The age-herald., 1898-02-20

in a position seemingly uncomfortable and
 under fervid sun the whirr, whirr, is kept
 up as long as daylight itself The drill
 being conical he bores from each side, to
 preserve an even caliber, and completes
 the operation by few delft turns of a
 reamer held in the fingers. As the shell
 varies in thickness, so we find ka yah
 varied in diameter, ranging from the size
 of a large porcelain button down to a disk
 so minute and fragile that it is a marvel
 it was perforated without fracture. In
 fact, the hole oftimes looks larger than the
 coin.
 Next comes the polishing. Pieces of uni-
 form size are strung on willow shoots or a
 wire about foot long, and some half doz-
 en Of these at a time are rolled side by side
 under the hands, back and forth, on top of
 a sandstone slab, with water, till tine rough
 edges are secured off and the pieces be-
 come round and polished. This is essen-
 tialy a mans work, requiring strength
 dexterity, Judgment and endurance. The
 lime and water produce a corroding fluid,
 which wrinkles and seams coiner's hands
 so that they show their owners profession
 at a glance
 The ka yah, now finished, is sorted into
 strings according to diameter and hidden
 in some secret recess. The hinges of the
 claim shell are much thicker than its body
 and furnish long cylinders much more val
 uable than the flat pieces, ranking next
 to poh.
 "Injun gold" or poh, comes from a stone,
 a species of magnesite, found under the alluvium bordering Clear Lake, California,
 and occurs in humps oval from attrition,
 and about eight inches in length When newly mined by the Indian its surface is crumbly and degenerate, but fracture re- | veals a grain milky white and of a hard | ness sufficient to turn tool steel.
 The mass must now be baked. A pit about the size of a wash basin is dug, in md pyo xxul1i a c kppt blIrninp till
 the ashes fill 1t. The the stone is dropped
 in and covered with ashes and the fire re- plenished. It takes about four hours to ''cook'' the kabey, after which it is re- moved while in a certain red heat, and plunged into basket of boiling water. A mild explosion accompanies the plunge, rending the stone into some dozen jagged fragments and ofttimes, when unslillfully done. instant disintegration follows and somebody gets hurt.
 As iron enters somewhat into this min- erals composition, vivid red exhibits it's oxide after excessive heat and moisture. One can hardly believe it the same as the white stone of a few hours ago; for it is now as fragile as glass and mottled throughout with every shade, from burnt sienna to translucent porcelain. Each fragment is surveyed with critical eyes to determine the largest perfect cylinder to be obtained from it.
 | Next comes the most careful of all the | coiner's work, shaping the poh, which IS accomplished by chipping off minute par | ticles till the shape is approximated In | bygone days the piece was held in the | hand and gently struck with the edge | of a quartz hammer, but the Indian has l discovered in sheep shears a more expedi- l tious tool. single unskllful blow breaks | and ruins the poh, already, perhaps, hav- l ing two weeks labor upon it.
 | Before the grindstone became known | slabs of silicious stone found in the neigh | borhood were used for securing the piece down with water. The grindstone has halved this work.
 A computation has been made of time spent in actual labor upon certain piece of rough poh, and it took nearly ten hours of skilled white labor, with the best of modern tools (diamond point excepted) to bring it into shape. To this must be added two hours for lathe boring and polishing, thus consuming a full day.
 Considering the fact that the Indians were ignorant of the mechanical value of precious stones (the sapphire was well known), it is a sufficient matter to deter mine just what they formerly used to bore poh. Traditions mention three substances. quartz, obsidian and flint none of which are as hard as poh. Metals are out of the question, and the shaping of a sapphire NssrA sEasx trHprehahle. All efforts for