i86 



OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



mining vernacular is the name for a six by two, heavy, coarse, 

 metal sieve set obliquely in the channel of a small brook. 

 The gold-bearing gravel and clay is shovelled into it and pud- 

 dled with a hoe, and the gold settles to the bottom to be later 

 panned. Thus division of labor enters in one black 

 shovelling while his partner puddles. We asked them how 



FIG. 84. PANNING GOLD. 



much they were getting out and, as usual, they said "almost 

 nothing," or a few shillings' worth at the most! This was 

 to avoid any danger of their tiny holdings being considered 

 too valuable and taken away from them. Mr. Wilshire took 

 a pan here on another day and unearthed a tiny nugget, 

 worth perhaps two shillings, much to the blacks' discom- 

 fiture, who hastened to explain that such an opulent 



