The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-11-25
STEAMB BOAT MINING.
Rich Returns Of C5ll FROM the
Bed Of Snake Tivsr.
a Novel Means Of Working the Isars a
IdallO's Great Water,Say--Thc Gold
Caught on Copper Plates with
quicksilver.

Extravaga..t stories al.e told about
the wealth Of gold sprinlxled through
out the Snake river country in Idaho.
AS general thing, says the Helena
independent, the gold is very fine, the
particles being of SO light weight as TO
he elusive. Save when worked on q
large scale it is difficult to make good
wages in recovering the gold Numer-
GUS bars along the river would prove
profitable could water be commanded
for sluicing or hydrau]icing. An ade-
ouate supply is hard to obtain, ON ac-
count of the slight and gradual fall OF
the stream and the level character OF
the outlying lands. 10 overcome TINS
lack of water as we'll as insure s'11ti-
Gent dumping ground, big floating
rold-saving dredge has been con-
structed and is now at work on the
Idaho bank of the Snake river about
ten miles above Payette. H.
It IS a stern-wheel f1atboat propelled
bv steam. Substantially constructed,
sixty five feet long and twenty-five
feet wide, it is equipped with thirty
five horse power marine engine and
boiler and adapted in every way for
navigating Idaho;s great waterway
With slight alteration it could be
transformed into steam dredge and
used to scoop up sand and gravel IRON
the bottom of the stream. That has
never been attempted. AS in the past,
operations are now confined to work.
ing bars out of the bed or channel OF
the river. The method pursued is to
anchor alongside one of these gravel
deposits and by the use OF scrapers
bring the material to be handled with
in the reach of the gold-washing MAJ
chinery with which the craft is rugged.
The gravel is scooped up by buckets
attached to an endless chain. There
are forty-eight of these receptacles on
belt sixty feet in length, and each
has capacity Of about twenty pounds
of dirt. which is delivered into hop
per. This is also an agitator, and tho
process employed may be described as
a steam rocker, with the exception that
it has an end motion instead OF one
sidewise. The"gold is caught OF cop
per plates with quicksilver. The ta'l-
ings are carried off in sluice boxes by
the force of a stream of water of one
hundred and fifty mineral inches, sup
piled by China pump, run by The en-
CINE which drives all the other ma
chinery. The gravel is worked SO
thoroughly that no gold escapes in the
tailings that are dumped into the riv-
er. An average of one hundred tons OF
gravel are daily handled, and for this
work three men are employed--an en-
gineer, one to work the scraper, and
another one who shovels the dirt intoa
pile so that the buckets can scoop upa
full load. !
The bar now being worked covers an
area of ten to fifteen acres The gold
is on top or close to the surface and
will not pay to handle to greater
depth than one foot to eighteen inches
This shows valueof one and one-hah
to three cents pan. A cleanup is
made every night. and the average OF
the runs for the first three days was
very satisfactory to the owner OF the
craft. He says he expects to take out
upward of one hundred dollars day
as long as he works. which will be I'M
til cold weather sets in. When he has
zone over the bar which now engages
his attention he will tackle another.