Let us compare this with the yield of the other gold-producing
countries:
California produced in 1848 (estimated), $3,826,230
In 1849 (returns manifested), 4,921,250
In 1850 (returns manifested), 27,676,346
These are the first three years of the California gold fever. It
is difficult, at this late date, to calculate the exact amount of
gold kept in the hands of miners, as specimens, and as a circulating
medium, during the first year (1848), but suppose we place the amount
at $173,770 (which is a liberal estimate), we have then $4,000,000 as
the yield of gold in 1848. Taking into account all the amounts which
usually escape the official returns, and also the amounts buried
by the miners until their return to the states, the most liberal
estimates of these, added to the official returns, can hardly place
the yield of gold from this state in 1848 over $10,000,000.
Nevada produced from her placer mines from 1849, the year of the
discovery, to 1859, when they ceased working them, both years
inclusive, only $400,000. This was produced, however, mostly by
Chinese miners, of whom there were only about 200 in the mines. It
will be remembered, also, that the placers of Nevada were never very
remunerative, and that they decreased in the amount of yield as we
approach the final year, 1859.
Oregon, in 1866, only produced, $2,000,000
Montana, with an area of 146,689 square miles,
produced, in 1862, from her placers, 300,000
In 1863, 8,000,000
It is impossible to give a correct estimate of the yield from Colorado
for the year 1859, her first year, but the most liberal estimate
would hardly place it above $800,000; the entire yield, including the
quartz-mills, for nine years, from 1859 to 1868, as only $30,000,000.
Of course there are several causes which it is not necessary to
enumerate here, which operated fatally against any large yield from
Colorado during these years.
The Black Hills proper has a superficial area of about 6,000 square
miles. The bulk—we might almost say all—of the gold produced thus far
from the Hills is from placer mines; the quartz interest has as yet
hardly begun to be developed. By referring to the comparative figures,
it will be seen that, considering her area, and the disadvantages
which have surrounded her, the new El Dorado has done remarkably well
this year, even if we confine her to the $2,000,000 which I have
accounted for. She stands upon a very favorable footing with any of
the auriferous districts during their early days. The quartz interest
will give a large increase in the yield of bullion this year (1877),
both in gold and silver and we may safely place the yield for 1877 at
$7,000,000.
MINING UNDER LAKE SUPERIOR.
[Sidenote: MINING UNDER LAKE SUPERIOR.]
One of the most remarkable mines in America is the one known as Silver
Islet in Lake Superior. It once was a small barren rock; its greatest
width was seventy feet and its length eighty feet. It was only eight
feet above the water, its position being about three-quarters of a
mile from the main-land and exposed to a sweep of 200 miles of Lake
Superior.
[Sidenote: SILVET ISLET.]
Operations were begun there on the first of September, 1870. On that
date a party began the erection of cribs, and in thirty days there
were put in place 460 feet of cribbing, thoroughly bolted together,
filled with rock, and having an average depth of thirteen feet. Such
an enormous extent of work was only accomplished by the force working
unitedly, as one man, eighteen hours out of twenty-four. Inside of
the crib-work a coffer-dam was constructed, enclosing seventy feet in
length of the out-crop or back of the vein.
The water in the enclosed space was thrown out by steam siphons, and
mining was commenced on October 5th. Everything worked successfully
until October 26th, when 200 feet of breakwater was carried away by
a heavy southeast gale. The coffer-dam also suffered considerable
damage, and the pit excavated on the vein was completely filled with
rock from the cribs. This breach was filled more substantially than at
first by a double line of crib-work, having a base of twenty-six feet;
the coffer-dam was repaired, the pit cleaned out, and mining resumed
on November 18th, which was continued until November 26th, when the
last shipment of ore was made for the season.
All through that season and the next the work was constantly
interrupted by accidents. Whenever a severe storm arose the sea rolled
in heavily and broke down portions of the dam, or crib-work, so that
the mine would be flooded and the miners driven from their posts. But
in spite of these delays, coupled with the small space in which the
men could work, more than a million dollars worth of ore was taken out.
