years later, are events in the history of the human race of more
importance than the discoveries of Mexico and Peru in the days of
Cortes and Pizarro. These discoveries have given a new impetus to the
migratory population of the whole world, built up large cities and
regions where before there was only a wilderness, carried civilization
and commerce where they were never known before, brought together
strange people of all nations, mingling them in harmony side by side,
and have done more, perhaps, in the cause of universal peace and good
will among all nations than any other discoveries of the present day.
In California, more than in any other part of America, people of all
nations are assembled. In the streets of San Francisco one may see
the synagogue, the church, and the pagoda. Christian and pagan, Jew
and gentile, are mingled in the crowds that pass along the streets,
and they are found laboring side by side to obtain the chief end of a
large part of human existence—the possession of wealth.
[Sidenote: ROMANTIC STORIES.]
The discovery of gold in California, like many discoveries of gold
and silver elsewhere, was not the work of science. It very often
happens that those find who do not seek. A shepherd, a poor laborer,
and even children are chosen by Nature to reveal to the world the
treasures which she holds beneath the surface. It was not Columbus,
nor Cortes, nor Pizarro who discovered the silver of South America,
but an Indian hunter. The most famous silver mines of Peru were found
in the same way. One day a shepherd, leading his flock to feed on the
slopes of the Andes, lighted some bushes to prepare his frugal meal.
A pebble heated by the flame attracted his attention through its
brightness, which reflected the rays of the sun. He found the stone
massive and heavy, and finally carried it to the mint at Lima, where
it was tested, and proved to be silver. The poor shepherd through his
discovery became a millionaire.
A hunter, climbing the rocks in search of game, pulled up a bush, and
found pieces of silver imbedded in the earth which the roots retained.
A child, playing one day in the valley near the cottage of a poor
peasant in Russia, picked up a shining pebble, and brought it home.
The pebble was found to be very heavy, and on examination proved to be
of gold. Investigations followed this discovery, and an extensive gold
field was opened.
The discovery of gold in California was accidental. Captain Sutter,
who had seen many vicissitudes and adventures in Europe and the wilds
of America, arrived in California in 1839; and two years later he
obtained a grant of land, and built a fort, which soon became the
refuge for people coming into the country. The pioneers of California
all bear testimony to the generosity of Captain Sutter at the time
when his fort was the capital, and he was king of the American colony
in the valley of the Sacramento. The legislature of California a few
years ago recognized his claims to the generosity of the people of the
Pacific coast by granting him a small pension for the remainder of his
life.
[Illustration: JAS. W. MARSHALL, THE DISCOVERER OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.]
[Illustration: SUTTER’S MILL, WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS DISCOVERED IN
CALIFORNIA.]
[Sidenote: SHINING PARTICLES IN A MILL-RACE.]
Captain Sutter erected a saw-mill on the south fork of the American
River, at a place now called Coloma. On the 19th day of January, 1848,
James W. Marshall, while engaged in digging a race for the saw-mill,
found some pieces of yellow metal, which he and the half dozen men
working with him at the mill supposed to be gold. He was confident of
the importance of the discovery, but he knew nothing of chemistry or
gold mining, and therefore could not prove the nature of the metal,
or know how to obtain it in paying quantities. Every day he examined
the mill-race to look for the metal; every man at the mill thought
Marshall was very wild, and so paid little attention to him. The swift
current of the mill-race washed away much of the earth, and by this
means particles of gold were left behind.
In a little while Marshall had quite a collection of specimens, and
his associates began to think that possibly there might be a gold
mine there after all. About the middle of February, one of the party
employed at the mill went to San Francisco, and took these specimens
with him. He was introduced to a gold miner from Georgia, who was
immediately satisfied of the character of the metal, and knew that the
diggings must be rich. This miner, Humphrey by name, determined to go
at once to the mill, and examine the digging.
He arrived there on the 7th of March, and found work going on at the
mill just as if there was no gold within a thousand miles. The next
day he took a pan and spade, and washed some of the dirt from the
bottom of the mill-race; and in a few hours he pronounced the mine
the richest he had ever seen or known in Georgia. He then made a
rocker, and went to work washing for gold, and every day he obtained
an ounce or two of metal. The men at the mill made rockers for
themselves, and all were soon busy in searching for gold. Everything
else was abandoned.
