262 EESOUr. CES OF CALIFORNIA. 



used, but now it has been abandoned by the whites, and is left 

 to the Chinamen, who think themselves doing well if they make 

 seventy-five cents or one dollar per day. 



The great difficulty in mining with the cradle, is that the 

 sand will " pack," or make a hard mass on a level with the 

 top of the riffle-bars, and the gold then is lost. So long as the 

 cradle is in motion the dirt does not pack, but when the rock- 

 ing ceases, the mass hardens in a iew minutes. If the miner 

 leaves his cradle standing for fifteen minutes, he stirs up the 

 dirt with his spoon before commencing again to wash. One 

 device to prevent packing is to put a little block under each 

 end of the rockers, so that at the end of every motion the cradle 

 receives a shock. Quicksilver is sometimes used in cradles, 

 but not usually. 



§ 192. JPan. — The pan is used in all branches of gold min- 

 ing, either as an instrument for washing, or as a receptacle for 

 gold, amalgam, or rich dirt. It is made of stiff tin or sheet- 

 iron, with a flat bottom about a foot across, and with sides six 

 inches high, rising at an angle of forty-five degrees. A little 

 variation in the size or shape of the pan will not injure its 

 value for washing. Sheet- iron is preferable to tin, because it 

 is usually stronger and does not amalgamate with mercury. 

 The pan is the simplest of all instruments used for washing 

 auriferous dirt. Some dirt, not enough to fill it full, is put in, 

 and the pan is then put under water. The water ought to be 

 not more than a foot deep, so that the pan may rest on the 

 bottom, while the miner inserts his fingers in and under the 

 dirt and lifts it up a little, so that the whole mass is wet. If 

 the water be deep, the pan may be held in one hand while the 

 other is used to stir up the dirt, but it is more convenient to 

 take both. The dirt having been filled with water, the miner 

 catches the pan at the sides, raises that part toward his body, and 

 lowers the outer edge a little, and commences to shake the pan 

 from side to side, holding it so that all the dirt is under water, 

 and so that a little of the dirt can escape over the outer edge. 

 The earthy part of the dirt is rapidly dissolved by the water, 