The mine is one of the richest ever opened in the country. The great
deposit of ore occurs in a fissure vein having a bearing of N. 32° W.,
the dip or inclination being to the N. E. The vein is well defined
at points, having good walls or clearages, but not uniform in width,
opening out at points to 12 or 15 feet, and again closing up to a
string of not more than six inches. The average width, however, might
be put down from four to five feet. Still, aside from the vein proper,
there are several strings or feeders, some of them at a distance of 30
feet, carrying rich packing ore.
The vein substance generally consists of calcareous spar and dolomitic
spar, with quartz, in which are enclosed occasional masses of dioritic
wall rock, slate, and plumbago. The contained minerals are galena,
zinc, blende, iron pyrites, kupfer, nickel, cobalt ore, with small
quantities of antimony, native silver, and silver glauce, or sulphuret
of silver.
The deposit of silver is found at the intersection of the vein with an
immense belt of diorite and plumbago. This diorite is an intrusive
mass, cutting nearly perpendicularly through the original more or less
horizontal formation of slates and sedimentary or silicious sandstone.
The ore varies in value from $400 to $7,000 per ton, the general
average being not far from $1,500 per ton. This is known as packing
ore, for the reason that it is packed in barrels for shipment. In
addition to it there is a broad vein of stamp rock, valued at from $45
to $50 per ton.
The vein, taking a northwesterly and southwesterly direction, crosses
Silver Islet, where it was discovered. On its course north from the
Islet the vein goes out of sight, being covered by the lake for about
3,000 feet, and then makes its appearance on Burnt Island; submerged
again by water for a distance of 350 to 400 feet, it reaches the
mainland, on which it can be traced for a long distance.
[Sidenote: ISLE ROYALE.]
Going south from Silver Islet, the vein passes under Lake Superior,
and is said to cross Isle Royale, some twenty miles off. Tesels have
been run out from the shafts, so that the miners work far under the
lake, and during heavy storms they can distinctly hear the roar of the
waters. But although the vein is placed below the lake, its position,
so far, has not put it at a great disadvantage, compared with other
mines producing silver.
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE MINE.]
There are features about this mine which actually make it a favorite
as regards cost of working. The two great causes which increase so
rapidly the cost, and delay the progress of mining everywhere, are
influx of water and the meeting with what is termed soft ground. This
mine, so far, has been opened nearly 700 feet. The longest level opens
up the vein about 730 feet, and yet by pumping some 155 gallons per
minute, the mine is kept dry. Most of this water enters from above,
and is therefore not expected to increase in proportion to the depth
obtained in the future. Many mines, although situated on high and dry
land, have to pump far more water than this. The rock here being less
pervious to water than elsewhere, can only be accounted for by the
fact that a longer time has elapsed since this region has undergone
any serious volcanic disturbance. Some narrow belts of slaty shale
lying next to the vein are identical, except in age, with the clay
found next the true veins in other places.
The vein rock itself is of a hard and firm nature, needing but
little timbering for support. Three samples, taken from the vein yet
remaining in the roof of the mine, showed, from concentrations and
assays, as follows:
1. South end of vein, silver per ton, 7,346 ozs.
2. Middle of vein, 2,886 “
3. North end of veins, 5-4/5 “
The concentrations of No. 1 had hardly more than a trace of galena in
them, being native silver, etc.
No. 2 was mixed, consisting of galena and native silver.
No. 3 was pure galena.
The mineral is called McFarlanite, from the man who first brought
it into notice, it being unlike any other silver ore, a mingling of
nickel giving it a peculiar tinge and a beautiful arborescence.
The mine has ten levels or adits running north and south, besides
several cross-cuts east and west. They have lately been boring with a
diamond drill west of the main vein, thinking to find another feeder
similar to the east vein, or to ascertain if the streak that is seen
in the water west may be a deflection in the main vein.
They descend by ladders only, the shaft being used solely for hoisting
rock. They have Burleigh compressors and all modern appliances.