The rumor of the discovery did not spread rapidly. In the middle of
March the owner of a large ranche at the head of the Sacramento valley
visited Sutter’s fort, heard of the mining at Coloma, and went to see
it. He said that if similarity of formation could be taken as proof,
there must be gold on his ranche. So, after ascertaining the mode of
washing, he posted off, and in a few weeks was at work on the bars of
Clear Creek, nearly two hundred miles from Coloma. A few days later,
another man visited the mill, and the result was, that in less than
a month, he had a party of Indians washing gold on Feather River,
twenty-five miles from Coloma. Thus the gold mines were opened almost
simultaneously at distant points.
The first printed notice of the discovery of gold was given in a
newspaper published in San Francisco, on the 15th of March. On the
29th of May, the same paper announced that its publication would be
suspended, and said,—
[Sidenote: THE RUSH FOR THE MINES.]
“The whole country, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the
sea-shore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds with the sordid
cry of, Gold! gold! gold!—while the field is left half planted, the
house half built, and everything neglected but the manufacture of
picks, and shovels, and the means of transportation to the spot where
a man obtained one hundred and twenty dollars’ worth of the real stuff
in one day’s washing, and the average for all concerned was twenty
dollars per diem.”
The towns and villages were deserted. Farmers left their fields, and
the crews of ships at anchor in San Francisco Bay deserted; soldiers
left their posts; herdsmen abandoned their charges, and everybody made
the quickest possible speed to the mines. Merchants of San Francisco
found their clerks leaving their counters, and in many instances,
after struggling against fate, finding themselves alone, without
assistance and unable to obtain any, they closed their shops, and
followed the example of their subordinates.
[Illustration: EMIGRANT TRAIN OF GOLD HUNTERS IN 1849.]
[Illustration: CHINESE GOLD MINING IN CALIFORNIA.]
[Sidenote: HOW A SHIP WAS DESERTED.]
It is related that one day a ship came into port, having taken a pilot
outside the entrance to the bay. The pilot, in the hearing of some
of the crew, told the captain of the wonderful discovery, and, as he
afterwards acknowledged, exaggerated the real state of affairs very
considerably. The ship came to anchor about sunset, and was to be
moved to her dock the next morning. When the captain went on deck to
wait the arrival of his pilot, he found nobody on board. The sailors
had heard the story of wonderful fortunes to be obtained in the mines,
and they had stolen a boat, and gone ashore. The first and second
mates had followed the example of the men, leaving the captain to his
solitary ship. The pilot came off, as agreed. He was a conservative
old grandfather, who did not believe in making money; otherwise there
would have been no pilot at all. He told the captain that it was
useless to try to get the ship to the dock, or do anything with her;
and the latter, after thinking the matter over, concluded it would be
best to leave the craft at anchor, put her in charge of a keeper, if
such a man could possibly be found, and make a journey to the mines
himself.
The first specimen of gold sent from California to New York was
forwarded to the editor of the New York Herald, the paper which was
first on the Atlantic coast to announce the discovery. The first
rumors were received with incredulity and ridicule, but very soon the
specimens of the precious metal coming in considerable quantities,
and the enthusiastic letters of officers of the army and men of good
repute, changed the current of feeling, and an almost unparalleled
excitement began. It spread through Europe and Asia, and the thirst
for gold was universal. In 1847 the population of California
altogether was not fifteen thousand; in 1849 the great rush began,
and it was estimated that, during the six months from the 1st of
July, 1849, to the 1st of January, 1850, ninety thousand persons
arrived in California from Mexico, Chili, Peru, the Sandwich Islands,
United States, and Europe. Of this ninety thousand, such were the
hardships they had to endure, and the privations to which they were
subjected, one fifth of the entire number perished by disease within
six months succeeding their arrival.
Before 1850 the population of California had risen to one hundred
thousand, and it has been increasing ever since. Its population ten
years later was estimated at about seven hundred thousand.
