328 



BOOK VIII 



A — Cross gkooves. B — Tub set under the sluice. C^An'other tub. 



is to be washed, is thrown into the head and stirred with a wooden scrubber ; 

 in this way the water carries the light particles of gold on to the canvas, 

 and the heavy ones sink in the pockets, and when these hollows are full, the 

 head is removed and turned over a tub, and the concentrates are collected 

 and washed in a bowl. Some people make use of a sluice which has square 

 pockets with short vertical recesses which hold the particles of gold. Other 

 workers use a sluice made of planks, which are rough by reason of the very 

 small shavings which stiU chng to them ; these sluices are used instead of 

 those with coverings, of which this sluice is bare, and when the sand is washed, 

 the particles of gold cling no less to these shavings than to canvas, or skins, or 

 cloths, or turf. The washer sweeps the sluice upward with a broom, and 

 when he has washed as much of the sand as he wishes, he lets a more abundant 

 supply of water into the sluice again to wash out the concentrates, which he 

 collects in a tub set below the sluice, and then washes again in a bowl. Just 

 as Thuringians cover the sluice with canvas, so some people cover it with 

 the skins of oxen or horses. They push the auriferous sand upward with a 

 wooden scrubber, and by this system the Ught material flows away with the 

 water, while the particles of gold settle among the hairs ; the skins are 

 afterward washed in a tub ; and the concentrates are colleced in a bowl. 



