288 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
and the largest piece of either ever found was less than an 
ounce and a half. They cannot be separated from the gold by 
washing, but they do not unite with quicksilver, and therefore 
they are separated from the more precious metal by amalga- 
mation. They have no regular market in the state; miners 
never make them the chief object of search, and they have 
not been studied, so it is not known to what extent they might 
be obtained. 
§ 217. Del Norte and Klamath—Del Norte county in the 
northwestern corner of the state, is about forty miles long 
from east to west by thirty from north to south. The mining 
population in it is small. Most of the mining is done along the 
banks of the Klamath River, which runs about twenty miles 
through the southeastern portion of the county. There are 
some miners on the head-waters of Althouse Creek, which runs 
northward into Oregon. The county assessor, in his report for 
1860, does not mention the existence of any quartzmill or 
minine-ditch in the county. The mining districts are very 
mountainous and difficult of access. They obtain most of their 
supplies from Crescent City. The mining is chiefly in shallow 
placers, in deep and narrow ravines, and on bars of the Kla- 
math River. 
Klamath county lies immediately south of Del Norte, and is 
about the same size. It is almost exclusively a mining county, 
and has a population of about eighteen hundred. The diggings 
are placers in the bars and banks of the Klamath River and 
its tributaries, the Trinity and Salmon Rivers, and many small 
creeks. The principal mining places are Orleans Bar, Gullion’s 
Bar, Negro Flat, Cecilville, Weitspeck, and Red Cap. The 
whole county is very rugged and mountainous, and much of it 
is covered with heavy timber. The diggings are so difficult 
of access, and are so protected by mountains against ditches, 
that they will last for many years. There is probably no part 
of the state where the single miner, without capital, has a 
better chance to dig gold with a profit. Nearly the whole 
beach of the county is auriferous: 
