Polytechnic Association. 611 



horizontal iron cylinder set in brick-work, with a furnace underneath. 

 A pipe from the rearmost end of the cylinder extends downward to 

 an oblong trough of water, and then horizontally through the same, 

 and finally out at the end. The heat of the furnace volatilizes the 

 quicksilver, which sublimes over into the pipe, is condensed as it 

 passes through the portion immersed in the water, and flows out into 

 any suitable vessel placed to receive it. The precious metal, mean- 

 while, is left behind, in a state of greater or less purity, in the cylin- 

 drical body of the retort, from which it is taken and sent to the mint 

 at Carson for assay and coining. 



The twilight was drawing near when my examination was com- 

 pleted, and, shaking hands with the courteous captain, I took the 

 omnibus that runs at uncertain intervals between Gold Hill and Vir- 

 ginia. Here I was unwittingly given an idea of what is, perhaps, the 

 prevailing phase of society in the locality, by the conversation between 

 two young girls, one apparently about fourteen, and who would have 

 been called beautiful even in an eastern city, and the other not more 

 than two years her senior. Both were tastefully dressed, and modest, 

 though with an air of unconstraint, as if subject to slight control. 

 Their talk turned upon an evening party of the week before that had 

 ended in a fray, and at which the brother of one of them bad been 

 wounded by a pistol shot. The story was told and commented upon 

 with a strangely realistic simplicity and naivete that plainly pictured 

 the wild attributes of life in these border regions, including, in scope, 

 all that is symbolized by the glee of the dance or the hot words of 

 wrath, the soft voices of women or the crack of revolvers. But I 

 found here among these people, miners, workmen, teamsters, a rough 

 politeness, a rude good nature, a blunt kindliness of manner, that 

 makes the memory of them very far from an unpleasant one. Of 

 these characteristics I found a good example in a boisterous son of 

 Erin, who, on the return, shared with me the back seat of the stage, 

 and who, although he took three square drinks of raw whisky during 

 the half hour before the coach started, voluntarily subjected himself 

 to some little self-denial and inconvenience to make the tedious night 

 journey more comfortable to the stranger from the east. Reaching 

 Reno a little past midnight, an hour later found me with closed eye- 

 lids in the berth of a sleeping car, and when I awoke the sun had 

 been shining, for two hours at least, upon the pine covered heights 

 and depths of the Sierra, through which we were passing. At noon, 

 at Sacramento, I took the boat, and through the long afternoon 

 watched the banks of the narrow, yellow river, lined with bushes that 



