PURSUITS. 151 



have been found running to this point on the west of the river, 

 are very small veins. 



There are tv^o modes of digging for the mineral ; by sink- 

 ing a shaft or vertical aperture, which is the more usual ; or 

 by opening a drift, w^hich is the name given to a horizontal 

 cavity. In many cases, in working a shaft in the rock dig- 

 gings, on the west side of the river, the digger goes down 

 more than a hundred feet before finding a crevice. 



The horizontal angle of the crevices varies from zero to a 

 right angle, the same crevice taking alternately all directions. 



Some skill is necessary in selecting the spot for operations. 

 The proper ground is known to the experienced miner, by 

 several indications. The form of the surface is one of the 

 signs. The ground has usually a depression transverse to 

 the general slope. There is sometimes a change in the 

 vegetation. A rank growth, in a direct line, of the long- 

 rooted plants, is one of the indications. Pieces of crystal- 

 lized lime are found on the surface, which are familiarly 

 called the lead blossom, and, on digging, detached fragments 

 of rock containing some mineral are usually taken out very 

 near the surface, and sometimes found without digging, 

 called gravel mineral. Black flowers imprinted on the rock, 

 as if by the action of gunpowder, resembling ferns, are also 

 indications of ore. When these signs are sufficient, the 

 miner commences " prospecting," as he calls it. 



The ore, or " mineral," as it is always called by the 

 miners, is found in crystalline form, from the smallest size 

 visible, to masses of half a ton in weight. It is usually 

 found in black or ferruginous clay. It sometimes fills the 

 whole crevice, and is then called " sheet mineral ;" some- 

 times in detached pieces, and is called " chunk ore." In 

 the rock diggings there is usually a thick stratum of lime- 

 stone overlying the rock which contains the mineral, which 