Occasionally they strike gas, which throws out a jet of great power—at
one time of forty feet—and burns for a long time when lighted. A
miner once came upon a natural cavity, where he felt sure he was to
touch the bonanza; so he inserted his head with the candle in his
hat. It came out quicker than it went in, but without hair, whiskers,
eye-brows, and almost without scalp. Holes are encountered discharging
water, or water and gas combined. Some of the miners are apprehensive
that they will by and by reach the bottom of the lake and fall into an
enormous cavity, which will take them, perhaps, to the center of the
earth.
XLIII.
CALIFORNIA AND HER TERRESTRIAL TREASURES.
WONDERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST—CALIFORNIA IN 1835—CAUSE OF HER
RAPID PROGRESS—THE HONEST MINER OF THE OLDEN TIME—FATE OF THE
FORTY-NINERS—EFFORTS OF A NOVICE—RUSHES TO NEW PLACERS—CHANGE FROM
PLACER TO QUARTZ MINING—GRASS VALLEY—EXTENT OF THE GOLD-BEARING
RIDGE—AMALGAMATING PROCESSES—SPECULATIONS IN MINING STOCKS—HOW A
SHARP NEW YORKER WAS SOLD—A LUCKY HIT—COPPER MINES IN CALIFORNIA
AND ARIZONA—NEW ALMADEN AND ITS QUICKSILVER—BENEFITS OF AN
EARTHQUAKE.
For a few years after the discovery of gold in California, little
attention was given by her inhabitants to any other pursuit than
mining. But in course of time the agricultural resources of the
State were developed, and California soon made herself one of the
grain-supplying regions of the world. The mines do not hold such a
prominent place as they did fifteen years ago, but they are still an
important source of wealth to the Pacific coast, and will so continue
for a long time to come. Had there been no discovery of gold or other
precious metal west of the Rocky Mountains up to the present time,
California would to-day be but little advanced beyond the condition
in which she was found by the author of “Two Years Before the Mast,”
when he landed on her shores in 1835. The cities along the coast
would have grown larger, and the number of ships trading to San
Diego, San Francisco, and other parts would have steadily increased,
but the traffic would be mainly in hides from California cattle, or
in the very few articles that were then the produce of this region.
San Francisco could not have become in a few years a great city,
without the discovery of gold in the streams and on the hill-sides of
California.
[Sidenote: THE MINERS OF CALIFORNIA]
The first rush of gold-seekers in 1849, and for two or three years,
subsequent to that date, was to the diggings along the various rivers
and their tributaries. Men came, with pick and shovel, to gather up
a fortune by separating gold from the earth along the valleys. The
honest miner, with the tools of his profession, with his bronzed
and unshaven face, his hair unkempt and matted like locks of wool,
his clothing of the roughest character, and utterly innocent of
whisk-broom or cologne water, was a figure well known on both the
Atlantic and the Pacific coast. In California he existed in reality,
but in the East he was drawn in caricature as something that all
California emigrants must become. He toiled in the sands of the
Sacramento and its tributaries, now with a run of good luck that sent
him rejoicing to his home in the East, or furnished the material for a
“high old time,” and again, with ill fortune that left him, after long
exertion, with very little of the valuable metal in his own right.
The race of miners has not become extinct, as any one who has visited
the interior of California can testify, but it is by no means as
numerous as of yore. A large number of men who now stand high in the
business world, began their California life by working in the mines.
Many of the former miners have gone to their homes in the East, or to
those undiscovered regions where gold is said to be of no particular
use. Many long since drifted to other gold-mining countries, and
many others have taken to agriculture, or to some business more
certain—though less seductive—than gold-hunting. Most of the placers
have been washed out and abandoned to the Mexicans or Chinese.
Localities that formerly supported a large mining population are now
deserted, while others can still count a goodly number of inhabitants.
Whenever a new region is opened up there are many persons ready to
rush to it, in the belief that they will find the fortune they have
so long sought. Fraser River, Washoe, Kern River, and other regions
have all stood high in the bill of attractions, and all proved more or
less delusive. Hardly a year passes without a new discovery somewhere,
and a consequent rush of emigration. Human nature remains the same,
and there is no probability of the arrival of a time when men will no
longer be tempted by extravagant stories to go in quest of a fortune.
