linois, and
middle Rogue Rivers, where mining is still carried on by the
hydraulic process, and where large sums have been expended
in the construction of mining ditches. The Stirling Mine, southwest of Jacksonville, is the most important hydraulic mine in
the State, and is owned in Portland. Near Waldo, in Josephine
County, there is another well-equipped and paying gravel mine.
The water is conveyed to it by a ditch twenty-three miles long,
capable of delivering one million two hundred and fifty thousand
gallons per hour. Its width is eight feet at top and four at bottom, and it is three feet deep. The hydraulic mean pressure
employed is three hundred feet, with three nozzles of six inches
aperture. The slope of this ditch is thirteen feet to the mile.
Near Uniontown is a hydraulic claim owned and worked by
a Chinaman, who employs his countrj^men. Water is brought
to it by a ditch seven miles long, carrying one million four
hundred thousand gallons per hour during the season. The
cost of these ditches was ten thousand and twelve thousand
dollars respectively. The Applegate ditch, which furnishes
water to several claims, is five miles long, with a width at top
of six feet, at bottom of three feet, and a depth of three feet.
The slope is twenty-two feet. Squaw Lake ditch, twelve and
a half miles long, cost, with the dam at the foot of the lake,
twenty-six thousand dollars. These ditches render available a
large extent of auriferous ground whose working would otherwise be debarred by elevation. Squaw Lake, situated on the
Oregon and California line, is a considerable body of water, with
an altitude of five thousand feet. A new hydraulic mine has
recently been opened in Southern Oregon, at a cost of twenty-
two thousand dollars, which promises to return double or treble
that amount per annum. It yields twelve and a half cents per
yard, which is considered rich dirt. Some nuggets have been
picked up in this claim valued at from three hundred and fifty
to five hundred dollars. This is a Blue G-ravel mine, situated
on the Klamath, and there are other claims on this deposit.
Douglas County has several mining localities, the best of which are on the affluents of the South Umpqua River. Of these the chief is Cow Creek, where the placers are extensive and have been worked for thirty years. Quartz mines are also found in the lateral canons. Two, the Lucky Queen and the Esther, have
