Evening star., 1924-10-05

I SPENT a sleepless night. and Dud-
ley, too. ] believe. We were too
busy thinking about diamonds to do
any sleeping. tried to recall all
that I had ever heard or learned
about these precious gems. I had
studied gems along with researches
in general mineralogy. But ! had
studied them more for general knowl-
edge than with an idea that | should
ever put my knowledge TO practical
use.
so 7 had forgotten good deal of
il. But. lying in my hammock.
swinging back and forth in the night.
lighting one black cigar after an
other. 7 gradually retrieved more and
more of the knowledge that l
thought had been entirely lost. / re-
membered that diamonds were reia-
lively very heavy, and that, like gold.
when they were washed with other
materials in pan. swirlinS round
and round. they would sink to the
bottom. while the lighter material
would rise to the top.
! decided that in looking for dia-
monds l would work as though
were looking for gold. II | dug up
any material that contained diamonds
and washed 1t in a gold pan. then
diamonds as well as any gold present
would sink to the bottom. while
discarded the light material.
wouldn't pay undue attention to get
ting gold. but any thar came along
at the same time that the diamonds
appeared ! would save.
remembered also that in the
alluvial deposits where gold was
found in the Western States. IT was
often in thick strata of clay that the
best settlements were secured. Dia-
monds. ! thought, would be caught
by the sticky clay just as would gold.
So during the night l gradually
evolved. out of apparently nothing
at all in the way of knowledge. a
very tangible idea of how we should
begin our prospecting.
| was up before dawn. Dudley and
I. preparing for the first day spent in
the jungle. covered our feet and legs
with a salve Of sulphur and vaseline
! before we put on white socks, and
| then high boots The sulphur and
vaseline ointment although unpleas
| ant enough in itself, was much more
endurable than legs bitten by insects.
| After early morning tea the blacks
were ready for a hard days work;
and We were ready to give them plen
ty of it. We first had two of them
dig square test hole near camp.
! They went down a foot through de-
Cayed leaves. then another two feet
through yellow gravel. Dudley and
took up some of the gravel and
washed it in a bucket Then We
dumped a little of it into the conical
! iron pans which we had brought along
! in case We should find gold.
| These pans were about 16 inches in
diameter and instead of having fat
| bottom, they tapered into shallow
cone, probably : inches deep. When
we had partially filled the pans with
the recently dug gravel, we went
! down to the creek and began wash
| ing the pans in the water. The the
ory in prospecting with a pan is that
| all the valuable metals and materials
are heavy, and all the useless mate
| rial is light in specific gravity.
| Therefore. If any given assortment
| of dirt. clay or gravel is placed in
round pan and then the pan is low
cred just below the surface of the
| water for moment, then raised
slightly above the surface and turned
round and round, shaken. twisted,
dipped from side to side, and gener
ally rotated evenly. all the while al
| lowing a little water to flow into the
| pan wash through the material and
| flow off over the opposite side again
| if this operation is carried out care
| fully and steadily, the water that
| flows out of the pan will carry off all
| the light material, leaving. after a
| few minutes only heavy concen-
| trate of basic materials in the very
| bottom.
nUDLEY and washed our first pans
- carefully, and a bit awkwardly,
| for neither of US had handled a gold
| pan for several months. But we sue
| ceeded in getting rid of all the light
material, although / secretly felt that
my first movements had been so un-
even that l might have let some of
| the heavy materials wash over the
rim also.
| In the bottom of my pan when I
| held it up for closer inspection
| found pieces of tin. shaped like brok
en- points of lead pencils, cubes of
yellow iron pyrites. clear quartz crys-
| tails. reddish garnets. and much black
magnetic sand. Dudley had the same
! materials, but he had also a piece of
sapphire. and clear streak of yell
| low gold showing in the bottom of
| his pan.
Capt. Peter, who had washed gold for
! several years on his own hook and was
a skilled manipulation of the gold pan,
as were several of the black paddlers,
were given pans and they all set to
work. Dudley and I ceased our own
! working Of our pans and spent the time
watching their results. Frequent gold
nuggets were reclaimed from the pans
| The blacks were elated.