bia a 
APPENDIX. 
A. 
REPORT OF AN EXAMINATION OF PORTIONS OF THE GRAVEL MINING REGION 
OF CALIFORNIA ; IN PLACER, NEVADA, YUBA, SIERRA, PLUMAS, AND BUTTE 
COUNTIES: MADE IN 1879. 
By W. H. PETTEE. 
Section I.—Smartsville and Vicinity. 
Tuls region is one that I visited in company with Mr. Bowman in 1870, and the substance of 
the report which I made at that time has already been printed in the first part of this volume 
(pages 191 to 196). The statements made on those pages, though far from being complete, do 
not need any essential modification, unless it may be in respect to one on page 194, that the 
gravels below Timbuctoo are of “no value.” Ido not think that the gravel at Sicard Flat had 
been worked at all in 1870; at least there is no reference to it in the printed portion of my 
former report, and in Raymond’s report for the year 1871, published in 1872, page 131, it is said 
that a San Francisco company was then “engaged in opening valuable ground at Park’s Bar.” 
The Sicard Flat mines are on the right bank of the Yuba River, about a mile and a half below 
Timbuctoo. They attracted my attention from the hills on the opposite side of the stream, and I 
intended to visit them upon my return to Smartsville from the upper country later in the season. 
I found myself, however, unable to carry out this intention. The Sicard Flat mines are at a lower 
level than those at Smartsville, the bed-rock being apparently but little above the level of the tailings 
in the river, which, opposite the mines, are about two hundred feet below the lowest bed-rock seen 
in the mines at Timbuctoo. From the observation which I took to determine the altitude of the top 
of the gravel at Sicard Flat, as seen from across the river, I can confirm the repori that the banks 
worked are not far from one hundred feet in height. The gravel is said to be quite fine, 
resembling the top gravel at Smartsville, and easily worked. Whether -this deposit is a direct 
continuation of that at Smartsville or not, is not easy to say. From my point oi view the gravel 
appeared to be confined to a hill lying between two small ravines, with higher spurs of bed-rock 
rising both to the east and the west. This would not shut out, however, the possibility of a con- 
nection between Timbuctoo and the Flat at some earlier period of time. The gold in the Sicard 
Flat gravel is very fine in both senses of the term, being said to reach as high as .987. I have no 
data as to the amount of gold taken from the gravel, but the property is said to be paying a very 
good percentage upon the capital invested. The water for Sicard Flat is brought from Dry Creek, 
at a point not far from Forbestown. 
The principal changes at Smartsville since 1870 are the completion of old and the construction 
of new bed-rock tunnels ; the uncovering of bed-rock in the deepest part of the channel for nearly 
the whole distance from Timbuctoo to the Blue Gravel claim (more than a mile) ; the extension of 
the washings of the upper gravel beyond the Smartsville Consolidated ground into the ground 
