Not all quartz veins carry gold. There are many in which not a single speck of the precious metal can be found. Gold usually prefers the society of quartz to that of other substances, for minerals, like people, seem to have their likes and dislikes. Along the Mother Lode, however, gold is sometimes found in little bunches and "stringers" scattered through slate. In such cases the slate is mined and sent to the mill.
Some miners devote themselves to pocket mining. They trace the little seams in the rock, and where two seams cross they sometimes find what they call a "pocket." This is a mass of nearly pure gold of irregular shape, varying from a few dollars to thousands of dollars in value. This kind of mining is very uncertain in its results, for a man may make hundreds of dollars in one day, and then not find anything more for months.
The western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains was once covered with the camps of thousands of placer miners. Piles of boulders and gravel are scattered along the creeks where the eager workers took out millions of dollars' worth of gold-dust and nuggets. Now many of the streams and gulches are entirely deserted. But in other places, where the quartz veins outcrop, there are scores of stamp-mills at work, night and day, pounding out the gold. Some of the mines have been sunk more than a half mile into the earth, and the gold is still as abundant as ever.
In some portions of the mountains hydraulic mining is more common than quartz-mining. Years ago many of the rivers occupied different channels from their present ones. The gravels of these old channels in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and in other parts of the West where gold-bearing veins occur, are rich in gold. In these channels the gold is so deeply buried that it cannot usually be obtained by means of pick and shovel. In order that the overlying gravel may be removed as cheaply as possible, water is supplied by means of ditches, often many miles long. From some near-by hill the stream is conducted down to the mine in strong iron pipes. It thus acquires a great force, and when directed against a gravel bank rapidly washes it away. Torrents of water bearing boulders, gravel, and sand, together with the particles of gold, are turned into sluice boxes lined at the bottom with quick-silver. This metal catches the gold and forms an amalgam as it does in the quartz-mills.
[COPPER-MINING]
There is a city hidden away in a narrow cañon in the extreme southern portion of Arizona which is supported solely by a copper-mine. The cañon lies upon the southern slope of a range of mountains, and from its mouth one can look far off to the south across the desert plains and mountains of Mexico. The city has an elevation of more than a mile above the sea, and the cañon in which it is situated is so narrow and steep-walled that you can almost jump down from one street upon the roofs of the houses along the street below. Stairways, instead of walks, lead up the hillsides from the main street in the bottom of the cañon.
You might well wonder at the position of the city, and think that out of all the waste land in this region a better place might have been selected for its location. But cities grow where people gather, and people do not come to live in the desert unless there is important work to be done there.
A party of prospectors who were searching carefully over the mountains found several mineral veins with green copper stains crossing this cañon and outcropping in the adjacent hills. Claims were staked out and recorded at the nearest land office. Then shafts and tunnels were opened, and the miners became confident from the rich character of the ore that an important copper-mine might be developed.
Supplies were brought across the desert with teams, and cabins were built in the lonely cañon. Then an enterprising man started a store. As the mine was opened farther, its importance was better understood. There was a call for more miners and the town grew larger. The houses clustered about the mine, the centre of all the activities. At last a railroad was built, and the town became a city, with narrow, winding streets occupying the winding cañon, while tier upon tier of houses crept up the sides of the cañon, which formerly had been covered only by growths of cactus and other plants of the desert.
If the mine should close, there would be no inducement to keep people in the locality, and the city would become merely a group of deserted buildings. Water is so scarce that only a small amount is allowed to each family, and it is delivered in barrels instead of by pipes. Provisions of all kinds are very expensive, for they have to be brought a long distance.