At some remote period in the history of the globe, the same internal convulsions that heaved up the Sierra Nevada, have also upheaved the auriferous hills, which at first presented a naked surface to the atmospheric changes, by the influences of which, the quartz constantly breaking up, left free the precious metal on its surface. In the progress of time, the same atmospheric influences caused to accumulate on these hills soil which grew deeper with every decay of vegetation till it grew strong enough to support the majestic oak. The freed particles of gold thus became covered by the soil and mixed up with it, and the process of the separation of the metal from the stone was arrested. How gold was injected into the veins of quartz is more than we can say, but the fact that it was so in a liquid state, is beyond question, as we see it adapt itself to the sides of the stone in all imaginable forms, from the finest filament to the largest lump ever found, with a most varied indented surface, filling up, completely, the crack of the stone, always tending to a rounded tear-like appearance, as is the case with all melting substances. When freed, external friction of course modifies its appearance more or less; hence we find it in rivers particularly, in fine flakes, but when it is in larger bulk, it puts on plate-like appearance as if it were hammered out by the hands of an artisan--as really it is by the frequently enormous weight of stones under which it is deposited. Water, that universal carrier, washing the sides of the hills, brought the gold from their surface into the ravines and rivers, to which its own weight facilitated the process. According to the strength of the current of water, the weight of the particles of gold, and the obstacles in the way, it is deposited in one or another spot, the lighter particles of course floating away the farthest from their original bed. As this process of gold deposition has taken place in some remote period of the earth’s existence, hence we find all these deposites, generally speaking, covered with greater or smaller depth of soil, sand, gravel and stones. Strictly speaking, gold does not belong to the rivers--it was washed into them from the hills; hence it is useless to look for gold at the head of these streams, when the neighboring hills are not of the auriferous nature; and we find this fact corroborated by our personal examination of the heads of the streams of the gold region. The same rule holds good, for the same reasons, in regard to the lower portion of a gold carrying stream, except that it is limited by the fact that light particles of gold may be deposited a considerable distance below their original source.