The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1906-02-02
Continued from second page.

banks were caved into the lower ditch, and
the material conveyed through sluices to
rifles, where the gold was caught in the
modern way
The labor expended in constructing
bitches was often enormous. The Romans
in Spain, built conduits which drained the
Cabrera river twenty-six miles away and
there may be observed to-day, seven OF these
in all, carved from perpendicular strata Of
slate. Each of the bitches are 5 #. wide by
#. or f. deep, and together they pre-
sent total length of 1872 miles. Every
inch was carved out by hand, and history
tellssus that thousands Of lives were sacrl-
feed in the work. The grade is about twelve
feet to the mile and from it's uniformity it
is evident that the Romans must have en-
ployed some leveling device.
The immense masses OF debris resulting
from placer operations were sometimes
"boomed' down the rivers in the same
way that such deposits arc carried away
in California to-day. A stream which at
one time emptied at an acute angle, into
the Sill river in Spain, was damned by
the Romans and it's waters allowed to ac-
cumulate, forming a lake, which still exists
and is several miles across. The river bed
below the dam was excavated for seventy-fve
feet belowits original level. So that on free
ngthe waters Of the lake the surrounding
country should not be inundated. The
debris of the mines was allowed to flow into
this sunken channel and while the lighter
portions were swept down the river, the
heavier rocks collected in the stream bed.
Before this clogging up of the bed had
quite brought the stream to it's original level,
the flood gates of the lake we're thrown open
and the entire deposit carried by the great
rush Of water into the Sill and afterwards
i urged down this swift river until the entire
mass was hurled into the sea. The wall Of
water one hundred feet or more in height,
charged with great boulders and flying
through rocky defle, one eighth OF amile
across, presented spectacle surprising any
artificial operations that we have today.
But after centuries of work tho placers
became exhausted, and the quartz veins
whose erosion contributed the gold to the
placers were themselves attacked for their
values. The working of these veins was
comparatively improbable, and although
some iron tools we're in use, the method of
operation was so crude that an immense
expenditure of slave labor was necessary
to obtain relatively small amounts Of gold.
Some Of the first records of underground
workings show that the ancients possessed
astonishing perseverance in driving their
L tunnels, as their excavating was done by
n hand tools, wedging and the fire setting
system, which latter consisted in heating
& the rock and then suddenly cooling with
water, thus shattering it.
In ancient Egypt and Ethiopia, where
the fire setting system was used, the slaves
and captives toiling in the mines suffered
intensely from the vitiated atmosphere due
TO the ever accommodating products of COM
h bustion.s Ina few foreign districts where
ventilation is good this system is still used
A description Of the Bishare mines on
the Egyptian border has been given by an
ancient writer, Siculus. He describes the
soil as black, with veins Of shimmering
Y quartz.
Slaves in great numbers carried on the
work and according to Siculus, "the
Il strongest Of these provided with iron
chisels cleave the quartz BY mere force,
Il without any attempt at skill; and in exca-
waiting the shaft below ground, they follow
]. The direction Of the glistening stratum with
\ ont keeping q straight line. In order to
see IA thess dark windings, they fasten
lamps 70 their foreheads, having their
bodies painted according to the nature Of
81 TIE rock and 5as they cut the stone il falls
masses to the floor. They are followed
B by boys who take away the fragments as
Is they fall and carry them to the open air.