8 _ Olmsted on the Gold Mines of North Carolina. 
or four feet of -~ coloured mud, full of stones in anguia: 
fra nts depth he meets with that peculiar 
Gof gravel ‘and clay, which he recognizes as the 
If the mond be wety dense and tena- 
witha aie into the “ cradle.” This is a semi-cylinder 
laid on its side, (like a barrel bisected longitudinally and 
laid flat-wise,) and made to rock like a cradle on two par- 
allel poles of wood. The cradle being half filled with the 
rubbish, water is there laded in, so as nearly to fill the ves- 
sel. The cradle is now set to rocking, the gravel being 
_ eccasionally stirred with an iron rake, until the coarse 
stones are ae freed non the blue mud,—a_ part of 
the Ww ificult, on account of the 
dense adhesive qnality of the mal By rocking the cradle 
rapidly, the water is thrown overboard, loaded with as 
much mud as it is capable of suspending. The coarser 
stones are then picked out by hand, more water is added, 
and the same process is repeated. On pouring out the 
water a second time, (which is done by inclining the cra- 
dle on one side,) a layer of coarse grave! appears on the 
top, whichis scraped off by hand. At the close of each 
washing, a similar layer of gravel appears on the top, which 
appears more and more comminuted until it graduates into 
fine sand, sein the bottom of the cradle. At length 
this residuum i is transferred to an iron dish, which is dipped 
horizontally into a pool of water, and subjected to a rotary 
motion. All the remaining earthy matter goes overboard, 
and nothing remains but a fine sand, chiefly acuesna and 
the particles of gold for which the whole labour has been 
performed. qT hese are frequently no larger than a pin’s 
ead, but vary in size from mere dust to pieces weighing 
one or two pennyweights. Large pieces, when they oc- 
cur, are — picked out ata previous stage of the pro- 
cess. 
