372 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



small bag of it, from which the requisite quantity is 

 weighed out for each payment. 



In the mines we visited at Cameron Town the 

 " pay-dirt," as the stratum of clay and gravel above 

 the "bed-rock" in which the gold lies is called, was 

 from thirty to fifty feet below the surface. A shaft 

 is sunk to the required depth, and the "dirt" 

 carried up by a bucket raised by a windlass. This 

 is emptied into a long box, called the dump-box or 

 " long tom," having a false bottom of parallel bars, 

 with narrow spaces between them, raised a few 

 inches above the true bottom, across which several 

 cross pieces are placed. A stream of water, brought 

 in a series of troughs called "flumes," sometimes for 

 a considerable distance, pours into the dump-box 

 at one end, and runs out by another series of 

 troughs at the other. As the dirt is emptied 

 in, a man armed with a large many-pronged fork 

 stirs it up continually, and removes the larger stones. 

 The smaller particles and the clay are carried down 

 the stream, while the gold, from its greater weight, 

 falls through the spaces between the parallel bars 

 of the false bottom, and is arrested by the transverse 

 ones or " riffle" of the true one. The " pay-dirt" 

 is generally not more than from three to five feet 

 thick, and the galleries of the mine are consequently 

 very low, the roof being propped up by upright 

 timbers, and cross beams wedged in above. The 

 water is pumped out of the mines by a water wheel 

 and chain pump, but these are quite useless in 

 winter, and become covered with enormous icicles. 