It is a curious fact that most of the rich placer diggings in
California were discovered within three or four years of the discovery
at Sutter’s mill-race. Some rich deposits have been found since that
time, but none of them of any great importance. The placer fields of
California to-day are pretty nearly worked out, and the most extensive
mining of that state is now prosecuted by machinery.
[Sidenote: WASHING WITH THE ROCKER.]
The earlier diggings were in the valleys or streams or in gulches,
opening into the valleys. The washings were first conducted with a
sheet iron pan, held in the hands of the miner, who could wash only
a few quarts of earth at a time. An improvement upon the pan was the
rocker, a box arranged so that it could be rocked like a cradle, with
no board at one end, with a few slats nailed across the bottom to
catch the gold, and having a piece of sheet iron on the top pierced
with holes a quarter of an inch in diameter. Earth was thrown upon
this iron, and water was poured on. The cradle was set upon a slight
incline, so that the stones rolled off at the end, while the water,
with the earth, sand, and gold, was carried through. The gold caught
upon the riffles, while the lighter substances were washed away.
Nuggets, or large pieces of gold that would not pass through the
holes, were sometimes thrown out with the stone and lost; but the
danger of such an occurrence was not very great, principally for the
reason that nuggets were not alarmingly abundant.
Two men were required to work a rocker. It was placed by the side of
a stream, and one man grasping its handle with one hand, flourished a
dipper in the other. His companion brought the auriferous earth to the
machine, and threw it upon the iron. Man number one would then throw a
quantity of water upon the earth, and agitate the machine as rapidly
as possible. The earth and water would become mixed, and pass through
the holes, and the stone would roll away from the end of the cradle.
It was necessary to keep the water running pretty briskly on the top
of the machine, and likewise to keep it well supplied with earth. By
the end of the day’s working at this business, the two men would be
delightfully wearied and ready to engage in almost any other honorable
and profitable pursuit, especially a profitable one.
[Illustration: GOLD WASHING IN THE CALIFORNIA MINES.]
[Sidenote: THE AUTHOR’S FIRST GOLD MINING.]
My first experience with a rocker was not of an agreeable character.
Accompanied by a friend, I went to a locality where it was reported
that a miner a few days before had obtained eight hundred dollars in
a single day. We were willing to begin at that rate, though we were
confident we should make a thousand a day before the end of the week.
We carried our tools to the spot, and having placed our rocker, began
work. I worked the machine, and Harry, as I will call my friend,
supplied it with earth. I placed the machine by the side of the stream
where I could easily dip out the water, and told Harry to begin.
For about an hour the machine did very lively work. Whenever I lagged,
Harry would remind me of the eight hundred dollar man. Then I would
give an extra flourish to the tin dipper, and pile on an extra quart
of water. I kept Harry busy bringing earth, and he kept me busy
washing it away. At the end of an hour or so we thought we would see
how things were getting on.
I raised the lid, examined the riffles, and not a particle of gold was
to be seen. The result was not encouraging, and I told Harry we had
better move a little way down the stream, and try it again. We did so.
This time Harry took the rocker, and I went into the shovelling
business. We made things lively for another hour. Harry was sure we
were right this time, as the earth was of a different color, and the
water, as it ran from the machine, was so yellow, that it certainly
must be tinged with gold. What we most feared was to lose the big
nuggets that might roll out from the rocker, and so we examined every
stone with all the care of a geological student; but somehow there
was not a nugget among the whole lot, and after a while we thought the
nugget business was played out.
When we had been in this new place an hour, we concluded to adjourn
for dinner. Harry wanted to look into the rocker, but I told him our
appetites might be better if we waited until after dinner for the
examination. Our dinner was a very plain one, consisting of a piece of
bread that might have been sold for a brick, and a slice of pork that
had probably come down from the Silurian period.
We were temperate in drinking; that is to say, we drank nothing but
water, and it may be proper to add, that we had nothing but water
to drink. During the meal we consoled and congratulated ourselves
upon being in the eight hundred dollar region. We had counted in the
morning upon making at least that sum, but now we were willing to
put up with four or five hundred. Our air castles were reasonably
gorgeous, though somehow the pains in our backs and legs, diminished
their brilliancy.
When our meal was finished, we raised the lid and began examining the
rocker. This time there was something in the riffles, and we exulted.
