Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-01-07
Miners Life in California.

Oh the miner, and the modus operandi of the
various kinds of mining, here in California
ms being the season, will take up the subject
OF " river mining"
having arrived in river camp the first
OBJECT OF the new conner is to obtain claim. -
should he chance to have any money left after
passing through the cluthes of the Mail Com
pany, whose avarice has received the Just con.
demnation of the press on the shore of both
oceans, and upon whose heads must rest the fea,-
full crime of wholesale murder. and to WHOSE
ears the walls of the mourners will come. He
will lind plenty of old miners who have claims
and are anxious to sell shares, they being con-
tiguous to a g claim " which paid largely last
year, recommendation which is not worth
straw. The new conner will soon be duly in
stalled as partner. All mining operations are
precarious, but river mining is more especially
80, for the reasons that it cannot be " prospect
ed" like other mining, and is subject to many
causalties from an element which is used for al
most every purpose in California except drink
ing, viz: water.
The preliminaries being settled, the work
commences. The ground being staked off (six-
ty feet to the many, they build a " wing DAM. :"
\ This is disagreable job, the water being very
Icold, and very swift current to contend with
The " dam" is built of small stone, carried one
at time into the middle of the river; two
walls are made about three feet apart, and then
cloth put on one side, and the who'd filed with
sand. The long " dam" finished, they then de-
eide which side shall be worked first this being
done, they then build +" head DAM to turn
the water on one side, and also a &C foot dam "
to keep it there The " claim being walled
in, wheel is then made, to be carried by the
water on the outside. To do this, two " cribs
or triangular boxes are made, and sunk a certain
distance apart, and then filled with stones then
a large stick of timber is laid across, each end
resting on a " crib" The wheel is usually
- about twelve feet long and eight in diameter
and hung on two levers, SO that it can be raised
and lowered at pleasure. The wheel in the
next thing is pump, which is rotary one sim
liar to the chain-pump, only on larger scale
and with wooden buckets instead of IRON The
length of these pumps vary according to thu
known or supposed dept to the " bed rock >
some are twenty feet long, others forty thu
width is usually twelve inches. The width o
the buckets, which are placed on belt made o
duck, doubled, is three inches. The pump il
placed at the lower end of the claim, while TIN
wheel is at the upper end. A long rope is ther
passed over pully on the wheel, thence to
drum on the head of the pump. All things be
ing ready, the work of sinking the pump com
mences.
Having reached the " bed rock " they ar
now ready to commence " Washing" the pum]
serving the double purpose of keeping the hol
dry and furnishing water to wash with. TIL
usual mode is to wash with " sluices," whicl
are boxes about ten feet long and ten inche
square, without the tops; these are placed o
the wall convenient for wheeling, the lower en-
projecting over the wall SO as to carry the stall
ings - into the river As soon as the run plank
are laid and the work of excavation begun, on
man is placed at the s'sluices " with an eight
tined fork to throw out the stone and keep ther
clear. The usual mode of saving the gold is b
the ues of " traps" These are little ladder
make of wood just fitting into the bottom of tn
" sluices," If the gold is very fine quicksilve
is used, it being poured into the head " sluice
and passing down gathers all the gold. At tn
end of each day the gold is washed out in par
At the end of the week it is retorted by the fir
weighed and divided.
As general thing, the greatest amount
gold is found in the bed rock, which is a so
soapstone and readily yields to the blows of IL
pick. In the seam gold is sometime found
the dept of several feet so fine as to be invisib
to the naked eye, This is picked up and was
cd, often proving to be very rieh
Now all this may look very easy and pleasa
to the reader, but one summers experience W
suffice to dissolve this delusion. The heardshi
which must be endured in working river clail
and the perplexities attending the operate
wears upon a man terribly. The alienation
hope and fear whether the claim will pay, a.
the fearful anticipation of casualties which W
sweep in a single hour the work of many weeE
all combine to make the miner ill at ease.
Should there be fall of snow, far up in t
mountains, or twenty-four hours rain here,
chances are that the river will rise and car
away wheels, dams and all, prehaps before
company is out of debt. 1t cost from one
five thousand dollars to get into the river clai
and unless it be rich nothing can be made,
the season is short and uncertain, Of all
..ss.ampanies on this 1.-THE Tuolumne) river for
n miles, I do not know but one that has anythi
- more than fair wages; yet there are hundr
of men and thousands of dollars invested in
enterprise. Many of them will come out t
fall in debt, and a summers work lost
Thus the hardy miner tolls on year al
year, ever looking, ever hoping for someth
better. Failing in one enterprise, he rushes
to another, which may prove quite abortivt
former; yet he never wholly surrenders to Il
fortune, but looks forward to the time when
shall make a " strike and obtain his " pill
From the very nature of things he is doomed
almost certain Disappointment. To-day the Ii
of unclouded hope may cheer him on tom
row the dark shadows of misfortune envel
his pathway. Probably there is no vocat
which is attended with so many changes as t
of mining, yet there is an excitement and a
cination about it that lures many on, even W
they know that failure is certain. A man C
ing from the happy freside of New Engl
home. from the influences Of New ENGLAND S