GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



155 



Miners consider the bushel of ore as equivalent to 

 about one hundred pounds weight, and in order to de- 

 monstrate the value of such veins it becomes necessary 

 to perform experiments upon the produce or quantity 

 of metal contained in given quantities of the ore. Ac- 

 cordingly we made such experiments, using in each 

 case four pounds avoirdupois of the rough ore, as brought 

 up from several places, which was pulverized in iron 

 mortars to a tolerably fine powder, but not sifted for 

 want of the necessary implements. The earthy water 

 was then washed away by repeated agitations in clean 

 water, until a small residuum was obtained, and this was 

 then treated by friction with mercury to form an amal- 

 gamation with the gold, after which the washing was 

 repeated until the amalgamation was obtained in a tole- 

 rably clean state, the superfluous quicksilver was then 

 expressed by squeezing the mass through a double silk 

 handkerchief, having no better means of working at 

 hand, and the remaining mass of hard amalgams was 

 then exposed upon a shovel to a sufficient heat to vola- 

 talize the quicksilver, when the gold remained behind, 

 but we did not possess the means on the spot of exam- 

 ining the parity of this residuum, though its color and 

 great weight very clearly showed it to be chiefly gold. 



From the account of the above process it will be evi- 

 dent that it was far from a perfect one, for in the first 

 place the powdered ore was not fine enough to admit of 

 clean washing or perfect amalgamation, and we doubt 

 much of the gold was lost in the rough and hasty man- 

 ner of washing, as well as in the expressed quicksilver, 



