i86 



OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



mining vernacular is the name for a six by two, heavy, coarse, 

 metal sieve set obliquely in the channel of a small brook. 

 The gold-bearing gravel and clay is shovelled into it and pud- 

 dled with a hoe, and the gold settles to the bottom to be later 

 panned. Thus division of labor enters in — one black 

 shovelling while his partner puddles. We asked them how 



Fig. 84. P.-iNNiNG Gold. 



much they were getting out and, as usual, they said "almost 

 nothing," or a few shillings' worth at the most! This was 

 to avoid any danger of their tiny holdings being considered 

 too valuable and taken away from them. Mr. Wilshire took 

 a pan here on another day and unearthed a tiny nugget, 

 worth perhaps two shillings, much to the blacks' discom- 

 fiture, who hastened to explain that such an opulent 



