The Washington critic., 1888-05-16

deposits in California.
III think that here on this property we
have what is called the backbone of the
belt. There are many things
that indicate IL and we hnve certainly
taken out some very rich specimens"
The Work of Prospecting
has been carried on systematically. First,
a tunnel was started in the centre of the
abrupt southern end of the hill on which
the house stands, on level with the
bank Of the creek But few shovelfuls
of dirt were removed before the slate core
of the hill was struck and in its midst a
vein of quartz averaging fourteen inches
in thickness. Specimens were taken and
an assay showed that the vein was rich
gold-bearing quartz. With miners
compass the direction of the vein was
found to be north of east Then, on the
crest of the hill several hundred yards
from its southern end, q shaft was sunk
at point where IL would strike the vein
If IL continued straight north of east"
as 1t was found that it did
Other shafts were sunk along the line
of the vein and all OF them showed the
same gold. bearing. quartz. For the pur-
pose of reducing these specimens quickly
a small experimental three-stamp gold
mill was erected, and the quartz reduced
in this way has yielded from $l4 to $50
per ton. This was for quartz taken as It
came, just as would be done in regular
mining.
Further prospecting revealed the fact
that beside this man or "mother" vein
there were four smaller ones, or "string-
ers," in this same hill, all carrying gold
in paying quantities.
Several Shafts Have Been Dug
in various places, not so much for the
purpose of taking out gold as for learning
the extent of the veins. The deepest of
the shafts are the upper shaft, thirty
feet deep, from which ore paying $3J a
ton was taken. From shaft No. 6,
which is forty-eight feet deep, ore was
taken that paid $50 ton. Shaft No. Z is
sixty feet deep aud the ore from it paid
1874 ton. The vein at the bottom of this
shaft is four feet thick. Right near this
latter shaft "bonanza" was struck.
In one afternoon about five or six barrels
of gravel taken from foot or so below
the surface, were "panned'' in "cradle"
improvised from an ordinary frying pan,
and the yield was $500. The gravel was
very carelessly worked and enough gold
is left in it to pay for working 1t over
again with proper machinery. Even the
fifteen or twenty negroes employed about
the mine have learned to "pan' the
chance and 'pan" il for the gold. This
is different kind of mining from quartz
mining. The gravel at this place was
rich in fine particles of gold from pieces
OF the quartz that were on the surface
and became broken up.
Sluice- Mining Begun.
The banks of the little creek that runs
along the foot of the hills are partially
gravel and sluice-mning has been begun.
This Is done by diverting portion of
the water of the creek and carrying it
down with rapid current through long
troughs or 'sluice-boxes' made of planks.
At intervals in the sluicelboxes are rifles,
each made of series of parallel iron bars
an inch or so apart, placed at right angles
to the current of the water. Between the
bars quicksilver is placed.
The gravel is dug out of the ground
near the head of the line of sluice-boxes
and thrown into them. As the current
separates the gravel and carries it rapidly
down over the rifles the fine particles of
gold fall down into the quicksilver and
on account of their greater weight, sink,
carried on down by the current. This is
very simple kind of mining compared
with the work of getting gold from the
quartz. The banks of the creek along
here are lined with this gravel and two
lines of sluice-boXes have been put in
operation to see whether it contains
enough gold to pay for working, though
there is but little doubt that II does. So
far IL has yielded from 81 to $40 per ton.
The method Of extracting gold from
quartz is quite different. The quartz after
being taken from the ground is run
through regular gold mill, the first part
of which is the battery of stamps The
stamps are heavy iron or steel rods that
are lifted perpendicularly by the ma
chinery and dropped OH the bottom of an
iron box that encloses their lower ends.
The pieces of quartz are put in at the top,
and as their weight carries them under
the lower ends Of the stamps or heavy
rods, the stamps as they fall crush the
box is an opening covered with fine
screens. Water is turned in at the upper
end Of the box, and when the quartz is
crushed fine enough to pass through the
screen the water carries it through and
out into series of pilates" made of
copper, silver-plated and then coated with
murcury. These plates are agitated and
as the water washes the small particles of
crushed quartz over them the particles
of gold settle to the bottom and are
caught and held by the quicksilver, which
coates each particle of gold with q thin
wash of murcury.
When the mercury on the plates is full
of gold it is scraped OIL with a rubber
scraper and the compound of gold and
quicksilver, called amalgam, is put into
kind of retort and heated, the mercury
passing offin the form of gas and leaving
the gold III the cruclble.
DIR. Kempster has taken many friends
on visits to the nnne, and they have all
of them been astonished at the richness of
the quartz and its accessibility. An old
California gold miner, who visited the
mine, said when he saw some of the
quartz "My God If you should put
such specimens as those in u store win
dow in San Francisco the people would
+ go Wild" 1t seems that the gold fever
has not yet died out.
Some of the first prospecting that was
done was directed to discovering whether
the vein of quartz continued on the south
side of the fault spoken of above. This
was found to be the case, and the quartz
south Of the fault was found not only to
carry gold, but also silver in paying
quantities. Some Of the specimens taken
out were very rich in both gold and silver
The work of sluice mining was only
commenced q week or so ago, and no
''clean up" of fthe gold in the "riiiles'' has
yet been made. But if it proves satisiac'
tory thc Whole VI bho seNSrui ucres VI pol-
tom land bordering on the creek will be
worked over in this way
How the Work Progresses.
Meanwhile the other work is being
pushed rapidly. The first experimental
stamp mill has been removed and the
building turned into lodging place for
the miners. Machinery for the new mill
is on the way from Philadelphia, and the
house for it is being built. The new mill
will have ten stamps. 1t will be located
at the base of the hill and will extend up
the hill eighty feet and will be forty feet
wide. II will be built on three diff
ferent levels. On the top one will be the
oTusher and on the level below will bC
the stamps, and on the lowest level the
plates and concenuators will be placed
In this way its own weight win carry the