Ch. 1: Gold and Silver in 1914

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	852	MINERAL RESOURCES, 1914—PART I.

	1914, however, to 66.56 per cent. The changes are mainly due to increased dredging output on the one hand and to decrease in tenor of some of the great gold-quartz ore bodies worked on the ether. The following table shows the sources by classes of ore, by States, of the mine production of gold in 1914, and for comparison of totals by sources the corresponding figures for 1913 are given: Source of mine production of gold in 1914 in States and Territories, as reported from the mines to the United States Geological Survey, by kinds of ore and by States, in fine ounces.^a



	The total value of the production of placer gold was $23,109,683 in 1914, against $22,238,424 in 1913. The placer production increased in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon in 1914. The placer production is chiefly from dredging, from drift mining (which is of decreasing importance in Alaska in frozen ground at no t reat depth, but of continued importance in California in ancient uried river channels, often at considerable depth), and from hydraulic and sluicing placers. In California, especially, hydraulic mining has been of much importance in the past and had become a special branch of the industry in itself, but restrictive laws relative to the debris and to disturbance of navigable streams have in recent years greatly confined mining activity of this kind. Finally, there is also a small annual output of gold from dry placers in the South-

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