producing it, that it can not be, on the average, a paying business.
Of the quartz ledges, some of which are of undoubted richness, very few have been worked at all, and those which have, only very imperfectly. In one of these, the Gold Hill vein, a few miles from Jacksonville, $400,000 was taken out of a "pocket," after which the lead was lost, and the mine abandoned. From this pocket was taken a kind of gold peculiar to the deposit of the Cascade Range, called "thread gold." It is found in pockets, or basins, or chimneys of rotten quartz, occurring in veins of pure white quartz; and is really a mass of pure gold-threads, often in skeins, that, when examined under a glass, seem to be twisted—often arranged so as to resemble the bullion used for officers' epaulettes. It is very much matted together, holding in its tangled grasp small pieces of yellowish quartz. The same kind of gold is found in the Wallamet Valley, on the Santiam River; and in both instances is associated with free gold, embedded in hard, snow-white quartz. The specimens taken from these mines were very beautiful and extremely curious, and ought not to have been subjected to the crushing process; being worth more as specimens than as gold.
Salt, coal, and iron exist plentifully in Jackson County. Quicksilver is reported to have been discovered, but, so far, has never been worked.
Josephine and Curry counties furnish gold in about the same proportion to the amount of labor expended, that Jackson docs. Its quartz leads have never been opened to any extent. One of the most promising mineral productions of these counties is copper, which, if not too pure to work to advantage, will yet make
