The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-04

about . buokstful Of sand. which 10 pla0sd,
pan, Q russia iron bssin q little larger than
the ordinary tin wash bann.
This. by q Dc ITO rous turn OF the WRIT.
tho Me xican throws into the air. at the
40 me time blowing through II. A IL falls
stream over the edge, HIS besdiis eye
In caught and sent back TO the foxtail Of
black sapd and concentrates on the opposite
edge Of the pan. In half an hour he 10
solvent. and the placer ground will know
fighting or monte sends him back to the
bank nature has provided for him.
IL 10 confidently asserted throughout the
Southwest nat tho Mexican poasesses q
sixth N which enables him 20 locate
infallibly the pockets which white men
either miss altogether or only stumble
upon by accident. :,
Men have carefully studied the natural
features Of these spots. but are unable to
discover the Indications which point them
out 10 the native. II Ia maddening to work
ten days under a blazing sun for q few
dollars worth OF dust and nuggets. and
then to ses q lazy Mexican all directly
to a spot a few rods away. pan a bucket
full Of dirt and siouch OF after half an hours
work with so worth Of the yellow metal
knotted up in his gaudy handkerchief.
But II the Mexican possesses this sense
he 10 careful not to abuse IL. He takes only
enough for mis- immediate necessities. and
has a lofty contempt for the Americao's
locate q quartz vein II he happens to I'M
cover one.
BY an unwritten law these dry placers
above YUM are free to all. No one stake
a claim other than those located by dredg-
ing companies. who after years Of disaster
ave not yet given over the attempt to eat
away the banks of the Colorado until they
have opened a passage into the desert.
Many rich discoveries Of quartz lodes
have been made by dry washer mi some
have been worked by the same primitive
method.
Now and then q rich stringer, q vein an
inch or two wide. in found, which 10 not Of
sufficient volume to paw for the erection Of
an arrastra, which 10 Q crude quartz crusher
operated by mule power. OF even by hand.
The arrastra, by the way, 10 precisely. tho
sort OF mill to which the PhilistiDss har-
messed Samson, according to the familiar
picture by bore. The discoverer then rigs
a spring pestle with which he pulyerizes
the rotten quartz running the powder through
the dry washer.
Early in the OBS two young fellows found
such a stringer near the deserted camp OF
E~hrenberg. With pestle and dry washer
they managed TO get out several thousand
dollars worth Of dust. but a good deal Of the
way, and this was sacked in the form Of
specimens and concentrates. the whole
amounting to over SIC. 900.
They came down the river In a boat. which
was tipped over in three feet OF water within
a few miles Of Yuma by a big dog that ac-
c~ompanied the party. and tried to climb
aboard after being pitched out for a swim.
Not a cents worth Of the cargo was saved.
TIT bottom Of the Colorado 10 . vast deposit
Of silt and auckland. Dredgers have mi
seventy feet in II above Laguna without
touehtnH bedrock.
The placer miners saw the gold Of the
desert which the dry washer GOV in
such minute quantities was deposited by
the river, the bed OF which IL liable to change
materially in a few weeks. In the mile
deep canon that il one Of the worlds won
ders, a ditch from five to fifteen miles wide
and hundreds Of miles long, cut through
a highly mineralized region. there must
have beer many rich lodes, richer perhaps
than any OF which the world holds record,
These the action OF the water through
countless ages has dirintegrated and car
ried far down toward the delta Of the great
river in the form OF dust and nuggets.
The Colorado Ia a natural hume. Its
bottom, deep under the silt where riffs
and ridges OF bedrock form mile wide rifles
is a treasur house whose riches no man
may estimate. But even the Opaque water
In said to carry an averaged Is cents worth
OF gold to the ton. held In solution or floating
on the surface.
Every miner knows that gold will ioat,
the -four gold whose particles are 40 minute
that only the avid grip Of quicksilver may
clutch and hold II. Perhaps some day some
J~ernigan will make good and wrest from the
broad and shallow Colorado a treasure
that will complicate anew the relation OF
Meanwhile the chief source Of production
40 far as these placer deposits are con-
cerned, will continue to he that legacy OF
the Aztecs. the dry washer.