<P> The benefit to the forty - niners was that the gold was simply "free for the taking" at first . In the goldfields at the beginning, there was no private property, no licensing fees, and no taxes . The miners informally adapted Mexican mining law that had existed in California . For example, the rules attempted to balance the rights of early arrivers at a site with later arrivers; a "claim" could be "staked" by a prospector, but that claim was valid only as long as it was being actively worked . </P> <P> Miners worked at a claim only long enough to determine its potential . If a claim was deemed as low - value--as most were--miners would abandon the site in search for a better one . In the case where a claim was abandoned or not worked upon, other miners would "claim - jump" the land . "Claim - jumping" meant that a miner began work on a previously claimed site . Disputes were often handled personally and violently, and were sometimes addressed by groups of prospectors acting as arbitrators . This often led to heightened ethnic tensions . In some areas the influx of many prospectors could lead to a reduction of the existing claim size by simple pressure . </P> <P> Four hundred million years ago, California lay at the bottom of a large sea; underwater volcanoes deposited lava and minerals (including gold) onto the sea floor . By tectonic forces these minerals and rocks came to the surface of the Sierra Nevada, and eroded . Water carried the exposed gold downstream and deposited it in quiet gravel beds along the sides of old rivers and streams . The forty - niners first focused their efforts on these deposits of gold . </P> <P> Because the gold in the California gravel beds was so richly concentrated, early forty - niners were able to retrieve loose gold flakes and nuggets with their hands, or simply "pan" for gold in rivers and streams . Panning cannot take place on a large scale, and industrious miners and groups of miners graduated to placer mining, using "cradles" and "rockers" or "long - toms" to process larger volumes of gravel . Miners would also engage in "coyoteing", a method that involved digging a shaft 6 to 13 meters (20 to 43 ft) deep into placer deposits along a stream . Tunnels were then dug in all directions to reach the richest veins of pay dirt . </P>

Where did the gold of the california goldrush come from
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