282 QUIOKSILVKU J)EPOSITS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



workings of the Manhattan were open, the deep mine being flooded and the 

 tunnels caved in. At the Reed mine only trifling quantities of ore-bearing 

 ground were to be seen at the surface. Even in the liedington, which was 

 being worked, the upper levels were for the most part closed. The expos- 

 ures nevertheless reveal many important facts. Before taking up the Red- 

 ington such data as were procurable with reference to the other deposits 

 may be recorded. 



The Manhattan. — The Manhattan and Lake mines, which are contiguous 

 claims, lie to the soutli of the basalt area. It is somewhat remarkable that 

 scarcely a trace of serpentine exists near these mines. The surface soil here 

 and also near the Redington mine contains cinnabar, resulting from the 

 erosion of croppings, and accompanying the ciMnabar is free gold, which 

 may be found by panning the soil. There is no doubt that a part of this 

 gold, if not the whole of it, was originally contained in pyrite. No consid- 

 erable workings are accessible upon the Lake property. A tunnel was run 

 from Johntown to the northeast underneath the basalt, but at the time of my 

 visit it was unfortunately caved in. Tlie watchman, an old miner, assured 

 me that a dike of basalt crossed tliis tunnel and that cinnabar was found 

 at the contact between the lava and the inclosing rock. There is no reason 

 to doubt this interesting statement, for two deposits of precisely this kind 

 exist in Pope Valley and will be described in Chapter XIIL Stibnite 

 occurs on this claim near cinnabar. Mr. Goodyear also found these minerals 

 associated on the Manhattan claim. It may be noted that the same associa- 

 tion is found in the Stayton mines, in San Benito County, as AA'ell as on the 

 Island of Corsica, at Smyrna, and elsewhere. 



The surface workings of the j\Ianhattan are quite extensive and are ac- 

 cessible, but the underground developments cannot now be inspected. This 

 mine has yielded about o,000 flasks of metal. The open cuts are in in- 

 tensely silicified, thin-bedded, and considerably disturbed strata. There can 

 be no doubt that a large portion of the silicification visible here attended 

 the deposition of ore, but examination of the surrounding country shows 

 that prior to the ore deposition the prevailing Post-Neocomian metamorphism 

 was also of the siHceous type. It is not possible to distinguish in detail how 

 much of the silica was deposited in eac^h of the periods, but the opal at least, 



