312 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



washed in a day with one hundred inches of water, and in 

 which the dirt contained five cents to the cubic foot, would 

 leave a net pay of ten dollars and sixteen cents to each man 

 per day. 



One hydraulic company washed two hundred and twenty- 

 four thousand cubic feet of dirt in six days, using two hundred 

 inches of water, and employing ten men. The wages of the 

 men amounted, at four dollars per day each, to two hundred 

 and forty dollars ; the water cost three hundred dollars ; and 

 the waste of quicksilver, and wear of sluice, perhaps one hund- 

 red dollars more, making a total expenditure of six hundred 

 and forty dollars ; and the gold obtained was three thousand 

 dollars, leaving a clear profit of twenty-three hundred and 

 fifty dollars. The dirt contained one cent and a fifth of gold 

 in a cubic foot. 



Another company used two thousand inches of water for a 

 hundred days in washing down 1,000,000 cubic yards of gravel, 

 obtained $32,000 gross, or three cents and a fifth to a cubic 

 yard of gravel, and netted $12,000, or one cent and a fifth to 

 a yard. The area of the ground washed down was 1,100 feet 

 long, 300 feet wide, and 80 feet deep, and the quantity of 

 gravel carried down every day on an average 10,000 cubic 

 yards k 



The greater the amount of water used, the greater the pro- 

 portionate amount of dirt that can be washed, and the greater 

 the proportionate profits. It is far more profitable to have a 

 large sluice than a little one, if the water and dirt can be ob- 

 tained in abundance. Usually, in a hydraulic claim, the dirt 

 is washed down to the bed-rock ; but in some places the wash- 

 ing stops far above the bed-rock, because there is no outlet for 

 the water. 



232. Ground-Sluice. All the sluices hitherto mentioned 

 and described have wooden boxes, but the ground-sluice has no 

 box : the water runs on the ground. The place selected for the 

 ground-sluice is some spot where there is a considerable supply 



