“Rim rock” is the boundary line of the banks of the old channel, and, like the bottom, is well worn and corrugated by the running water into cavities and “pot holes,” where the force of the stream eddied.  The width of these channels varies from 60 to 400 feet, and the cement near the rim and bottom is always richer than elsewhere.  The wider and deeper channels generally course from N. to N.W.  The richest and most explored belt of gold-bearing alluvium in California lies between the South and Middle Yuba Rivers, commencing near Eureka, in Nevada county, and extends downwards to Smartsville and Timbuctoo, in Yuba county, a distance of 40 miles; and from among snowy mountains the country falls gradually from where the ravines or canons are cut by the actual rivers, which are 2,000 feet beneath the auriferous gravel and region near Smartsville, and 2,000 feet above the Yuba River, where snow is unknown, and near its terminus the ancient river bed courses more westerly than it does above it, and crosses Yuba below Timbuctoo, where the auriferous depositions disappear.  The whole distance of 40 miles has been ransacked by the earlier adventurers, and around the village of Timbuctoo was a center famed for its wonderful yield of gold, obtained chiefly in the ravines, in holes, and depressions in the bed rock.  These hollows detained the concentrations of the denudated alluvium from the altitudes, and were generally closely beneath the surface, and by such guidance and means of discovery the miners traced the gold up the ravines to their sources in the lofty mounds and deposits, or hills of cemented conglomerate, near Eureka in Nevada county; and by constructing canals from a higher level began the new system of “hydraulic mining” and washing, and gradually extended their operations over the area of the metallic zone mentioned, of 40 miles long by 20 wide, using the Yuba River below Timbuctoo to receive and discharge the tailings, or refuse from their operations.  The result in gold was considerable, but the system is from its violent nature difficult to control, by presuming to handle and remove such huge depositions in order to collect the richest material.  The idea was bold, being an anticipation of Nature’s operations; but the equitable disposal of the “tailings” in a cultivated country is impossible, as the silt runs down the rivers, creating banks and bars in their channels, obstructing navigation and agricultural arrangements.

General Description of Hydraulic Mining.

The first work to be accomplished, after calculating that the amount or value of the material to be operated upon is sufficient to guarantee the cost of the undertaking in general, is the construction of a canal or canals, to convey the requisite volume of water from the fountain-head, and of sufficient elevation to command the ground to be worked upon, having also in view the levels of the necessary tunnels and shafts as outlets for the discharge of the gravel through them, these being engineering operations requiring much skill and labor to avoid useless after-cost.