THE CHANNEL: NEAR NEVADA CITY. 187 
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 five 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. 
But 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. 
The 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, 
The 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 
bed-rock has been exposed between the two places, but I was assured that connection had been 
made 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- 
tance, and then to the north again directly under the Live Oak shaft, and from there on towards 
the Kansas shaft. At the Live Oak shaft, however, the most of the gold was not found in the 
deepest part of the bed-rock, but on a plateau a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet to the west 
and about fifteen feet above the bottom of the shaft. From that point on I have only the general 
information that the ground has been thoroughly prospected by drifting, so that there is no hesi- 
tancy in proceeding with the hydraulic washing of the whole bank. The information concerning 
the 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 North- 
east quarter of Section 6) is an old shaft which struck at a point a hundred feet to the southeast 
