138 NEW TEACKS IN NOETH AMERICA. 



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the local supply not keep pace with the requirements of the 

 miners, any quantity could he conveyed in pipes from the 

 Pecos, just as it is in a hundred places along the base of the 

 mountains in California. 



Looking doA\Ti from the sides of the San Lazaro Moimtain, 

 we saw before us an extensive pine wood, covering some 8O0 

 acres, iri a valley at our feet. The timber was of remarkable 

 size — unusually large for any coimtry, but a most valuable 

 rarity ia such a district as this. The question of railway ties, 

 for many a long mile, both east and west of us, was here ^ 



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ansAvered at a glance. 



Bidding adieu to our fiiends at the Eeal de San Francisco, 

 we passed on to see the works of the 'New Mexican JMining ^ 

 Company, seven niiles distant, in the centre of the Old Placers. ; 

 Ilere we were welcomed hy Dr. Steck, the superintendent, 

 who took us OA'cr his stamp-mill, which we saw at work, and 

 explained to us the process of gold extraction through all its i 

 stages. 



The engraving is taken from a photograph which I tooli 

 of this mill, and shows the diiFercnt parts clearly. The ore, 

 after being broken into small pieces, is thrown into the long 

 troughs into which the three sets of cnishers — five to a set 



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descend. The cnishers arc given a rotatory motion as they 

 fall, so that they grind and crush the ore at the same time. 

 When the ore has been reduced to a muddy slime by mixtui-e 

 with water under the cinishing process, it percolates through 

 sieves into the shallow copper trays which are seen in front 

 of the picture. These trays are coated with quicksilver, 

 which sucks up the gold, swells to thrice its size, and forms 

 an amalgam containing about two-thirds gold. This is 

 scraped off, tied up in a piece of rag, and placed in a crucible 

 for reduction. A dull red heat is necessary to di'ive off the 



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