is a very difficult matter to know where the sand is rich and where
it is not. The companies employed in mining on the beach number about
ten men; and there is a foreman who rides out early every morning,
following the beach about two miles to the northward and two miles to
the southward of the camp, for the purpose of finding where the sand is
the best. So changeable is the sand, that a new examination is made
every day; and only three or four men are supposed to be good judges of
the quality of sand, from its appearance.

When the foreman has selected a place, he orders all the men to it, and
they go with twenty pack-mules, which carry the sand in _alforjas_, or
raw hide sacks, to the place of washing, which is up on the bluff,
probably a mile or more distant from the spot where the sand is
obtained. It happens occasionally that the foreman rides long distances
on the beach, and sometimes he will order the sand to be obtained ten
miles from the washing-place. The sand must, of course, be very rich,
to pay for such transportation, but the beach-sand at times in the
sunlight is said to be actually dazzling yellow with gold. The purpose
of going upon the bluff to wash it, is to get fresh water for washing;
for the sea-water is not so good, nor can it be obtained conveniently.
The richest dirt is that the farthest down on the beach, so still
weather and low tide are the best times for getting it. When a rich
place is discovered low down on the beach, great exertions are made to
get as much of the sand as possible before the tide rises. When high
tide and storm come together, little can be done. The sand, having been
separated from all clay and soluble matter by the action of the sea, is
very easily washed, and all collected in a month can be washed in two
days in a sluice.

_Mining-Ditches._--The placer-mines of California would yield very
little gold, were it not for the numerous ditches which supply them
with water for washing. The auriferous districts are very dry in
summer, and in some places there is not a spring nor a brook within
many miles. The artificial ditch supplies the want. The ditches are
made by large companies, which sell the water by the "inch." An inch of
water is as much as will run out of an orifice an inch square, with the
water standing six or seven inches deep in the flume over the orifice.
The depth of water over the orifice is called the "head." The orifice
is usually two inches high, and as lon