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HITTEL

ON

GOLD MINES

AND

MINING.



QUEBEC:
PRINTED BY G. & G. E. DESBARATS.

1864.




HITTEL
ON
GOLD MINES
AND
MINING.


_Chief Industry._--Mining is the chief industry of California. It
employs more men and pays larger average wages than any other branch of
physical labor. Although it has been gradually decreasing in the amount
of its production, in the profits to the individuals engaged in it, and
in its relative importance in the business of the state, it is yet and
will long continue to be the largest source of our wealth, and the
basis to support the other kinds of occupation.

_Metals obtained._--Our mines now wrought are of gold, silver,
quicksilver, copper and coal. Ores of tin, lead, and antimony in large
veins, beds of sulphur, alum and asphaltum; lakes of borax and springs
of sulphate of magnesia, are also found in the state, but they are not
wrought at the present time, though they will probably all become
valuable in a few years. Platinum, iridium, and osmium are obtained
with the gold in some of the placer mines, but are never found alone,
nor are they ever the main object sought by the miner. The annual yield
of our gold mines is about forty millions of dollars, of our quicksilver
two millions of dollars. Our silver, copper and coal mines have been
opened within a year, and their value is yet unknown. All our other
mining is of little importance as compared with the gold.

_Gold Mines._--Our gold mines are divided into placer and quartz. In
the former, the metal is found imbedded in layers of earthy matter,
such as clay, sand and gravel; in the latter it is incased in veins of
rock. The methods of mining must be adapted to the size of the
particles of gold, and the nature of the material in which they are
found. In placer mining, the earthy matter containing the gold, called
the "pay-dirt," is washed in water, which dissolves the clay and
carries it off in solution, and the current sweeps away the sand,
gravel and stones, while the gold, by reason of the higher specific
gravity, remains in the channel or is caught with quicksilver. In
quartz mining the auriferous rock is ground to a very fine powder, the
gold in which is caught in quicksilver, or on the rough surface of a
blanket, over which the fine material is borne by a stream of water.
About two-thirds of our gold is obtained from the placers, and
one-third from the quartz.

A mine is defined and generally understood to mean "a subterraneous
work or excavation for obtaining metals, metallic ores or mineral
substances;" but this definition does not apply to our placer mines,
which are places where gold is taken from diluvial or alluvial
deposits. Most of the work is not subterraneous; it is done in the full
light of day. In some of the claims the pay-dirt lies within two feet
of the surface; in others it lies much deeper, but all the
superincumbent matter is swept away.

Water is the great agent of the placer miner; it is the element of his
power; its amount is the measure of his work, and its cost is the
measure of his profit. With an abundance of water he can wash every
thing; without water he can do little or nothing. Placer mining is
almost entirely mechanical, and of such a kind that no accuracy of
workmanship or scientific or literary education is necessary to mastery
in it. Amalgamation is a chemical process it is true, but it is so
simple that after a few days' experience, the rudest laborer will
manage it as well as the most thorough chemist.

It is impossible to ascertain the amount of gold which has been taken
from the mines of California. Records have been kept of the sums
manifested at the San Francisco Custom House, for exportation, and
deposited for coinage in the mints of the United States; and there is
also some knowledge of the amounts sent in bars and dust to England;
but we have no account of the sums carried by passengers to foreign
countries and coined elsewhere than at London, or used as jewelry, or
