Remarks on the Gold Mines of North Carolina. 209 



mon hoe, for a few minutes, or until the earth is well saturated 

 and dissolved. Then the rocker is put in motion, like a cradle, 

 until the water is charged with as much of the dissolved 

 earth as it can suspend, when the rocker receives a tilt to one 

 side, and the fluid is thrown out.* More water is then thrown 

 in, and the same process repeated several times, or until the 

 earthy part is all washed away. As this operation goes on, 

 the larger stones are picked out with the hands, so that the 

 washing being over, nothing remains but the gravel and sand 

 in which the gold is mixed, which is still further reduced, by 

 taking off the coarse gravel, to a gallon or two of fine sand. 

 This is very nicely searched, and the fine gold picked up with 

 the point of a knive, — the larger pieces having been previous- 

 ly taken up with the fingers. Sometimes the sand is trans- 

 ferred to a vessel smaller than the rocker, in order to collect 

 all the fine gold. The whole of this process in washing 

 down a rocker load of earth, is performed by an expert hand 

 in thirty or forty minutes, unless where the rocker is very 

 large, and the earth very tenacious, when a longer time is re- 

 quired. The principle on which the gold is here separated 

 from the earth and gravel is its great specific gravity, which 

 always carries it to the bottom, while lighter substances re- 

 main above it, and the dirt passes off with the waters. On 

 no other principle than this can any machine be constructed 

 to separate the gold from its other admixtures. 



The gold thus obtained is carefully preserved, until the 

 hour arrives for dividing what has been found. This gener- 

 ally takes place every evening at the mine, where the propri- 

 etor or his agent attends with his gold scales, and makes the 

 division. When the proprietor has confidence in the hones- 

 ty of a man, he allows him to keep the gold he finds, until 

 the last of the week before the division is made. From this 

 manner of doing business, it is very evident, that the workmen 

 have every facility to cheat the proprietor, in not making re- 

 turns of all they find ; and the general belief is, that but few 

 make true returns. Nor are there any means of detecting 

 the unfaithful workman, there being so many places, where 

 he can convert his gold into money. 



About every mine of note, there are generally to be seen a 

 number of lazy worthless fellows, who resort thither as the 



* The gold from its great specific gravity remaining on the bottom. 

 Vol. XIII.— No. 2, " 2 



