Three varieties of Gold, with their distinctions, and the reasons
given why they are found in separate localities.—Philosophy of running
water.
FIRST VARIETY.
The first variety of Gold may be considerd as that which is in dry
ravines, or between hills, where there is no running water, except in
the time of showers, or the melting of snows.—This variety is calld dry
ravine or angular gold, from the fact that whatever be its form, whether
in plates or heavy solid masses, or in thin scales,—the edges are all
sharp and angular, as nature formd it, having never been rounded off by
attrition among moving pebbles or sand, in violent streams of water. The
agent of deposit seems to have been mostly that of gravitation during
the decomposition of the rocks of the hills containing gold, aided
probably by the moistening influences of rains upon the alluvium of the
hills, and the general movement of alluvium from higher to lower levels.
When once deposited in these situations, it never after receives a
secondary removal, except by the hand of the miner.
Dry ravine deposits vary in their advantages for obtaining gold,
according to the slope of the hills, through which the ravine passes. At
the heads of ravines, where the country is but an undulating one, of
moderate hills, and wide-spread valleys, the deposits are generally so
disseminated, that but little advantages are gaind, by searching for
gold in such situations.
Downward, towards the mouths of ravines, where the hills are in close
contiguity, gold is deposited in a line along the center of ravines,
varying somewhat in richness, according to the richness of the adjoining
hills that deposited it, or the inclination, or basin-shapd appearance
of the ravine along its course to its mouth. If ravines are of rapid
descent from their sources to their outlets, they mostly contribute
their gold to the streams into which they empty themselves.
SECOND VARIETY
The second variety of gold is that which is creek-washd,—the corners and
edges of which are rounded off by attrition among moving pebbles and
sand of the tertiary deposits of creeks, during the time of freshets.
This gold, whether found in plates, or rounded masses, is most of it too
heavy to float in running water, being carrid onward to its place of
rest, by the united agency of gravitation, moving water, and the
tertiary sediment.
The creeks and large rivers receive their gold from the mouths of
ravines and hills contiguous to the creeks and rivers.
Gold is found in dry ravines, creeks, and in basins of rivers, weighing
several ounces.
In some places along the creeks, the miner finds angular gold deposited
in the banks of the streams at the foot of a hill, where it had not
slidden down sufficiently far to reach the power of the waters of the
stream.
Lost, or erratic gold is sometimes found in the creeks among the
creek-washd sand and gravel of the stream, being subject to occasional
removals, by subsequent freshets. Such gold seems to be on its way to
its final deposit or resting place in situations where subsequent
freshets can take no effect upon it for further removal.
Some of this gold is in pieces of several dollars value, but most of it
is in fine grains, with a mixture of floating gold.
The fine gold is found in situations above the rock, in deposits of
loose sand, where every violent freshet gives it another removal, till
it is ultimately carrid downward and deposited in the bars of the large
rivers.
THIRD VARIETY.
The third variety of gold is that which may be denominated bar, scale,
or floating gold. This gold is found in the tertiary deposits, commonly
calld bars of the large streams flowing down from the Neveda range of
mountains. Hence the name of bar gold.
Its form is that of very thin scales, which causes it to float in waters
that are highly agitated. Hence also, the names of scale, and floating
gold.
This gold is seldom found in pieces worth more than a dollar, and is
rounded off by attrition, the same as the creek-washd gold.
The several varieties here describd, were the same, only differing in
form, in the original rock—but the several agents of deposit, have
separated them into separate classes, according to the several
capacities of gold to receive the power of the several depositing
agents. Hence, the finest floating gold is found lowest down the
principal rivers, where it is deposited. Creek-washd gold, being heavy,
is never movd very far down the stream, from where it was first
deposited into it—and dry ravine gold, having still a little different
agent from the others, has never been movd but a very short distance.
* * * * * * * *
If no more could be said of water, than of other matter of the earth,
that it seeks rest by gravitation, in common with the harder portions of
matter, but little of its influences could ever be known, to what is now
apparent, when viewd in all its bearings. But the fluidity of water,
gives it advantages over other matter, in possessing movements, which
the latter can never receive—such as lateral motion, capillary
attraction, great expansion by heat, aerial passages from rare to dense
mediums, thereby giving a new preparation to descend in the form of rain
or snow, to restore again its former equilibrium.
Running water, in the light here intended to be explaind, is that which
flows down rivers and creeks, from higher to lower levels. Water, like
all other substances, will fall perpendicularly from higher to lower
levels, if there be no interposing obstacle. But as the beds of streams
descend like an inclind plane, from their sources to their mouths, water
is forcd over them by the power of gravitation, till it arrives at a
level with other surrounding water, and is thereby prevented from
descending further. Now in the movement of water, along its downward
passage, many considerations arise.
First, if water were made to pass downward thro’ a straight duct or
channel, whose lateral and vertical sides were perfectly smooth, so that
no friction could exist between the water and the trough or duct that
containd it, there would be no eddy formd along its sides, for the water
would all of it have a straight forward, and downward movement.
But as the bottom and edges of streams are rough and uneven, very
frequent obstructions to water occur. Places so obstructed, are the
eddies or partial eddies, so commonly observable in streams of running
water.
If an observer stands on the bank of a creek, during a time of high
water, where there is much irregularity and unevenness of its bottom, he
will see in some places, that the water is nearly motionless—in others,
a whirling round of the water,—in others, a retrograde or up stream
motion. Under all the circumstances of these several appearances of the
water, those places that are the most quiet, approach nearest to the
most perfect eddies.
Wherever a bend in a creek occurs, the water, by an opposing bank, is
forcd to take a new direction, passing downward, along on its inclind,
though uneven bottom. The opposing bank stops a portion of the flowing
waters, and causes them to turn back, along the shore of the creek,
producing, thereby,—a section of inactive waters, between those of the
downward and those of the upward course.
Again, if a lateral stream of water flows into a creek, similar or
nearly so in magnitude, the two partially opposing currents form an eddy
in the upper angle of the two, and an eddy of less magnitude, is also
formd in the angle of the two, on the lower side of the lateral stream.
When water passes over a reef of rock, that traverses entirely across
the stream, like a mill dam, the central waters or current cannot well
form an eddy immediately below the reef, on account of its impetuous
movement—though laterally, towards the banks, partial quietness of the
water may exist.
If an obstacle, as a rock or other body, protrude in the current of a
creek, so high that water is forcd around it, instead of running over
it, an eddy is formd immediately below it, in magnitude according to the
size of the obstacle.
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