any of the hills of the ancient landscapes have become hollows,
and the old hollows have become hills. Therefore the fragmentary
channels, with their loads of auriferous gravel, occur in all kinds of
unthought-of places, trending obliquely, or even at right angles to the
present drainage, across the tops of lofty ridges or far beneath them,
presenting impressive illustrations of the magnitude of the changes
accomplished since those ancient streams were annihilated. The last
volcanic period preceding the regeneration of the Sierra landscapes
seems to have come on over all the range almost simultaneously, like the
glacial period, notwithstanding lavas of different age occur together in
many places, indicating numerous periods of activity in the Sierra
fire-fountains. The most important of the ancient river-channels in this
region is a section that extends from the south side of the town beneath
Coyote Creek and the ridge beyond it to the Canon of the Stanislaus; but
on account of its depth below the general surface of the present valleys
the rich gold gravels it is known to contain cannot be easily worked on
a large scale. Their extraordinary richness may be inferred from the
fact that many claims were profitably worked in them by sinking shafts
to a depth of 200 feet or more, and hoisting the dirt by a windlass.
Should the dip of this ancient channel be such as to make the Stanislaus
Canon available as a dump, then the grand deposit might be worked by the
hydraulic method, and although a long, expensive tunnel would be
required, the scheme might still prove profitable, for there is
"millions in it."

The importance of these ancient gravels as gold fountains is well known
to miners. Even the superficial placers of the present streams have
derived much of their gold from them. According to all accounts, the
Murphy placers have been very rich--"terrific rich," as they say here.
The hills have been cut and scalped, and every gorge and gulch and
valley torn to pieces and disemboweled, expressing a fierce and
desperate energy hard to understand. Still, any kind of effort-making is
better than inaction, and there is something sublime in seeing men
working in dead earnest at anything, pursuing an object with
glacier-like energy and persistence. Many a brave fellow has recorded a
most eventful chapter of life on these Calaveras rocks. But most of the
pioneer miners are sleeping now, their wild day done, while the few
survivors li