384 EESOTJPwCES OP CALIFORNIA. 



Reata (ray ah' ta), a rawhide rope, used for lassoing. 



Ruhric^ a flourish, which Mexicans and native Californians 

 append to their signatures, and which, in fact, they consider 

 as an important part of their signatures, and the most difiicult 

 to imitate or counterfeit. They often use their " rubrics" alone 

 as signatures. To rubricate, to sign with a rubric. 



Sluice, a wooden trough about fourteen inches wide, and 

 ten deep, and not less than thirty feet long, used for washing 

 pay-dirt. 



Ground- Sluice, a trough cut in the ground for washing pay- 

 dirt. 



Tail-Sluice, a sluice put in below a number of other sluices, 

 and depending on them for its supply of dirt and water. 



Sluice-Fork^ a fork similar to a manure fork, but with blunt 

 prongs, as wide at the point as at the heel. The fork is used 

 for throwing stones out of the sluices. 



Sluice-Head, the quantity of water used in a sluice ; a 

 constant stream of w^ater running through au aperture, usually 

 tw^o inches high, and from five to fifteen inches long, under a 

 pressure of seven inches. 



Slum, slimy mud. 



To strip, to throw off worthless dirt from the top of pay- 

 dirt. 



Sierra (see er' ra), originally a saw", a chain of mountains. 



Square Meal, a good meal at a table, as distinguished from 

 such meals as men make when they are short of provisions, a 

 condition not uncommon among men who make adventurous 

 trips into the mountains. 



Tailings, the waste of a sluice, tom, rocker, or quartz-mill. 



Tom, a wooden trough, from ten to fifteen feet long, for 

 washing pay-dirt. 



Tom-Stream, or Tom-Head, the amount of water used in a 

 tom. 



Rocker, or Cradle, a machine resembhng a domestic cradle, 

 for washing pay-dirt. 



Wvig-Dam, a dam in a creek or river, running partly across 



