3o6 



BOOK VIII. 



little scrubber, which has a handle of half the length, and with this he cease- 

 lessly stirs the concentrates or tin-stone which have settled in the upper 

 part of the strake ; in this way the mud and water flow down into the 

 transverse launder, and from it into the setthng-pit which is outside the 

 building. 



Before the short strake and the jigging-sieve had been invented, metalUfer- 

 ous ores, especially tin, were crushed dry with stamps and washed in a large 

 trough hollowed out of one or two tree trunks ; and at the head of this trough 

 was a platform, on which the ore was thrown after being completely crushed. 

 The washer pulled it down into the trough with a wooden scrubber which 

 had a long handle, and when the water had been let into the trough, he stirred 

 the ore with the same scrubber. 



A — Trough. B — Platform. C — Wooden scrubber. 

 The short strake is narrow in the upper part where the water flows down 

 into it through the little launder ; in fact it is only two feet wide ; at the lower 

 end it is wider, being three feet and as many palms. At the sides, which are 

 six feet long, are fixed boards two palms high. In other respects the head 

 resembles the head of the simple buddle, except that it is not depressed in the 

 middle. Beneath is a cross launder closed by a low board. In this short 

 strake not only is ore agitated and washed with a wooden scrubber, but boys 



