XI. A, 5 Lednicky: The Palidavr-slide Mine 247 



and the sooty smoke from the pine torches make it especially- 

 disagreeable. At times, when good ore is coming out, the wo- 

 men are so tightly jammed in the stope that it is necessary for 

 the miner to walk out over their shoulders. 



In case of an exceptional strike it is customary for the women 

 to fight and pull each other's hair to get advantageous positions. 

 Fortunately no one has ever been killed in one of these fights. 

 The women and children are very expert in hand picking, and 

 can tell almost at a glance whether or not the specimen is 

 of value. They look for free gold after moistening the rock 

 with their lips. Although hundreds of pieces are examined 

 in this way almost every day, there seems to be no transmission 

 of communicable diseases nor sickness resulting from swallow- 

 ing so much earth. 



The fine ore that is discarded and all the sulphide wash are 

 concentrated and reconcentrated several times before they are 

 allowed to escape to the river below. The concentration is 

 carried on in shallow, oblong depressions in the hillside, about 

 1 meter long by 0.5 meter wide, into which a tiny stream of 

 water is delivered by a small flume made of straight, grooved 

 pine trees. The woman operator works the ore back and forth 

 in the depression until all the gangue has been washed out, 

 leaving only rich sulphides. She keeps the latter in a basket 

 for further treatment at home. 



The depressions which serve as concentrators are located on 

 the hillside, one above the other, the one below taking the 

 tailings from the one above and so on. The tailings are concen- 

 trated at least six times before they are turned into the river, so 

 that the actual residual gold content is then very small. 



The rich ore and the concentrates are taken home and there 

 ground in a native mill, then panned in a bark pan, smelted, 

 and finally sold. The crusher is a large, flat stone, usually 

 of diorite, about 0.5 to 1.5 meters long, with a depression 

 hollowed out in the center. After being broken by hammering 

 between two stones, the ore is placed in this hollow and is 

 crushed down so fine that it would pass a sieve having 40 

 meshes per centimeter (100 meshes per inch). The muller, or 

 rubstone, weights 15 to 20 kilograms and is usually of the same 

 hard stone as the bottom. 



The ore is always well mixed with water, and the rubbing is 

 a direct pushing and pressing such as is used in washing clothes 

 on a washboard. The fine ore is collected in an earthen pot 

 and is then panned. 



