River-mining is now never undertaken by an individual, but always by large associations, generally called "fluming companies," sometimes composed of miners exclusively, sometimes of miners and all the principal business-men living near the place where the work is to be done. The lawyers, doctors and office-holders, pay their assessments in cash; the merchants furnish provisions, the lumbermen supply lumber, and the miners make the dam, and help the carpenters build the flume. _Beach-Mining._--Beach-mining is the business of washing the sands of the ocean-beach. Between Point Mendocino, in California, and the mouth of the Umpqua River, in Oregon, the beach-sand contains gold, and in some places it is very rich. The beach is narrow, and lies at the foot of a bluff bank of auriferous sand. In times of storm, the waves wash against this bank, undermine it, sweep away the pieces which tumble down, leaving the gold on the beach. The gold is in very fine particles, and it moves with the heavier sand, which alters its position frequently under the influence of the waves and surf. One day, the beach will have six feet depth of sand; the next, there will be nothing save bare rocks. The sand differs greatly in richness at various times: one day, it will be full of golden specks; a few days later, at the same place it will be barren. The sand in the mean time has been moved by the waves, and replaced by other sand. It is a very difficult matter to know where the sand is rich and where it is not. The companies employed in mining on the beach number about ten men; and there is a foreman who rides out early every morning, following the beach about two miles to the northward and two miles to the southward of the camp, for the purpose of finding where the sand is the best. So changeable is the sand, that a new examination is made every day; and only three or four men are supposed to be good judges of the quality of sand, from its appearance.