ELLIOTT ET AL.: THE CAVE FAUNA OF CALIFORNIA 
9 
Figure 5. The Lava Flows North region, with the range (orange polygon) of the troglobitic conotylid millipede, 
Plumatyla humerosa, 194 km north-south by 8—10 km east-west, in lava tubes and one mine in lava. 
Sierra Nevada North contains most of “The Mother Lode Region” or “The Gold Country,” 
an historic and geologic region of California stretching from El Dorado County to Mariposa Coun¬ 
ty. It is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines that attracted waves of immigrants, known 
as the 49ers, during the California Gold Rush of 1848-1855. Gold mines often were not far from 
pockets of karst in the Stanislaus River Canyon. The gold deposits were found in many situations, 
such as alluvium processed by placer or hydraulic mining, drift mines excavated through country 
rock into ancient river alluvium under volcanics, or hard rock mining. The Transplant Mine in 
Tuolumne County was a 1925 hard rock gold mine in Calaveras marble in which the miners fol¬ 
lowed a so-called “quartz vein” that may have showed signs of “color,” probably misidentified cal- 
cite crystals. The mine did not produce, and it was abandoned. As described below in Literature 
Review and History, in the 1970s the mine was used as an experimental transplant site for threat¬ 
ened cave fauna, particularly the harvestman Banksula melones (Elliott 1978, 2000b). 
Mother Lode Karst. This karst area lies on the western flank of the Sierra Nevada North, but 
similar outcrops of the Calaveras Assemblage are widespread in the Sierra Nevada South, and form 
the most extensive karst in the state. There are many small, isolated karst outcrops, sometimes 
referred to as “pods” or “lenses.” Because of the vertically tilted bedding planes, caves are typi¬ 
cally small and vertical, many consisting of simple vertical shafts. Nearly all caves in this region 
are in a narrow elevational range between 200 and 600 meters above sea level. No lava tubes are 
