10 B. Silliman on the Deep Placers of 
‘Live Yankee Claim,’ for example, at Forrest City, is rena 
to have paid its owners over three millions of dollars. The : 
south side of the Middle Yuba yet remains to be aoe for 
the continuation of this streak of ‘rich pay’ which points nearly 
in gr direction of the section given in this Report. 
1 be observed that these estimates apply only to the 
aie of gold actually saved. That this amount is small com- 
pared with the total contents of the placers, will appear when 
we come to describe the method by which it is saved, and see 
how crude that process yet is. What goes down the ravines 
from the washing is not all lost, as it is oartially washed again 
in the rivers below by the Chinese and others, but there are no 
data for determining how much is thus saved. No account is 
taken in this connection of those extremely rich deep placers, 
which, like the workings at Forrest City, &., just named, and 
other ‘localities, yield ate so rich in gold that the whole 
mass is often worked in crushing mill. 
Process of Hydraulic ing. —With the more or less complete 
exhaustion of the shallow placers in the ravines and river beds 
in California, where the gold was first obtained with little labor 
and by the most simple means, came the necessity of devising a 
system by which the deep placers, like these under consideration, 
*could be peeouuioa ly worked. The accomplishing of this ob- 
ject demanded the use of a large amount of capital, to be expen- _ | 
ded in the Reirasion of canals and aqueducts to convey water © 
from the mountains and fountain heads of the streams, at a suit- 
able Spelt and in sufficient quantity to command the ground 
worked, as well also as for the opening of tunnels and 
shat in the ‘ ‘bed rock,’ for the discharge of the gravel, an ope- 
on requiring much labor and skill, and consuming often sev- _ 
oe years in their prosecution. 
e association of labor and capital thus demanded, called 
into existence in various parts of the State, Canal and Ditch 
companies, the associates being generally miners, whose lim- 
ited finances were eked out by borrowing money from bank- 
ers, at rates of interest ranging from three to five per centum 
ee 
We 
