gold Washing and Water Company," San Francisco, 1878. 



t See ante, p. 152. 



% When water has to be purchased, other parties owning the ditches, the exact cost of this item is, of course, 

 well known to the miners ; hut the ratio of this cost to the yield has been but rarely ascertained, and still mere 

 rarely made known to the public. It is certain that gravel as poor as that indicated at Gold Run and some other 

 places could not be worked without loss, if the water bad to be bought at anything like the price ordinarily paid 

 by private individuals to companies selling water. At Pond's Claim, for instance (see ante, p, 118), where the 

 water was paid for at a moderate rate, namely ten cents per 10-bour inch, the cost of the water per cubic yard ol 

 gravel moved was 11.232 cents. The character of the gravel is not particularly given in Mr. Goodyear's notes, 

 but, so far as the writer remembers, it might be called moderately easy to be hydraulicked. 



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