The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-08-08

angles by sticks of wood called riff
f1es.
The gravel is made to run down
this muslin incline while the bellows
lifts it over the rifles. The gold, be-
ing heavy is caught and held under
the cross pieces; pebbles and sand are
| elected at the bottom.
Various forms Of the dry washer
have been patented, but the simplest
| type remains the best; an old soap
box, a few yards of tarpaulin, half
yard of fine muslin and a little baling
wire are all the materials required for
| its construction The whole appara-
tus need not weigh over twenty
| pounds and the prospector can pack
| it from place to place on his back.
Down in southwestern Arizona the
Mexican is credited with the inven-
ton of the dry washer and nothing
else, 1t is the last resource Of the
prospector who cannot get a grub
stake. For miles around Yuma, on
/ either side of the Colorado, one may
count on taking out an average of a
dollar day with this crude appliance
and as SIS vii grub stake man for
month there Is little excuse for being
fiat broke,
For twenty miles north Of the con-
fuence of the ella and the Colorado
the barren gulches are honeycombed
with the work Of the dry washer. The
work of the white man is easily dis
tinguishable from that of the chula.
In places the bedrock has been eX-
posed for hundreds Of feet along the
bottom of the shallow gunch the ce-
ment strata swept clean with whisk
broom, since pay dirt is found mostly
at the bottom TRis is the gyETl Of
the American The Mexican seldom
lays bare more than a square yard,
and from that so the envious Grin
60 asserts, ne gets what he is after.
A still more simple and primitive
method Of dry washing is indicated by
innumerahle basinlike depressions
along the side Of these gulches From
each has been taken about a bucketful
Of sand, which is placed handful at
a time, in an ordinary gold pan, a
russia iron basin a little larger than
the ordinary tin wash basin
This, by dexterous turn Of the
wrist, the Mexican throws into the air
at the same time blowing through it
As IL falls he Tits the pan, allowing
it to run in a thin stream over the
edge His beadlike eye is caught and
sent back to the foxtail Of black sand
and concentrates on the opposite edge
of the PAN In half an hour he is
~ ali xsti1f
know him no more ontil run of hard
luck at cock fighting or monte sends
him back to the bank nature has
provided for him.
1t is confidently asserted through
out the Southwest that the Mexican
possesses a sixth sense which enables
him to locate infallibly the pockets
which white men either miss altogeth-
er or only stumble upon by acct
dent
Men have carefully studied the nat
ural features Of these spots, but are
unable to discover the indications
which point them out to the native, 1t
Is maddening to work ten days under
a blazing sun for d few dollars worth
Of dust and nuggets, and then to see
q lazy Mexican walk directly to spot
few rods away, pan a bucket full
of dirt and sloueh off after half an
hours work With $50 worth of the
yellow metal knotted up in his gaudy
handkerchief,
But If the Mexican possesses this
sense, he Is careful not to abuse It.
He takes only enough for his immedt-
ate necessities and has a lofty con4
tempt for the Americans ambition to
acquire riches. Nor will he locate a
quartz vein If he happens to uncover
one.
BY an unwritten law these dry
placers above Yuma are free to ALL
No one stakes claim other than
those located by dredging companies.
who after years of disaster have not
vet given over the attempt to eat away
the banks Of the Colorado until they
have opened passage into the de-
sert.
Many rich discoveries Of quartz
lodes have been made by dry wash
ers and some have been worked by
the same primitive method.
Now and then a rich stringer, q
vein an inch or two wide, is found,
which is not Of sufficient volume to
ray for the erection OF an arrastra,
which is q crude quartz crusher oper-
ated by mule power, or even by hand.
The arrastra, by the way is precisely
the sort of mill to which the Philis-
tines harnessed Samson, according to
the familiar picture of Dore. The dis
coverer then rigs a spring pestle with
which he pulverizes the rotten quartz
running the powder through the dry
washer.
Early in the sos two young fellows
found such a stringer near the desert
ed camp of Ehrenberg. With pestle
and dry washer they managed to get
out several thousand dollars worth of
dust, but good deal of the rock was
too refractory to be worked in that
way, and this was sacked in the form
of specimens and concentrates, the
whole amounting to over $4,000.
They came down the river in a boat,
which was tipped over in three feet
of water within a few miles of Yuma
by big dog that accompanied the
party and tried to climb aboard after
being pitched out for a swim. Not a
cents worth of the cargo. was saved.
The bottom of the Colorado is a vast
deposit of silt and quicksand. Dredg-
ers have sunk seventy feet in it above
Laguna without touching bedrock.
The placer miners say the gold of
the destr which the dry washer re-
covers in such minnie quantities was