CHAPTER I. 
CALIFORNIA. 
SAN DIEGO COUNTY. 
For the first time this county has entered the list of those producing 
bullion, and though the shipments are as yet small, they bid fair to im 
prove rapidly. 
The mines are situated forty-two miles northeast of the town of San 
Diego, in a range of mountains known as the Isabella Mountains. They 
were discovered late in the fall of 1809—it is said by a party of pros 
pectors returning from Arizona—and the extraordinarily rich ore from 
the ledges first located, among which the Washington seems to be the 
most prominent, caused considerable excitement on the Pacific coast in 
the spring and early summer. This threatened to grow into a regular 
stampede at one time, but subsided soon when it was found that the 
riches were not available without the aid of considerable capital. Sev 
eral districts were, however, organized, and a town, Julian City, sprang 
up at once in the heart of the region. 
C. A. Luckliardt, M. E., who visited the locality early in 1870, reports 
to me the following: 
Cuyamac or Julian mining district is situated in San Diego County, * 
California, a distance of forty-two miles by stage-road, in a northeasterly 
direction from San Diego City, in a range of mountains called the Santa 
Isabella Mountains, which course north and south, lying between the 
Pacific Coast range and the San Bernardino range of mountains, and 
have an elevation of 3,000 feet above sea-level. It was located in the 
early part of 1870, and created much excitement, caused by exag 
gerations of the richness of the gold veins discovered. The Cuyamac 
Mountain, part of the Santa Isabella Mountain, is thickly covered with 
nut-pine timber, abounds in sweet-water springs, and has many very 
fertile plateaux covered with verdure. Julian City, the center of the 
district, contains about two hundred houses and tents, with a population 
of four hundred, which, however, is very varying. The main mass of 
the Cuyamac Mountain consists of mica slate and hornblendic por 
phyry, coursing northeast and southwest, standing almost vertical, and 
bounded westward by basaltic rocks, which have overflowed its western 
boundary of garnet porphyry. The veins are very numerous, lie on the 
western and southwestern slopes of the mountain, and run in almost 
every conceivable direction, subject to the irregularities of the horn 
blendic porphyry. The larger veins run northeast and southwest and 
are imbedded in the slate. Their dip is from 70° east to almost vertical. 
They are narrow and have no bold outcrop, and only in places have 
clearly defined walls been laid open. They have quartz as gangue, and 
vary from è to 3 feet in width. 
Although many locations have been made, it must not be supposed 
lliat each represents a vein. Many claims are often on the same vein, 
and many have nothing more than a few detached boulders, embedded 
in alluvium and debris, for a foundation. Gold is the only precious metal 
which the veins carry; accompanying it are traces of antimonblende, 
Hi.