Page 727 - calmining1890

SONOMA COUNTY. 677

id dip from 30 to 70 degrees southwesterly, and vary in thickness
from a few inches to twenty -eight feet." One writer even goes so far
? to say that there are here "no indications of serious faults in the
ml measures," basing his opinion merely on the contour of the surface
{ the ground ! It does not appear to have occurred to this man that a
.iange in dip from 30 to 70 degrees within short distances is any " indi-
\tion " of faulting. The same writer states that the various beds widen
ipidly as they descend, and expresses the opinion that " at a consider-
Ible depth all will unite and form a vast coal bed."
I recollect, also, that during these same years I saw it reported in the
"ewspapers that Dr. C. A. Henry (the same man who about 1873 to
876 spent in utter folly over $200,000 at Coos Bay, Oregon) had pro-
ounced that here was a "true fissure vein of coal."
In view of all these things, I was of course desirous to investigate
ihis locality as fully as possible; but after one hot day's hard work in
ramping over the hills and scrambling amongst the steep, timbered, and
rushy canons, I found there was nothing more that could be done now.
t is a number of years since any work of consequence has been done
lere, and the old tunnels, slopes, and shafts, one and all, are now so
horoughly dilapidated and caved in, that at the present time no coal
:an be seen in place anywhere underground. A few carbonaceous out-
irops were seen in the canons, some of them heavy, with sandstones
nd clay shales immediately adjacent to them; but the exposures to-day
ire very poor.
One fact, however, of the greatest importance was quickly learned — a
act, too, which it seems strange to me should apparently have been
)verlooked and unnoticed by a man like General Day — viz.: the fact
hat all the rocks now visible on the top of this mountain, not only
dong and between the lines where these coal veins are supposed to crop
>ut (though they do not crop there), but also on both sides of them for
3ome distance to the northeast and southwest, are volcanic in origin.
Now, the epoch of volcanic eruptions in California, although itself of
very long duration, did not begin until long subsequent to the time of
leposition of the Mount Diablo coal beds, with which these deposits
have been supposed to be, and possibly in reality were, contemporane-
ous.
In view of these facts, it is utter folly to say that the "indications"
are that there are no serious faults here. On the contrary, every "indi-
cation " points to a strong probability that the beds will be found to be
much faulted and irregularly disturbed.
It would, of course, be unsafe, until somebody has expended $50,000
to $100,000 more in "prospecting" here, to assert that it is impossible to
find a paying coal mine in this mountain. But it is perfectly safe to
assert that at the present time all human probabilities are decidedly
against it.
All the rocks seen along the road going across the mountains from
Guerneville to Cazadero, a distance of about ten miles, are metamorphic
sandstones and clay rocks, some of which are shattered and blocky, but
some of which are very hard and compact.
Cazadero is situated in the deep canon of Austin Creek near its head,
and is the present terminus of the North Pacific Coast Railroad. From
Cazadero, the railroad follows down the canon of Austin Creek some
seven or eight miles to Duncan's Mill, on the Russian River. It then
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