ELISHA MITCHELL SCILXTIFIC SOCIETY. 47 



afterwards revvaslied. Or, instead of pouring" and 

 brushing-, the material is treated in a winnowing* ma- 

 chine, similar to that used for separating chaif from 

 wheat. 



Although the best grade of sand, produced by the 

 above complicated treatment, may be as high as 85 per 

 cent, pure, its quantitative proportion is small as com- 

 pared with the second and other inferior grades, and 

 there is alwa^^s considerable loss of monazite in the final 

 tailings. It is impossible to conduct this ^vashing" pro- 

 cess without loss in monazite, and equally impossible 

 to make a /6?;y^<f/ separation of the g^arnet, rutile, ti- 

 tanic iron ore, etc., even in the best grades. 



But very few regular mining operations are carried on 

 in the reg^ion. As a rule each farmer mines his own 

 monazite deposit and sells the product to local buyers, 

 often at some country store in exchange for merchan- 

 dise. 



At the present time the monazite in the stream beds 

 has been practically exhausted, with few exceptions, 

 and the majority of the washing-s are in the gravel de- 

 posits of the adjoining bottoms. These deposits are 

 mined by sinking" pits, about 8 feet square to the bed 

 rock, and raising the gravel by hand labor to a sluice- 

 box at the mouth of the pit. The overla}' is thrown 

 awa}^ excepting in cases w^here it contains any sandy or 

 gritty material, when it is also washed. The pits are 

 carried forw^ards in parallel lines, separated by narrow 

 belts of tailings dumps, as shown by the accompan}^- 

 ing' illustrations taken from the Ivattimore mine, three 

 miles N.E. of Shelby, Cleveland Count^^ 



It has been ^own that the monazite occurs as an 

 accessory constituent of the country rock, and that the 

 latter is decomposed to considerable depths, sometimes 



