432 SUPPLEMENTARY INVESTIGATIONS IN THE GRAVEL REGION. 
of the signs which ordinarily point to a river-wash. The fineness of the gold is also very low, at 
least much lower than that of any of the true river channels. ‘There is no reason to believe that 
this deposit has any connection with the gravel higher up on the ridge between Oregon Creek and 
Kanaka Creek. | 
The following statistics in regard to the yield of the Camptonville district, and to the quality of 
the gold, I obtained from a trustworthy source at Camptonville. 
From 1860 to 1875 the gross yield of the Camptonville gravel district, exclusive of the gold 
obtained by quartz mining, amounted to $8,000,000, an average of half a million dollars a year. 
Since 1875 the average yield has been about $150,000 a year. Since 1869 the quartz-mines have 
yielded in addition over $400,000. The average yield per cubic yard of gravel cannot be ascertained. 
The fineness of the gold and value per ounce at the different mines have been on the average 
as follows : — 
Locality. Fineness. Value. 
Camptonville : : : ? : g ; . .980-.935 $18.35 
Galena Hill ‘ ‘ . ; : = ; : 940 18.40-—18.50 
Young’s Hill. : i : : ‘ . : . .940 18.40 
Weed’s Point. : : ? ; ; ; ‘ -925 18 25 
Railroad Hill ‘ : : ‘ . : ; see 18.25 
Depot Hill : : : E . ’ : : 910 18.00 
Indian Hill . : ; : ; : : . . 925 18.25 -18.35 
In the ravine diggings at Oak Valley and Dad’s Gulch the quality of the gold has not been so 
good, ranging from .890 to .880, or from $17.50 to $17.00 per ounce. 
The gold at High Point, on the southern side of Oregon Creek, has a fineness of .940, or from 
$18.50 to $18.75 per ounce. That of Oregon Creek will have an average fineness of .880; and 
that of Pike City of only .750, or $16.00 per ounce. 
In this connection I will give, on the same authority, the fineness of the gold from two quartz- 
mines in the vicinity of Camptonville. The gold of the Alaska Company, Pike City, is only .740 
fine, and that of the Brush Creek Company, near the new Mountain House, is .820. 
I made frequent inquiries for animal or human fossils, but could not learn of their existence 
near Camptonville. I was shown a part of a mastodon tooth, which was said to have been found 
under thirty feet of gravel, near bed-rock, at Indiana Ranch in Keystone Valley, nine miles in a 
direct line to the southwest of Camptonville and on the opposite side of the North Yuba. It did 
not seem worth while to take the time for a visit to the locality. The tooth is in the possession 
of Mr. J. R. Young of Camptonville. 
On the ridge road from Camptonville towards Forest City and Downieville the lower limit of 
the lava capping is seen at an altitude of 3,900 feet, over eleven hundred feet above the hotel at 
Camptonville. The road follows upon the lava capping with a steady ascending grade to the sum- 
mit, near the old Mountain House, of which the altitude is 4,765 feet. The altitude of Nigger 
Tent I made to be 4,465 feet. Between the summit and Forest City there is a depression in the 
crest of the ridge, along the “ backbone” which forms the water-shed between the tributaries of 
Oregon Creek and the water-courses which discharge into the North Yuba, near Goodyear’s Bar. 
The lava capping disappears entirely before the new Mountain House is reached, the altitude of 
which is 4,440 feet. 
It is the theory of many persons that the lava cap between the old Mountain House and Camp- 
tonville covers a gravel channel. I see no reason for adopting that theory, the preponderance of 
geological evidence going to show that the former drainage was not longitudinal, but transverse to 
the ridge. Considerable work has been done on the southern slope of the ridge in a search for 
such a channel. The only place that I found time te visit was Mr. D. H. Dahneke’s tunnel. The 
altitude of the tunnel’s mouth I made to be 3,875 feet, very nearly the same as that of the lower 
end of the lava cap. The tunnel is in bed-rock at its mouth, but at the distance of 525 feet the 
bed-rock pitched off to the north at a high angle, and the tunnel has been driven sixty-five feet 
