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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



tojj of which giant trees had grown. For the 

 working of the mine, the land was cleared 

 of trees which later furnished the beams for 

 the shafts. Water was encountered when 

 the work had progressed twenty feet below 

 ground and a diaphragm pump was used. In 

 time, however, the water increased and made 

 conditions so bad that the work had to be 

 continued at another side. 



The only difference between the process 



British Guiana has already yielded gold-bear- 

 ing material. The gold miners have a simple 

 way of washing earth supposed to contain gold. 

 The dirt is put into a shallow conical-shaped 

 wooden bowl called a batca, which is then slewed 

 about in the water with a circular sidewise mo- 

 tion. A bit of quicksilver in the apex of the 

 cone mingles with the dirt and attaches to itself 

 whatever small particles of gold are present ; 

 then, being heavier than the dirt, it sinks back 

 to the bottom again. The earth is gradually 

 washed away by the action of the water and the 

 gold and quicksilver are left in the batea 



of getting the diamonds from the gravel in 

 the mine and the way in which the work is 

 usually done by pork-knockers, was in the 

 washing of the gravel in "long toms," and 

 the employment of several jiggers instead of 

 one. Of course there was also the advantage 

 that came from good tools for the work. 



The "long toms" were long troughs placed 

 at the outlets of a dam in the creek. In 

 each trough were inserted three sieves of 



different-sized mesh. The gravel was dumped 

 into the upper end of the trough and washed 

 down by the pressure of the water coming 

 through from the dam above. The larger 

 stones and gravel were kept back and thrown 

 away. After passing through the "long 

 tfim," the gravel of uniform size fell into a 

 rectangular flat sieve that was suspended by 

 four chains from a scaffolding in such a 

 way that the water in the pool below just 

 covered the bottom of the sieve. A man 

 stood in this water and shook the sieve (lo- 

 cally called a "baby") back and forth. This 

 gave the finishing touches to the washing. 

 Then the gravel was brought to jiggers, and 

 they jigged it in large square boxes which 

 had been filled with water after the seams 

 had been stopped with rags and rubber. 



This mine undoubtedly has some valuable 

 material in it, but on account of the loose- 

 ness of the gravel which causes cave-ins, and 

 the presence of an excess of water, it has 

 proved a failure as worked. Supplies had 

 to be brought up the river from Georgetown, 

 and as the river has many rapids and falls, 

 nuich hauling and portage was necessary. The 

 only pump that could be had in Georgetown 

 was too small to serve the emergency at the 

 mine, as it could draw up water only twenty 

 feet, and the place has finally been deserted. 

 The buildings by this time have probably 

 disappeared, each board being carried away 

 separately by passing pork-knockers, or by 

 those who came especially to get them. 

 Boards are scarce there, and it could not be 

 hoped that such an unguarded supply would 

 remain long. 



These diamond gravels, however, are a 

 valuable asset of British Guiana. Even by 

 their primitive methods, the pork-knockers 

 have enriched the colony by hundreds of dol- 

 lars collected as royalties, and have put upon 

 the market many fine gems, besides much 

 hort or chips and small stones, used in Brit- 

 ish manufacturing plants where highly pol- 

 ished surfaces of steel are required. Labor 

 is cheap in British Guiana, from forty-eight 

 to seventy-two cents a day. The men are 

 registered by the government for a period of 

 one hundred and twenty working days and 

 are forced by law to serve the full time. 



Both diamond and gold-bearing material 

 is here, to be profitably, if scientifically, ex- 

 plored and prospected, for this interior of 

 jungle, savannah, and mountain represents 

 one of the least known places of the world. 



