214 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



Below this sieve and slanting toward the rear end, is 

 placed the so-called "apron" (c), made of strong cot- 

 ton cloth and fastened to a frame. The object of this is 

 to conduct everything that goes through the sieve to the 



rear end of the rocker. 

 * The drawing here will 



I ^ help to make you under- 



j/^j . *^r. rq^ stand that. The for- 

 ^^]p '-v^c 'A ward or lower end of 



^ — r\- ~rt^ZT ^ ie k° x i s open, only a 



^Q^jb^ c_^~~— -- narrow lath — li/4 or 



" °* v - -^ l 1 /-? inches wide — is 



nailed across it at the 

 bottom; this is called the "riffle." The modus op- 

 erandi is very simple. A bucketful of dirt, with stones 

 and all, just as you have loosened it with the pick, is 

 thrown on the sieve, and then while you set the 

 rocker in motion with the left hand, with a dipper in your 

 right you pour water over the dirt on the sieve. As soon 

 as the soil is washed off the stones these are thrown out 

 and a second bucket of dirt is thrown on the sieve, and 

 this again is treated like the first, and so on until you 

 have washed about 20 or 25 bucketfuls. By the motion of 

 the rocker the gold and heavy sand are collected on its 

 bottom, while the lighter stuff is washed off over the rif- 

 fle; this lighter stuff we call "tailings." The residue 

 which has collected on the bottom of the rocker is now 

 very carefully scraped together at the rear end of it, is 

 then treated again to three or four washings, and now 

 we have the gold mixed only with some black ferruginous 

 sand, but free from all other matter; it is now taken up 

 and thrown into a tin or sheet-iron pan— a pan about 4 

 inches deep, in diameter about 16 inches on top and 12 

 inches at the bottom. The last work before evening is 

 then to wash in this pan the black sand off the gold, a 

 procedure requiring much dexterity, the sand being al- 

 most as heavy as the gold itself, so that one not used to 

 the work, is apt to wash away gold and sand together. 

 Any grains of sand which, on account of their being too 



