262 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
used, but now it has been abandoned by the whites, and is left 
to the Chinamen, who think themselves doing well if they make 
seventy-five cents or one dollar per day. 
The great difficulty in mining with the cradle, is that the 
sand will “pack,” or make a hard mass on a level with the 
top of the rifile-bars, and-the gold then is lost. So long as the 
cradle is in motion the dirt does not pack, but when the rock- 
ing ceases, the mass hardens in a few minutes. If the miner 
leaves his cradle standing for fifteen minutes, he stirs up the 
dirt with his spoon before commencing again to wash. One 
device to prevent packing is to “put 4 little block under each 
end of the rockers, so that at the end of every motion the cradle 
receives a shock. Quicksilver is sometimes used in cradles, 
but not usually. 
§ 192. Pan.—The pan is used in all branches of gold min- 
ing, either as an instrument for washing, or as a receptacle for 
gold, amalgam, or rich dirt. It is made of stiff tin or sheet- 
iron, with a flat bottom about a foot across, and with sides six 
inches high, rising at an angle of forty-five degrees. A little 
variation in the size or shape of the pan will not injure its 
value for washing. Sheet-iron is preferable to tin, because it 
is usually stronger and does not amalgamate with mercury. 
The pan is the simplest of all instruments used for washing 
auriferous dirt. Some dirt, not enough to fill it full, is put in, 
and the pan is then put under water. The water ought to be 
not more than a foot deep, so that the pan may rest on the 
bottom, while the miner inserts his fingers in and under the 
dirt and lifts it up a little, so that the whole mass is wet. If 
the water be deep, the pan may be held in one hand while the 
other is used to stir up the dirt, but it is more convenient to 
take both. The dirt having been filled with water, the miner 
catches the pan at the sides, raises that part toward his body, and 
lowers the outer edge a little, and commences to shake the pan 
from side.to side, holding it so that all the dirt is under water, 
and so that a little of the dirt can escape over the outer edge. 
The earthy part of the dirt is rapidly dissolved by the water, 
