XI, A, 5 Lednicky: The Palidan^slide Mine 245 



the native workmen place timbers or make such excavation as 

 they consider necessary for more rapid cutting. The dams are 

 usually built of sod, laid flat and reenforced with poles driven 

 into the ground on either side. 



The gate is unique and very efficient. It consists of a rough 

 wooden frame several meters long and about half a meter wide 

 set upright into the sod dam and luted into place with a very 

 plastic clay. To the inside of the uprights and bottom of the 

 frame are nailed strips, or cleats, against which the door is 

 pressed by the force of the water. 



The door itself is a thick, hewn pine board which fits loosely 

 in the large frame. Its edges are beveled at an angle of about 

 60° to its face. The upper part of the door is tied to the top 

 of the frame by a piece of bejuco to prevent its being carried 

 iaway when the door is opened. To operate the reservoir, the 

 door is placed in position with the wider face pressing against 

 the cleats. With a pointed stick a long, water-soaked rope is 

 forced around into the wedgelike crack left between the frame 

 and the door. This seals the opening so effectually that scarcely 

 a drop of water escapes. The pressure of the water tends to 

 tighten the packing, and there is little danger of its coming out 

 unexpectedly. 



To open the gate against water pressure, the operator simply 

 pulls out the rope packing and pries against the top of the board 

 with a stick. The water pressure does the rest. It takes less 

 than one minute to replace the gate after the water has run out. 



In the Palidan slide the working has become so large and is so 

 favorably situated that the rains of the wet season do most of 

 the work necessary in washing off the overburden. As soon 

 as the rainy season is safely over, the natives go into the slide 

 and examine it for veins. Of late years they have worked on 

 one vein about 2 meters wide with an enriched stringer not over 

 0.5 meter in width. They start in wherever this vein happens 

 to be exposed most advantageously. In most places the vein 

 is comparatively soft and can be worked out from the surface 

 with hand bars. The latter are usually old drill steel obtained 

 from Americans or mild-steel reenforcing rods which have been 

 obtained from Chinese traders. The bit is sharpened into chisel 

 shape about 6 millimeters wide, or else it is pointed like a gad. 

 For greater convenience, and in order to make possible the 

 utilization of short pieces of steel, the bar is inserted into a 

 handle, a piece of pine with a knot on the end into which a socket 

 for the bar is burned. 



