438 MINING INDUSTEY. 



The ore is carried into the mills by the wagons that bring it from the 

 mine, and is dumped upon a paved floor, several feet below the platform on 

 which the wagon stands, so that there is space sufficient for a large accumula- 

 tion of rock. Thence it is passed through a Varney and Rix crusher, the 

 mouth of which is even with the floor. From this it is delivered upon a dry- 

 ing floor, consisting of flues covered by boiler plate. The area of this floor 

 is 10 by 48 feet, with a firing-place at each end. When sufficiently dry for 

 stamping the ore is shoveled into cars, standing on a track on a lower floor, so 

 that their upper edges are below the drying floor. These cars, when full, are 

 then moved forward to the batteries, where they serve as hoppers to supply 

 the ore to the stamps, .as the front end of each car is provided with the self- 

 feeding apparatus. By pushmg the car up to the battery and securing it there, 

 by a simple contrivance for that purpose, it discharges its contents gradually 

 into the mortar, according to the rapidity with which the material is crushed. 

 The stamps are 30 in number, arranged in six batteries of five each, with a 

 separate cam-shaft for each two batteries ; the stamps weigh 750 pounds, drop 

 9 inches, making 95 or 100 blows per minute. Screens are No. 40 wire- 

 cloth. The discharge is on both sides of the mortar. The crushed ore is 

 collected in tight chambers that inclose the mortars, and are so constructed as 

 to discharge their contents through sliding or trap doors, and without any 

 shovelling, into cars, by which the ore is carried to the pans. The pans are 

 arranged in two parallel rows, at right-angles to the line of batteries ; the car 

 track passes between the two rows of pans, supplying either side. Wheeler's 

 improved pans are used in this mill. The pan-bottom, made with a steam-cham- 

 ber, is cast without a rim, but has a flange near the periphery, around which the 

 wooden staves are fitted and secured by an outer iron band. Each pan takes one 

 ton at a charge, and works four charges per day. Below and in front of the pan 

 are the settlers, of the pattern known as Belden's ; there are eight of these, 

 one for two pans. Beyond these, on a lower level, are the agitators, four in 

 number. There are four retorting furnaces, capable of receiving 1,400 to 

 1,600 pounds of amalgam, and two melting furnaces. Power is supplied by 

 an engine, 20 inches diameter by 36 inches stroke, to which steam is furnished 

 by two boilers. 



Bullion Product. — The bullion product of White Pine, or the mines about 



