HYDRAULIC GOLD-WASHINGS. 229 
lake, 300 feet below me. The hose hangs down 
this cliff of shingle, and following its course by 
a zigzag path, I reach a plateau of rock, from 
which the shingle has already been washed. A 
man stands at the end of each hose, that has 
for its head a brass nozzle. With the force of 
cannon-shot water issues, in a large jet, from 
this tube ; and propelled against the shingle, 
guided by the men, washes it away, as easily as 
we could broom a molehill from off the grass. 
The stream of water, bearing with it the ma- 
terials washed from out the cliff, runs through 
wooden troughs called ‘flumes,’ floored with 
granite; these flumes extend six miles. Men 
are stationed at regular distances to fork out 
the heavy stones. Throughout its entire length 
transverse strips of wood dam back a tiny pond 
of mercury; these are called rigles—gold-traps, 
in other words—that seize on the fine-dust gold 
distributed throughout the shingle. The ‘ flumes’ 
are cleaned about once a month, and the gold 
extracted from the mercury. Masses of wood 
occur, in every stage of change, from that of 
pure silica to soft asbestiform material, and pure 
carbon. 
I am strongly disposed to think this immense 
hollow must have been the rocky shore of an 
