MINING. 267 



may have three relays, each to work eight hours in the twenty- 

 four. 



It is not uncommon for two companies, owning adjacent 

 claims in a hill, to unite and cut a tunnel on joint account along 

 the dividing line. They go in until they reach the pay-dirt, 

 and then a surveyor is employed to run the line between their 

 claims, and the tunnel is contiimed through the pay-dirt. The 

 dirt from the tunnel is washed for the joint account of the two 

 companies. After the di\dding line has been established, each 

 company keeps on its own side, and each has its time to use 

 the tram-way. They may also have a joint-stock sluice at the 

 mouth of the tunnel — one company having the privilege of 

 using the sluice one week, and the other the next. All tho 

 dirt brought out in a week can readily be washed in a day. 

 The work of taking out the pay-dirt after the main tunnel has 

 been cut, is called " drifting ;" and the holes made by the men 

 engaged in it are termed " drifts." The drifts are usually not 

 so high as the tunnels. The large stones and barren dirt ob- 

 tained in the drifts are piled up here and there to sustain the 

 earth overhead. Sometimes wooden posts are likewise neces- 

 sary. * 



§ 198. Shafts. — Shafts are used in prospecting, and also in 

 mining, where the claims are deep and cannot be reached by 

 either the hydraulic process or the tunnel. The prospecting 

 shaft is sometimes sunk into hills supposed to be auriferous, 

 where the shaft is far less expensive than the tunnel. After 

 the shaft demonstrates that the dirt is rich, and precisely the 

 altitude at which it lies, a tunnel is cut to strike it. The shaft 

 may be the cheaper for prospecting, but the tunnel is usually 

 the cheaper if any large amount of dirt is to be taken out. 



The shaft is dug by one man in the hole, and one or two are 

 employed at a windlass in hauling up the dirt. Mining-shafts 

 in placer diggings are rarely over one hundred feet deep; but 

 one was dug in Trinity county to the depth of six hundred feet, 

 for the purpose of prospecting, but it found neither pay-dirt 

 nor the bed-rock. 



