266 HARD CLIMBING. [chap. xii. 



which the greater part is immersed in the water. As the 

 wind blows, they pass from one side of the lake to the other, 

 and often carry cattle and horses as passengers. 



When we arrived at the mine, I was struck by the pale 

 appearance of many of the men, and inquired from Mr. 

 Nixon respecting their condition. The mine is 450 feet 

 deep, and each man brings up about 200 pounds weight of 

 stone. With this load they have to climb up the alternate 

 notches cut in the trunks of trees, placed in a zigzag line up 

 the shaft. Even beardless young men, eighteen and twenty 

 years old, with little muscular development of their bodies 

 (they are quite naked excepting drawers), ascend with this 

 great load from nearly the same depth. A strong man, 

 who is not accustomed to this labour, perspires most pro- 

 fusely, with merely carrying up his own body. With this 

 very severe labour, they live entirely on boiled beans and 

 bread. They would prefer having bread alone ; but their 

 masters, finding that they cannot work* so hard upon this, 

 treat them like horses, and make them eat the beans. Their 

 pay is here rather more than at the mines of Jajuel, being 

 from twenty-four to twenty-eight shillings per month. They 

 leave the mine only once in three weeks ; when they stay 

 with their families for two days. One of the rules in this 

 mine sounds very harsh, but answers pretty well for the 

 master. The only method for stealing gold is to secrete 

 pieces of the ore, and take them out as occasion may offer. 

 Whenever the mayor-domo finds a lump thus hidden, its 

 full value is stopped out of the wages of all the men ; who 

 thus, unless they all combine, are obliged to keep watch over 

 each other. 



When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into 

 an impalpable powder ; the process of washing removes all 

 the lighter particles, and amalgamation finally secures the 

 gold dust. The washing, when described, sounds a very 

 simple process ; but it is beautiful to see how the exact 

 adaptation of the current of water to the specific gravity of 

 the gold, so easily separates the powdered matrix from the 

 metal. The mud which passes from the mills is collected 

 into pools, where it subsides, and every now and then is 

 cleared out, and thrown into a common heap. A great 

 deal of chemical action then commences, salts of various 

 kinds effloresce on the surface, and the mass becomes hard. 

 After having been left for a year or two, and then rewashed, 

 it yields gold ; and this process may be repeated even six 



