Tour of the Gold-fields 211 



or sprinkled with bits of quartz and slate, form- 

 ing continual amphitheatres at almost every bend 

 of the creek. Here I met a gentleman who had, 

 for many years, been washing gold in the Caro- 

 linas; he had a quicksilver machine of his own 

 invention, price one thousand dollars, which he 

 was working with six men. He told me he was 

 getting a pound a day from the sands he was wash- 

 ing, which had been washed already in the 

 common rocker. He did not feel so sure of its 

 efficacy in the clay diggings, but for sand it cer- 

 tainly was admirable. These diggings like all I 

 have seen that were worth anything were com- 

 pletely riddled; first by the top washing, and "dry" 

 washing of the Mexicans, then by the hurried, 

 superficial "panning out" of the lucky American 

 who came first and reaped his fortune; next better 

 dug out by the gold digger for his three ounces 

 a day, and now toil and hard labor gave the strong 

 determined washer from small amounts to, occa- 

 sionally, an ounce a day, when the water will per- 

 mit him to work. 



March 2^d. Our road to Cayote [Coyote] 

 made a "V" from Murphy's, over a poor soil, with 

 nothing of interest along the six miles but a small 

 elevation of semi-basaltic sand-stone, mixed with 

 granite, with large particles of crystal-like spar. 



The approach to Cayote is down a red clay hill, 

 of course, and is on a point made by two little rivers 



