310 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



for tliis purpose, in some claims, it is surrounded by iron bands, 

 which are about two inches wide, and are connected by four 

 ropes which run perpendicularly down. The rings are about 

 three inches apart. The " crinoline hose," thus made, is very 

 flexible, and will support a column of water one hundred and 

 fifty or two hundred feet high. The pipe at the end of the hose 

 is like the pipe of a fire-engine hose, though usually larger. 

 Sometimes the pipe will be eight inches in diameter where it 

 connects with the hose, and not more than two inches at the 

 mouth ; and the force with which the stream rushes from it is 

 so great, that it will kill a man instantaneously, and tear 

 down a hill more rapidly than could a hundred men with 

 shovels. One or two men are required to hold the pipe when 

 it is to be held ; but usually it is supported on a frame-work. 

 These remarks apply, however, mainly to the small claims ; in 

 the larger ones, the water is brought down the hill in iron 

 pipe, whence it passes into a patent nozzle which will discharge 

 three, five, or eight hundred inches of water through an orifice 

 from four to eight inches in diameter ; the speed, in consequence 

 of the pressure, being ten times as great as at the top of the 

 hill. Such a stream, under a head of three or even five hund- 

 red feet, has terrific force, and will make boulders a foot 

 through jump twenty feet into the air, when it strikes them. 



The miners usually turn the stream upon the bank near its 

 bottom until a large mass of dirt tumbles down, and then they 

 wash this all away into the sluice ; when they commence at 

 the bottom of the bank again, and so on. If the bank is one 

 hundred and fifty feet high, the mass of earth that tumbles 

 down is of course immense, and the pipemen must stand far 

 off for fear that they will be caught in the avalanche. Such 

 accidents are of daily occurrence, and the deaths from this 

 cause probably are not less than a score every year in the 

 State. Often legs are broken ; still more frequently the pipe- 

 men have warning, and escape in time. When men are bur- 

 ied in the falling dirt the water is used to wash them out. In 



