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hills, where water can be collected for washing, particles of gold are 

 found in the soil, little deeper than the roots of the grass, 

 i^i The mode of working these mines, more fitly to be denominated 

 washings, is simple, and may be easily explained : 



Suppose a loose gravel-like stratum of rounded quartzose pebbles 

 and adventitious matter, incumbent on granite, and covered by 

 earthy matter of variable thickness. Where water of sufficiently 

 high level can be commanded, the ground is cut in steps, each 

 twenty or thirty feet wide, two or three broad, and about one deep. 

 Near the bottom a trench is cut to the depth of two or three feet. 

 On each step^ stand six or eight negroes, who, as the water flows 

 gently from above, keep the earth continually in motion with shovels, 

 until the whole is reduced to liquid mud and washed below. The 

 particles of gold contained in this earth descend to the trench, 

 where, by reason of their specific gravity, they quickly precipitate. 

 Workmen are continually employed at the trench to remove the 

 stones, and clear away the surface, which operation is much as- 

 sisted by the current of water which falls into it. After five days' 

 washing, the precipitation in. the trench is carried to some conve- 

 nient stream, to undergo a second clearance. For this purpose 

 wooden bowls are provided, of a funnel shape, about two feet wide 

 at the mouth, and five or six inches deep, called gamellas. Each 

 workman standing in the stream, takes into his bowl five or six 

 pounds weight of the sediment, which generally consists of heavy 

 matter, such as oxide of iron, pyrites, ferruginous quartz, &c. of 

 a dark carbonaceous hue. They admit certain quantities of water 

 into the bowls, which they move about so dexterously, that the 

 precious metal, separating from the inferior and lighter substances, 

 settles to the bottom and sides of the vessel. They then rinse their 

 bowls in a larger vessel of clean water, leaving the gold in it; and 

 begin again. The washing of each bowlful occupies from five to 

 eight or nine minutes ; the gold produced is extremely variable in 

 quantity, and in the size of its particles, some of which are so 



