Page 782 - calmining1890

730 REPORT OF THE STATE MINERALOGIST.
three thousand four hundred and twenty-five acres, giving one million
nine hundred thousand bushels; in corn, one thousand five hundred
and twenty acres; five thousand five hundred and eighty-five acres in
vineyard, and three hundred and eighty-seven thousand two hundred
and fifteen acres in fruit trees.

LUCERNE.

A portion of the famous Lucerne country, formerly called Mussel
Slough, in this county, north of the Tulare Lake and receiving the
waters of King's River, is distinguished for its productiveness. Wheat
and stock have been the chief products, but now the raisin grape is
attracting much attention. The raisins of this section are surpassed by
few, if any, in the world. Irrigation is conducted by canals from
mountain streams and artesian wells. There are between two hundred
and fifty and three hundred miles of irrigation canals, and over $1,000,-
000 invested in them. There are also more than two hundred artesian
wells in the valley from one hundred and twenty to one thousand one
hundred feet in depth. The soil is gravel and clay; occasionally a tree
has been struck in boring, but no rock was ever reached.

MINERALS.

Mr. S. Barton, an observing gentleman, and a writer upon the miner-
alogy and geology of the Sierra Nevada, says: " Of the streams that drain
the western slope of the mountain in Tulare County, only two of any size
have failed to yield placer gold; these streams are the Kaweah and the
Tule Rivers. North of the White River there is scarcely any evidence
of early prospecting to be met with." But on the headwaters of the
Middle Fork of the Kaweah is Mineral King District (sixty miles north-
east of Visalia by road), the discovery of which created a great excite-
ment nearly twenty years ago. There was no placer gold reported, but
there were many mineral-bearing veins claimed to be rich in gold, silver,
lead, and zinc in veins of limestone. About 1875-76 efforts were made
to work these mines, but soon abandoned. The mines of this district
were fully described in the report of the State Mineralogist for 1888.
This section of the Sierra west of the great canon of Kern River, trend-
ing southwest and sinking to the plain east of Bakersfield, bears the dis-
tinctive name of Greenhorn Mountain. The rivers cut its stratification
at right angles, showing granite, limestone, marble, slate, hornblende,
and other rocks. Granite predominates, but limestone and marble are
shown in immense bodies. At Mineral King fossils are in calcareous
slate. On Rattlesnake Peak, in T. 15 S., R. 25 E., M. D. M., is a slate
formation in which is imbedded great quantities of pebbles of mica
slate, hornblende slate, quartz, and granite; and when this rock is decom-
posed, placer gold is found in the gulches, showing it to be among the
oldest of the gravel deposits.
High in the Sierra near Mount Bruner, possibly in Inyo County, are
a number of veins owned by Messrs. Dallidel and Soto, which produce
v<tv rich specimens of ore, bearing gold, silver, and copper. These have
been partly opened and some excellent ore taken out, but the inaccessi-
bility of the region has prevented their development.
On White I liver, Mr. D. W. Grover, of Santa Cruz, owns the Mammoth