THE HYDRAULIC PROCESS. 197 
In the engraving, the water-pipes, the hydraulic squirt, 
nd the sluice are clearly shown. The two former are usually 
owned by a water-company, which supplies the water to the 
niners at so much a thousand cubic feet. Hundreds of miles 
f iron pipes now ramify through the mountains in every 
lirection ; and even their transportation to these remote 
fegions represents an enormous amount of capital. 
This powerful agent has changed the whole face of nature 
n a hundred districts along the base of the mountains. I 
ave seen valleys obliterated, hills levelled to the ground, 
ivers turned from their course and fertile tracts of country 
sovered with bare heaps of gravel miles in extent. It is an 
xtraordinary sight to pass through a region which has for 
ome time been subjected to the hydraulic process. A Cali- 
ornian might well return from a year’s travel in Europe, and 
ir d, like Rip Van Winkle, that everything had so changed 
his absence that not a hill remained standing where he 
iad left it. 
‘ Notwithstanding all the varied and ingenious appliances 
vhich the Americans have introduced, the yearly production 
f gold in California has steadily been on the decrease, whilst 
the exportation of precious metal has, owing to the produc- 
tiveness of other territories, been as steadily advancing. 
_ Since 1848, the Western States and Territories have produced 
no less than £250,000,000 sterling of precious metals, and 
they continue to yield yearly about £15,000,000 more. 
M exico produced in the three hundred years previous to 
1845 about £540,000,000. Since then the annual yield has 
probably not exceeded £5,000,000; so that, although the 
fotal yield up to 1867 would be about £600,000,000, the 
United States will probably exceed that sum before the end 
the present century. 
