MINING. 255 



The number of men employed in a hydraulic claim, however, 

 is usually small, from three to six, the water doing nearly all 

 the work. In some claims a man is constantly employed with 

 a heavy sledge-hammer in breaking up large stones, so that 

 the pieces may be sent down the sluice. One man attends to 

 the sluice, and sees that the dirt does not choke up in the 

 sluice, or in the claim above it. 



The quantity of dirt that can be washed with a hydraulic 

 pipe depends upon various circumstances — such as the sup- 

 ply of water, the height of its fall, the toughness of the dirt, 

 and the amount of moisture in it. More can be washed in win- 

 ter than in summer, because the dirt is then moister, and re- 

 quires less water to loosen and dissolve it. The quantity of 

 water used in a hydraulic claim is from forty to two hundred 

 inclies. With one hundred inches, at least thirty cubic yards 

 can be washed in ten hours, on an average ; and three men 

 can do all the work. If there were a cent's worth of gold in 

 each cubic foot, the thirty cubic yards would yield eight dol- 

 lars and ten cents per day, or two dollars and seventy cents to 

 the man, exclusive of the cost of w\ater. But, as a matter of 

 fact, nearly all the hydraulic claims pay more than that, and 

 they will average at least three cents to the cubic foot, and 

 many of them yield five cents. The water usually costs twen- 

 ty cents an inch per day, so that one hundred inches would 

 cost twenty dollars. Allowing for the water at that rate, a 

 claim in which thirty cubic yards could be washed in a day 

 with one hundred inches of water, and in which the dirt con- 

 tained five cents to the cubic foot, would leave a net pay of six 

 dollars and sixty-six cents to each man per day. 



One hydraulic company, of whose labors I have a note, 

 washed two hundred and twenty-four thousand cubic feet of 

 dirt in six days, using two hundred inches of water, and em- 

 ploying ten men. The wages of the men amounted, at four 

 dollars per day each, to two hundred and forty dollars ; the 

 water cost three hundred dollars ; and the waste of quicksilver, 

 and wear of sluice, perhaps one hundred dollars more, making 



