Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1894-04-04
STEAMBOAT MINING.
Rich Returns of Cola from tho
Bed of Snake River.
A Novel Means of Working the Oars OF
1daho's Great Waterway-Tho Cold
Caught on Copper Plates with
Quicksilver.

LNtra NSTant stories arc told about
the wealth of gold sprin,ilcl through
oat 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
be elusive. Save when worked on y
large scale it il difficult to make good
wages in recovering the gold. Numer-
ols bars along the river would prove
profitable could water be commanded
for sluicing or hydraufcing. An ade-
quata 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 this
lack of water rs we'll as insure sufl-
cicnt dumping ground n big floatiny
goll-saving dredSc has been CON
atructel and is now at work on the
Idaho bank of the Snake river about
ten miles above Payette.
1t Is 4 stera-whecl Gatboat propelled
by steam. substantially constructed,
sixty Eve feet long and twenty-five
feet wide, it is equipped with n thirty
irc horse power marine engine and
boiler and adapted in every way for
navigating ldaho's great waterway
With sligAt alteration it could be
transformed into steam dredgc 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 ont 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 scrapcrs
bring the material to be handled with
in the reach of the gold-waslaing ma
chinery with which the craft Is rugged.
The gravel i, seooped up by buckets
attached to an endless chain. There
are forty-eight of these rcccptacles on
4 belt sixty feet in length. and each
has capacity of about twenty pounds
of dirt, which is delivered into hop
per. Tai, il also an agitator, and the
process employed may be described as
II steam rocker. with the exception that
it has an end motion instead of one
sidcvisc. The gold is caught on cop
or plates with quicksilver. Tho tail
ings are carried OF in sluice boxes by
the fcrcc of stream of water OF one
hundred and fifty mineral inches, sup
plied by q China pump, run by the en-
zinc which dives all the other na-
chincry. The gravel is worked so
thoroughly that no gold eacapcs in the
tailings that are dumped into the riv-
CT. An average of one hundred tons of
gravel arc daily handled, and for this
work three men are cmployed-an en-
rinccr. one to work the scrapcr, 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 closc tn the surface and
will not pay TO handle to greater
depth than one foot to eighteen inches.
This shows value of one and one-haif
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. lie says he expects to take out
upward of one hundred dollars day
rs long Us he works, which viii be I'M
til cold weather sets in. When he has
rome over the bar which now engages
his attention he will tackle another.