AND THE MANNER OF W"OR*KING THEM. 15 



mingled with about a ton of black iron sand, the heavy residue of 

 the washings. There were several pieces of gold weighing over 

 an ounce. The value of this gold was $1,826, and the whole ex- 

 penditure connected with the working $1,643, leaving a profit of 

 $182. In this account is, however, included $500 lost by a flood, 

 which swept away an unfinished dam ; so that the real difference 

 between the amount of the wages and the value of the gold ob- 

 tained should be stated at $682. The average price of the labor 

 employed was sixty cents a day." 



" In 1852, about five-eighths of an acre of gravel were washed 

 at this place, and the total amount of gold obtained was 2,880 

 pennyweights, valued at $2,496. Of this, 307 pennyweights were 

 in the form of fine dust mixed with the iron sand. A portion was 

 also fonnd in nuggets or rounded masses of considerable size. 

 Nine of these weighed together 468 pennyweights, the largest 

 being about 127, and the smallest about 11 pennyweights. Small 

 portions of native platinum, and of iridosmine, were obtained in 

 these washings, but their quantity was too small to be of any im- 

 portance. The washing season lasted from the twenty-fourth of 

 May to the thirtieth of October, and the sum expended for labor 

 was $1,888, leaving a profit of $608. A part of this expenditure 

 was, however, for the construction of wooden conductors for bring- 

 ging the water a distance of about 900 feet from the small stream. 

 As this work would be available for several years to come, a pro- 

 per allowance made for it would leave a profit in the year's labor 

 of about $680. It thus appears that from an acre of the gravel, 

 with an average thickness of two feet, there were taken $4,323 of 

 gold ; while the expenses of labor, after deducting, as above, all 

 which was not directly employed in extracting gold, were $2,957 

 leaving a profit of $1,366. The fineness of the gold dust of this 

 region was 871 thousandths ; another sample in thin scales gave 

 892, and masses 864. A small nugget of gold from St. Francis 

 gave 867 thousandths, the remainder in all cases being silver." 



" Although the greater part of this gold was extracted from the 

 gravel on the flats by the river side, a portion was obtained by 

 washing the material taken from the banks above. As has been 

 before remarked, the distribution of the gold-bearing gravel over 

 the surface of the country took place before the formation of the 

 present water courses, and the reason why the gravel from the 

 beds of these are richer in gold than that which forms their 

 banks, is that these rapid streams have subjected the earth to a 