[Sidenote: THE FIRST MINERS.]
In the early days, thousands of persons landed at San Francisco with
no definite knowledge of the country, and with the impression that the
gold mines were within a few hours’ walk of the city, and possibly
inside its corporate limits. The story is told of a party of emigrants
who came ashore from a steamer, breakfasted at a cheap hotel, and
then, with their mining tools, proceeded to the beach at the foot of
Telegraph Hill, and began washing for gold. The Sacramento was the
deposit of a greater wealth than that of the Indies; they argued that
all the water in the bay of San Francisco had come from that river,
and therefore all the earth that it touched must be auriferous. Only
a day’s toil in that locality could convince them that their theories
were incorrect.
There was very little geological or other science applied to the
early mining, as very few of the miners had any knowledge in that
direction beyond what they acquired by practice. Men dug where they
could find pay-dirt, and abandoned places that did not pay for their
labor, but they could not often give any reason why one spot in a
valley was richer than another. Mining was almost wholly a matter of
experiment, and to this day the theories of the school of mines are
of comparatively little value in the eyes of many miners. Many of
the ordinary rules of geology are overthrown in the formation of the
Pacific coast, so that the scientific geologists who have gone to
California, find themselves involved in perplexities at almost every
step.
The revelations of General Sutter’s mill-race established the
existence of gold in California, and the news spreading rapidly
throughout the world, brought a large migration. The first miners were
nearly all adventurers without capital, and though the bulk of the
immigration continued of this character, the second and subsequent
years saw men of capital and intelligence going there to give a
better direction to the interest of the country. The pick and pan,
the primitive rocker, the long tom, the sluice, the tunnel, and
other accessories of placer mining, marked the successive development
of means for robbing the earth of its treasures. These operations
culminated in hydraulic mining, which may be fairly considered as the
perfection of this branch of work.
Of course it was but a single step from the discovery of gold in the
dirt of the valleys, to its discovery in the veins of rock that formed
the hill-sides and mountains. The rock from these veins was carefully
assayed, and its richness established. Mere hand work was of no avail,
or would be unprofitable in reducing these ores and extracting the
metal. Heavy machinery must be erected, deep mines must be opened;
shafts and wheels and pits would be expensive, and so would be the
erection and management of machinery. Hence the necessity for capital
and intelligence in this kind of labor. Individuals and companies led
off in this work, and so quartz mining followed upon placer mining,
and became a business of magnitude.
[Sidenote: QUARTZ MINING.]
The best established gold mines in California are at Grass Valley,
a neat little city in Nevada County, twelve miles from the Central
Pacific Railway, and for some time the home of the once noted and
notorious Lola Montez. The other quartz mining districts are scattered
through the mountainous region of the State, but the localities where
the mines are profitable are not very numerous. Further explorations
will of course increase their number, but it is not very probable that
the development will be rapid.
In placer mining, the object is to separate the gold from the dirt
where it has been deposited, and to accomplish this, water and labor
are the only necessities. The dirt or earth is to be carried away
while the gold remains. This is the whole process, whether we employ
the simple pan and rocker or some more elaborate means of working. But
in quartz mining the process is more complicated. The rocks must be
taken from the veins and brought to the surface. There it lies, solid
rock, with the gold mixed into its whole mass, while in a fluid state,
just as salt or soda are mixed with flour in making bread. It must be
reduced to powder, and for this purpose heavy machinery is employed.
When reduced to a powder, the gold must be extracted, and this work
requires more care and causes more perplexities than other labor
connected with quartz mining. Besides the gold, there are various
chemical compounds, some of which remain, while others may be washed
away. Many men must be employed about a quartz mill; the monthly
disbursements, provided the owners are honorable, are very large.
Hence, while a man without capital may become a miner in the gulches
and placers, the beginner in quartz mining requires both brains and
capital.
