hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

MINING INTERESTS. 656
returns were more certain and easily obtained than
the gold and silver of the rocks. Another was the
gradual disappearance of the prospector of the earlier
period, who lived in the mountains, and spent his life
in hunting for gold and silver. To the too often unrewarded
toils of these men we owe most of our present
knowledge of the minerals of California. Capital
does not go in search of mines. It waits for a discovery,
and takes it at the lowest price at which it
can afterward be obtained. Formerly there were
some dishonorable transactions in mining-claim sales,
where foreign capital was grievously misled. But all
this business was later placed upon a safer footing.
The output was not as great, but neither was the cost of
living the same; and as money is only an exchange
for what we require, one dollar is as good as ten, if it
buys the same amount of life's comforts and pleasures.
11
Downieville a $1,000 nugget was found in 1870, and in the same ground the
following year another weighing 175 ounces. Grass Valley Union, Feb. 25,
1871. Some Chinamen finding a 40-pound nugget on the middle fork of
Feather river, to avoid excitement, chiselled it up into small pieces and sold
it at different times mixed with other dust. A nugget weighing over a ton
was found in Plumas co. It yielded ore worth $3,000. National Gazette,
Nov. 16, 1872. A claim near Placerville yielded several nuggets worth from
$1,000 to $2,000. A Chinaman found a piece of pure gold worth $170, which
he sold to C. W. Brewster of Placerville, and soon after unearthed another
nugget worth $700 in the Bame locality. El Dorado Co. Repufdican, Feb. 29,
1872. In March 1872 Reese and Depew found at Randolph Flat a stratum of
decomposed quartz resembling red and white Castile soap in consistency.
From a pit 8 feet long and 3 feet wide they took out $5,000 with a pick,
shovel, and pan. From the ground in the vicinity a piece was picked up
worth $800. Nevada Transcript, March 20, 1872. A Frenchman at Mormon
Bar found in the earth of the road a nugget weighing 68 ounces. Colu*a Sun,
March 2, 1871. A chunk of gold weighing 240 pounds and worth $50,000
was found in the claim of a Chinese company at Moore's Flat. Clovcrdale
Bee, Feb. 8, 1873; Plumas Gazette, Feb. 1, 1873. A 5-pound gold nugget was
taken out of Boulder creek, a tributary of the Sac. above Shasta, in 1874.
Wilmington Enterprise, Oct 22, 1874. Big nuggets are still being found in
various quarters.
w References consulted for mining: TurriWs Col Notes, 180-1; Stetoart's
Min. Res, 14; Mer. Uaz. and Prices Current, Jan. 4, 1860; Raymond Min. Res
Ann. Rept, for several years—1869-75—in U. S. H. Ex. Doc.; Wheeler's Survey*,
1876, 47-69; Hopkins* Common Sense, 7-16; CaL Agrk. Soc Trans., I860,
80-8; CaL Land Off. Rept, 1869, 191-2, 359-60; Miner i. 6-8, 18-23, 28-45,
52, 58-60; Coast Review, 1872-9; CaL Ann. Min. Review, 1878, 139-43; Burchard
Min. Produc., 1881, 11; 1882, 15; 1883,705; U. S. II. Ex. Die, vol.9,
ft 5, p. 505-6, 47 cong., 1 sess., Com. Htrald and Market Review, July 10,
867; McCkUan, Golden State, 312; Colemans Ann. Circ. and Market Review,