GOLD 71 



As already stated, gold mining is of two kinds, or rather the metal 

 occurs in two different ways, each necessitating a particular kind of 

 treatment to recover it. In the one case it is found in the form of a 

 fine dust or grains, and to some extent as large nuggets, in the surface 

 soil or debris, and it is gathered by washing such deposits in troughs 

 called sluices with water. The gold by reason of its weight settles 

 on the floor of the sluice, while the lighter gravel and sand are carried 

 away. These are called placer or alluvial mines, and to this class 

 belong the ancient fields of Asia Minor, the earlier Brazilian producing 

 regions, the areas in California and Australia that yielded so enor- 

 mously in the years between 1850 and 1860, and the Klondike and 

 Xome deposits of Alaska of the present day. 



Geologists tell us that the metal accumulated in these places 

 during countless ages, as the result of erosion caused by rain, frost, 

 heat, cold, glacial action, etc., operating on old granitic and schist 

 rocks, in which occur veins, lodes, reefs and ledges (as they are vari- 

 ously termed) of quartz, which quartz is impregnated with particles 

 of the yellow metal, or with crystals of ores of other metals, such as 

 iron, copper and lead, that contain gold in a state of mechanical or 

 chemical combination. And it is a fact that the deposits of each great 

 alluvial field when followed up have led the explorer to areas of coun- 

 try (usually mountainous) where such quartz veins are found, and it 

 is the exploration and working of these veins that constitute the other 

 kind of gold mining, called quartz mining, which is the permanent 

 form of the industry, and which is now in progress in America, Aus- 

 tralia, South Africa, Mexico and India, and is coming slowly but 

 surely into existence in Eussia, Brazil, Alaska and Japan. 



Alluvial or placer gold mining may be and generally is carried on 

 with a very simple equipment. It is not a business that requires cap- 

 ital. With a pick, shovel, pan, some boards and nails, a hammer and 

 saw and a few pounds of quicksilver, the energetic miner may start 

 in business, and will rarely fail to make expenses and good wages. 

 If he is one of the lucky ones, and gets hold of a rich piece of ground, 

 he is rewarded with a fortune in a very short time. 



On the other hand, after an alluvial field has been worked by the 

 individual miner in his rather crude way, and is approaching exhaus- 

 tion by his methods, it is common for a large number of claims to be 

 consolidated under company or syndicate management and reworked. 

 When this occurs systems of operation are inaugurated by which thou- 

 sands of cubic yards of ground are washed daily, and modern capital 

 may be advantageously employed in the creation and operation of the 

 installations devised to accomplish the work. These consist of long 

 ditches and pipe lines to bring in the water, lines of sluices in which 

 to do the washing, dredges, elevating devices, undercurrents, etc. 

 There have been built to date over 50,000 miles of ditches in California 



