tion, which proved a public calamity. One of Butte's most noted hydraulic mines was the Spring Valley mine, at the north end of Table Mountain, which used twenty-two hundred inches of water, taken from the west branch of Feather River, more than forty miles from the mine. This mine, under the manipulation of its giant appliances and apparatus, yielded more than $10,000,000.

Butte County embraces 1,720 square miles. One-third of this is level plain and valley land, all gold-bearing, lying between the Feather and the Sacramento rivers.

Oroville is situated on the Feather river, three miles below the junction of all its branches, where it ceases to be

cold water followed, condensing the steam. The atmospheric pressure forced the tube down into the gravel, but in this instance the process of digging and lifting was not sufficiently perfected, as in the later dredging; and this, with the fact that much of the gold had been extracted from the immediate bed of the river, by wing damming in earlier days, made this first dredging boat a financial failure.

Beginning about 1882, some six other river dredgers were consecutively constructed to experiment in river mining. They were all failures as dividend-paying investments, although a partial success mechanically. But they were not strong enough to go as deep as neces

a rushing torrent and calms into a deep, wide stream.

It has always been a mining center. A rich stratum of "pay gravel" is known to underlie the entire site of the town, and for miles around it.

From time to time, through all the years since its location, attempts have been made to work the river near it, and to mine these vast tracts of gravel.

Twenty odd years ago a tube boat was constructed to try the dredging process. It was worked something on the principle of a pneumatic tube. The tube had 2 trap door near the bottom. It was lowered by machinery to the bed of ine river; then steam under a given pressure was forced into it. Then jets of

sary into the coarse gravel. A novel scheme to mine the bed of Feather river, at a more remote point, was the venture known as the Big Bend tunnel. A tunnel was run through a mountain, the water of the river turned through, and thirteen and one-half miles of the river bed laid bare. Work was begun in the fall of 1882, and completed in 1886. Twenty miles of road was constructed, a saw mill built, and other buildings put up. The tunnel was sixteen feet wide, nine. feet high, and 11,970 feet long. A village of two hundred inhabitants sprang up, and the pay roll averaged sixty-five men. Yet comparatively it was a financial failure, as much gold had been taken from the same portion of the river in earlier

mining days.

In May, 1886, a new plan was promoted by a man named Leonard, a civil engineer, who built the second bridge over the Sacramento river. His plan was to sink a shaft and drive down a pneumatic tube. On top of the ground was a mighty air compressor, with pipes leading to the working shaft. By these, any degree of air pressure could be obtained and could be regulated by the workman in charge.

This apparatus was given a trial on the bank of Feather River, near Montgomery street, Oroville. Each section of the tube weighed 5,000 pounds, and in June, 1886, three sections were down, and the workingmen felt no inconvenence, when the engineer sent in ten pounds of air to the square inch. The water was forced back for some time successfully. They went down many feet below the river level, drifting along on the bedrock for several hundred feet, and striking the richest kind of virgin gravel, some of it paying $7.00 to the single pan. Up to December, 1886, the company had expended some $30,000, with a bright outlook for success. But the air pressure could not be kept strong enough, and any reduction of the air pressure might be fatal to those employed. The machinery began to get out

the Feather River.

of repair, air leaks were caused by the inward flow of water, the drifts filled with water and gravel, and it was at last abandoned, as the risk to human life was too great to be continued at any price.

After this another plan to mine the main bed of the Feather, near Oroville, was proposed and carried out by Hammond Hall, formerly State Engineer; at. least the work was done under his general direction.

A solid wall of masonry nearly a mile in length was built along the right bank of the river, and the water turned by a head dam and flume through this canal. Every foot of the river bed thus exposed had been previously mined by simpler methods, and its original richness may be judged by the fact that from a pan of sand and deposit scooped up years before from the side of a bowlder where the river bed had been drained by a dam and flume, was taken $2,250 in grains of gold about the size of a cucumber seed. The bold skill and the brave outlay of capital used in the building of the wall did not meet with the financial reward the enterprise merited. But the only lack of judgment and cause of failure was in the choice of location. M'any a stream so mined in California would to-day yield a fabulous treasure

of literal sands of gold.

Some time in 1898 the Couch Dredger, a Risdon machine, was set up on the "Grant," or right, side of the river, five miles below Oroville. It has been a success from start to finish, and the end is not yet.

There are now fourteen dredgers in full and successful operation, both on the river and inland, as the modern dredger can be worked anywhere that water is available. These are all within sight of Oroville, and there are many more in course of construction.

At first some were worked by steam, but now all are operated by electricity, furnished by the Butte Creek and Bay Counties Electric plants.

The Continental, which may not inaptly be called a dredger of the "first magnitude," lies in its own lagoon at the end of Montgomery street, Oroville, surrounded by the immense beds of gravel, from which, with ponderous power it has for months garnered a golden revenue. It has been overhauled and remodeled in preparation for a more extended harvest. From Mr. D. P. Cameron, the genial and intelligent gentleman in charge, we have learned the following facts as to mechanical construction and mode of working the Continental.

The gravel is lifted by immense buck-ets and the bucket ladder, an endless and continuous bucket system, driven by the bucket line motor, of one hundred horse power and variable speed. The gearing and sprocket chain lifts the buckets to the top tumbler. From this they empty into a hopper. The largest bowlders are carried off by a side chute. Finer gravel passes through the hopper and shaking screens where it is thoroughly washed and sifted. The sand and gold go through the perforations to the mercury system of gold saving. The coarser material passes on down the screens, and

is discharged into a Robbins conveyor, from which it is stacked thirty-five feet above water line, and seventy feet away from the dredger. From the mercury cup riffles, and the distributor, gold and fine sand wash on to the side tables. About ninety per cent of the gold is caught by the mercury cups directly under the shaking screens, and often less than one per cent is caught on the tables.

