From the mill Mr.
Marshall guided me up the mountain on the opposite or north bank of the
south fork, where in the bed of small streams or ravines, now dry, a
great deal of coarse gold has been found. I there saw several parties
at work, all of whom were doing very well; a great many specimens were
shown me, some as heavy as four or five ounces in weight; and I send
three pieces, labelled No. 5, presented by a Mr. Spence. You will
perceive that some of the specimens accompanying this hold mechanically
pieces of quartz--that the surface is rough, and evidently moulded in
the crevice of a rock. This gold cannot have been carried far by water,
but must have remained near where it was first deposited from the rock
that once bound it. I inquired of many if they had encountered the
metal in its matrix, but in every instance they said they had not; but
that the gold was invariably mixed with wash-gravel, or lodged in the
crevices of other rocks. All bore testimony that they had found gold in
greater or less quantities in the numerous small gullies or ravines
that occur in that mountainous region.
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