52 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
a pea, never weigh more than an ounce, and often are so fine 
as to be invisible to the naked eye. 
A lode has usually a peculiar kind of particles, either large 
or small. Most of the gold in a lode is usually in a rich streak, 
near the “foot wall” or lower side, as if the metal had settled 
down by its gravity. The rock near the “hanging wall” or 
upper side of the lode is poorest. Occasionally several rich 
streaks will be found in a Jode—one streak with coarse par- 
ticles of gold, another with fine. All parts of a lode are not 
equally rich; but the gold is found in spots. A lode which is 
very rich in one place may be very poor in another not far 
off; indeed, there is no auriferous vein in the state known to 
be regularly rich for a long distauce on the surface. The gold 
is found in streaks or pockets; the rich streak runs downward, 
and has a regular dip in the lode. Itis a matter of very great 
importance to the miner to ascertain the direction of this dip, 
and here is the rule: Take out some of the vein stone, and 
examine the wall rock carefully. In most veins it will be 
found that the wall has little furrows, as though the lode had 
been pushed upward. These furrows indicate the direction 
of the dip of the rich streaks. Pockets may be considered as 
interrupted streaks; and when one rich pocket is discovered, 
others may usually be found by going down into the vein in 
the proper direction, and that is ascertained in the same man- 
ner as for continuous streaks. This is an important rule, and 
it is now published for the first time. Iam indebted for it to 
J. E. Clayton, Esq., mining engineer. 
§ 38. Placers.—The placers are of two kinds—déluvial, or 
those deposited under large bodies of water, as if in a deluge; 
and alluvial, or those deposited under the influence of streams 
of water, such as the present rivers and brooks of the country. 
It is evident, from.an examination of the mining districts, that 
large tracts of auriferous ground have been deposited under 
diluvial influences. The same strata are found extending over 
wide areas, and the deposition is different from that made by 
ariver. The gold, being nineteen times heavier than water, 