The quartz district, which is from fifteen to a hundred miles in
width, commences in Mariposa County, and extends along the western
foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada for four or five hundred miles,
disappearing somewhere in Oregon. The ledges of rocks lie at various
angles, being in some places almost horizontal, while in others
they vary little from the perpendicular. There are various theories
touching the formation of the quartz ledges and their impregnation
with gold, but none of them will apply to all cases. The mines that
have been opened are along this ridge, and many shafts have been sunk
for the purpose of reaching this rich rock. A considerable proportion
of these shafts have been abandoned because they did not reach the
ledge, while others have been forced to quit, because the ledge,
though containing gold, was unprofitable. As before stated, those
most generally successful are at Grass Valley, where the rock does
not vary much in value, and where the profits of a year’s labor can
be estimated beforehand with considerable accuracy. Year after year
the work has gone on, and the town of Grass Valley has a more thrifty
appearance than the majority of the mining centers of California.
There is very little difference in the character of the quartz mines
and mills throughout California. Where the vein is perpendicular, or
nearly so, the shaft is sunk directly through the vein; but where it
lies at an angle, the shaft is sunk so as to strike the vein at a
given distance from the surface. In either case, galleries, called
levels, are run off from the shaft into the vein, sometimes for a
long distance. At the surface, the vein may be but a few inches in
thickness, but it gradually widens as it descends, so that some of
the veins have a width of twenty-five feet or upwards. Along the
levels the ore is brought to the shaft, and then sent, in buckets,
up to daylight. In extensive operations, there are numerous shafts,
galleries, and levels that connect with each other and form a
subterranean network of streets and alleys. Once on the surface of
the earth, the ore is sent to the mill, where it is first broken into
small pieces and then reduced to powder by the action of the crushing
machinery.
Various kinds of machinery have been devised for reducing the ore,
the first being the stamp-mill, which consists of a row of heavy
pestles, standing in troughs. These pestles or stamps are raised by
steam power, and fall by their own weight. They are from four to eight
in number, and sometimes there are twenty or more; they operate just
as do the feet of the smiling maidens in the vineyards of France,
when treading out the juices of the grape. No other mill has proved
superior to this in reducing the ore; the testimony of miners and
capitalists is almost unanimously in favor of the stamp-mill.
A stream of water pours into the trough where the ore is being
crushed, each stamp falling from ten to eighty times a minute,
and mixing the water and pulverized rock together. This runs upon
blankets, which catch a portion of the gold; then it passes over
a sloping surface, cut with horizontal crevices, filled with
quicksilver, that catches all the gold it touches; then through a
series of troughs and sluices, with occasional beds of quicksilver,
and so on to a heap of wastes.
No perfect process of saving the gold has yet been invented, and much
of it is still carried away in the sand or “tailing” of the mills.
Rock that assays $40 or $50 to the ton will rarely yield more than
half or two-thirds that amount, and sometimes falls far below it. Some
of the mill owners claim to be satisfied with their present process,
while others are constantly making experiments. Whoever succeeds in
finding a cheap and effective means of saving all the gold in the
pulverized rock, has a sure fortune before him. Many of the ores
contain sulphurets of various kinds, and these are nearly always more
or less refractory. Many of the mills are reserving their “tailings,”
to be worked down again when some successful inventor makes his
appearance. Some mill owners save the sulphurets from the ores for the
purpose of selling them to the agent of an English house, who buys
them for shipment to Wales.
Most of the quartz mines in California are from one hundred and fifty
to six hundred feet in depth. The deepest and richest gold mine in
the State is that known as Hayward’s mine, on Sutter’s Creek, Amador
County. Its owner was unable to make it pay expenses for a long time,
but it grew richer as it descended, and for the past twelve years or
so has paid a handsome profit. Sixty tons per day are taken out and
crushed; the operation goes on constantly, night and day.
The history of this mine seems to settle the question about the
profitableness of deep mining, as the ore grows richer the farther it
gets from the surface. The mines at Grass Valley steadily increase in
richness as they descend from the surface. The owners of one mine have
been pocketing a profit of $200,000 per annum.
[Sidenote: THE QUARTZ MINERS.]