TABLE MOUNTAIN: TUOLUMNE COUNTY. 137 
Mining Statistics for the year 1874.* He says: “Drift mining on the old 
channels underlying the basaltic capping of Table Mountain still continues, 
and, in the main, with excellent results. The Alpha Company, near James- 
town, has demonstrated the existence of two channels; these are known as 
the “front” and “ back” channels, and are separated by a high rim. That 
on the east side is the most ancient, and is known as the Caldwell or Sara- 
toga channel, and carries heavy, black, coarse gold, wherever it has been 
struck in Table Mountain. The west channel is of later formation, and car- 
ries finer and brighter gold; no black gold is found in this, and no pipe-clay, 
as is the case in the other.’ That the Table Mountain gravel channel is 
divided into two or more parts, for some portion of its course, has been 
already stated ; but there is not sufficient evidence to justify the generaliza- 
tion reported by Mr. Skidmore. It is not likely that two channels running 
so near each other and so nearly on the same level should be very different 
from each other in age and character. 
Of the pecuniary results of mining under Table Mountain but little is 
known to the writer. In 1867 Mr. Hittell wrote as follows in regard to this 
point: + “Table Mountain has been an unfortunate locality for miners. It is 
estimated that at least $1,000,000 more have been put into the mountain, 
counting the regular wages, than were ever taken out. Nine tenths of the 
miners who undertook to work claims there were the losers. There was 
enough gold to pay well, but the miners did not know how to get it.” The 
reasons given for this want of success are chiefly ignorance of the position 
of the channel, so that many tunnels were too high for drainage ; and dividing 
the channel up into claims of insufficient length, so that many more tunnels 
had to be run than would have been necessary to effect drainage and to open 
the ground for working. The principal difficulty, however, was undoubtedly 
the fact that the amount of gravel was too small to pay for operations not 
conducted with skill and economy ; both of which elements seem to have 
been wanting, in a very high degree. A long list of the companies at work 
under Table Mountain in 1867, and in previous years, will be found in the 
report from which the above extract has been made, and to that the reader 
may be referred. 
The following are some of the principal localities in Tuolumne County 
* Statistics of Mines and Mining. Seventh Annual Report, Washington, 1875, p. 61. 
t J. Ross Browne’s (second) Report on the Mineral Resources of the States and Territories west of the 
Rocky Mountains. Washington, 1868, p. 39. 
