This is on
rockers, six or eight feet long, open at the foot, and its head had a
coarse grate, or sieve; the bottom is rounded, with small cleets nailed
across. Four men are required to work this machine; one digs the ground
in the bank close by the stream; another carries it to the cradle, and
empties it on the grate; a third gives a violent rocking motion to the
machine, whilst a fourth dashes on water from the stream itself. The
sieve keeps the coarse stones from entering the cradle, the current of
water washes off the earthy matter, and the gravel is gradually carried
out at the foot of the machine, leaving the gold mixed with a heavy
fine black sand above the first cleets. The sand and gold mixed
together are then drawn off through auger holes into a pan below, are
dried in the sun, and afterwards separated by blowing off the sand. A
party of four men, thus employed at the Lower Mines, average 100
dollars a-day. The Indians, and those who have nothing but pans or
willow baskets, gradually wash out the earth, and separate the gravel
by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with sand, which is
separated in the manner before described.
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