MINING. 277 
§ 206. The Divining Rod—In prospecting for auriferous 
quartz, use is sometimes made of the divining rod, a practice 
not without credit with some good miners. The rod is a fork 
of a green hazel-bush, shaped like a V, with the arms about a 
foot long. The prospector holds the end of an arm in each 
hand, with the point of the V directed forward horizontally, 
and as he walks along, the point turns down whenever he 
comes over a metalliferous vein, metallic body or water. It is 
sapposed that very few persons can use the divining rod effec- 
tually ; for most men it refuses to turn. It is used in nearly 
every civilized country, especially by miners, and is generally 
considered superstitious, because it is employed by ignorant 
people, and because there has been no generally accepted 
scientific explanation of the manner in which a stick could be 
influenced by a metal hidden under ground. A scientific ex- 
planation of the principle of the divining rod has been offered 
to the world, by Baron Reichenbach (see page sixty of his 
Odic-Magnetic Letters, translated by John 8. Hittell). 
§ 207. Quarrying Quartz—The quarrying of quartz rock 
differs little from the quarrying of other metalliferous vein- 
stones. The lode descends steeply, and the excavation must 
follow its course. Sometimes the quartz is so soft that it ma, 
easily be loosened with the pick. The harder rock is blasted. 
Soft quartz is that which is penetrated by numerous cavities, 
though the lumps between the cavities may be very hard. 
Some quartz on exposure to the air crumbles into sand, though 
hard when first taken from the vein. In narrow lodes, some 
of the wall-rock must be cut away to get room for the work- 
men. In wide lodes, that part of the vein-stone which does 
not pay is left. Sometimes the gold from the lode penetrates 
a little way into the foot-wall, and in that case the quarrying 
must extend beyond the vein-stone. The quartz loosened in 
the vein, must either be hoisted perpendicularly in a bucket 
with a windlass, or be hauled out through a tunnel. The com- 
mon method is to hoist the rock with a windlass. Most of the 
veins are in such places that shafts are more easily dug than 