The general mechanism of the different dredgers is very similar, the working principle about the same. The custom of some of the companies is to have weekly "clean-ups," of others three times monthly. The writer would like to give you the exact result, and could it be done, a worse epidemic of "gold fever" would ensue than prevailed in '49.

In a little time, and upon a thousand waterways, these dredgers will appear, a new fleet, that will not fail to find the "golden fleece," not only upon the natural waterways, but wherever water can be conveyed to deposits of auriferous earth and virgin gravel. These dredgers are the combined perfection of all the primitive ideas and methods and the realization of the dreams of the early miners.

The Feather River Exploration Company divide this month a semi-annual dividend of $50,000, and this is but one item of the golden returns from recent dredging.

For a period the State will know a fresh and brilliant prosperity. Electric lights will shine upon our streams, and at last the "brook and the star" shall be wedded. The pulse of giant machinery shall beat and throb, like a restless heart, through a new era of activity. At last the mission of the dredger shall be accomplished. And after the lights have faded one by one from the bosom of the waters, and left them once more to darkness and silence-what then?

cent scenes presented en route, the most picturesque country probably in the entire State. After crossing the summit over a three per cent grade, a prominent San Francisco attorney (on his way to his 6,000 acre ranch north of Willits) remarked, "Do you see that pile of iron on the siding? I tell you that sixty-five pound iron rails means something more than a railroad ending in the redwoods.

"I have been clear up to Eureka, 120 miles north of this point, and on the entire route there is no grade so steep as the one we have just crossed. Now that the worst grade on the entire route to the Oregon border has been successfully overcome, I hope and trust that the managers of this railroad will extend it to a connection with some overland system, for it will certainly pay."

Willets is a charmingly situated town, twenty-five and a quarter miles north of Ukiah. It is at present, and probably will be for some time to come, the terminus of the California Northwestern railway. It is an old-settled community, the first inhabitants having come here soon after the discovery of gold in California. Many old-established farms, or mixed farms and orchards, were observed by the writer, and it was surprising to him at the time why a fertile section of country, well watered and adjacent to an immense redwood forest, has developed so little during the past few years. Upon investigation (and in

accordance with the remark of the San Francisco gentleman above quoted), the reason found for its sparse markets. The recent extension of the California Northwestern railway across the summit of the mountains situated between Ukiah and Willits will, however, inaugurate

a new era for this charming and fertile section of country. The well-earned reputation of the railway company for liberality in assisting communities on its lines of railroad to develop their resources, and particularly to reach markets with their products, is a gratifying consideration at the present time. This is especially important in view of the fact that almost the entire town of Willits was destroyed by fire on June 11th of last year. With commendable enterprise, however, the citizens have rebuilt the town, and much more substantially than it was before the fire.

As stated under the head of county resources the products of the many valleys tributary to Willits are diversified in common with those of the entire county, but the fertile soil and sheltered situation of this section of the county warrants the assertion that with the advent of a thoroughly equipped and liberally disposed railroad a great deveropment of its agricultural and horticultural resources will take place in the near future. Another important advantage possessed by this town is its immediate proximity to the heart of the great redwood forest that extends from a point three miles north of Willits to the ocean, thirty miles west, south forty miles and northwest 120 miles. As the timber is cut down there will naturally be a demand for the land, which is, by the way, wonderfully fertile and of great depth. The settlement of the timber-denuded land will greatly enhance the business and importance of Willits as a distributing point.

The Hotel Willits now being erected by local capitalists is a three story, modern structure in the mission style that will cost $40,000. This shows the faith of its citizens in the future of the town. The General Development company is erecting a substantial two-story brick store and office building that will cost $20,000. Many other stores and houses are in progress of erection. The largest passenger and freight depot on this line has recently been completed. During the past year the whole town was practically rebuilt and it presents a bustling,

enterprising appearance, a reflex of its inhabitants. The Northwestern Redwood company carries a regular stock in its yards at Willits of 12,000,000 feet of lumber.

The northwestern addition to the town of Willits has substantial improvements including macadamized streets and sidewalks. The streets will be thoroughly sewered in the near future. Water will also be piped to all the lots from a never failing stream of pure mountain water. Bonds have been voted for $8,000 for the erection of a handsome school building which will be used in addition to the present one. Willits has a public square and a flagpole in its center 100 feet in height. The square will be immediately improved with trees and shrubbery. It has three church organizations and two church buildings, one newspaper, the Little Lake Herald. Every line of business and profession is well represented. The popu lation is about 1000, but it is safe to predict that with the advent of the railroad it will have double that number within one year from now.

The Northwestern Redwood company's mill is situated three miles north of Willits on a spur of the California Northwestern Railroad company's line.

The present capacity of the mill is 100,000 feet per twenty-four hours. This will soon be increased by an additional mill of 100,000 feet capacity in twentyfour hours, making a total of 200,000 feet capacity per day. The shingle mills oid and new, will have a capacity of 200,000 in twenty-four hours. An outside crew of 250 men is employed in making split material, hives, pickets, posts, shakes, cordwood, etc.

Three hundred and fifty men are reg ularly employed at the mill and outside. The company has thirty family houses of five rooms each for the accommodation of married men and the unmarried men (mill and woods crews) are boarded by the company in very comfortable quarters. The most modern appliances have been adopted for extinguishing fires, and altogether it is a very interesting mill and camp for anyone on a sightseeing tour to visit.