Close examination, however, showed that there was nothing there
except black sand, a few small pebbles, and three or four particles
of gold, each about as large as a pin’s head. We changed our base of
operations, and moved again to a new spot.
[Sidenote: DISAPPOINTMENT AND DISGUST.]
I do not think either of us was ever harder worked and more weary than
at the end of that day. We had pains enough all over our bodies to set
up a window market, and if we did not sleep well that night, it was
not for lack of weariness. We were a trifle disgusted to find that in
our verdancy we had been washing what the miners call “strippings,”
that is, the surface earth which lies above the pay dirt. We might as
well have washed the sweepings of Broadway, and hope to obtain gold.
We learned something by experience, as a great many others have done.
“Working the rocker,” we concluded, was too severe for lazy men, and
we speedily gave it up.
LVI.
GOLD MINING.
VARIOUS WAYS OF MINING GOLD.—SLUICING AND HYDRAULIC
MINING.—ACCIDENT TO A MINER.—A NARROW ESCAPE.—POWER OF WATER
IN HYDRAULIC MINING.—EFFECT ON RIVERS AND BAYS.—A SCENE OF
DESOLATION.—QUARTZ MINING.—QUICKSILVER AND ITS AMALGAM.—STOCK
OPERATIONS.—THE MARIPOSA MINES.—THE AUTHOR’S VISIT.—HAYWARD’S
MINE.—MANIPULATION OF MARIPOSA.—FUNNY STORY OF A SEA CAPTAIN.—HOW
HE SUPERINTENDED A MINE.—HIS MANAGEMENT OF A MILL.—ACCIDENTS ON
PURPOSE, AND HASTY FLIGHT.
Underground work in gold mining does not properly begin with the
surface washings. It is true the earth is torn out, and large
excavations are made; but they are all done by the light of day, and
where the open air circulates through them. As heretofore stated, the
primitive form of gold-digging is with the pan and the rocker. After
the rocker, there are several forms of sluicing, or washing away of
the earth. The ordinary construction of a sluice is a long box, with
a current of water running through it. The earth is thrown into the
sluice, washed towards its lower end, and carried away by the water.
The stones, of various sizes, are thrown out with a shovel or fork;
the gold and black sand fall by their weight, and are caught in the
riffles, or cleats, nailed across the bottom of the sluice. Earth
which will not pay for working with the pan or rocker can be made
profitable in this mode of operation, for the reason that one man or
two men can wash with the sluice many times the quantity of earth that
they could work with the primitive process.
Another form of sluice, known as “Long Tom,” is generally elevated
upon posts, a foot or two above the ground. At its upper end there is
a covering of sheet iron, very much like that which covers the rocker.
Another system of surface mining is that which is known as hydraulic
mining, and by means of it, earth that will not pay for washing in
any other way can be worked to advantage. By this process the miners
will tear down large banks and hills, and wash them entirely away.
The process was invented in 1852, by Edward Mattison, a native of
Connecticut, and introduced by him to great advantage. The water is
conducted through iron tubes, terminating in a flexible hose with a
nozzle like that of a fire engine. The “head” of the water must be
many feet higher than the place where it emerges from the hose, so as
to give an enormous pressure.
Equipped in this way the miner washes away the base of the bank. In
a little while the upper part falls, and as the gravelly ground is
composed of pebbles, and is naturally rather loosely consolidated,
large masses of the hill come down with a violent crash. The greatest
danger to life in this kind of mining is in the falls of the earth.
[Sidenote: INVENTION OF HYDRAULIC MINING.]
I was once at a place near Grass Valley, California, where they were
at work by means of hydraulic mining. A large cavity had been cut away
under the base of the hill with the streams of water. Every moment
the hill was expected to fall, but somehow it seemed to retain its
position. One of the men incautiously ventured near it, and just as he
had done so, the earth fell, and the man was partially buried beneath
it. He screamed loudly with pain. His companions rushed forward to
relieve him, when another mass of earth fell, partially burying two of
those who had come to his rescue. Other men went to their assistance,
and in a little while the three were extricated.
