Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-23

forcing plant. In places the pipes are
SO thick that they stand out on the back
of old Mother Earth like the quilts on
porcupine. They soften the earth so
that 1T is dangerous to walk over it
until it has cooled. The ground may
seem solid. when all at once a man
may drop to his knees or his waist in
scalding hot mud. The work of thaw
ing is done by skilled men, some of
whom receive from seven to ten dol
lars day.
Leaving the dredging I rode along
the sides of the mountains where they
were sluicing down the icy sand to get
out the gold. Here the sun and the
water alone do the thawing. After the
earth is stripped off the suns rays can
make their way into the strata of ice
to such an extent that In one summer
they will penetrate to a distance or
from six to ten feet. The water DASH
ing against the half frozen earth adds
to the thawing. and the sand and boul-
ders roll down in great streams. the
amount sluiced away is inconceivable
There are parts of these valleys that
are half filled with great sheets of
white tailings. They spread out like
there great caves in the hills.
The earth thus washed down is the
color of pipe clay. Some OF 1t looks
like Portland cement as it lies in the
barrel The sand is white quartz and
the powders and pebbles are almost
like slaked lime in color The gold is
scattered throughout this material. the
most of it lying at the bottom. The
sluicing tears down the hills. leaving
gigantic forma lions, which in some
places are like forts or great castles.
l saw one such as big as business
block of twenty stories. 1t covered
half square of ground. Its walls were
perpendicular and at the top were
spires like those of a church. 1t was
almost snow white and in the distance
looked not unlike marble
The wilderness of the silt and gravel
is a chara cteristic of the bed of the
famous White river channel. which
flowed through this region in prehis-
toric times at altitude several hun
bred feet above the present beds of the
creeks The streams of later ages have
cut their way down through the old river
bottom, and are now running through
valleys for below 1t is in what is
left of the banks of the old White river
bed that the low grade gold dust wash
ed out by hydraulics is found. The old
river probably carried all the gold now
found in the creeks far below. ana
they are now sluicing down its former
banks to get the gold dust remaining.
How long ago the old river Moved no
one knows. The miners have discover
ed fossils of tropical plants. showing
that II aNtedated the glacial pCiiou,
and they wash out now and then the
remains of mastodons and other prehis-
toric animals which until now nave
been locked up in the perpetual ice:
In getting the gold the water washes
the sand and gravel down into sluice
boxes filled with steel rifles bedded IN
mercury AS the stuff runs over the
rifles the quicksilver catches the gold.
and the rock and sand only go on to
the tailings below. Some OF the sold
sinks into the pile at the foot OF the
sluicing and does not get into the
boxes until the cleanup of the fall.
when a quarter of a million dollars
may be found in the gravel and sand
at the foot of the cliff. Something like
1000, 900 cubic yards of earth. is han
died this way by the hydraulic giants
each year, and this brings out gold TO
the amount of over 100000. The aver
age gold contents of the gravel Is in
the neighborhood of 20 cents per cubic
yard, and of this one-half is said to
be profit.
AS we rode up the valleys / asked MI
Thomas whether they were able to
win all the gold. He replied:
I'VE may lose cent or two to the
ton, but the amount is so small that
we are unable to tell just what 1t is.
The stuff that goes through the dredges
may at times yield sixty cents yard,
and there may be patches that will
run IS per yard or more. We work
only in large quantities and we know
what our averages are.
asked as to the amount of material