GOLD AND SILVER MINING 203 



with their tiny reservoirs, which, when filled with rain water, 

 were turned loose to wash the gravel down a rock sluice. 



The beginning of gold mining in the United States dates 

 back to the first quarter of the nineteenth century, when 

 some placer mining was done in North Carolina and Georgia 

 The settlers worked at odd moments singly or in small gangs, 

 giving to mining such time as they could spare from other 

 occupations. The workings were largely executed by slave 

 labor and were confined chiefly to surface mining. 



The gold pan, the long tom, the rocker, and the pick 

 and shovel constituted the miner's outfit. These simple 

 methods still survive wherever placers are worked by miners 

 with practically no capital and without hired labor. It may 

 be fairly estimated that most of the placer gold mined in 

 the western states and Alaska is produced in this time honored 

 fashion. The following extract, descriptive of placer mining 

 as it was conducted in Alaska as late as 1900, is quoted from 

 an official report : 



The mining on the beach is the simplest operation possible, 

 a rocker being all that is required in addition to a shovel and 

 a pick and a good, strong back. The dirt is shoveled up and 

 thrown onto a coarse screen, which removes the larger stones 

 and trash, the latter derived from the driftwood, etc., from 

 the sea. The fine dirt passes over a series of riffles, which 

 are smaU obstructions, and is finally washed off, leaving the 

 heavy gold. In some cases the tailings pass over a smaU 

 piece of carpet or burlap, in other cases an amalgamated 

 silver plate is used; but in each case the object is the same, 

 viz., to catch the fine gold. The heavy particles of gold are 

 caught in the riffles, while the fine either amalgamates or 

 is retained by the carpet, while the lighter material or tailings 

 is washed away. 



Soon after the discovery of gold in California, how^ever, 

 the inventive genius of the American miner devised a simple 

 but effective way of working placer mines. The first hj- 

 draulic apparatus for working placer mines was introduced 

 in the spring of 1852 by a miner, whose name is not remem- 

 bered, at his claim at Yankee Jim, Placer county, California. 



This machine was very simple. From a small ditch 



