Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1894-01-24
STEAMBOAT MINING.
Rich Returns of Cold from the
Bed Of Snake River.
A Novel Means of Working the Bars of
Idaho's Great Waterway-The Gold
Caught on Copper Plates with
Quicasilyer.
Extravagant stories are told about

Extravagant stories are told about
the wealth of gold sprinllled through
on The Snake river country in Idaho.
Is Il general thing. says the Helena
Independent, the gold Is very fine, tie
particles being OF Sc light weight as 10
be elusive. Save when worked on
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 hydraulicing. An ado
qaate supply is hard to obtain, on ae-
count of the slight and gradual fall Of
the stream and the level character OF
tic outlying lands. To overcome this
lack OF water as well as insure sufli-
cient dumping ground, a big floating
gola-saving dredge has been con-
strpetel and is now at work on the
Idaho banlS Of the Snake river about
ten miles above Payette.
1t Il a stern-wheel flatboat propelled
by steam. Substantially constructed
sixty I've feet long and twenty-five
feet wide, IL 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 Il steam drcdge and
used to scoop up sand and gravel from
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 sorapers
bring the material to be handled with
in the reach of the gold-wnshing iaa-
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 receptaeles on
II belt sixty feet in length, and each
has capacity Of about twenty pounds
of dirt, which is delivered into u hop
per. This is also an agitator, and the
process employed may be described us
a steam rocker, with the exception that
it has an end motion instead of one
sidewise. The gold is caught on cop
rer plates with quicksilver. The tail
lllfS arc oll Ii eibiS0 pp-NN2 ~
ths force of stream of water of one
hundred and fifty mineral inches, sup
piled by d 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-
CT. 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 up
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 value of one and one-half
to three cents pap. 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
gone over the bar which now engages
his attention he will tackle another.