The first man had his leg broken, and one foot badly crushed. The
other two were severely bruised, and the foot of one of them was
permanently injured. It frequently happens that in this way men are
killed or injured partially through want of caution, and partially
owing to the dangers inseparably connected with hydraulic mining.
The force of water thrown in this way, with an enormous pressure, is
almost wonderful. The solid earth is cut and torn away, and sometimes
stones weighing several pounds are tossed into the air. The particles
of earth fly in all directions. The water rebounds sometimes, and in a
little while the men who manage the hose are thoroughly drenched. On
a level surface a stream of water directed upon the solid earth at an
angle of twelve or thirteen degrees, will cut a trench or furrow with
the rapidity of a plough. When the earth falls, the largest blocks
are broken up with the pick or with the streams of water, and the
_débris_ is thrown into a large channel, or flume, at the basis of the
hill where the work is going on. The flume has riffles at its bottom,
and many turnings, so that the gold may be saved. The stream of water
carries away the earth, and leaves the gold behind.
[Sidenote: DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM.]
There is no system of mining more destructive than this. Hills are cut
away, and sometimes, for many acres, the rock is laid bare. The whole
scene is one of desolation. The earth that is washed down fills the
channels of rivers, and is sometimes carried a long distance. Before
California was opened for gold mining, the water of her streams was
perfectly clear; but since the beginning of mining the streams have
lost their pellucid character, and the discolored water extends to the
Bay of San Francisco, and sometimes out to sea. The lower part of the
Sacramento River has been partially filled up, and there are parts of
the great bay which are now much shallower than of old.
As the surface diggings of California showed signs of exhaustion,
attention was given to mining in quartz rock. In the ledges of the
mountain-sides veins were discovered rich in gold, and pieces of the
rock taken from these veins gave promise of profitable working.
[Illustration: MINERS PROSPECTING.]
The man with pick, and pan, and rocker required but little capital
for the prosecution of his enterprise; but mining in the quartz rock
requires money to conduct it. Shafts must be sunk, and levels must
be driven; the ore must be raised to the surface, the rock must be
pulverized, and the gold extracted; and the machinery to accomplish
this is more or less elaborate, and always costly. The mines are
worked in the same way as other underground mines. The shafts, the
levels, the tunnels, are the same; but after the ore is raised, there
is a great expense attending its reduction. The rock must be broken,
and placed in pulverizing machines, and after it is crushed, whether
by rollers or stamps, the gold must be separated.
[Sidenote: CATCHING GOLD WITH QUICKSILVER.]
The water which carries away the gold is made to flow where it comes
in contact with quicksilver placed along a series of riffles. In many
instances blankets are spread, over which the water flows; and as the
gold comes in contact with the rough surface of these blankets, it is
caught and held.
Some of the gold miners in California invented a table of amalgamated
copper, on which quicksilver was spread, and the ore coming in contact
with it was stopped.
There are other inventions for the same purpose. In one the pulverized
ore is agitated in a bath of quicksilver, and in another an inclined
trough is divided into compartments filled with quicksilver, in which
a series of forks have an oscillating movement, to bring the sands
in contact with the fluid metal as they flow through the troughs.
Sometimes sheep-skins are used inside of blankets, so that the golden
fleece can be considered an affair of modern times, as well as of the
earliest days of ship-building.
In working the placer mines by the hydraulic process, the miner can
manage with profit the dirt which contains only a millionth part of
gold.
In the quartz mining, the proportion of gold ought naturally to be
greater, since it is necessary to execute all the work, which is
partly done at the placers by nature; that is, to dig, transport,
pulverize, enrich the ore, and finally amalgamate it.
In California the quartz ores of least hardness cannot be worked
profitably when they yield less than five dollars’ worth of gold to
the ton, or about one hundred thousandth proportion. Quicksilver is
mainly employed in the auriferous quartz ores. When the gold of the
placer is very fine, and invisible to the eye, or the work is done by
means of long channels, riffles filled with quicksilver are placed
in the bed of the stream, which detain all the gold in its passage,
no matter how small the particles. The scales of gold which come in
contact with this fluid are instantly caught up, and no process has
yet been invented which can supersede that of quicksilver.
[Sidenote: SUGAR CANDY OF A GOLD MINE.]