_Distribution of Gold in Quartz._--The rich quartz-veins of California extend from Kern River to the Siskiyou, are found on hills, in _canons_ and in vales. They are at least two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and not more than ten thousand feet above it. Their course is generally from north-north-west to south-south-east, and they dip steeply to the eastward, sometimes being nearly perpendicular. They differ in thickness from a line to sixty feet. Quartz veins are very numerous in most of the mining districts, so the task is not to find the veins, but rather to find those which are gold-bearing. It is supposed that nearly all large veins come to the surface of the bed-rock or "country;" but many of them are covered with soil and thus are hidden. Hidden veins are called "blind;" those plainly visible on the surface are called "croppings veins," because their position is shown by the out-croppings. Experience has not ascertained whether large or small veins are more likely to contain gold. It is found in both. The porous quartz, or that containing many cavities, is more frequently found auriferous and richly auriferous, than the very compact quartz. The best gold-bearing veins are usually yellowish or brownish in tinge, near the surface at least; but very rich specimens are found in white and bluish-white rock. Most quartz veins in California contain a little gold; the metal seems to have been distributed most lavishly, but unfortunately in nine-tenths of the veins, the proportion of metal is too small to pay. Most of the large veins are supposed to run for miles upon miles, though they can rarely be traced clearly on the surface for more than a furlong. The auriferous veins vary much in richness. No vein is wrought for more than a few hundred feet. Beyond that, it is either too poor to pay, or the vein is hidden. Some persons have supposed that there is one great gold-bearing quartz vein running along the side of the Sierra Nevada, from Mariposa to Plumas county, and that many of the richest claims are really in this one vein; but this a supposition which cannot be proved now. Sometimes a vein seems to spread out and divide into a number of smaller veins, all of which afterward unite again. These points of junction, and the narrower places in the vein, are usually richer than other parts of it. When two veins cross each other, one may be auriferous on one side of the intersection and not on the other; but in this case the other vein will be auriferous on both sides. It is as though they were streams, one rich, the other barren, and that after meeting, the wealth of the one was divided between them. It is a general rule that metalliferous veins running parallel with the strata of the bed-rock or country are not extensive. In fact they are rather deposits than veins, and though often extremely rich are soon exhausted, while the lodes which run across the stratification, run far and deep, and have a regular and straight course and dip.