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Show jMi, " ' i l ;v ; , 'I , t . JJJL ' ' tt . - ,t i u At 1 St i - i K ! 4 A fri K. ' ' - 5.-, I y - ' ' . ' .rt , - t ! V. A ' , ' , - f.f 11 v, , ' 4 . u t ' - t Qv JN THE quiet succeeding the uproar until recently emanating from the camps of Nevada, there becomes audible a modest plea for recognition recogni-tion from a comparatively unknown un-known region of. northern California. Cali-fornia. One of the most promising of these districts is that comprising the western west-ern fourth of Siskiyou county, the adjacent ad-jacent portions of Humboldt and Del Norte and the northern part of Trinity, Trin-ity, a compact area approximately 2,500 square miles. The Klamath, the Scott, the Salmon the north and south forks of the last named and the New rivers traverse this territory, and with their numerous tributaries constitute its drainage system. To the professional, as to the casual mining operator, it will appear as a surprising fact that approximately half of this great area, or 1,200 square miles is virgin ground to the miner unprospected and unappropriated public pub-lic land. That this unknown area is rich in mineral is beyond question, since those regions, north, south, east and west, so far explored, are uniformly uniform-ly and heavily mineralized. Prospecting here has so far been confined to those narrow strips of country constituting the principal drainage lines the river heretofore named and immediately adjacent thereto. Geographically, this district divides itself into three sections the -"Klamath," and the "Salmon," the "New river." Mineraloglcally there are but two sections, the "Klamath" and the "Salmon," the "New river" lying immediately im-mediately south of and its formation being Identical with that of the "Salmon." "Sal-mon." In the Klamath, the base ores iron, copper and cinnabar predominate, in the "Salmon" occur free milling gold ores almost exclusively, with no base; and to the writer's knowledge but one complex ore has been encountered, a high-grade $700 telluride accompanying accompany-ing very rich "specimen" gold. The "Salmon," properly so-called, extends ex-tends from the Salmon mountains' summit to the east approximately thirty miles west into Humboldt county, coun-ty, and from just north of the North fork of the Salmon river south 20 miles to the Trinity mountains' summit,, where the "New river" section begins. This great, heavily mineralized area, including "New river," has mostly been merely scratched over, only a very small portion has been fairly prospected. In no case has anything approaching intelligent and systematic systemat-ic underground exploration been carried car-ried out. The prevailing rocks are those of California's mother lode, and of Nevada Ne-vada county metaphoric and auriferous aurifer-ous slates (including mariposite) granite, gran-ite, porphyry and diorite. The quartz, with few exceptions constituting the vein matter, is identical in character, structure and contained matter with that of the last regions named, where deep workings have demonstrated the permanency of such veins in these enclosing rocks, and also the important impor-tant fact that the ore's free milling character persists to great depth. The ores of the "Salmon," as has been s;i!d. are almost wholly free milling. , usually carrying one to three per I cent, of high grade concentrates In the farm of iron pyrites, galena and zinc blende. I Many-veins of this section are blind, or nearly so, cropping only at intervals inter-vals and then to no great extent, which accounts, somewhat, for the retarded re-tarded development. In the nature of things this condition is to be expected. The surface is exceedingly rugged, heavily timbered and brushy. The precipitous slopes usually carry a heavy over-burden of talus and soil. All this has its ultimate advantages, j as It implies unlimited timber supply, water under high heads and the possibility possi-bility of mining by tunnel instead of by shaft. The creeks and rivers of the Salmon have a recorded gold production of over $25,000,000. (Siskiyou's record approximates $150,000,000.) Very nearly all this has been produced without with-out capital other than the labor of the miners engaged and the very limited financial means at their command. In other words, this section has developed devel-oped it by its own resources. Hydraulic Hydrau-lic and placer mining is still usually carried on by the crude methods of fifty years ago, or at least with inadequate in-adequate equipment. On the main streams there is yet available considerable consid-erable ground suitable for the dredger or elevator and for hydraulicking. Adjoining the "Salmon" on the north, extending to within a few miles of the Klamath river, approximately 30 miles, and from the Marble mountains' moun-tains' summit on the east to beyond the Humboldt county line on the west for close to 25 miles, is a region, for all practical purposes a terra incognita. incog-nita. Surrounded on all sides by ground known to be heavily mineralized, mineral-ized, this 700 square miles may be fairly assumed to be more or less mineralized. min-eralized. The occasional trapper or Indian reports quartz float to be plentiful plen-tiful and the numerous streams to contain gold. This region, however, is wholly unprospected; there is not a single mineral location of record in it. It would seem worthy of exploration explo-ration and prospecting. Adjoining this unknown region to the north is the "Klamath" section, extending from a few miles south of the Klamath river (which drains it) north IS miles to or beyond the Oregon Ore-gon line, and from the vicinity of Gottsville on the east 65 miles to beyond be-yond the Del Norte county line on the west. The Siskiyou range traverses it from east to w-est, its summit, whose trend is irregular, lying six to twelve miles north of the Klamath river. The "Klamath's" prevailing rocks are the crystalline slates and schists, overlying diorite and gabbro. Lime rock, granite and serpentine are present pres-ent to a less extent. Within the territory described- land suitable for cultivation is practically unknown, except along the Klamath river where a number of fine, large ranches are located, but just over the Salmon mountains lies Scott valley, a very fertile and productive section whence subsistence supplies are drawn. The road into the "Salmon" is a good mountain highway and freight charges are reasonable. H. E. SINCLAIR. |