The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1896-12-04
The Black sands of the snake.

of prospectors have wandered up and
down the grand old Snake from the
head waters under the Three Tetons
along it's entire course to where it
mingles its waters with the Columbia.
Every bar has been prospected and re-
prospected. Fortunes have been spent
in grub stakes and still greater for
tunes in gold saving machines and de-
vices. None have yielded any adequate
return-few any return at all. An oc-
casional lone prospector with his rock
er has made wages, but only an oc-
casional one of the many thousand who
have devoted their time to dilligent
search for the glittering gold. The
most favored, who by some chance hit
upon an exceptionally rich bar, have
been able to clean up from SOC to 81 per
day. But this has been the exception.
The vast majority have not been able
to show dollars worth of dust for
weeks labor. The gold-saving machines
gold boats, etc, have been even more
unsuccessful than the lone prospector
with his old-fashioned rocker, and have
eaten up the savings of many men
without giving back any treasure in re-
turn. The following article written by
member of the staff of the Wallace
Miner and published in that paper of
Nov. IL, 1896, give the results of many
years experience in dealing with Snake
river placers and probably states the
facts in regard to them as well as it is
possible to state them. The article is
as follows
"Every little while we read of some
man who has discovered a new process
for extracting gold from what is called
black sand, to be found in various To-
calities on the Pacific Coast, but most
frequently along Snake river. AS
general thing, machine is described,
showing how beautifully the gold is ex-
tracted by forcing through quicksilver
or some similar method, and while the
theory may be all right, it often hap
pens, for some reason unexplained by
the operators, the financial returns do
not prove to be as great as desired. {
There is wealth untold in the black {
sand we are describing, but from pres
ent indications none of us will live long
to see it yielding adequate re- {
turns unless some very radical changes a
Replace in the method of working |
the deposits. /
"For number of years the writer I
has been interested in so-called placer v
claims to be found on the bars and v
along the banks of the Snake river; c
and while some neighbors made money "
'or short time, the ground did not o
pay for working any great length of G.
line. OF course there are exceptions b
% all rules, and there may possibly be
ome places that have paid for long
ime, but they are certainly unkno wn
% the writer.
"There are various reasons why the u
laims have not paid. First, the gold,
s rule, is very fine, or as miners
ERIN it, 'fonr' gold; it is associated with
magnetic iron ann silicious sand. In w
making practical test, once we OBJ ms
aimed the following results; We shov- H
led the dirt into sluice boxes, the fine wi
and settled to the bottom, and while "a "a
be ground was considered to be about IN
5 good as any to be had on the river OIL
e had to handle 30 tons of dirt to get te
ne ton of concentrates; the concen- IN
'ates assayed 5000 to the ton in gold. in
here were quite number of places ev,
here the results were not nearly so 1t
'od. We are simply giving the best Go COZ
suits. We
"We then took an average sample Of hel
le concentrates and spreading it on
lper separated the gold from the sand,
ing magnifying glass so as to miss
me, and counted each color as we
ok it out In that way we found that
took 1900 colors to weigh 81 or $50 /
lors toa cent. The reader may judge
the fineness of the gold from the Z
owe figures. We separated the con to
ntrates into two parts, finding AZ per tre
ut magnetic iron and 80 per cent sill eleC
J. On assaying the iron we found it cur
contain II ounces silver and trace fem
gold to the ton, while the silica CON bro
ned neither gold or silver. As our ski
ok sand was found among boulders, spe,
ne Of them too large to be handled zeal
lily without machinery, we decided nee
re was no money in the proposition. ed '
Some men have been fairly success resi-
in using burlaps or blankets, as not
y are called and allowing the fine and